The Creative Journey of Akira Toriyama: The Genius Behind Dragon Ball

If one were to make a panoramic description of the comic world in the last 50 years, Dragon Ball would stand out as an undeniable colossus. Akira Toriyama’s manga was read by millions of children in Japan and then watched on television by hundreds of millions more children around the world when its animated version established anime as entertainment beyond the country of eight islands. It seems hard to believe that a simple countryman achieved such global impact, but his success is not the result of innate talent or an obsession with perfection, but of a simple love for drawing and willingness to do his best work. His story shows us that perseverance, adaptability, and genuine passion can transform even the humblest beginnings into immortal legacies. Join us on this journey through the life and work of the godfather of shonen, the king of Jump… Akira Toriyama!

From Frustrated Mechanic to Manga Visionary: The Origins of a Master

Akira Toriyama was born on April 5, 1955, in Nagoya, in the central region of Japan. From a very early age, he was constantly drawing, mainly cars and motorcycles that he saw in his father’s workshop, who was a mechanic and amateur motocross racer. This early connection with motorized vehicles would later mark his unique style for drawing machines and technological artifacts. Toriyama remembers the first time he saw the Disney classic 101 Dalmatians as one of the key moments of his childhood, and his desire to draw something so beautiful led him to delve deeper into the world of illustration.

During elementary school, he first came into contact with manga through his classmates’ collections, and like millions of kids his age, he was fascinated by Tetsuwan Atom (Astroboy in the West), Osamu Tezuka’s legendary manga that marked a generation of future artists. He and his classmates spent all of elementary school copying drawings from manga and anime, a fundamental exercise that, unbeknownst to him, was laying the foundations for his future technique. Although he continued drawing in middle school, and even joined the manga club in high school, he gradually stopped following manga closely and turned toward cinema, going to see movies at least three times a week, thus nurturing his visual imagination from another perspective.

After finishing high school, Toriyama chose to skip university and went to work as a graphic designer at an advertising agency. This decision might seem counterproductive for his artistic development, but it provided him with valuable tools on visual composition and effective communication that he would later apply in his works. However, he quickly grew bored of designing supermarket sale posters, getting up early, wearing a suit and tie, and the general advertising environment, until he finally quit in 1978. Discover how to develop your own drawing style without falling into creative routine here, thus avoiding the same mistakes Toriyama experienced in his early career.

The Fortuitous Encounter with Professional Manga: Chance and Perseverance

Needing money after his resignation, Toriyama came across a copy of Shuukan Shonen Magazine, at the time the highest-circulation manga magazine in Japan, and noted that they had an amateur manga contest with cash prizes of ¥500,000 (equivalent to US$2000 at that time). Thinking he could win something to at least buy cigarettes, he drew a comic strip like the ones he made in high school, but he didn’t make the contest deadline.

Undeterred, he sent his manga to Shonen Magazine’s main competitor, Shuukan Shonen Jump, which had an amateur contest every month (although the prize was only ¥100,000). This seemingly trivial moment would mark the beginning of one of the most influential careers in manga history. At the Shonen Jump offices, Toriyama’s comic was read by a young editor, Katsuhiko Torishima, who could see his professional potential. Although the comic was disqualified from the contest (The story was a parody of Star Wars made without the slightest consideration for the concept of copyright), Torishima sent Toriyama a telegram encouraging him to participate again.

This gesture from the editor, which might seem minor, was actually the first step in a creative relationship that would change the landscape of world entertainment. Shortly after, Toriyama submitted Wonder Island, published in Shonen Jump on December 25, 1978, marking his official debut in the professional world of manga.

The first page of Wonder Island shows the cruder style with which Toriyama debuted, very distant from the refined technique he would develop years later. At that time, he didn’t really have ambitions to become a mangaka, and in fact was planning to look for another job after getting paid for his first work. However, when he learned that reader surveys had ranked Wonder Island in last place, a curious stubborn impulse was born in him, and he refused to set aside such a failure.

