Culture

Author: Akira Toriyama, Publisher: Vizbig, (5/5).

Dragon Ball is the creation of the prolific manga writer/illustrator Akira Toriyama. It was successful from the start and went on to sell a record-breaking 120 million copies, was made into a television series, continued with Dragon Ball Z and then television series GT. Toriyama started in 1984 and finished drawing eleven years later. Now, twenty-five years down the line, there are video games and card games, t-shirts and mugs, memes and fanfiction. Based on this evidence, I’m guessing I’m not the only person who enjoyed it.

 
The Dragon Ball series spans our main character Goku’s youth. He is a boy with a mysterious past and incredible strength. He is naïve but with a pure heart and strong sense of right and wrong. His adventure starts when he encounters Bulma, an intelligent young woman who is on a quest to find seven balls with stars on them. The mysterious dragon balls will allow her to summon a dragon to grant her greatest wish, which is to get a boyfriend. Goku owns one of these balls and is reluctant to give it up, but curious about Bulma’s story (and her breasts) he decides to accompany her on her journey. This turns out to be fortunate for Bulma because where there is power, there is inevitably a slew of evil geniuses/assassins/monsters/armies to compete with.

 
Dragon Ball is light-hearted and doesn’t take itself too seriously but at the same time is well characterised and skilfully (though stylistically) drawn. The jokes translate easily to English from the original Japanese and the humour has universal appeal. As comics, you can read through them pretty quickly, which is perfect for the action-packed twists and turns, but means that the adventure is almost over too fast. Witty, exciting and thoroughly addictive, I would definitely recommend it to a friend.