Dragon Ball (manga)
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| Dragon Ball | |||
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 "Dragon Ball" Manga Logo[1] | |||
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| Author | Akira Toriyama (Bird Studio) | ||
| Publisher | Shueisha | ||
| Publication | ''Weekly Shōnen Jump'' | ||
| Demographic | Shōnen | ||
| Manga Series | |||
| Original Run |
WJ 1984 #51 - 1995 #25 (20 November 1984 - 23 May 1995) | ||
| Chapters | 519 + 1 side-story (List of Chapters) | ||
| Volumes |
42 Tankōbon Volumes 34 Kanzenban Volumes | ||
| Animated Adaptation | |||
| TV Series |
Dragon Ball Dragon Ball Z Dragon Ball GT Dragon Ball Kai | ||
| Films |
Dragon Ball Dragon Ball Z | ||
"Dragon Ball" (often abbreviated as DB) is a Japanese manga series created and illustrated by famed manga artist Akira Toriyama (Bird Studio). The series was originally a gag manga (comic) that evolved into a martial arts action manga. It is comprised of a total of 520 individual chapters, including one side-story, and began its run on 20 November 1984[2] in Weekly Shōnen Jump, a popular manga anthology magazine published by Shueisha in Japan. The series was serialized from 1984 to 1995, remaining a staple in Japan for nearly ten and a half years.
Each week a new chapter would be published in Weekly Shōnen Jump with approximately 14 pages per chapter. Since its serialization, these weekly manga chapters have been compiled into 42 tankōbon volumes and 34 kanzenban volumes. The manga series was adapted by Toei Animation into two animated television series: Dragon Ball and Dragon Ball Z. The TV series were sequentially broadcast in Japan on Fuji TV from 1986 to 1996.
Plot
In search of the seven Dragon Balls, Bulma crosses paths with a mysterious young boy by the name of Son Goku. Realizing Goku's unnatural strength, she convinces him to join her in search of the remaining Dragon Balls. Along the way the two encounter many friends and foes, all in search of the Dragon Balls. After training under the perverted Kame-Sen'nin, Goku learns to fully harness his unnatural raw talent and quickly masters the Kamehameha technique. However the Earth is plunged into darkness, as the Demon King Piccolo has returned to rule the planet with an iron fist. Goku steps in to oppose Piccolo, eventually defeating him, but not before Piccolo creates an offspring with the sole purpose of seeking revenge. Three years later, after training under the Earth's God, Goku and Ma Junior face off at the 23rd Tenka'ichi Budōkai.
Five peaceful years have passed since Goku's victory over Ma Junior and his marriage to Chi-Chi, when a mysterious alien warrior arrives on Earth in search of "Kakarrot". The alien eventually finds Goku, identifying him as Kakarrot, and introduces himself as Goku's older brother, Raditz. He proclaims that Goku is actually a Saiyan, the strongest warrior race in the universe, that was sent to Earth to exterminate humanity. From here the series takes to the stars, with even stronger and stronger opponents appearing before Goku and friends.
History
Japan
In early-1980, Akira Toriyama's gag manga series Dr. Slump began serialization in Weekly Shōnen Jump and ran just over four and a half years, coming to an end in issue 1984 #39. However, prior to it ending Toriyama was already considering what to draw for his next serialized series. Based on advice from his editor, Kazuhiko Torishima, Toriyama released a two-part manga one-shot entitled "Dragon Boy" in Fresh Jump in mid-1983 to test the viability of a kung-fu shōnen manga series. After an incredibly positive response from readers, Toriyama finally decided on his next, and what would ultimately turn out to be his final, long-term serialized work.
A short three months after the end of Dr. Slump, Toriyama was back at work again with his second long-running serialized series — Dragon Ball. To contrast with the western-influenced setting of Dr. Slump, Toriyama wanted to give Dragon Ball a Chinese feel and initially loosely based the series on the Chinese tale Journey to the West. Toriyama also introduced the seven Dragon Balls to allow the characters to go on their own adventurous journey, and at this point he had only intended the series to run up until they had collected all seven.
Early on in 1985, Kazuhiko Torishima informed him that Dragon Ball was not faring well in Shueisha's popularity polls, concluding that his protagonist (Son Goku) was just too plain to appeal to readers. Wanting to change this, Toriyama recalled that tournament events in Dr. Slump had always been popular, and decided to transition the story into a more tournament-like format. To accomplish this transition he withdrew the other characters, with the exception of Goku, brought back Kame-Sen'nin, and added Kuririn as a new rival character. Taking a trip to Bali in mid-1985, mere weeks after concluding the initial hunt for the Dragon Balls, Toriyama used the local atmosphere and architecture as inspiration to design the Tenka'ichi Budōkai grounds.
