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Granted that both the manga and anime of DBZ was actually a continuation of Son Goku’s journey who started off as a monkey-tailed boy living in the wilderness, as a late bloomer to reading manga, I felt now is the time to Toriyama’s story that was originally serialized in Weekly Shōnen Jump magazine. When he meets the teenager Bulma – the first girl he has ever seen – Goku is recruited as her bodyguard to travel and find the wish-granting Dragon Balls. From its first chapter, Toriyama sets up the Journey to the West-inspired premise, the two unlikely protagonists and their dynamic that is, let’s say, dysfunctional.
The joy of reading early Dragon Ball was that Toriyama was making it up as he was writing it with the storytelling having an episodic nature with a chapter or two focusing on a situation like, the confrontation against Oolong, a shapeshifting pig that can change into anything, but only for five minutes at a time. The first two-thirds of this volume may be about the search for the Dragon Balls, but it’s really about Toriyama is spontaneous with the world-building where he can introduce characters, big or small, can come and go, with really more of an emphasis on comedy than action. The next Tenka’ichi Budokai martial art tournament is just around the corner, and an eager Son Goku can’t wait to face even tougher fighters for the “Strongest Under the Heavens” title! Among the contestants include pipsqueak Chaozu and three-eyed Tenshinhan, deadly disciples of Tsuru-Sen’nin, the Crane Hermit!
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With Goku returned to his body, which is all bruised up, he is left in a healing tank, hopefully with enough time to be healed before the arrival of Freeza, who easily takes down Namek’s top warrior Nail. As Vegeta sleeps before the big battle, Gohan and Kuririn sneak away with all seven Dragon Balls and with the help of the young Namekian, Dende, the Dragon Lord Porunga shall grant three wishes. Through Kaiō-Sama’s communication technique, Piccolo asks to be resurrected as the first wish, so that Kami will also be alive and thus Earth’s Dragon Balls can return. With the second wish that is Piccolo being transported to his home planet to be granted, the third wish ultimately doesn’t due to the death of the Namek Dragon Balls’ creator, the Great Elder. Vegeta may be pissed for not getting his wish for immortality, but when Freeza arrives, there are worse things to worry about. I read this last year but I guess I never reviewed it. Thing is I read all of Dragon Ball in Korean when I was 10. More like looked at all the pictures and guessed what they were saying. Dragon Ball has a ton of humor though and I missed that. it wasn't until I was older I got to read Dragon Ball in english. Now that it's here what do I think? Well shit man, this is fun stuff. Dragon Ball was inspired by the classical Chinese novel, Journey to the West (or ‘Monkey’), attributed to Wu Cheng'en. In Journey to the West, the almost-invincible Monkey and his motley crew of friends travel (west) to India to seek sacred Buddhist sūtras and return after many adventures, trials and much suffering. Dragon Ball tells of the adventures of the almost-invincible monkey-tailed Son Goku and his own motley crew of friends, as he grows from childhood through to adulthood, trains in martial arts and searches for seven orbs known as the Dragon Balls which, when gathered, summon a dragon who will grant one wish. La historia es buena, pese a que ya todos la conocemos la verdad me da gusto encontrar detalles que fueron censurados en el ánime. Hay que mencionar que este tipo de publicaciones no serían bien vistas hoy en día, (vamos, que el Manga rompe la cuarta pared y se burla de su propia vulgaridad). Pero yo soy de mente bastante abierta, así que... Vol. 2: Wish Upon a Dragon (1986) - Just what I had hoped for, more of the same. Lots of action, plenty of plot and characters. A few new ones are added who seem to be the type we'll see again in the future. The final dragonballs are found ending our first quest. However that doesn't mean all goes quite as planned leaving only one person pleased when all is said and done. Now they must wait a year for the dragonballs to be ready again so they can search them out and everyone has their own ideas and plans for what they will do. As for Goku, he is off to find The Invincible Old Master to finally start his promised training but he has to bring a treat for the old "pervert". Just as laugh out loud funny and I really enjoy all the main characters but especially Goku and Bulma. The monsters battled to date have all turned out to be quite interesting themselves as well. One more volume to go in this fun collection. (5/5)
This is the most action-oriented the series has been so far, as Toriyama’s art is in top form with action sequences that are kinetic with an element of humour. You do get another left-field, but hilarious training montage as after climbing up the never-ending Karin Tower, Goku trains with the anthropomorphic cat master Karin after his defeat by Taopaipai. Afterwards, comes Goku’s rematch against the assassin and it’s the best fighting sequence in Dragon Ball so far. No matter what fiendish moves the assassin uses to pummel our young hero, Goku will always get up and be the strongest, proving how bad-ass, as well as heroic he is. Es bastante gracioso. En particular la mancuerna Son Goku—Bulma, y por supuesto el Maestro Roshi me sacar carcajadas (hablando de forma literal) y eso es poco común en este tipo de productos, así es claro que es un punto a favor. This is when Dragon Ball Z really ramps up. After the arrival of Nappa and Vegeta the remaining Z warriors stand firm against the evils of the aliens.
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It's also amazing how modern this story feels, considering that it is nearly FOURTY years old. If I were new to the series and you told me that this had just came out, it wouldn't be a stretch to believe it. I think that just proves how influential it is. Great manga. After watching the show my entire life and finally reading the manga, It does a great job of telling the story in much greater depth. There are a few exchanges between characters where goku uses "americanized terms" that do not seem like it would be used by Toriyama? Then again, my first time reading the mangas, so I cannot say if this version truly is unedited. Regardless, I would recommend getting these mangas for any Dragon Ball fan. Cheap, and a great read. Apart from there being a few different names than the ones that I'm used too, the comic read really well, and it is absolutely hilarious! It's easy to forget that this whole franchise began as a big goof before growing into the massive franchise that it is today. The first two-thirds of this title is taken up by the quest for the dragon balls, which is based very loosely on a classic Chinese novel, Journey to the West. As Goku and Bulma gather the dragon balls, they are joined by Oolong, the transforming pig, and the desert thief Yamcha and his companion Pu’ar, who can also transform. They also meet a lot of interesting characters: Kame Sen’nin, the Turtle Hermit, Gyu-Mao, Lord of Fry Pan Mountain, and the self-proclaimed Emperor Pilaf and his henchmen, who are also after the dragon balls. The quest ends happily, but not quite the way anyone expected. The last third of the book follows Goku as he goes to train with the Turtle Hermit and is joined by Kuririn, who also wants to train with Kame Sen’nin. Their training is made up of the mundane task of delivering milk, made difficult by having to cross alligator-infested rivers and outrun dinosaurs. They do so well, though, that they are allowed to enter in a famous fighting tournament. Vol. 1: The Monkey King (1985) - I know absolutely nothing about Dragonball going into this. Since I read so much manga now I thought it would be good to introduce myself to some old school popular series and decided to give this a shot. I found this first volume absolutely hilarious and such a fun, compelling story with so much happening. Goku is so cute and naive that I loved him right away and the shots of him without his pants on are a riot because he looks like a toddler, even though he is 14 but soo unworldly. The interaction between him and Bulma is also a riot as he learns the difference between boys and girls. Lots of sexual innuendo but of the pre-adolescent variety that is was all just silly fun. The plot was also fun with all 5 main characters being introduced in this volume and them finding 5 (I think) of the 7 dragonballs. I had no idea what the plot was going to be going into this and was quite amused to get almost a whole quest just from this first volume. I have to say I did not expect to enjoy this as much as I did and am eager to read Vol. 2! (5/5)
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