[ad_1]
Akira Toriyama, one of Japan’s most important comic book authors, whose “Dragon Ball” manga and anime franchise achieved global success with its mix of comic characters and exciting martial arts battles, died on March 1. He was 68 years old.
His death was confirmed on Friday in a statement by his manga and design production company, Bird Studio, and Capsule Corporation Tokyo. The statement said the cause was an acute subdural hematoma, a condition in which blood pools between the skull and the brain. He did not say where Mr. Toriyama died.
Mr. Toriyama’s body of work, which also includes “Dr. Slump” and “Sand Land,” are recognizable far beyond the borders of Japan and have influenced generations of manga artists and cartoonists. The studio said he had several projects in the works when he died.
His best-known work, “Dragon Ball,” follows a young man named Son Goku who embarks on a journey to collect the seven magical orbs that summon a wish-granting dragon. Since its creation in the 1980s, it has spanned 42 volumes, sold millions of copies worldwide and become one of the most famous manga, inspiring television, film and video game adaptations.
Throughout his career, Mr. Toriyama said in a interview 2013 At the Japanese newspaper The Asahi Shimbun, he didn’t care if his work did more than entertain its readers. He suggested that he was different from “other manga artists concerned with conveying didactic messages.”
“The role of my manga,” he said, “is to be a work of entertainment from beginning to end.”
Akira Toriyama was born on April 5, 1955 in Kiyosu, Japan, according to local news media. He studied design at a technology and engineering high school in Aichi Prefecture. After graduating, he worked as a designer for an advertising company in Nagoya.
He quit his job after a few years and started drawing manga at age 23. His first manga, an action-adventure comic called “Wonder Island,” was published in 1978.
It gained popularity with the serialization of “Dr. Slump” from 1980 to 1984, a science fiction manga about an android girl known for her childlike personality and her superhuman strength. It was adapted for television as an anime series.
Mr. Toriyama’s absurd concepts and sense of caricature “caused true joyful hysteria” in Japan, wrote Matthieu Pinon and Laurent Lefebvre in “A History of Modern Manga” (2023).
In 1982, Mr. Toriyama married a former manga artist who published under the pseudonym Nachi Mikami. Mainichi Shimbun reported. Complete information about survivors was not immediately available, but local media reports say he is survived by his wife and children.
When “Dragon Ball” was first published in 1984, it was an immediate success and became one of the best-selling manga series of all time. It sold more than 260 million copies worldwide, according to Toei Animationthe studio that produced the anime adaptation.
“Dragon Ball” was serialized in the Japanese magazine Weekly Shonen Jump until 1995. In the year after the series ended, the magazine lost about a million of its six million readers, according to “A History of Modern Manga.” . The story continued through animes like “Dragon Ball Z” and video games. Mr. Toriyama also designed the characters for the Dragon Quest video game series.
Toriyama, a prolific manga artist, didn’t necessarily have an appetite for the genre as a reader. “I’ve always found it difficult to read manga, including my own work,” he said in a interview 2018 with the Kiyosu City Public Library.
He led a private life and gave few interviews. in a interview 2013 with Japanese singer and actress Shoko Nakagawa, said she didn’t even share all of her work with her family.
“To tell you the truth, no one in my family has ever seen ‘Dragon Ball,’” he said, laughing. “I’m a hikikomori too,” she added, using the Japanese word for a recluse.
But their stories continued to reach fans around the world years after their creation.
After “Dragon Ball,” Mr. Toriyama wrote manga in a single volume, including “Cowa!”, “Kajika” and “Jaco the Galactic Patrolman.” “Sand Land,” published in 2000, was turned into a film in 2023. Its anime version is scheduled for release. in the spring on Disney+, along with a video game.