comicbook.com/anime/news/dragon-ball-creator-akira-toriyama-dead-68/

Passes away at age 68. Awful stuff. His other baby that he made long ago with Shonen Jump, Sand Land is getting a game next month which I have preordered. No denying how crucial Toriyama's art is to the anime form and it's because of Dragonball that Anime was able to take it to the next level as a medium overseas so no doubt so many animation illustrators owe it to this man for what's he has done. His work with both Chrono Trigger and the Dragon Quest series also 1000% deserve recognition, he had a cartoony but iconic approach with the art he did.

(I put it in V&G because of his work with the Dragon Quest series that goes over 3 decades worth of his work as well as the classic Chrono Trigger cutscenes but I understand if this also deserves to be in Entertainment due to his work with Dragonball)

God damn, this absolutely sucks.

The Dragon Ball franchise is a big reason I got into anime, I think a big reason a lot of PW's regular anime posters got into anime. There's no denying his legacy, and the impact he's had on the business.

Good call, it's less likely to get buried.

We had that massive DBZ thread during the pandemic where I went into detail, but I was a massive DBZ fan. It took me awhile to get into it, but once Goku had to pull a Patrick Swayze and cheat death to save the world from an intergalactic terrorist group, I was all in. Then right after Goku/Vegeta AKA one of the all-time greatest sports entertainment spectacles ever, they managed to up the ante by sending the reserve graders on a death mission to a far off planet to take on an even more powerful shapeshifting enemy.

I didn't care that it took a dozen episodes to fix a lightbulb I was hooked and Toriyama milked a lot of money out of me. Moreso, he milked a lot of creativity and to keep myself entertained, I'd draw DBZ, I'd come up with board game/video game concepts with my tazo/pog collection so if nothing else I'm grateful that world was able to keep me company.

What's everyone's favourite DBZ Video Games? I have a tough time picking between:

Absolute legend. RIP

Did not like Dragon Ball but this dude pretty created what we would see as fantasy worlds in video games. DQ enemies are aso iconic.

I thought seeing it here was weird but dude provided art to an assload of games especially DQ and Chrono Trigger. That's a separate hof entry not counting what he did for Manga. No way is anime as big as it is in the west without him.

Mar 8, 2024 15:31:46 GMT @ness said:

I thought seeing it here was weird but dude provided art to an assload of games especially DQ and Chrono Trigger. That's a separate hof entry not counting what he did for Manga. No way is anime as big as it is in the west without him.

One of those it could go in either place as he's been huge for both genres of entertainment. Chrono Trigger is well heralded and the Dragon Quest series is iconic in Japan and has a niche elsewhere. 2 games/series that is part of the backbone of SquareEnix and for any JRPG fan, especially older ones. 

The open world Sand Land game is set to come out in April as well which takes new meaning given this news, game looks pretty good honestly. I have it preordered for PS5 as I got a good deal on it. Also a new reiteration of the series is coming to Netflix very soon IIRC.


(This game takes a whole new meaning after this passing)

Even though I am not a heavy anime head I still appreciate and recognize the older animes since I grew up on this stuff. I don't know if the anime/manga community has had this hard of a loss since Berserk's creator Miura passed away a few years ago, all the while the Berserk manga was growing traction despite never being fully done. 

And Big Pete the original Budokai series was super cool. As a kid, I tried to get into GT Final Bout but the game just wasn't that good. 


EDIT: Completely forgot he did artwork for Blue Dragon as well.

Mar 8, 2024 16:11:38 GMT Blindy said:

As a kid, I tried to get into GT Final Bout but the game just wasn't that good. 

I was trying to give Ness the iggy to talk about how he bought the greatest console of all just to play the original Budokai. I never actually played the original, but I dig the open world in 3 and I'm probably the only person who got something out of the board game in Budokai 2.

Was that game more common over there? It seemed like it was a collector's item here and they'd proudly display it and the first print of Ultimate Battle 22. I own the latter, but never played the former - always heard it was pretty bad. It's still something of an oddity here with the different voice cast, so I got to scratch it off my bucket list.

Did anyone ever play the Budokai Tenkaichi series where they had everyone? I think they came out after Budokai 3 which was when I tapped out of the series, but was pretty annoyed that didn't come out sooner. I would have been in heaven had it come out in 2001/02.

Yeah Budokai 1 was marketed somewhat and big for an anime series game. I played GT Final Bout a little bit more and it just didn't have much traction outside of being an arcade fighting game and one that wasn't even good. This game came out before the Buu saga even hit the states so we had no idea what or who a Majin Buu was(I botched the pronounciation of it's name so bad as a kid). Super Saiyan Lvl 3 & 4 Goku was in this game too and outside of early snippets of imported Japanese animation of his transformations during each of these phases during the early internet days, we had no idea who some of these people were as we still stuck on the long winded Cell saga.

