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Dragon Ball

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This article is about the manga and anime metaseries. For the Palm Pilot PDA microprocessor, see Freescale DragonBall.
Dragon Ball
First tankōbon volume, released in Japan on November 10, 1985
ドラゴンボール
(Doragon Bōru)
GenreMartial arts, Science fiction
Manga
Written byAkira Toriyama
Published byJapan Shueisha
English publisherCanada United States Viz Media
United Kingdom Gollancz Manga
Australia New ZealandChuang Yi
MagazineWeekly Shōnen Jump
DemographicShōnen
Original run1984 – 1995
Volumes42 (List of volumes)
Anime
Directed byMinoru Okazaki
Daisuke Nishio
StudioToei Animation
Released February 26, 1986 – April 12, 1989
Anime
Dragon Ball Z
Directed byDaisuke Nishio
StudioToei Animation
Released April 26, 1989 – January 31, 1996
Anime
Dragon Ball GT
Directed byOsamu Kasai
StudioToei Animation
Released February 7, 1996 – November 19, 1997
Movies
  1. Curse of the Blood Rubies
  2. Sleeping Princess in Devil's Castle
  3. Mystical Adventure
  4. The Path to Power
  5. Dragon Ball Z: Dead Zone
  6. Dragon Ball Z: The World's Strongest
  7. Dragon Ball Z: The Tree of Might
  8. Dragon Ball Z: Lord Slug
  9. Dragon Ball Z: Cooler's Revenge
  10. Dragon Ball Z: Return of Cooler
  11. Dragon Ball Z: Super Android 13!
  12. Dragon Ball Z: Broly - The Legendary Super Saiyan
  13. Dragon Ball Z: Bojack Unbound
  14. Dragon Ball Z: Broly Second Coming
  15. Dragon Ball Z: Bio-Broly
  16. Dragon Ball Z: Fusion Reborn
  17. Dragon Ball Z: Wrath of the Dragon

Dragon Ball (ドラゴンボール, Doragon Bōru) is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Akira Toriyama. It was serialized in Weekly Shōnen Jump from 1984 through 1995, and its 519 individual chapters were published into 42 tankōbon volumes by Shueisha. Inspired by the Chinese folk novel Journey to the West, it follows the adventures of its lead character, Son Goku from his childhood into old age. The manga series is licensed for an English language release in North America by Viz Media, in the United Kingdom by Gollancz Manga, and in Australia and New Zealand by Chuang Yi.

Dragon Ball has since been adapted into three different anime series, seventeen animated feature films, three television specials, a collectible trading card game, and a large number of video games. A live-action film has been in development since 2002, and is now slated for release on April 10, 2009.

Plot

See also: Lists of Dragon Ball characters

A monkey-tailed boy named 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 regimens 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 universe.

As the series continues, Goku goes from childhood into adulthood, and his first child, Son Gohan goes through similar experiences. As Goku evolves, so do his rivals, Piccolo and Vegeta, from evil to good.

Differences in anime adaptations

In Dragon Ball GT, which is not based on any manga chapters, Son Goku is turned back into a child by the Black-Star Dragon Balls and is forced to travel across the universe to retrieve them. While in space, he encounter the evil artificial Tuffle, Baby, who intends to destroy the Saiyan race. Goku fights him and is defeated. After having his tail regenerated, he achieves the level of Super Saiyan 4 and destroys Baby, propelling him into the sun with a Kamehameha. After Baby's defeat, Dr. Myuu, a combination of machine and human, creates a replica of Android 17 and has it fuse with the original Android 17, creating Super 17. Super 17 at first seems impervious to Goku's attacks, but when Android 18 attacks him for killing Krillin, Goku takes advantage of the distraction to penetrate through Super 17 with his Dragon Fist technique, then fires a Kamehameha through the wound.

