Akira Toriyama As the official ‘Dragon Ball’ website announced on various online channels, the Japanese manga legend died on March 1, 2024 at the age of 68. Toriyama succumbed to complications from an acute subdural hematoma, a bleeding between the meninges usually caused by severe head injuries. The funeral took place among the closest circle of friends and family.
People are deeply saddened by the death of Toriyama, who worked on countless projects until the end. Whether we will ever see his final work remains to be seen. However, what will always stay with us are the many world-famous stories with which he delighted manga and anime fans for decades.
“We bring you this sad news with gratitude for your warmth during his life,” the official statement said. “Thanks to the support of people from all over the world, he was able to be creative for more than 45 years. We hope that the unique world of Akira Toriyama remains loved by everyone.”
That was Akira Toriyama
Born on April 5, 1955 in Nagoya, Toriyama fell in love with the world of comics and animation as a child. The Disney classic “101 dalmatiersfrom 1961.
In the late 1970s he graduated with a major in design, celebrated his illustrating debut with the adventure story ‘Wonder Island’ and released in 1979 with “Dr. Slump” published his first major manga series in 1979, which received numerous awards and eventually achieved cult status. By 2008, it had sold more than 35 million copies in Japan alone.
Of course, Toriyama celebrated his greatest success with “Dragon Ball”. The 42-part adventures of Son Goku and Co. were first published between 1984 and 1995 and remain one of the most famous, popular and successful manga of all time – selling between 300 and 350 million copies worldwide. Above all, it laid the foundation for a gigantic multimedia cosmos, which also gave rise to countless films and series such as ‘Dragon Ball’, ‘Dragon Ball Z’ and ‘Dragon Ball Super’. In doing so, Toriyama created an almost incomparable pop culture phenomenon that catapulted the international popularity of manga art into entirely new realms. Because even if you’ve never had anything to do with it, you just know “Dragon Ball”.