Hello!
I am KENTA, a Japanese who loves Dragoball and One Piece.
This time we have a very sad announcement.
I wondered if I should write an article about it here, but I decided to introduce Dr. Oda’s message because it was so heartfelt and beautiful.
We have learned that Akira Toriyama, the manga artist who created masterpieces such as “Dragon Ball,” passed away due to acute subdural hematoma on March 1, 2024.
He was 68 years old.
This was very sad news for me, as I love comic books.
The official website of Shonen Jump posted memorial comments from the magazine’s leading manga artists, with Eiichiro Oda, creator of “One Piece,” expressing his condolences, saying, “The hole left is just too big.
In this issue, we present the full text of One Piece creator Mr. Oda’s final comments to Mr. Akira Toriyama, whom he greatly admires.
Oda’s memorial message to Toriyama Sensei (full text)
It is too soon.
The hole is too big.
The thought of never seeing him again brings a rush of sadness.
I have admired him so much since I was a child that I remember the first day he called me by name.
I miss the day you used the word “friend” for us, and the day we had such a great time with Mr. Kishimoto on the way home.
I also remember our last conversation.
He was one of those who took the baton from the days when reading manga made you a fool, and created an era in which both adults and children enjoyed reading manga, and showed us the dream that manga could do such things and could go global.
It was like watching a hero pushing forward.
The excitement and emotion of the time of the Dragon Ball serialization will have taken root in the boyhood of creators active in all industries, not just manga artists.
Its existence is a big tree.
The closer I got to Toriyama’s works, the more I realized that they were a bigger part of my generation of manga artists who stood on the same stage with him.
Scary.
But it is just nice to see the aloof person himself again.
We love Dr. Toriyama on a blood level.
With respect and gratitude for the creative world that Mr. Toriyama has left behind, we pray for his soulful rest in peace.
May heaven be the joyous world you envisioned.Over