Sign In
Close
Well, unless you've been living under a rock or don't like manga/anime--you probably heard the news of manga artist and creator Akira Toriyama passing away over the weekend. Toriyama was most well-known across the world for the manga "Dragon Ball"--which was made into the "Dragon Ball" and "Dragonball Z" anime series. He had many other amazing series as well--"Sand Land", a one-shot manga I truly enjoyed, has just been made into both an anime film and anime series.
I'm sure many people have their stories on what Toriyama's work meant to them. How it influenced them to draw or create. I have a different story of why it's important to me and why I wanted to do a small homage to Toriyama-sensei. :)
I don't often talk about it, since much of these events was before I came online anyways and only a few people here I know are aware of this (by way of personal chats and e-mails). But a long time ago, I had someone who was incredibly important to me--that I'd hoped to spend my life with--pass away. How we met was a stranger story, but that's not the story here--the story is, this person was a HUGE fan of the "Dragonball Z" anime, the "Dragon Ball" manga and also collected all sorts of DB memorabilia. When we met, I only vaguely understood what DBZ was--as not having cable television meant I never even saw the dubs on television. Manga was just barely starting to get a foothold in the U.S., with VIZ still a much smaller independent company and TokyoPop just starting up with their acquirement of the "Bishoujo Senshi Sailormoon" manga. So, the entire anime fandom was still small and niche--which could be likened to Star Trek at the time. There were huge fans, but anime and manga wasn't in the "mainstream" of society yet.
Though how we met had something to do with Japanese fandoms--it wasn't manga or anime, but super sentai. After we got together, though--we started talking about our favorite fandoms and I gushed about Transformers and he talked about Dragonball Z. He loaned me manga--including DOUJINSHI (fan-made manga), sourcebooks and had me watch the anime by making me copies on VHS for me, yes that's how long ago that was. After he passed away and DB remained a phenomenon--I always would wonder what he'd think about how popular it all became, since it was still fairly niche when he passed away. I think he would love what Toriyama's done to expand the franchise with "Super" and he'd be obsessed with all the various video games (especially since he was also a gamer). I like Toriyama's work, but not just "Dragon Ball"--I've read all of what VIZ has published domestically. I also have some stuff that remains in Japanese, without English translations, such as "Kajika" and "Cashman". He has a style that is immediately recognizable, even by non-anime/manga fans--and while the DBZ anime focused on the fighting aspect, his manga has cleverness and depth to the characters that the anime never really reached........until the two movies that launched "Super" came along. With Toriyama supervising, this anime had much of the depth that was deserved for the characters. He is also the primary designer for the "Dragon Quest" video game series and the future games will be forever changed without his original designs being made for them.
Toriyama's work is worth reading, if you don't want to tackle "Dragon Ball" and it's 42 volumes--give "Sand Land" a try, or if you want to read something cute and funny--try out "Cowa". See his original art and comic panel work which inspired so many manga artists and anime creations. His work has left a mark and a legacy in the world that can never be touched--and for me, it allowed me to find someone I had loved very dearly in the world. Thank you Toriyama-sensei, my life was made better because of what you created. bows
Submission Information
- Views:
- 53
- Comments:
- 12
- Favorites:
- 5
- Rating:
- General
- Category:
- Visual / Traditional
Comments
-
-
Thanks! :D
The state of the manga industry (and anime, too) is really bad. Since there’s popularity for this “product” all over the world now, lots are being overworked, even to their deaths. I know both Eiichiro Oda (One Piece) and Kohei Horikoshi (My Hero Academia) have had to take hiatuses due to their health over the years. Nowadays, big productions of manga have assistants……but back when Toriyama was doing DB for Shueisha, he was doing grueling work alone on a weekly schedule—I’ve read so many interviews where he’s said he had no idea how he survived. I think we never knew or realized this much outside of Japan, except there’s social media and immediacy now, so all of these problems of producing manga and anime are finally coming to light. I doubt anything will ever improve, though. :/
-
-
Really nice tribute art!
Like many others, I grew up on Akira’s work, especially during the early days of toonami. When I heard of his death it really saddened me, even more so when I also found out how overworked the artist were in the manga industry.
-
Thanks! :)
Yeah, I think with the advent of anime and manga now a worldwide phenomenon, plus the immediacy of social media—now the world is aware of situations like what manga artists and animators are in. But Japan treats it as an export product, which mean they put a lot more pressure on the creators than ever before. I can’t see it changing any more than similar situations in the U.S. when it comes to jobs like food service and retail…….high demand and high stress for very low pay and benefit. As long as people in charge see workers as “things” and not living beings, I don’t see much change, sadly.
But we can always hope the loss of someone like Toriyama may change things. He was beloved in Japan and the world—maybe it will bring attention to situations like this and there may be change sooner than later.
-
-
I used to watch Dragon Ball when I was little, I understood nothing but I liked it a lot... I pretend to wacth it some day, I just need the courage though, I know it's kinda big. It's sad the author passed away :( It's a nice art you did there
-
Thanks! :)
The anime does focus more on the fighting, so you might have to slog through a lot of that. The manga has the more concise story, but if you’re familiar with the characters and general plot—you could try to give the recent movies a try: “Battle of Gods”, “Resurrection of F” and “Super Hero”. All three were written and character-designed by Toriyama—so the characterization is better and the stories are pretty solid. Also, I do recommend giving the anime adaption of “Sand Land” a try—that was a wonderful one-shot manga and I hear the anime version is very true to the manga. :)
-
-
Sand land recently has a Hulu anime adaptation you should check it out if you haven’t already
-
I don’t have any streaming services, but I do hope that one day they’ll put it out on DVD so I could see it! Thanks for the info! :D
-
Link
TheNextGenHero
Very nice art!
His death is sad though, because this could have been prevented--I was reading how manga artists in general have shorter lifespans because they put in so much work in their craft and push themselves to the limit that they don't really take care of themselves D: