Insight: The Legacy Of Akira Toriyama
Legacy: The long-lasting impact of particular events, actions, etc. that took place in the past, or of a person’s life.
Legacy holds various meanings for different individuals. Many aspire to leave behind a lasting impact for others to uphold in our absence. One notable figure whose legacy transcends international boundaries, comparable to the influence of Akira Toriyama, deserves a moment of reflection. Allow me to delve into the profound impact of a man whose reach arguably surpasses that of 95% of other media entities globally.
Akira Toriyama definitely did not start out as a manga megastar. While most everyone knows him from Dragon Ball (don’t worry, we got a lot of time here to talk about that), he started with Wonder Island in 1978. Wonder Island was the prototype to what you would come to see in Dragon Ball, with the fluid character designs, and a sense of adventure. Wonder Island failed hard, despite getting a second chance from his editor at the time giving him a second shot with this manga.
His next try was a lot more successful with Dr. Slump in 1981. This was an absolute hit with the audience, making the main character Arale Norimaki a star. You can see Toriyama’s iconic character designs continue to solidify, with a lot of bold colors, giant eyes, and wild hair. Arale rode Toriyama’s fame to be featured in a couple of episodes of Dragon Ball, as well as showing up in Dragon Ball Dokkan Battle. You can tell as you’re reading, Toriyama is about to god damn cook.
1984 was the year where Toriyama put his work in the oven, and he cooked his ass off for an absolute masterpiece. Dragon Ball launched, where his influences of Journey to the West and martial arts settle in, and showed Japan what an absolute creative genius he was. Lightning was caught in a bottle, because the popularity grew exponentially year over year.
Once Dragon Ball got animated, it quickly became one of the best anime of all time. From Goku’s introduction to the scene where Goku met Bulma’s…girly bits, to the iconic Budokai Tenkaichi tournaments, Goku’s journey to be the strongest in the world. Goku single-handedly taking on the red ribbon army was a benchmark in storytelling. Watching Krillin get killed after the second tournament was a giant “what the hell is going on?” moment, because he’s supposedly second to only Goku. Who would be strong enough to merc him? Then we get introduced to Demon King Piccolo and his goon squad. Watching Goku get his revenge on Demon King Piccolo, then moving on to defeat Ma Junior in the third of three Budokai Tenkaichi tournaments was one of the first times I felt relief when a series ended.
The timeskip from the end of Dragon Ball to the beginning of Dragon Ball Z is an example of how to do a goddamn time skip right. It shows progress in the characters and the world, and we get an update to Goku in the form of his son, Gohan. I do not care. If you were a dude who grew up in the late 90’s through the mid 2000’s, you watched Dragon Ball Z.
Most people remember Dragon Ball Z when it came out on Toonami on Cartoon Network. But real OGs like me will remember when this gem showed up on WPIX channel 11 in the New York market, I got to see the original Creative Productions dub which was partnered with Pioneer. When I was in middle school all those many moons ago, I would get ready for school so early, just so my friend and I can vibe on DBZ before school…at 630 in the morning. For a while, Dragon Ball Z was my all-time favorite show.
This initial run had the first 53 episodes, running up to Goku arrives on Namek. The word of mouth from this show in my school was absolutely on fire. Not only were the nerds talking about it, but so were the jocks, trend followers, and everyone in between. When I was a young troublemaker, it was the first thing I was able to do to connect to people outside of my small social circle. It was different from the overabundance of Scooby-Doo reruns. It was different from seeing the same story of The Simpsons from week to week. It was different from anything in animation for the western audience. The character designs were insane. The settings were so different. The 50-episode story arc got me so fucking invested.
Then one day in 1998, the game changed. Dragon Ball Z got taken off the air from syndication, and some divine intervention (it was King Kai, you scrubs) got DBZ back on the air…for god damn Cartoon Network’s fledgling anime block Toonami. This was a block that was struggling, because it was showing reruns of Transformers, Voltron, Thundercats (my holy trinity), and needed an infusion of something new. And Toriyama’s magna opus was ripe for the taking.
Toriyama was the single biggest influence in anime because of Toonami. The influence has been seen all over pop culture and modern media. Without Dragon Ball, Toonami dies a lot sooner than 2007. Anime never hits in force. There are no big theatrical releases for the Evangelion rebuild movies. Demon Slayer stays in Japan. Crunchyroll and Funimation don’t turn into industry leaders. The influence of American culture changed. WatchMojo wouldn’t inundate our YouTube feeds with their uneducated, nonsensical top 10 lists. Toriyama was the man who crafted the worldwide takeover of animation that anime became. Let me hit something for you. One Piece and Naruto would be nowhere near as influential or as much of a hit if Dragon Ball and Akira Toriyama did it first. I mean, it makes sense since Echiro Oda and Masashi Kishimoto sat under Toriyama’s learning tree and learned how to compose and write manga. If you want to read heartfelt messages, check out their messages to the GOAT. You can see how much they’re influenced by him.
