Akira Toriyama was born on April 5, 1955, in Kiyosu, Aichi Prefecture, Japan. He died on March 1, 2024, due to an acute subdural hematoma. Before entering the manga industry, he worked at an advertising agency in Nagoya for three years, designing posters. He quit at age 23 and began submitting work to manga magazines, making his debut in 1978 with the short story Wonder Island, published in Weekly Shonen Jump.

Toriyama achieved mainstream recognition with his first major serialized work, Dr. Slump, which ran from 1980 to 1984. The series follows the adventures of the eccentric inventor Senbei Norimaki and his powerful robot creation, Arale. Dr. Slump was a significant success, earning him the 1981 Shogakukan Manga Award for best shonen or shojo manga. The series sold over 35 million copies in Japan and was adapted into a popular anime that aired during a prime time slot on Fuji TV.

His next work, Dragon Ball, became one of the most successful and influential manga series in history. Serialized in Weekly Shonen Jump from 1984 to 1995, the story of Son Goku and his quest for the mystical Dragon Balls evolved from a comedic adventure into a martial arts epic. The manga sold over 260 million copies worldwide and is considered a key work that helped increase manga circulation to its peak in the mid-1990s. The success of the manga led to multiple anime adaptations, including Dragon Ball Z, as well as numerous animated films and video games. Toriyama also served as a character designer for several popular video games, most notably the Dragon Quest series, as well as Chrono Trigger and Blue Dragon.

In addition to his long-running serials, Toriyama created many shorter manga works, including the original one-shot manga Chokin Senshi Cashman, which was published in V-Jump between 1990 and 1991 and later adapted into a fifteen-minute original video animation in 1997. He continued to be involved in new anime productions within the Dragon Ball universe. He is credited with the original story concept for the 2008 short film Dragon Ball: Yo! The Return of Son Goku and Friends!!, which marked the first new animated Dragon Ball film in twelve years. For the 2022 film Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero, Toriyama was deeply involved, creating the story, character designs, and dialogue. His last major project was Dragon Ball Daima, an original story for which he wrote the entire plot, created the setting from the ground up, and designed the new characters and mecha, marking it as his final work before his passing. He also created the 1988 educational short Dragon Ball: Goku's Fire Fighting Regiment.

Toriyama's artistic identity is characterized by a distinctive, clean art style, a love for gag comedy, and a profound enthusiasm for designing machines and vehicles. He often incorporated elements from kung fu films and science fiction into his work. His mechanical designs were known for their functional believability, as he would carefully consider how they would move and operate. He was known for being a private individual who preferred working on short series after the conclusion of Dragon Ball, stating a desire to take new steps in life.

The industry significance of Akira Toriyama is immense. He is regarded as one of the most important authors in the history of manga. Dragon Ball, in particular, is cited as a source of inspiration by numerous later manga artists, including Eiichiro Oda, the creator of One Piece, and Masashi Kishimoto, the creator of Naruto. The anime adaptations of his work were instrumental in boosting the popularity of Japanese animation in the Western world. In 2019, he was decorated as a Chevalier of the French Ordre des Arts et des Lettres for his contributions to the arts.