Dragon Ball Creator Akira Toriyama’s Final Comments Revealed At The Tokyo Anime Award Festival 2024
Toriyama opens up about the truth about Dragon Ball Daima and his deteriorating health in his final comments.
Since the news of his passing away on Mar 8th, a lot of fans asked themselves, “Why didn’t nobody talk about Toriyama’s health issues if he had them for a year??” Even in his comments to Dragon Ball Daima, he didn’t say anything. And the whole world said, “Well, we will never hear another Toriyama comment after that again”.
Or so they thought.
It seems like the staff members kept Toriyama’s FINAL statement in secret until he was announced to have won the Lifetime Achievement Award at the Tokyo Anime Award Festival 2024 on Mar 8, 2024.
It was already announced to HIM on Dec 14, 2023 but he was supposed to have received the award on stage from Mar 8–11. But alas, fate had other plans in mind…
Nevertheless, the staff members released the final comments in the pamphlet for the award show. In it, Toriyama states that he was embarrassed to be receiving an award for anime because he felt doesn’t deserve it as he didn’t even watch much of the Dragon Ball anime, let alone other shows.
He talks about his fondest memories of meeting with the late Toyo Ashida for Kosuke-sama Rikimaru-sama and claims that he was the main inspiration behind the modern Toriyama art style.
Finally, he talks about Daima and mentions his deteriorating health. He then thanks everyone for supporting him and promises to create more Dragon Ball content as long as he’s able to (sadly he can’t anymore).
The full translation of Akira Toriyama’s FINAL words (as of now) is as follows:
“To be honest, I have never had much interest in anime, and even when my work was made into animated format, I feel embarrassed to admit that I did not watch much of it, apologies to the staff. About 10 years ago, out of the blue, I was asked to revise the script for the Dragon Ball animated film, and I drew some simple designs for the characters and backgrounds. I thought, ‘I can leave the difficult parts for the staff’ (laughs). Thus, it is truly embarrassing that I am the recipient of the Tokyo Anime Awards Festival’s Lifetime Achievement Award. Thank you very much.
One of my most unforgettable memories in animation works is when I met the late animator, Toyo Ashida for an anime project called ‘Kosuke-sama Rikimaru-sama,’ which was produced for the Shonen Jump Original. This project did not have a manga, so a meeting was held. He was an amiable person and we quickly bonded, and every time I saw his drawing style, I was moved by his careful and swift touch. I thought, ‘Alright, I guess this kind of touch I need to speed up the drawing process and make Dragon Ball look much smoother.’ The drawing time was reduced to about two-thirds of what it used to be. We influenced each other in many ways, and I think it was a truly fulfilling time. I pray for the repose of Ashida-san’s soul.
Dragon Ball DAIMA, which will be rolled out in 2024, was originally planned to be an original anime series without me, but as I gave advice here and there, I ended up getting deeply involved with the project without realizing it. I was not only involved in the overall storyline, but also in the worldview, character design, mechas, and other aspects. I hope you will enjoy watching the series, which I believe is not only intense and action-packed, but also full of plenty of substance.
Finally, I would like to thank everyone who has supported me so far! I am not sure how much more I can do, as I am not very confident about my health, probably due to my lifestyle when I was younger, but I will try my best to create more interesting pieces of work, so please continue to support me!”
About Dragon Ball:
Dragon Ball is a manga series by Akira Toriyama. It first began its serialization in Shueisha’s Weekly Shonen Jump magazine in 1984.
The manga was later adapted into a multitude of animated series, movies, and games.
The franchise consists of five different anime series, about 21 animated movies, and around 10 games spanning various platforms, from Famicon to Playstation and Xbox.
Synopsis of the Dragon Ball anime:
Goku Son is a young boy who lives in the woods all alone—that is, until a girl named Bulma runs into him in her search for a set of magical objects called the “Dragon Balls.”
Since the artefacts are said to grant one wish to whoever collects all seven, Bulma hopes to gather them and wish for a perfect boyfriend.
Goku happens to be in possession of a dragon ball, but unfortunately for Bulma, he refuses to part ways with it, so she makes him a deal: he can tag along on her journey if he lets her borrow the dragon ball’s power.
With that, the two set off on the journey of a lifetime.
Source: Twitter
