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nicolaiura's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
emotional
funny
hopeful
relaxing
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A
4.25
With this review I'm including the whole manga serie
matt315's review against another edition
adventurous
funny
lighthearted
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
insomniacsquare's review
4.0
I remember watching dragonball as a kid and wanted to read the manga this year. A quick synopsis would be to compare it to "The Journey to the West." The main character of dragonball shares the same name from the work that inspired it. The plot is very similar but does step away and does it own thing.
The humor is align to middle achol/early high school nut it seems to be natural. Even though the humor can be juvenile the way Goku was raised makes sense why he's awkward and different from the other characters.
The first volume introduces the main plot of finding the dragon balls to make a wish. If someone collects all 7 dragon balls, the gatherer can have any one wish fulfilled. It was a nice introduction and can't wait to see where it goes.
The humor is align to middle achol/early high school nut it seems to be natural. Even though the humor can be juvenile the way Goku was raised makes sense why he's awkward and different from the other characters.
The first volume introduces the main plot of finding the dragon balls to make a wish. If someone collects all 7 dragon balls, the gatherer can have any one wish fulfilled. It was a nice introduction and can't wait to see where it goes.
nilsnoether73's review against another edition
adventurous
funny
lighthearted
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
4.0
elijahmwh's review against another edition
2.0
Note: This is my rating and review for the entire series.
Dragonball is a classic among the anime and manga mediums. It gave birth to many stories that came after it. It is the most inspirational manga to ever exist. I respect the praise and notoriety it receives.
However, this was just not for me. I read it because I wanted to experience a classic manga; a manga that has inspired my favorite series along with many, many others. Yet, I was highly disappointed in it.
I’ll start with my praises of the series first though. The choreography and paneling are spectacular for the shonen demographic, and hold up incredibly well even today. The comedy usually hits, although it usually just made me smirk. The themes of self-discovery are relatively well-done, but usually fail to entice me.
Now the negatives. For me, a story needs SOMETHING to draw me in and make me really care about the characters and world. This series doesn’t have that for me. There are absolutely no stakes whatsoever and the arcs typically consist of just Goku, Vegeta, & crew gaining a new powerup and defeating an even stronger foe to save the world once again. It’s repetitive and Toriyama doesn’t really do much to make the repetitive scenarios feel individual and creative.
It also utilizes my absolute least favorite trope: reviving dead characters. The Dragon Balls negate any deaths and consequences the series could have. I felt bored reading fights because I knew if someone died during it, they’d simply be revived anyway.
I don’t think this series is utter trash, and Toriyama is definitely not a bad mangaka. It’s just really not for me.
Dragonball is a classic among the anime and manga mediums. It gave birth to many stories that came after it. It is the most inspirational manga to ever exist. I respect the praise and notoriety it receives.
However, this was just not for me. I read it because I wanted to experience a classic manga; a manga that has inspired my favorite series along with many, many others. Yet, I was highly disappointed in it.
I’ll start with my praises of the series first though. The choreography and paneling are spectacular for the shonen demographic, and hold up incredibly well even today. The comedy usually hits, although it usually just made me smirk. The themes of self-discovery are relatively well-done, but usually fail to entice me.
Now the negatives. For me, a story needs SOMETHING to draw me in and make me really care about the characters and world. This series doesn’t have that for me. There are absolutely no stakes whatsoever and the arcs typically consist of just Goku, Vegeta, & crew gaining a new powerup and defeating an even stronger foe to save the world once again. It’s repetitive and Toriyama doesn’t really do much to make the repetitive scenarios feel individual and creative.
It also utilizes my absolute least favorite trope: reviving dead characters. The Dragon Balls negate any deaths and consequences the series could have. I felt bored reading fights because I knew if someone died during it, they’d simply be revived anyway.
