After the surprise death of Dragon Ball creator Akira Toriyama at age 68, players across online communities have gathered together to pay tribute to Toriyama’s decades of beloved and influential work across manga, anime and videogames.
Alongside Dragon Ball Z, Toriyama is well-known for his iconic designs for the Dragon Quest series—including the cover art and characters for each game dating back to 1986, and of course the lovable blue slime—as well as other games from RPG developer Square Enix like Chrono Trigger. While Toriyama didn’t directly contribute to Final Fantasy, the games may not exist without his art.
“I was personally a huge Akira Toriyama fan, and I read the Weekly Jump Magazines every week,” Final Fantasy creator Hironobu Sakaguchi said in an interview. “A game designed by such a dream team felt way out of my reach, which is why when I started the Final Fantasy project, I hoped to at least get somewhere close to Dragon Quest.” The two later collaborated on Blue Dragon, a game that put Toriyama’s art front and center.
And of course there have been dozens of Dragon Ball games based on Toriyama’s manga over the decades, ranging from fighters to RPGs. Since news broke of Toriyama’s death, players in Final Fantasy 14, Dragon Quest 10, Dragon Ball Xenoverse 2 and likely elsewhere have gathered to mourn his passing and celebrate his work. Here’s how some of them are paying tribute.
Final Fantasy 14
FF14 holds a vigil for Akira Toriyama #AkiraToriyama pic.twitter.com/Vlq8xAxeA4March 8, 2024
In the video above, a player walks along a lengthy line of players standing in respect to Toriyama, as players in the public chat discuss Toriyama’s contributions to games like Dragon Quest and Chrono Trigger.
A fireside vigil has started for Toriyama in FF14 Ul’dah, Primal Leviathan pic.twitter.com/lqW8IHfLgaMarch 8, 2024
The same thing is playing out on other FF14 servers like Leviathan. In this Twitch clip you can see how many players have stuck around for minutes or possibly even hours, placing a fire in front of them and using the “pray” emote to pay their respects. In this longer video of music being played at Balmung’s vigil—including Dragon Ball theme song Cha-La Head-Cha-La—you can see how many players have stayed rooted in place.
Here are more posts about vigils held across Final Fantasy 14.
Currently taking part in a vigil for Toriyama in Final Fantasy 14 (that’s me at the end dressed as Badman Vegeta)Me and @Pirate_Mike became friends by talking about Dragon Ball, and later he talked me into trying out FF14. I might never have played it otherwise#ThankYouToriyama pic.twitter.com/MYfke1uESOMarch 8, 2024
Here I am in Lamia joining my fellow Warrior’s of Light in paying respect to Akira Toriyama, of course I had to dress accordingly. I can only imagine how the Dragon Quest X servers are right now. #ThankYouToriyama pic.twitter.com/K1jBTlGRDjMarch 8, 2024
The outpouring of love the #FFXIV community is showing Akira Toriyama right now is beautiful to see. Across multiple worlds, people are gathering in Ul’dah, home of the Pugilist guild, to pay tribute. So many #DragonBall cosplays, Slime hats and bards playing songs from the anime pic.twitter.com/DZkqUEZQhhMarch 8, 2024
Final Fantasy XIV: Candlelight vigil being held in Akira Toriyama’s honor. pic.twitter.com/KDOWG2NFo4March 8, 2024
Dragon Quest 10
ちょっとDQ10にインしてみたらメギ1で鳥山明さん追悼の集会が行われていた#DQ10 pic.twitter.com/lxsCOUZQueMarch 8, 2024
MMO Dragon Quest 10 was released in 2012 in Japan, but unfortunately has never made its way west. It remains popular in Japan, though, and is full of Toriyama’s designs. Naturally Japanese players have gathered to pay their respects.
The vigil even made it onto Yahoo! News in Japan.
素晴らしい作品の数々、本当にありがとうございました。一緒に冒険できたことも忘れません。ご冥福をお祈りいたします。#鳥山明先生#ドラクエ10#DQX pic.twitter.com/HLyomYsh02March 8, 2024
If you log into server 1 in Dragon Quest X right onw there’s a whole ton of people paying their respects to Akira Toriyama. It’s incredibly sweet#DQ10 pic.twitter.com/jPlgNox4SrMarch 8, 2024
アキーラヘルム貰って天界の天星郷フォーリオンで写真撮ってきた！ #DQ10 pic.twitter.com/7cts5IzyYJMarch 8, 2024
This helm wearable in-game represents the way Toriyama would often draw himself.
今日は思いを込めて、サブクエで遊んでいきます❗️見た目はアキーラでやっていくよ！【鳥山先生ありがとう！】サブクエをしていく！！ 成長の無い成長記録【DQXオンライン】 https://t.co/afhFCTByHY @YouTubeより#DQ10 #DQX #ドラゴンクエスト #鳥山明先生ありがとう #鳥山明 pic.twitter.com/gY6IpVUXkOMarch 8, 2024
Dragon Ball Xenoverse 2
This online multiplayer Dragon Ball game doesn’t have particularly packed lobbies eight years after release, but you can still find players paying tribute by doing the spirit bomb pose.
Wish we could find more people, but Xenoverse lobbies aren’t always the best.Thank you, Akira Toriyama pic.twitter.com/nJlxwFkLu7March 8, 2024
I am so proud of this community For Toriyama senseiNear the Dragon Ball Pedestal in XV2 #ThankYouToriyama#ThankYouAkiraToriyama #DragonBallZ pic.twitter.com/KcTnbedKdzMarch 8, 2024
The Xenoverse 2 community is currently gathering around Shenron’s Pedestal and doing the spirit bomb emote for Toriyama 🥹 pic.twitter.com/JFocTElZmbMarch 8, 2024
Hopped on to Xenoverse 2 to show my respects to Akira Toriyama. Glad I managed to get there somewhat on time and some people are still here to show my support ❤️ #RIPAkiraToriyama pic.twitter.com/GbElATXH0xMarch 8, 2024
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