Japanese manga artist Akira Toriyama, who created series like ‘Dragon Ball’ and ‘Dr. Slump,’ passed away on March 1 following an acute subdural hemorrhage. He was sixty-eight.
After making its debut in the weekly Shonen Jump magazine in 1984, Dragon Ball was translated and released all over the world. It also transitioned to anime, feature films, TV shows, video games, and character merchandise.
With the announcement of ‘Dragon Ball Daima’, a new anime, in October 2023, the franchise is still continuing strong. The series will be released later this year.
Characters for Square Enix Holdings’ hugely successful Dragon Quest role-playing game series were also created by Toriyama.
Masashi Kishimoto, the creator of Naruto, said in comments posted on the Shonen Jump website, “I grew up with your manga, which became a part of my life. The weekly Dragon Ball [series] helped me forget [my problems] on bad days. It saved me, a poor country child with little else. I recently learned of your demise. I feel a deep feeling of loss—even more profound than when Dragon Ball concluded. I’m still unsure of how I’m going to handle this unexpected hole in my heart.”
“[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. He inspired us to think big about what manga might accomplish and demonstrated to us [creators] that we can even take our art form global,” writes One-Piece manga artist Eiichiro Oda.
