The creator of Japan’s hugely popular and influential Dragon Ball comics and anime cartoons, Akira Toriyama, has died aged 68, his production team said Friday. First serialised in 1984, Dragon Ball is one of the best-selling manga franchises of all time and has spawned countless anime series, films and video games.
Toriyama died on March 1 because of an “acute subdural haematoma” — a blood clot in the brain — a statement posted to the official Dragon Ball account on X, formerly Twitter, read. “It’s our deep regret that he still had several works in the middle of creation,” said the statement attributed to Toriyama’s Bird Studio, which praised the artist’s “great enthusiasm”.
Dragon Ball 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. Toriyama was already famous for his comedy manga Dr Slump in the early 1980s when he created Dragon Ball, which he said was inspired by Chinese-style kung fu movies.