Akira Toriyama, Creator of Dragon Ball, Passes Away at 68
The anime and geekdom worlds have lost another beloved legend with the passing of manga artist and creator Akira Toriyama. The official Dragon Ball website announced on March 8 that he had died on March 1 from acute subdural hematoma at the age of 68.
"It is with deep regret that we announce he still had several works in progress, approached with great enthusiasm. He had many more achievements ahead of him. Nevertheless, he has left behind numerous manga titles and works of art for the world," stated the announcement from Toriyama’s company, Bird Studio.
Toriyama is best known for the Dragon Ball metaseries, which began in 1984 and continues to be produced today. Initially, the series was a comedic adventure story inspired by the Journey to the West, a mythological work from China, which itself has inspired countless manga and anime. Over time, following the main character’s growth into adulthood, Dragon Ball evolved into a combat-oriented story, becoming one of the most popular and influential male-oriented action series of all time.
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Originally, Toriyama had planned to conclude the entire Dragon Ball universe with the Majin Buu saga in 1996. However, that same year, Toei Animation produced an anime-only storyline, Dragon Ball GT. While Toriyama's involvement was minimal, he gave his approval and oversaw the designs and scripts.
Disappointed with the American film adaptation of his series, Dragonball Evolution, Toriyama decided to revive Dragon Ball in 2012 with a movie introducing the character Beerus, the God of Destruction. This led to the new Dragon Ball Super series, which continues from the aftermath of the Majin Buu Saga and disregards the original ending of that arc.
At the time of his passing, Toriyama and his team were working on Dragon Ball Daima, set for release later in 2024. Another posthumous work will be the upcoming Sand Land RPG (role-playing game).
Before Dragon Ball, Toriyama gained recognition for Dr. Slump, a manga about a scientist who creates a robot girl, characterized by puns and toilet humor—a staple in most of his earlier works and incorporated into Dragon Ball as well.
Toriyama also contributed his character design work to RPGs such as Dragon Quest, Chrono Trigger, and Blue Dragon, with the first and third titles being adapted into anime series. Additionally, he published many one-shot stories in the popular male comics anthology magazine, Weekly Shonen Jump, including a collaboration with One Piece creator Eiichiro Oda.
In his personal life, Toriyama married fellow manga artist Yoshimi Kato (pen name Nachi Mikami), and they had a son and a daughter.
Toriyama was known among some fans for occasionally forgetting his own characters, including Launch from the initial Dragon Ball series, leaving them out of later story arcs. He admitted to not keeping notes or series bibles, focusing instead on creating new stories.
Eulogies were shared by fellow manga creators and collaborators on the Shonen Jump website.
Oda wrote, "Toriyama was one of the founders of an era where both adults and children could read and enjoy manga, at a time when reading manga was considered not educational. He let us dream about the extent of what manga can achieve and showed [us creators] that we can expand our field to the world."
Naruto creator Masashi Kishimoto said, "I grew up with your manga, which became a part of my life. On bad days, the weekly Dragon Ball [series] would help me forget [my troubles]. As a country boy with not much else, it saved me.”
Dragon Quest creator Yuji Horii remarked, "I am still in disbelief at the sudden news of Toriyama-san's passing. I have known him since I was a writer for Shonen Jump and asked him to draw images for the game when we were launching Dragon Quest. Since then, for 37 years, he designed characters and monsters, drawing so many fascinating characters that I can't even begin to count."