This competitive spirit and refusal to accept defeat would be fundamental to his career. He spent the following months drawing manga after manga, which editor Torishima ruthlessly rejected while teaching him the intricacies of comic page composition. Throughout this endless process of trial and error, Toriyama drew more than 500 pages of rejected manga, a volume of work that would have discouraged many aspiring artists. However, as he learned the art of manga, he felt he was truly having fun. He had found his vocation and, although he didn’t know it yet, he was building the foundations of what would be a revolution in Japanese visual storytelling.

Gyaru Deka Tomato was one of the few manga Toriyama managed to publish during 1979, showing a gradual evolution in his style. Toriyama’s determination during this period demonstrates a crucial lesson for every artist: the importance of resilience in the face of rejection. Explore practical resources to overcome creative blocks and develop your artistic resilience here, something every illustrator in training needs to cultivate.

Dr. Slump: The Unexpected Success that Changed Everything

By early 1980, after a year of arduous trial and error, Toriyama developed a gag manga concept about an absent-minded scientist and his ridiculous inventions, which finally received Torishima’s approval. However, the editor indicated a key modification: instead of the rough and somewhat perverted Dr. Senbei, the main character should be the small and adorable robot girl he built in the first chapter.

Although he wasn’t convinced that a girl would be a suitable protagonist for a shonen manga (something unusual for the time), Toriyama obeyed his editor, demonstrating a creative flexibility that would be characteristic throughout his career. In February 1980, Dr. Slump first appeared in the pages of Shonen Jump, discreetly but surely inaugurating a new era in the history of the magazine and in Toriyama’s career.

The page from the first chapter of Dr. Slump already showed elements that would become distinctive of Toriyama’s style, such as the round and imposing sound effects. Considering how irregular Toriyama’s first efforts in manga were, it’s remarkable how solid Dr. Slump is from the beginning, both graphically and narratively.

The world of Dr. Slump was brimming with life and movement, with a simple and animated style of deformed proportions with a great sense of caricature, which reinforced Toriyama’s absurd and unbridled sense of humor. In addition to scientists with robot daughters, Penguin Village was populated by talking dogs and birds, movie monsters, strange aliens, and all kinds of weird creatures, all with clearly defined personalities thanks to Toriyama’s ability to design distinctive characters.

The combination of crystal-clear narrative and an unwavering commitment to immaturity (scatological humor was a constant) made Dr. Slump the perfect recipe for a shonen gag manga. This formula of visual simplicity, narrative clarity, and irreverent humor would cement the foundations of the style that Toriyama would perfect in his later works.

Dr. Slump introduced some of the action elements that Toriyama would later apply in Dragon Ball, but always in service of the most outrageous comedy possible. This mix of action and comedy demonstrated Toriyama’s versatility and his ability to balance different narrative tones, a skill that would be fundamental in the development of his later masterpiece.

The Unique Talent for Design: Vehicles, Technology, and a Living World

Already in Dr. Slump, Toriyama stood out for his ability to design vehicles, with all kinds of planes and motorcycles running around. This talent didn’t come from nowhere: Toriyama had preserved his childhood love for motorcycles from playing in his father’s workshop, and in his early adulthood he added a fondness for model building, focusing all his attention on how a vehicle is constructed.

But far from just copying a toy, Toriyama always deformed and stylized his machines to fit the needs of his manga, always making designs that felt realistic but were truly unique. This ability to create convincing yet fantastic technology and vehicles would become one of his trademarks, allowing him to build worlds that, although fantastic, possessed an internal coherence that made them believable.

Toriyama’s talent for vehicles extended to different types of robots, as seen in this 1983 illustration. This ability to design machines with their own personality would be fundamental not only in his manga but also in his future work in the video game industry. Access practical methods to improve your object and technology design skills for your own comics, inspired by Toriyama’s innovative approach.

