In a sudden shock for anyone who has ever been into anime, the creator of Dragon Ball and its expanded universes, as well as one of Japan’s most iconic illustrators, Akira Toriyama, was revealed to have passed away.
According to the official Dragon Ball X account, Toriyama passed away as a result of a blood clot in his brain. He was 68.
There is no telling just how far-reaching Toriyama’s work has been, nor its impact on the global zeitgeist, but as Japan’s top government spokesperson put it, Dragon Ball played an “extremely important role in demonstrating Japan’s soft power.”
In South Africa, the daily airing of Dragon Ball Z episodes on SABC in the early 2000s was the first time millennial South Africa ever dipped its toes into the world of Japanese animation. Its local influence is still felt today. The show would be watched in over 80 countries worldwide.
People world over, from Africa, to across Latin America, and in his home nation of Japan, fans, colleagues and even political leaders are mourning the passing of the legendary mangaka. Toriyama leaves us while still working on a new Dragon Ball series, and an unrelated videogame.
If you, like us, want to celebrate the master this week, why not start with the work that made him a household name: Dragon Ball Z.
Where you can stream Dragon Ball content in honour of Akira Toriyama?
Crunchyroll is the go-to streaming platform for anime fans. It is still significant in the community, despite recent controversies. While the original Dragon Ball Z and Dragon Ball GT are not available on the South African version of the site, you can still find the more recent Dragon Ball Super – all 131 episodes.
You can also find the Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero movie, starring Gohan and his Beast Form.
Unfortunately, every other option to stream Dragon Ball is outside of the legal reach of South African fans. The following options will only be available locally through a VPN set to a certain international region, in this case, the United States.
All nine seasons of the original Dragon Ball Z for US subscribers are available on Crunchyroll. You can either watch it in the original Japanese or with the Funimation English dub. With a VPN you can also see the original Dragon Ball series, featuring a younger Son Goku and the first introduction to names like Bulma, Krillin, and Piccolo.
The platform also contains Dragon Ball Super films like Resurrection ‘F’ and Super Hero.
Other streaming sites like Amazon Prime Video have Dragon Ball content available, but through Crunchyroll, so why not just go to the source?
But we’re not done yet. Toriyama did more than just anime. He was the illustrator and head character artist for RPG videogame classics like Chrono Trigger and Dragon Quest.
You can grab Chrono Trigger on Steam right now, while the original Dragon Quest is available digitally on the Nintendo Switch.
We’ll leave you with this, a clarion call to all who lived in those better days:
[Image – Photo by Carson Masterson on Unsplash]
