Toriyama Akira The World

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.