The author of the globally successful manga Dragon Ball, Akira Toriyama, died on March 1, 2024 at the age of 68. His publishing house only announced the death and its cause on March 8.
His stories rocked an entire generation. The creator of the Dragon Ball manga, Akira Toriyama died at the age of 68 on March 1, 2024, declared the publishing house of the successful mangaka this Friday, March 8. The 60-year-old died from an acute subdural hematoma, a collection of blood near the brain that usually occurs after head trauma. Bird Studio, a workshop created by Akira Toriyama, said it was “sincerely saddened” by the death of its creator on X.
It’s the manga Dragon Ball created in 1984, at the origin of the well-known license, which made Akira Toriyama successful. The Japanese born in Nagoya, in the center of the country, in 1955, was inspired by the Chinese novel The journey to the West dating from the 16th century which recounted the adventures of a martial arts prodigy. But Akira Toriyama was behind other very popular works, including the series Dr. Slump, and had participated in the creation of characters for several video games including the series Dragon Quest or role play Chrono Trigger. Akira Toriyama also received the Special Prize at the 40th Angoulême International Comics Festival in 2013 for all of his work.
Dragon Ball, the “miracle” of Akira Toriyama
“In my opinion, Dragon Ball is like a miracle” Akira Toriyama told the daily Asahi in an interview in 2013: “He helped someone like me, who has a twisted and difficult personality, to do a decent job and to be accepted by society” The mangaka said, however, that he did not understand the reasons for the global success of his work, which he considered to be a pure entertainment manga: “When I drew the series Dragon Ball, all I wanted was to please the boys of Japan,” he explained, assuring that he had “never worried about sending a message through” his mangas. Dragon Ball have sold at least 260 million copies worldwide according to the specialist site Mangazenkan. And that’s without counting the even wider distribution of the work through its television adaptations, on TV, in cinema or in video games, which have also been entitled to sequels like Dragon Ball Z.
Several tributes have been paid to Akira Toriyama. Another successful mangaka, the author of One Piece, Eiichiro Oda, regretted the “too early” death of Son Goku’s father which leaves “a big void”. “I am overwhelmed with sadness,” he added in a statement. The Japanese publishing house Shueisha also expressed its sorrow after the death of Akira Toriyama: “We would like to pay tribute to his great achievements, express our gratitude and offer him our sincere condolences.”