I had some time to think. I really loved Dragon Ball as a kid. Growing up in Denmark, I watched the show dubbed in Danish, and begged my Dad to buy the books for me, even though I couldn't read at the time. I still remember a day when I was enjoying the art of the Dragon Ball books, I suddenly realized that I could combine the phonetic sound of each letter like I was taught at school, to be able to read it. After that, I started reading through the few Dragon Ball volumes I had, and soon after asked my Dad to buy me more. The story just captivated me so much more than anything else at the time. Cartoons were usually not that serious, and didn't follow a longer story arc, so Dragon Ball was something totally different. I even pleaded with my parents to let me go to Karate lessons so I could train like Goku! I wonder how many kids started doing training and exercising just because of how cool it looked in Dragon Ball. And yes, of course I tried to go Super Saiyan by yelling loudly in my room. I owned and read all 42 volumes of the manga, and they're still in my home in Denmark. Dragon Ball introduced me, and countless others, to the world of manga. Millions of young creatives took inspiration from Dragon Ball, and started drawing and writing their own stories, and I am part of that generation of creators as well. I am very grateful to Akira Toriyama. He brought happiness and entertainment to millions of children and adults, and he created some of the most iconic characters to ever exist in entertainment. Goku is as iconic, if not in some cases more iconic, than Superman, Batman, Count Dracula, and Sherlock Holmes. If there is a paradise, someone who created so much happiness would surely go there. So I hope he enjoys that paradise as much as that paradise he described, with his Cola, crackers, model toys, cigarettes, and dirty magazines. Rest in peace, Akira Toriyama. Thank you.

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