Databook Information

Databook Contents

At its core, this book is an update and expansion of the first Daizenshuu volume, released in 1995: it contains all the illustrations from Daizenshuu 1, plus a number of items that fell through the cracks and were later published in Daizenshuu 7, as well as the vast majority of Toriyama’s Dragon Ball-related work since 1995. It contains the original “Akira Toriyama Super Interview” from Daizenshuu 1 alongside a new Q&A session, as well as a single, JIS B4-sized poster featuring Toriyama’s personal favorite Dragon Ball illustration (Goku and Gohan on a two-legged motorbike, originally drawn as a bonus poster in a 1990 issue of Weekly Jump), and on the reverse, a listing of all Jump issues that featured Dragon Ball over the course of the series’ run. In these respects, it is essentially identical to the Chōzenshū book series, which it came out alongside, but what sets it apart is its presentation.

The book comes in a glossy orange slipcase, featuring a well-known Jump cover illustration from 1990 (of Goku firing a Kamehameha at the reader), with other famous illustrations incorporated into its periphery. The book’s title, publisher, and author are embossed in gold-tone foil, along with the seven Dragon Balls. The book’s dust jacket, too, is glossy, with other well-known artwork incorporated into the book’s title. The hard cover proper, for those who venture to remove the dust jacket, features concept sketches by Akira Toriyama centered around Goku’s arrival at Kaiō’s planet from the Serpent Road. Within the book, pages are glossy and thick, with its 240 pages managing to nearly equal the thickness of the 352-page Chōzenshū books. Due to space considerations with the sheer number of illustrations, a number of images have been reprinted at a smaller size than in the first Daizenshuu, but all are sharp and faithfully reproduced. It is a testament to the book’s sheer quality and attention to detail that the reader is left wanting more, and willing to pay a higher price for more pages to better enjoy its contents.

So, what is the Chōgashū, then? It is of a kind with the Chōzenshū, and yet it stands alone — and this is likely something that Shueisha intended all along. Even casual fans can pick up and enjoy this book, without feeling obligated to buy the other volumes in a series that are aimed at far more “serious” fans. What it does for us at Kanzenshuu, however, is pose a problem in terms of how to classify it. It was our decision to place this book within the “Other Dragon Ball Guides” section, but you may, of course, draw your own conclusions.

Databook Staff Credits

It should be noted that although Akira Toriyama is listed as the author of this databook, he actually had very little involvement with the production of its content, if any at all. Toriyama makes it quite clear in most of his daizenshuu introductions that “they” (Shueisha) are responsible for putting these together, and he is often graciously humble in thanking them for all their hard work in sorting through his exhaustive series.