Due to overuse of the Dragon Balls, seven Evil Dragons are then created. All but the most powerful, Syn Shenron, are defeated. Shenron appears to be losing until he absorbs the Dragon Balls - he then gains more power, becoming Omega Shenron, and overwhelms Goku. Goku is about to sacrifice himself to destroy the evil dragon, but then Vegeta turns up in Super Saiyan 4 form, thanks to Bulma's new device, the Blutz Wave Generator. Goku and Vegeta fuse, creating Gogeta, who uses his immense power to taunt Omega Shenron. However, their fusion then ends and Goku loses Super Saiyan 4 form. Eventually, using the energy of every living being in the universe, Goku makes a Spirit Bomb powerful enough to destroy Omega Shenron.

Production

"Dragon Boy" redirects here. For the Canadian mini-series, see Dragon Boys.

In 1983, Toriyama wrote a two-part one shot manga series called Dragon Boy that was initially serialized in Fresh Jump and released in a single tankōbon volume later in the same year. This short work combined the comedic style of Toriyama's successful six-year series Dr. Slump with a more action-oriented plot. This early work became the basis for Dragon Ball, with many of the same elements reused in the series. In the same year, he also published a sci-fi title The Adventures of Tongpoo, which included a character named Tanton who would be the inspiration of Son Goku, as well as additional plot elements that would be incorporated into Dragon Ball.

When asked why he draws "beautiful," "strong," and "sexy" women Toriyama replied that he is not comfortable drawing "weak females" and that it would be "no fun" drawing females weak. In some parts of Dragon Ball many of the strongest characters are small in stature. Toriyama said that he wished to go against the convention that stronger characters always appear larger and that he intended to switch between "telling a straightforward story" and telling an "unconventional and contradictory" story.[1]

Media

Manga

Main article: List of Dragon Ball chapters

Written and illustrated by Toriyama, Dragon Ball was initially serialized in the magna anthology Weekly Shōnen Jump starting in 1985, and running until 1995.[2] The 325 individual chapters were collected by Shueisha in a series of 42 tankōbon volumes.[3] The first tankōbon was released in November 10, 1985, while the last one was released in August 4, 1995.[4][5] In 2004, the manga was re-released in a collection of 34 kanzenban, which included a slightly rewritten ending, new covers, and color artwork from its Weekly Shōnen Jump run.[2]

The distributing company Viz Media has released all 42 volumes in English in North America. Viz titles volumes seventeen through forty-two of the manga Dragon Ball Z, similar to the anime series adapted from those volumes, to reduce confusion for its readers.[2] Both manga series began publication in March 2003. The last volume of the first part was released in August 3, 2004, while the last one of the second part was released in June 6, 2006.[6][7] As of June 2008, Viz began re-releasing both manga series in a wideban format called "VIZBIG Edition", which collects three individual volumes into one oversized one.[8][9] Viz includes the title pages from the series' original run in Weekly Shonen Jump in a "Title Page Gallery" section at the back of each volume.

Crossovers

A year and a half into Dragon Ball, Toriyama included an extended cameo by some of the characters and locations from his previous creation, Dr. Slump. Toriyama and Eiichiro Oda teamed up to create Cross Epoch, a single chapter crossover between Dragon Ball and Oda's hit series One Piece. This single chapter appeared in the December 25, 2006 issue of Weekly Shōnen Jump

Neko Majin Z

Main article: Neko Majin

Originally a one-shot bearing little relation to Toriyama's other series, the first chapter of Neko Majin appeared in Weekly Shonen Jump in April 1999 (WJ #22-23). Though there were some similarities, it didn't become a self-parody of the Dragon Ball manga, until Neko Majin Z, which had cameos of characters from the author's magnum opus. As of 2005, the series was completed with eight total chapters (five of which are Dragon Ball parodies). These chapters were compiled into a "kanzenban"-style package for release in Japan on April 4, 2005.

Anime series

See also: List of Dragon Ball episodes

Dragon Ball

Within a short amount of time Dragon Ball had reached a level of popularity in Japan that convinced the people of Toei Animation to produce both an anime series and a feature film based on the characters. It premiered in Japan on Fuji Television on February 26, 1986 and ran for 153 episodes until its conclusion on April 12, 1989. Titled simply Dragon Ball, the episodes were adapted from the first sixteen volumes of the manga series.[10]

Two early attempts at releasing Dragon Ball to American audiences failed. The first attempt was in the late 1980s by Harmony Gold. It featured strange name changes for nearly all the characters, such as changing Son Goku to "Zero" and Karin to "Whiskers the Wonder Cat". It is not well-known, and has been referred to as "The Lost Dub" by fans.[11][unreliable source?]

