Manga publisher Shueisha announced the death of Dragon Ball creator Akira Toriyama at the age of 68 on March 1 from an acute subdural hematoma.
Nikkei Asia reported that the company announced the news on Friday, Mar. 8, saying that funeral services had already been held and attended by close relatives.
"It's our deep regret that he still had several works in the middle of creation with great enthusiasm," a statement attributed to Toriyama's Bird Studio said. "He would have many more things to achieve. However, he has left many manga titles and works of art to this world. We hope that Akira Toriyama's unique world of creation continues to be loved by everyone for a long time to come."
Dragon Ball was first published as a manga in 1984 in the weekly Shonen Jump magazine and has since been translated and published globally, jumping from manga to anime, from feature films to TV series, and from video games to merchandise.
The franchise remains stable and popular, with a new anime series, "Dragon Ball Daima," announced in October 2023 and set to debut this autumn.
Manga Artists, Game Designers Remember Toriyama
The death of Toriyama affected the manga world, with people involved in creating famous series like Naruto and One Piece giving tribute to what they considered a legend in their community.
"I grew up with your manga, which became a part of my life," Naruto author Masashi Kishimoto wrote on the Shonen Jump website. "On bad days, the weekly Dragon Ball [series] would help me forget [my troubles]. As a country boy with not much else, it saved me."
Meanwhile, One Piece manga artist Eiichiro Oda added that Toriyama's work inspired "not just manga artists but all creators across industries."
"[Toriyama] was one of the founders of an era where both adults and children could read and enjoy manga, from a time when reading manga was considered not good for education." Oda wrote. "He let us dream of the extent of things manga can achieve and showed [creators] that we can even expand our field to the world."
But beyond manga, Toriyama's creativity became evident in his other projects, such as character designs for Dragon Quest and Square Enix Holdings' immensely popular series of role-playing games.
"I am still in disbelief at the sudden news of Toriyama-san's passing," Dragon Quest creator Yuji Horii said. "I have known him since I was a writer for Shonen Jump and asked him to draw images for the game when we were launching Dragon Quest. Since then, for 37 years, he designed characters and monsters, and drew so many fascinating characters that I can't even begin to count."
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