Akira Toriyama: Biography and Works

Akira Toriyama (1955–2024) created Dragon Ball and Dr. Slump and contributed character designs to video games. He died on 1 March 2024; the family and studio announcement published by Shueisha was dated 8 March. New releases associated with a franchise do not mean he is still working.

Toriyama’s work: choose by the kind of story

VIZ’s creator profile identifies the manga and game-design roles. Choose the format first: a manga volume and a game give you different things to read or study.

Dr. Slump and the beginning of Dragon Ball

VIZ dates Dr. Slump’s breakthrough to 1980 and the original Dragon Ball serialization to 1984–1995. The official anniversary feature also records the manga’s 1984 beginning.

For a reader, the important distinction is between the original work and later versions of it. A television premiere, a translated volume and an original magazine chapter should not share one undifferentiated “release date.” Our manga history timeline shows how to separate them.

Is Dragon Ball Z a separate original manga?

Not in the simple way that the anime labels might suggest. VIZ explains that the original Dragon Ball manga was published in the US under both Dragon Ball and Dragon Ball Z. Check the publisher and numbering of the edition you are reading.

You can therefore encounter different covers and divisions without finding a second original Japanese serialization by Toriyama. Start with the beginning of the original story, and use the edition’s contents and publisher catalogue to follow its continuation.

How to study a page without claiming to know the artist’s process

Try this reading exercise on a chapter you can access legally:

1. Cover the dialogue temporarily and see which actions the pictures communicate.
2. Identify the shapes that distinguish two characters at a small size.
3. Follow one movement across consecutive panels.
4. Restore the dialogue and note what information it adds.

These are analytical questions for the reader, not statements about Toriyama’s working hours, equipment or private habits. They help you describe what a page does with evidence from the page itself.

For your own version, use original characters and a new scene. The four-page writing exercise provides a manageable structure for practicing a goal, obstacle and choice.

Where to go next

Read what a mangaka does to distinguish manga authorship from illustration and adaptation work. Compare Eiichiro Oda’s documented career when researching another creator; each profile’s dates and credits need their own sources.

Return to the homepage’s creator collection to choose your next topic.