The world of manga and anime has lost one of its most treasured talents. On March 1, 2024, Akira Toriyama, creator of the Dragon Ball franchise, died at the age of 68 from a blood clot in his brain, with his passing only just being announced to the public today. Naturally this has resulted in an outpouring of love and appreciation for Toriyama, and that included Cartoon Network paying tribute to him. However, I’m confused by the homage the channel used to accomplish this.
As you’ll see below, the Cartoon Network X page used an image of Gumball Watterson from The Amazing World of Gumball going Super Saiyan, just like lead protagonist Goku would frequently do from the Frieza saga onward in Dragon Ball Z, one of the classic anime from the ‘80s and ‘90s. Take a look!
Rest in peace to the manga legend Akira Toriyama. The artistry and monumental impact of Dragon Ball will live on in the hearts of fans and creators for generations to come. pic.twitter.com/RyoItD3506March 8, 2024
Now just to be clear, I don’t have a problem with this image by itself. Granted, I’ve never seen The Amazing World of Gumball (though I could easily do so by streaming it with my Max subscription), but I can still appreciate the animated series throwing Dragon Ball Z some love. What’s confusing is why Cartoon Network went this image rather than just posting an image directly from Dragon Ball Z. After all, the channel and anime are tied together pretty closely.
Dragon Ball Z, which we ranked 38th of the best animated TV shows of all time, debuted on Cartoon Network in 1998, two years after the original Funimation dub played in first-run syndication. While the initial dub production, which Funimation (now known as Crunchyroll LLC) worked on with Saban Entertainment, was ultimately halted, DBZ’s popularity on Cartoon Network resulted in the channel ordering more episodes. Funimation resumed work on the dub, albeit without Saban’s involvement, and its in-house dub depicted less censorship than the original batch of episodes, which had also been trimmed down from the original 67 to just 53 (they would later be re-dubbed and edited back to their original cuts).
New episodes of Dragon Ball Z subsequently premiered on Cartoon Network from 1999 to 2003 during the channel’s Toonami block, and reruns would continue being shown until 2008. Predecessor Dragon Ball and follow-up shows Dragon Ball GT and Dragon Ball Super also aired on Toonami, though by the time the latter two series arrived stateside, the programming block had changed from being aired in the afternoon to the late evening as part of Adult Swim’s fare. The point being, as far as American viewers are concerned, Cartoon Network and the Dragon Ball franchise go way back, so why not just use a still of Goku or another one of the Z fighters in the Akira Toriyama tribute post?
I can only think of two reasons. One, the person posting on the X page just wanted to be clever and share something outside of the box that still easily referenced Dragon Ball Z. Two, since the Dragon Ball shows are produced by Toei Animation, maybe there’s some kind of rights issue that prevents a Dragon Ball Z picture from being posted, whereas Cartoon Network owns The Amazing World of Gumball, so there’d be no problems grabbing a picture from there.
In any case, this is just one tribute you can find online for the late Akira Toriyama, and between the Dragon Ball franchise and his various other projects, he leaves behind a body of work that will continue to be appreciated for decades to come. As of this writing, the original Dragon Ball Z can only be streamed on Crunchyroll, but Dragon Ball Z Kai (a revised version of that show), Dragon Ball, Dragon Ball GT and Dragon Ball Super can all be accessed with a Hulu subscription.
