Akira Toriyama Changed The World

Akira Toriyama didn't just change manga and anime forever, he changed the entire world. Here's how.

Chapters:
00:00 A God Among Gods
05:25 "That Other Thing He Did"
21:51 Dragon Ball's Global Impact
43:03 See You in The Other World



Validate me!


In the depths of his Mother's Basement, Geoff Thew creates videos analyzing the storytelling techniques of anime and video games. He has been named the number one Worst YouTube Anime Reviewer by The Top Tens.

[justanotherchannelonyoutub]

First Berserk, then YuGiOh, now Dragon Ball. RIP to the men that made these great things possible

[CBFan]

Goku really is a universal language at this point. Had a guy come into work who barely speaks English but 100% understood me when I complimented him on his SSJ3 Goku shirt. The fact two random people from two different walks of life from literally two different countries can be like "Fuck yeah, Goku!" is astounding.

[ryantheotaku]

“When does a man die? When he is hit by a bullet? No! When he suffers a disease? No! When he ate a soup made out of a poisonous mushroom? No! A man dies when he is forgotten!”
― Eiichiro Oda

[matiasaguilar]

Man, you really cannot understate how important dragon ball is for latin america. It got tongue point where it wasn't even a show anymore, it was a part of culture like our food or our clothing

[joshlong]

There's this quote in One Piece that goes something like "A man dies when he's forgotten." Akira Toriyama is going to live forever.

[dohalimilqarasdeldemenanci]

"Work hard, study well and eat and sleep plenty. That's the Turtle Hermit way to learn."
The Turtle Hermit Way
RIP Toriyama-sensei and thank you for that mantra that shaped my 35 years on this planet.

[demonnox]

That line towards the end about not being ready for Toriyama to leave us.... It hits different for me as someone who at 21 has had to confront the mortality of my own dad. He hasn't departed like Toriyama Sensei has yet thankfully, its just really affecting to see that sentiment worded so perfectly at just the right time

[eddem]

There's a joke I like to tell my foreign friends: the two biggest religions in México, are catholicism and Dragon Ball. But honestly it's barely a joke with how ubiquitous Dragon Ball is in latin american culture. Dragon Ball was far from my introduction to anime as a child, contrary to most of my peers, but it's the one that stuck with me the longest as an adult and I will probably remember it for the rest of my life.

[jeffreylivermore]

"Okay, I'm a big boy, I'm emotionally stable enough to watch this"
*hits play*
"I was wrong. I need tissues."

[choppergamer]

That few seconds of the ending of the og dragonball just unlocked a core memory

[griffonsarcade]

13:20 "so that's where Sonic got it from"
thank you for opening my eyes to this, I somehow never noticed

[UnwillingWatcher-ne]

He was eulogized by the Chinese government.
That's an insane amount of respect when you consider how fragile relations are between China and Japan.
It's like Vegeta publicly praising Goku for his accomplishments.

[kitsunestudios]

“I’m quite not ready to say goodbye yet…” we are all like this still…

[santiagomoralesgarcia]

Like a wise friend said to me in the university: "first DRAGON BALL then studying"

RIP the truly GOAT

[Obstreperous_Octopus]

I never realized until now how much Akira Toriyama loved giving his characters a hat with one word on the front.

[StarMechV]

I'm from the country Chile in South America. I spent my summer working at a small stand selling and promoting a health insurance for a hospital on schools. A day after after the news hit, I was there waiting for the hour in which parents go pick up their kids as class is over. Wanting to kill time and perhaps as my own little weird way of sorting out my feelings over the whole thing, I picked up a notebook with empty pages I have and started to sketch a headshot of Goku. I'm not the greatest artist, some may say I'm pretty much an amateur (including myself) but still, just felt compelled to draw him, softly chuckling to myself about how despite Toriyama's influence having been such a part of my life yet I never attempted to draw goku before.

Suddenly the bell rings and the kids start to come out of the classrooms as the entrance gates of the school (where my stand was located) opened and parents started arriving, waiting for their kids. As this happened I left the notebook open while picking up the necessary papers I needed for my work, but as the first client walked towards me, a grown man around his late 30s early 40s maybe, to renew his insurance subscription his eyes drifted towards my finished sketch and said. "Hey! Is that Goku?"

I answered yes, it was. He chuckled to himself and gave me a nice prise for my drawing, and then said "I'm really sad about what happened to Mr. Toriyama. The man was a legend." I agreed and then proceeded to get back to the business at hand with him. With the sale done, another parent, perhaps older, approached with his kids, also noticing the sketch and commenting how he and his kids were so sad about Toriyama's passing, but also happy that he could still share Dragon ball with his kids. Then another and another, parents of all kinds would comment on it when arriving at my stands. Some kids too mentioned how they watched Dragon ball and Dragon Ball Z because their parents showed them, or cause they saw it on some rerun on a chilean tv station, or that they saw the guy in Fortnite and then checked the show and became big fans.

Evesdropping a bit noticed how I somehow had accidentally create a topic of discussion about nearby parents, talking about their experiences with the franchise, as well as the kid and that's how it hit me so hard: So many people, of all kinds of ages, no matter if anime fans or even folks that grew out of animation entirely, still had fond memories of watching Dragon Ball and it being somehow they could pass down to the younger generation.

It was a rather strange experience, which can also be thought to be fake, but it was incredible. Over here, Dragon ball is that powerful, and I'd believe it's just as much worldwide. Toriyama created something absolutely magical.

[thatloner]

I will never forget of that clip of the DBS final episode broadcast and the bunch of fans cheering "FREEZER! FREEZER! FREEZER!". it was glorious.

[JB_CY]

Honestly the affect Toriyama's work had on my life is hard to explain. Ever since I read it, Dragon Ball has been my favorite manga, and Dragon Quest is one of my favorite game series ever.

His work had amazing energy and childlike creativity to it, but done so professionally and thoughtfully. Truly a generational talent.

You'll be missed Mr. Toriyama.

[AmuroX]

8:33
Toriyama was a master because that simple gag of Goku cutting a sword in half with a stick is just pure visual comedy and storytelling. No words necessary.

[japoniano]

As a Latin American, NEVER underestimate how much we love Dragon Ball (there are videos explaining why)