Without Dragon Ball, the entire shonen genre doesn’t exist. We wouldn’t have two full bookshelves in Barnes and Noble and Books-a-Million. Toriyama created a genre of martial arts and action manga that’s still going strong with One Piece, Naruto, Bleach, My Hero Academia, and classics like YuYu Hakusho, Bo-Bobo, and even manga like Yu-Gi-Oh!, and Hikaru no Go all owe a debt of thanks to the super highway Toriyama paved. Dragon Ball crawled so Shonen Jump can shove manga out of it’s doors at 90 m.p.h. I only hope that Toriyama owned stock in the magazine.
Here’s the deal, though. The inspiration of the Dragon Ball franchise reaches into places you’d think would never be found. The writers of The Amazing World of Gumball use Dragon Ball influences so liberally, you would probably see them at least three times a week in reruns. “The Pest” had Gumball going Super Saiyan when Anais gets bullied in school. “The Fury” had the absolute best-looking fight in western television that wasn’t from Avatar: The Last Airbender.
Let’s go even deeper. Toriyama’s influence started out with the powder rangers here in America, sure. But almost 26 years later, you won’t see the influence deeper and more obvious than in the African American culture. If you go on YouTube, and look up “anime hood reviews,” holy shit you will find some of the best, most entertaining videos I’ve ever watched when it comes to anime commentary. Personally, I would look up BucketHatSplash. This dude borderline raps his entire video and has a flow that is so unique for his videos. And remember, drink some lemonade.
Let’s take this a bit further out. How many of you remember The Boondocks? Aaron McGruder’s masterpiece had fights inspired by anime that would probably never see the light of day in this weird alternate history lesson. On top of that, Let’s talk about Afro Samurai for a bit. Samuel L. Jackson was the lead in this stylized masterpiece about a samurai who was orphaned because his dad was killed for the Number One Headband. Again, without Toriyama and Dragon Ball’s influence on the world at the time, there is absolutely zero chance we get Afro Samurai at all, let alone with Samuel L Jackson in the lead.
One of the biggest fandoms I’ve been in over the last 20 years has been Godzilla. I will guarantee you this. In Japan, Godzilla was…wait, is a cultural phenomenon. But for the longest time, any time it was brought stateside, this poor monster has been edited to shit, given odd dubs, and the stories have been changed so that it “fits” for America. And then we get the absolute atrocity that was the 1998 Godzilla movie from Roland Emmerich. This pile of garbage was so bad, it soured Toho so bad that it took almost 20 years for Toho to let us try again with Legendary’s Monsterverse. Without Toriyama and Dragon Ball, we’re not getting the Monsterverse, and we’re not getting any of the Japanese movies as they should have been.
Hell, Toriyama’s influence has reached pro wrestling. If you’ve seen WWE in the last eight years, you know The New Day. Big E, Kofi Kingston, and Xavier Woods all did a Saiyan armor entrance at Wrestlemania 32. Also, Xavier Woods has King Kai’s symbol on his bicep, using King Kai’s influence and lessons for Goku as a reminder for life. Over in AEW, you have Keith Lee, who is the biggest anime I’ve seen in wrestling. This man has a shirt that has the New Japan Pro Wrestling logo, but instead of the lion, it’s an Ōzaru, or the Great Ape transformation from Dragon Ball Z. And yes, I have this fucking shirt. It was an instant buy. Also, his finishing move is the Spirit Bomb, which is a pop-up elevated powerbomb.
There are so many ways Akira Toriyama influenced the world. My life would have been completely different. I sure as shit wouldn’t be watching shows like The Simpsons or Family Guy, but there’s no anime, no manga, no Godzilla, and it’s very rare that there would be anything pro wrestling related. I’m not even talking about Toriyama’s influence on gaming, because he’s been the character designer for Chrono Trigger, Dragon Quest, Blue Dragon, and cult favorite fighters Tobal No. 1 and 2.
The news of Akira Toriyama ripped me a lot. Some friends from my day job told me as we were leaving Thursday night. I told them to shut the fuck up. There’s no way. I got home, and my newsfeed on Facebook, X, TikTok, were all on fire with the news. I couldn’t bring myself to say anything, because it’s just in shock. We had just gotten Dragon Ball back with Dragon Ball Super, and we have the manga finally picking up again with a story after retelling the awful story from Superhero. I’ve been excited to see where the manga goes after Moro and Granolah’s arc. The storytelling in the Granolah Arc stepped up so much. In fact, I would have guessed Toriyama took over for Toyotaro since the writing was so good. We got a story that was able to tell a story through the fighting instead of having to hand feed us every morsel in exposition. But Toriyama’s influence has been able to help Toyotaro start crafting stories that are fully his own, with the abilities that Toriyama taught. It only took 44 chapters to start seeing it. Even today, Toriyama is still influencing the mangaka of today.
It’s been a really sad few days. Honestly, the only thing that matters is that the family and close friends of Akira Toriyama are all okay. I don’t say the following a lot. The last time I said it anywhere was when Lemmy Kilmister passed away.
Rest in power, Toriyama-san. Hopefully, I’ll be able to finally meet you on Snake Way.
