Dragon Quest creator Yuji Horii shared some words about the death of renowned manga artist Akira Toriyama. After news of his passing started spreading, many close friends and colleagues in the Japanese entertainment industry started to share their feelings.
Through his personal X (formerly Twitter) account, Yuji Horii shared a post where he talked about his relationship to Akira Toriyama. The original post is in Japanese, and here is an English translation of his words:
“I still cannot believe the sudden news of Toriyama-san’s passing.
I have known Toriyama-san since I was a writer for Shonen Jump and, at my editor Torishima-san’s suggestion, I decided to ask (Toriyama-san) to make drawings for Dragon Quest when it released.
In the over 37 years I’ve known him, (Toriyama-san) has drawn character and monster designs for countless of fascinating characters.
The history of Dragon Quest is tied to Toriyama-san’s designs.
Toriyama-san and the late (Koichi) Sugiyama-sensei were two longtime friends that worked on Dragon Quest.
I can’t believe he’s gone…
I don’t know what else to say. I am so, so sorry.”
And here is the original post by Yuji Horii about the death of Akira Toriyama:
Akira Toriyama died on March 1, 2024 at the age of 68, and Bird Studio confirmed the news on March 8, 2024. He was the creator behind plenty of popular manga series like Dragon Ball, Arale, and Sand Land, in addition to being the character and monster designer for the Dragon Quest game series.
