Akira Toriyama, the legendary manga artist and creator behind the “Dragon Ball” series is being mourned after his death was announced on Friday.
According to Nikkei Asia (a major Japanese-based news magazine), his publisher, Shueisha, released a statement that he had passed away from an acute subdural hematoma on March 1 at the age of 68.
Funeral services for Toriyama have already been held.
The creator’s death was a sudden one, apparently, with his publisher saying that Toriyama was still “passionately working on many projects” and that “there was so much more than he wanted to accomplish,” according to the Japan Times.
“He was supported by so many people from around the world who allowed him to be able to continue his creative endeavors for over 45 years,” the post read.
“We sincerely hope that the world of Akira Toriyama’s unique works will continue to be loved by everyone for a long time to come. Please accept our deepest gratitude for your kindness and friendship during his lifetime.”
Toriyama was an accomplished artist across many media, but he’ll be best remembered as the creator of the influential “Dragon Ball” series, which helped make anime and manga a global phenomenon in the 1990s.
The series, which debuted in 1984 in manga — or comic book — form in Japan, featured the adventures of protagonist Son Goku as he searched for the seven magical titular orbs. When gathered, the orbs summon a dragon which grants the holder one wish.
Fighting against Goku were the Saiyans, a race of humanoid aliens of which Goku was one; he had been sent to Earth by the alien race to conquer the planet but had lost his memories due to a head injury in his infancy.
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Toriyama had broken through in the industry with the popular “Dr. Slump” series. However, Toriyama’s editor, Kazuhiko Torishima, told Forbes during a 2016 interview that the artist quickly grew tired of the series’ premise.
“Naturally, we weren’t able to stop ‘Dr. Slump’ as it was a top ranking manga in [magazine] Weekly Jump and Shueisha would want to keep that going,” he said. “I mean the manga would regularly sell 1 million copies and the anime adaptation was going to start on TV. So we had to continue.
“However, I spoke to the chief editor at Weekly Jump about all this. His response was that if we could come up with something more interesting and successful than Dr. Slump, then sure, do that instead.”
As the two struggled to come up with an idea, his editor asked Toriyama “what he watched while drawing manga and he said mainly Jackie Chan’s kung-fu movies. I also asked whether he could tell what was going on just from the speech of the character and he said ‘yeah, I’ve watched these movies more than fifty times.’
“So I said that if he liked kung-fu movies so much, why not try a kung-fu action manga for the next project? After this, Toriyama came up with a very short 13 page short story called Dragon Boy. This one off short story then got an incredibly good ranking in Weekly Jump.”
From there, the series gradually evolved into “Dragon Ball.” However, what made the franchise a worldwide phenomenon was the anime adaptation “Dragon Ball Z,” which was based on Goku’s battle against the Saiyans in the manga, albeit in animated form.
While the series was aired in Japan starting in 1989, it was a 1996 dubbed version, initially released through syndication in the United States, that arguably made anime a mainstream property in the English-speaking world.
In addition to his work in manga, Toriyama also produced the characters for the “Dragon Quest” role-playing game series for video game giant Enix; the initial iterations of that franchise were released as “Dragon Warrior” on the Nintendo Entertainment System in the United States.
On social media, tributes rolled in for the late artist:
This picture has so much more meaning to it now i still can’t believe he’s gone why i see this just after waking up 😭 pic.twitter.com/pVM8WWqq47
— ☢ (@King_Sukunaaa) March 8, 2024
RIP, we’re sending you our energy pic.twitter.com/4gTl0Wttbi
— KaijuMike (@kaijumike_) March 8, 2024
So tragic, hopefully he is up there with King Kai on the path to becoming a Super Saiyan.
— Josè (@SigmaTweeter) March 8, 2024
“[Toriyama] was one of the founders of an era where both adults and children could read and enjoy manga, from a time when reading manga was considered not good for education,” wrote Eiichiro Oda, “One Piece” manga artist, per Nikkei Asia. “He let us dream of the extent of things manga can achieve and showed [creators] that we can even expand our field to the world.”
“I just received the news of your passing. I’m hit with a tremendous sense of loss, even greater than when Dragon Ball ended,” wrote “Naruto” author Masashi Kishimoto. “I still don’t know how I am going to deal with this [sudden] hole in my heart.”
