Following the sad news of the passing of Akira Toriyama, best known as the creator of Dragon Ball, a torrent of endless tributes poured in from around the world, all well deserved. There’s no doubt he was a colossal figure in history, and dearly beloved. His creation marked a before and after in the world of manga, anime, and pop culture.
Sometimes I’m amazed that, although Dragon Ball was originally created in the 1980s, since it became popular it has never ceased to be relevant. New series, movies, and video games are still being released today. And they are always highly acclaimed by a huge audience eagerly awaiting every new release from the franchise.
I can’t imagine the global interest in Dragon Ball diminishing anytime soon. The same can be said of its considerable influence on the rest of the manga and anime industry.
For my part, I thought it was a good time to write an article reminiscing about my experience as a fan of the series, from when I discovered it in my adolescence in the 1990s to today.
It all began when I was casually on vacation with my family in Cancun. I remember perfectly that one night, when turning on the TV in the hotel, my eyes came across Goku, the main protagonist of Dragon Ball, for the first time.
It was the original series, which showed Goku’s adventures as a child, when he still had a tail. I remember being hooked automatically. It was an episode where Goku fought one of his first memorable adversaries, Piccolo Daimaō.
During the following nights, I made sure to tune into the same channel on the hotel TV, at the same time, so as not to miss any episodes. I remember preparing a delicious chocolate-flavored coffee, those from a packet, and proceeding pleased to sit on the couch in front of the TV. Being able to go out and explore Cancun, I preferred to stay watching Dragon Ball.
Dragon Ball came like an avalanche into our lives, and to my surprise, I discovered that some stores in Cancun’s shopping malls sold plastic figures of several of its characters. Of course, I bought a few, which decorated my room and music studio for many years. I still keep some of them.
Returning home, I was very eager to continue watching Dragon Ball. Luckily, they soon began to broadcast the series on a local TV channel, both the original and also Dragon Ball Z, the sequel, in which Goku was already an adult.
I liked the original series, but Dragon Ball Z was the one that really turned me, like many, into a true fanatic.
Every afternoon, after returning from high school, I eagerly awaited the broadcast of the day’s episode. I swear it always felt like it ended too quickly. Then the next day discussing it with classmates, and joking about how some of the fights were eternal, unfolding over multiple chapters, though they were always very exciting.
I will never forget the first time Goku transformed into Super Saiyan in the long fight against Frieza. Or being expectant to discover how Goku would overcome his limits to reach the next level of power. Or, on the other hand, situations as absurd but funny as when Mr. Satan took credit for having defeated Cell. Just remembering that makes me laugh a lot.
To tell the truth, there are so many memories, and even things that surely have given us all something to think about. Who has never fantasized about entering the Hyperbolic Time Chamber, at least to take a good nap? Or wonder what it would feel like to eat a Senzu Bean? Or even imagine gathering all the Dragon Balls and summoning the powerful Shenron?
Dragon Ball features a diversity of colorful, memorable, and very original characters. Some as ridiculous as Mr. Satan, funny and perverted like Master Roshi, morally ambiguous like Vegeta, or even hyper evil like Frieza and Cell. There were so many characters, and they always made the episodes absolutely entertaining.
Back then, they used to broadcast the series on TV in order, one episode per day, and when the series reached the end, it would start again from the first chapter. Considering that Dragon Ball Z has about 300 episodes, if they broadcast the series from Monday to Friday, the complete anime lasted more than 1 year.
Remembering this brings to mind a terrible frustration from my adolescence. For some reason, the TV channel that aired Dragon Ball Z in my city never broadcast the last saga, the Majin Buu saga. What usually happened is that after finishing broadcasting the previous saga, the Cell saga, it would start over from the beginning. That caused me huge frustration.
It was not until a few years later that I was finally able to watch the last saga of the series, thus completing an important pending issue in my life. This happened when it became possible to download TV series through online file-sharing applications. And of course, one of the first goals I set for myself was to download and collect all the episodes of Dragon Ball Z.
Internet download speeds were considerably slower in those times. I remember that a friend and I divided the list of episodes, so that together we could download them more effectively, but even so, it took us several weeks to complete the downloads.
In the years that followed, I focused more on playing Dragon Ball video games than on rewatching the series, making room in my life for other long-format animes that were emerging, but owe a lot to Dragon Ball, such as Naruto, which many will undoubtedly name as one of its most obvious direct successors.
I remember at some point in the 2010s having revisited Dragon Ball Z through some anime streaming site. And not long after, Dragon Ball Super appeared. It was an especially exciting release, for being the first completely new series of Dragon Ball since the much-criticized Dragon Ball GT. Unlike GT, Super features stories created by Akira Toriyama himself, and its production quality is modern, and very high.
In those years, some movies were even released, which were shown in cinemas, something that had never happened before in Latin America. That was something very special.
And although Akira Toriyama has gone to visit King Kai, he will always live in our hearts and memories, through such a great gift he gave to the world thanks to his incredible imagination. His legacy will be eternal.
