Dragon Ball creator Akira Toriyama has passed away. He was 68.
The news was broken early this morning in a public letter by Toriyama’s manga studio, Bird Studio. Bird revealed in a letter posed on the official Dragon Ball X account that Toriyama died on March 1 of acute subdural hematoma. A private funeral service was held, and the studio has asked fans to respect the privacy of Toriyama’s family. You can read the full letter below.
Information ; Dear Friends and Partnershttps://t.co/85dXseckzJ pic.twitter.com/aHlx8CGA2M
Akira Toriyama was born in 1955 and became a manga artist at 23. Primarily known for his works in Weekly Shōnen Jump for works such as Dr. Slump, his biggest claim to fame would be Dragon Ball. First published in 1983, Dragon Ball would explode into a cultural phenomenon, spawning a massively popular multimedia franchise with multiple manga volumes, a successful long-running anime, several films, and a litany of merchandise. Dragon Ball would also become a massive fixture in video games, with dozens of titles across a variety of platforms.
Toryiama would also lend his distinct art style to video games such as the Dragon Quest series, Chrono Trigger, and Blue Dragon.