Japanese Newspaper Snaps Rare Photo of Reclusive ‘Dragon Ball’ Creator

Dragon Ball creator Akira Toriyama is known to value his privacy and often doesn’t appear in photos, so this latest snapshot from a Japanese newspaper is a surprise to fans.

In the Japanese magazine Flash, Akira Toriyama was approached outside of his home when taking out the trash and was asked about his various taxes, potential tax evasion, and possible offshore investments:

As the Dragon Ball creator is known to be an extremely private person, often times answering interview questions in written form or drawing an avatar of himself to represent his thoughts as a mangaka. In fact, his last public photo dates back thirteen years ago at a small event in 2004.

Given how uncomfortable Toriyama seems to be in the photo, fans theorize it was taken without his permission. Todd Blankenship on Twitter states “it’s implicit that they interviewed him and took his picture without permission. It even mentions that he avoids showing himself in interviews.”

While some fans bemoan the candid photo, some have a more humorous take on the matter with Twitter users like @GustavoPicolini joking that the paper “can’t even let him take the trash in peace.”

Some fans even humorously point out the similarities between Toriyama’s photo here and Adult Gohan’s tracksuit in Dragon Ball Super. Reddit user IMBAplayer even goes the extra mile and jokes that Toriyama is “rocking that Adidas.”

Despite the split fan response on this photo, most fans are at least glad to see the Dragon Ball author in good health given the circumstances.

For those unfamiliar with Akira Toriyama, the author and illustrator is not only the creator of the highly successful Dr. Slump and Dragon Ball series, but is character designer for a number of notable properties. He has contributed character and monster designs to Square Enix’s Dragon Quest series, the famous Super Nintendo RPG Chrono Trigger, the one-off fighting game Tobal No.1, Mistwalker’s short-lived RPG series Blue Dragon, a litany of album covers, and even contributed an original character to Arc System Works’ upcoming fighting game, Dragon Ball FighterZ.

Are you a fan of this rare Akira Toriyama photo? Talk to me @Valdezology.

Dragon Ball Super airs on Crunchyroll Saturday evenings at 7:15 p.m. CST. Adult Swim airs the English dub during its Toonami block Saturday evenings at 11:30 p.m.