The announcement that Akira Toriyama, the creator of Dragon Ball, had passed stunned the global anime community roughly two weeks ago. Fans, creators, and industry colleagues are still mourning over the unexpected loss, including the production crew behind Adult Swim's Toonami.
The first eight episodes of Dragon Ball Z Kai were shown from 2 AM to 6 AM on the late-night anime television block as an homage.
For those unfamiliar, DBZ Kai is a recut version of the original anime that reduces the amount of filler content. Toei Animation also took the opportunity to re-record unclear dialogue and improve animation quality for certain scenes. DBZ Kai cuts the episode count for the anime series from 291 to 167 episodes.
Meanwhile, since news of Toriyama's passing, more and more tributes and heart-felt messages have surfaced online, which we have collected below.
Famous manga artist Akira Toriyama unexpectedly passed away from an acute subdural hematoma on March 1. His family kept the news private until March 8. Toriyama was 68-years-old.
Toriyama, who was born on April 5, 1955, made his manga debut in 1978 with the Wonder Island anthology adventure series. Ironically, Toriyama was merely trying to make some extra money after quitting his work at an advertising firm, so he never thought about having a career in manga.
He went on to find large-scale success with 1980's Dr. Slump before eventually creating the gargantuan Dragon Ball franchise in 1984.
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