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Dragon Ball (manga)

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Dragon Ball (manga)
Dragon Ball tankōbon volume 1 (Japanese version)
GenreAction, Science fiction
Manga
Written byAkira Toriyama
Published byJapan Shueisha

Dragon Ball (ドラゴンボール, Doragon Bōru) is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Akira Toriyama with an anime adaptation, followed by Dragon Ball Z and Dragon Ball GT. The basis for the storyline took inspiration from two Chinese-related works, Jackie Chan's Drunken Master II and Wu Cheng'en's Journey to the West.[2] In Japan, Dragon Ball was collected into a single 42-volume series[3] (called tankōbon) after the manga was serialized in Weekly Shonen Jump from 1984 to 1995.[1]

The setting of Dragon Ball has a sort of Chinese feel to it, but it's not necessarily China. Exactly where it takes place is uncertain. The overall story is very simple, but I'd like to keep making up more details and illustrations as I go along. This way, I can draw anything I want to and enjoy the tension and excitement of figuring out what I'll draw next. — Akira Toriyama, 1985[4]

In 2004, the manga was re-released in a 34 volume collection called kanzenban, which included a slightly rewritten ending, new covers, and color artwork from its Weekly Shonen Jump run.[5] As of 2006, the distributing company Viz Media has released all 42 volumes (nearly matching the first Japanese set) into English-language in the United States. Viz titles the second portion of the manga Dragon Ball Z to lessen confusion for North American readers.[5] The series is published in the United Kingdom by Gollancz Manga.

Plot

Simple, monkey-tailed Saiyan boy from outer-space Son Goku goes on a life-long adventure beginning with a quest for the seven titular Dragon Balls, befriends many different martial artists and faces various villains, goes through many rigorous martial arts training regiments and educational programs, defeats a series of increasingly powerful martial artists, dies and comes back to life several times, and becomes the top martial arts superhero in the Dragon Ball universe.[6]

Evolution

A unifing component of the plot accompanying the Son Goku's progression as a martial artist is his search for the eponymous Dragon Balls. The Dragon Balls themselves are seven magical orbs which are scattered across the world. When assembled, they can be used to summon Shenlong, the dragon who will grant one wish within its limit. After the wish is granted, the Dragon Balls are scattered again across the world and become inert for one year. In times past, it would take generations to search the world and gather the Dragon Balls. In the beginning of the story, however, a 16 year old genius girl named Bulma has created a Dragon Radar to detect the Dragon Balls and made the process far easier than it was originally intended to be.

The story of Dragon Ball unfolded gradually over 11 years of publication. During those years, the tone and the style of the stories gradually changed to reflect the tastes of the readers and the editors of Shonen Jump in Japan. The early volumes of the manga (chapters 1-134) are primarily humorous fantasy stories, but containing some minor sci-fi elements, much like Dr. Slump. Notable fantasy elements include not only the monkey boy Son Goku and the Dragon Balls themselves, but also many talking animal characters, unlikely martial art techniques, and characters identified as gods and demons. Despite the fantasy elements, the world does contain highly advanced technology including hoi-poi capsules, space-saving capsules which are pocket sized but can store almost any object, including cars, planes, houses, and other "near future" objects. The overall mood of the earlier volumes is light with few deaths and an emphasis on adventure and humor.

A subtle but significant change in mood began after Son Goku's best friend Kuririn was killed (the first of many deaths in this arc). This began the Piccolo Daimao arc (chapters 135-194) in which the manga enters a darker tone compared to its earlier volumes. Dragon Ball fully transformed into an action based shōnen manga at the onset of the Saiyan arc (chapters 195-241). Starting with introduction of Son Goku's first son, things begin to take a much more serious and harder sci-fi approach. Many characters which previously had fantasy origins (Son Goku, Piccolo) are recast as aliens from other planets. Space travel, alien threats, and powerful cyborgs and androids take center stage instead of more fantastic villains.

After the defeat of Vegeta, and the conclusion of the Saiyan arc, the survivors of the vicious Saiyan attack head off to the Planet Namek to resurrect their friends. This begins the Freeza arc (chapters 242-329). The Freeza arc is noteworthy for introducing the first Super Saiyan, now a staple of the series. It also set the tone for more awesomely powerful characters. For example, the antagonist Freeza has a "power level" (the series' futuristic measure of a fighter's speed and strength, i.e. one average human is listed as 4) of 530,000. He then transforms into a more powerful form, at which point his power level is over one million. After two subsequent transformations, he reveals that he is still only using a fraction of his full power.