Although Dr. Slump was an immediate success, debuting in second place in the popularity polls, after six months of its debut Toriyama already wanted to end the series. The pace of writing a standalone gag manga was exhausting: if an idea for a chapter was rejected, he had to start the process from scratch, without having anything to fall back on. This situation revealed a reality of manga that many aspirants are unaware of: creative exhaustion under the constant pressure of deadlines.

As Dr. Slump had established itself as one of Shonen Jump’s most popular series, the editor-in-chief refused to let him end the series, unless he created a new series capable of rivaling it in popularity. Toriyama got to work, and making a superhuman effort, reduced the production time of a Dr. Slump chapter from 7 to 5 days, thus leaving 2 days dedicated to developing new manga with Torishima, hoping that some of them would catch readers’ attention.

In the process, Toriyama began to move toward adventure manga, drawing dynamic action scenes and science fiction settings. This gradual transition to action, although initially forced by circumstances, would end up being the seed of his greatest creation.

This page from Pink, one of Toriyama’s one-shots inspired by Mad Max, demonstrates his growing interest in action and post-apocalyptic adventures. The influence of cinema on his work is evident, confirming how his fondness for watching movies during his youth was bearing fruit in his visual storytelling.

The Birth of a Legend: Dragon Ball and the Shonen Manga Revolution

Eventually, Torishima suggested to Toriyama that he try a kung-fu series, taking advantage of his love for Bruce Lee and Jackie Chan movies that he constantly watched on television while drawing. This seemingly simple suggestion would set in motion a series of events that would forever change the landscape of manga and anime.

Inspired by his recent wife, a lover of Chinese culture, Toriyama began to play with different elements of Wuxia and Asian mythology, particularly Journey to the West, one of the Great Chinese Novels and a classic of Asian adventure. This fusion of diverse cultural influences, from martial arts cinema to classical Chinese literature, combined with his own humorous style, would result in a work unique of its kind.

After a couple of well-received trials, in December 1984, the first chapter of Dragon Ball went on sale, the work that would change the course of shonen manga forever and establish a new paradigm in Japanese adventure storytelling.

The cover of the first Dragon Ball tankobon collection clearly shows the influence of Chinese culture in the initial conception of the series. Visual elements such as the clouds, the extendable staff, and protagonist Goku’s clothing make direct references to the character of Sun Wukong from Journey to the West, but reinvented with Toriyama’s unique style.

Although action and adventure were clearly the focus in Dragon Ball, humor remained very present during the first adventures of Son Goku and company, which is very clearly seen in the character designs. Unlike other contemporary action works, Toriyama chose a more cartoonish than realistic visual approach.

While the other great kung-fu work of Shonen Jump in the 80s, the ultraviolent Hokuto no Ken (Fist of the North Star) by Buronson, was drawn in a realistic and heavy manner in the gekiga tradition, Toriyama continued to draw his characters with deformed proportions and highly stylized features. This stylistic decision detracted from realism but added great dynamism to the action, creating a visual contrast that made Dragon Ball stand out among its contemporaries.

Goku himself, with a small and rounded body but great strength and agility, was an unusual hero for shonen manga, but those proportions allowed his fights to be extremely interesting from a graphic point of view, as well as making him easily identifiable to readers. Perfect your understanding of proportions and anatomy to create memorable characters like Toriyama’s, understanding the principles that make a simplified figure capable of conveying so much strength and dynamism.

A notable technical aspect is that, as Toriyama didn’t have enough money to buy screentones, Dragon Ball is drawn with an extremely hard balance of black and white, without the attenuating grays typical of other manga. This technical limitation, far from being a disadvantage, contributed to its peculiar readability and the visual forcefulness of its action scenes, demonstrating how restrictions can become distinctive stylistic features.

The clear and dynamic action in Goku’s fight with Tao Pai Pai, from September 1986, demonstrates how Toriyama had already refined his style for depicting combat. The sequence of movements is perfectly readable, each blow has visual impact, and the energy of the confrontation jumps off the page, characteristics that would define the standard for action manga in the following decades.

