The date was 20 November 1984, and Akira Toriyama’s new Weekly Shōnen Jump serialization, Dragon Ball, has just hit magazine racks across Japan for the first time. There was no internet, at least nothing like the modern internet as we know it today, and there was very little thought of documenting these domestic releases at the time. Over the next few decades Dragon Ball would grow to become one of the most popular and influential series of all time, known far and wide across the globe, and fans yearned for any information they could get their hands on. While the series’ various manga releases and anime adaptations have always been sufficiently documented, both officially and by fans, the same cannot be said of its original serialization decades ago, until now!

You can now access this new section covering the Weekly Shōnen Jump Serialization in our “Manga Guide”. Presented within this historic archive you’ll find one of the most complete documentations of Dragon Ball’s original serialized run in Weekly Shōnen Jump. It has been painstakingly put together through diligent research, including visits to Japanese libraries, perusing second-hand book stores, and of course our generous friends in Japan. This archive is like nothing you’ve seen before — accurate chapter release dates, quality volume cover images, original author comments, exclusive Jump content and surveys, background information, and much more.

At the moment not every publication year is available in the archive, as we’re still sifting through information, but rest assured they are all currently in the works. Be sure to stick around for even more amazing content from Kanzenshuu!