Dragon Ball Manga Series - Dragon Ball
The Dragon Ball manga is a series illustrated and written by Akira Toriyama, it is the original Dragon Ball manga series that boosted the Dragon Ball franchise into a global phenomenon. The manga series was initially published in the Weekly Shonen Jump magazine from 1984 to 1995, totalling 519 chapters. Published by Shueisha, the manga consists of 42 volumes.
The first 16 volumes out of the set of 42 volumes is the Dragon Ball manga series showing the story of a young Son Goku, the remaining 26 volumes consist of the Dragon Ball Z manga series, though the volume sets are combined with just a timeskip to distinguish the two series.
Production
The Dragon Ball manga series was adapted into two seperate anime series Dragon Ball and Dragon Ball Z produced by Toei animation, broadcasted in Japan from 1986 to 1996.
The Dragon Ball series has developed into a Media Franchise by Akira Toriyama, among the merchandise, there has been Action Figures, Cosplay and Costumes, Goku and Dragon Ball Toys, Collectable Card Games, Clothing and Funko Pop as well as Dragon ball movies, games and a bunch of collaborations.
Reception
During its period of production, Dragon Ball has become one of the most successful manga series of all time. Selling over 160 million copies over Japan as well as catching major popularity worldwide, especially the USA, making an estimate of 250-300 million copies sold worldwide. Dragon Ball is currently the second/third best-selling manga series of all time, being behind One Piece, which is a manga series which took great inspirations from Akira Toriyam' production of Dragon Ball.
The reception of the Dragon Ball series is mostly positive, inspiring artists such as Eiichiro Oda (One Piece), Masashi Kishimoto (Naruto) and Tite Kubo (Bleach). Reviewers have praised the comedy of the series which the Dragon Ball manga series (Volume 1-16) mostly consist of, but also the fighting scenes which is taken to a whole next level in the Dragon Ball Z manga series, and the story line with Son Goku’s character development while taking cultural inspirations from Chinese mythology and Japanese folktales.
Though there was a small degree of negative reception from American parents towards the style of illustration in the Dragon Ball series consisting of some nudity, racial stereotypes, and other content they found disturbing. This problem was resolved by editing the English release of the series to not consist of inappropriate content towards young children.
Differences from the Dragon Ball TV Anime Series
Pacing
The original Dragon Ball and Dragon Ball Z series are both adaptations of Akira Toriyama’s manga. Although the plot of the series generally do not change, there is a insertion of non-canon filler episodes, which is seen more in the Dragon Ball Z series, the fillers are to slow down the pacing of the anime series so it won’t catch up to the manga chapter releases which is a common method in popular anime/manga series production.
Physical Differences from the Dragon Ball TV Anime Series
Namekians have extra fingers
In the anime series, the Namekians which are the race the likes of Piccolo appear to have five fingers in the anime, where in the manga they only have four.
Breaking the fourth wall
The fourth wall refers to the “invisible wall” between an audience (readers) and the illustrations. Akira Toriyama has a style of being playful with the audience, often breaking the fourth wall in the series comedy and martial arts nature. An example is, characters would sometimes get so hard, the manga panels break. However, the anime series couldn’t really adapt to this tradition of style.
Nudity
Both the Dragon Ball and the Dragon Ball Z series have several infamous dirty moments, the manga goes wholeheartedly for the R-Rated approach but there are more coverings in the anime series. The anime often uses quick editing and different angles to avoid showing R-rated content. The English releases of Dragon Ball has even more editing and censorship due to the
series streaming on platforms such as cartoon networks which has young children as the target audience.
Differences from the English Distribution
Dragon Ball and Dragon Ball Z
In the United States, the manga was released as two seperate American-style comic books Dragon Ball and Dragon Ball Z which started in the year 2000, the Japanese production was a full set of 42 volumes with no particular physical differences to the volume covers to distinguish the between the Dragon Ball and the Dragon Ball Z series. The release was unsuccessful due to its large size and expensive cost, resulting in both series being canceled in 2002. The series transitioned into a launch title for the US edition Shonen Jump Collection in 2003 and in parallel, 42 volumes almost matching the original Japanese manga series but in English was released with the second part of the manga named as Dragon Ball Z to distinguish the two parts of the series.
Censorship
The American editions in the original release consisted of censoring nudity and graphic content in the Dragon Ball series. But by the end of 2004, the original Dragon Ball (not Z) manga had been released uncensored with re-releases of previously censored volumes. The Dragon Ball Z manga remained censored with the exception of a few volumes due to not containing inappropriate content.
Physical Differences from the English Distribution
- Mr. Popo’s lips were removed.
- Dark-skinned characters were edited because of some complaints.
- Middle fingers were edited into fists.
- Mr. Satan was edited into “Hercule” as well as the dubbing of the Japanese anime series.
- Firearms were edited into “laser blasters” except for pistol-armed robbers seen in the early series.
- Sexual and other graphic contents were edited to suit a child audience.
Links
Dragon Ball Series
Dragon Ball Z Series
Dragon Ball Kai Series
Dragon Ball Super Series
Dragon Ball GT Series
Super Dragon Ball Heros
Akira Toriyama