Akira Toriyama Net Worth – Earnings & Career Highlights

Akira Toriyama was known as a Japanese manga artist and designer. At 68, Akira passed away on March 1, 2024. The most well-known works by Akira Toriyama are the wildly popular manga series “Dr. Slump” and “Dragon Ball.” The latter is among the best-selling manga series ever and created a media company that includes several computer games, movies, and anime adaptations.

Dragon Ball, his next manga series, would become one of the most well-known and successful worldwide. One of the best-selling manga series ever, it has sold 260 million copies worldwide and is credited with helping bring manga circulation to its peak in the mid-1980s and mid-1990s. Dragon Ball’s anime adaptations abroad have exceeded the manga and are credited with increasing anime’s popularity in the West.

Let’s examine Akira Toriyama net worth, professional career, legacy, and accolades.

Akira Toriyama Net Worth

Akira Toriyama net worth is estimated to be $55 million. Dragon Ball Super is still his most recent and ongoing project. However, this is only one of Toriyama’s sources of income. In addition, despite his extraordinary influence and impact, he created the character designs for the hugely popular Dragon Quest video game series.

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Biography and Personal Life

On May 2, 1982, Toriyama wed Yoshimi Kato. Under the pen name “Nachi Mikami,” she is a former manga artist from Nagoya who sometimes helped Toriyama and his assistant on Dr. Slump when they had to work for a time. Their son, Sasuke, was born on March 23, 1987, and their daughter, Kikka, was born in October 1990. Toriyama lived in Kiyosu in his home studio.

Although he did not comprehend the mechanics himself, Toriyama’s father, who raced motorcycles and briefly ran an auto repair shop, established in him a passion for vehicles and motorcycles. As a child, the author kept various birds, dogs, cats, fish, reptiles, and insects as pets, showing her love of animals. Some served as models for his creations, including Beerus and Karin.

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• Death

At the age of 68, RIP Akira Toriyama on March 1, 2025, due to an acute subdural hematoma. His family was the only ones present at the Akira Toriyama funeral. A week later, on March 8, his production firm, Bird Studio, announced the Akira Toriyama accident. In February 2025, Toriyama was scheduled to have surgery for a brain tumor, according to people close to him.

Akira Toriyama Career

• Early work and Dr. Slump (1978–1983)

At 23, Toriyama left his job and turned to his mother for financial support while he was jobless. He then entered the manga industry by submitting a piece he had picked up randomly at a coffee shop to an amateur contest in Kodansha’s Weekly Shonen Magazine.

Toriyama became well-known because Dr. Slump, published in Weekly Shonen Jump from 1980 to 1984, was a significant success. The series covers the crimes of a perverted professor and his tiny yet mighty robot, Arale. In 1981, Toriyama won the Shogakukan Manga Award for best shonen or shojo manga series of the year for Dr. Slump.

• Dragon Ball and International Success (1983–1997)

Torishima recommended that Toriyama write a kung fu shonen manga since he liked kung fu movies. This led to Dragon Boy, a two-part story in Fresh Jump’s August and October 1983 issues. It centers on a boy skilled in martial arts who leads a princess back to her homeland.

Torishima also hired him to design the characters for the 1986 role-playing video game Dragon Quest during the serialization of Dragon Ball. After loving the final product, the artist acknowledged that he was drawn into it without even understanding what an RPG was and that it added to his already demanding schedule, but he was glad to have been a part of it.

• Short Stories and Other Projects (1996–2011)

Although it was not directly based on Toriyama’s manga, a third Dragon Ball anime adaptation, Dragon Ball GT, debuted in 1996. He contributed to some overarching components, such as the series title and the main cast’s designs.

For Anjo’s Rural Society Project, a nonprofit environmental group that educates young children about the value of agriculture and nature, Toriyama created a manga in 2009 called Delicious Island’s Mr. U. Toriyama enjoyed the project and chose to turn it into a story when they first requested him to illustrate the booklet.

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Early Life

Akira Toriyama was born in the Japanese town of Kiyosu, in the Aichi Prefecture. His sister was younger. Toriyama began drawing at an early age, mainly of the animals and cars he liked. He described how One Hundred and One Dalmatians, 1961, left him speechless and drew him further into the art of illustration in the hopes of creating such stunning images.

Although Toriyama acknowledged that he likes to hang out with friends, he claimed it was a “no-brainer” that he would attend a high school emphasizing creative design. He occasionally drew his manga but still needed to read more of them. Toriyama was adamant about entering the workforce after graduation rather than studying more at school, even though his parents strongly disagreed.

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International Response

On social media, French President Emmanuel Macron honored Toriyama and his supporters by posting a picture of an autographed drawing Toriyama sent him as a gift. Not even “the Dragon Balls and Shenron” could bring him back to life, said French Prime Minister Gabriel Attal, who also paid his respects.

Thousands of supporters gathered at Argentina’s Obelisco monument on March 10 to honor Toriyama. In Lima, Peru, more than 40 painters under the direction of “Peko” created a painting honoring Toriyama that is six meters high and more than 110 meters long. It features both Toriyama and characters from Dragon Ball.

• Style

Toriyama remembers Walt Disney’s One Hundred and One Dalmatians for its excellent animation, and he also loved Osamu Tezuka’s Astro Boy. He enjoyed watching martial arts movies from Hong Kong, particularly Bruce Lee’s Enter the Dragon 1973 and Jackie Chan’s Drunken Master 1978, which greatly influenced his later work.

Legacy and Accolades

The Japan Times Patrick St. Michel likened Toriyama to Stan Lee, the creator of Marvel Comics, and animator Walt Disney, “All three of these individuals, Toriyama included, had a personal artistic style that has become the shorthand for their respective media.”

When Oricon questioned people about their favorite manga artists in 2008, Toriyama came in second, only to be topped by Nana author Ai Yazawa. He ranked first among male respondents older than thirty. In 2010, they surveyed the mangaka who altered the course of manga history. The Japanese term for a manga artist is mangaka.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q. What is Akira Toriyama net worth?

Akira Toriyama net worth is estimated to be $55 million.

Q. What is the value of Dragon Ball?

This article claims that the total value of the Dragon Ball franchise is $23 billion.

Q. Which Dragon Ball has the highest gross?

Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero, the second Super movie, was released in 2022 and made over $86.6 million worldwide.