North America
Characters
Chapters
Collected Releases
Outside of its original serialization in Weekly Shōnen Jump, the Dragon Ball manga has been made available to consumers in various formats and quality.
Tankōbon Release
Beginning in September 1985, these weekly manga chapters began to be compiled into separate volumes called tankōbon ("separate volume"). In most English-speaking countries, the tankōbon are referred to as "graphic novels", while most people in Japan simply refer to them as "comics", taken from English. Each tankōbon volume contained roughly 12 chapters and was printed in a greyscale format only. Unfortunately, this meant that all of the original colored pages from Weekly Shōnen Jump could only be viewed in greyscale. This issue was later rectified with the kanzenban releases, which retained the original color pages.
Kanzenban Release
In 2002, Japan experienced a revival of the once forgotten Dragon Ball series. Due to this resurgence of interest, Shueisha began releasing the series in a complete kanzenban ("Perfect Edition") format in December 2002. The kanzenban release condensed the original 42 tankōbon volumes into 34, with each volume containing approximately 15 chapters. Unlike the tankōbon, the kanzenban retained all of the colored pages originally printed in Weekly Shōnen Jump. As a special treat, the kanzenban volumes featured restored artwork and newly drawn cover illustrations by Akira Toriyama. Each volume also featured an insert poster of its respective volume's cover illustration.
(Saiyan Arc Chapter 1)
Full Color Comics Release
Beginning in early-2013, Shueisha began releasing a fully-colored print-only version of the manga based on the kanzenban edition. These print-only "Full Color" releases are different from the "Digital Color Edition" volumes released digitally, and cover only the "Z"-era storyline, with the chapter numbering divided up by story arc. Shueisha later revisited the beginning of the series, although under the digital-only "Digital Color Edition" release. Each "Full Color" volume contains 17 chapters, as opposed to the kanzenban which typically contain 15 chapters per volume.
Digital Color Edition Release
When the first "Full Color" print volumes hit bookstores on 04 February 2013, Shueisha surprised many fans by releasing the first 194 chapters, compiled into 20 volumes, as part of a new digital-only "Color Edition" format via a variety of sources. The remaining "Z"-era chapters were subsequently released in conjunction with their respective "Full Color" print releases.
Guidebooks
Mooks
Both during and after Dragon Ball's serialization, Shueisha has released a number of guides pertaining to the series in the form of special issues of Jump, known in Japanese as "mooks" (i.e. magazine books).
- "Dragon Ball: Adventure Special" (18 November 1987)
- "Jump Gold Selection 4: Dragon Ball Z Anime Special" (18 October 1989)
- "Jump Gold Selection 5: Dragon Ball Z Anime Special Vol. 2" (06 June 1991)
- "Jump Anime Library 1: Dragon Ball Z Movie 12" (03 June 1995)
- "Jump Anime Collection 3: Dragon Ball Z Movie 13" (21 October 1995)
- "'Dragon Ball Z: Battle of Gods' Official Movie Guide" (21 March 2013)
Daizenshuu
The largest group of Dragon Ball guidebooks are the Daizenshuu (大全集, "Great Complete Collections"), which were made shortly after the manga ended its serialization. These are divided up into a main series of seven hardcover books, followed by three soft-cover supplemental volumes. Some of these books cover the manga, while some cover the anime and movies, and others cover the Carddass card games that were released in Japan. The first six hardcover books feature an interview with author Akira Toriyama, and all seven came with a bonus insert pamphlet called the "Shenlong Times" that contained interviews with various other important people involved with Dragon Ball. Altogether, these books contain a nearly complete Dragon Ball knowledge, for all elements of the series that existed at the time.
- "Dragon Ball Daizenshuu 1: Complete Illustrations" (20 June 1995)
- "Dragon Ball Daizenshuu 2: Story Guide" (04 August 1995)
- "Dragon Ball Daizenshuu 3: TV Animation Part 1" (04 September 1995)
- "Dragon Ball Daizenshuu 4: World Guide" (04 October 1995)
- "Dragon Ball Daizenshuu 5: TV Animation Part 2" (04 November 1995)
- "Dragon Ball Daizenshuu 6: Movies & TV Specials" (04 December 1995)
- "Dragon Ball Daizenshuu 7: Dragon Ball Large Encyclopedia" (05 February 1996)
- "Dragon Ball Extra Daizenshuu: Carddass Perfect File Part 1" (10 January 1996)
- "Dragon Ball Extra Daizenshuu: Carddass Perfect File Part 2" (11 March 1996)
- "Dragon Ball Supplemental Daizenshuu: TV Animation Part 3" (10 July 1996)
Dragon Ball GT Perfect Files
With the Daizenshuu guidebooks all being released prior to, or very shortly after, the premiere of Dragon Ball GT , they contain only a brief preview of the series. To more adequately cover the Dragon Ball GT TV series, Shueisha released two "Perfect Files" volumes. The first volume covers the beginning of the series up until the end of the Baby arc, and contains a look ahead, while the second volume covers the rest of the series and the series' TV special. While these guidebooks have no interview with Akira Toriyama, it does contain notes from the series' staff. The guidebooks were later re-released on 04 April 2006 with slightly different covers, but the contents of the books remained virtually identical.
