Larga vida a un héroe de mi infancia / Long live a hero of my childhood.

A few moments ago I just learned a terrible news that I know will sound familiar to many, I am talking about the death of the mangaka, Akira Toriyama at the age of 68.

As you well know, Akira Toriyama was the creator of what for me, is perhaps the most well-known and popular story in the world of anime, such as Dragon Ball. Like many of you, I grew up watching Dragon Ball, a fairly linear story, but with elements that made you emotional, and even today, after I am 31 years old, it still generates the same emotion in me that it did when I was a child.

This news surprised me a lot, it was as if a part of me was taken away from me, a fundamental part, since that story had characters that inspired many of us and motivated us to achieve our goals without ever giving up, and with a big smile looking to the future always with a head up

I started watching this anime when I was around 6 years old, and since then it became one of my favorite series, which I looked forward to every time I came back from school. When I got home from school, I had lunch, rested, did my homework, and then dedicated my afternoon to enjoying that fantastic story and its wonderful characters. I always loved the character of Goku, since he always made me laugh, and he always managed to overcome his limits and defeat evil.

I remember that in my generation many drawings were made about Dragon Ball characters, there were kids with enormous talent for drawing, and others with not so much, but Dragon Ball encouraged you to show what a fan you were no matter how you did it. We had competitions to see who screamed the loudest, who threw the famous Kame Hame Ha the best, and who had the coolest objects with Dragon Ball references, such as backpacks, notebooks, toys, clothes; It was great and innocent.

Speaking of drawings, I made this one when I was in college in one of my notebooks, Gohan.

My favorite character in the Dragon Ball universe was and still is: Gohan. Since I was a child I was excited to see how that little boy could achieve great feats when he was in danger or angry, but like his father he was always very sweet, and I liked that. I ended up falling in love with him in the famous Cell saga, where he showed why he was a character to fear and admire, it was the best.

I know it seems like I'm only focusing on the history of Dragon Ball instead of the person who created it, it's true, but thanks to Dragon Ball it is that Akira Toriyama became known to the world, and thanks to Dragon Ball it is that in these moments we feel enormous empathy and sadness for this news. We have lost a hero, because a hero is not the one we see on television performing great feats, a true hero is one who with his example, work and dedication manages to change others, and that is what Akira Toriyama achieved by giving us that story. Long life.