My heart sank when my best friend texted me about Toriyama’s passing.
We’d lost a legend, a man whose imagination knew no bounds. Toriyama was a massive part of my life. His creation, Dragonball Z, was my gateway into the world of anime. Growing up, watching anime films on the Sci-Fi channel was a ritual, but DBZ hit differently.
It hooked me entirely.
I remember being 13 years old in Colombia, watching DBZ in Spanish just….completely enthralled. It was some of the coolest shit I had ever seen. When I returned to the States, I scoured the fucking TV Guide every Saturday morning, recording every episode(this was before Toonami picked it up and during the Ocean Group dub days).