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Akira Toriyama, creator of “Dragon Ball” series and other popular anime, dies at 68
Akira Toriyama, the creator of the best-selling Dragon Ball and other popular anime who influenced Japanese comics, has died, his studio said Friday. He was 68.
Toriyama’s Dragon Ball manga series, which started in 1984, has sold millions of copies globally and was adapted into hugely popular animated TV shows, video games and films.
Toriyama died March 1 of a blood clot in his brain, Bird Studio said in a statement.
“He was working enthusiastically on many projects, and there was still much he was looking forward to accomplishing,” the studio wrote.
Only his family and very few friends attended his funeral, the BBC reported, citing a statement from the Dragon Ball website.
“He would have many more things to achieve. However, he has left many manga titles and works of art to this world,” his studio said. “We hope that Akira Toriyama’s unique world of creation continues to be loved by everyone for a long time to come.”
A new TV adaptation of Toriyama’s “Sand Land,” a desert adventure story released in 2000 and later adapted into a 2023 anime movie, is due to be released on Disney+ in the spring.
Messages of condolences and grief from fellow creators and fans filled social media.
Eiichiro Oda, creator of the blockbuster manga “One Piece,” said Toriyama’s presence was like a “big tree” to younger artists.
“He showed us all these things manga can do, a dream of going to another world,” Oda said in a statement. His death leaves “a hole too big to fill,” Oda added.
Bird Studio thanked fans for more than 40 years of support. “We hope that Akira Toriyama’s unique world of creation continues to be loved by everyone for a long time to come.”
Born in Aichi prefecture in central Japan in 1955, Toriyama made his manga debut in 1978 with the adventure comic “Wonder Island,” published in the Weekly Shonen Jump magazine. His “Dr. Slump” series, which started in 1980, was his first major hit.
STR/JIJI Press/AFP via Getty Images
It made him a celebrity, but Toriyama avoided the spotlight. In 1982, he told Japanese public broadcast NHK: “I just want to keep writing manga.”
Dragon Ball, the story of a boy named Son Goku and his quest for seven magical balls that can make wishes come true, has sold 260 million copies altogether, according to the studio.
Toriyama also designed characters for the video game series Dragon Quest. He received awards in the manga industry and beyond, including France’s Knight of the Order of Arts and Letters.
“Dragon Ball” success provided acceptance
Toriyama was already famous to comic fans in the early 1980s with “Dr. Slump” but he won manga immortality with the global sensation and Japanese success story that is “Dragon Ball.”
“‘Dragon Ball’ is like a miracle, given how it helped someone like me who has a twisted, difficult personality do a decent job and get accepted by society,” Toriyama said in a rare interview in 2013.
“I don’t like socializing, so much so that I have more animals than friends,” he said.
Toriyama encapsulated the secret of his prodigious output in the 2013 interview with Japan’s Asahi Shimbun daily in one key discipline: meeting deadlines.
“This is because I had previously worked as a designer in a small advertising agency and had seen and experienced first-hand how much trouble people can get into if deadlines are missed, even slightly,” he said.
But he admitted it was hard: “Manga requires me to draw a lot of the same images. I tend to get bored easily, so this was fun but mostly tough. I wished many times it would end sooner.”
“I just hope that readers will have a fun time reading my works,” he said.
Toriyama said the scale of his success had taken him by surprise.
“When I was drawing the series, all I ever wanted to achieve was to please boys in Japan.”
AFP contributed to this report.
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With Christmas only a few days away, many Americans may be dreaming of a white Christmas, but few will end up walking in a winter wonderland. The warm and above-average temperatures in the weather forecast across the continental U.S. for Christmas week of 2024 are expected to keep any precipitation that falls as rain, not snow, for many parts of the country.
Where is most likely to get snow on Christmas?
If you’re looking for fluffy white flakes, some spots have a better chance than others.
This year, the only parts of the U.S. likely to see a white Christmas will be in the Rocky Mountains and along the U.S. border with Canada. That includes some northern areas of North Dakota, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, upstate New York, Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine.
Weather forecast for holiday travel
For those who are trying to travel on Monday, the more difficult regions will be in the Upper Midwest and in the northern Rockies. Falling snowflakes can be found in states like Idaho, western Montana, northern Minnesota, Wisconsin and northern Michigan. Interstate travel will be hazardous through parts of I-15, I-90, I-84, I-94 and I-75.
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The wintry weather conditions shift from the Great Lakes region into the Northeast on Tuesday. Cold air pushes through to bring upwards of a half a foot of snow to the interior Northeast.
Moisture from the Gulf of Mexico will bring rain showers to the Mississippi Valley. In the West, the next atmospheric river will deliver rain to the lower elevations, with snow falling in the Cascade Mountains. Hazardous interstate travel conditions will be found along I-5, I-90, I-94, I-80, I-81 and even parts of I-95 up the East Coast.
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Map of snow forecast for Christmas Day 2024
On Wednesday, Christmas Day, not many locations will see the fresh snowfall of picture-book holidays.
The definition of a “white Christmas” by the National Weather Service is having at least 1 inch of snow on the ground on Christmas morning. The only areas likely to meet that qualification on Christmas Day this year will be in the Rockies and along the U.S.-Canada border.
The moisture from the atmospheric river in the West will move into the Rockies to bring light snow to the higher elevations.
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Elsewhere, rain showers stick around in the Mississippi Valley, making for a soggy Christmas Day. Temperatures are forecast to be well above the freezing mark most places, which means precipitation will mainly be rain. Messy travel on Christmas could be found along Interstate 40, I-55, I-40, I-70, I-80 and I-90.
On Thursday, the next round of weather moves into the Northwest. Lower elevation rain can be expected along I-5, while in the interior Northwest.heavier snowfall is forecast in the Cascades and down into the Sierra Nevada mountains. Lingering rain showers continue in the Mississippi Valley and into parts of the Midwest.
Are white Christmases getting rarer?
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has tracked snowfall data across the U.S. for years, and says there have been some notable changes over the past four decades, “consistent with the reality of long-term warming.”
When comparing the average probability of Christmas snowfall from 1981-2010 to the period from 1991-2020, NOAA says, “More areas experienced decreases in their chances of a white Christmas than experienced increases.”
The NOAA map below shows areas with the highest historic probability of seeing a white Christmas. Areas shaded in light blue have a higher than average chance, while the northern and mountain locations marked in white have historically had snow on Christmas at least 90% of the time.
NOAA/Climate.gov
You can explore an interactive version of the map on NOAA’s website here.