In 1995, FUNimation licensed the series for broadcast and distribution in North America. With BLT Productions[12] producing the dub, the first 13 episodes aired in syndication in edited form. However, due to disappointing ratings, FUNimation abandoned the project, moving on to the newer and more action filled Dragon Ball Z. The home video rights for this version were acquired by Vidmark Entertainment for their KidMark label. As they and their current owner has continued to renew the license, FUNimation has been unable release their newer unedited dub of these episodes on DVD, and only the old version remains available (as the The Saga of Goku DVD set).[citation needed]

Dragon Ball Z

With the ending of Dragon Ball, Toei Animation quickly released a sequel series, Dragon Ball Z (ドラゴンボールZ(ぜっと), Doragon Bōru Zetto, commonly abbreviated DBZ). Picking up where the first left off, Dragon Ball Z is adapted from the final twenty-six volumes of the manga series. It premiered in Japan on Fuji Television on April 26, 1989, taking over its predecessor's time slot, and ran for 291 episodes until its conclusion on January 31, 1996.[13]

Following its licensing of Dragon Ball, Funimation Entertainment licensed Dragon Ball Z for an English language release in North America. For Dragon Ball Z, Ocean Group was contracted to produce an English dub track. The dubbed episodes premiered in the United States on WB in September 1996. In May 1998, the broadcast was canceled and Funimation stopped production of the dubbed episodes. Three months later, the series began airing on Cartoon Network as part of the channel's new Toonami programming block. In 1999, Funimation started dubbing the series again, now using their own in-house voice actors and with a new musical score. The series completed its run in April 2003. Later that year, Funimation redubbed the first 67 episodes of the series, restoring the removed content and replacing the Ocean Group dubbing with the same voice cast used in the later episodes. These redubbed episodes were released to Region 1 DVD in uncut box sets, starting in April 2005, and aired on Cartoon Network throughout the summer of the same year. The Funimation dubbed episodes also aired in Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia, and the Republic of Ireland.

In the United Kingdom, the Funimation dubs of episodes 168 through the final episode were replaced with a new dubbed version. This version used a dub language track produced by Blue Water studios, but continued using most of Funimation's English language scripts.

Dragon Ball GT

Produced by Toei Animation, Dragon Ball GT (ドラゴンボールGT, Doragon Bōru Jī Tī) premiered on Fuji TV on February 2, 1996, spanning 64 episodes until its conclusion on November 19, 1997.[14] Unlike the first two series, it was not based on the original Dragon Ball manga, and is not considered canon by Akira Toriyama.[15]

Funimation Entertainment licensed the series for an English language Region 1 DVD release and broadcast in North America. Funimation's English dub of the series premiered on Cartoon Network on November 7, 2003. The television broadcast skipped the first 16 episodes of the series. Instead, Funimation created a composition episode entitled "A Grand Problem", which used scenes from the skipped episodes to summarize the story. The skipped episodes were later aired after the remaining episodes of the series had been broadcast.[14] The dubbed episodes also aired in Canada on YTV, which divided the episodes into two seasons instead of sagas.[16][17]

Specials

  • Dragon Ball Z: A Lonesome, Final Battle~The Father of the Z Warrior Son Goku, who Challenged Freeza
  • Dragon Ball Z: Tatta Hitori no Saishū Kessen ～Freeza ni Idonda Zetto Senshi Son Gokū no Chichi
  • Bardock: The Father of Goku
  • Dragon Ball Z: Resistance to Despair!! The Remaining Super-Warriors, Gohan and Trunks
  • Dragon Ball Z: DoragonbōruZetto Zetsubō e no Hankō!! Nokosareta Chō-Senshi • Gohan to Torankusu
  • The History of Trunks
  • Dragon Ball GT: Goku Sidestory! The Proof of his Courage is the Four-Star Ball
  • Gokū Gaiden! Yūki no Akashi wa Sūshinchū (悟空外伝! 勇気の証しは四星球)
  • A Hero's Legacy
  • Dragon Ball: Yo! Son Goku and His Friends Return!!
  • Dragon Ball: Ossu! Kaette Kita Son Gokū to Nakama-tachi!!
  • Dragon Ball: Yo! Son Goku and His Friends Return!!