The Conquest of the Polls: When Dragon Ball Reached Stardom

During its first months, the reception of Dragon Ball was relatively lukewarm, orbiting around the middle of the popularity rankings. It was a good start, but not the immediate phenomenon that the publisher expected given Toriyama’s previous popularity with Dr. Slump. This initial period of Dragon Ball was more focused on adventure and humor than on combat, following the episodic structure of the original novel Journey to the West.

But when Toriyama reluctantly obeyed Torishima, putting more emphasis on fights with Goku’s participation in the Tenkaichi Budokai tournament, the series quickly rose to the top of the polls and stayed there. This strategic adaptation to the public’s tastes, although initially resisted by Toriyama, would prove to be a crucial decision that would define not only the future of Dragon Ball, but that of the entire shonen genre.

Toriyama’s love for martial arts films, and particularly for the action comedies of Bruce Lee and Jackie Chan, was expressed in extremely fluid and captivating fight choreographies, easy to read and extraordinarily dynamic. His focus on visual clarity, even in the most complex action sequences, allowed any reader, regardless of their familiarity with manga or martial arts, to follow the flow of combat effortlessly.

The use of superhuman powers through concentrating inner energy, starting with the famous Kamehameha, added a touch of fantasy that fired readers’ imaginations. This incorporation of supernatural elements to the already spectacular martial arts fights greatly expanded the narrative and visual possibilities of the series, allowing Toriyama to take battles to increasingly spectacular levels without losing credibility within the world he had created.

Dragon Ball soon established itself as a cultural phenomenon, and almost without wanting to, Toriyama found himself at the forefront of a wave of mangakas who, through milestones like Hokuto No Ken, Masami Kurumada’s Saint Seiya, or Hirohito Araki’s Jojo no Kimyou na Bouken, established Shonen Jump as the undisputed leader of the manga industry. It was the golden age of shonen manga, and Toriyama was at the center of this cultural revolution.

The popularity of Dragon Ball made it the cover of Shonen Jump on multiple occasions, confirming its status as the crown jewel of the magazine. This visual recognition on the covers not only celebrated its commercial success but also served as a constant reminder of the influence the work was having on Japanese popular culture.

The Diversification of Talent: Dragon Quest and the Conquest of New Media

While drawing Dragon Ball, Toriyama continued to make occasional standalone manga and create illustrations for various projects. One of these works would definitively cement him as one of the most important artists in Japanese popular culture, expanding his influence beyond the world of manga and anime into the emerging medium of video games.

Through his editor Torishima, a video game enthusiast convinced they could be vital for the future of Shonen Jump, Toriyama was called upon to design the characters and monsters for Enix’s RPG Dragon Quest, based on a story written by Jump’s game columnist, Yuji Horii. This interdisciplinary collaboration would mark the beginning of one of Japan’s most important and long-lasting video game franchises.

Dragon Quest was the first attempt by a Japanese studio to make a role-playing game in the style of Ultima, and Horii wanted the game’s art to have a special personality to make the Western fantasy setting more digestible for Japanese children. Toriyama’s renown among the millions of Dragon Ball readers was an added value that brought immediate recognition to the project.

Toriyama’s experience in deforming figures was very useful for designing heroes and villains that looked interesting even when reduced to a few pixels blinking on a television. His intuitive understanding of how to simplify complex forms without losing their visual identity was a key factor in Dragon Quest being an immediate success, opening the doors of Japanese consoles to a new world of fantasy that combined Western and Eastern elements.

Dragon Quest had multiple equally or more successful sequels, always with Horii’s story, Toriyama’s design, and music by Koichi Sugiyama. Over the decades, the franchise established itself as a pillar of Japanese video game culture, and Toriyama’s unmistakable visual style became its distinctive seal, as recognizable as the music or the combat system.

