Dragon ball z is extremely famous around the world with references made in almost every piece of media. Kids who grew up watching the show can’t deny that they’ve at least tried to go Super Saiyan or do a Kame-Hame-ha attack.

With the first issue being shown in the Weekly Shonen Jump on December 3rd, 1984, Dragon Ball depicted a strong boy by the name of Son Goku who would go on a journey to find the “Dragon balls”. This story takes reference to a Chinese story novel known as Journey to west about the pilgrimage of a Buddhist monk, Xuan Zang. With each character holding reference to the original material, Dragon ball was an action-packed, gag-filled manga that would take the world by storm.

Recently, due to Toriyama’s passing, many manga artists who took inspiration from him have given out statements. Eiichiro Oda, the creator of One Piece stated via Shonen Jump, “The hole is too big. Sadness washes over me when I think that I will never see him again… Toriyama’s works became more and more important to me as I got closer to the same stage.”

Ever since the release of Dragon Ball, Toriyama had always illustrated and written the story on his own. It wasn’t until the release of the Dragon Ball Super Manga that someone new had come up and taken over illustrating the artwork for Dragon Ball.

Toyotarou, who previously worked on non-cannon stories such as Dragon Ball Heroes, had started working along side Toriyama on the new Dragon Ball Super Manga in 2012. According to Dragon Ball wiki, Toriyama believed that, out of all the artists he had worked with, Toyotarou had artwork that mostly resembled his own.

Interestingly enough, in Dragon Ball Super chapter 103, a father and son sparring session between Goku and Gohan, there’s a hopeful message that comes from Goku.

Similar to how Dragon Ball and a lot of it’s properties were left in the hands of Toyotarou, Gohan is now the protector of Earth, as Toriyama had intended. Both mantles were passed down to their rightful successors.

Jose Alvarez, a Senior at Santa Maria Highschool who has watched Dragon Ball since he was introduced to it by his older brother stated, “Toriyama was like Lebron (James), a man amongst men  both masters in their crafts with Toriyama leading manga sales  and Lebron with a hall of fame career in the NBA both glorious kings, it greatly saddened me to hear that he had passed” Jose believes that Dragon Ball is extremely important to the Hispanic community.

You can read more about Akira Toriyama here.