Akira Toriyama's Manga Theater is a series of three mangatankōbon released between 1983 and 1997 that collect several one-shots written and illustrated by Akira Toriyama. The stories were originally published in various Shueisha magazines between 1978 and 1994. Four stories featured in the series, Pink, Kennosuke-sama, Cashman – Saving Soldier and Go! Go! Ackman, were adapted into short anime films. The three volumes were re-released with the suffix added to the title as part of the Shueisha Jump Remix imprint between June 2003 and 2004. The Manga Theater series has been released in several European countries, including France and Italy.
Volume 1
The first installment, Akira Toriyama's Manga Theater Vol. 1, was published on July 8, 1983. Re-released under the Shueisha Jump Remix imprint in June 2003.
Pola & Roid
Mad Matic
Chobit
Chobit 2
Volume 2
The second installment, Akira Toriyama's Manga Theater Vol. 2, was published on March 10, 1988. Re-released under the Shueisha Jump Remix imprint in July 2003.
Escape
Pink
Sonchoh
Volume 3
The third installment, Akira Toriyama's Manga Theater Vol. 3, was published on August 4, 1997. Re-released under the Shueisha Jump Remix imprint in June 2004.
Within roughly six months of creating the popular manga Dr. Slump in 1980, Akira Toriyama wanted to end the series but his publisher Shueisha would only allow him to do so if he agreed to start another serial for them shortly after. He worked with his editor, Kazuhiko Torishima, on several one-shots but none were successful. Torishima then suggested that, as Toriyama enjoyed kung fu films, he should create a kung fushōnen manga. He was inspired by Hong Kong martial arts films such as Bruce Lee's Enter the Dragon and Jackie Chan's Drunken Master. This led to the two-part Dragon Boy, published in the August and October 1983 issues of Fresh Jump. It follows a boy, adept at martial arts, who escorts a princess on a journey back to her home country. Dragon Boy was very well-received and evolved to become the serial Dragon Ball.
Related works
In 2008, Shueisha released a two-volume bunkoban series of Toriyama's short works, entitled. This version, while omitting several one-shots from Manga Theater, includes the two-chapter Alien X-Peke, published after the end of Dragon Ball, as well as the full-color seinen manga Lady Red, which is read left-to-right. The second volume also includes "The Anime and Me", a full-color autobiographical strip from the first Dragon Ball Z Anime Special magazine, as well as a new afterword by the author. The first volume was published on August 8, 2008, and the second on September 18, 2008. In 2014, a release collecting Toriyama's collaborations with Masakazu Katsura was published. Both Sachie-chan Good!! and Jiya were written by Toriyama and illustrated by Katsura. was published on April 4, 2014 and includes an interview with the two authors. ;Mankanzenseki Volume 1
