A vibrant, towering ode to ‘Dragon Ball’

Childhood immortalised: The 15m-tall ‘Dragon Ball’ mural at Jalan Pejabat Pos is replete with beloved characters from the series such as Goku as well as a portrait of its late creator Toriyama.

Local artist’s tribute also features creator’s image

KAMPAR: A local artist has paid tribute to the late Akira Toriyama by creating a large mural featuring characters of the Japanese creator’s most famous work, Dragon Ball, here.

Kum Peng Han, 37, from Kuala Lumpur, said the manga series was his favourite while growing up, and that as such, he wanted to pay homage to the late creator.

“I have always loved Dragon Ball since I was a child.

“The main characters in the series have always inspired me to become better and stronger,” he said during the launch of the mural by Kampar MP Chong Zhemin here yesterday.

“The mural is an original design by me,” Kum said, adding that he also had help from several students from Universiti Teknologi Mara to complete the work within two weeks.

Toriyama, 68, passed away due to an acute subdural hematoma, a type of bleeding near the brain, on March 1 this year.

The Dragon Ball comic series, which debuted in 1983, was his most famous work.

The mural by Kum, which is about 15m tall, is located at Jalan Pejabat Pos.

It consists of several popular characters from the series such as Goku, Gohan, Vegeta, Piccolo and Trunks. It also showcases a portrait of Toriyama as the “mind” behind the characters.

The mural also has an augmented reality feature, which can be accessed by scanning the QR code next to the artwork with the camera function on the Facebook mobile app.

A younger version of Goku riding on his “Flying Nimbus”, a yellow cloud he uses as a mode of transport, would emerge when pointing the camera at Korin, a white cat deity next to Toriyama on the mural.

Kum, a Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahman graduate, said he had considered doing something for the town, having studied here.

“I am quite familiar with the town and wanted to give back to the community.

“After finding a suitable location, I approached Chong and proposed to do the mural,” he said, adding that he now runs Caveman Murals, a company in Kota Damansara, Selangor.

Chong said he hopes that the mural would become a new landmark in Kampar.

“It has gotten quite a lot of attention after I posted a picture of it on Facebook on Sunday.

“I hope to see more murals here in the future,” he said.

Kampar district council president Ahmad Suqairy Alias said the Dragon Ball mural would complement the murals at Ilham Seni@Kampar, located at the back alley of the row of old buildings on Jalan Gopeng-Kampar, some 169m away.

“It is also launched just in time for this year’s Visit Perak Year campaign, which can help to promote Kampar to tourists.”