Customer Reviews

Dragon Ball, Vol. 1

5 star:		(18)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

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.

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.

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

I've been a long time manga fan, but Dragonball Z was the one series I never could get into. There was just too much testosterone and muscles and screaming for my liking, and it tainted my view on Akira Toriyama himself.
Little did i know the Dragon Ball, the prequel to DragonBallZ, is in fact very different. I read it at my school library and was very pleasantly surprised, what I found was a fun adventure series that is often very racey but always hilarious.
Akira Toriyama has a fabulous gift for characterisation, and the ones he presents in this manga are extremely fun. Goku is a little monkey-tailed, uncivilized kid who has never seen other people before, and is somewhat shameless, Bulma is rather superficial and full of herself but tries to keep Goku in check, and Oolong the shape shifting pig is comedy gold.
As the other reviews can probably tell you, this isnt for the kiddies, but I myself was laughing my head off at some of the 'inappropriate' humour, such as Goku asking Bulma why she has 'a butt on her chest', and his horror-struck realistation that girls are different from boys as they have...'parts missing'.
The reason I give this book 3 stars however, is because of VIZ's english release. I do not like their habit of replacing the original japanese SFX with english, I feel it ruins the art. Aside from that, some of the speech was a little iffy, characters like Goku and Chi-chi were given oddly accented voices which didnt sound right to me. I am glad that for once VIZ DIDNT tone down any sexual jokes or censored any nudity as they have done in other Shonen Jump titles.

Whethere you are a fan of the tv series,manga,anime in all or just want to start out this is for you.This book is perfect,it is the introduction point to db/dbz/dbgt.It containts tales 1-11,making the price very cheap.Once you start and finish reading it,you will want to buy all the volumes in the series.I recommend buying all the dragonball and dragonball z gn,rather thn buying it in dvds.I own dragonball vol.1-13 and dragonball z vol.1-2 and I plan on having them all.

In Japan too, Dragon Ball is the most popular anime and comic. In ten years ago, at that time all Japanese boys watched Dragon Ball. That influenced in many categorys, for instance comic TVanime, TVgame, card game. Boys of those days did Doragon Ball playing in the school, concretly we played our technique by saying [kamehameha][dodonpa][rougafu-fu-ken].

The boy's tendency that they respect for strong men will be the same in the world. I respected for Son gokuu because he was more and more strong by practicing. Though I like the word[effort][endeavor], the origin may come from the anime.

This is a REALLY, REALLY, REALLY great book! I loved it! If you are a Dragon Ball/DBZ/DBGT fan you really should buy this.
It is the very first one! It happens before DBZ, and it's ten times better! It's what the anime series is based on, and it's even better than the anime series!
The story is: one day a girl named Bulma is driving in her car when she (literally) bumps into a child named Son Goku. Bulma is on a quest to find the seven magic Dragonballs which will grant her any wish! But, of course, they run into troubles along the way like a transforming pig, an old martial artist who gives Son Goku a flying cloud, a desert bandit, and more!
All in all, this deserves 6 stars, but I can only go up to five on this rating scale! You're going to want to buy #2 RIGHT AWAY!!!!!!!!!!!! I really reccomend buying it!

Great intro for people new to Manga, I say this because I am new, actually, this book and one issue of Shonen Jump is all I have, and so far, its been grand.
The characters are great, the drawing nice on the eyes, older school Manga is better than some of the new, overly dramatic stuff today. Its got good jokes, the starting when Goku first meets Bulma is really quite packed with mildly dirty jokes. One scene Goku "explores" Bulma when she is asleep, definanty not for younger kids!
Dragon Ball is great fun with some laided back but still intense action, not overly dramatic stuff you might find in DBZ. So you can get the best of many worlds: jokes (clean and dirty), action, story telling, and adventure.

I highly recommend!

I have been a fan of the Dragon Ball Z anime since my days in 6th grade. I'm 24 now, and I've just unlocked every single character in Budokai Tenkaichi 2 (great game if you love the series by the way). However there has always been a part of me that really wanted to see what Goku was like in his youth, and I debated for a while on whether I should look into the show or the manga. I eventually settled on buying the first volume in order to experience Dragon Ball in a different manner, and I am so glad that I chose this medium.
First of all, the Dragon Ball and Dragon Ball Z manga tend to be a little less "filled" than the anime. The story keeps moving forward in a nice, timely fashion, and though the fights themselves are still fantastic, there's no period of stare-downs and pointless dialogue in between the explosive action. A great example of this is in DBZ when Goku dies the first time during the Saiyan Saga. In the anime I believe it takes almost 15 to 20 episodes before Goku finally reaches King Kai and trains for his upcoming battle with Vegeta and Nappa. In the comic, it's only about 20 pages. So if you're the type of person that likes a story told to the point, the manga is definitely for you. I still prefer the DBZ show to the comics overall, but I'm of the opinion that the story of little Goku and his friends is best told through the humorous panels that Akira Toriyama worked on so diligently nearly 25 years ago.
Second, the humor in Dragon Ball is laugh-out-loud hilarious. Master Roshi is a bit of a pervert (as always), the bickering between Bulma, Yamcha, Oolong, and Puar is still tongue-in-cheek goodness, and Goku's naive nature and willingless to become the strongest fighter ever blends together into a neat little tale of innocence lost (but any fan of DB knows that Goku never really loses that quality). I don't consider myself as a fan of comedy in general (I prefer bloody Samurai films and Tarantino/Chanwook noire), but Dragon Ball had me laughing so hard at some points that I had to stop reading momentarily.
All in all, I highly recommend this purchase for anyone who loves comics and/or Dragon Ball. If you're new to the series, this may be a great starting point, but don't expect any of the hardcore fight scenes that later appear in the stories of DBZ. Instead, expect some interesting characters, like a thief who lives in the desert with his best pal (a cat), a martial arts master who tends to come off too strong on the ladies, and a little boy with a monkey's tail who could probably eat the whole selection of a Las Vegas buffet and still demand seconds. Enjoy!

I like this book because it has some fights and its pretty cool. I hope that everyone who has heard of DB should read it. But some of it has sexual humor.... I hate that. I wish it didn't have that. It is packed full of surprises.