Akira Toriyama

While you’re sure to recognize him as the creator of Dr. Slump (for which he won the 1981 Shogakukan Manga Award for Best Shonen or Shoujo Manga) and the monumental Dragon Ball franchise, Akira Toriyama is a world-famous manga and video game artist who has also done character design for video games including Dragon Quest, Blue Dragon, and Chrono Trigger. His work on Dragon Ball is also credited as one of the main reasons for the “Golden Age of Jump.”

Toriyama credits works like Astro Boy by the “the father of manga,” Osamu Tezuka, and Walt Disney’s 101 Dalmatians as inspirations. He himself has since been credited as a major influence by some of the best known manga artists out there including Eiichiro Oda (One Piece), Masashi Kishimoto (Naruto), Hiro Mashima (Fairy Tail, Rave), and Tite Kubo (Bleach), showing just how important he has been to the shonen genre.