Dragon Ball

Dragon Ball,
A manga that says something to everyone, yet surprisingly few people have read it these days.

Most of the criticism of this work comes either from the very badly aged anime adaptation "Dragon Ball Z", where the characters scream at each other for several minutes just to change their hair color, or from the more recent spin-off "Dragon Ball Super", where a new transformation occurs in what feels like every episode. In the original work, the aforementioned points of criticism do not apply at all. A transformation lasts a maximum of 1 to 2 pages and usually takes place without any screaming.

Spoiler, click to viewclick to hide

And there are only three transformations (four if you count the giant ape)

. Many people always smile at Dragon Ball for being the "forerunner" of the big shonen like Naruto, One Piece or Bleach, they don't see it as an independent work but only as a source of inspiration. Yet this manga has aged very well, both in terms of story and artwork.

The drawings are some of the best manga drawings I have ever seen, they are clear and very easy to understand. No, seriously, you can really read Dragon Ball in 1-2 weeks without too much effort. You have very large panels, little text and the movement sequences in the fights are very easy to understand. Only a few shonen manga have been published to date that can keep up with this high quality of artwork (e.g. Bleach, Slam Dunk, JoJo's Bizarre Adventure)

The story is something very special, because unlike other manga where the main character always has a big goal (Naruto - becoming Hokage; Luffy - finding the One Piece), this story is much more a biography of Son-Goku

Spoiler, click to viewclick to hide

, because we accompany him from an early age, through his teenage years until he becomes a father and gets married, and all this happens in the first half of the story alone, and at the end of the story he even becomes a grandfather.

Even if the story seems simple at first glance, it is far from it because there are textbook character developments (Vegeta, Piccolo), unexpected twists in the story (Super Saiyan, Future Trunks), love, friendship, epic moments, sweet moments, sad moments and, above all, it never gets boring. As soon as you've finished the last chapter, you'll want to start again at chapter 1 and relive the story from the beginning.

The characters are the heart of this manga and each one goes through a development in the course of the story. You really notice how the characters who were there early on get older and gain more and more experience. As I just mentioned, there are some great character developments that will warm your heart even on the tenth read, but I won't go into them further for spoiler reasons.

Guys, if you have never read this manga before, I envy you, because experiencing this story for the first time is truly a magical adventure!