I'm from Venezuela, I'm a 31 year old woman; mother, girlfriend, daughter, but above all things; a lover of Dragon Ball, and the genius of the master Akira Toriyama. I didn't grow up with too many girls who loved this anime, nor appreciated it as I did. On the contrary, my first memories with other children, was precisely thanks to the influence of the adventures of Goku and company.... I collected everything there was about this anime: stickers, posters, album figurines, you name it.... Even, for this post, I was obsessed in looking for a picture that was taken on my 8th birthday but I couldn't find it anywhere...
Truth is that without the indisputable and indelible influence of Toriyama, my childhood, my adolescence would not have had the happiness and fullness that it had... You can't imagine the horrible sadness I felt that fateful March 8, when I woke up and went on Instagram.... "The creator of the mythical Dragon Ball Z series has passed away". It hit me hard. I didn't grow up with cable television. My childhood was during the 90's, a time where internet and cell phones were luxuries of the wealthy. Therefore, every afternoon, after coming home from school, I would sit on the couch to watch a new episode of my favorite anime.
Initially, I had a remarkable resistance. For reasons I still don't know, the public television channel where they broadcast all these series that I have already mentioned, had decided to eliminate "The Knights of the Zodiac" in order to present Dragon Ball. I still remember the first episode I watched. I was so annoyed and indignant.... Haha, but I soon succumbed to the awesomeness of the story and plot. Something that doesn't quite develop, is that when you're a little 8 year old girl and you see a boy having adventures with other characters similar to you, you immediately identify....
Plus, narratively, Dragon Ball is a beautiful series. Values, friendship, bravery, fight, strength, compassion, nobility, art; some evil but above all hope. A catalog shonen. From my point of view, Japan as a country owes too much to Toriyama's influence to the whole world. And I believe that the best representation of this I say, we can see it in the advertising spot of the video game "Dragon Ball Z Kakarot". Where we see little kids imitating the fighting techniques of Goku and the Z Warriors. From teleportation to the mythical Kame-Kame-Ha. It is simply impossible not to feel, genuinely, identified with that...
Even those who are a little bit older than me, also owe a lot to Akira Toriyama. Before the whole Dragon Ball universe, he had "debuted" with a manga and then an anime called "Dr. Slump". Although it was less successful, it did not mean that it did not have good reviews and good sales and diffusion in more than 50 countries. Clearly, nothing compares to the insurmountable "monster" we all know... This guy was so talented, important for hundreds of billions of people, that just after his death, even soccer teams, companies like Nike or Motorola, dedicated words of admiration and respect.
An entire world was connected and marked by the remarkable (and unsurpassable) spell of a story that moved, amused, entertained and amazed us during the most beautiful period of any human being's life: our childhood. In my personal case, I feel that the least I had to do to release some tension, and begin my process of acceptance towards a news that was as hard as it was painful, was to dedicate a few heartfelt words to my favorite illustrator. I don't want to read myself as dramatic or emotional, but I feel that I am not the only one going through something similar.
Even more, the mere fact that this community exists is a living example of the importance of what happens in our childhood. What we love as children, we will never stop loving for the rest of our lives. Dragon Ball, in any of its editions, movies OVA's, manga, etc, is so important and transcendental, that even watching the last episode of Dragon Ball GT, I cried inconsolably.... It marks your life in every way, and that powerful forcefulness can only be explained by the beauty of Toriyama sensei's art. May he (dear master) have been aware during his lifetime of the importance of his ingenuity for all of us who were once children and loved his creations. Simply, thank you so much for doing what you did, and for your wonderful legacy.
