Dragon Ball Creator Dies at 68
posted by Justin McCall | March 26, 2024 | In Arts and Culture, NewsAkira Toriyama was a world-renowned manga artist and character designer born in Japan on April 5, 1955. He’s created multiple manga and projects, but he achieved mainstream popularity with his most popular creation Dragon Ball. He would go on to create multiple manga, anime adaptations and other media throughout his life until his unfortunate passing on March 1 due to a blood clotting in his brain. Later it was also revealed that his brain clotting was caused by Toriyama’s brain tumor which he had been suffering from for quite a long time.
This news gave fans quite a shock as his creations inspired multiple creators and other artists alike.
Toriyama’s inspiration for his popular series Dragon Ball originated from his love of Hong Kong martial arts films. He admired the characters portrayed within Bruce Lee and Jackie Chan and wanted to create his take on martial arts but in a far more fantasy like world.
Thus, Dragon Ball was born and released, serialized as 519 chapters in magazine Weekly Shonen jump in 1984 and adapted to television in 1986. The series would go on to end on multiple attempts, only to be revived by the demands of worldwide fans.
The popularity of Dragon Ball brought to life multiple other amine: Naruto, One Piece and Bleach. All these anime creators have stated to have their characters and art inspired by Toriyama’s work with the same being said for most modern shonen anime.
The Dragon Ball series has its 40th anniversary of this year with multiple other projects in the work, including his final involvement in the franchise with the anniversary mini-series, Dragon Ball Daima, still slated to come out later this fall, as a celebration of everything he’s created up to this point.
As his final work comes closer by the day, the impact he’s left on people and anime as a whole is indescribable, so much so that not even Toriyama’s himself could understand. He was a very secluded man who did not interact too much with his fans. After the week that has transpired after his passing, it is more apparent than ever, the impact he left on this world. Hopefully, now he knows that too.
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