Is the Dragon Ball Earth scale to ours?

[Insertclevername]

Seems really small.

[Herms]

There's no official word on the subject. In one of the tankoubon Q&As Toriyama gives the distance Nyoibo stretched when Goku went to the moon as the same as the real world distance between the Earth and moon, so...you could maybe use that to say the Earth itself is likewise on a real world scale. I guess.

The distance between Satan City and the Son house is given in the series as 1,000 km, so you could use that to calculate the scale of the Earth based on the daizenshuu map of DB Earth. There's also a stated distance between RR headquarters and Karin Tower, Goku's android arc spaceship landing spot and Kame House, and probably some other places. They probably weren't putting that much thought into the map though.

I would assume the map isn't really meant to be too much to scale. There aren't too many places in the series, so that's probably the main reason DB Earth looks so small. Not to mention you can actually see places like Mt. Frypan or Boo's house, so obviously those parts at least aren't to scale.

(We really need to make a Kanzenshuu version of that map. I'm tired of seeing that scanslation with it's "Jingeru Village" and "Shoot-out with Vejita". And what the heck's the deal with "Yajirobe meets up with Buruma"?)

[Saiga]

That's an interesting version of the map. It seems to stray a little from others I've seen... agh... that kind of annoys me, that there are plenty of maps with slight differences and as far as I know there's no telling which is the closest to being correct.

[Herms]

that kind of annoys me, that there are plenty of maps with slight differences and as far as I know there's no telling which is the closest to being correct.

I translated the map and the entire "Field" section in Daizenshuu 4 that it's a part of, back at Kanzentai. Another thing lost in the transition to Kanzenshuu. I could post the text up here if you want though.

[Bussani]

To quote myself:

I think the closest thing we have to work with is that we're told the distance between the Red Ribbon Army headquarters and Karin's tower, which is 2,300 kilometers. They're both on the map, so we should be able to use that to work out a scale. Then it's just a question of whether the map accounts for the entirety of the world's surface, or if there's something akin to the Pacific ocean opposite what we can see.

Well, this is interesting... If we take the number above and compare it to the map, then compare that to how big the entire map is, the distance from one side of the map to the other, horizontally, should be about 40,000 kilometers. That's actually the size (or rather, circumference) of the Earth we live on! Intentional, or coincidence?

[Saiga]

that kind of annoys me, that there are plenty of maps with slight differences and as far as I know there's no telling which is the closest to being correct.

I translated the map and the entire "Field" section in Daizenshuu 4 that it's a part of, back at Kanzentai. Another thing lost in the transition to Kanzenshuu. I could post the text up here if you want though.

If that wouldn't be too much hassle, I'd appreciate it.

[DBZGTKOSDH]

that kind of annoys me, that there are plenty of maps with slight differences and as far as I know there's no telling which is the closest to being correct.

I translated the map and the entire "Field" section in Daizenshuu 4 that it's a part of, back at Kanzentai. Another thing lost in the transition to Kanzenshuu. I could post the text up here if you want though.

That's not necessary.

http://web.archive.org/web/201111040720 ... earth#link

[Gokuden]

There's a map in Attack of the Saiyans, I think it's pretty neat. I've always thought that the DragonBall map was just our Earth minus Africa and half of North-America, I mean Russia is clearly there, and so are the Nordic Samis, I think Snow is one. Goku's house is in the East, so we can assume that place is supposedly a combination Asia.

http://spriters-resource.com/ds/dbkai/worldmap.png

[Saiga]

Interesting. So is the Daizenshuu 4 map meant to be the most accurate one we have, or what?

[Chuquita]

If it's supposed to be the same size compared to rl Earth, but there's no Atlantic Ocean with it all being together, then Dragon World's version of the Pacific Ocean must be huge!

[Herms]

Interesting. So is the Daizenshuu 4 map meant to be the most accurate one we have, or what?

Well, "accurate" is a bit of a fuzzy term here. Obviously Toriyama didn't have that map in mind when making the series (or any other map, for that matter). But it does incorporate many bits of geographic information given throughout the series, like Karin Tower being north-west of Red Ribbon headquarters, Goku's house being in the eastern part of the world, Kame-sennin's island being to the south of where Bulma met Goku, and Mount Frypan being west from there. West City is in the west, South City the south, Jingle Village and chilly Yunzabit Highlands both far up north. Etc, etc. There's not nearly enough information in the series to make a detailed map though, so they had to just guess with lots of things, and you could make an alternative map different from the Daizenshuu 4 one that fits the series just as well.

Still, the Daizenshuu 4 map has been consistently used since its introduction. It's been frequently reprinted in later guides, and has been used as the basis for the world maps in almost all of the subsequent DB games to feature them. The map in Attack of the Saiyans that Gokuden posted is exactly the same, though it does include several anime-only locations not featured in the solely manga-based Daizenshuu 4 version. Legacy of Goku II and Buu's Fury also have world maps simply copied from the Daizenshuu 4 one, but with added game-only locations. The world maps in the DBZ/Budokai and Sparking!/Budokai Tenkaichi games are also clearly based on it, though they change it around a bit. The DB Online map is the same way. Advance Adventure is relatively unique in being a post-Daizenshuu 4 game with a completely different world map (one based directly off the progression of game stages, so that the pirate caves are right by Muscle Tower, rather than Kame House).

With Chouzenshuu 1 coming up and set to be an updated reprint of Daizenshuu 2 and 4, it will be interesting to see if it has a world map that's updated in any way.

[Saiga]

Ah, I see. I thought with so many maps with a similar design, that they had to be based on something from Toriyama to be so widespread. But if this is the original map that popularized the shape, and is from the manga based guidebook, I'll accept that as my map of choice.