How to consume Dragon Ball - from start to current?

[sangofe]

Heya. My girlfriend's 11 years old son recently got into the Dragon Ball manga. He loves it. He reads 8-9 volumes weekly and is at the Cell games now. When he reaches the end, I'm thinking I'll suggest that he "Son Goku and friends return" special that got released, then Dragon Ball Daima, read the Dragon Ball Super manga and watch the tv anime along with Battle of Gods, F, Super Broly and Super Super Hero, Dragon Ball GT, and the Dragon Ball Z and GT movies.

Probably I should have suggested he watch the DBZ TV special and DB movies already but he reads so quickly haha.

And no, I won't agree with anyone who says for him to drop Dragon Ball Daima or Dragon Ball GT.

What's your suggestion on how to consume Dragon Ball from start to end?

[GokuHater]

Hi. For me the answer depends on the material you want to present for him.
I mean whether we stick to "cannon" or have everything that DB produced

I can see this as 3 ways:
The manga run:
This one is super simple. Just have 42 original volumes of Dragon Ball Manga, then Dragon Ball Super manga with RoF or Broly to fill up the gaps

The complete run:
This is my preferred way of watching/consuming DB, which consists of anime, cannon movies and manga
1. Dragon Ball classic series
2. Dragon Ball Z Saiyan Saga - Namek Saga
3. Bardock Special
4.Dragon Ball Z Freeza - Android Saga
5. Trunks special
6. Dragon Ball Z Cell - entire Buu saga
7.EoZ
8. Yo son Goku special (optional tbh )
9. BoG movie
10. RoF movie
11. Dragon Ball Super Universe 6 - ToP arc
12. Broly movie
13. Dragon Ball Super Moro and Granolah saga from the manga
14.Super Hero movie
15.EoZ (again if you want to nicely tie up the story )
16. Dragon Ball GT (yeah, I know nowadays it has a side story status and cannot in any way be tied to Super but for me it's still tied to Dragon Ball world and culture and I personally don't want to skip it )
17. Dragon Ball Daima (I know it technically is before Super but I would get it on the last place because for one it is still ongoing and also it gets many changes which can confuse Super's watching a bit :p )

Then they're are also the original "non cannon" DB, DBZ and DBGT movies and fitting them is a task by itself :p
But I believe for first viewing their isn't that much sense in having to watch them all.

[sangofe]

Hi. For me the answer depends on the material you want to present for him.
I mean whether we stick to "cannon" or have everything that DB produced

I can see this as 3 ways:
The manga run:
This one is super simple. Just have 42 original volumes of Dragon Ball Manga, then Dragon Ball Super manga with RoF or Broly to fill up the gaps

The complete run:
This is my preferred way of watching/consuming DB, which consists of anime, cannon movies and manga
1. Dragon Ball classic series
2. Dragon Ball Z Saiyan Saga - Namek Saga
3. Bardock Special
4.Dragon Ball Z Freeza - Android Saga
5. Trunks special
6. Dragon Ball Z Cell - entire Buu saga
7.EoZ
8. Yo son Goku special (optional tbh )
9. BoG movie
10. RoF movie
11. Dragon Ball Super Universe 6 - ToP arc
12. Broly movie
13. Dragon Ball Super Moro and Granolah saga from the manga
14.Super Hero movie
15.EoZ (again if you want to nicely tie up the story )
16. Dragon Ball GT (yeah, I know nowadays it has a side story status and cannot in any way be tied to Super but for me it's still tied to Dragon Ball world and culture and I personally don't want to skip it )
17. Dragon Ball Daima (I know it technically is before Super but I would get it on the last place because for one it is still ongoing and also it gets many changes which can confuse Super's watching a bit :p )

Then they're are also the original "non cannon" DB, DBZ and DBGT movies and fitting them is a task by itself :p
But I believe for first viewing their isn't that much sense in having to watch them all.

Thanks for the list. I personally think all of the super anime should be watched. It has some great filler episodes. I would have proposed to watch the dbz specials inbetween there but he has been reading way too fast haha. The Yo Son Goku might be skippable but it is such a fun special. I guess I might throw in the terebikko special, along with plan to eradicate the saiyans too. Not important for the story. Obviously the GT special after the baby saga, too.

[GokuHater]

Sure, yo son Goku is fun. I just get the feeling it is a kind of BoG version 0.1
As for the GT special it's a nice watch but nothing to fancy for me.

Regarding Super anime I threw out BoG and RoF arc from my list as I absolutely despise them and really think the movies tell the same story and better. The anime versions don't do it for me, they're poorly paced, animated and the add ons are completely unnecessary.
I do however agree that the "filler" can be enjoyable.
Having that in mind maybe I would rather go with:
Dragon Ball Super (2 or 3 episodes)
BoG movie
Filler between arcs (maybe right up to Goku and Veg training)
RoF movie

Really there's nothing stopping us to watch in any way we like

Also don't worry about the specials he missed.
When I watched Dragon Ball originally for example we even didn't have them in Poland so I completely missed them and only managed to watch them after about 10 years
And still in no way it made the story worse for me.

[Dragon Ball Ireland]

If your reading the manga, just go for all 42 volumes in chronological order.

For the anime watch all 153 episodes of original Dragon Ball and then depending on how much you like the series watch the 291 episodes of Dragon Ball Z or 167 episodes of Dragon Ball Kai.

Everything else like the movies, specials, Jaco and Super mangas, GT, Super and Daima anime series are DLC. If you enjoyed everything from the original 1984-1995 run of the manga or 1986-1996 anime they are there if you want more Dragon Ball but are not essential.

