Akira Toriyama  wanted to conclude the Z series to make room for new ideas. Not only  is he beyond surprised that the series had never lost its tremendous  support over the years, but he is also very grateful to the Dragon  Ball fans around the world.

The  latest release of the Dragon Ball saga. The story line reverts back  to that of the original series. Goku starts off in a quest for the  Dragon Balls again, but at a much larger scale (implied in GT -  Grand Tour). Instead of searching for Dragon Balls spread across a  planet, Goku searches for Dragon Balls across the entire  universe.

The Series finally  ended after 64 Episodes on Nov 19th, 1997.

About the Author                                                             Akira began his career  as a graphic designer and started working on Manga at the age of 23.  At age 30, he has become a full time Mangaka and extremely busy.  Although he doesn¡¦t particularly enjoy being busy, he doesn¡¦t feel  focused while he is not working and only to find himself asleep in  his free time.

Akira expresses his inner desires and  frustrations into his own work. From a very young age, whenever  Akira desired something that he was unable to obtain, he would  incessantly draw the object until he became tired with it. He had  wanted a horse as a child, so he kept drawing horses until he no  longer desired it. Even today, this habit still lives in  him.He had regarded himself as someone who gets bored  quickly, someone who is in constant need of new and exciting things  to stimulate his mind. After devoting to Dragon Ball for more than  ten years, he had to rethink this aspect of himself.

Akira  at work

Akira works "college" hours. His typical day goes  as follows: He gets up at 12 noon, works with his assistant  Matsuyama until 7pm, eat dinner, take the dog for a walk, exercise  until 9. Then he watches TV and work at the same time until 11,  takes a shower and then work until 4 am before going to  sleep.

He enjoys working besides a television in the office  as well as at home. Akira will often get quite distracted by certain  programs, yet he feels desolate without it. Therefore, he had  trained himself to only periodically glance briefly at the TV  screen.

Akira considers himself the "weaker" of the Mangakas,  because he cannot handle cold weather at all. On one hand, he hates  the cold, yet when the heaters are turned on his mind becomes  unclear and groggy. But there is not much of a choice for him,  however. Because of his strong dislike of the cold and winter, he  wished that he could hibernate like the bear during winter.  Fortunately, he can always immerse himself in the warm summer  through setting nearly 100% of the story either in the tropics or in  the summer.

Like many of the  Mangakas, Akira was no exception to the mystique of Walt Disney. He  liked the characters so much that he went to Disneyland more than  than 6 times. He was deeply inspired by the magnificent portrayal of  nature and wildlife in many of the Disney animation. Akira¡¦s love  of nature is reflected through Cyborg #16.

His constant work  for the Shonen Jump in the past years have almost totally exhausted  him. Besides rushing out work for the Jump, he also has obligations  for Nintendo as well as V Jump. With all that work, he felt like he  was going to go insane without some free time. The energy he used to  have has weakened quite a bit. He wanted to allocate more time for  himself and his family. He is now a father of a son and a  daughter.

Major  Characters - Haupt Charaktere