Akira Toriyama, the influential Japanese manga artist and creator of the Dragon Ball series, has passed away at the age of 68.
Although the reality is that he died on March 1st due to an acute subdural hematoma. The news was confirmed by Bird Studio, the manga company that Toriyama founded in 1983.
Toriyama was born in Nagoya, Japan, in 1955. After drawing throughout his childhood, he decided to give up tertiary education and, after high school, started working at an advertising agency where he designed posters.
Story of a cartoonist who will always be remembered
His first contact with the manga industry occurred at the age of 23, when he submitted a work to a contest organized by a weekly manga magazine. It didn’t work out, but he soon started sending drawings to another publication: Weekly Shōnen Jump.
In 1978, this magazine published Toriyama’s first work, titled Wonder Island. Both Wonder Island and its sequel, Wonder Island 2 – which referenced the film culture of the time, such as Dirty Harry and the science fiction franchise Ultraman – were not popular among readers.
Despite this, he continued drawing and in 1980 he achieved great success: Dr. Slump, a comedy about a robot girl and her tribulations when interacting with the world around her.
Published in installments in Weekly Shōnen Jump until 1984, it earned one of the highest awards in Japanese manga, the Shogakukan Award. Soon after, an anime adaptation began airing on television, and Toriyama founded Bird Studio as a result of its initial success.
In 1982, he married the also cartoonist Yoshimi Katō, with whom he would have two children. Toriyama kept his private life mostly private, and often used a cyborg avatar named Robotoriyama to represent himself.
In 1984, Toriyama created Dragon Ball, the work that would earn him international recognition and make him one of Japan’s best-selling manga authors.
Based on a previous work titled Dragon Boy, Dragon Ball was published in 519 chapters in Weekly Shōnen Jump from 1984 to 1995 and gave rise to a highly successful franchise that includes a series of comics in English, five different television adaptations – of which Dragon Ball Z is the most well-known to Western audiences – and spin-offs, over 20 different movies, and a wide range of video games.
The series, a kung fu version of the shōnen manga genre (for young adults), was inspired by Chinese and Hong Kong action movies, as well as Japanese folklore. It introduced the audience to Son Goku, a young martial arts apprentice who seeks seven magical orbs that will summon a mystical dragon, as well as his colorful gang of allies and enemies.
After the conclusion of the initial Dragon Ball series in 1995, Toriyama continued to advise and promote the franchise, as well as working on much shorter projects, sometimes outside the world of manga. He also contributed his unmistakable illustrations to influential video game series such as Dragon Quest and Chrono Trigger, among others.
In later years, he returned to the Dragon Ball franchise, working on several film adaptations, including as an initial consultant on Dragon Ball Z: Battle of Gods in 2012 and as a screenwriter on Dragon Ball Super: Broly in 2018 and Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero in 2022.
Bird Studio wrote in their statement that Toriyama had a small funeral with the family and asked fans not to send flowers or other offerings.
