I’m not usually given to eulogizing recently deceased artists I’ve never met. Sure, there are plenty whose work I love have passed away since the advent of social media and it isn’t that I’m not saddened to hear they’ve gone and will no longer be able to contribute their talents to the world. It’s just that I don’t personally know them, so what can any sentiment I share hope to offer that a simple like or retweet couldn’t convey?
Something about the passing of manga legend Akira Toriyama feels a little different though. His most famous creation – Dragon Ball – has been a constant in my life since the show first aired in the UK back in 2000. I didn’t know Toriyama personally, but his work is inextricably intertwined with so many of my memories that the thought of no longer experiencing a fresh Dragon Ball chapter or character design directly drawn from the maestro’s mind cuts deep.
Alongside a select handful of other artists – George Lucas, Shigeru Miyamoto, Jeff Lynne – Toriyama’s work has shaped my tastes in profound ways.
All roads lead back to Goku
Rushing home from school to tune into Cartoon Network for the latest episode of Goku and friend’s ongoing battles was a ritual that defined my early teens. Growing up in a small town where – beyond the inescapable but relatively short-lived Pokemon craze – kids had seemed to quickly grow out of cartoons that weren’t The Simpsons or South Park, I had little idea at the time that Dragon Ball already had such a ginormous global following.
This was before we had a computer, and consequently the internet, in our house. Because of this, Dragon Ball – a cartoon with violence, heart, and an art style unlike anything else that was on UK television at the time – had an air of mystery surrounding it that awoke a latent curiosity inside me.
Right from the start there was something a little bit off about Dragon Ball Z. Although I watched the show from the very first episode the world already seemed too well-established. Characters had relationships that it was implied the viewers already knew about. Only years later would the original Dragon Ball series air in the UK, following both the conclusion of Z, and its sequel series GT.
There was also the mystery of the yellow-haired Goku I’d seen in an issue of Pojo’s Unofficial Pokemon Magazine and on one of the briefly, marginally trendy anime Hawaiian shirts that flooded market stalls around this time. It wasn’t until Frieza bumped off Krillin a few months later that we finally saw Goku turn Super Saiyan for the first time, thus disproving my theory that yellow-haired Goku was some kind of knockoff or print error.
A trickle of Dragon Ball Z merchandise began to sporadically appear in stores as the show picked up a cult following in the UK and before long I had a DBZ themed bedroom, DBZ t-shirts, DBZ action figures, and DBZ stationary. There was only one thing I wanted more than anything else: a Dragon Ball Z video game.
It wasn’t long before I stumbled upon a GeoCities site where you could download and play Dragon Ball SNES games which had never released in the UK. And just like that I discovered the hidden world of roms and emulators. Some short time after this I was turned on to another game with art by Akira Toriyama: Chrono Trigger.
When Dragon Ball returned to theatres for a string of new films and a new series in recent years, I eagerly lapped it up. More importantly though, as like so many others, Dragon Ball opened the door to a whole other world of Japanese games, films, television and books that I might otherwise have ignored.
Enter the Dragon World
As soon as I became aware of MMOs, one where I could enter into Toriyama’s world was top of my most wanted list. Where the license holders dared to tread, however, fans of the anime were more than willing to step forward and create something to fill the gap.
Capturing the frenetic energy of the show’s superpowered battles was way out of reach. Still, with a little prompting our imaginations could do most of the leg work. While I never seriously got into any MUDs, I can certainly remember dabbling in a few Dragon Ball-themed ones, as well as some forum-based text RPGs.
In light of Toriyama’s passing, author of LAN Party, merritt k, shared the above video on Bluesky. Originally posted in 2022, ‘Before MMOs, There Were MUDs | Forgotten Worlds’, is a short and personal history of the early 2000s MUD scene. Likewise living through a now unimaginable era of no easily accessible Dragon Ball games, merrit k recalls their time roleplaying on Dragon Ball World Reloaded, a now defunct MUD based on the SMAUG codebase.
What I yearned for was a graphical online DBZ game and eventually I found a very rudimentary browser game that fit the bill. I couldn’t pinpoint when it was that I played this but I’d hazard a guess that it was around 2004. From what I remember it used a mixture of RPG Maker, Pokemon, and custom sprites, as well as those from The Legacy of Goku games.
I’ve searched long and hard to find any scrap of information about this game in the years since, but have come up empty handed. It’s possible that it might have been created in BYOND Dream Maker. The MMO creation software has been around since 2001 and to this day hosts a number of Dragon Ball themed games. I can’t find one which looks exactly like the one I had played, but they’re all very much of a type.
In 2007, a long awaited official Dragon Ball MMORPG was announced. Developed in a collaboration between NTL, Bandai Namco Games, and Netmarble, Dragon Ball Online featured all new stories and characters designed by Toriyama himself. The hunger for both MMOs and Dragon Ball games during this time made a global release of DBO seem a sure thing, but dated game design and dwindling interest in the game following its initial 2010 release in Korea quickly put pay to that.
As I wrote in 2022, however, Dragon Ball Online‘s legacy continues to grow long after its 2013 shutdown. Chiefly, elements from the game were recycled into Dragon Ball Xenoverse and its sequels – not MMOs by any means, but heavily online-focused games nonetheless.
Thanks to the translation efforts of dedicated volunteers, DBO is also at long last playable in English. Several rogue servers have ensured that the game not only remains playable, but they’ve continued to add original content and host community events.
Honouring Toriyama
Dragon Ball Online wasn’t the only MMORPG with Akira Toriyama’s involvement. Outside of Dragon Ball, creating the art and character designs for the Dragon Quest video game series is perhaps what the mangaka is next best known for.
When the series launched its first, and to date only MMO, Dragon Quest X in 2012, Toriyama was once again called upon to bring the world to life. Tragically still not localized for the west (though at least playable in English thanks to volunteer translation efforts), Dragon Quest X remains online and thriving in Japan.
Following the announcement that Toriyama had died, players have been gathering to pay their respects:
Meanwhile, on the Dragon Ball Online Global rogue server, players have assembled to pay their condolences, with the devs having added Toriyama’s signature gas mask as a wearable item.
In Xenoverse 2, players are rallied together to raise their hands in the air for one almighty spirit bomb in memory of Toriyama. While the game doesn’t have full chat functionality, players sent the preset “Thanks, you saved me” message to share their appreciation.
Of course, Toriyama’s influence spreads far and wide. There’s a huge crossover between Final Fantasy and Dragon Ball fans, and Final Fantasy XIV players have come together in their droves to hold vigils in Ul’dah, home of the Pugilists’ Guild.
Proof, if ever it was needed, of the huge number of lives that Toriyama’s work has impacted. You can be sure that his brand of sincerity, warmth, and sheer visual punch will continue to resonate long after his passing.
MMO Folklorist 
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