The creator of Japan’s hugely popular and influential Dragon Ball comics and anime cartoons, Akira Toriyama, has died, his production team said yesterday.
He was 68.
First serialized in 1984, Dragon Ball is one of the best-selling manga franchises of all time and has spawned countless anime series, films and video games.
Photo: AFP
Toriyama died on March 1 because of a blood clot on the brain, a statement posted to the official Dragon Ball account on X said.
“It’s our deep regret that he still had several works in the middle of creation,” said the statement attributed to Toriyama’s Bird Studio, which praised the artist’s “great enthusiasm.”
“He would have many more things to achieve. However, he has left many manga titles and works of art to this world,” the statement said. “We hope that Akira Toriyama’s unique world of creation continues to be loved by everyone for a long time to come.”
Photo: EPA-EFE
Dragon Ball features a boy named Son Goku who collects magical balls containing dragons to help him and his allies in a fight to protect the Earth from evil enemies.
Toriyama was already famous for his comedy manga Dr Slump in the early 1980s when he created Dragon Ball, which he said was inspired by Chinese-style kung fu movies.
The 1990s brought the beloved cartoon Dragon Ball Z, and Toriyama was also part of the design team for the massively successful Dragon Quest games.
However, not all the spin-offs have been a hit, with the live-action 2009 movie Dragonball Evolution flopping at the box office and attracting withering reviews.
Publishing house Shueisha, whose weekly Shonen Jump magazine serialized the Dragon Ball comics, said it was “greatly saddened by the sudden news of his death.”
Born in Japan’s central Aichi Prefecture in 1955, Toriyama studied design at an industrial high school, according to Animage Plus, part of the anime magazine Animage.
He worked for three years at an advertising agency in Nagoya before making his debut as a professional manga artist in his early 20s.
In an interview with Japan’s Asahi newspaper in 2013, Toriyama described himself as a “difficult” person.
“Dragon Ball is like a miracle, given how it helped someone like me who has a twisted, difficult personality do a decent job and get accepted by society,” he said.
He told the newspaper he had “no idea” why Dragon Ball had become such a huge hit worldwide, saying his comics were “dedicated to entertainment.”
“I just hope that readers will have a fun time reading my works,” he said, adding he had “never been preoccupied with getting a message across through my manga.”
The news of Toriyama’s death immediately made headlines in Japan, with many fans expressing their grief.
Eiichiro Oda, creator of Japan’s One Piece manga franchise, said in a statement that Toriyama’s death was “too soon” and had left “too big shoes to fill.”
“To think I’ll never see him again... I’m overwhelmed by sadness,” Oda said.
Four people jailed in the landmark Hong Kong national security trial of "47 democrats" accused of conspiracy to commit subversion were freed today after more than four years behind bars, the second group to be released in a month. Among those freed was long-time political and LGBTQ activist Jimmy Sham (岑子杰), who also led one of Hong Kong’s largest pro-democracy groups, the Civil Human Rights Front, which disbanded in 2021. "Let me spend some time with my family," Sham said after arriving at his home in the Kowloon district of Jordan. "I don’t know how to plan ahead because, to me, it feels
‘A THREAT’: Guyanese President Irfan Ali called on Venezuela to follow international court rulings over the region, whose border Guyana says was ratified back in 1899 Misael Zapara said he would vote in Venezuela’s first elections yesterday for the territory of Essequibo, despite living more than 100km away from the oil-rich Guyana-administered region. Both countries lay claim to Essequibo, which makes up two-thirds of Guyana’s territory and is home to 125,000 of its 800,000 citizens. Guyana has administered the region for decades. The centuries-old dispute has intensified since ExxonMobil discovered massive offshore oil deposits a decade ago, giving Guyana the largest crude oil reserves per capita in the world. Venezuela would elect a governor, eight National Assembly deputies and regional councilors in a newly created constituency for the 160,000
North Korea has detained another official over last week’s failed launch of a warship, which damaged the naval destroyer, state media reported yesterday. Pyongyang announced “a serious accident” at Wednesday last week’s launch ceremony, which crushed sections of the bottom of the new destroyer. North Korean leader Kim Jong-un called the mishap a “criminal act caused by absolute carelessness.” Ri Hyong-son, vice department director of the Munitions Industry Department of the Party Central Committee, was summoned and detained on Sunday, the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported. He was “greatly responsible for the occurrence of the serious accident,” it said. Ri is the fourth person
Poland is set to hold a presidential runoff election today between two candidates offering starkly different visions for the country’s future. The winner would succeed Polish President Andrzej Duda, a conservative who is finishing his second and final term. The outcome would determine whether Poland embraces a nationalist populist trajectory or pivots more fully toward liberal, pro-European policies. An exit poll by Ipsos would be released when polls close today at 9pm local time, with a margin of error of plus or minus 2 percentage points. Final results are expected tomorrow. Whoever wins can be expected to either help or hinder the