Dragon Ball

This review is spoiler free.

A boy with a staff riding a cloud. With just those few words a very specific image appears in your head regardless if you’ve even experienced this series. The word “iconic” is often thrown around rather casually to the point where it starts to feel as if the word has lost its meaning. When it comes to “Dragon Ball” though it not only is iconic, it has reached a level of fame and recognition most manga could only dream of. There are people who have never watched an anime in their life who know who Goku is. It’s the second highest grossing manga in history and used to be the highest selling manga ever until “One Piece” broke its record. It has been referenced in a whole manner of media from anime like “Osomatsu-san” and “Lucky Star” to western shows like “Steven Universe” and “Robot Chicken”. Goku was featured in the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade. You can buy “Dragon Ball” shirts at your local Target. It’s one of the most profitable media franchises ever with profits reaching roughly $30 billion. So much of the direction Weekly Shonen Jump would go in after the 80s directly links to “Dragon Ball”. Among its admirers include Eiichiro Oda [“One Piece”], Masashi Kishimoto [“Naruto”], Tite Kubo [“Bleach”], Yusuke Murata [“One Punch Man”, “Eyeshield 21”], Riichiro Inagaki [“Eyeshield 21”, “Dr. Stone”], Hirohiko Araki [“Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure”], Takehiko Inoue [“Slam Dunk”, “Vagabond”], Kohei Horikoshi [“Boku no Hero Academia”], Hideaki Sorachi [“Gintama”], Yoshihiro Togashi [“Yu Yu Hakusho”, “Hunter x Hunter”], in short this is your fave’s fave. It is one of the most significant and enduringly relevant manga in history. With it Akira Toriyama managed to capture something that has stood the test of time and continues to bring in new audiences. It’s almost overwhelming the presence it continues to have over otaku circles and seeing how it has transcended those communities is nothing short of impressive. But once, back in 1984, it was a new manga about a boy, a girl, and an adventure.

Son Goku is a boy with a monkey like tail living in the mountains going about his usual routine. One day a city girl named Bulma Briefs arrives looking for the Dragon Balls, mysterious orbs that are scattered across the world and said to grant any wish when gathered in one place. She discovers Goku owns the four star ball, a memento of his deceased grandfather, and after some convincing they join together to seek out the rest. As the story progresses we see Goku reach adulthood and continue on adventures with him, his friends, and his son Gohan. From these humble beginnings “Dragon Ball” takes its readers to the lairs of world dominating villains, to the arena of the Tenkaichi Budokai martial arts tournament, to the realms of gods and spirits, to the depths of space and back again. Despite all the grand places it brings the reader, it’s a manga with a fairly simple story which I think works amazingly in its favor. It doesn’t concern itself too heavily with being serious or dramatic and is very focused on the sense of adventure. Because of this the reader is able to experience an almost childlike thrill when certain moments unfold. Seeing the characters go through all these situations and battles is exciting and it’s because Toriyama knew exactly what he wanted to prioritize in his story. It doesn’t hit these slow periods where it drags its feet, the pacing is very quick and engaging. Many have complained about “Dragon Ball” feeling crushing in its length, I find that is more of an issue with the anime as that was much slower and contained quite a lot of filler content. Not to make it seem as if the anime isn’t worth exploring if that’s what you desire, but the manga by comparison is a lot tighter and smoother. If you want something vibrant that’s working at a fast and sharp pace “Dragon Ball” absolutely is the manga for you.

