Dragon Ball creator Akira Toriyama dies; Naruto, One Piece artists mourn loss (2024)

The news of Akira Toriyama's death was confirmed by Bird Studio, the manga company that Toriyama founded in 1983.

“It’s our deep regret that he still had several works in the middle of creation with great enthusiasm," the studio wrote in a statement. “Also, he would have many more things to achieve."

The studio remembered his “unique world of creation".

“He has left many manga titles and works of art to this world," the statement read. “Thanks to the support of so many people around the world, he has been able to continue his creative activities for over 45 years."

Naruto, One Piece creators react

Eiichiro Oda, the creator of One Piece, and Masashi Kishimoto, the creator of Naruto, put out heartfelt statements, moruning the loss of Akira Toriyama.

One Piece creator, Oda, credited Toriyama with revolutionizing the manga industry. "Toriyama proved to a disbelieving audience that “manga can be fun for both children and adults," wrote One Piece creator Eiichiro Oda. “He showed that manga could travel the world."

Naruto author Masashi Kishimoto said he read Toriyama’s stories every week from grade school to college and was inspired by the characters to become a manga artist. “I wanted to make manga like yours! I wanted to be like you!" he said.

Who was Dragon Ball Z creator Akira Toriyama?

Toriyama was born in Nagoya, Japan in 1955. After drawing throughout his childhood, he decided to forgo tertiary education and, after high school, began to work at an advertising agency where he designed posters.

In 1978, that Weekly Shōnen Jump magazine ran Toriyama’s first published work, titled Wonder Island. Both Wonder Island and its sequel, Wonder Island 2 – which referenced the screen culture of the time, including Dirty Harry and sci-fi franchise Ultraman – were unpopular among readers.

Undeterred, he kept drawing and in 1980 produced a breakout hit: Dr Slump, a comedy about a robot girl and her trials and travails as she interacts with the world around her.

Serialised in Weekly Shōnen Jump until 1984, it ended up earning him one of Japan’s highest manga honours – a Shogakukan manga award.

In 1982, he married fellow manga artist Yoshimi Katō, with whom he would have two children. He kept his personal life mostly private – and often used a cyborg avatar called Robotoriyama to represent himself.

Robotoriyama creates Dragon Ball

In 1984, Akira Toriyama created Dragon Ball, the property that would bring him international recognition and make him one of Japan’s highest-selling manga authors.

Based on an earlier work titled Dragon Boy, Dragon Ball was serialised in 519 chapters in Weekly Shōnen Jump from 1984 to 1995 and birthed a blockbuster franchise including an English-language comic book series, five distinct television adaptation – with Dragon Ball Z the most familiar to western audiences – and spin-offs, over 20 different films and a vast array of video games.

The series – a kung fu take on the shōnen (or young adult) manga genre – drew from Chinese and Hong Kong action films as well as Japanese folklore. It introduced audiences to the now-instantly familiar Son Goku – a young martial arts trainee searching for seven magical orbs that will summon a mystical dragon – as well as his ragtag gang of allies and enemies.

Akira Toriyama returned to the Dragon Ball franchise, after a breif break, working on several film adaptations including Dragon Ball Z: Battle of Gods and Dragon Ball Super: Broly and 2022’s Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero.

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Published: 08 Mar 2024, 02:10 PM IST