Originally published on Set The Tape
Over the weekend the news broke that Akiray Toriyama had passed away at the age of 68, and thousands of people across the world grieved. A manga artist, writer, and character designer, Akira Toriyama’s work had a long reach, having worked on projects such as Dragon Quest, Chrono Trigger, Blue Dragon, and most famously, the Dragon Ball franchise. His work spanned more than five decades, and his style not only became instantly recognisable, but would inspire other creators across multiple fields, and around the world.
My first exposure to Akira Toriyama’s work came when I was eleven years old. Like a lot of people of my generation here in the UK (and for some in the US), my first experience with anime came when the children’s television network Cartoon Network (which was still free for everyone to watch at the time) aired the first episode of Dragon Ball Z. Despite the show being a continuation of a five season, 153 episode story, I was still absolutely hooked by that first episode. I didn’t know anything about these characters, their world, or the rules of anime, but I was drawn in by the bright and colourful characters, the over-the-top action, and an animation style that was so unlike anything I’d seen before. Yes, there had been more action oriented shows that I’d grown up with, things such as 90’s Spider-Man or X-Men: The Animated Series but against to the high octane action and violence of Dragon Ball Z these shows didn’t even begin to compare.
I began to watch Dragon Ball Z religiously. By the end of that first week the show had dropped the revelation that the lead character, a defender of the Earth named Goku, was actually an alien, and killed him. His young son, who was possibly the most powerful fighter on Earth, had been taken away by Goku’s once enemy to be trained to defend the Earth from a coming pair of alien warriors who would kill everyone. This was not how most kids’ shows start off. As the years went by and I watched more of the show, things would only get weirder and wilder as it introduced more and more powerful villains, special transformations, and gave viewers fights that would last weeks or more as you waited for episodes to air (and that’s weeks when airing daily!). Akira Toriyama’s work introduced a whole new style of storytelling and art form to me via Dragon Ball Z.
And because of Dragon Ball Z I found myself watching other anime, also on Cartoon Network. I watched Tenchi Muyo, and Gundam Wing when they aired and whilst neither drew me in as much as Dragon Ball Z I did watch a lot of them. I don’t know if it was a coincidence of timing, me noticing it more, or if the airing of Dragon Ball Z had started something, but other channels began to show more anime series too. I remember watching Digimon, Cardcaptors, and Yu-Gi-Oh! when they came on, my viewing habits definitely shifting more towards Japanese-created shows. The people I was friends with in school at the time also began sharing anime DVDs around this time, leading me to get to watch things like Ninja Scroll and The Grave of the Fireflies (which I watched way too young and it wrecked me).
But it wasn’t just television and film that Akira Toriyama changed for me, as I also started paying more and more attention to video games that fit into a similar vein. There were of course the Dragon Ball games, half of which my friends and I couldn’t get hold of legally, but an enterprising and clever friend hooked us up with thanks to emulators on floppy discs. But most JRPGs began to draw my attention at this time too. I tried out my first Final Fantasy game around this time and sank an unhealthy amount of time into it. This would become something that I would do a lot, and whenever I was shopping for a new video game and I saw one that had an anime style cover or was inspired by manga I would be drawn to it over most western games. Even as my gaming tastes changed over the years I’d still find myself coming back to these kinds of games, especially the Dragon Quest series, as it would feel like returning to some of the only happy times of my childhood.
Dragon Ball Z was also the very first manga that I read. I remember seeing the first three volumes of the books on the shelf at my local Waterstones, and grabbing them on the spot. This was a few years after Cartoon Network had switched over to being paid for, and I’d not been able to watch Dragon Ball Z for a long while. I read all three that same night, and whilst it would be a long time before I was able to get more volumes, it did start me reading manga in general and I would go on to read several other series over the years and would discover some stories that have stuck with me ever since.
In writing this I’ve even unlocked some long forgotten memories, one being of the time we were visiting family in Italy and a television advert came on to promote a Dragon Ball Z multi-part magazine collection that would slowly build up a set of the DVDs (the first time I’d seen this concept). I was supremely jealous of this and made sure that whenever we visited a shop that holiday that I kept my eyes open for a copy or two.
Another is how when in France on holiday with my family I found a vending machine that would drop out capsules containing random miniature Dragon Ball Z toys that I spent way too much on. But the one that sticks out in my head the most is actually my very first exposure to Akira Toriyama’s work, even before that first episode of Dragon Ball Z aired. A few years before, whilst still in primary school, a friend brought in a stack of Dragon Ball Z cards that she got when visiting her family in Japan. I was enraptured by the designs and the artwork, and she ended up giving me a holographic Imperfect Cell card. A card I kept for years and have since sadly lost.
I may not be a ‘weeb’ by any means, I don’t dedicate my life to reading manga or watching anime, but I always have time for them both. Japanese comic and animation have become genres that I love and that mean a lot to me, and is art that has helped to shape me into the person I am today and it all stems back to Akira Toriyama’s work. That’s why when the news broke that he’d passed it made me cry a little. The first celebrity death that ever has. Akira Toriyama helped to make me into the person I am today, and the memories connected to his creations are some of the only ones from my teens that aren’t painful to me. So for that all I can say is thank you so much Akira, you’ve touched my life in wonderful ways, and the lives of many others. You will be sorely missed.
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