Dragon Ball Creator Akira Toriyama Passes Away

Akira Toriyama, the creator of the iconic Dragon Ball franchise, has passed away. Bird Studio announced on Thursday that Toriyama had passed on March 1st due to an acute subdural hematoma. He was 68 years old.

Toriyama found his interest in manga at an early age and soon supplemented that with an interest in films and television. He cited Astro Boy as the source of his original interest in manga and began his professional life designing posters for an advertising agency. When he left that job, he entered the manga industry, drawing the attention of his eventual editor Kazuhiko Torishima by virtue of submissions to Weekly Shōnen Jump. His first published work was Wonder Island in 1978, followed by Wonder Island 2, Today’s Highlight Island, and Tomato the Cutesy Gumshoe. His next work, Dr. Slump, became a major success and ran for four years in Weekly Shōnen Jump, making Toriyama a well-known name.

He published other stories at the same time as Dr. Slump but it was his primary follow-up, Dragon Ball, which made him an icon in the industry. An evolution of the two-part 1983 story Dragon Boy, the initial Dragon Ball manga ran for 11 years in Weekly Shōnen Jump and was adapted into Dragon Ball and Dragon Ball Z by Toei Animation. The franchise has become one of the highest-grossing media properties of all time with several feature films, trading card cames, video games, collectibles and much more.

In addition to Dragon Ball Toriyama is responsible for several other fan favorite properties including the video game Chrono Trigger, which he did the character and setting designs for as well as creating the 1999 Playstation port’s animated cutscenes, the Dragon Quest games (known as Dragon Warrior in the US), Blue Dragon, and other manga like Cowa!, Kajika, and Sand Land.

On behalf of 411, our condolences to the family, friends and many fans of Mr. Toriyama. The entertainment world wouldn’t be the same without him.

Information ; Dear Friends and Partnershttps://t.co/85dXseckzJ pic.twitter.com/aHlx8CGA2M

— DRAGON BALL OFFICIAL (@DB_official_en) March 8, 2024