It was late last night when I got the first tweets that mangaka extraordinaire Akira Toriyama had died on March 1st at the age of 68 due to an acute subdural hematoma. Those first tweets then turned into a flood of shock, grief and gratitude from anime and manga fans for his works over the past number of decades. His stature in pop culture was such that he received at least ten minutes of tribute on the main NHK newscast, only preceded by a report on the State of the Nation address by President Biden. News broadcasts around the world including our own news channel here in Toronto noted Toriyama's passing.
Of course, "Dragonball"（ドラゴンボール）will be stated alongside his name. That was his magnum opus for fans in Japan and elsewhere. However, as I have noted in previous postings of songs associated with his works, his earlier masterpiece, "Dr. Slump"（ドクタースランプ）will always be my favourite manga and anime by him. As with "Dragonball", there were a ton of characters surrounding the main ones of robot or android Arale-chan（アラレちゃん）and her creator Senbe Norimaki （則巻千兵衛）as they got into their hilarious scrapes in basically peaceful Penguin Village. The humour was cute and crude at the same time and I will never ever forget Arale's unique way of making her own soft-serve ice cream. Plus, there was also the long-running question of whether the essentially decent but pervy Norimaki would ever earn the love of young and beautiful teacher Midori Yamabuki（山吹みどり）...happily for all concerned, the answer was yes.
When my family got its first VCR in 1983, one of the first video tapes that we rented from Nippon Video was a couple of episodes of the anime "Dr. Slump". However, I wasn't as attached to the anime as I was to the original manga that Toriyama had published between 1980 and 1984. It remains the only manga in my home where I've gotten the complete collection and I actually enjoy the drawings there better than in the anime version. I not only have to thank Toriyama for introducing me to another fascinating wing of pop culture in Japan but I also have to give my gratitude to my host sister in Nara for recommending "Dr. Slump" when we were being shown around in the city in the summer of 1981 with her buying me Volumes 5 and 6 in the 18-volume collection.
I've already posted articles on the first opening theme of the original anime series and one of the ending themes (did not know that the first version of the anime lasted so long between 1981 and 1986). Well, I'm now providing the second opening theme by Arale-chan seiyuu Mami Koyama（小山茉美）with help from the children's chorus group Columbia Yurikago Kai（コロムビアゆりかご会）, "Wai Wai Koushinkyoku" (The Wai Wai March). Released in 1985 as a single, it was written by Asuna Kawagishi（河岸亜砂）and composed by Shunsuke Kikuchi（菊池俊介）. On the Oricon Children's Song chart, "Wai Wai Koushinkyoku" scored No. 38 in the 1985 yearly rankings.
My condolences to Toriyama's family, friends and his millions of fans around the world. バイチャ!
Man, I've been loving the tributes to Toriyama around the world. Dragon Ball is so big in Mexico that they would air new episodes of Dragon Ball Super outdoors for everyone to see. The Japanese government actually complained about it but the Mexican government just ignored it lol
ReplyDeleteYeah, I heard that "Dragonball" is pretty much considered a legendary anime in Mexico. Frankly, the Japanese government should be grumbling on bigger things. I would think the studio is still reaping the rewards from the merchandise alone.
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