Mar 8, 2024 16:34:12 GMT Blindy said:

Yeah Budokai 1 was marketed somewhat and big for an anime series game. I played GT Final Bout a little bit more and it just didn't have much traction outside of being an arcade fighting game and one that wasn't even good. This game came out before the Buu saga even hit the states so we had no idea what or who a Majin Buu was(I botched the pronounciation of it's name so bad as a kid). Super Saiyan Lvl 3 & 4 Goku was in this game too and outside of early snippets of imported Japanese animation of his transformations during each of these phases during the early internet days, we had no idea who some of these people were as we still stuck on the long winded Cell saga.

Sweet, how were you able to get your hands on GT Final Bout? Was it something you could rent at a Blockbuster?

That's something I always dug about DBZ, since the series was well and truly over by the time we got it, you'd incidentally come across new characters either in video games or toys and wonder what their role is on the show. It just gave you something more to look forward to.

Sandland looks so interesting. Love this guy's art style so may check it out.

Mar 8, 2024 16:47:53 GMT Big Pete said:

Mar 8, 2024 16:34:12 GMT Blindy said:

Yeah Budokai 1 was marketed somewhat and big for an anime series game. I played GT Final Bout a little bit more and it just didn't have much traction outside of being an arcade fighting game and one that wasn't even good. This game came out before the Buu saga even hit the states so we had no idea what or who a Majin Buu was(I botched the pronounciation of it's name so bad as a kid). Super Saiyan Lvl 3 & 4 Goku was in this game too and outside of early snippets of imported Japanese animation of his transformations during each of these phases during the early internet days, we had no idea who some of these people were as we still stuck on the long winded Cell saga.

Sweet, how were you able to get your hands on GT Final Bout? Was it something you could rent at a Blockbuster?

That's something I always dug about DBZ, since the series was well and truly over by the time we got it, you'd incidentally come across new characters either in video games or toys and wonder what their role is on the show. It just gave you something more to look forward to.

One of my friends had it or had a burned CD of it, I honestly forget the full story. I think the game was Japan only at the time IIRC. 

I do think the episodes got a bit much with the overproduction but I get it might have been a Toonami issue(The broadcast syndicate here in USA for DBZ). Like they have dialogue back and forth for like 5 episodes, 1 fireball happens, then it's another chase scene etc. DBZ was to me the 1st media to introduce the "Underpowered weak character loses it after trauma to become OP despite failures in the past" trope that so many forms of media from gaming to anime to TV/movies have. Gohan being deemed super strong in spurts due to his young age but never being able to fully put it together to save the ones he loved before snapping after seeing Android 16 die by Perfect Cell was excellent character development and one of the best cases of it in Anime. 

Picture says it all, so much modern and 00/10's anime really bit the apple of DBZ. I don't follow anime but I only recognize Fairy Tail, My Hero Academia, One Piece, Naruto, Full Metal Alchemist, Demon Slayer, Saitama/One Punch Man out of this group.  

Goku is there with Kenshiro, Guts and Yusuke for the OGs of 80/90's male anime protagonists. Kenshin and Spike Spiegel probably deserve a say too. Lupin the 3rd/Arsene Lupin prob gets over Guts TBH. 

Lemme see if I can do it.

Is the lower left Bakugo from My Hero? Otherwise I'm drawing a blank.

Usopp... I wanna say Elric the FMA... the main from Seven Deadly Sins the name is a blank... Gon from Hunter X Hunter.

Looping around to One Punch Man, Naruto, the cat from Fairy Tail not to be confused with Baker 's fairy tales. Not sure who is sniffing Goku's pits. Can't tell who the orange is, can't be Nami cuz this is BOY SCOUTS fool. Then Deku is the final circle. Sasuke being emo with Vegeta, then Roshi and Bulma observing from the porch.

Do I win anything for the highest score?

Oh yeah I forgot to mention Luffy.

I recognize like 3 people from Demon Slayer but I don't know their names. :lol:

Sanji perving on the chicks of Demon Slayer, MHA and Naruto is great though.

Oh I couldn't even see the girls on PW had to click full image.

Sanji, Ichigo... dunno who the blonde is, Sakura and floaty girl from MHA.

Hawk the pig, Chopper. Think that's everyone.

DBZ + Dragon Warrior= Absolute legend

RIP

Until now I never appreciated the similarity between the art style of Dragon Ball Z and the Dragon Quest games. Iconic work. I've not experienced much of his work first hand but the character design in games like Dragon Quest VIII and Chrono Trigger is outstanding.