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Dragon Ball (manga)

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This is about the Dragon Ball manga series. For the microprocessor used in Palm Pilot PDAs, see Motorola Dragonball.
File:Dragonball3.jpg
Son Goku

Dragon Ball (ドラゴンボール) is a Japanese manga by Akira Toriyama serialized in the weekly anthology magazine, Weekly Shonen Jump, from 1984 to 1995 and originally collected into 42 individual books called Tankôbon. In 2004, the manga was re-released in a 34 volume collection (called Kanzenban) which included a slightly rewritten ending, all new original covers, and original color artwork from its Weekly Jump run.

In the US, the manga was first released as two American-style comic books: "Dragon Ball" and "Dragon Ball Z" starting in 2000. (The split corresponds to the two different anime series, though the original Japanese manga does not distinguish between them. See below.) This style of release was unsuccessful due to its large size and expensive cost ($12.95), and both series were cancelled in 2002. The "Dragon Ball Z" comic was transitioned into a launch title for the new US edition of the Shonen Jump anthology, starting in January 2003. In parallel to these releases, Viz is in the process of releasing the 42 volumes (nearly matching the first Japanese set) in English. Viz titles the second part of the manga "Dragon Ball Z" to reduce confusion for American audiences.

The story of Dragon Ball follows the life of Son Goku, a monkey-tailed boy loosely based on the traditional Chinese folk tale Journey to the West (西遊記), from his life and adventures as a child all the way up to being a grandfather. During his life, he fights many battles and eventually becomes (arguably) the strongest martial-artist in the universe. He is not without help, however: the comic boasts a large ensemble cast of martial-artist heroes and villains which provide the conflict that drives the story.

The titular Dragon Balls are one component of the universe, but are not the focus of most of the plot lines of the title. The Dragon Balls are seven magical spheres which are scattered across the world. When assembled together, they can be used to summon the dragon Shenlong (Shenron) who will grant one wish (within limits). After the wish is granted, the balls are scattered again across the landscape and become inert for a year. In times past, it would take generations to search the world and gather the balls. In the beginning of the story however, A teenage genius girl named Bulma has created a "Dragon Radar" to detect the balls and making the process far easier than it was intended to be.

Evolution

The story of Dragon Ball unfolded gradually over 11 years of publication. During those years, the tone and the style of the stories gradually changed to reflect the tastes of the readers and the editors of Japanese Shonen Jump.

The earlier volumes of the manga (volumes 1-12) are primarily humorous fantasy stories, but containing some minor sci-fi elements. Notable fantasy elements include not only the monkey-boy Goku and the balls themselves, but also many talking animal characters, unlikely martial arts techniques, and characters identified as gods and demons. Despite the fantasy elements, the world does contain advanced technology including space-saving capsules which are pocket sized but can expant into almost any object, flying cars, and similar "near future" trappings. The overall mood of the title is light with very few deaths and an emphasis on adventure and humor.

A subtle but significant change in mood began after Goku's best friend Krillin was killed. This began the Piccolo Daimao saga (volumes 13-17) in which the manga enters a darker tone compared to its earlier volumes.

Dragonball fully transformed into an action based shonen manga at the onset of the Saiya-jin saga. (volumes 17-20) Starting with introduction of Goku's first son, things begin to take a much more serious and harder sci-fi approach. Many of the characters which previously had fantasy origins (Goku, Piccolo, etc.) are recast as being aliens from other planets. Space travel, alien threats, and powerful cyborgs take center stage instead of more fantastic villains.

After the defeat of Vegeta and the conclusion of the Saiya-jin saga the survivors of the vicious Saiyan assault head off to the Planet Namek to reincarnate their friends who were killed by the Saiyans. This begins the Freeza saga (volumes 21-28). The Freeza saga is noteworthy for not only how ridiculously powerful the characters get but for the invention of the "Super Saiyan" transformation.

The Cell Saga (volumes 29-35) introduced the Androids, a mysterious Saiyan called Trunks, and the enigmatic Cell.

The Majin Buu saga (volumes 36-42) is the last arc of Dragon Ball manga.The Majin Buu saga features more of the fantastic plot elements that was present in the very early volumes of the manga.

