Akira Toriyama, the Japanese manga artist behind the global phenomenon "Dragon Ball", has passed away at age 68.
Akira had first gain fame as a manga artist based on his comedy manga "Dr. Slump". Then in the early 80s, an editor noticed Toriyama's love for Kung Fu films, and he recommended him to create a manga based on martial arts. So Akira Toriyama created Dragon Ball in 1983. Its central character, Goku (and later his son Gohan), was based loosely on the famous Chinese 16th century novel "Journey to the West", and the character of "Sun Wukong" or the Monkey King. In the late 90s, the rights to Dragon Ball Z anime was bought by US production company Funimation, which released the anime series on Cartoon Network's "Toonami". This set off an anime craze among kids and Japanese anime and manga soon became a popular hit thanks to Dragon Ball. For years, "Dragon Ball" would be the top search item for internet search engines, an indication of its popularity.
Now there have been earlier anime that enjoyed success in the US, like "Astro Boy" or "Speed Racer", but anime remain by and large, a very niche interest in the US, until Dragon Ball came along and opened the eyes of American kids to the wonder of anime and manga.
The broad appeal of anime hits that many Americans love today, like Demon Slayer, Naruto, One Piece, etc, can be trace first to the arrival of Dragon Ball in the US. RIP.
www.msn.com/en-us/health/other/dragon-ball-creator-akira-toriyama-dies-at-68/ar-BB1jwORg
