Akira Toriyama net worth: Japanese manga artist’s career explored after Dragon Ball creator's death at 68

Dragon Ball Z creator Akira Toriyama died on March 1, 2024, at the age of 68, his publisher, Shueisha, announced on Friday, March 8. The artist reportedly died of acute subdural hematoma. As per a post by Dragon Ball's official account, a small funeral service with Toriyama's friends and family was held. Fans were asked not to send any gifts or flowers.

Toriyama is best known for his works, including Dragon Ball, Dr Slump, Dragon Quest, and Sand Land. His most popular work, Dragon Ball, was first published in 1984 in a weekly magazine called Shonen Jump.

While the original manga ran from 1984 to 1995, the franchise has expanded into anime, feature films, and video games. As per Screenrant, later classics such as One Piece and Naruto also took inspiration from Toriyama's distinct art style and his work in Dragon Ball.

As per Celebrity Net Worth, Akira Toriyama had a net worth of $50 million.

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Akira Toriyama is best known for his work in the popular manga Dragon Ball

Akira Toriyama is best known for being the creator of Dragon Ball, one of the best-selling manga series in history. His work spearheaded an entire franchise, including several anime adaptations, TV shows, feature films, and video games.

As per Celebrity Net Worth, Toriyama was attracted to art from an early age. He was inspired by animated Disney films such as One Hundred and One Dalmations and Osamu Tezuka's manga series Astro Boy. As a teenager, he attended design school and worked as a poster designer in an advertising agency before starting his career as a manga artist.

Toriyama's first published work, Wonder Island, was featured in the Weekly Shonen Jump magazine in 1978. In 1979, he published two other works, Today's Highlight Island and Tomato the Cutesy Gumshoe. The latter featured his first female protagonist.

After the success of Tomato the Cutesy Gumshoe, Toriyama created another female protagonist in the manga series Dr Slump. The original manga series appeared between 1980 and 1984 in Weekly Shonen Jump. Dr Slump tells the story of a mad professor and his companion, a small, powerful robot girl named Arale.

Dr Slump became a successful juggernaut in Japan, leading to the manga's adaptation into an anime series. For his work, Akira Toriyama won the Shogakukan Manga Award.

In 1983, Toriyama created his most popular work to date, Dragon Ball. As per Screenrant, the manga artist was originally inspired by Jackie Chan's kung-fu films, given its humorous nature.

Toriyama originally created a kung fu shonen manga called Dragon Boy. The manga series was later published in Weekly Shonen Jump as Dragon Ball between 1984 to 1995.

It quickly became one of the most sold mangas in Japan, selling more than 300 million copies worldwide. As per CNW, Dragon Ball is often credited for increasing the popularity of anime globally.

Toriyama also worked as a character artist in several video games, such as Dragon Quest Chrono Trigger, Tobal No. 1 and 2, and Blue Dragon. He designed some characters for the Dragon Ball spin-offs, Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot and Dragon Ball Fighter Z.

Toriyama's other manga works include one-shots such as Pola & Roid, Mad Matic, Mr Ho, Chobit, Karamaru, and The Perfect Day. The artist also created short serials like Cowa! and Kajika in the late 1990s.

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Akira Toriyama's work inspired manga classics like Naruto and One Piece

As per ScreenRant, classics like One Piece and Naruto were inspired by Toriyama's work. In Dragon Ball Super, One Piece was also a shoutout Easter egg. Animes like My Hero Academia, One Punch Man, and Jujutsu Kaisen also took inspiration from Toriyama's masterpiece.

Eiichiro Oda, the creator of One Piece, wrote a message for Akira Toriyama (translated by Reddit User Death_Usagi):

"For the manga artists of our generation who stood on the same stage, Toriyama's works became more and more important to me as I got closer to the same stage. I even felt being scary. But I am just happy to see the aloof man himself again. Because we love him on a blood level."

Naruto creator Masashi Kishimoto also wrote a message for the creator:

"Thank you, Akira Toriyama-sensei, for all of your enjoyable works over the past 45 years. And thank you very much for your hard work. We are sure that the remaining family members are still deeply hurt. Please take care of yourself. I pray that Mr. Akira Toriyama rests in peace."

As per ScreenRant, Toriyama was reportedly working on several projects when he passed away. He was working on the ongoing Dragon Ball Super manga and was supposed to be involved in Dragon Ball: DAIMA anime.