Friends of Akira Toriyama revealed details of his health in recent years

We were all in complete shock a couple of nights ago when Akira's death was announced, it caught us by surprise and landed like a bucket of ice water on our heads.

Now, as the days go by, close friends and colleagues are revealing more about the health problems that the late Dragon Ball creator faced.

In an interview with Sponichi Annexcomedian Tomohide Ohkawa shared some details about Toriyama after a 16-year friendship. The interview, broken down in English by Reddit, revealed that Toriyama did not suffer any serious health problems until 2022, but was hospitalized during the COVID-19 pandemic.

According to Ohkawa, Toriyama sent him an email in April 2023 about the possibility of being hospitalized for a brain tumor. In February 2024, Toriyama received brain surgery to remove the tumor. Ohkawa does not know if this event was related to Toriyama's death, which occurred on March 1.

Takao Koyama, a screenwriter who worked for several years on dragon ballshared a similar statement regarding Toriyama's poor health on social media platform X (formerly Twitter), in which Koyama revealed that Toriyama had been ill since last year, possibly related to his brain tumor status.

Since the death was announced that night, voice actors, fans from around the world, and even other manga artists have paid their tribute to the great artist. We upload most of them on our Twitter.

You might also be interested in: Now yes! Call of the Night confirmed its second season.

Fountain: CBR.