Akira Toriyama (1955-2024)

Akira Toriyama is mainly considered to be the OGs of manga creators because of his creation of Dragon Ball. For people that doesn't know about Dragon Ball, it's basically the manga and anime series that made anime popular for not just in Japan, but for people around the world. His creation for Dragon Ball is bascially the reason anime is on the map for everyone to enjoy, and arguably the reason people have gotten into anime and Japanese culture. 

He died on March 1st, 2024 for subdermal hematoma (blood collecting between the skull and the surface of the brain), and understandably made shockwaves around the anime world and around Japan. People shown their condolesences to the legend himself and expresses their reason as to why his creation of Dragon Ball impacted their lives inside and outside of watching anime.

For people that are new to watching anime or completely outside of the anime world being confused as to why people are mourning for the loss of Toriyama, the reason is (again) without Toriyama creating Dragon Ball, there would be no Naruto, My Hero Academia, Jujutsu Kaisen, Demon Slayer, etc. He's mostly the reason why the average person and popular celebrities such as Micheal B. Jordan and Megan Thee Stallion are watching anime and reading manga. 

While I haven't fully watched the entire series of Dragon Ball, I fully understand why people from around the world are mourning Toriyama's death. He've paved the wave for anime as it was right now because of his creation of Dragon Ball, and if it wasn't for him, a lot of people won't discover how amazing anime is and how Dragon Ball mostly told amazing stories about Japanese culture and folklore to share around the world.

So, like everyone in the world says: RIP Akira Toriyama.