TLDR: Dragon Ball is a heavily flawed manga that is nowhere near one of the greatest of all time.

Toriyama and his team have created what is without question one of the most influential manga of all time -- but looking at it today with unbiased eyes, this series has way too many flaws to be a genuine contender for the all-time greatest spot.

NARRATIVE ASPECTS --

Goku is one of the most frustratingly stupid protagonists of all time -- but what makes it even worse is that most other characters around him are just as moronic (especially Vegeta). The incessant use of the Dragon Balls as Deus Ex Machina robs most fights of any real stakes or tension. Nonsensical contrivances put in place in order to keep the story going are achingly apparent and presented without a hint of remorse on the part of Toriyama & his editors.

VISUAL ASPECTS --

Dragon Ball's art style is overall charming enough, especially during the earlier parts of the story. sadly, Toriyama's drawings weaken considerably during some later arcs, such as the Cell and Android sagas. A constant annoyance are the endlessly repeated and highly basic environments, which make almost every arc feel like it's happening in the exact same place.

But not only the backgrounds are constantly repeating --Toriyama's usually distinct and iconic character designs are surprisingly lackluster; and during many fight scenes, Goku, Gohan, Goten, Trunks and Vegeta are close to becoming indistinguishable.

OVERALL FEELINGS --

THE GOOD -- charming art style. reads smooth. clean & comprehensible fight choreography. short chapters. snappy pace. kinetic action. doesn't require much brain power. clean linework until DBZ. bonus points for Boo.

THE BAD -- weak comedy. almost no female characters. weirdly sexist generally. heavily lacks screentone. environments all look the same. thoroughly contrived story. flat & unintelligent characters. too much unnecessary text. sparse backgrounds. minimal worldbuilding. repetitive character designs. drawing quality declines hard with DBZ (especially after the Android Saga). nonsensical powerscaling. Goku is a moron, Vegeta is an asshole (in addition to a moron). battles lack scale. characters' abilities lack variety. events feel very insular. weak ending.

CONCLUSION -- its central failing is being utterly basic. early on, it's a juvenile gag manga with lame comedy. its later parts are often phoned in.

the time period is also no excuse -- remember that Otomo and his team were delivering a near flawless work with Akira before Dragon Ball even started.

you can see its DNA in later masterpieces, like One Piece, One-Punch Man and Hunter x Hunter, but the series itself is absolutely not at that level. some parts are a good guilty pleasure read if you turn off your brain.

Yes, yes, I'll be torn to shreds, put to the torch, burned at the stake for this -- and I guess I deserve it? I get that a lot of people have warm nostalgic feelings for Dragon Ball, and that's cool. absolutely valid.

But reading it today, with a set of unbiased eyes, this thing just has too many holes to be called one of the all time greats.

And I'm saying all this as a huge Dragon Quest fan -- I love Toriyama's aesthetic, and I wish I enjoyed Dragon Ball much more than I do.