30 tracks with bright sounds and feminine flair! This is the perfect list for anyone with a fondness for all things cute and sparkly.
The YouTube playlist has every song with it's music video for the full magical girl experience, but if you prefer the experience with no visuals, I made a Spotify playlist that is exactly the same songs:
(No known sources)
Toriyama-san, perhaps most famous, for being the creator behind the Dragon Ball franchise, and one of the visual artists in the world of Akiba-Style Otaku, with the most unique of design styles, has passed away today, at the age of 68, from bleeding in his between his brain and skull. I'm adding that description, because, that's what a subdural hematoma is. The "acute" part, means that it came on rapidly, possibly due to injury, but we do not know, for sure, at this time.
Subdural hematomas are no joke. They are killers, 90% of the time, and can happen at any age, most commonly with a head injury, but not always. Unless you can alleviate the pressure, by opening the skull, somehow, you're dead meat. And the associated symptoms, can be confused with other ailments: think confusion, being unable to speak coherently, etc. Similar to stroke symptoms, but with this, it's even more dire than that.
But, let's move beyond his cause of death. What about Toriyama-san, the man?
The world is poorer, for Toriyama-san's death. His art style was incredibly unique, and he could find a way to draw just about anything, or anyone. I doubt anyone will be able to emulate his style... 😔 I dunno what else to say. I'm shocked, and saddened, by this news, even though I was not his biggest fan. His unique style, alone, had my respect. We'll never see art like that, ever again, without hitting the back catalogue of his work. Love it or hate it, you have to stand in awe, of its novelty, and uniqueness, and in more recent years, I've grown to love it.
On Dragon Ball... Toriyama-san was the artist for it, and actual creator of anything related to it, with few exceptions. He wrote the stories, drew the animations, designed the characters... He WAS Dragon Ball. With him gone, it's hard to say where the franchise will go, from here. One can only hope, that it goes into good hands.
Same goes for Dragon Quest, where he remained the primary artist, all the way from the Enix days, before they merged with Squaresoft, to form SQUARE ENIX. Not everyone can be so good, as to be kept on, after a merger; Uematsu-san, for example, had either been let go, or left, after the merger, or shortly before, and he is easily as talented, with music, as Toriyama-san was, with visual art. This speaks volumes to SQUARE ENIX's judgement of good artistry, despite all the problems they have, on the business end. With his passing, the torch will go on to a new primary artist, and we can only hope the franchise goes into good hands, like with Dragon Ball.
As for his breadth of work... There's a reason I mention his other work, outside of Dragon Ball. While here, in the Post-Roman world, everyone will be posting their remembrances, with references including Dragon Ball, There's another country, where almost all of the remembrances will be including Dragon Quest. That country, is Japan, where that franchise is as big as Final Fantasy is, here, in the Post-Roman world. Let's not forget Chrono Trigger, for which he also provided the art. He did plenty else, too, although I cannot possibly enumerate every single thing; no person, is a one-trick pony, and I try to recognise this, upon anyone's passing.
I hope that my own remembrance of, and tribute to, Toriyama-san, is appreciated, by all of you.
bows head in silence
ありがとうございました、鳥山さん。 (Thank You So Much, Mr. Toriyama.)
of & near big butte idaho