Recurring Themes

For all its martial arts bravado, the story of Dragon Ball centers primarily around a theme of redemption, generally through exposure to the "pure" ideals of Son Goku and Son Gohan. Nearly every major character in the manga entered the series as a villain but was, through one method or another, converted to the side of good. (Often, this would entail a temporary team up to defeat a greater foe, but somehow the former enemies rarely found the motivation to begin fighting again.) This theme was evident from the beginning (with the conversion of Yamcha, Oolong, and Pu'ar) and continued even to the last saga (with the acceptance of Mr. Buu). This style of redemption is not unique to Dragon Ball (it is often seen even in American comic books), but it is significant that it persisted even through other major shifts in style and tone.

Censorship

As previously mentioned, the Dragon Ball manga is published as both "Dragon Ball" and "Dragon Ball Z" in American editions. Originally, both of these releases were censored for nudity and some graphic content. As of June 2001, all "Dragon Ball" manga has been released almost uncensored (Mr. Popo's lips were removed), including rereleases of previously censored volumes 1 through 3. The "Dragon Ball Z" manga remains censored, although many volumes are technically uncensored since they did not contain any objectionable material.

Relation to the Anime

Both Dragon Ball (DB) and Dragon Ball Z (DBZ) anime are based on the same original Dragon Ball manga. DB follows Goku's adventures as a child up to his marriage-- roughly the sagas that had the most fantasy and humor elements. DBZ takes up right where DB leaves off, with the birth of Goku's first son. Dragon Ball GT is the sequel to DBZ but is not based on any manga. (Unlike Dragon Ball and Dragon Ball Z, Akira Toriyama was not directly involved with the production of Dragon Ball GT, though he did create many of the character designs and a few of the aliens in the series.)

There are additional differences between the US edition of the manga and the US edition of the anime, but those are primarily due to differences in translation. For example, the character of "Lunch" in the manga is retranslated as "Launch" in the anime. Similarly, the names of "Goku" and "Gohan" lack the family name "Son" in the anime. In general, the translation of the manga is considered to be closer to the translation of the anime as factors such as mouth movement are not taken into consideration.

The "Z" in Dragon Ball Z is rumored to have many meanings. The official meaning is that the letter was chosen because it was at the end of the alphabet, echoing a desire by Toriyama that the series end soon. Other "Z" theories include the naming of the ensemble group of main characters as the "Z Warriors" or "Z Fighters" in episode titles and promotional materials (they are never referred to that way in the anime itself) or based on the "Zenkai Power" theme song in the ending credits. Another interpretation is that Toriyama hand-wrote its title as Dragon Ball 2 and somebody misread the figure 2 as a Z. It is notable that the "Z" of Dragon Ball Z is pronounced "Zed" in the Japanese opening, WE GOTTA POWER!!.

Throughout most of the writing of the manga, the anime was being written and produced just behind the point where the manga was being concurrently published. While this led to getting the episodes released rapidly, the pacing resulted in a large amount of "filler" material needing to be added to the anime to flesh out the episodes to keep them from catching up. There are many instances in the anime where backstory which was filled in by the anime-writers was directly contradicted by backstory written later in the manga. In a very small number of cases however, the inverse was true-- backstory added in the anime was accepted in the manga. Most notably, the character of Bardock (Goku's father) was originally an anime-creation.

Relation to Journey to the West

There are many parallels between Journey to the West and Dragonball.

  • In the original story, the priest, Xuanzang and his company search for the legendary Buddhist scriptures in the West. In Dragonball, Bulma and her company search for the legendary Dragonballs.
  • The equivalent to Sun Wukong of the original texts is Son Goku in Dragonball.
  • The equivalent to Xuanzang of the original texts is Bulma Briefs in Dragonball (though later, it can be argued to be the role of Kuririn).
  • The equivalent to Zhu Wuneng of the original texts is Oolong in Dragonball.
  • The equivalent to Sha Wujing of the original texts is Yamucha in Dragonball (though later, it can be argued to be the role of Piccolo).

Some ideas from Journey to the West are borrowed later in the series.

