Legendary manga artist Akira Toriyama, creator of the “Dragon Ball” series, has died at the age of 68. His production office, Bird Studio, announced the news on social media.
Akira Toriyama died on March 1 from a subdural hematoma (a blood clot in the brain). A small funeral for the family has been held.
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“We deeply regret that he still has multiple works in the works and is passionate about,” the official statement noted. “And he still has a lot to do.”
“However, he left many comics and works of art to the world,” the statement continued. “We hope that Akira Toriyama’s unique creative world continues to be loved by everyone for a long time to come.”
Toriyama’s success in manga made him famous, and his art style quickly became one of the most well-known in Japan in the 1980s. This led to job opportunities in video games. The result is a huge video game legacy. The biggest influence on the game was actually Toriyama’s first exposure to media, as he provided character designs for 1986’s Dragon Quest. In the nearly four decades since, Toriyama’s art style has become a signature of the series, with him directly involved in most of its entries and spin-offs.
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In 1995, Dragon Quest creator Yuji Horii was preparing to develop a new game with Final Fantasy’s Hironobu Sakaguchi, and Toriyama was brought in to design its characters and much of the world. The game later became Chrono Trigger and is considered one of the best examples of its genre and the greatest game in history.
Sakaguchi subsequently became Toriyama’s second most frequent game collaborator after the Dragon Quest and Dragon Ball series. He contributed art to Square’s Tobal fighting game for the PS1, as well as Sakaguchi’s first game outside of Square, Blue Dragon. In 2021, he contributed to Sakaguchi’s latest work, Fantasia.
Toriyama worked at Bandai Namco on many Dragon Ball games as well as games such as 2019’s Jump Force. Next month, Bandai Namco will release a new Toriyama game, Sand Land, an ambitious new Japanese role-playing game based on the 2000 Toriyama manga. The artist oversaw the development of the game.
While Toriyama will always be remembered for his contributions to manga and anime, he remains a towering figure for gamers – and one whose art style will continue to be imitated and reinvented for many years to come. Considering how hard he worked, it’s likely we’ll continue to see new game projects he was involved in revealed and released posthumously in the years to come. Dragon Quest XII, announced in 2021, will definitely feature his character design when it is released.