Given the presence “Dragon Ball” has not just in the world of shonen manga and anime, but anime communities in general, it can almost be difficult to imagine a world without it. It ran in Weekly Shonen Jump from 1984 to 1995 so it is something that has been a part of the world for longer than some people on this site have been alive. And due to how long it has existed it can be easy to lose sight of the impact it had. Certain trends and concepts it popularized are so engrained in battle shonen that people might assume they were always done. The 80s proved to be a very pivotal era in Jump’s history, not just with “Dragon Ball” but with other equally essential manga running at this time. And the look of Jump in the mid 80s was drastically different from what many associate with the magazine in 2020. The protagonists of popular franchises from around this time included Kenshiro from “Fist of the North Star”, Ryo Saeba from “City Hunter”, Cobra from “Space Adventure Cobra”, and Jonathan Joestar from “Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure”. The look of a Jump hero at the time was that of an adult man, not a kid. There was Arale from Toriyama’s previous manga “Dr. Slump” and Jonathan Joestar did begin his story at age twelve, but that did not last very long and he spends most of the story as an adult. Aside from that there weren’t that many major Jump manga with a younger main character. So Goku really stood out and helped usher in a wave of youthful protagonists for the magazine. After him in 1986 they got Pegasus Seiya from “Saint Seiya” and gradually we were given characters like Gon Freecss from “Hunter x Hunter”, Naruto Uzumaki from “Naruto”, and Emma from “The Promised Neverland” to name a few. These days many people associate child and teenage protagonists with the magazine and we can trace this all back to Goku’s success as a character. Aesthetically Toriyama’s art was very different from what others were doing as well. While many were following in the footsteps of Tetsuo Hara’s detailed art for “Fist of the North Star”, Toriyama was working with a more cartoon like style. This is something that would also influence many great mangaka, but at the time it stood out like a sore thumb because that wasn’t the look everyone was trying to replicate. Place “Dragon Ball” next to any of the manga I mentioned and it is unlike anything else. I can’t help but imagine what it must have been like to be thirteen years old reading Jump in 1984 for “Fist of the North Star” and then here comes along this kid with a monkey tail and round features. It must have been an interesting juxtaposition to say the least, but it definitely helped it stand out.

When it comes to Goku as a character he isn’t just a cheerful simple minded fighter, he is THE definitive cheerful simple minded fighter. His upbeat personality and drive have captured people for decades and he created a whole new breed of shonen heroes. He isn’t a perfect hero though, we see him display some clueless and selfish behavior on more than one occasion and sometimes he does make big mistakes. These are things that keep Goku from being one note or too virtuous. He doesn’t always make the decisions the reader would make, but you still can’t be angry with him because he perseveres and finds a way to set things right. Goku has often been criticized for being too stupid and too selfish, but I didn’t find Toriyama ever went too far with this. There’s honestly just something endearing about him in spite of him making some poor choices in his naiveté. This character type helped pave the way for so many others, such as Monkey D. Luffy from “One Piece” and even Asta from “Black Clover”, and is what made Goku the icon that he is. We don’t just have Goku as our main character though for eventually he grows up and has children. Gohan is my favorite character in the series, he is just so charming and it’s amazing that Toriyama was able to create a character so like his father yet still keep him distinct. He has all of the lovable optimism of Goku while also being a very polite and reserved boy with a mind beyond that of an average child. Gohan in the beginning is a shy little boy who has been thrown through a loop and now has to stand up and fight. We see him go through so many obstacles and develop into someone who is capable of defeating some of the greatest enemies in the entire series. This character development is simple, but it’s effective because you want to see Gohan grow and the payoff is so satisfying. In spite of that he never stops being the sweet natured and somewhat bookish person we knew and I can’t help but see shades of that in Izuku Midoriya from “Boku no Hero Academia”. With Toriyama he never has characters develop in ways that leaves them feeling at odds with who they were in the beginning. You don’t hit this wall where suddenly Goku stops feeling like Goku and then you become alienated from the characters you thought you understood. It’s the type of development where you see the characters become stronger versions of themselves.

According to Toriyama’s editor, Kazuhiko Torishima, the manga actually reached a decline in popularity rather early on. When the Pilaf saga concluded readers were feeling concerned it was going to become redundant and its success dipped. He credits the first arc featuring the Tenkaichi Budokai as the one that really let it take off. And while the earlier material in the manga was good and fans remember them fondly now, I can see why the shift towards a more action orientated story made the manga more popular. Akira Toriyama’s main inspirations for writing it were the classic Chinese novel “Journey to the West” and Hong Kong martial arts films like “Enter the Dragon” so from these two sources one can see why the manga is so focused on adventure and action. And indeed Toriyama knew what he was doing when making his fight scenes. He really understands how to depict motion on paper in a way that is easy to follow and dynamic. He has a lot of awareness about the space he is working in and due to that there is almost a three-dimensional perspective to some scenes and the Tenkaichi Budokai was a perfect avenue for displaying all of that. This way of conveying action was something that was very innovative about the manga and you see its influence in so many battle shonen that came after it. The Pilaf saga had its fights, but compared to this it was not exploring it quite as in depth. As the manga progressed the action set pieces would become more grand and epic in scale which allowed for even more creativity. Toriyama’s paneling and use of impact lines really amp up the excitement in these moments where, even though I had already seen their outcome in the anime, I was still fully engrossed.

