After the surprise death of Dragon Ball creator Akira Toriyama at age 68, players across online communities have gathered together to pay tribute to Toriyama's decades of beloved and influential work across manga, anime and videogames.
Alongside Dragon Ball Z, Toriyama is well-known for his iconic designs for the Dragon Quest series—including the cover art and characters for each game dating back to 1986, and of course the lovable blue slime—as well as other games from RPG developer Square Enix like Chrono Trigger. While Toriyama didn't directly contribute to Final Fantasy, the games may not exist without his art.
"I was personally a huge Akira Toriyama fan, and I read the Weekly Jump Magazines every week," Final Fantasy creator Hironobu Sakaguchi said in an interview. "A game designed by such a dream team felt way out of my reach, which is why when I started the Final Fantasy project, I hoped to at least get somewhere close to Dragon Quest." The two later collaborated on Blue Dragon, a game that put Toriyama's art front and center.
And of course there have been dozens of Dragon Ball games based on Toriyama's manga over the decades, ranging from fighters to RPGs. Since news broke of Toriyama's death, players in Final Fantasy 14, Dragon Quest 10, Dragon Ball Xenoverse 2 and likely elsewhere have gathered to mourn his passing and celebrate his work. Here's how some of them are paying tribute.
