R.I.P. Dragon Ball creator Akira Toriyama
One of the most iconic manga and anime artists of the 20th and 21st centuries, Toriyama designed characters for Dragon Ball, Dragon Quest, and much more
Akira Toriyama has died. As the creator of the long-running Dragon Ball franchise—to say nothing of his work in film, television, video games, and in other manga titles—Toriyama could comfortably be described as one of the most influential comics creators of all time. With an instantly recognizable style, a notably goofy (and occasionally perverse) sense of humor, and a prodigious work ethic, Toriyama did as much as any single creator could to define the look of manga and anime in the 20th century. His death was reported tonight by the official Dragon Ball Twitter account, which revealed that he died on March 1. Toriyama was 68.
Inspired by Disney films and the work of Astro Boy creator Osamu Tezuka, Toriyama began submitting comics to Japanese magazine Weekly Shonen Jump in the 1980s, eventually earning his first major success with comedy sci-fi series Dr. Slump. If Toriyama had stopped there, he already would have been one of the best-known manga and anime creators of his generation, with Dr. Slump picking up a huge fan following and an anime adaptation. But then, in 1983, at the suggestion of his editor, he pivoted to a series more rooted in his love of martial arts movies, and Dragon Ball was born.
Initially based, at least in part, on the traditional Journey To The West, Dragon Ball swiftly spiraled out from there, eventually becoming one of the most recognizable media franchises of all time. Among other things, it’s generally been credited as a massive factor in the popularization of anime in the Western world, with Cartoon Network’s serialization of sequel series Dragon Ball Z a multi-year mainstay of the network’s afternoon programming block. And yet, despite becoming a juggernaut, the series never stopped feeling personal, mostly because it never stopped being about Toriyama’s various obsessions: Cool-looking vehicles, cool-looking superpowers, really dumb jokes, and the raw spectacle of fighters finding ever-more-absurd ways to out-power each other. Taking as a whole, it’s one of those works that’s almost impossible to evaluate on its own merits, because the tropes it trafficked in and created are so thoroughly embedded in the heart of a certain kind of anime and manga; it’s a comic/show that huge parts of the artform is in conversation with, even 40 years after its creation.
Even as he continued—with occasional gaps—to write and publish Dragon Ball in one form or another for most of the rest of his life, Toriyama also branched out into other realms. In 1986, he was approached to serve as character designer for the first installment of the long-running Dragon Quest series of fantasy role-playing games, a role he’d continue on for decades. And while one of the joys of later games in the franchise has been seeing modern technology get better and better at replicating Toriyama’s art, much of his genius can be seen in the simple, shockingly expressive designs he did for the franchise’s most basic enemies back in the 1980s, the adorable, instantly recognizable Slimes. (Big eyes, big dumb smiles, and an almost impossible sense of comedy and life.) He’d later do similar work for games like Super Nintendo title Chrono Trigger—arguably the first game to get at least an approximation of Toriyama’s style on to the screen proper—and later efforts like Blue Dragon.
Notably shy, Toriyama was known for reclusiveness, to the fact that almost no photographs exist of his face. It feels telling that the announcement of his death this week was accompanied, not by a photograph, but a drawing of “Robotoriyama,” the adorable, stylized robot he often drew himself as when jokily appearing in his own works, or when representing himself to fans.