Dragon Ball (and consequently, Dragon Ball Z) was the first anime show I watched as a kid. I was glued to our old-school TV, soaking up harmful CRT radiation, waiting for boring-ass shows on then RPN-9 to be done so I could watch the Kamehameha that Goku launched two episodes back to finally land. So you can understand why a piece of my childhood died today when I learned that Dragon Ball’s creator, Akira Toriyama, died last week at the age of 68, as announced by the Dragon Ball Official X (Twitter) account.

Information ; Dear Friends and Partnershttps://t.co/85dXseckzJ pic.twitter.com/aHlx8CGA2M

— DRAGON BALL OFFICIAL (@DB_official_en) March 8, 2024

His stated cause of death was an acute subdural hematoma, aka a clot in the brain. Eagle-eyed readers will notice that his death was actually a week ago, and it’s likely that the family delayed the announcement so that they could grieve, privately, as they should, away from the prying eyes of the public during this difficult time.

The statement on X (previously Twitter) mentioned that Toriyama was actively working on a wide variety of projects up to his death, which we’re assuming includes work on the manga (which is still going) as well as other animated projects.

While Toriyama is remembered by millenials and Gen Xer’s alike because of Dragon Ball, his body of work encompasses a wide variety of media, from manga to anime to video games. He worked on Chrono Trigger, Sand Land and Dragon Quest among others, his visual style instantly recognizable to his fans.

Akira Toriyama was one of a kind, and his death and loss will resonate through the millions of fans that have consumed his work; while Dragon Ball as a franchise will soldier on without him, it simply won’t be the same.