Akira Toriyama is an artist.
is a Japanese manga and game artist . He first achieved mainstream recognition for his highly successful manga Dr. Slump , before going on to create Dragon Ball -- his best-known work -- and acting as a character designer for several popular video games such as the Dragon Quest series , Blue Dragon and Chrono Trigger . Toriyama is regarded as one of the artists that changed the history of manga , as his works are 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 or shōjo manga with Dr. Slump , and it went on to sell over 35 million copies in Japan .