Akira (Dragon Ball Series)

## Akira

**Akira**—the **Ultimate Ruler of the Dragon World**—is a character based on author **Akira Toriyama** used to represent himself in appearances in the *Dragon Ball* series, usually of a comedic nature. He is fashioned in the likeness of Toriyama's avatar "**Robotoriyama**" and makes several major appearances in *Dr. Slump*, as well as minor appearances in *Dragon Ball*, *Dragon Ball Z*, *Dragon Ball Super*, and *Dragon Ball GT*.

## Biography

### Background

Toriyama is the ultimate ruler of the *Dragon Ball* world, and therefore likely greater than Zen-Oh.

### *Dr. Slump*

Tori-Bot makes frequent appearances in the *Dr. Slump* manga, where he is a resident of Penguin Village and lives in a small house on a hill where he spends his time drawing chapters, making models and receiving rejection notices from his editor. He frequently appears as either a robot, a human or a bird, but seems to prefer his robotic look above others. Despite usually appearing as a cameo within the manga, there are actually a few stories with him as a major character.

He usually tries to trick the residents of Penguin Village into participating in contests for easy prize money in an attempt to boost his manga's sales as seen in "Penguin Gran Prix" and "Who's the Strongest in the World?", but always tries to avoid paying them which results in him getting pummeled.

In chapter 71, "The Time Stoppers", he is revealed to be good friends with Senbei Norimaki and once asked him to build a time stopping machine for him so he could have more time to draw, but the machine backfired and froze everything. Eventually, Tori-Bot was able to reverse this by the next day but refused to make up an explanation. Senbei also briefly rebuilt his robotic body after Gatchan had eaten it during the same chapter.

Tori-Bot later used Turbo's time machine in "N'cha, Penguin Village Ten Years from Now!" to see Penguin Village's future. He then interviewed all of the future residents and was quite pleased with how things turned out for them. That was until Tori-Bot ran into his future self who turned out to be a homeless bum begging for scraps. Scared silly by this revelation, he went back in time and swore to put more effort into his work.

### *Dragon Ball*

Tori-Bot makes few appearances in the early parts of the *Dragon Ball* manga (chapters 1 and 42). He can be seen in episode three of *Dragon Ball*, "The Nimbus Cloud of Roshi", on a tree when Bulma and Goku walk to the beach. In the Japanese dub, he mumbles "Penguin Village...this is not".

In the scene at the saloon Launch enters in "Look Out for Launch", Tori-Bot is shown on a poster as one of the criminals that were already taken down and he had the lowest bounty, possibly being comic relief.

Tori-Bot appears again hanging on a tree at the first floor garden in Capsule Corporation in the filler episode "Master Thief, Hasky".

### *Dragon Ball Z*

Tori-Bot appears in the crowd of fighters watching Goku fight Pikkon, with his head colored yellow instead of the usual blue/black. He also appears in episode 210, "The World Tournament" and episode 215, "Forfeit of Piccolo".

In the *Dragon Ball* manga chapter 480, "The Fusion Succeeds...?!", Tori-Bot appears on Kami's Lookout when Krillin notices the panels for when Trunks and Goten attempt the Fusion Dance multiple times are repeated, so Tori-Bot apologizes to his editor and asks not to be paid for having the same image of Trunks and Goten fusing used twice in the same chapter.

In *Dragon Ball Z: Broly - Second Coming*, when Goten talks about what he wants to wish for, Tori-Bot is seen at the bottom of the screen. Tori-Bot is seen as an icon on Gohan's computer along with Neko Majin in *Dragon Ball: Yo! Son Goku and His Friends Return!!*.

### *Dragon Ball Super*

Tori-Bot's face appears on the Zeni banknotes that Mr. Satan gives to Goku.

### *Dragon Ball GT*

Tori-Bot appears in yellow and green on a shaving kit Vegeta bought in episode 27 of *Dragon Ball GT*, "The Attack on Vegeta".

## Power

Toriyama is far greater than the Supreme Kais, Gods of Destruction, and even Zen-Oh. As the author and especially as a kind of supreme deity, he possesses power over the entire *Dragon Ball* world and can draw up whatever he wants as long he has a pencil and paper, unless, of course, his drawings and drafts are "rejected" by his editors. For example, he was powerless against the rejections of Mr. Torishima, and would often curse his former editor with the likes of voodoo dolls. When he's a robot, he is helpless against the omnivorous Gatchan, but eventually draws up a new body. He also tends to be looked down upon or even beaten up easily by the residents of Penguin Village despite his status.

## Video game appearances

Although hard to see, Tori-Bot appears in *Dragon Ball Z: Budokai* as an audience member of the World Tournament. He reappears in *Budokai 2*, again as a member of the World Tournament audience. What seems to be a version of Tori-Bot makes random appearances in *Dragon Ball Online*; an image of the character appears on-screen with a speech bubble above its head. Tori-Bot also appears as one of the selectable helping robots in *Dragon Ball Heroes*: when he is used, all of the team's super attacks will damage the opponent with no regards to Hero Energy (special meter) for 4 rounds. He also appears in Defense and Attack Forms in the game.

## Trivia

* Before using Tori-Bot, Toriyama drew himself as an anthropomorphic bird called Tori (as *tori* means "bird" in Japanese).
* Several characters in *Dr. Slump* look like Tori-Bot: one is a member of the Fly Milk gang, and another is Miss. Akiko.
* Tori-Bot is the only character from *Dr. Slump* that appeared in *Dragon Ball GT*.
* Tori-Bot is a run on gag character in instances where he has to follow what the editor states and other such complaints.
* Tori-Bot also makes an appearance in Blue Dragon, a JRPG where Akira Toriyama was responsible for art design.