Japanese manga artist Akira Toriyama, the man behind the Dragon Ball franchise in the 1980s and its eventual growth into an international sensation, has died at the age of 68. A statement on the official Dragon Ball website said Toriyama, also a character designer whose career spanned 45 years, passed away on March 1 following acute subdural haematoma. Akira Toriyama Dies Due to Subdural Hematoma; Dragon Ball Z Makers Issue Statement on the Creator’s Demise.

"We are deeply saddened to inform you that manga creator Akira Toriyama passed away on March 1st due to acute subdural haematoma. He was 68. We deeply regret that he still had several works in the middle of creation with great enthusiasm. Also, he would have many more things to achieve," read the statement from his production house Bird Studio, which includes the disclaimer that it has been machine-translated.

"He has left many manga titles and works of art to this world. Thanks to the support of so many people around the world, he has been able to continue his creative activities for over 45 years. We hope that Akira Toriyama's unique world of creation continues to be loved by everyone for a long time to come," the banner added. Akira Toriyama, Dragon Ball Series Creator, Passes Away at 68.

According to Bird Studio, a private funeral service was held for Toriyama's family. He is survived by his wife, Yoshimi Kato, and their two children. In the late 1970s, Toriyama found success in manga, meaning 'comics' in Japanese, with the creation of the popular Dr Slump series. Almost a decade later, he won a Shogakukan Manga Award for the comic and supervised two subsequent anime ('animation' in Japanese) adaptations.

But Toriyama—who largely worked away from the spotlight—tasted global fame with Dragon Ball, which was the continuation of his kung-fu movie-influenced "Dragon Boy" one-shot. Dragon Ball was first published as a serial in 1984 and has become one of the best-selling manga series ever. It is also credited for making manga popular across the globe, a phenomenon that spawned various anime adaptations that attracted audiences in the West.

Toriyama is also known for one-shot manga runs and character designs for video game classics like Chrono Trigger and the Dragon Quest series. He returned to Dragon Ball in the 2010s, with Toriyama receiving a screenplay credit on the film Dragon Ball Z: Battle of Gods, the first feature adaptation of the manga series in nearly twenty years at the time. Toriyama, who took a smaller creative role with the intellectual property in the 1990s, was involved with the franchise throughout its recent run of film productions, including Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero which released in 2022.