Akira Toriyama — the designer of Dragon Ball, Sand Land, and Chrono Trigger — passed away just as Dragon Ball Daima was near release.
Dragon Ball creator Akira Toriyama has passed away. On Thursday, March 7, a statement published on the official Dragon Ball website announced that Toriyama had passed on March 1 due to an acute subdural hematoma. He was 68 years old.
Toriyama was an acclaimed manga artist and character designer who first gained mainstream recognition in Japan through his sci-fi comedy manga Dr. Slump, published in Weekly Shōnen Jump from 1980 to 1984. In 1984, Toriyama began publishing Dragon Ball, a martial arts adventure manga starring a young boy named Son Goku, which would go on to become his most famous work to date and one of the best-selling manga of all time.
The impact of Dragon Ball’s legacy on not only Japanese manga and anime, let alone global pop culture, is incalculable. The long-running anime adaptation of Dragon Ball produced by Toei Animation introduced an entire generation of audiences to the medium, transforming Goku into a globally recognized pop cultural figure and generational icon among anime fans.
