A Hero’s Farewell: Goodbye, Akira Toriyama

If there was something that an entire generation of us had in common in our childhood it was that the minute we get home, we’d switch on the television and hear the iconic “Previously on Dragon Ball Z…” It was akin to a ritual, something sacred, a rite of passage practically. Screaming KAMEHAMEHA on the top of our lungs (of course for us, it yielded no results).

Akira Toriyama, the creator of Dragon Ball is now no more. On Friday, March 1st, 2024 he passed away due to an acute subdural hematoma, he was only 68. More heartbreaking is the fact that he still had many unfinished projects that he was in the midst of creating. For over 45 years, from 1977, he had dedicated his life to his craft.

The Dragon Ball franchise itself is a mammoth; it originally began serialization in the Weekly Shōnen Jump in 1984. Ask anyone what is an all-time classic Shōnen manga or anime and Dragon Ball will be first on the list, it is near impossible not to. Dragon Ball popularized anime and manga at an unprecedented scale all over the globe.

Born in Nagoya, Toriyama had always been interested in art and animation, right from childhood. At the age of 23, after quitting his job at an ad agency, while reading comics in a coffee shop he came across an ad for a competition in Kodansha’s Weekly Shōnen Magazine, the reward — a lucrative 500,000-yen prize. And so, he decided to spontaneously participate in the amateur manga contest. Unfortunately for him, the deadline of that contest did not work out. He ended up submitting his work for the Weekly Shōnen Jump’s monthly Newcomer Award, which his manga didn’t qualify for as it was a Star Wars parody. Kazuhiko Torishima — who would be Toriyama’s future editor — was impressed by the submission and encouraged Toriyama to not give up.

In 1978, Toriyama debuted in the Weekly Shōnen Jump with Wonder Island; it wasn’t a hit by any means and came in last in the reader’s survey. But Toriyama was determined not to give up. He continued without success until things began to turn with Tomato the Cutesy Gumshoe.

Perhaps, he thought, a female protagonist is the way to go and so Dr. Slump was born in 1980. Dr. Slump followed the adventures of a little robot girl Arale Norimaki and her creator/father Senbei Norimaki.

Dr. Slump catapulted Toriyama into the spotlight and earned him the Shogakukan Manga Award in 1981. Though Dr. Slump concluded its run in 1984, Toriyama initially wanted to end it six months after its creation. His publisher (Shueisha) however put forth an ultimatum that he’d need to start another series in its place.

Wondering what to do next, Torishima (his editor at that time) suggested that since Toriyama was a huge fan of kung-fu films (in particular Jacky Chan’s Drunken Master), why not create a shōnen manga based around kung-fu?

Inspired, Toriyama decided to create a one-shot called Dragon Boy. Dragon Boy chronicled the journey of a little boy who was a martial arts expert escorting a princess back home. From there it evolved into Dragon Ball. Using the 16th-century Chinese novel Journey to the West as the foundation, throwing in a mix of kung-fu and humor, the world saw the dawn of a new era when Dragon Ball dropped.

And Goku became a household name all over the world.

Toriyama’s art style is very distinct. It’s simple, neat, clean and effective with brilliantly choreographed action sequences. When starting out, Toriyama couldn’t afford to buy screentone (and they weren’t widely sold in the countryside either) which led to him honing his skills in drawing in black and white.

Serializing a series is often taxing — he had to often do two chapters in one week to meet deadlines. Which is why to mitigate the workload, Toriyama employed the effective use of shortcuts. Inking hair (Goku’s especially) was a pain, that’s the reason why Super Saiyans are blonde (he didn’t need to color in). Goku initially possessed a monkey’s tail (he’s modeled on the Monkey King, Sun Wukong (Sun Goku), this tail was axed soon because it was too much to draw.  

“When I first started, I didn’t even understand muscles or joints. As I drew, I thought, ‘Aw, I’ll just fake this!”

• Akira Toriyama, Weekly Shōnen Jump’s 50th anniversary issue.

While Dragon Ball was being serialized, Toriyama also served as character designer for the JRPG hit 1986 game Dragon Quest (absolutely no relation to Dragon Ball), he’s also worked on every subsequent installment of the Dragon Quest series.  At that time, he had no idea what an RPG was but nonetheless came up with the iconic character designs that are so beloved today.

Toriyama’s design was not limited to the 2D world of pen and paper alone. In 2005, CQ Motors released an electric car known as a QVOLT which was designed by Toriyama.

The earth-shattering impact Toriyama had on generations of people — fellow writers, filmmakers, musicians, athletes and on those who just dare to dream — is something that cannot be forgotten, ever. The void that he has left in the world of anime and manga will possibly never be filled.