Akira Toriyama (1955-2024) was a Japanese manga and game artist. Famous for his playful, innovative storytelling and humorous, distinctive art style, he burst onto the manga scene in 1980 with the wildly popular Dr. Slump. He went on to create Dragon Ball—his best-known work— and work as a character designer for several popular video games such as the Dragon Quest series. Toriyama is regarded as one of the artists that changed the history of manga, as his works are highly influential and popular.