I don’t think this series is utter trash, and Toriyama is definitely not a bad mangaka. It’s just really not for me.
jwest12's review against another edition
adventurous
funny
lighthearted
relaxing
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
It’s been over ten years since I’ve read Dragon Ball, and I was very excited to pick it up again. The first issue has the first 11 chapters in it and I would say they were very enjoyable. I like the characters of Bulma and Goku a lot from the start. I found most of the humor to be on point. There was alot more sex jokes then I remember and while I don’t mind it that much, I’m happy he stops doing it as much as the series goes on. At least as far as I recall. There is not a ton of action in this first issue it’s more humor then action. I had a lot of fun reading the first issue and am excited to read on.
cuddlesome's review against another edition
3.0
A bit of autobiographical information to contextualize how I'm coming at this--
So I started to watch Dragon Ball Z roughly three months ago because my friend was watching Dragon Ball. "Don't bother with original Dragon Ball," he said. He and I both figured I had enough pop culture osmosis to have a general idea of who was who and what was going on in Z; I had watched the Broly movies from the 90s with zero context years ago.
Fast forward to a couple of weeks after starting DBZ and I'd bought a Raditz shirt to wear to a convention (he was and still remains my favorite character based on design and wasted potential alone, don't @ me, I love him more than I love myself). I got several compliments on my shirt from DBZ fans. They echoed my friend's sentiments: "Don't bother with original Dragon Ball."
Only after finishing all nine seasons of DBZ, having it consume my life slightly with its fun action scenes, science fantasy, and dramedy, and starting the somewhat arduous task of sitting through Dragon Ball GT, did I finally sit down to take a look at vanilla Dragon Ball.
And--uh--yeah, I think there's a reason I was warned off. I'm aware that in its original run DB and DBZ all run together, but I have to imagine that either there's going to be an eventual tonal shift leading up to/in congruence with the arrival of the Saiyans (who were definitely for sure not invented retroactively COUGH COUGH). While DBZ has comedy elements, they take a back seat to the action. Not so with DB. You can't take two steps without tripping over a bawdy joke.
"Balls! Boobs! Butts!" Akira Toriyama, a Japanese man from circa 1984, yells at me, an American woman in 2023, waving keys in my face. "Laugh! Please laugh!"
A single delicate snort escaped me at the inevitable "oh no a poor dragon lost its balls :(" joke we couldn't resist using early on. Otherwise, I was pretty stone-faced. This humor will definitely do it for someone, though.
Ironically, the particular print that I have is rated T while the copies of DBZ at my local library are A for All Ages. We can blow peoples' insides to gory bits with lasers but we wouldn't want the children to see undies. (To be clear, though, I don't disagree with the T rating--it's downright vulgar in places).
PUTTING ALL OF THAT ASIDE, these character designs are so charming and distinct. They're really fun to look at and see exaggerated. Goku in particular is insufferably cute. I really love his expressions, naivete, tail, and terrifying proclivity for devouring predatory animals. Frankly, the retroactive creative move to make him from a race of warmongering alien pirates makes him LESS weird than if he were just a feral were-monkey boy who was born to human parents, in my opinion.
I was surprised at how quickly a lot of the mainstay characters show up in volume one. The dedication that the series has to keeping up with (most) of them in the long run is interesting (and maddening, for some of them). I like how self-centered and suspicious a lot of the characters around the more magnanimous and trusting Goku are. Bulma in particular makes it clear from the second she hits the scene she's in it for herself and is willing to manipulate her way to getting what she wants. The same goes for Yamcha, who I was mildly surprised to see in an antagonistic role despite knowing it going in.
I feel like I'll be satisfied with skimming through most of the rest of this series while stopping for characters I recognize, fight scenes, and great ape shenanigans. The general sense of humor when it leans on lewdness is lost on me at best and eyeroll-inducing at worst so I don't think I want to walk slowly through every moment of it. Still, I'll be looking forward to getting to see more of characters I like a lot in DBZ who ultimately end up getting sidelined due to power creep (Krillin, Chi-Chi, and Tien Shinhan in particular).
