Like many manga fans, the death of Akira Toriyama felt somehow personal to me. He was a towering figure who influenced not just fans in Japan but around the world through Dragon Ball, Sandland, and his work in JRPGs. His passing sent shockwaves through the anime industry and threatened to bring the Dragon Ball franchise to an abrupt end. And, there is a part of me that hopes it has.

Dragon Ball has been a huge part of my life. It helped introduce me to anime and has already been my son’s introduction to manga. For all its flaws, it is no exaggeration to say that I would not have the career that I have without Dragon Ball, so my interest in the series’ future extends beyond the professional. I find myself torn between the fan in me, who always wants more Dragon Ball to devour, and the journalist in me who wonders if more Dragon Ball could truly be Dragon Ball.

One of the key differences between manga and American comics is the adherence to the singular vision of the mangaka. Batman was created by Bob Kane and Bill Finger, but he has been written by dozens of individuals both in and out of the main continuity. He is a communal character at this point and was treated like it throughout most of his history. This allows for vastly different interpretations of the character, some of which may not exactly be in line with what the original creators had in mind. But that is how American comics work. We didn’t see Rob Liefeld’s name at the start of Deadpool & Wolverine and, despite appearing in many MCU films, it was never implied that Stan Lee had anything to do with Marvel movies aside from being a cheeky reference they could wheel a few times a year.

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Manga is (mostly) different. The same person or team of people typically writes and draws a manga from start to finish. Eiichiro Oda is the person behind One Piece. Masashi Kishimoto created Naruto and continues to write its spin-off, Boruto. Even in cases like Berserk, which has continued after Kentaro Miura’s early death, the teams that carry on the work do so while adhering to the vision and plan that the original creator had. This is why Yoshihiro Togashi’s health issues have repeatedly brought a successful manga like Hunter x Hunter to a standstill. 

Because of this focus on the will of the original creator, Dragon Ball projects that have been announced since Akira Toriyama’s death have always been so intent on reminding us that he was involved, in some way, with it. It isn’t just to make sure that they have the goodwill of the fans; Japanese copyright law more heavily favors the creator rather than the corporation when compared to American laws. Without the approval of Akira Toriyama, the media juggernaut that is Dragon Ball couldn’t have been made. Shuiesha might publish Dragon Ball in all its forms, but it was Toriyama who owned it.

But after his death, who gives that approval? That was the question that brought the franchise to a standstill for a few years and is why it was possible that Dragon Ball Daima would be the final adaptation we ever got. That wasn’t the case, of course, but it perhaps should have been. As close as Akio Iyoku was to Toriyama and as deeply as he seems to care about respecting the mangaka’s wishes, there is only so much that can be done before we inevitably stray from that intent. I'm not really talking about adaptations of his work, or, in the case of Dragon Ball Super, work he had input on. I'm talking about new, original stories with Goku and Vegeta and everyone else in the Dragon Ball universe. 

Unlike Miura, Akira Toriyama didn’t give anyone notes about what he wanted to do with Dragon Ball in the future because he ended the series decades ago; everything since then has been additive, building off what he created with the original manga. And that was fine when he was alive and could consent to what was being made in his name. It was his toy to play with as he saw fit. But that’s sadly not the case anymore, and any new original Dragon Ball material, whether it is anime or new manga that continues the Dragon Ball Super story, inevitably strays further from what he created. 

It is hard to say goodbye as fans – and even harder for the corporations involved to say goodbye to the money that Dragon Ball brings in – but it feels like time. Let Akira Toriyama take Dragon Ball with him into whatever follows. Let it be his legacy, unchanged and untarnished by our collective greed for more. 

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