In a devastating blow to the whole manga and anime community, the official Dragon Ball account on X revealed through an open letter released on Friday — March 8, 2024 — that the franchise’s creator and genre-defining mangaka Akira Toriyama passed away on March 1 due to an acute subdural hematoma. He was 68 and would celebrate his 69th anniversary on April 5.
The World Mourns Akira Toriyama
According to the open letter, which you can read in full below, a private ceremony was held for the mangaka. The letter also asked fans and members of the media to respect the privacy of his family during this difficult time.
Although it is unknown how many projects the creator was working on, we can count his work as a supervisor for the Dragon Ball Super manga as one of them. Toriyama also worked directly in the production of the upcoming Dragon Ball Daima anime series, set to debut in the fall.
After the release of the letter, many famous mangakas, such as Naruto‘s Masashi Kishimoto and One Piece‘s Eiichiro Oda, released statements mourning the passing of Akira Toriyama. In their letters, both authors talked about how important he was in their lives, as well as how much they valued his friendship.
Dragon Quest Game Designer Yuji Horii (who worked with Akira Toriyama on all of the currently released Dragon Quest titles and Chrono Trigger) and Zetman‘s creator Masakazu Katsura also released statements. You can read all statements by clicking here. If you don’t understand Japanese, make sure to either enable or use your browser’s automatic translation.
As avid fans of his work and of the impact Mr. Toriyama had all over the world, we at The Nerd Stash share our deep condolences to his family and to all fans also suffering from his passing.
