Yabuki has stated that everything he learned about drawing manga, he learned from Akira Toriyama's Dragon Ball. He even admitted that his first publication in Jump was not his own work but actually an illustration combining, or rather fusing together, Gohan and Trunks that he sent in to a 1995 contest and won the prize for. In 1997 he won the 14th Tenkaichi Manga Award with MOON DUST. Yabuki was an extra in the 2003 movie Godzilla: Tokyo S.O.S., running through the streets of Roppongi Hills.