  • Son Goku's Nyoibo (or Power Pole) comes from Sun Wukong's magic staff that can change to any size anytime he sees fit.
  • Son Goku finds himself in a place reminiscent of the pillars of Buddha’s palm, the location which Sun Wukong's rampage was finally put to an end.

Names

The names in Dragon Ball are largely (though not entirely) puns and regular words, which are obvious to Japanese readers but not to those reading Dragon Ball in English. Some explanations of the names puns used follow.


  • Babidi - Bibbidi-Bobbidi-Boo.
  • Bardock - Burdock.
  • Bebi (Baby) - Baby.
  • Bibidi - Bibbidi-Bobbidi-Boo.
  • Bra (Bulla) - Bra.
  • Brolli (Broly) - Broccolli.
  • Bubbles - Bubbles; the name of Michael Jackson's chimpanzee.
  • Bulma Briefs - Buruma /Bloomers, though in Japan this word refers to the short gym shorts worn by junior high and high school girls.
  • Butta (Burter) - Butter.
  • Chaozu (Chiaotzu) - gyōza or Pot Stickers.
  • Chi-Chi - milk; breasts (slang japanese); father.
  • Cooler - Cooler.
  • Dende - Japanese for "denden-mushi", snail, which is used to describe any mollusk of the Gastropod class.
  • Dr. Briefs - Men's underwear.
  • Emperor Pilaf - Sauteed, seasoned Rice (rice pilaf).
  • Freeza - Freezing/Freezer.
  • Garlic Jr. - Garlic.
  • Ginger - Ginger.
  • Ginyu - Milk.
  • Gohan - Rice, or food in general.
  • Goten - Air, the "ten" means heaven.
  • Gurd (Guldo) - Yogurt.
  • Jackie Chun - Jackie Chan.
  • Jheese (Jeice) - Cheese.
  • Kakarotto (Kakarrot)- Carrot.
  • King Kold - Cold.
  • Kuririn (Krillin) - coming from the japanese word kuri meaning chestnut.
  • Lord Enma (King Yama) - Yama; Yama is the Hindu name, but Enma and Emma-o are the Japanese names given to the same mythological figure. His role is similar to that of St. Peter in Catholicism.
  • Lord Slug - Slug.
  • Lunch (Launch) - Lunch.
  • Majin Buu - Bibbidi-Bobbidi-Boo; "majin" translates to "demon-man" or "evil man."
  • Kame-sennin - Turtle Hermit.
  • Nail - Snail.
  • Nappa - Nappa Cabbage.
  • Oolong - Oolong, a type of Chinese tea.
  • Pan - Bread.
  • Paragus - Asparagus
  • Piccolo - Piccolo.
  • Puar - Pu'er, a type of Chinese tea.
  • Raditz - Radish.
  • Reacoom (Recoome) - Cream.
  • Mr. Satan (Hercule) - Satan.
  • Shu & Mai - Shaomai, type of Chinese dish.
  • Son Goku - The Japanese translation of the Chinese name Sun Wukong. The "go" means "awaken "or enlightened" and the "ku" means "emptiness" or "vacuity". As mentioned above, the titular character in Journey to the West (西遊記).
  • Tenshinhan (Tien Shinhan) - Fried Rice.
  • Trunks - Boys' gym shorts.
  • Tsufuru-jin (Tuffles) - Fruit.
  • Tullece (Turles) - Lettuce.
  • Vegeta - Vegetable.
  • Videl - Devil.
  • Vinegar - Vinegar.
  • Yamcha - Yumcha; dim sum.

Influence in Other Series

English

"Official" Sites:

Fan Sites:

Japanese

Polish

Dragon Ball www.sayanspage.glt.pl !

Hebrew

French

Dutch

Spanish

Dragon Ball Dragon Ball Sagas bgcolor=Template:DBZ Saga NavC1 width="100px" align="left" |Dragon Ball Z bgcolor=Template:DBZ Saga NavC1 align="left"|Dragon Ball GT
Emperor Pilaf Saga - First World Martial Arts Championship Saga - Red Ribbon Army Saga - General Blue Saga - Commander Red Saga - Fortunteller Baba Saga - Tenshinhan Saga - King Piccolo Saga - Piccolo Junior Saga
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