In anime and manga, Akira Toriyama will long be remembered as one of the best.
Toriyama helped to make anime what it is today. He did not invent the “shonen hero” format — after all, coming-of-age stories are as old as time itself.
However, he perfected many elements which have been copied by other shonen creators.
In addition, Toriyama was also a great gag manga artist. His comedy experience can be seen all over Dragon Ball.
Let’s take a look at the best of Akira Toriyama — a true anime and manga legend.
Dragon Ball
You can’t talk about Toriyama without mentioning Dragon Ball. This groundbreaking series has grown into a mighty empire, with anime and manga sequels, movies, video games, and more.
The first Dragon Ball chapters borrowed heavily from one source — the classic Chinese novel Journey to the West.
Although not as well known in America or Europe, Journey to the West would have been as familiar to Asian readers as Shakespeare or the Brothers Grimm. Goku is obviously based on the mischievous, powerful and heroic Monkey King.
But Toriyama did more than just create a modern update on a classic. Dragon Ball quickly forged its own path with a mixture of humor, and shonen action-adventure.
In some ways, I prefer the original Dragon Ball over later versions. For one thing, it has more comedy. (Toriyama had just finished Dr. Slump when Dragon Ball started in 1984.)
Young Goku is a kind-hearted, pure and innocent hero. Of course, older Goku never loses the more goofy, fun-loving aspects of his personality. But somehow it feels more appropriate with the earlier episodes.
Dragon Ball sets the stage for Dragon Ball Z. But Toriyama also created a template for Naruto, One Piece, and many others to follow.
Dragon Ball Z
Dragon Ball Z features the more serious side of Dragon Ball.
By the end of Dragon Ball, the series was already starting to get more serious with the introduction of the Demon King Piccolo. With Dragon Ball Z, Toriyama pushed hard into the martial arts adventure side of the story.
We get an older Goku, and an alien race of world conquerors, the Saiyans. Meanwhile, some of the sillier concepts got shoved into the background.
We also get our first look at Goku’s grumpy and egotistical brother, Vegeta.
Vegeta’s role in DBZ has always been interesting. The fans love him (according to reports, we love him more than Toriyama himself did).
Over time, Vegeta evolved from an evil bad guy, to Goku’s arrogant rival, to something resembling an anti-hero ally. Today, he’s the dark and brooding Batman to Goku’s Superman.
Of course, Vegeta was just one of many memorable new characters. Each new DBZ saga introduced a new, more powerful and dangerous villain — smug Frieza, menacing Cell, and the misleadingly weird Majin Buu.
Dragon Ball Z had a lot of action, fighting, and suspenseful cliffhangers.
But it also retained a lot of the humor from the original Dragon Ball. Just look at the hammy Ginyu Force. Or the Great Saiyaman.
If Dragon Ball paved the way for more recent shonen series, DBZ clearly influenced many “post-time skip” story arcs.
Dr. Slump
Dr. Slump (1980-1984) is harder to find than the huge, ubiquitous Dragon Ball franchise, and that’s a shame. It’s a fun and silly gag manga, and it’s worth reading. The series had several anime TV and movie adaptations.
(The South Korean Doctor Slump TV series is not related.)
Dr. Slump was not Toriyama’s first series — he created several lesser-known manga during the 1970s.
But Dr. Slump was Toriyama’s first big success. It put a comical, satirical spin on the classic Japanese robot story. The series is also vaguely reminiscent of Doraemon, the comedy manga/ anime about a robot cat and his many gadgets.
Toriyama’s series features the mad scientist/ inventor Senbei Norimaki, who creates a robot girl, Arale. Arale is super-strong, energetic and enthusiastic, but more naive and innocent than Goku.
The series gets a lot of laughs out of Arale’s off-kilter view of the world, which leads to a lot of misunderstandings. Senbei also creates many wacky inventions, which inevitably go wrong.
Without the remarkable success of Dr. Slump, there would probably be no Dragon Ball. And not surprisingly, the little robot girl gets a couple of cameos in Dragon Ball (where she turns out to be as strong as Goku).
Sand Land
Sand Land is a relatively new series by Toriyama. (At least, the anime is new.)
If you’re like me, you may not have even heard of this obscure, cult series until recently. However, it is worth checking out.
In many ways, the plot is very different from either Dragon Ball or Dr. Slump. It’s more similar to Mad Max than to Journey to the West. But the characters, art, and general attitude are unmistakably Toriyama.
In this post-apocalyptic series, a small band of adventurers set out to help people in the middle of a drought.
It seems that war and natural disasters have taken their toll. To make matters worse, a tyrant controls pretty much all the water.
Our heroes consist of tough old Sheriff Rao and his allies — a snarky, young demon prince, Beelzebub; and an older demon known as Thief.
A short manga series came out in 2000. In 2023, Sunrise released an anime movie adaptation. Shortly after the movie came out, a separate anime series was announced.
Disney grabbed the Sand Land series, which will be streamed on Disney+ and Hulu. As I write this, it’s scheduled for the end of March 2024.
Dragon Quest
In the world of anime, the words “Dragon” and “Toriyama” will forever be linked.
But, although Akira Toriyama is best remembered for his manga and anime, we must not forget that he also made great contributions to video games. You can see his influence all over Square Enix’s Dragon Quest role-playing game franchise.
Beginning shortly after he started Dragon Ball, Toriyama created artwork, illustrations, and especially characters for Dragon Quest. The first game came out in 1986.
Of course, Dragon Quest took many skilled hands to create. But Toriyama gave the medieval fantasy RPG series a clever, playful, and exciting look which added greatly to its appeal.
(American gamers missed out on some of this, as importers replaced art from the early games.)
Conclusion
Akira Toriyama may have passed on, but he left behind some amazing, groundbreaking manga and anime — including the upcoming anime Dragon Ball Daima.
At press time, Daima is still scheduled to come out this year, the 40th anniversary of Dragon Ball.
His genius will be missed by anime and manga fans worldwide.
