Akira Toriyama is a Japanese manga artist. He is hailed by many as he most influential manga artist of all time. He is best known for creating the super hit manga and anime Dragon Ball. Dragon Ball held the record for most copies of manga sold before being surpassed by One Piece.
Akira Toriyama was born on April 5, 1955 in Nagoya, Japan. He has recalled that when he was in elementary school all of his classmates drew, imitating anime and manga, as a result of not having many forms of entertainment. He started off with Dr. Slump in 1980. It made him of the of the biggest manga artists of the time. In 1984, Dragon Ball started publishing. This made him one of the greatest of all time. Dragon Ball is an action-packed manga which became an international hit due to its anime Dragon Ball Z. Thus sometimes it is regarded as the best of all time.
Akira Toriyama has been cited as the inspiration for many current generation mangakas. This list includes Eiichiro Oda from One piece, Masashi Kishimoto from Naruto, Tite Kubo from Bleach and Hiro Mashima from Fairy Tail.