Toriyama also illustrated the cover art for Dragon Quest games, creating iconic images that would define the visual identity of the franchise. His talent for designing fantastic yet endearing creatures, charismatic heroes, and memorable villains found in video games a new medium of expression, demonstrating the versatility of his style. Explore specialized techniques to apply your drawing style in different media as Toriyama did with video games, thus expanding your creative and professional possibilities.

From Paper to Screen: The Evolution of the Dragon Ball Anime

At the same time that Dragon Quest went on sale, the first episode of the animated adaptation of Dragon Ball aired on TV Fuji, representing the third medium that Toriyama conquered apparently without intending to. This multimedia expansion would extend the reach and influence of his work even further, bringing it to audiences who perhaps had never read a manga.

Although Dr. Slump had had its quite successful anime version, the always demanding Torishima decided that Shonen Jump had to be more involved with the anime production to ensure it was up to the standard of the original material. Both he and Toriyama advised the anime staff to maintain a certain level of fidelity, including the personal choice of some voice actors. This greater involvement in the creative process of the adaptation ensured that the transition from paper to screen maintained the essence of the original work.

The result was that the Dragon Ball anime was extremely successful, further reinforcing Toriyama’s presence in the popular imagination. The combination of manga and anime created a synergistic effect: those who discovered the series on television sought out the manga to advance in the story, while readers eagerly awaited seeing their favorite scenes animated.

However, over the years Torishima felt that the anime was declining, perhaps because they couldn’t separate Toriyama from Dr. Slump, and decided it was time to renew the program. For this purpose, he recruited the animation director of the Saint Seiya anime, Koso Morishita, seeking to give the series a more mature and action-oriented approach.

When Toriyama learned of the imminent relaunch, he made a very unusual request to Torishima: to better suit the fights, he wanted to jump forward in time and allow Goku to age into adulthood, to give him a taller and more developed body. This proposal to age the protagonist was revolutionary in a medium where characters typically remained unchanged for years, especially in series aimed at young audiences.

The idea was unheard of in the static world of shonen manga, but Torishima decided to give it the green light, and throughout 1988 the world of Dragon Ball was jumping forward in time, introducing Goku’s son, Son Gohan, and setting the stage for the second phase of the story. In the anime, this new stage would be relaunched under the name Dragon Ball Z, and would become the flagship of the anime invasion on television screens around the world.

By 1989, the art of Dragon Ball retained few elements of Toriyama’s initial comic style, sacrificed in the name of inhuman speed. The visual evolution of the series reflected its thematic change, with sharper lines, more dramatic compositions, and a greater emphasis on conveying strength and power. Looking to master the art of drawing dynamic action scenes like those in Dragon Ball? Discover practical methods here, including techniques to communicate speed and power in your illustrations.

From Fantasy to Myth: The Transformation of Dragon Ball into Legend

The evolution of Toriyama’s style after the time skip in Dragon Ball was accompanied by the definitive change in the tone of the story. Although humor always poked its head in when Toriyama found where to put it (thus maintaining a connection with his roots as a comedy artist), the series became progressively more focused on epic battles and cosmic threats.

As Goku grew, he not only lost the deformed proportions, but his features lost their roundness and became angular and hard, reflecting the maturation of both the character and the narrative. The focus of the battles, not only in the choreographies but in composition, became speed, and Toriyama was simplifying his figures more and more in pursuit of that speed, developing a visual language capable of transmitting movements superior to human perception.

The fantasy factor of the fights inflated frenetically as the world of Dragon Ball expanded, with the introduction of alien races, parallel realities, travels through time and space, and any other idea that occurred to Toriyama in his personal race against deadlines. This constant expansion of the narrative universe resulted in the saga of Goku and his friends taking on mythological qualities in the eyes of millions of readers and viewers.

