Hello my friends. Welcome to another entry on my blog.
Today… I am compelled to do something different. Without a doubt, this is the most difficult blog posts I have ever written in my life, as difficult as the one I wrote when Luis Alfonso Mendoza passed away four years ago.
You know… Gohan’s voice actor on the Latin Spanish dub.
The truth is that I don’t know how to start, I could even write a whole thesis on Akira Toriyama and Dragon Ball, and it wouldn’t be enough. I apologize to all of you for not knowing how to express my words correctly in case I make a mistake. I’ll do my best.
I was on Friday, finishing my work shift, when suddenly, after watching a video on YouTube by one of the Spanish-speaking creators that I follow the most, I read some devastating news in one of his comments…
“Akira Toriyama passed away.”
I thought… NO! NO! NO! The first thing I did was go to Wikipedia, and I saw the tragic truth… Akira Toriyama passed away on March 1st. The truth is that I was paralysed, surprised, and destroyed. I could not believe it. Akira Toriyama had died. There was a hole in my soul… One of the people who had influenced my career as a Blogger and as a writer. A lifetime of watching Dragon Ball, Dragon Ball Z, Dragon Ball Super, and despite its infamy… Dragon Ball GT.
From the moment I saw a small photo, in a magazine called CLUB NINTENDO, where I saw Goku and Yamcha in an RPG style game. At first, I didn’t recognize either of them, but then I came across a series called Dragon Ball, although in Colombia they translated it – The Magical Dragon.
When did that happened? I think it was in 1994 or 1995.
The fact is that that would be the beginning of a large number of beautiful memories that I had in my childhood while watching Dragon Ball, from the Pilaf saga, to when Chichi married Goku. (I started by calling him Kuku. LOL) It was incredible, the fights, the characters, the constant choreography of Son Goku when he fought against the Red Ribbon soldiers, especially General Blue, or Tao Pai Pai, or the amazing battle against Piccolo Daimaku… you know… the “father” of the Piccolo we know. At that time, I didn’t think Dragon Ball could not be topped.
And it was not only Goku, but all the other characters, Bulma and her incredible genius, Yamcha and his shyness with which we had very funny moments, the tenderness of Puar, the perverted but endearing personality of Master Roshi, the power and the terrible grandeur shown by Tao Pai Pai, the redemption of Tenshinhan and Chaos. or the Martial Arts Tournament. And other moments… I spent hours watching all those beautiful episodes almost without blinking, something I didn’t think I could do.
And then Dragon Ball Z arrived.
Until then, the only anime I had really watched were Sailor Moon, Mazinger Z, Saint Seiya, Captain Tsubasa. Also, Magic Knight Rayearth and Card Captor Sakura, but these came later.
What I’m getting at with all this is that all the Dragon Ball entries, including Dragon Ball GT and Dragon Ball Super, have brought me many spectacular moments, many lights in my childhood and my adolescence, especially in the most difficult moments – I thought about the next chapter of Dragon Ball Z with my friends, and we all had a lot of fun and a lot of laughs.
I still heard in my mind Mind Power … Ki, with the incredible voices of Hironobu Kageyama and Yuka Satou ringing in my ears, especially when I am about to face my day-to-day life.
All of this was since 1999. And when I started writing, I thought about the teacher Akira Toriyama and the effervescent energy with which we watched all the episodes. Master Toriyama helped me awaken my creativity, he was one of the names that helped me get into anime, manga, and Japanese culture, and when I learned about his work on Dragon Quest, as well as Chrono Trigger, I knew that his great legacy went beyond the manga. But what really made me very happy was that, despite entering university and moving out, I always had Dragon Ball with me. I realized this when I returned to Colombia in 2018 after eight years.
One of the first things I did when I came back was watch Dragon Ball Super. And what a surprise I was with the quality of the series! So many things I didn’t think I’d see, so many characters I thought had disappeared, so many new adventures from Goku and Gohan.
And not to mention Vegeta… He has always impressed me, and to say it in these simple words is an understatement; Since his debut with Nappa, his battle against the soldier Zarbon, and his death and subsequent resurrection, Vegeta, along with Goku, Gohan, Piccolo, Trunks, Videl, and the others, is the face of both Dragon Ball and Akira Toriyama. Without a doubt, a great example of what an anti-hero should be when created.
I even wonder if great characters, like Prince Zuko from Avatar, or Shoto Todoroki, from My Hero Academia, were inspired by Vegeta… Who knows.
As I already said, I could spend hours talking about the incredible things I experienced in the company of this simple name… Akira Toriyama. I don’t think my life would have been what it is if it weren’t for him; he opened the doors to a lot of creative possibilities, from a genre that is as powerful as Western fantasy literature, to an art that I really enjoyed and continue to enjoy, and that perhaps I will enjoy beyond the grave.
All thanks to one name… Akira Toriyama. Like him, there will always be few.
But now, one of the things that makes me very happy is that now his name is in history, along with other greats, like Ozamu Tezuka, Shigeru Miyamoto, Hayao Miyazaki, Isao Takahata, and Akira Kurosawa.
My only regret is that I didn’t complete Dragon Ball Super. I disrespected the master by not doing so, and now that he has died, I have to be grateful to him for the impact he has had, not only on me, but on generations before and after.
Let us unite together, so that the sensei’s memory lives forever.
And I want to finish with a couple more sentences. Thanks to Dragon Ball and Akira Toriyama, I will always know how to direct my work thanks to these wonderful characters, thanks to their evolution, and to the events of battle after battle.
I hope to take advantage of all those beautiful lessons, as well as the beauty of Dragon Ball in the coming years; until then…
Thank you, Master Toriyama. You lived like a genius; you died like a legend.
Whatever happens… Thank you.
Jainituos Presents 