It's very important to take time off from the cutting edge of whatever nonsense I've managed to dig out of the garbage bin of the Internet and convince myself is 'news' in order to get back to a point of real significance- the passing of one of the most important Mangkas of all time. Akira Toriyama, creator of Dragon Ball, the man who for many was the origin of wide spread anime breaking the niche divide and becoming something that even non weebs could discuss. Dragon Ball has grown into a behemoth that has influence fellow Manga and Anime as well as general pop culture and, most appropriately, gaming. From Toriyama's head, a wellspring of ideas erupted and though the man may no longer be with us you can bet that his creations will last long past him and touch so many more in the years to come. Toriyama really was one of those lucky few who managed to stamp his mark.
On a personal level I can actually note Dragon Ball as the very first Anime that I watched at the behest of my older brother in the days of the original dubs when I was but a sprout. And naturally there was absolutely nothing like Dragon Ball on TV at the time and there would come to be even less like it in the years proceeding. (At least from full Western made cartoons.) Heavy action was always a topic of contention around western cartoons, to the extent that even the beloved Spider-Man 90's cartoon with that Kick-ass electric guitar intro featured absolutely no punches thrown by the wall crawler- only kicks, grapples and body throws. (Apparently the censors weren't foresightful enough to take the basics of Judo into account.) As such, when there came a show of insanely exciting, over the top, adrenaline fuelled, action like Dragon Ball- it was the sort of show everyone talked about.
By the age of Dragon Ball Z, even in a tiny town on the outskirts of London, that show was just one of those things you were expected to have knowledge of. It would be weirder not to have knowledge of Goku, or to have slapped about in a Budokai or two along the way. (That is the long-lived fighting game franchise featuring adaptations of the show and cast that just so happened to be the first fighting game that I ever played. Shame it's intricacies never quite rubbed off on me- I suck at fighting games.) I remember jokingly referring to the show as 'Dragon Ball Zed' with my friends afterclass during secondary school and having a passing teacher who didn't even know me that well correct my foul grammar- that's how well known that franchise was!
As such, everyone knew when the Dragon Ball Evolution movie dropped, how much of a desperately westernised and corporatized trash fire it was. Which ended up being one of my first introductions to the ideas of cultural marketing and the nearly consistently bad 'concessions' that Eastern media was always forced to make in order to be considered 'viable' over in the west. A topic I would become fascinated by, which would be one of many impetus' that would get me into reaching that sort of issue of the years and somewhere along the line would get me writing about the Entertainment industry to a nauseatingly frequent degree as I am doing now. Which means that yes, even in it's absolute worst state Dragon Ball has it's way of influencing my life.
Of course, as the legend goes it was also that colossal 'missing of the point' of the Dragon Ball property that spurred Toriyama out of retirement and into creating more Dragon Ball content, leading to the birth of Dragon Ball Super. Much of his later life was spurred on his creative passions in a way that few can enjoy as that spark leaves them, but Akira was fiery- it seemed. Ever inspired and drawn to newer ventures. Dragon Ball still received the odd movie and event even as late as a few years ago as it's allure just could not be shaken off by those bitten by the bug so long ago. And beloved characters were being birthed in the later seasons too! Beerus got almost as much love as Majin Buu back in the day- and that's saying something for a franchise as long toothed as this one!
And through all that time Toriyama never lost interested in the games industry. Just last year we received the reveal trailer for a new game created in partnership with the creator set in another one of his universes- Sand Land. Borrowing his iconic visual style, the Manga protrayed a post-war desert-apocalypse full of typically fun and curious looking characters on a quest to discover a legendary spring. The hero even looks like a pink-reskin of Gohan, amusingly enough. And honestly, this sort of looks like the most ambitious game based on one of the man's properties yet- it seems to be this open world adventure with customisation and crafting with dashes of vehicular combat. He wanted to bring more of his stories to the people- now that work will continue without him.
Just this April we'll see the release of this game, the last to be worked on with the man in tow, and I imagine that the fanbase who revered him will see this as one last hurrah to his memory. Personally I still revere the Dragon Ball gaming franchise for birthing the single best looking anime game ever- Dragon Ball Fighterz- a title that managed to perfectly capture the iconic rough line animation style of the fast-paced show and bring it to active life. Even in all the shows I see trying to learn from the Dragon Ball Z art style, none managed to capture that special flourish quite so well. (Probably purposefully- doing such would be pretty much cut-and-dry plagiarism, wouldn't it?)
This marks the death of a third legendary Mangka in recent years- but at the very least this seems to be a man who reached a satisfactory level of fulfilment in his life, as did the Yu-Gi-Oh creator who literally passed during an act of extreme heroism saving a persons actual life. Right now it's only the Berserk creator who died with his masterpiece work unfinished, leaving a hole in the hearts of fans who will never come to the climax that Guts deserved. Then again, with the multiple decades the Manga was in development for, I'm sure many of them had passed away in the long wait whilst it was still active anyway. It's just jarring to see these modern comic creators die so frequently, like something special in the industry is finally snuffing out. At least the Manga industry, like few others around it, can boast a ready wave of newer creators to take up the creative mantle. Here's hoping just a few of them can one day prove as influential as Toriyama.
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