Dragon Ball: Akira Toriyama’s manga celebrates its 40th anniversary

The Japanese manga Dragon Ball, a global success whose universe continues to expand across all supports and media from animation to amusement parks, celebrates its 40th anniversary on Wednesday, a few months after the death of its author, Akira Toriyama.

The series recounting the adventures of Son Goku, a young martial arts prodigy who protects the Earth from evil enemies, saw the light of day on November 20, 1984 in the pages of the Japanese weekly Shonen Jump.

Loosely inspired by the 16th century Chinese novel “The Journey to the West”, this epic story punctuated by numerous twists and turns and long battles and marked by its humor was initially an undeniable success in bookstores: 260 million copies sold in the world according to its publisher Shueisha.

Despite the death on March 1 of mangaka Akira Toriyama, who saddened millions of fans of his work around the world, the universe he imagined has never been in better shape, notably with the release on latest video game “Dragon Ball: Sparking!” ZERO”, bringing together 182 characters for nervous and pyrotechnic clashes.

A new animated series, “Dragon Ball Daima,” was also launched in October, featuring younger versions of the characters.

One of the best-selling manga of all time

And “Dragon Ball Super”, a sequel to one of the best-selling manga of all time until now supervised by Akira Toriyama, will also have new chapters, to the joy of many Dragon Ball fans.

“It is an archetypal work celebrating victory achieved through friendship and effort. I think the simplicity of the story is an important factor in the success of the series,” said Tsutomu Tanaka, a 19-year-old student recently interviewed by AFP in Tokyo.

“It’s a work that my father’s generation loved a lot, so we watched them as a family because they often came by at mealtimes,” remembers Ayase, a thirty-year-old Japanese woman for whom the series “is part of our lives” .

Saudi Arabia also announced in March the construction of the world’s first amusement park inspired by Dragon Ball, the opening date of which is not yet known.

“The commercial machine is already in place,” notes journalist and cartoon specialist Tadashi Sudo, for whom the short-term future of the franchise seems assured.

But “the challenge ahead will be to see if creativity can be maintained without Toriyama.”

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