RIP Akira Toriyama: How Dragon Ball Has Shaped My Life
Akira Toriyama is the only one of the few celebrities and creators whose death is like losing a close friend. Even though I never personally met him, nor knew him. Sure as heck a strange way to open a first blog post eh? But even still, Dragon Ball has played a major role in my life where I still feel the means to repay a friend by making blog post that goes over my personal history with his work. I'm sure not the only person to have been affected by his work, but I think this will help his spirit rest with pride and peace showcasing how his work impacted me. So, I would appreciate dear reader for you take this ride and experience the role that Dragon Ball has had in my life as a way to honor are dear friend Toriyama. This is your pal SugarBooger, and I will go over my history with Drgaon Ball. Its showtime!
I was born on the autism spectrum and other learning disabilities. That has led to some challenges in the world such as developing normally compared to my peers, having to mature slower than others, as well as others to understand me. So I used games and cartoons as a means to escape as well as use fictional heroes as a means of a reference so I can be better.
Now this is where Dragon Ball comes in. I first learned about Dragon Ball at seven or so. Browsing through Blockbuster on a Friday evening at the Wii section looking for a game who'se cover is visually appealing to my eyes. Then comes "Dragon Ball Z: Budokai Tenkaichi 3." On the aisles on Blockbuster, there were console killer apps like "Super Mario Galaxy" and "Twilight Princess" which I already have, along with the many shovelware crap like some random circus game and movie tie in slop like "Astro Boy" which no one gave a shit about.
But then comes Budokai Tenkaichi 3, which stood out with characters with cool spiky angular hair done with style like Sonic, but strong buff guys who let you know beating up universal threats in a larger than life manner is what they live by. So I rented the game and remember playing the story mode as well as other pitting up other characters in the vs mode and making up my own scenario even if I didn't know most of them until later.
Two things stood out to me in the game. For one, the intro with a intense heavy fast tempo guitars playing during intnese high speed martial arts action that had a larger than life feel that not even TMNT (2003) and Ben 10 could match against. But I feel the true origin of Toriyamas influnece on my life and work is the scene during the sayain saga of the story mode when you pit against Nappa.
The stakes were like anything I have seen at that point. Like, it like our heroes had a genuine and mutual bond where they were like a family. So seeing them hurt and lose against the bad guys felt like you were losing that will greatly affect you but there is little you can do, so it is something to grieve over. So seeing Goku who is laid back and fun loving see him genuinely pissed yet calm, cool, and stoic to then bellow out "You guys are gonna pay for what you've done" felt like the most intense and exciting shit I have ever witnessed. It was a fun escapist fantasy training to be the best you can with your friends by your side taking down any evil foes, especially if they hurt those who are close to you which leads to a great carthartic feeling.
Afterwards, I watched Dragon Ball Z Kai as it debut on Nicktoons as well as got the first half of Dragon Ball of the funimation dub of the 86 adaptation with vhs tapes Kidmark released. I tried to emulate Goku's personality. He was a badass strong action hero who I aspired to be as strong as, but also a fun loving guy who loves to eat. I was super obsessed where I used to get a lot of Banpresto figures you would win in a crane machine at my local walmart as well as BanDai action figures, posters, sleeping bags, and burger king toys to name a few.
Dragon Ball up there with Sonic, Star Wars, and Ben 10 was my main obsession at that point. I have made close friends thanks to Dragon Ball and who I am still close today. Dragon Ball truly taught me to see the value in friendships, and true victory comes from seeing the value in commradery you share with your friends and that when we put aside our differences and all stick together, we can achieve greatness. I still hold on to that value today, as I have made new friends both in college and on online fandom circles.
The first work I have made that has trace of Toriyama influence was a shitty comic series then plush series that I have very little traces of as I was insecure at one point to wipe them off from the face of existence out of fear of being judge and mocked from my peers of being cringe. That series is Sonic Boom X. Sonic Boom X was a shounen style action series that act as a crossover of a lot of things I was a fan of like Sonic, Dragon Ball, Naruto, Mario, Final Fantasy: VII, and Mega Man. How did these characters logically shared one setting? Don't know, I was a naive eleven year old when making this.
The only issues that are surviving are issues that are clearly traced from better fan artists, as well as a few videos still surviving on the "theninjasonicsaskue315" channel I made around twelve. The toriyama influences mainly come down to the characters coming down to take down a bigger threat, rivals who started as enemies but quickly grew a mutual comradery despite their conflicting personalities, a fun loving dumb but well meanign protagonist who cares for his freinds (A deviation to how sonic was from his games, I know), and finding a mcguffin to grant an ultimate wish (I used the chaos emeralds to have the same use as the dragon balls, but instead of summoning shenron, its a giant echidna who act as ancestors of the setting).
As of today, I guess you can say my oc who I plan on using in future projects named Hayato shares similarities as well as the main character from my sci-fi epic "Angel's Dissent" between Goku as their primary character is that they love to be challenged, but ultimately have a loyalty to their friends where they would go by any means to protect them. The illustration underneath is done by my good pal DaimosZ.
I don't agree with the artistic decision to make Gohan just some nerd guy who is pinning for a girl to a superhero alter ego on Buu saga and so on, but I appreciate the means of giving Gohan such an iconic moment and meaningful fight even if its the only one he would have. I also like the character moments like Goku giving cell sensu bean. It might come off as shitty on face value, but it shows the best aspect of Goku as he sees potential in his boy to where he gave him a big threat to pit against. This is followed up by Goku helping his son fight off cell, which easily debunks the dumb meme that "Goku is a bad dad."
Although I greatly dislike the direction the series has taken after GT, that will never stop my love for Dragon Ball and what it means to me personally. I think Dragon Ball should have ended long ago with the Buu Saga (Going by artist intention although GT is a damn worthy sequel), but if it still goes on, I hope that it gets back on track and is as good as it was in the 90s. But even still, I stand by everything this blog been leading up to say, thank you Toriyama. I might have never got to say it to you in person, but this blog will be a means of me saying it in spirit. Also, thanks to everyone who has worked on the OG Dragon Ball, Z, and GT anime as well as the english voice cast.
But until now, this has been SugarBooger flicking off!
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