Akira Toriyama
1955-2024
Hello from Castrum Lusitania, my fortress in northern Portugal. Welcome to another edition of our weekly newsletter.
This week I was going to write about finishing my work on Phenomena and what else was happening, but yesterday we all got some devastating news with the sudden death of the great Akira Toriyama. With him being such a huge inspiration to me personally and with the astronomical impact of his work, I couldn’t write anything else than the Master himself.
So, some humble words about one of the best and most influential artists in this world.
The news
If you want to understand the reach of Toriyama and his outstanding body of work, just see how his death was reported pretty much everywhere, not just contained to pop culture or entertainement sites. I read it first on BBC, but virtually every publication ran a story about him.
You can read here below the official English note published on his social media channels:
At 68, he was way too young to die. I’ll highlight from the text above how he was still “in the middle of several new creations”, showcasing his endless enthusiasm and creativity.
The Work
His body of work cannot be measured by his own publications alone, that would be too reductive. His influence is so pervasive that it is felt across entire industries. I’d divide his work per se into two segments: stories and design. His storytelling, infused with adventure, humor and action, is best displayed by one of the biggest manga ever committed to paper, Dragon Ball, but is also present across his entire library, in things like Dr. Slump, SandLand, Cowa and a myriad of short stories. His design work, already extraordinary in his own books, expanded into other fields and was fundamental in the success of behemoths like Dragon Quest, one of the biggest gaming series ever, with Toriyama as character designer in all of its numerous entries, but also other games like Chrono Trigger, Blue Dragon or Tobal No.1.
In both cases, the influence of Toriyama’s work exploded and crossed into numerous fields. The expansive nature of his stories, with epic battles and an immersive sense of adventure, was transposed numerous times into comics, movies, animation and videogames all over the world. It’s safe to say that without things like Dragon Ball there wouldn’t be other things like Naruto or One Piece. And the same can be said about the designs or the over the top humor and hilarious sexy/naughty jokes whose influence permeate countless stories.
The Influence
When it comes to me, personally, I’m like everyone else on my generation: we were all blown away by Dragon Ball as it hit the Western world in the early 90s, definitely transforming Japanese comics and animation into a global giant. It’s hard to describe the phenomenon because it was so overwhelming. Dragon Ball was so big that everyone knew about it. Not just the kids. Everybody. Parents, uncles, grandparents, teachers, everyone recognize the name and characters to this day.
To me, already a comics and animation fanatic, it opened the gates of Manga and Anime and changed my life forever. It instantly became my favorite thing in the world and remained as such for a good few years. Watching the episodes was a religious experience and between the constant jokes, extreme drama and explosive action my brain was rearranged forever. Nothing was ever the same and I created and drew many stories infused and inspired by his work, both as an aspiring and as a professional creator.
But if you cut directly from the 90s to 25 years later, you can see a direct bridge from that moment to Phenomena, one of my latest books, which is pretty much a love letter to Dragon Ball and Akira Toriyama. From the way I drew the action, to the sense of adventure, the more cartoony style, designs, Spike buffing like a super-saiyan, it’s everywhere. And it grows from progressively through the trilogy as you’ll notice.
See here some direct references to the great master below (examples from the three books):
The impact of his extraordinary work will forever be felt and with enormous depth, not only across mediums but also through individual artists all around the globe.
The Library
For me, I know that whenever I’m feeling a bit empty tanked, all I have to do is crank open one of his books and feel immediately energized. And I have a few of those.
Two big tomes, one with all of his Dragon Quest designs and another filled with his very best Dragon Ball illustrations:
Another book filled with covers from the Dragon Ball books:
Obviously, various editions of Dragon Ball, including a volume in Japanese:
Cowa, SandLand and Manga Theater (collection of short stories):
A bunch of short stories in its original Japanese collections:
And an absolute treasure, a Spanish edition of his how to draw manga book:
I have something obviously missing: his first big success, Dr Slump. But it will be corrected, it’s just a question of time.
I could go on endlessly, but I’ll leave you with his usual delicious humor:
Goodbye, Toriyama-san. Thank you for the lovely adventures and creative energy.
What a lovely tribute. I have, shamefully, not read any of his work, but this post makes me want to start.
It has been a massive loss.