'Dragon Ball' Fans Gather To Wish Creator Akira Toriyama A Happy Birthday

Today is an important one for the Dragon Ball fandom. The franchise's latest TV series may have ended last month, but fans of the series are coming together to celebrate a very important birthday. After all, Akira Toriyama is another year older starting today, and fans are honoring the shonen icon with some social media throwbacks.

Born in April 1955, Toriyama was raised in Nagoya by his family and developed a love for art at a young age. The artist has said he began doing parody sketches for his classmates, and he developed his talent from there. Before Toriyama dedicated his life to manga, the creator worked at an advertisement agency before he published his first manga with Weekly Shonen Jump in 1980. The title, Dr. Slump, was a popular one until its end four years later. And, as fans know, Dragon Ball came shortly after Toriyama ended his first manga.

Published in 1984, Dragon Ball became an instant hit, and it has gone on to sell over 150 million copies worldwide. The shonen series has become the prototypical example of the genre, and Dragon Ball one of the several series that helped mainstream anime in the west during the 1990s. Dragon Ball Z has become a bonafide cultural artifact at this point, and Goku's legacy lives on today. Dragon Ball Super may have ended its TV run in March, but it will continue on through film as its first movie will drop in December, and Toei Animation has assured fans the franchise is far from over.

As you can see below, fans from all around the world are taking to Twitter to celebrate Toriyama's birthday, and the memes are aplenty. Everything from fan-art to AMVs are being used to honor the creator of Dragon Ball and Dr. Slump, so it is about time you posted your tribute as well.

Today the father of Dragon Ball turns 63 (April 5th in Japan). Happy birthday, Akira Toriyama! RT to show respect! pic.twitter.com/IyVJqxs1Z0

— Goku (@Goku) April 4, 2018

It's Akira Toriyama's birthday! Last year I posted a pic of him and Jackie Chan. This year, here's a pic of him and his cat Koge, a stray he took in and tried to hide from his cat-hating assistant while working on Dragon Ball in '86. Koge gave birth to 4 kittens later that year. pic.twitter.com/bnMmtFGlea

— Caleb D. Thompson (@NessMudkip) April 5, 2018

Happy Birthday, Akira Toriyama. This man is the reason why I'm such a huge weeb to this day, for creating my all-time favourite manga. 🤘 pic.twitter.com/KJJTER8XJL

— Chris (@CrusaderBogard) April 5, 2018

Dragon Ball Super currently airs its English dub on Adult Swim during the Toonami programming block Saturday evenings at 9:30 p.m. It is also available to stream on FunimationNOW and Amazon Video. The Japanese language release of the series is complete, and available to stream on FunimationNOW, VRV, and Crunchyroll.

If you want to catch up with the English dub, the first 52 episodes of Dragon Ball Super are now available to stream on FunimationNOW, VRV, and available to purchase on Amazon Video as well. The 52 episodes span the full range of what has aired in the North America and covers the "Battle of Gods" arc, "Revival of F" arc, the "Universe 6" arc, and bringing the series right up to the current TV airings of the "Future Trunks" arc.

What would you tell Toriyama if you had the chance to speak with him today? Let me know in the comments or hit me up on Twitter @MeganPetersCB to talk all things comics, k-pop, and anime!