Another aspect of “Dragon Ball” that would prove to be ahead of the curve is with its creature and technology designs. Some of the most iconic aliens and monsters in all of anime and manga are found in this series. Whether it’s the many forms of Frieza, the Namekians, Cell’s transformations, King Kai, the Ginyu Force, minor characters like Giran who faced Goku in his first Tenkaichi Budokai were memorable too. A lot of mangaka, such as Yusuke Murata, would pay homage to these designs in their art because they’re just that solid. Even with background characters we see Toriyama’s love for creatures on display. When you see the audience at the Tenkaichi Budokai you will see people and then you will see a wolf man sitting next to them. It’s almost as if Toriyama loves creating outside the box of a human design so much that he couldn’t help but add these in. The fact that we see characters like Puar and Oolong casually interacting with the world like it’s no big deal adds to its personality. There’s something very amusing about Toriyama making the king of the Earth a dog man and nobody addresses the fact that he’s a dog man. I find Eiichiro Oda to have taken inspiration from this when making “One Piece” where you will see a wide variety of races and creatures coexist with humans. And we all have seen what a scouter looks like, we all know what the Dragon Radar looks like, not to mention the designs of the Saiyan and Namekian ships, the capsules, and so on. The tech designs in “Dragon Ball” are something I think are sometimes overlooked in discussions, but they really add to its atmosphere. When you’re in Goku’s rustic mountain home and see Bulma on her bike using Capsule Corp tech this shows a contrast between their lifestyles, but neither feels out of place in the narrative. This world is neither purely old fashioned or super futuristic, it is some kind of merging of the two and it complements the story wonderfully.

Narratively speaking “Dragon Ball” is very straightforward and easygoing. Toriyama has always considered it to be a simple action adventure manga and Torishima, to the surprise of many fans, stated “It’s not a lesson in life, it’s useless in our lives; it’s just a funny comic. And that’s fine!”. So when taking this into consideration many have dismissed the manga as too childish and lacking in sophistication, but I feel like that does it a massive disservice. A manga does not need to be incredibly complex to be important or valuable. Toriyama knew his goals with the manga and never wavered into something that wasn’t in line with his vision. And with that writing approach he was able to capture the imagination of countless readers across the world. Some fans of the series will sometimes split the series into two, probably because the anime did that, and say that the first half is “just for kids” while the latter half is seen as more mature in spite of the childlike elements it still has. I think this is also rather unfair to it. “Dragon Ball” from start to end is a manga geared at kids, this is not a bad thing or something to feel ashamed of. Many of the people who were inspired by it are people who experienced it as a child and their love for it didn’t vanish once they reached a certain age. An adult can still appreciate Toriyama’s sense of humor and love for martial arts and along with the designs and art, there is plenty for someone to enjoy about it past childhood. I myself did not grow up with it, I first experienced it through seeing “Dragon Ball Kai” on TV in college. And yet I still was interested. It didn’t matter that this wasn’t doing things as thematically complex as “One Piece”, it was still able to resonate and make for a ton of fun. That’s something I think is always important to remember about “Dragon Ball”, it’s fun and because it wasn’t trying to be very serious you can rely on it to be massively entertaining and exciting.

At the end of the day “Dragon Ball” is still a manga that remains relevant almost 40 years after its inception. It gave us some of the most memorable characters we’ve ever seen and it inspired an entire generation of mangaka to pick up a pen and create. The trajectory of Weekly Shonen Jump would not be the same if we remove “Dragon Ball” from the picture. I almost have to ask, where would we even be without “Dragon Ball”? Its impact has proven immeasurable, we as a culture are indebted to “Dragon Ball”. Yes there are some childish qualities and some clumsily handled moments, but it still remains one of the most important manga ever printed. To achieve this level of success and to still be something people care about after all this time you have to have hit on something special. It being made for children and not concerning itself with deep messages aren’t issues. It captured imagination and fun in a way that still reaches fans and pulls in new readers all over the world. Your memories aren’t lying to you, you aren’t blinded by nostalgia. In spite of what some people may say to the contrary “Dragon Ball” is not a lesser manga. It is directly responsible for a whole new wave of battle shonen and we still see its influence all around us. Akira Toriyama this is your legacy, a franchise that has stood the test of time and changed an entire medium forever.