Video games

Main article: List of Dragon Ball video games

The Dragon Ball franchise, in being very successful spawned off several video games in all genres: fighting, platforming, role-playing, and card battling.

Soundtracks

Main article: Dragon Ball Soundtracks

Many Soundtracks were released to the Anime, movies and the games.

Live action films

Main article: Dragonball (film)

New Dragon Ball: The Legend of Shenlong is a live-action Chinese adaptation of the series in which an evil king steals the mystical "Dragonballs" in an attempt to possess them all. When all but one of the balls has been stolen, the former guardians of the magic balls decide to band together and take action. Led by a pig-headed wizard and a half-turtle martial arts master, the team takes on the king's army in a desperate bid to stop him from gaining control of the balls.

Art books

There are two companion books to the series, called the Dragon Ball GT Perfect Files, released in May 1997 and December 1997 by Shueisha's Jump Comics Selection imprint. They include series information, illustration galleries, behind-the-scenes information, and more. They were out of print for many years, but were re-released in April 2006 and this edition is still in print.

Reception

As of 2007, the a series of 42 tankōbon volumes sold over 150 million copies in Japan.[3] When TV Asahi conducted an online poll for the top one hundred anime, the Dragon Ball came in place twelve.[18] In a survey conducted by Oricon in 2007 between 1,000 people, Son Goku, the main character of the series, ranked first place as the "Strongest Manga character of all time."[19]

References

  1. ^ Shōnen Jump #59. Volume 5, Issue 11. November 2007. 388.
  2. ^ a b c "Dragon Ball (manga)". Anime News Network. Retrieved 2008-06-02.
  3. ^ a b "Comipress News article on "The Rise and Fall of Weekly Shōnen Jump"". comipress.com. 2007-05-06. Retrieved 2008-06-02. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |year= / |date= mismatch (help)
  4. ^ "DRAGON　BALL　　1 ドラゴンボール｜BOOKNAVI｜集英社" (in Japanese). Shueisha. Retrieved 2008-06-02.
  5. ^ "DRAGON　BALL　　42 ドラゴンボール｜BOOKNAVI｜集英社" (in Japanese). Shueisha. Retrieved 2008-06-02.
  6. ^ "Viz Media - Products: Dragon Ball Vol. 16". Viz Media. Retrieved 2008-06-02.
  7. ^ "Dragon Ball Z, Vol. 26". Viz Media. Retrieved 2008-06-02.
  8. ^ "Dragon Ball Z, Vol. 1 (VIZBIG Edition)". Viz Media. Retrieved 2008-06-03.
  9. ^ "Dragon Ball, Vol. 1 (VIZBIG Edition)". Viz Media. Retrieved 2008-06-08.
  10. ^ "Dragon Ball (TV)". Anime News Network. Retrieved 2008-06-03.
  11. ^ "The Lost 80s Dragonball Dub". Temple O' Trunks. Retrieved 2008-05-23.
  12. ^ BLT Productions at CrystalAcids.com
  13. ^ "Anime News Network Dragon Ball Z episode list". Anime News Network. Retrieved 2007-11-08.
  14. ^ a b "Dragon Ball GT (TV)". Anime News Network. Retrieved 2008-06-05.
  15. ^ "DBZ FAQ Update". 2001-04-10. Retrieved 2008-06-05.
  16. ^ "Dragon Ball GT episode guide". YTV. Retrieved 2008-06-05.
  17. ^ "Forum Buzz: New Anime on YTV this Fall". AnimeOnDVD.com. 2004-08-18. Retrieved 2008-06-05.
  18. ^ "Japan's Favorite TV Anime". Anime News Network. 2006-10-13. Retrieved 2008-07-09.
  19. ^ "1000人が選んだ！漫画史上"最強"キャラクターランキング！" (in Japanese). Retrieved 2007-10-28.
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