Akira Toriyama was Knigted by the French Goverment.

[May_Lily]

Akira Toriyama, best known for being the creator of Dragon Ball, was given the Chevalier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres (Knight of the Order of Arts and Letters) decoration during a ceremony that was held at the French Embassy in Japan. However he didn't show up for the event due to being a private person so instead his publisher Akio Iyoku was given the award in his place. You can read more about this from here including the message his publisher delivered that was from Akira : https://www.animenewsnetwork.com/i...tor-akira-toriyama-knighted-by-france/.147351

It's amazing Akira became so recognized that he was given the honor to be knighted. In fact it never occurred to me that a person could be knigted because they became a successful artist that created something that became culturally significant throughout the world. Good for him. However it's a shame he is so private that he could not be at the event to receive the award.

 

[LowSanity]

I can understand why he didn't attend. I'm quite suprised that he was aworded. Miyazaki or Takahata would be my first choice but they may already been given one.

 

[May_Lily]

I looked on a search engine but I could not find whether Hayao Miayazaki or Isao Takahata been knighted, but yes I could see those two being good options to give the award to given by what they contributed in the arts. I can understand why Akira Toriyama received the award, because while he is not the best story teller he is one of the best manga artist in Japan, and he created a manga had a global impact as well as change something in the manga industry in that it was Dragon Ball that laid the foundation for battle manga.