It’s hard to believe that it’s been a few weeks since the death of Akira Toriyama. The man behind Dragon Ball in all its many forms (outside of technically Heroes, but he helped inspire that!) passed away earlier this month and the anime/manga/geek community was crushed by his loss. And, naturally, this made people wonder about the franchise’s future in both manga and anime forms. Dragon Ball Super is still going on via its manga, and some big stories have been happening recently. Chapter 103 released recently, and it was the last story edited by Toriyama.
To that end, the artist for the current Dragon Ball Super manga, Toyotaro, who was chosen by Toriyama to keep the story going visually, posted on Twitter a few days ago that the manga is indeed going on indefinite hiatus. In his post, he noted how the final edit from Toriyama was for Piccolo’s departure:
“Like Piccolo saying goodbye to his kindergarten teacher.” That was the teacher’s final correction.”
ですのでそんなつもりでピッコロを描いたわけではありません。
…ですがどうしてもそこに別の意味を重ねたくなってしまいます。鳥山先生。本当にお疲れ様でした。
一緒にお仕事させてもらえた9年間。奇跡のような時間でした。ありがとうございました。
謹んでご冥福をお祈り申し上げます。— とよたろう (@TOYOTARO_Vjump) March 28, 2024
He also thanked Toriyama in another tweet, saying:
“Mr. Toriyama. Thank you very much for your hard work. It’s been 9 years since we worked together. It was a miraculous time. thank you very much. I humbly pray for your soul to rest in peace.”
We all humbly pray the same thing.