And this day, we came across really gloomy and sad news, regarding the demise of Akira Toriyama – who was the mastermind behind Dragon Ball franchise. The event occurred some days ago, but the news was only said in public today leaving the ardent fans in synchronised grief till perpetuity.
Death of an artist is a tragedy of great loss to the agonistic fans, but smaller bruises are to unemployed field, though they do affect the scholars as precincts. Tributes have poured in from greats including Eiichiro Oda and Masashi Kishimoto where they pay homage to Toriyama and just how great Toriyama and his works were.
THE BEGINNING OF EVERYTHING
For creator of Naruto Masashi Kishimoto the works of Dr. Slump and Dragon Ball where consumed from his childhood and as he bid his good bye to Toriyama, he remembered how important Toriyama’s work used to be in his life to even the most bleak moments.
“Even when I was having a bad day, the weekly Dragon Ball made me forget about it. It helped me when I was feeling like a rustic and having nothing that one could seek shelter from,” Kishimoto said as reported by @SupaChronicles. “There was a period when I was studying at the college that Dragon Ball, this anime that I had included in my life far too long, came to an abrupt end. There was this awful vacuum of defining where a person should go and what they have to look forward too… But at the same time, it was an opportunity for me to admire the greatness of the master who has created one of the most popular franchises Dragon Ball. I wanted to make something like that too!”
Kishimoto further explained that it was Toriyama who made him want to be a manga artist. Kishimoto was no different; he rejoiced in drawing just like how impressionable little children do and was helpless like the way children look up to Toriyama who for Kishimoto was a ‘god of salvation.’
“I have just heard the news of, Master is no more, and it feels surreal and I don’t know even how to comprehend it as it is more gut wrenching than when Dragon ball was over. I do not have any idea how to cope with this void of feeling,” Kishimoto narrated.
A Message from Eiichiro Oda
It is with great sorrow that Eiichiro Oda, the writer and illustrator of One Piece, was also stricken with Toriyama’s death and therein they too had their own words of sorrow to share. Oda, like Kishimoto, was raised watching Dragon Ball and pooh-poohs down to timelines and phrases the time back when he was just one of the ‘new’ so there was Toriyama the already established adornments of the industry. “I feel as if a lot of joy something is missing, I don’t want to stay here, sad because I will never see you again. I enjoyed your creations from when I was a young boy. I cannot recall how many people there were when you first called my name. You first called me by my name and I was out Girlfriends with Kishimoto you and I and It was the first and last time you called us Cossic friends. In addition, I remember about the last discussion”.
Oda described how Dragon Ball was discriminating while in his youth, as reading manga at that moment was regarded as shameful. Toriyama was the key figure that started manga’s golden era, transforming and lifting the whole level of this art and making many other creators charge ize their aspirations.
“You should know that your influence was not only with regards to the manga sphere. Numerous creators irrespective of their fields picked drama from reading Dragon Ball week in and week out as their childhood.” “You are essentially a huge tree whose branches are outstretched all over the plats,” said Oda. No matter how big or small you are, for mangakas of our generation, when we got up on the same platform as you, worked and went about in the proximity of the legacy that you have created, it dawned on us how big this industry has been because of you.”
However, outside the manga industry Oda and Kishimoto both noted as well how Toriyama was nice, friendly and very down to earth. Using words of Oda, every person loved Toriyama not for his work only, but the man which is unseen in the work, which makes it more painful when he is gone.