Life In Brief
Akira Toriyama, the creator of the bestselling Dragon Ball and other popular anime who greatly influenced Japanese comics, has died after suffering a blood clot on his brain. He was 68.
Toriyama’s Dragon Ball manga series, which started in 1984, has sold millions of copies globally and was adapted into hugely popular animated TV shows, video games and films.
Bird Studio said: “He was working enthusiastically on many projects, and there was still much he was looking forward to accomplishing.”
A new TV adaptation of Toriyama’s Sand Land, a desert adventure story released in 2000 and later adapted into an anime movie, is due to be released on Disney+ later this year.
Japan’s chief cabinet secretary, Yoshimasa Hayashi, credited Toriyama and his work with playing an “extremely important role in demonstrating Japan’s soft power” around the world. The French President, Emmanuel Macron, shared a photo of an autographed illustration that Toriyama gave him as a gift and paid tribute to him on social media.
Born in Aichi prefecture in central Japan in 1955, Toriyama was the elder of two children. He enjoyed drawing at school, and later studied graphic design before working in advertising for three years, designing posters.
He made his manga debut in 1978 with the adventure comic Wonder Island, published in the Weekly Shonen Jump magazine.
His Dr Slump series, which started in 1980, was his first major hit. He earned the 1981 Shogakukan Manga Award for best shonen manga with the creation, and it went on to sell more than 35 million copies in Japan.
It was also adapted into a successful anime series, with a second anime created in 1997, 13 years after the manga ended.
Dr Slump made him a celebrity, but Toriyama avoided the spotlight. In 1982, he told the Japanese public broadcaster NHK: “I just want to keep writing manga.”
In later years, he became a recluse and used an avatar called Robotoriyama to represent himself in manga and interviews.
In another interview, he said: “The role of my manga is to be a work of entertainment”, and that it did not carry deeper meaning, adding that he was unlike “other manga artists concerned about conveying didactic messages”.
His most famous work, Dragon Ball, has sold 260 million copies worldwide. It is the story of a boy named Son Goku and his quest for seven magical balls that can make wishes come true, and has Toriyama’s trademark mix of comedic characters and rousing martial arts battles. Toriyama also designed characters for the video game series Dragon Quest.
He received multiple awards, including a Chevalier of the French Ordre des Arts et des Lettres, and was recognised as the leading writer on the history of manga.
In 1982, Toriyama married Yoshimi Kato, a fellow ex-manga artist whose pen name is Nachi Mikami. They had two children; they all survive him.
Born 5 April 1955 Died 1 March 2024