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\u201cIt\u2019s over 9,000\u201d<\/a> is perhaps the most popular line in the English dub of the \u201cDragon Ball Z\u201d series. The line is beloved for its drama; it\u2019s an exclamation referring to the unmatched power level of the main character, Son Goku. It was an ongoing joke in my middle school and became one of the internet\u2019s most enduring memes<\/a>.<\/p>\n But Goku was always an exemplar of staying power, back from his beginnings in the \u201cDragon Ball\u201d manga created by Akira Toriyama, whose death was confirmed on Friday<\/a>.<\/p>\n Toriyama is the creator of the manga \u201cDr. Slump\u201d and \u201cSand Land\u201d but is best known for \u201cDragon Ball,\u201d which first published in 1984 and for years ran in the popular Japanese magazine Weekly Shonen Jump. It was successful from the start, but as more people around the world learned about it, \u201cDragon Ball\u201d attained such levels of popularity that it became one of the standard-bearers of anime.<\/p>\n Despite the prominence of greats like Hayao Miyazaki<\/a> and the recent surge of live-action adaptations<\/a> in the United States, it\u2019s still fairly rare that a manga or anime \u2014 even given the massive scope, breadth and history of the art form \u2014 achieves crossover appeal to mainstream Western media. There have been a few big exceptions. \u201cPok\u00e9mon.\u201d \u201cNaruto.\u201d And \u201cDragon Ball.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n \u201cDragon Ball\u201d is the story of an alien boy named Son Goku who ends up on Earth. He teams up with a brilliant blue-haired teen named Bulma, and they search for seven dragon balls to summon the powerful wish-granting dragon Shenron.<\/p>\n The worlds and images Toriyama created combined the kung fu-inspired fight sequences of old martial arts flicks with science-fiction and a fantasy-style reimagining of space and technology. The characters burst off the page and the screen: A wild-haired boy in an orange gi flying on a cloud; a whiskered green dragon whose serpentine body coils in Gordian knots in the sky; and seven orange orbs, speckled with small red stars, that when combined offer their collector infinite power.<\/p>\n The U.S. premiere of the anime sequel, \u201cDragon Ball Z,\u201d starring an older Goku who protects Earth from an ever-escalating array of villains while also contending with fatherhood and his lost heritage, was when Toriyama\u2019s stories really took root in the West.<\/p>\n \u201cDragon Ball\u201d references abound in Western animation, including \u201cThe Fairly OddParents,\u201d \u201cTeen Titans GO!,\u201d \u201cCodename: Kids Next Door,\u201d \u201cThe Owl House,\u201d \u201cAvatar: The Last Airbender\u201d and \u201cRobot Chicken.\u201d Characters in \u201cBuffy the Vampire Slayer\u201d and \u201cShang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings\u201d nod to it, too. Childish Gambino, Frank Ocean and Soulja Boy have featured \u201cDragon Ball Z\u201d references in their songs. And Goku has inspired the writing of the protagonists in other beloved manga like \u201cNaruto\u201d and \u201cOne Piece.\u201d<\/p>\n Even those who never fell under the thrall of Toriyama\u2019s series have likely seen his all-powerful hero somewhere. Goku has popped out of a 3-D billboard in Times Square. He has flown through the streets of Midtown in the Macy\u2019s Thanksgiving Day Parade multiple times. Even today, I\u2019ll see one or two little Gokus running around Brooklyn on Halloween, their orange gis and black foam hair (or yellow mountainous tufts, if they\u2019re one of his super saiyan forms) looking ragged and haphazard from a night of desperate foraging for candy.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n \u201cDragon Ball\u201d is most remarkable even among its influential anime peers because of the hero at the center of its story. Goku is Toriyama\u2019s greatest creation. He\u2019s timeless and he\u2019s unbeatable. Anyone who has watched the various incarnations of \u201cDragon Ball\u201d know that Goku has faced the threat of total annihilation more often than most of us face laundry day. He has lost; and, yes, he has died multiple times. But he was also over 9,000. Toriyama wrote Goku as, essentially, eternal. Which means that for countless fans around the world, Toriyama\u2019s legacy is the same.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n