An artist with a long history with dragons goes way too soon.
One of Japan’s most prominent artists in both the manga and gaming realms has died.
The official social media for the Dragon Ball franchise confirmed tonight that Akira Toriyama, the original artist behind the series, passed away on March 1, a little more than a month before his 69th birthday. The cause of death was an acute subdural hematoma (blood on the brain).
Toriyama gained prominence in Japan in the late 1970s with his work on the Dr. Slump manga, before creating Dragon Ball – his most famous work internationally – in 1984. In the video game realm, Toriyama was the main character designer for the Dragon Quest franchise, which dovetailed into also doing character design for the seminal 1995 RPG Chrono Trigger and later the Blue Dragon games.
