Tokyo (CNN) Akira Toriyama, the Japanese manga artist who created the hugely popular and influential Dragon Ball series, passed away last week at the age of 68 due to brain disease. Toriyama’s production company made the announcement on the 8th.
Mr. Toriyama was the creator of this martial arts fantasy with Son Goku as the main character. Goku is a boy from outer space with superhuman strength and a monkey-like tail who sets out on a journey to find the seven Dragon Balls.
The “Dragon Ball” series continues to be one of Japan’s biggest global hits to this day, and since its serialization began in the 1980s, it has captured the hearts of manga-loving boys, girls, and adults around the world.
Toriyama’s death was announced on the official Dragon Ball website on the 8th in the form of a joint statement from Bird Studio and Capsule Corporation Tokyo.
In a statement, he said, “I’m very disappointed because I had a lot of work to do, and there were still things I wanted to accomplish.”
“However, the deceased left many works as a manga artist to the world,” he added, expressing his gratitude for the support of his fans on Toriyama’s behalf.
The cause of death was said to be acute subdural hematoma, a type of cerebral hemorrhage.
Toriyama was born on April 5, 1955 in Kiyosu City, Aichi Prefecture, and began drawing manga at the age of 23.
Debuted as a manga artist in 1978. It all started when she submitted a short story to the manga magazine Weekly Shonen Jump.
“Dragon Ball Z” graphics exhibited at an event in Barcelona, Spain = 2019/Paco Freire/Sipa/AP
Later, in 1984, the “Dragon Ball” series was published in the same magazine, and became the pillar of his creative activities for over 40 years.
The series is based on the classic Chinese novel “Journey to the West,” which was later made into an anime and was also the basis for the 2009 Hollywood action movie “DRAGON BALL EVOLUTION.”
Goku goes on a journey to find the seven Dragon Balls, and along the way he defeats bad guys one after another and protects the Earth. As Goku grows older, the story shifts to his descendants and friends.
By collecting Dragon Balls, you can summon Shenron, who has the ability to make any wish come true. In a series that revolves around courage, friendship, and kinship, Goku repeatedly fulfills the wishes of his friends and brings back a greatly destroyed Earth.
Yuji Horii, a famous author and game designer who was Toriyama’s long-time friend, mentioned that the two of them worked together on the popular game “Dragon Quest.” “I’m filled with unbelief,” he wrote on X (formerly Twitter).
Eiichiro Oda, the creator of the manga “ONE PIECE,” wrote that “sadness floods over me” at the thought of never seeing him again.
Oda’s statement posted on the Shonen Jump website states, “(Toriyama) is one of the people who took the baton from an era when reading manga would make you stupid, and created an era where both adults and children can read and enjoy manga. But it made me realize that manga can do things like this, and that I can go all over the world.”
Many fans also mourned the death of the comic book master on the internet.
One fan wrote to X, “Dragon Ball was a textbook for my life. It taught me that I could overcome any hardship if I worked on it cheerfully and having fun.”