So I started to watch Dragon Ball Z roughly three months ago because my friend was watching Dragon Ball. "Don't bother with original Dragon Ball," he said. He and I both figured I had enough pop culture osmosis to have a general idea of who was who and what was going on in Z; I had watched the Broly movies from the 90s with zero context years ago.
Fast forward to a couple of weeks after starting DBZ and I'd bought a Raditz shirt to wear to a convention (he was and still remains my favorite character based on design and wasted potential alone, don't @ me, I love him more than I love myself). I got several compliments on my shirt from DBZ fans. They echoed my friend's sentiments: "Don't bother with original Dragon Ball."
Only after finishing all nine seasons of DBZ, having it consume my life slightly with its fun action scenes, science fantasy, and dramedy, and starting the somewhat arduous task of sitting through Dragon Ball GT, did I finally sit down to take a look at vanilla Dragon Ball.
And--uh--yeah, I think there's a reason I was warned off. I'm aware that in its original run DB and DBZ all run together, but I have to imagine that either there's going to be an eventual tonal shift leading up to/in congruence with the arrival of the Saiyans (who were definitely for sure not invented retroactively COUGH COUGH). While DBZ has comedy elements, they take a back seat to the action. Not so with DB. You can't take two steps without tripping over a bawdy joke.
"Balls! Boobs! Butts!" Akira Toriyama, a Japanese man from circa 1984, yells at me, an American woman in 2023, waving keys in my face. "Laugh! Please laugh!"
A single delicate snort escaped me at the inevitable "oh no a poor dragon lost its balls :(" joke we couldn't resist using early on. Otherwise, I was pretty stone-faced. This humor will definitely do it for someone, though.
Ironically, the particular print that I have is rated T while the copies of DBZ at my local library are A for All Ages. We can blow peoples' insides to gory bits with lasers but we wouldn't want the children to see undies. (To be clear, though, I don't disagree with the T rating--it's downright vulgar in places).
PUTTING ALL OF THAT ASIDE, these character designs are so charming and distinct. They're really fun to look at and see exaggerated. Goku in particular is insufferably cute. I really love his expressions, naivete, tail, and terrifying proclivity for devouring predatory animals. Frankly, the retroactive creative move to make him from a race of warmongering alien pirates makes him LESS weird than if he were just a feral were-monkey boy who was born to human parents, in my opinion.
I was surprised at how quickly a lot of the mainstay characters show up in volume one. The dedication that the series has to keeping up with (most) of them in the long run is interesting (and maddening, for some of them). I like how self-centered and suspicious a lot of the characters around the more magnanimous and trusting Goku are. Bulma in particular makes it clear from the second she hits the scene she's in it for herself and is willing to manipulate her way to getting what she wants. The same goes for Yamcha, who I was mildly surprised to see in an antagonistic role despite knowing it going in.
I feel like I'll be satisfied with skimming through most of the rest of this series while stopping for characters I recognize, fight scenes, and great ape shenanigans. The general sense of humor when it leans on lewdness is lost on me at best and eyeroll-inducing at worst so I don't think I want to walk slowly through every moment of it. Still, I'll be looking forward to getting to see more of characters I like a lot in DBZ who ultimately end up getting sidelined due to power creep (Krillin, Chi-Chi, and Tien Shinhan in particular).
brenticus's review against another edition
adventurous
funny
lighthearted
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
Dragon Ball's a classic. No doubt about that. If you haven't read it it's worthwhile simply to understand all the cultural references.
Beyond that, it's easy to forget how funny early Dragon Ball is. Wildly inappropriate, and it certainly leans too heavily on sexy Bulma jokes, but Goku thinking the Dragon Balls are a dragon's balls is just hilarious.
Beyond that, it's easy to forget how funny early Dragon Ball is. Wildly inappropriate, and it certainly leans too heavily on sexy Bulma jokes, but Goku thinking the Dragon Balls are a dragon's balls is just hilarious.
luis10's review against another edition
adventurous
lighthearted
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.0