I hope Toriyama is on Snakeway or whatever now, chilling with King Kai too. Maybe Kaido is there too? Worororo. Hes a giant blue dragon too ofc lmao.
Seriously though, this is just too fucking sad. Toriyama created one of the greatest epics ever, a series that spanned decades and is still going strong to this day, feeling somewhat immortal and now outlasting him even.
I've always loved dearly loved Goku, he's one of the best designed and written MCs and I cried for him at the end of GT too, GT is so underrated and overhated, but that's a whole ass debate in itself ofc. It felt like the true ending to the DB series, as much as it made me cry and I kinda hated it at the time. (Kinda like how Jojo Part 6 felt like the ultimate and yet extremely controversial ending of the series in some ways.)
Goku is one of the best role models especially for boys but even girls too ofc, so likeable, earnest, endearing, a real hero that isn't perfect but his strengths, his positives FAR outweight his negatives and he inspired some of the greatest rivals and side characters, helped turn villains into heroes and better people even especially his majorly beloved rivals and now father and father figure Vegeta and Piccolo, who also have played a fatherly role to Gohan at some point, especially Piccolo by far ofc.
Vegeta and Piccolo have some of the greatest character development I've ever seen, Dragonball championed villains and thus former enemies turning good and becoming heroes or at least becoming anti-heroes depending. Actual character development.
DBZ used to get slandered as just a meathead show, just about screaming, fights, hype, kinda like the WWE of anime BUT DBZ weas so much more layered than a lot of people who've never seen it or truly understood it after seeing some of it realised, it had some of the greatest emotional moments I've ever seen in a series, actual tension and major consequences, sacrifices, drama, heartbreaking moments, epicness, tragedy, hilarity, it had everything.
It lives on through its major spinoffs like GT and Super ofc, through all kinds of other things too including video games, card games, movies, some other animated series or so and the OG Dragonball series is so fucking good in its own unique way, so humble, charming, adventurous and you can see the groundwork, the foundation of how it inspired and evolved into DBZ as well as inspiring countless other series including some of my favourites of all time like Ranma 1/2, Naruto and One Piece ofc, even the likes of Bobobo!
This is like the death of Superman or something, the death of a beloved hero, an icon, an inspiration, someone who brought so much joy, happiness, hope to others and inspired so much greatness, awe and strength to others.
We've lost a "God," a GodFather even. This I dare say is the most devastating loss the anime/manga industry has ever seen and will ever seen, until the day Oda himself truly expires unfortunately. I know the day we lose other mangaka like Kubo, Kishimoto, Oda, I'm legit going to cry hard, especially for Oda too.
I just pray Oda can finish One Piece on his own terms and thus in time, that he has enough time to do and he sees his own personal journey, his odyssey to the end. He deservest that much at least.