Dragon Ball Creator, Dragon Quest Character Designer Akira Toriyama Passes Away

Akira Toriyama’s production company Bird Studio announced that the manga creator and character designer passed away earlier this month at the age of 68. The studio provided the following statement on his passing:

Dear friends and partners,

We are deeply saddened to inform you that manga creator Akira Toriyama passed away on March 1st due to acute subdural hematoma. He was in age of 68.

It’s our deep regret that he still had several works in the middle of creation with great enthusiasm. Also, he would have many more things to achieve.

However, he has left many manga titles and works of art to this world.

Thanks to the support of so many people around the world, he has been able to continue his creative activities for over 45 years. We hope that Akira Toriyama’s unique world of creation continues to be loved by everyone for a long time to come.

We inform you this sad news, with gratefulness for your kindness during his lifetime.

Funeral service was held with his family and very few relatives. Following his wishes for tranquility, we respectflly inform you that we would not accept flowers, condolences gifts, visiting, offerings, and others. Also, we ask you to refrain from conducting interviews with his family.

Future plan for commemorate gathering is not decided, we will let you know when it’s confirmed.

We deeply thank you for your understanding and support as always.

Bird Studio
Capsule Corporation Tokyo

Akira Toriyama was the creator of numerous manga series, rising to mainstream prominence with 1980’s Dr. Slump. His most famous work was the Dragon Ball series, which received its own immensely popular anime franchise as well as many video game spin-offs and adaptations, including the recent Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot. Other works include Sand Land, which has its own RPG adaptation launching in April of this year. He also worked as the character designer for the Dragon Quest series throughout its history from the original 1986 title, as well as being character designer for Chrono Trigger and Mistwalker’s Blue Dragon series, and is regarded as a major influence on artists and writers across the world.