Goodnight, Akira Toriyama

a SciFriday Farewell

I remember racing home from school to watch Dragonball Z. I remember blank pages that I filled with Goku and Vegeta and Trunks.

I remember trying to draw those pants especially. All the twists and folds. Spending hour after hour tracing and then trying it myself. Had my disappointment with my inability been less, maybe I would’ve gone on to become the artist I wanted to be.

Instead, I’m here writing all these words.

I got in trouble for using all my dad’s printer ink as I scoured the internet for pictures and news of Dragonball Z. This was in that strange period where some episodes were here but most were not and there was no way to really get any news about why or when there’d be more.

Even setting aside all the hootin and hollerin, all the punchin and kickin, the energy shooting out of people’s hands, what really drew me in were the images. The imagery.

It was part of the appeal of Dragon Quest way back when. Not only for me, but for everyone. Toriyama was instrumental in Dragon Quest’s success, which, in important ways, makes him one of the most significant figures in the history of the JRPG genre.

And the man only drew the pictures, designed the characters!

I’ve mentioned before how much I love the art of Yoshitaka Amano, but Toriyama is sort of his opposite. And yet I love him just as much, though it’s a different sort of attachment.

The attachment of being a little boy who dreamt of so much more, who wanted to be someone who could fly, shoot magic out of my hands, who could save the world.

Toriyama gave us a vehicle to get in and take us to the moon.

I don’t know anything about the man as a person, but I don’t need to. He gave us all this art instead. And that’s enough for me. All I want, really.

He lived his life and shared his dreams and we still have so much of his to hold onto, to stare at, to fill our heads with.

So goodnight, Toriyama.

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My novels:

• Glossolalia - A Le Guinian fantasy novel about an anarchic community dealing with a disaster

• Sing, Behemoth, Sing - Deadwood meets Neon Genesis Evangelion

• Howl - Vampire Hunter D meets The Book of the New Sun in this lofi cyberpunk/solarpunk monster hunting adventure

• Colony Collapse - Star Trek meets Firefly in the opening episode of this space opera

• The Blood Dancers - The standalone sequel to Colony Collapse.

• Iron Wolf - Sequel to Howl.

• Sleeping Giants - Standalone sequel to Colony Collapse and The Blood Dancers

• Broken Katana - Sequel to Iron Wolf.

• Libertatia; or, The Onion King - Standalone sequel to Colony Collapse, The Blood Dancers, and Sleeping Giants

• Noir: A Love Story - An oral history of a doomed romance.