In Loving Memory of Akira Toriyama, the creator of Dragon Ball Z, and, some may say, the father of Shonen Jump manga. He recently passed on March 1, 2024, at the age of 68. Many people around the world were left stunned and speechless by the sudden passing of Akira Toriyama. Many fans all over the world paid tribute to him, thanking him for his contributions towards anime and manga.

Akira Toriyama’s contributions didn’t just impact us fans but helped shape and modernize Shonen Jump manga as we know it now. Akira Toriyama inspired his fans a lot and the fans wanted to thank him for that a lot of fans drew him or wrote a nice message about how much Akira Toriyama influenced them and made their childhood it was not only fans that admired his work but companies, creators of anime, and close friends of his that also wrote nice messages and that they were also really impacted by the sudden news.

The creator of Naruto, Masashi Kishimoto, had this to say: “Thank you, Akira Toriyama-sensei, for all of your enjoyable works over the past 45 years. And thank you very much for your hard work”.

The creator of One Piece said, “The thought of never seeing you again fills me with sadness. I’ve admired you so much since I was a child, and I even remember the day when you called me by name for the first time. I also miss the day when I had a great time with Mr. Kishimoto on the way home from the day when he used the word “friend” for us.”

Akira made the iconic Dragon Ball he pursued making Dragon Ball because he had a love for Disney and Osamu Tezuka’s work which inspired him to start making manga.  He started off writing Dr. Slump and from there on he created his studio named Bird Studios which gave birth to the idea of dragon ball. The small idea influenced a lot of people, especially the Hispanic culture. Akira was very well known everywhere like Mexico when they aired the final episodes of Dragon Ball Super, Mexico had a viewing for those last episodes but that went against copyright laws, and this almost caused a diplomatic dispute between Japan and Mexico. Mexico aired those final episodes anyway, people recorded the viewing events in which fans started chanting the names of Goku and Frieza. These chantings helped music composer, Norihito Sumitomo create the soundtrack of the Dragon Ball Super movie: Broly.

I interviewed some fans, and they had this to say: senior Irvin Sanchez said, “At first I was like no way and it seemed like time stopped and I used to think if he passes the flood gates would open I would cry but when I found out it felt like some core memory slipped away because it made my childhood the way it is I remember my father he used to buy the DVDs of dragon ball z all in Spanish of course and I would just sit down and watch them for hours and that’s all he could afford and we both knew what it was and we both liked it he knew I liked it it was a very nice bonding moment for me and my dad to say that this man didn’t have a legacy is a crime because if you were to walk down the street and you ask anybody do you know who this is and its a picture of Goku they would probably say oh its that guy the super saiyan Goku”.

Another Senior had this to say: “The way Akira impacted my life was he gave me a strong connection with my dad because my dad was the one who introduced it to me to dragon ball and Akira’s work and I felt more connected with him and through that I also got to have great friends along the way like Irvin when I heard about his passing I was really really bummed out I could not believe he actually was gone at 68 too I told my brother about it because my brother also loved it and he couldn’t believe it either so obviously I still spend days sad knowing that he’s gone but I’m glad he got to create this dragon ball and all that stuff that helped impact peoples lives and give them something to do.”

All in all, Akira left not only a legacy, but also left an iconic and well-known manga Dragon Ball. You will be missed Akira, and thank you for making childhoods for the past years. You will forever be well known.

Read more about Dragon Ball Z here.