Akira Toriyama (Dragon Ball)

Date of Birth

5 April 1955, Kiyosu, Japan

Spouse

Yoshimi Toriyama

(? - present) 2 children

Trivia

Mostly known as the creator of the popular anime "Dragon Ball", the most popular series of which is "Dragon Ball Z" (1989) (released in the West as "Dragon Ball Z" (1989/I)).

Enjoys watching movies starring Jackie Chan.

His favourite PC game is Myst (1993) (VG).

Contrary to popular belief, Toriyama DID have a role in anime-only material on "Dragon Ball Z" (1989). He created Bardock and Pikkon, and it was his idea to have Yamcha as a baseball player.

He often carried out crossovers between his works "Dragon Ball" and "Dr Slump". In "Dragonball" (1986), Dr's Slump's home Penguin Village appears for a few episodes in the General Blue saga. Likewise, Arale Norimaki, Dr Slump's daughter, makes a few cameo appearances throughout the Dragon Ball saga; in a similar manner, when Toriyama started a new "Dr Slump" series following the end of "Dragon Ball", Goku made a cameo appearance.

Is friends with Eiichiro Oda, who credits Toriyama as an influence on his manga "One Piece". The two worked together on a crossover called "Cross Epoch", where both "Dragon Ball" and "One Piece" characters had to get to a tea party (but a series of misadventures kept getting in their way).

Has a son, Sasuke (born April 1987) & a girl (October 1990).

He cites the works of Osamu Tezuka, Walt Disney and Jackie Chan as an influence on his work.

His favourite character from the "Dragon Ball" saga is Piccolo.

His favourite animated film is Walt Disney's One Hundred and One Dalmatians (1961).

He is a fan of Star Wars (1977) and would often listen to its musical scores while drawing.

His "Dragon Ball" manga extended only up to the end of the DBZ series and the third anime series "Dragon Ball GT" (1996), was an original work (and thus considered by some fans to be non-canon); however, Toriyama was involved in that series by supervising its production, although this was limited.

His "Dragon Ball" protagonist Son Goku was voted in a 2009 poll by Mania.com as the most iconic anime hero of all time.

He planned to end "Dragon Ball" with the Frieza saga (where Goku faces Frieza, the destroyer of his planet), but his publishers persuaded him to carry on the saga to include the Android, Cell and Buu sagas.

He claims not to plan his stories in the long-term.

Personal Quotes

About Drunken Master (1978): If I hadn't seen this movie, I would never have come up with Dragonball.

His favourite "Dragonball" character: I believe mine would be Piccolo. He was the first character in my manga where I was like, "He has a scary face, but he's so cool!" It really is cliché when bad guys turn into good guys, but it just feels great drawing it!

About "Blue Dragon" (2007): "This may be my final anime, I'm a little worried (about it). There's incredible pressure, but at the same time, there's a sense of accomplishment - that it's worth doing. Blue Dragon will be a masterpiece, not simply because I'm working hard on it, but because the staff is expecting nothing less."

Sumber: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0868066/bio