Dragon Ball Cast and Staff

Hundreds of individuals have worked on the series since Dragon Ball's serialization began in November 1984, both through the manga and its various animation adaptations. Listed below are the main individuals involved in the franchise's development and production.

Manga Staff

While the Dragon Ball manga was created by Akira Toriyama, it wasn't just his hand that shaped the series.

Toriyama had three editors over the course of Dr. Slump and Dragon Ball serialization, with Kazuhiko Torishima working throughout all of Dr. Slump and up until the end of the 23rd Tenka'ichi Budōkai in Dragon Ball, Yū Kondō taking over up until Cell reaches his perfect form, and Fuyuto Takeda through to the end of the series. These editors — both current and former — would steer the story on occasion in a direction of their liking and harass Toriyama to get his chapter manuscripts submitted on time. In return, Toriyama would often incorporate his editors into Dragon Ball as villains — Torishima was the basis for Demon King Piccolo, while Kondō was the basis for Freeza, and Takeda the basis for Majin Boo.

Toriyama also had two main assistants during the heyday of serialization, with a public recruitment for an assistant coming during the first few chapters of Dr. Slump (bringing Hisashi Tanaka to the team), followed by his second assistant (Takashi Matsuyama) joining to finish Dr. Slump and work through near the very end of Dragon Ball.

Toriyama and Matsuyama working on Dragon Ball at Bird Studio in 1988. (Toriyama Interview, Dragon Ball: Daimaō Fukkatsu, p. 85)

• Akira Toriyama (Series Author & Creator; Bird Studio)
  • Hisashi Tanaka (1st Dr. Slump Series Assistant; Bird Studio)
  • Takashi Matsuyama (2nd Dr. Slump Series and Dragon Ball Series Assistant; Bird Studio)
• Kazuhiko Torishima (Dr. Slump and 1st Dragon Ball Series Editor; Shueisha)
  
• Yū Kondō (2nd Dragon Ball Series Editor; Shueisha)
  
• Fuyuto Takeda (3rd Dragon Ball Series Editor; Shueisha)
• Kōhei Ōnishi (Jaco the Galactic Patrolman Editor; Shueisha)

Spin-off, Promotional, and Continuation Authors

Since Dragon Ball's revival in the early 2000s, the series has seen multiple spin-offs across various media. Some of these series and one-shots have been supervised by Akira Toriyama himself, while others are ancillary works that stand on their own.

Naho Ooishi has contributed several adaptations of Dragon Ball, originally kicking things off in 2009 with an adaptation of the 2008 Jump Super Anime Tour special, as well as the long-running Dragon Ball SD series the following year. In 2012, V-Jump began running the promotional manga series Dragon Ball Heroes: Victory Mission drawn by Toyotarō in support of the respective card-based arcade game, with each chapter focusing on the then-current or upcoming additions (new cards, abilities, characters, etc.). Toyotarō would go on to pen an introductory manga for the 2015 theatrical film before moving on to the Dragon Ball Super "comicalization" later that same year.

Various other authors and illustrators have penned series promoting specific games or products, all of which tend to run in V-Jump and/or Saikyō Jump.

• Naho Ooishi (Spin-off Author & Manga Artist; Shueisha)
  
• Toyotarō (Spin-off Author & Manga Artist; Shueisha)
  
• Yoshitaka Nagayama (Spin-off Author & Manga Artist; Shueisha)
  
• Hiroshi Otogi (Spin-off Author & Manga Artist; Shueisha)
  
• Yūji Kasai (Spin-off Author & Manga Artist; Shueisha)
• Katsuki Hirose (Spin-off Author & Manga Artist; Shueisha)
  
• Dragon Garow Lee (Spin-off Author & Manga Artist; Shueisha)

Main Animation Staff

Scenario staff meeting for Dragon Ball Z at Toei Animation in 1989. (Jump Gold Selection 4: Dragon Ball Z Anime Special, p. 79)

Planning & Pre-production

• Keizō Shichijō (Series Planner & Producer; Toei Animation)
• Kōzō Morishita (Series Planner & Producer; Toei Animation)
• Takao Koyama (Series Organizer & Scenario Writer; Brother Noppo)
• Aya Matsui (Series Organizer & Scenario Writer; Brother Noppo)
• Tokizō Tsuchiya (Producer; Fuji TV)
• Kenji Shimizu (Producer; Fuji TV)

Directors

• Minoru Okazaki (Series Director; Toei Animation)
• Daisuke Nishio (Series Director; Toei Animation)
• Osamu Kasai (Series Director; Toei Animation)

Animation Development

• Minoru Maeda (Chief Animator & Character Designer; Studio Junio)
• Tadayoshi Yamamuro (Character Designer; Shindō Production)
• Katsuyoshi Nakatsuru (Character Designer; Toei Animation)
• Tomekichi Takeuchi (Animation Supervisor; Seigasha)

Artistic Design

• Tadanao Tsuji (Chief Art Designer; Toei Animation)
• Yūji Ikeda (Chief Art Designer; Toei Animation)
• Tokushige Ken (Chief Art Designer; Toei Animation)
• Ryūji Yoshi'ike (Chief Art Designer; Toei Animation)

Musical Composition

• Shunsuke Kikuchi (Musical Composer)
• Akihito Tokunaga (Musical Composer)
• Kenji Yamamoto (Musical Composer)
• Norihito Sumitomo (Musical Composer)

Post Production

• Hidenori Arai (Sound Effects Designer; Fizz Sound Creation)
• Shin'ichi Fukumitsu (Film Editor; Toei Animation)