Akira Toriyama, the creator of Dragon Ball, has passed away.
He was twenty-eight years old when the Dragon Ball manga was first published in 1984.
The Dragon Ball universe is such a legendary franchise of the Japanese manga and anime world that it’s hard to wrap one’s mind around this loss. Whether Dragon Ball was a favorite of yours or not, as an anime fan there’s no denying its impact around the world. People who never watched anime in their lives know who Goku and Vegeta are. Dragon Ball touched every part of the globe.
It could be said that Dragon Ball was the beginning of shounen manga, which of course led to the shounen anime shows so many of us love.
I came to the Dragon Ball universe through Dragon Ball Super, which I loved, after which I watched Dragon Ball Z and most of the movies. I have yet to watch the original Dragon Ball series (I didn’t mean to watch the series in reverse order - it just happened that way).
It’s the characters that I enjoy the most about Dragon Ball, wildly original characters like Beerus and Frieza, as well as main characters Bulma and Vegeta and Gohan and so many more.
The Dragon Ball story is epic. It was the original franchise-level story universe before there was Naruto or One Piece or any of the others.
The reactions are still coming in but I’ve seen comments from fans that are epic in their own way. People are mourning but also giving Toriyama-sensei the best kind of sendoff, like saying they’ll gather the Dragon Balls and call on Shenron to bring him back, or that he’s now in the Lookout heaven with Dende and Mr. Popo.
Rest in peace and power, Toriyama-sensei. Thank you for giving us your very best.