- "Dragon Ball GT: Perfect File Vol. 1" (24 May 1997)
- "Dragon Ball GT: Perfect File Vol. 2" (17 December 1997)
Kanzenban Official Guides
In response to the release of the kanzenban edition of the manga starting in 2002, new guides were published to go along with them. The first of these, "Dragon Ball Landmark", was published midway through the kanzenban's release, and covers the beginning of the series up until the Freeza arc. "Dragon Ball Forever", published following the end of the kanzenban release, includes information on the rest of the series, with some features on the series as a whole, including the results of polls from Japanese fans on their favorite characters, battles, etc. Both books include lengthy interviews with Akira Toriyama, and "Dragon Ball Landmark" notably includes pictures of Dragon Ball characters drawn by various famous manga artists who were inspired by the series.
- "Dragon Ball Kanzenban Official Guide: Dragon Ball Landmark" (19 December 2003)
- "Dragon Ball Kanzenban Official Guide: Dragon Ball Forever" (30 April 2004)
TV Animation Guides
Around the same time as the kanzenban official guides, two new animation guides were released; "Dragon Ball Tenka'ichi Densetsu", covering the original Dragon Ball animated series, and "Dragon Ball Z Son Goku Densetsu", covering Dragon Ball Z. "Tenka'ichi Densetsu" contains short interviews with the main character's various voice actors, including those from both Dragon Ball and Dragon Ball Z, while "Son Goku Densetsu" contains a lengthy interview with Akira Toriyama and Katsuyoshi Nakatsuru, one of the main illustrators and character designers for the animated TV series.
- "TV Animation Guide: Dragon Ball Z Son Goku Densetsu" (03 October 2003)
- "TV Animation Guide: Dragon Ball Tenka'ichi Densetsu" (02 July 2004)
Super Exciting Guides
The Super Exciting Guides are divided up into two volumes, the "Story Volume" and the "Character Volume". Both volumes contain an interview with Akira Toriyama, and are based on the kanzenban release of the manga. As the name suggests, the "Story Volume" focuses heavily on the manga's story development, including the main battles, training, and of course friendships. The "Character Volume" contains information very similar to that presented in both volumes 2 and 4 of the Daizenshuu, covering the main characters, the "Dragon World" and its many races, and many of the main techniques used throughout the series.
- "Dragon Ball Super Exciting Guide: Story Volume" (04 March 2009)
- "Dragon Ball Super Exciting Guide: Character Volume" (03 April 2009)
Chōzenshū & Chōgashū
In 2013, Shueisha released the "Chōzenshū" (超全集, "Super Complete Collections"), the second largest group of Dragon Ball guidebooks to date. This condensed four volume collection of hardcover guidebooks was published to replace and expand upon the out of print Daizenshuu volumes, and although this collection is based on the contents of the original Daizenshuu, they feature new and updated information revealed since the series' finale in the mid-1990s. Each volume contains a B4-sized poster of a previous Daizenshuu cover illustrations by Akira Toriyama. Along with the release of the Chōzenshū volumes, a "Super Illustration Collection" (超画集; Chōgashū) featuring over 400 Dragon Ball-related illustrations from Akira Toriyama was released, expanding upon those featured in the first Daizenshuu volume in 1995.
- "Dragon Ball Chōzenshū 1: Story & World Guide" (05 February 2013)
- "Dragon Ball Chōzenshū 2: Animation Guide Part 1" (05 March 2013)
- "Dragon Ball Chōzenshū 3: Animation Guide Part 2" (04 April 2013)
- "Dragon Ball Chōzenshū 4: Dragon Ball Super Encyclopedia" (09 May 2013)
- "Dragon Ball Chōgashū" (09 May 2013)
References
- ↑ Toriyama, Akira. Dragon Ball Kanzenban Volume 5. Japan: Shueisha, 04 February 2003. ISBN 4-08-873448-3. (p. 34)
- ↑ "Bulma and Son Goku". Weekly Shōnen Jump 1984 #51. Japan: Shueisha, 20 November 1984. (pp. 3-32)
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