Dragon Ball creator Akira Toriyama’s last contribution to the manga was a drawing of Piccolo waving goodbye, and fans couldn’t have asked for a better send-off

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(Image credit: Viz Media/Shueisha)

A manga fan on Twitter (@BasedPota18) has shared the final page of published art worked on by Dragon Ball creator and legendary mangaka Akira Toriyama. The page – the last in this month’s Dragon Ball Super Chapter 103 – marks a bittersweet farewell to one of the greatest manga creators of all time. 

On the page, Goku, Gohan, and Piccolo arrive to collect Pan, Goku’s young granddaughter from kindergarten. As they walk away, Piccolo turns and offers a friendly wave that appears to be to the reader. As several posters have pointed out it feels, touchingly, like a farewell from Akira Toriyama himself. 

The page draws extra resonance as it is known that former villain Piccolo was Toriyama’s favorite character in the long-running series.

So this page of Goku, Gohan, and Piccolo picking up Pan was Toriyama’s last drawing for ToyotaroThis really just hits different knowing that pic.twitter.com/Sw7wAGSWqkMarch 28, 2024

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(Image credit: Viz Media/Shueisha)

While Toriyama stopped drawing full pages some years ago, he continued to write Dragon Ball Super, while also providing guidance and artistic corrections to his successor, fellow mangaka Toyotarou. Toyotarou has since confirmed on his own Twitter that the addition of Piccolo turning and waving is indeed one such alteration, sketched in by Toriyama himself. You can see his corrections in the tweet below.

実は103話の最終ページ僕が描いたネームだと全員そのまま背を向けて飛び去っていました「ピッコロが幼稚園の先生に向けるようにさようならの挨拶をする風に」というのが先生の最後の修正でした（※勝手にネーム載せられないのでイメージで描き直してます）僕は入稿後に訃報に触れました。↓ pic.twitter.com/YQX6kOJMqQMarch 28, 2024

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The page also included a tribute attributed to the English language team on Dragon Ball Super. It reads: “We’re all deeply saddened by the news of Toriyama sensei’s passing. His work is an inspiration to us all. Our thoughts and prayers are with his family, friends, and all the fans who were touched by his work.”

A notice on the side of the page explains that the series will be on hiatus after April’s issue, though it doesn’t say how long for.

Meanwhile, another Toriyama project, Sand Land, has recently made its debut as an anime series, quickly gaining high praise from fans and critics. That show is streaming now on Disney Plus and Hulu.

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Will Salmon is the Comics Editor for GamesRadar/Newsarama. He has been writing about comics, film, TV, and music for more than 15 years, which is quite a long time if you stop and think about it. At Future he has previously launched scary movie magazine Horrorville, relaunched Comic Heroes, and has written for every issue of SFX magazine for over a decade. He sometimes feels very old, like Guy Pearce in Prometheus. His music writing has appeared in The Quietus, MOJO, Electronic Sound, Clash, and loads of other places and he runs the micro-label Modern Aviation, which puts out experimental music on cassette tape.

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