What had begun as a simple adventure inspired by a classic Chinese novel transformed into its own cosmogony, with its physical laws, divine hierarchies, and prophecies. This evolution towards the mythical greatly expanded the scope and cultural resonance of Dragon Ball, turning it into more than just a story of fights: it was a new mythology for the modern era.

An iconic moment in the imagination of mass culture, Goku’s first transformation into Super Saiyan in March 1991 perfectly represents this elevation of Dragon Ball to the status of contemporary myth. This scene, loaded with emotion and narrative meaning, transcended the medium of manga to become a cultural reference recognizable even by those who have never read or watched the work.

The Enduring Legacy: How Toriyama Redefined Manga and Beyond

By 1995, the last year of Dragon Ball‘s publication, Shonen Jump was selling more than 6 million copies a week, record numbers to this day. Its popularity showed no signs of waning, but after 10 years of incessant work, Toriyama was exhausted, physically and creatively. In June 1995, Dragon Ball ended with its 519th chapter, closing one of the most important works in the history of manga.

Although Shonen Jump never reached the same sales peaks it experienced with Dragon Ball, its leadership in the shonen manga market was guaranteed by the model that Toriyama and Torishima established. The narrative formula they perfected, with its combination of spectacular action, character development, personal growth, and moments of humor, would become the skeleton upon which countless successful series would be built in the following decades.

The entire next generation of Shonen Jump shonen artists, from Eiichiro Oda of One Piece to Masashi Kishimoto of Naruto, recognize Dragon Ball as their main inspiration, and in many cases the work that made them want to be mangakas. The term “The children of Goku” is sometimes used to refer to this generation of creators who grew up reading Toriyama’s work and then took it as a starting point for their own innovations.

One of Toriyama’s last illustrations during his time on Dragon Ball, from early 1995, shows the artistic maturity achieved after a decade of drawing the series. The evolution from his early works to this masterpiece of composition and technical execution demonstrates the value of constant work and dedication to the craft. Want to evolve your style as Toriyama did? Access exclusive resources to develop your sequential art, applying proven principles of composition and visual storytelling.

After Dragon Ball, Toriyama largely retired from manga drawing, making occasional one-shots while enjoying the peace and tranquility of not having to chase deadlines. This partial retirement, far from diminishing his influence, allowed his work to be rediscovered and reinterpreted by new generations, thus consolidating his legendary status.

Starting in 2015, he became involved, in a much more relaxed capacity, with the production of new Dragon Ball content, contributing plots and designs for the Dragon Ball Super series. This return to his most emblematic creation, albeit in a less intensive role, demonstrates both Toriyama’s affection for his work and the continued demand from fans for new stories in this universe.

Final Reflections: The Man Behind the Legend

Naturally introverted and satisfied with his rural life, Toriyama is extremely humble about the global impact he has had, and maintains that his only goal throughout his career was to entertain his readers. He states that if that’s all he left behind, he’s satisfied. However, millions of fans around the world can assure that he left much, much more.

Akira Toriyama’s story teaches us that true genius doesn’t always arise from innate talent or a grand vision, but from constant dedication, the willingness to learn and adapt, and the genuine desire to connect with the audience. He started as an unemployed young man looking to earn some money, went through a painful learning process with hundreds of rejected pages, and ended up creating a work that would forever transform the landscape of global entertainment.

Toriyama’s legacy goes far beyond sales or recognition: it resides in how he changed the way we tell visual stories, in how he fused diverse influences to create something genuinely new, and in how he inspired generations of artists to follow their own creative paths. Begin your own artistic journey today and be part of this inspiring legacy, discovering tools and knowledge that will help you find your unique creative voice, just as Toriyama did.

His journey from amateur artist to global cultural icon reminds us that, with perseverance, passion, and a good dose of creative stubbornness, even the most modest aspirations can transform into legendary achievements. And perhaps that’s the most valuable lesson we can extract from the life and work of this extraordinary artist: that true power, just as in the stories he created, lies in never giving up in the face of obstacles and always seeking to surpass our own limits.