The gaming, manga, and anime industry recently lost a gem as Japanese manga and character artist Akira Toriyama breathed his last on March 1, 2024. Toriyama’s death came as a shock to many since he was just 68 and even had a few projects lined up for a 2024 release. However, the BBC has reported that his death was due to acute subdural hematoma, a severe condition that causes internal hemorrhage or bleeding near the brain.
In the wake of Toriyama’s death, the Video Games News Website Gematsu took to their X (previously Twitter) account to share a statement from Dragon Quest Creator Yuji Horii. Horii, who shared a close relationship with Akira Toriyama since the latter worked as a character designer on Dragon Quest from 1968 to 2024, claimed he still could not believe the news, stating,
“I am still in overwhelming disbelief at the news of Toriyama’s sudden death.”
He then went on to mention how he knew Toriyama from the time he worked as a writer on Shonen Jump and that association gradually led to the latter coming on as a character artist for the Dragon Quest franchise.
While it is evident that Dragon Quest would not have become the popular franchise it is today if not for Akira Toriyama, Yuji Horii acknowledged the character artist’s contribution, as he said, “The History of Dragon Quest goes hand in hand with Toriyama’s character designs.” Furthermore, Horii also talked about how late Dragon Quest composer Koichi Sugiyama shared a wonderful friendship with Toriyama, and it was difficult to accept that both had passed away.
What Games Did Akira Toriyama work on other than Dragon Quest?
While Akira Toriyama entered the gaming industry in 1986 as a character artist for Dragon Quest, he is best known as the creator of Dragon Ball. Hence, it was natural for the Japanese artist to design several characters for the 1986 game Dragon Ball: Shenlong no Nazo. However, that was just the beginning, as he designed the character Dark Raid for the 1991 title Famicom Jump II: Saikyō no Shichinin before jumping into 1995’s Chrono Trigger, arguably his most famous work in the gaming sphere.
Working on character and setting designs for Chrono Trigger soon made Toriyama a household name in the gaming industry, and he moved on to work as a character designer for Tobal No. 1 and Tobal 2 in 1996 and 1997, respectively. Likewise, from 2006 to 2009, Akira Toriyama found himself working as a character artist for the Blue Dragon series, and readers will be interested to know that he even voiced the character Toripo in 2009’s Blue Dragon: Awakened Shadow.
In the years that followed, Toriyama signed on as a character artist for several titles, including Chōsoku Henkei Gyrozetter (2012), Dragon Ball FighterZ (2018), Dragon Ball Legends (2018), Jump Force (2019), and Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot (2020). However, his last contribution to the industry was in the 2021 RPG Fantasian, where he designed a diorama, later used to develop an entire level.
Akira Toriyama’s death took everyone in shock and left a vacuum that would be impossible to fill. However, his incredible creations will keep inspiring future generations to follow their dreams.