[sangofe]

If your reading the manga, just go for all 42 volumes in chronological order.

For the anime watch all 153 episodes of original Dragon Ball and then depending on how much you like the series watch the 291 episodes of Dragon Ball Z or 167 episodes of Dragon Ball Kai.

Everything else like the movies, specials, Jaco and Super mangas, GT, Super and Daima anime series are DLC. If you enjoyed everything from the original 1984-1995 run of the manga or 1986-1996 anime they are there if you want more Dragon Ball but are not essential.

Yeah, I agree, and he is reading the manga in chronological order, but I kinda wanna enjoy Dragon Ball together with him after he's done reading the original manga.
Ah, Jaco, thanks for mentioning that. Where in the order would you put that? Neko Majin has a Dragon Ball link as well. And the great yamcha fan manga that was made official is maybe something I should pitch to him.
Has anyone tried the bootleg Dragon Ball GT manga, by the way?

[Dragon Ball Ireland]

Ah, Jaco, thanks for mentioning that. Where in the order would you put that?

I guess if he's already started reading the manga he could read Jaco whenever and just enjoy it as a sort of fun spinoff.

Only thing I'd be worried about would be the fact Super Saiyan God is mentioned in Jaco so he might feel there's no payoff in the original run of the manga pre-Super.

The fact Bardock is portrayed as a caring father might also cause confusion, so maybe if he reads Jaco (and by extension Dragon Ball Minus) maybe suggest he watch the Bardock special first and explain the special has a darker take on Bardock, but what is presented in Dragon Ball Minus is Toriyama's version of the character.

[AliTheZombie13]

Just read the manga.

If you really don't want to and would rather watch it animated, at the best, watch some of the original anime from the beginning and, if you start to get bored or feel like dropping the show, switch to the manga. The stories are practically 99.95% the same, but the anime at some point starts to drag like hell and becomes torture to watch.

For comparison: You can complete the manga in a handful days, while the anime takes years to get over with.

[Koitsukai]

I'd go:
-Manga.
-Anime and Z movies intertwined.
-Daima.
-Jaco.
-DBS (anime and then pick up the manga's unique arcs).
-GT (as a final side story with a beautiful and definite ending)

Unlike Star Wars, this franchise doesn't really reward watching it in order. The expansion of the dragonworld is not linear, not from an in-universe perspective nor the other.

I would stay away from Kai in favor of Z. It's appeal is being an abridged version of the anime, but it won't beat the amazing journey of the manga that is also a more brief experience (if it's about saving time, then the manga is enough), and it will leave out some really fun filler episodes.

I could also recommend going Manga-Z (with the movies)-GT, so he can have the experience most of the fandom had. And then try the midquels, which clearly have a different tone and animation style.

[Zephyr]

Heya. My girlfriend's 11 years old son recently got into the Dragon Ball manga. He loves it. He reads 8-9 volumes weekly and is at the Cell games now. When he reaches the end, I'm thinking I'll suggest that he "Son Goku and friends return" special that got released, then Dragon Ball Daima, read the Dragon Ball Super manga and watch the tv anime along with Battle of Gods, F, Super Broly and Super Super Hero, Dragon Ball GT, and the Dragon Ball Z and GT movies.

Personally, I'm a sucker for production order for a variety of different reasons.

With you thinking about having him do all three mediums for Super, I'm very tempted to suggest having him go and do the anime for DB and Z (if he's interested in seeing those in animated form), with the films and TV specials slotted in around when they would have come out. As for post-Boo, I'd just suggest: GT, Neko Majin, the '08 Jump Special, Battle of Gods, Jaco, Resurrection F, Super TV & manga with Broly and Super Hero slotted in when they came out, and finally Daima.

Or you could do those all in in-universe chronological order, with Daima -> JSAT -> Super (in whatever combination of film, TV, and manga) -> GT.

I don't think either option is necessarily ideal. You're either jumping all over the place to different time periods, or you're bouncing between things that don't really feel like they're in continuity with each other. At 11, though, I trust someone to be able to make sense of things.

You could come up with a few options and see what he's most interested in doing.

[sangofe]

Just read the manga.

If you really don't want to and would rather watch it animated, at the best, watch some of the original anime from the beginning and, if you start to get bored or feel like dropping the show, switch to the manga. The stories are practically 99.95% the same, but the anime at some point starts to drag like hell and becomes torture to watch.

For comparison: You can complete the manga in a handful days, while the anime takes years to get over with.

The Dragon Ball Super manga is missing quite some story, unfortunately. And DBGT and Daima hasn't been made into Daima, except and illegal version of DBGT that I think only covers up till the end of the Baby arc, so that's why I thought he should watch some of the animes.

[sangofe]

Ah, Jaco, thanks for mentioning that. Where in the order would you put that?

I guess if he's already started reading the manga he could read Jaco whenever and just enjoy it as a sort of fun spinoff.

Only thing I'd be worried about would be the fact Super Saiyan God is mentioned in Jaco so he might feel there's no payoff in the original run of the manga pre-Super.

The fact Bardock is portrayed as a caring father might also cause confusion, so maybe if he reads Jaco (and by extension Dragon Ball Minus) maybe suggest he watch the Bardock special first and explain the special has a darker take on Bardock, but what is presented in Dragon Ball Minus is Toriyama's version of the character.

I've only introduced him to the manga so far. But he's seen clips on youtube and tick tock - he asked me if Beerus and Whis comes into the story soon and he's at the the end of the Cell games of original manga. Poor kids get confused and spoiled these days. Haha. It's really great to see how people who haven't even read any manga or watched any anime can really like Dragon Ball, though. Makes me feel thrilled on his behalf.