[11] After quitting his job at the age of 23 and asking his mother for money while unemployed, Toriyama entered the manga industry by submitting a work to an amateur contest in Kodansha's Weekly Shōnen Magazine, which he had randomly picked up in a coffee shop.

[19] Although Dr. Slump was popular, Toriyama wanted to end the series within roughly six months of creating it, but publisher Shueisha would only allow him to do so if he agreed to start another serial for them shortly after.

[23] Selected to participate in Weekly Shōnen Jump's Reader's Choice contest for a third time, Toriyama had the bad luck of drawing the first slot and had to work over New Year's on 1983's Chobit.

[23] Serialized in Weekly Shōnen Jump from 1984 to 1995 and having sold 159.5 million tankōbon copies in Japan alone,[28] Dragon Ball is one of the best-selling manga series of all time.

Aside from its popularity in Japan, Dragon Ball was successful internationally as well, including Asia, Europe, and the Americas, with 300–350 million copies of the manga sold worldwide.

[33] The September 23, 1988, festival film Kosuke & Rikimaru: The Dragon of Konpei Island marked the first time Toriyama made substantial contributions to an animation.

[40] Toriyama stated that the car took over a year to design, "but due to my genius mini-model construction skills, I finally arrived at the end of what was a very emotional journey.

[45] Toriyama was engaged by 20th Century Fox as a creative consultant on Dragonball Evolution, an American live-action film adaptation of Dragon Ball.

"[47][48] Avex Trax commissioned Toriyama to draw a portrait of pop singer Ayumi Hamasaki, and it was printed on the CD of her 2009 single "Rule", which was used as the theme song to the film.

[49] Toriyama drew a 2009 manga titled Delicious Island's Mr. U for Anjō's Rural Society Project, a nonprofit environmental organization that teaches the importance of agriculture and nature to young children.

[54] On March 27, 2013, the "Akira Toriyama: The World of Dragon Ball" exhibit opened at the Takashimaya department store in Nihonbashi, garnering 72,000 visitors in its first nineteen days.

The first provided a look at the series' history, the second showed the 400-plus characters from the series, the third displayed Toriyama's manga manuscripts from memorable scenes, the fourth showed special color illustrations, the fifth displayed rare Dragon Ball-related materials, the sixth included design sketches and animation cels from the anime, and the seventh screened Dragon Ball-related videos.

[55][56] To celebrate the 45th anniversary of Weekly Shōnen Jump, Toriyama launched a new manga series in its July 13, 2013, issue titled Jaco the Galactic Patrolman.

[59] Toriyama provided the basic story outline and some character designs for Dragon Ball Super, which began serialization in V Jump in June 2015 with an anime counterpart following in July.

[81] Toriyama had a love of cars and motorcycles, something he inherited from his father who used to race motorbikes and operated an auto repair business for a brief time, although he did not understand the mechanics himself.

[91][92] In Tokyo, fans publicly mourned while visiting a life-sized statue of Dragon Ball protagonist Goku located outside the headquarters of toy manufacturer Bandai.

[95] French President Emmanuel Macron shared a photo of an autographed illustration Toriyama gave him as a gift and paid tribute to him and his fans on social media.

[100] Several Mexican voice actors who dubbed Dragon Ball characters in Spanish for Latin America also lamented Toriyama's death via social media.

[101] A large gathering was held at the Plaza de la Constitución in Mexico City, where hundreds of fans did the Genki-dama hand motion (arms up, palm facing the zenith, pooling energy together) to honor the artist.

For instance, in Dragon Ball, destroying scenery in the environment and giving Super Saiyans blond hair were done in order to have less work in drawing and inking.

[114] Furthermore, the book A History of Modern Manga (2023) describes Toriyama as "a perfectionist at heart" who "didn't hesitate to redraw entire panels under the worried eye of his editor at Jump".

[117][118] When Dragon Ball began, it was loosely based on the classic Chinese novel Journey to the West,[27][119] with Goku being Sun Wukong and Bulma as Tang Sanzang.

[124][125] Toriyama explained in 1995 that for video games, because the sprites are so small, as long as they have a distinguishing feature so people can tell which character it is, he can make complex designs without concern of having to reproduce it like he usually would in manga.

[125] In 2016, Toriyama revealed that because of the series' established time period and setting, his artistic options are limited, which makes every iteration harder to design for than the last.

[127] Manga critic Jason Thompson declared Toriyama's art influential, saying that his "extremely personal and recognizable style" was a reason for Dragon Ball's popularity.

"[17] James S. Yadao, author of The Rough Guide to Manga, points out that an art shift does occur in the series, as the characters gradually "lose the rounded, innocent look that [Toriyama] established in Dr. Slump and gain sharper angles that leap off the page with their energy and intensity.

"[132] Thompson stated in 2011 that "Dragon Ball is by far the most influential shonen manga of the last 30 years, and today, almost every Shōnen Jump artist lists it as one of their favorites and lifts from it in various ways.

"[17] Patrick W. Galbraith, an associate professor at the School of International Communication at Senshu University, similarly said, "One can sense the DNA of Toriyama's work in all subsequent shōnen releases.

"[131] Ian Jones-Quartey, a producer of the American animated series Steven Universe, is a fan of both Dragon Ball and Dr. Slump, and uses Toriyama's vehicle designs as reference for his own.

[145][146] He actually received the most votes for the festival's Grand Prix de la ville d'Angoulême award that year, though the selection committee chose Willem as the recipient.