Akira Toriyama
If Osamu Tezuka is the father of Manga in general, then Akira Toriyama (April 5, 1955 — March 1, 2024) is the father of Shonen.
Akira Toriyama was one of the most famous mangaka out there and also does work on character designs in video games.
He started off in 1979 with the story Wonder Island published by Shonen Jump and gained popularity in Japan for his breakthrough Hit gag manga Doctor Slump, but became world-famous for his Dragon Ball series. Ironically, it was meant to only be about two volumes, but we know how that ended up.
Around the same time as his Dragon Ball series was taking off in Japan, Yuji Horii approached him to work on Toriyama's most influential and famous work, the character designs and art for Dragon Quest, the game that would introduce computerized role-playing games to the main Japanese market and set the standard for all console RPGs to follow. He has continued to do every single piece of artwork, monster, and character design alongside the same 3 person team (Yuji Horii (story) and Koichi Sugiyama (music) ) for every single Dragon Quest game since then, including each and every spinoff.
On the comics side of things, after Dragonball, he went on to do Sand Land, Neko Majin Z, and Kajika, as well as several one-shots, although he has not put out an omnibus-style tankoubon since Neko Majin Z in 2005. With his rather infamous trouble with producers and his income from the Dragon Quest series, it is unlikely that he will ever do another manga series similar to Dragonball; almost all of his recent works have been short one shots.
Toriyama was known largely for his art style; while he suffered heavily from being able to draw Only Six Faces, his artwork is very stylized and thus hard to imitate without lots of careful study and practice.
Notably, a lot of the manga that first started in The Nineties were inspired by him, including Yoshihiro Togashi (Yu Yu Hakusho, Hunter X Hunter, Level E), Masashi Kishimoto (Naruto), Hiro Mashima (Fairy Tail), and even Eiichiro Oda (One Piece). In fact, Akira Toriyama and Eiichiro Oda worked together on a Manga in 2006 called Cross Epoch, a crossover that contains Dragon Ball and One Piece characters. Considering that some of these Mangaka have already started to inspire others to join the Shonen industry, you could call him the God of Shonen manga[1]
He died at the age of 68 on March 1, 2024, due to acute subdural hematoma, a type of bleeding where blood accumulates in between the brain and the dura mater. According to sources close to Toriyama, the cause of his death was related to a brain tumour that he was unable to undergo surgery for. His death was not publicly announced until a week later, after his family held a private funeral.
- Only Six Faces: Which he mocks in Dr. Slump
- Reclusive Artist: He was actually rumoured dead in 1998 due to a disappearance... Still around.
- Vitriolic Best Buds: With Artist Masakazu Katsura, just look at their interview on their joint project Jiya and notice how they nag each other to death.
- In Dr. Slump, Katsura makes a quick appearance and is portrayed as a sort of country bumpkin...
- Writing by the Seat of Your Pants: Which actually works.
- ↑ Though if you think about it, there are three mangaka who would be considered the God of manga period. Osamu Tezuka is the father, Go Nagai is the son and Akira Toriyama is the holy spirit. Eiichiro Oda is the pope or something.