The Cell arc (chapters 330-420) introduced Trunks, a mysterious Half-Saiyan Half-Human from a destroyed future world where all of the Z Senshi have been killed by evil, seemingly invincible war machines called jinzōningen, and the enigmatic and villainous Cell who was made from the cells from most of the heroes as well as some of the villains. It was between this arc and the last arc that creator Akira Toriyama stopped measuring characters' power levels in the stories, deciding that it limited the stories. This arc is notable for being the only arc in which Goku does not defeat the main villain, but instead it is his son, Son Gohan, who defeats Cell. It is in this arc that Son Gohan surpasses the level of Super Saiyan and reaches the stage of Super Saiyan 2 in order to defeat Perfect Cell.

After these arcs and Son Goku's death and staying in heaven is the Majin Buu arc (chapters 421-519) which is the very last arc of the manga. The Majin Buu arc features more of the humor and fantastic plot elements that were present in the very early volumes of the manga. The beginning of this final arc concentrates on a teenaged Son Gohan mostly. Son Goku makes his return after being dead for seven years. All the male Saiyans manage to reach the level of Super Saiyan at least (including fusions). Super Saiyan 2 is reached by Son Gohan, Son Goku and Vegeta. And the ultimate level of the Saiyans, Super Saiyan 3, is reached by Son Goku and Gotenks. A considerable number of fusions also take place to add to the series, allowing Son Goten and Trunks to merge to form Gotenks, and Son Goku and Vegeta fuse to create the incredibly powerful, totally invincible Super Vegetto. During this series, Majin Buu manages to kill everyone on Earth including central characters like Vegeta and increasing his own power by absorbing Gotenks, Piccolo and Son Gohan. Majin Buu also succeeds where the villains Vegeta, Freeza and Cell had previously failed and destroys Earth. Everyone (including Earth) is restored using the Dragon Balls, and Majin Buu's evil side is destroyed by Son Goku's Genki Dama.

Majin Buu's evil side is reincarnated into a being of pure good called Uub. Son Goku and Uub fight at the 28th Tenkaichi Budokai, Uub enters to get money (zeni) for his village. Son Goku decides to train Uub to become even stronger than himself, the strongest fighter in the entire universe. Uub's village will get money from Mr. Satan. To say goodbye every hero character to ever appear in the entire manga (except minors), all wave to the readers and a huge "THE END" sign floats above them.

After completing this series, Toriyama had a rest and then made another manga called Neko Majin. This manga featured many elements and characters from Dragon Ball, including Mr. Buu, Vegeta and even Son Goku himself.

Journey to the West Dragon Ball similis
Sun Wukong Son Goku monkey tail, riding a flying cloud, wielding an extendible magic staff[7]
(subplot) borrowing the palm-leaf fan from the Gyū-Maō to dowse the Flaming Mountains

Viz

File:Dragonball3.jpg
Dragon Ball, volume 3, (English-language cover)

By 2005, Viz had published the entire manga series in English-language unedited as "Dragon Ball" and "Dragon Ball Z" to a North American audience and re-released volumes one through three.[citation needed]

Censorship

In 2006, Viz began releasing a second, A-rated (All Ages) edition of the series sans some nudity and profanity.

Other changes

See also

References

  1. ^ a b Dragon Ball ({{{type}}}) at Anime News Network's encyclopedia. Retrieved on 2007-11-19.
  2. ^ http://www.anime3000.com/information/creators/toriyama.html
  3. ^ Dragon Ball at http://www.viz.com/
  4. ^ Dragon Ball manga, vol. 1, page 1 — ISBN 1-56931-920-0
  5. ^ a b http://cartoons-comics.deepthi.com/comic-hero-dragon-ball.html
  6. ^ www.dragonball.com
  7. ^ www.myfavoritegames.com/dragonball-z/Info/JourneyToTheWest.htm
  8. ^ Dragon Ball manga, vol. 2, chapter 20 — ISBN 1-56931-921-9
  9. ^ Dragon Ball Z manga, vol. 24, chapter 289 — ISBN 1-4215-0273-9
  10. ^ Dragon Ball Z manga, vol. 20, chapter 227 — ISBN 1-59116-808-2
  11. ^ Dragon Ball Z manga, vol. 26, chapter 310 — ISBN 1-4215-0636-X

Japan

United States


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