Dragon Ball (first 16 tomes/anime series)

Article originally written in French by DarkEvil, also responsible for the English translation.
See original here.

"Geek's choice!"

First of all, so as to not create a confusion, this article's goal is mainly to talk about Dragon Ball (the first 16 tomes of the manga and then, the anime series), not Dragon Ball Z or Dragon Ball GT.

Now that this is taken care of, I've always liked the Dragon Ball mangas, that is to say as soon as I read one. This series is a perfect combination of humor, action and suspense, sometimes even drama, also featuring Akira Toriyama's unique and instantly recognizable style (also used in video games such as Chrono Trigger and Dragon Quest/Dragon Warrior, for example). Talking about the humor, I rarely laugh when reading normally, even when I find something funny, but there are some passages in these mangas that can cause nothing else than a good laugh. The action scenes are the most intense and immense thing you can think of, but you should know that already if you've ever heard anything about Dragon Ball. Furthermore, this is a series that takes many roads you won't often see anywhere else, like MANY main characters dying or any character for that matter. I remember it was impossible to wait before buying the next tome, because following Dragon Ball from beginning to end is one of the most unique and memorable adventure.

Everything in Dragon Ball was created or at least reimagined so that we can recognize a world similar to ours, but with enough differences as to become a new unique universe of its own. For example, we can often see dinosaurs in the background even though humans are living in a modern society like us. On the other hand, they even have a technology that's nowhere near our reality, a means to reduce nearly everything, including houses, in small capsules that can then be activated to take back their regular size.

There are anthropomorphic creatures living among humans as if normal (the only thing I haven't seen is an interspecies couple, not that I'm complaining), there's even the king of the Earth (in their world, everyone lives in peace under the rule of this good king) who's an anthropomorphic dog. In fact, plenty of strange details are found throughout the series, like when Krillin (Japanese rōmaji name: Kuririn) is fighting against a giant who's finger is as big as his body during a martial arts tournament or the fact that Krillin doesn't have a nose, or even that Tien Shinhan (Japanese rōmaji name: Tenshinhan) has a third eye. This is the advantage of an alternate universe, the restrictions aren't the same anymore, if a little boy with a monkey tail can transform into a giant ape-like monster by looking at the Moon in that world, well, that's because he can (scientists are invited to "crash" their brain to resolve all the issues).

As long as they remain consistent in their irregularities, alternate universes are often the base for the best things (Watchmen, V for Vendetta, Marvel Zombies, The Matrix, BioShock, etc.) It seems easier to remember all the particularities of a fictional universe than a realist universe, strangely.

The universe is only the foundation to which characters must be added to form a whole, and in Dragon Ball, the characters are all very well made, all with enough character development and they do make a lot of progress through the series. I'd say we could even take a random line from anywhere in the series and recognize which character said it, that's how uniquely developed they are.

Before talking about certain characters, I have to talk about the main character of the series, Son Goku (Japanese rōmaji name: Son Gokū), which is one of the most intelligent creations an author could make. The series begins when a girl named Bulma (Japanese rōmaji name: Buruma) initiates him to the Dragon Balls, these mythical balls which can supposedly grant any wish if you can reunite all 7 of them. Long before this encounter that would change his destiny, we learn that Goku was first found by an old martial arts expert, Gohan, while he was still a little baby. This old man took it upon himself to raise the boy in his home, far from civilization, and it didn't take long before he noticed an unusual strength in that child strangely born with a monkey tail (Akira Toriyama, Dragon Ball's author, was inspired by the novel Journey to the West, an old classic tale from Chinese mythology).

After an "accident", Goku became an orphan and so he had to learn how to survive by himself in the forest. This permitted him to develop some particular talents, including a strong sense of smell and his ability to jump around like a monkey. The only mental capacity separating him from your regular animal is speech… Separated from an adequate education, he begins as a courageous and pure character, but he's extremely ignorant, dupe, with no cultural influence whatsoever (the others have to force him to be polite and to keep his clothes on in public, for example). This leads to many unusual situations you've never seen anywhere else, which permit us to reflect upon things we wouldn't need to think about normally. One thing that comes to mind is the fact that Goku can't differentiate a man and a woman, unless he reaches for their crotch. Not only does this create uncomfortable funny situations, but it's also logic in a certain way, because he has only seen one human being growing up, Gohan, so it's normal he wouldn't recognize a woman. Can you remember that transition between a time when you couldn't make the difference to now, not me, I never even thought about it before Dragon Ball.

The other characters are interesting too. To name a few, there is Bulma of course, a teenager of immense beauty and intelligence. She's the daughter of the guy who created the capsules and she does create a Dragon Ball detector herself. She's rich and at the beginning of the series, she's spoiled and easily angered. She tames down a bit with time, let's say she becomes wiser as she ages.

