Akira Toriyama, ‘Dragon Ball’ And ‘Dr. Slump’ Creator, Dies At 68

Akira Toriyama, the influential manga artist who created the Dragon Ball and Dr. Slump manga and anime franchises, died on March 1. He was 68.

Toriyama’s passing was confirmed by his company Bird Studio, which cited the cause of death as an acute subdermal hematoma.

In a statement released by the studio, staff wrote:

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

However, he has left many manga titles and works of art to this world. Thanks to the support of so many people around the world, he has been able to continue his creative activities for over 45 years. We hope that Akira Toriyama’s unique world of creation continues to be loved by everyone for a long time to come.

Toriyama was born on April 5, 1955, in Nagoya, the capital city of Aichi prefecture. From an early age, he loved to draw and was fascinated by animated films and manga books. He cited Osamu Tezuka’s Astro Boy as the spark that ignited his passion for manga. He was reportedly inspired by the art style of Disney’s 101 Dalmatians, the 1960s anime series Ultraman, and kaiju films like the Gamera series.

After graduating from art school, he worked for an advertising agency in his hometown, where he designed posters for several years. At 23, he quit the job and began submitting original manga pieces to major publications, including Weekly Shōnen Magazine and Weekly Shōnen Jump.

His first work to be accepted for publication was Wonder Island, which appeared in Weekly Shōnen Jump in 1978. An unceremonious debut, the story finished last in a readers’ survey. Frustrated but, by his own account, too stubborn to give up on the art form, Toriyama continued to submit pieces to the magazine and eventually found his first success with Dr. Slump, which was serialized in Weekly Shōnen Jump from 1980-84. This was also Toriyama’s first creation to be adapted as an anime series.

In the early 1980s, Toriyama founded Bird Studios. The name was a pun on his own surname; “tori,” means “bird” in Japanese. Famously reclusive, the studio let him work on his own terms and decide who would work with him.

Although Dr. Slump was a hit, Toriyama would change the world with his 1983 two-part story Dragon Boy. The pieces were published in Fresh Jump’s August and October issues and were well received immediately. A year later, elements of Dragon Boy and another Toriyama one-off strip titled The Adventure of Tongpoo became Dragon Ball, which was serialized in Weekly Shōnen Jump from 1984 to 1995.

Dragon Ball tells the story of Son Goku, a child who begins training as a mediocre martial arts student but goes on to become a heroic master with unique skills he uses to defeat powerful villains and seek out seven Dragon Ball orbs that will summon a wish-granting dragon. The narrative was inspired by the classic Chinese novel Journey to the West and Hong Kong martial arts films.

Over 11 years, Toriyama produced 519 chapters of Dragon Ball, which were collected into 42 volumes. The series is one of the best-selling manga ever and has sold over 260 million copies worldwide, leading to spinoffs, adaptations, video games, and a major merchandise empire.

Iconic Japanese studio Toei Animation adapted the stories into the anime tv series Dragon Ball, Dragon Ball Z, Dragon Ball GT, Dragon Ball Z Kai, and Dragon Ball Super. The studio has also made several feature films and specials based on the franchise, which has made it one of the highest-grossing Japanese animated franchises of all time.

Toriyama also profoundly influenced the early years of video game development. He was recruited to design characters for the iconic 1986 video game Dragon Quest and worked on each of the game’s sequels. He was also a character designer on the Super Nintendo classic Chrono Trigger, considered by many to be one of the greatest JRPGs (Japanese role-playing games) of all time.

Speaking at last year’s Monaco Anime Game International Conferences, Chrono Trigger co-creator Hironobu Sakaguchi recalled:

I was already a big fan of Akira Toriyama’s manga before I entered the videogame industry, so working together with him was like a dream come true for me. The same could be said for the entire staff, so his drawings became a huge motivation for us.

Toriyama’s work has influenced generations of creators around the world. When we spoke with The Bad Guys director Pierre Perifel, he told us that Toriyama’s designs were major influences on his own work. Emmy-nominated OK K.O.! Let’s Be Heroes creator Ian Jones-Quartey has said that he used designs from Dragon Ball and Dr. Slump as references in his own creations.

Speaking on Friday, Japan’s chief cabinet secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi said, “Toriyama created works that were loved not only by people in Japan, but those overseas. We offer heartfelt condolences on this day of mourning.”

Toriyama received numerous prestigious accolades during his lifetime, including the Shogakukan Manga Award in 1981 and a Knight of the Order of Arts and Letters recognition from the French government in 2019. The Tokyo Anime Awards Festival, which kicked off on Friday, was planning to honor him with a lifetime achievement award.

Toriyama’s longtime friend Oda Eiichiro, who created the One Piece franchise, released a statement expressing his grief over the loss of his colleague (translated by Google Translate):

It’s too early.

The hole is too big.

The thought of never seeing you again fills me with sadness. I’ve admired you so much since I was a child, and I even remember the day when you called me by name for the first time. I also miss the day when I had a great time with Mr. Kishimoto on the way home from the day when he used the word “friend” for us. I also remember the last conversation we had.

He is one of the people who took the baton from the era when reading manga would make you stupid and created an era where both adults and children read and enjoy manga. He showed us the dream that manga can do things like this and that we can go to the world. He gave it to me. It was like watching a hero push forward.

Not limited to manga artists

The excitement and excitement of the Dragon Ball serialization is probably rooted in the childhoods of creators active in all industries. That existence is a great tree.

For manga artists of my generation who have stood on the same stage, the closer I got to Toriyama’s works, the more I realized that they had a greater presence. Almost scary.

But I’m just happy to see the easy-going man himself again. Because we love Toriyama-sensei on a blood level.

I would like to express my respect and gratitude to the richly creative world that Toriyama Sensei left behind and pray for his repose from the bottom of my heart.

I hope that heaven will be a pleasant world just as you envisioned it.

Eiichiro Oda