Akira Toriyama

Akira Toriyama was a Japanese manga artist and character designer, active from 1978 to 2024. His first published work, Wonder Island, appeared in Shueisha's Weekly Shōnen Jump in 1978, and he first reached a wide audience with Dr. Slump, which won the 1981 Shogakukan Manga Award for best shōnen series.

He wrote and illustrated Dragon Ball from 1984 to 1995. The series sold about 260 million copies worldwide, and its anime adaptations helped spread anime internationally.

Outside manga, Toriyama designed characters for video games including the Dragon Quest series, Chrono Trigger and Blue Dragon. France named him a Chevalier of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres in 2019, and he was inducted into the Harvey Awards Hall of Fame in 2024.