鳥山明 THE WORLD SPECIAL [Toriyama Akira: The World Special]

Akira Toriyama The World #2

by Akira Toriyama

Akira Toriyama - The World reviews the various achievements of Akira Toriyama throughout the 1980s. It was released on January 15, 1990, published by Shueisha.The artbook begins with a very short story titled Wolf and features 81 colored illustrations. It features a few Dragon Ball and Dr. Slump chapter illustrations, several drawings created for the Weekly Shōnen Jump and calendars, various illustrations from Toriyama's one-shots (Pola & Roid, Chobit, Mister Hō, and Clear Skies, Karamaru), and several drawings based on Dragon Quest. There are also boards of the Dr. Slump chapter "My Toilet Paper" published in color, and a few sketches (notably, early sketches for Frieza and Zarbon). The book concludes with a portrait of the author drawn through a debate between him, his editor, and his collaborators.The main headings are Wolf, Dragon Ball, Variety (Dragon Quest and animated productions), Dr. Slump, the chapter "My Toilet Paper", Heroes (from a few one-shots), Akira Toriyama, and the index of illustrations.Wolf is a short picture story that is a kind of modern Little Red Riding Hood, with an anthropomorphic biker wolf as the main protagonist. Through some humoristic cartoon boxes, Wolf tells his life while making trips on his motorcycle. This story was never published outside of this singular book.

Genres: Manga, Art, Reference, Comics

134 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1992

About the author

Akira Toriyama (鳥山明) was a Japanese manga artist and character designer. He first achieved mainstream recognition for creating the popular manga series Dr. Slump, before going on to create Dragon Ball (his most famous work) and acting as a character designer for several popular video games such as the Dragon Quest series, Chrono Trigger, and Blue Dragon. Toriyama came to be regarded as one of the most important authors in the history of manga with his works highly influential and popular, particularly Dragon Ball, which many manga artists cite as a source of inspiration.
He earned the 1981 Shogakukan Manga Award for best shōnen/shōjo manga with Dr. Slump, and it went on to sell over 35 million copies in Japan. It was adapted into a successful anime series, with a second anime created in 1997, 13 years after the manga ended.
His next series, Dragon Ball, would become one of the most popular and successful manga in the world. Having sold 260 million copies worldwide, it is one of the best-selling manga series of all time and is considered a key work in increasing manga circulation to its peak in the mid-1980s and mid-1990s. Overseas, Dragon Ball's anime adaptations have been more successful than the manga and are credited with boosting anime's popularity in the Western world. In 2019, Toriyama was decorated a Chevalier of the French Ordre des Arts et des Lettres for his contributions to the arts.
In October 2024, Toriyama was inducted into the Harvey Awards Hall of Fame.

Reviews

[Giacomo · Rating 5 out of 5]

Akira Toriyama ovvero uno dei più grandi fumettisti viventi e la persona a cui avrei voluto saper rubare le capacità di disegno quando avevo 14/16 anni. Un gigante.

Riguardando alcuni suoi disegni mi son reso conto che ci sono grandi influssi miyazakiani nel suo tratto.

dalle foto del suo studio poi si vedono un sacco di sigarette (come Miyazaki) e modellini di macchine da costruire (pure un set Tamiya), il che mi fa sognare ancora di più di essere Toriyama.

[Javier · Rating 5 out of 5]

Creo que leí primero Special, este tomo, y después cayó The World. En Goodreads aparecen como ediciones de un mismo libro, lo cual no es cierto. Ambos contienen material de todos los trabajos de Toriyama hasta la fecha (allá en los 90) y tanto la estética del libro como la calidad de las ilustraciones lo hacen indispensable.

[Michael Dunn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pretty nice collection of art and stories from Akira Toriyama’s 1980s work.