Akira Toriyama; Dragon Ball Celluloid

AKIRA TORIYAMA (Nagoya, Aichi Prefecture, Japan, 1955-2024).
DRAGON BALL celluloid.
"Chaozu."
Acetate with colored pencil drawing.
This piece belongs to the series conceived by Akira Toriyama.
Measurements: 23 x 26,5 cm (celluloid) 24,5 x 27 cm (drawing).
Dragon Ball is a Japanese manga cartoon series created by Akira Toriyama in 1984. The initial manga, written and illustrated by Toriyama, was serialized in Weekly Sh?nen Jump from 1984 to 1995, with 519 individual chapters. Dragon Ball was originally inspired by the 16th century Chinese classic novel Journey to the West, combined with elements from Hong Kong martial arts films. The series follows the adventures of protagonist Son Goku from childhood to adulthood as he trains in martial arts. He spends his childhood far from civilization until he meets a teenage girl named Bulma, who encourages him to join her on her quest to explore the world in search of the seven orbs known as Dragon Balls, which summon a wish-granting dragon when gathered. Along his journey, Goku makes several more friends, becomes a family man, discovers his alien heritage and battles a wide variety of villains, many of whom also seek the Dragon Balls.

Creator of "Dragon Ball" and "Doctor Slump," Akira Toriyama is considered one of the artists who changed the history of manga. His leap to fame came with Dr. Slump, a saga published between 1980 and 1984. Thanks to it, he received in 1981 the Manga Award granted by the Shgakukan publishing house. The acceptance of the manga was massive. In total, 18 volumes of manga were collected (40 in Spain, published by Planeta de Agostini) and the television series surpassed 240 episodes. Dr. Slump narrates the ironic and crazy adventures of Professor Senbei Norimaki and his creation, a robot in the shape of a 10-year-old girl, and the other inhabitants of a strange place called Penguin Village. Torishima suggested that since Toriyama liked kung fu movies, he should create a sh?nen kung fu manga. This resulted in the two-part Dragon Boy, published in the August and October 1983 issues of Fresh Jump. Dragon Boy was well received and evolved into the Dragon Ball series in 1984. In terms of his style, Toriyama admired Osamu Tezuka's Astro Boy and was impressed by Walt Disney's One Hundred and One Dalmatians, which he remembered for its high quality animation. He was a fan of Hong Kong martial arts films, especially those of Bruce Lee, such as Enter the Dragon (1973), and Jackie Chan, such as Drunken Master (1978), which greatly influenced his later work. He also cited the science fiction films Alien (1979) and Galaxy Quest (1999) as influences. Toriyama stated that he was influenced by animator Toyoo Ashida and the anime television series adaptation of his own Dragon Ball, from which he learned that separating colors rather than mixing them makes art cleaner and coloring illustrations easier.