Dragon Ball is arguably not just one of the most popular franchises in manga and anime, but one of the most popular franchises ever. Akira Toriyama, creator of the series, brought Dragon Ball to life in Shonen Jump in 1984, following his manga series titled “Dr. Slump”. While he has received numerous awards and recognition throughout his career for his art, France decided to ramp things up a notch and offer Toriyama knighthood.
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Anime News Network broke the news that Akira would be receiving knighthood from the French embassy in Japan on May 30th 2019. Toriyama himself however is something of a reserved person, valuing his privacy and thus did not attend the ceremony itself. In his place however, Akira’s publisher, Akio Iyoku, received the honor for Toriyama and gave some words:
“Mr. Toriyama is always very grateful to his French fans who have appreciated his works since the early days of his career. Unfortunately, Mr. Toriyama almost never attends ceremonies and so I have the honor of receiving this award in his place. He instructed me to tell you how honored he is to receive this award from your country.”
(Photo: Funimation Productions)
Toriyama himself is currently 64 years old, living in Japan. Aside from his legendary work on the Dragon Ball series, Akira has also had a hand in the recognizable video game series Chrono Trigger and Dragon Quest. With Dragon Ball Super, Toriyama has once again entered the limelight, plotting out the Dragon Ball sequel with the manga currently following the exploits of Goku and Vegeta as they fight the evil sorcerer Moro on the Planet Namek.
The Knighthood with France’s Order of Arts and Letters is just one of the long list of accolades that Toriyama has received. One of the most recent is Akira Toriyama being nominated for an Eisner, one of the most well-known awards in the world of comic books. Toriyama was also noted as an influencer for other famous manga artists, such as Eiichiro Oda, the creator of One Piece, and Masashi Kisomoto, the creator of Naruto.
What do you think of this prestigious recognition given to Akira Toriyama? Let us know in the comments or feel free to hit me up directly on Twitter @EVComedy to talk all things comics and anime.
Dragon Ball Super currently airs its English dub on Adult Swim during the Toonami programming block on Saturday evenings. It is also available to stream on Funimation and Amazon Video. The Japanese-language release of the series is complete, and available to stream on FunimationNOW and Crunchyroll. The manga has chapters that can currently be read for free thanks to Viz Media, and Dragon Ball Super: Broly is now available on Blu-ray and DVD.
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