The brilliant writer Akira Toriyama unfortunately passed away on March 1, 2024. Toriyama was born in 1955 and grew up in Japan. He demonstrated his talents by drawing animals and vehicles he liked. He went to Okoshi Technical High School but got his education from an advertising agency. He was designing posters for an advertising agency in Nagoya for three years. In 1978, Torishima, an anime writer convinced Toriyama to keep writing manga. This resulted in Wonder Island, Toriyama’s first manga. In 1982, at age 27 he married Nachi Mikami. They had two kids Sasuke and Kikka Toriyama. From doing TV shows at first and shifting to movies later on, he brought the world the wonderful Dragon Ball stories. His inspiration for Dragon Ball came from Jackie Chan films. His first big animation was in 1986, about a boy named Kakarot from outer space. His planet was dying, so his parents sent him to Earth to save him. A nice grandpa raised him and renamed him Goku.
Later on came Dragon Ball Z (the sequel) made in 1989. It is about Goku and friends fighting stronger enemies. Goku and the Z fighters are forced to toughen up to save Earth. Some considered Dragon Ball and Dragon Ball Z to jumpstart anime and manga. The design of the characters Toriyama made inspired anime like Naruto. After the completion of Dragon Ball Z, Toriyama retired from writing. People liked the anime so much company’s like Toei Company and Fuji made a spinoff called Dragon Ball GT, which isn’t related to Dragon Ball Z. GT followed Goku and the Z fighters into space to find seven black star dragon balls to save the Earth. This was a spinoff of Toriyama’s Dragon Ball Z.
Dragon Ball Evolution was a movie made in 2009 that Toriyama had little to do with. There were some rumors that he didn’t like the new movie; so he made the movie Dragon Ball Z: Battle of the Gods. This movie follows Goku getting into a fight for the survival of Earth. His friends gave Goku the powers of a god to save the Earth.
Toriyama later created Dragon Ball Super with the help of an artist named Toyotarou. Toyotarou is considered to be Toriyama’s successor. Toyotarou also illustrated Dragon Ball Super (manga). It is about Goku and the other Z fighters going on different adventures, battling other universes, fighting an old enemy, and fighting in a tournament for the survival of their universe.
Toriyama made some movies later on such as Dragon Ball Super Broly, Dragon Ball Super Super Hero, and Dragon Ball Z: Resurrection F. Before he passed, he was making a new series called Dragon Ball Daima, which was the same characters as usual, but they got shrunk back into being kids. Some people wereangry about Dragon Ball Daima being released, because they didn’t want to see the characters as children. Others believe that Daima is the celebration anime of Dragon Ball. Toyotarou is a
talented illustrator that Toriyama chose as a successor. Toriyama might have passed but his stories still live on today.
