Dragon Ball, Vol. 1 [Paperback]

Akira Toriyama (Author, Illustrator)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 2003 | Series: Dragon Ball (Prebound) (Book 1)

- Printed in the Original Japanese right-to-left format

Editorial Reviews

Review

"A comic masterpiece . . . Dragon Ball's spirit of fun and adventure is unparalleled."

About the Author

Akira Toriyama's first weekly series, Dr. Slump, has entertained generations of readers in Japan since it was introduced in Shueisha's Weekly Shonen Jump magazine in 1980. A few years later, he created his wildly popular Dragon Ball series, which brought him international success. Toriyama is also known for his character designs for video games, including Dragon Warrior, Chrono Trigger and Tobal No. 1.

Product Details

• Paperback: 192 pages
• Publisher: VIZ Media LLC; Original edition (March 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1569319200
• ISBN-13: 978-1569319208
• Product Dimensions: 7.5 x 5.5 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (22 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #327,663 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #36 in Books > 4-for-3 Books > Comics & Graphic Novels > Manga > By Series > Dragon Ball

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The start of a legend...and uncensored, too!, October 9, 2003

By 

Julian Grybowski (New York State, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Dragon Ball, Vol. 1 (Paperback)

When I first wrote a review for this book's first-edition all of two years ago, I reported that this volume, for all its effort in getting a (mostly) true-to-the-original version of the Dragon Ball manga to US audiences, was unfortunately censored. However, as of a year ago (so I'm a little late with this rewrite here...), this is no longer the case.

Physically, the book is somewhat larger than its Japanese counterpart, measuring at roughly 12 by 18 centimeters. When these books first came out, they were done as their own franchise, and as such were printed in a different (and larger) format, but have since been incorporated into the "Shonen Jump" line of graphic novels. The cover art remained the same, but the book was shrunk down (not the pages, mind you, just the height and width) to the version you see here.

Content-wise, this is basically the same as it was in the comic book form (waaaay back 5 years ago as of this writing). All text and sound effects are redrawn in English, but left in their right-to-left format, as with all of Viz's Shonen Jump comics. As I metioned before, this volume is indeed uncensored, and all of the dirty jokes are left in (so all you sukebes should rejoice).

Overall, the translation's decent; it suffers a little bit in that being the first volume, things were still being adjusted while the rewriter (Gerard Jones) found his niche for the series. For example, Goku's backwoods accent is a bit overly pronounced, as are Chi-Chi's and Gyuumaou's. This volume also does more embellishment of the translation than is present later on. There's nothing bad enough to change the meaning of the dialogue, but compared to the later volumes, which are very close to a direct translation, it stands out. (It's also interesting to note that 5 years later, Viz seemingly _still_ hasn't caught on to the fact that the Dragon Balls' names are Chinese, as they still opt for more-or-less a romanization of the katakana...which were only there to help the Japanese readers pronounce the words).

Overall, this is a fun read, and if I were you, I wouldn't hesitate to buy it. Although...if you know Japanese, you might want to opt for the recent re-released "Kanzenban" (perfect edition) of the Japanese manga, since it's the original (and has all the color pages in color, too!). For English speakers, though, this is the next best thing, and there is nothing which should really prevent you from getting it.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This Magna is Better than the Anime Series!, April 15, 2003

By 

Michael J. Winne "MikWin" (United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Dragon Ball, Vol. 1 (Paperback)

This is a really great Magna. It's got comedy, action, and adventure. The right-to-left format takes a minute or two to get used to, but after that it just seems natural. One of the things that I like about this Magna is that the pace is faster than the series, and each volume contains the equivalent of quite a few episodes.

Plus, you get to see things in the Magna that were left out of the cartoon. Which brings me to another point, even though the cover art looks "kiddish", and the show is more geared towards children, this Magna really isn't a kids book. It's more for teens. You won't see anything worse than a PG-13 movie, but I wouldn't reccomend it for a child.

This Magna has some really great moments in it, plus you get to see how all the stars of Dragonball Z meet each other. Hillarity ensues quite often. That's not to say that the action isn't great either. Akira Toriyama does a wonderful job depicting every move that the characters make when they fight.

So if you like Magna(japanese comics), Anime, Dragonball, or are just curious, then this is the Graphic Novel for you.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great!, March 17, 2004

By 

justajinx21@yahoo. (Texas) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Dragon Ball, Vol. 1 (Paperback)

As said above me, this is the start of the Dragon Ball series, which is incredibly infamous (moreso for dbz, though) but this is a really great book! It's easily the funniest and most perverted manga volume I've ever read, it made me laugh so hard at times.
The artwork is great, yet simple and uncluttered, and the picture gallery at the book of the book has some really awesome designs which I've never seen included in any other manga series before.
Overall, I think this is a must-have for any manga collector's collection but it does have some parts that's definitely more suitable for kids 13+.
This is my all-time favorite series but I'm not being partial towards it here, I just really think it has a great manga. (plus, it's cheap)
Highy, highly recommended