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His manga series “Dragon Ball” is one of the best-selling of its kind. Due to his sudden death at the age of 68, many of Toriyama’s other works were still in the middle of the production process.
The Japanese comic artist and creator of the successful manga series “Dragon Ball”, Akira Toriyama, is dead. The illustrator died on March 1st, as his studio and the manga magazine “Weekly Shonen Jump” announced on Friday. Toriyama died as a result of an acute subdural hematoma – a bleeding between the hard meninges and the brain.
Toriyama, who was born in Aichi Prefecture on Japan’s largest island of Honshu, was 68 years old. Some of his works were still in the middle of the production process, Bird Studio said in a statement. “And he would have achieved many more things.”
Worldwide manga franchise
Akira Toriyama’s main work “Dragon Ball” is one of the most successful manga series worldwide, with 230 million copies sold. It was originally published in Weekly Shonen Jump between 1984 and 1995 and quickly gained popularity. Among other things, it also forms the basis for three anime series.
Legend: The stories of “Dragon Ball” revolve around martial arts and hero Son Goku. Imago/Newscom/Servicio Universal Noticias
“There is probably no commercially successful shōnen manga, i.e. manga for boys, that is not somehow inspired by Dragon Ball,” is how cultural scientist Christian Gasser describes the significance of the series.
Christian Gasser
Journalist and publicist
Open the people box. Close the people box
Christian Gasser is a cultural scientist, lecturer at the Lucerne University of Applied Sciences – Design & Art, journalist and freelance writer. He is co-editor of the comic magazine STRAPAZIN and reviews comics for various media such as the Neue Zürcher Zeitung and SRF2 Kultur.
As the name suggests, the fantasy story is about seven balls, the “Dragon Balls”. Anyone who has these balls will see a dragon that will fulfill their every wish. In total, the epic adventure about main character Son Goku comprises an impressive 8,000 pages. There are many obstacles, many struggles – and a lot of humor.
Breakthrough in Europe
According to Christian Gasser, the easiest way to explain why Toriyama’s “Dragon Ball” was one of the first manga to make a breakthrough in Europe is the look: “’Dragon Ball’ was new, fresh, in a good mood, hectic, a bit hysterical, a a little over-the-top, sweet and cute at the same time.” The series also fit perfectly into a time characterized by games, music videos and techno.
Legend: Paved the manga’s way to Europe: Dragon Ball author Akira Toriyama Keystone/EPA/Jiji Press
“Dragon Ball” also managed to reach a target group that was somewhat neglected by Western comics: boys between the ages of ten and 15. “Son Goku is initially a little boy of twelve, an ideal identification,” explains Gasser. It is a very obvious strategy of the manga and anime industry to develop content that is very target group-oriented.
But a completely different trick was also crucial for the success of Dragon Ball in this country: “‘Dragon Ball’ was one of the first successful manga that retained the Japanese reading direction from right to left and did not convert it to the Western reading direction. “That made the manga something special, almost like a secret club,” explains Christian Gasser.
A lazy workoholic
Other well-known manga series by Akira Toriyama are “Dr. Slump” and “Sandland”. In his work, the illustrator was inspired by action films. At his peak, he sometimes worked 23 hours a day, he said while visiting the Leipzig Book Fair in 2004.
He draws according to his mood and is actually a “very, very lazy person,” he confessed. He prefers to draw alone and for children.
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