According to social media monitoring firm Visibrain, 2.5 million messages paying tribute to his demise were posted on X, formerly Twitter, in just six hours, or 267 postings per second.
The life of Akira Toriyama
Born in Japan’s Aichi prefecture in 1955, Toriyama studied design at an industrial high school, according to Animage Plus, part of the anime magazine Animage.
![Japanese Manga Artist Akira Toriyama passes away](https://i0.wp.com/images.sbs.com.au/56/33/f1d36d8949898f62b4c4cf14c844/akira-toriyama-manga-dragon-ball-9.jpg?resize=2919%2C1933&ssl=1)
Akira Toriyama plays a game with his son in Kiyosu Town, Aichi Prefecture in 1988. Credit: Atsushi Onodera/AFP
According to media reports, he liked manga at school but only started to draw comics for a living in his 20s, after three years working at an advertising agency in the city of Nagoya.
Toriyama debuted in 1978 with Wonder Island but then came the humorous Dr Slump about a little girl with glasses, Arale Norimaki, who is actually a robot with superpowers. The series became a hit.
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A visitor looks at an Japanese artist Akira Toriyama’s Dr Slump comic book. Source: AFP / Pau Barrena
This gave Toriyama the confidence to conjure up – reportedly inspired by kung-fu hero Jackie Chan and a 16th-century Chinese literary classic Journey to the West – Dragon Ball.
Over more than 500 chapters, the hero with spiky black hair and trained by a turtle-sage defeats scary and otherworldly enemies in his quest to find seven mystical dragon balls.
![Akira Toriyama Dragon Ball Z graphic portrait seen during](https://i0.wp.com/images.sbs.com.au/06/2d/802eab7f458f81bf0c5cf34b0824/akira-toriyama-manga-dragon-ball-7.jpg?resize=5000%2C3333&ssl=1)
Akira Toriyama Dragon Ball Z graphic portrait seen during a festival in Barcelona. Source: LightRocket / SOPA Images
Dragon Ball Z took it to new heights, running from 1989 to 1996, with planet-destroying fights and displays of formidable strength as well as the appearance of the alien warrior Saiyan race.
Translated all over the world, Dragon Ball spawned countless anime cartoons, films, video games, trading cards and collectible figurines that made it an immense money-spinner.
Secret behind Toriyama’s success
“This is because I had previously worked as a designer in a small advertising agency and had seen and experienced first-hand how much trouble people can get into if deadlines are missed, even slightly,” he said.
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Toriyama was the author of the hugely popular and influential titles Dragon Ball and Dragon Ball Z. Credit: AFP
But he admitted it was hard: “Manga requires me to draw a lot of the same images. I tend to get bored easily, so this was fun but mostly tough. I wished many times it would end sooner.”
“When I was drawing the series, all I ever wanted to achieve was to please boys in Japan.”
How Dragon Ball transcended borders
It features a boy named Son Goku who collects magical balls containing dragons to help him and his allies in a fight to protect the Earth from evil enemies.
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Goku of Dragon Ball ballon battles the high wind to fly down Central Park West past apartments during the 93rd Annual Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. Credit: Corbis via Getty Images
Part comedy, part absurdist adventure, the series fused martial arts action with a story influenced by the classic Chinese tale Journey to the West.
Although other shonen blockbusters like One Piece and Naruto are similarly awash with adrenaline-inducing battles and swashbuckling heroes, Dragon Ball cemented its position as the genre standard, experts say.
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Manga Comic books by Akira Toriyama in Tokyo. Credit: Fuminori Ogane/AFP
“Naruto and One Piece are also popular overseas, but Dragon Ball stands out in terms of the number of countries that have aired the animation,” Kazuma Yoshimura, a manga studies professor at Kyoto Seika University, said.
“I think he was indeed a rare talent.”
![JAPAN-CULTURE-MANGA-DRAGON BALL](https://i0.wp.com/images.sbs.com.au/6f/42/fc7105774afaab98c0b9ca786e87/akira-toriyama-manga-dragon-ball-2.jpg?resize=7109%2C4739&ssl=1)
A tourist wearing a T-shirt of Dragon Ball has his photographs taken with a statue of Dragon Ball character Son Goku in Tokyo. Source: AFP / Yuichi Yamazaki
Dubbed in different languages, the show over the years became a global sensation, capturing children’s hearts with its madcap battles won by the small hero as his power grows.
“It’s not like the series was obviously set in one particular region of the earth, such as Japan or the United States,” Sudo said.
![A dragon ball action figure during the fair. Second edition](https://i0.wp.com/images.sbs.com.au/04/4c/72d11f9b45538ba11e83acf1d035/akira-toriyama-manga-dragon-ball-5.jpg?resize=3000%2C2000&ssl=1)
A dragon ball action figure during a fair in Turin. Source: LightRocket / Pacific Press
But with a whiff of Asian-ness derived from the “Journey to the West” and pop Western styles, the show can at the same time feel familiar to a broad audience, the expert said.
“Thank you for making my childhood awesome,” one wrote.