Akira Toriyama, father of Dragon Ball and Arale, has died

If you were a child in the 1980s, you most likely learned the meaning of paradox by watching Dr. Slump and Arale, a very current zany comedy regarding how imperfect machines can be and how desperate the men who rely on machines are. If, however, you grew up in the Nineties, your self-irony is the result of Dragon Ball, a kind of kung-fu soap opera which is ultimately a praise to diversity, to inclusion, or even better to “fusion”. In either case, you have to thank Akira Toriyama, master of Japanese manga and anime, who died at the age of 68 due to a subdural hematoma.

An author of 260 million copies

The disappearance dates back to last March 1st, but the news has only been released now, in perfect coherence with the spirit of an author who, in life, knew how to take ideas from everywhere but left nothing to chance. An author still in full swing: «It is with deep regret that we announce his passing. We know that he still had several works in production with his usual great enthusiasm,” reads a note from publisher Shueisha. An author capable of selling 260 million copies worldwide.

Akira Toriyama (Photo by JIJI Press / AFP)

The debut of Wonder Island

Born in Nagoya, a city in the Chūbu region on the island of Honshū in Japan, Toriyama’s career as a mangaka began at the age of 20, when he sent his first works to Weekly Shōnen Jump magazine. His first published comic was Wonder Island in 1978, the story of a former World War II kamikaze pilot stranded on a Pacific island. However, notoriety comes thanks to Dr. Slumpserialized by the Weekly Shōnen Jump magazine from 1980 to 1984. We are near Astro Boy, a sacred text of Japanese graphic literature, but there is nothing serious: Dr. Slump is an unlikely scientist who lives in an unlikely «Penguin Village », where the superheroes are old (Suppaman) and the poops are pink and can smile.

Arale, the praise of paradox

To combat loneliness, Slump builds himself a robot daughter, Arale, but it doesn’t turn out exactly as he would like: there is a vision defect, correctable with glasses, and that’s the least of it. Because then there is an immense strength and speed that must still be “managed” by a little girl. That, as soon as she can, he takes off his head and dribbles with it shouting “Ciriciao, folks!” faced with her father’s desperation that he would only like to make a good impression on the charming little teacher. For Toriyama Dr. Slump it is a success with 35 million copies sold and a Shōgakukan award won. And, thanks to Toei Animation’s adaptation, it comes to us too.

The Rise of Dragon Ball

Manga in Dragon Ball (AFP)

Continuing to mix high and low culture – The monkey, a fundamental novel of Chinese literature and films by Jackie Chan – Toriyama invents Dragon Boy, the first incarnation of Dragon Ball, originally published on Fresh Jump in 1983. The hero is Son Goku, this boy who is actually the monkey sacred of Wu Ch’êng-ên: practices martial arts and aspires to asceticism, then meets a girl named Bulma and joins her in the search for the seven dragon balls and more. Published in Weekly Shōnen Jump, Dragon Ball it was an immediate success at home and then abroad. The comic series has sold over 150 million copies in Japan alone, making it one of the most successful manga of all time. As in the case of Dr. SlumpToei Animation adapts it into an animated series, with episodes broadcast on Japanese television from 1986 to 1989. And then, as often happens when we talk regarding mass culture, the success becomes something else: merchandising, video game, cosplay.