In March of this year, we received the sad news that manga legend Akira Toriyama had passed away at the age of 68. Fans knew the Japanese author and illustrator primarily as Creator of the long-running Shonen series Dragon Ballof which there are also numerous anime versions.
Hero of the imaginative martial arts action is Gokuwho we meet in Dragon Ball as a young boy during training, before he grows up in Dragon Ball Z and takes on increasingly stronger forms as a Super Saiyan.
Dragon Ball creator Akira Toriyama surprised fans with a Goku drawing in 1989
The Dragon Ball manga started in 1984 in the magazine Super Shonen Jump. Five years later, a DB special edition was published, from which some fans (and our sister site SensaCine ) discovered a funny drawing of Goku by Toriyama. It shows him as an old man, so that you can imagine what the manga muscle pack would look like at Master Roshi’s age.
Shueisha
Akira Toriyama’s Grandpa Goku in the DB special issue
The accompanying text by Toriyama says:
So I don’t really know when Dragon Ball will end or what will happen in the future. Maybe Goku will become an old man like that in the end…
The original manga ran until 1995 and had a total of 42 volumes. But that was far from the end. Toriyama was involved in numerous anime projects on the topic of Dragon Ball until the end and even returned to Goku and Co. in manga form. Dragon Ball Super was released between 2015 and 2024, which also led to an anime version.
Goku never became an old man, but he got more and more colorful hair and even more crazy anime powers.
Where can you stream Dragon Ball as an anime?
The latest anime series Dragon Ball Super as well as several films from the franchise are available in this country on the streaming service Crunchyroll The cinema adventures include Dragon Ball Z: Resurrection F, Dragon Ball Super: Broly and Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero. Some of them were also shown in cinemas in Germany.