When mentioning Bulma, we immediately need to talk about Master Roshi (Japanese rōmaji name: Kame Sennin). He's one of the most well respected martial arts expert and many centuries old (he says he's immortal, but it isn't necessarily true). He's Goku's initial martial arts teacher, not counting Gohan. Even if he's really old, he's still in peak physical shape and he can still perform the technique he himself invented, the Kamehameha, which consists in concentrating your body's energy between your hands to create a wave of energy that can be projected towards an adversary. Even if he can be wise when he wants to be, he's often the character who can turn the most serious situation into laughing-stock, most of the time because of this perverse nature which we find out at the very beginnings of the series. Bulma wants the Dragon Ball around his neck, not knowing the true value of the item, he accepts to give it to her if she shows him her panties. Similar situations continue to occur between the two characters and the joke is funny every time, because it's interpreted in a different way each time with different results.

Krillin becomes a disciple under Master Roshi about the same time as Goku. Krillin, like Goku, has some talent in martial arts and he tries to surpass his comrade at the beginning by playing bad tricks on him, bad trick that often come back to punish him. He will never surpass Goku and so they finally stop their fight to become best friends.

Before they're accepted as disciple of Roshi, he gives them the complicated task of finding a pretty girl for him, but since Goku has trouble differentiating between sexes and since he has even more trouble determining beauty, Krillin will be an immense help. This is how they encounter Launch (Japanese rōmaji name: Ranchi), a perfect girl, innocent and pure for Master Roshi, but she's hiding a major problem: each time she sneezes she transforms into a beautiful blonde, but she's very angry and she pulls out guns to shoot on everything that moves at the slightest provocation. She still comes on Master Roshi's island to live with him and his disciples, which will bring funny moments, especially at the beginning.

The last character I'd like to talk about is Piccolo Daimao (Japanese rōmaji name: Pikkoro Daimaō), the main antagonist of the first part of Dragon Ball. He's considered a demon, because of his monstrous appearance (he's green with antennas) and his strength at least as monstrous as his appearance (he can make a whole city vanish in a single move). He can even create his own demons by spitting eggs from his insides, making him age as a side effect. He represents the first major threat for the whole world in Dragon Ball and he is the base of some serious scenes in the series. He's also the first instance of the most extreme action that can be found in Dragon Ball, but valid for this world, and at a level still more realist than the second part, the one with the Z suffix as an anime series.

If you don't like Dragon Ball, it might even be because all you saw of it was an English dub of the anime series Dragon Ball Z, not in the correct order, random episodes. All of these points are fundamental errors, because one should not base his judgment of Dragon Ball as a whole based on them.

Nearly every English dub of anime series is pure garbage in my opinion, because here, animation is a medium for children, so all the mature dialogue and too violent scenes are cut or largely modified in the best situation. The dialogue, when keeping its original meaning, loses personality and the voice actors are often less competent than those in Japan where that job is highly respected. Furthermore, seeing Dragon Ball Z before Dragon Ball is very confusing, because you'll see the characters flying around and throwing energy balls at themselves without getting hurt too much while they can destroy planets. All of this seems too exaggerated and the movements in action on TV look more ridiculous than they did in the mangas, probably because we don't see them as still images.

A problem in both anime series (Dragon Ball and Dragon Ball Z) is that they become too long compared to the mangas they're based on. They had to fill episodes with additional scenes and create original episodes because the series was released at the same time as the mangas, but it wasn't supposed to progress at a faster rate than the mangas themselves. This is perfect to make some precisions, like showing on TV the passages where it says "3 years later" in the mangas, but some additional scenes are amazing while others are uninteresting. Furthermore, the action sequences become incredibly long, with prolonged scenes where the characters are taking a pause, looking at each other while they're preparing a massive attack, all the while screaming. It takes so long what se start to think: «What is this dumbass waiting for? Is he waiting to get hit on purpose?»

To fully appreciate Dragon Ball, here's the recipe. Read the marvelous 42 tomes (that number might be slightly off depending on the newer editions), then listen to the 153 Dragon Ball episodes (you understand what I meant by long now) in Japanese with subtitles and only then listen to the 291 Dragon Ball Z episodes in Japanese with subtitles. Only if you're still looking for more should you listen to Dragon Ball GT, but please note that Akira Toriyama has nothing to do with the writing for this inferior series.

If you don't like Dragon Ball for one of the fundamental errors I discussed earlier, give it an honest chance, this is not one of the most popular manga and anime series of all time for nothing, not forgetting that new authors are inspired by it, for example Naruto. Also, don't let the movie Dragon Ball Evolution change your opinion of Dragon Ball, because it has next to nothing to do with it. If you've never seen anything about Dragon Ball, don't let any commentaries about how ridiculous it can get decide for you, give it a try.

You are now ready to read the mangas and don't make the ultimate mistake, do everything in the correct order and you probably won't regret it. It's really a complete and interesting universe that comes to life in front of your eyes so it shouldn't be something you forget anytime soon. You will develop a strong tie with that universe and its characters like rarely before.