Akira Toriyama

Birthplace: Kiyosu, Aichi Prefecture, Japan

Children: 1 son and 1 daughter

He debuted in 1979 with the story Wonder Island, published in Weekly Shounen Jump, and first gained popularity for the anime and manga series Dr. Slump, originally serialized weekly in Shounen Jump from 1980 to 1984. In 1982, he won the Shogakukan Manga Award for Dr. Slump for best shounen/shoujo manga series of the year.

Akira Toriyama's clean line and design sense led to jobs designing characters for the phenomenally popular Dragon Quest series of role-playing games (formerly called Dragon Warrior in North America) since 1986, as well as its second anime adaptation Dragon Warrior: Legend of the Hero Abel which started in December 1989 on Fuji TV. Several Dragon Quest monsters designed by Toriyama make cameo appearances during the preliminaries of the 22nd World Martial Arts Tournament in Dragon Ball.

Exhibitions of works by Toriyama (Akira Toriyama Exhibition) ad locations in major cities in Japan, and collected more than 400,000 visitors in three years. Toriyama was also the character designer for the Super Famicom, PlayStation, and Nintendo DS RPG Chrono Trigger (1994, 1999, and 2008), the fighting games Tobal No. 1 (1996) and its sequel Tobal 2 (1997) for the PlayStation, as well as the Mistwalker Xbox 360 exclusive RPG Blue Dragon (2006) and its anime adaptation (2008).

Favourites:

Animated Movie: 101 Dalmations

Character of his own: Piccolo

Dragon ball movie: Bardock, The Father of Goku

Movies: Jackie Chan Movies, Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope

Toriyama's studio is called "Bird Studio," which is a play on his name, "tori" meaning "bird."

His interest in manga began when he read Osamu Tezuka's Astro Boy, which he cited as his original source of inspiration. Along with manga, other formative influences included tokusatsu superhero shows such as Ultraman and kaiju monster films such as Godzilla and Gamera. He was also a fan of Hong Kong martial arts films, especially Bruce Lee films such as Enter the Dragon (1973) and Jackie Chan films such as Drunken Master (1978), which went on to have a major influence on his later work.Another work that had an influence on him was the science fiction film Alien (1979). He was also a fan of the films Jaws and Star Wars, and the musicians Yellow Magic Orchestra and George Tokoro.

The logo designed by Toriyama for the koala exhibit at the Higashiyama Zoo and Botanical Gardens.