Dragon Ball Critique ~ Doujin Manga Society

"He who finds the seven sacred orbs, will be granted a single wish from the dragon god

Shenron"

The Dragon god Shenron

Dragon Ball ((ドラゴンボール Doragon Bōru) Is a Japanese Manga series written an illustrated by Akira Toriyama. The series was originally serialized by Weekly Shonen Jump from 1984-1995 adapted into two animated series by Toei Animations aired in Japan from 1986-1996.

Dragon Ball

The plot of the series was inspired by the classical Chinese Novel Journey to the West.

As the protagonist Goku meets the young girl Bulma who ask him to help her find the seven Dragon Balls and have one wish granted by the dragon god Shenron.

The final Anime on the "Shonen Classics" series, Dragon Ball is one of the most influential Anime series world wide. It's creator Akira Toryama is also recognized as one of the artist that changed the history of Manga.

Since this is the last critique of this series and that there is a lot to be said about Dragon Ball, I hope you don't mind if this critique ends up being rather large.

Also I would like to point out that I'm neither a "DBZ Fanboy" nor a "Hater" and that is perfectly fine if you disagree with anything I say on this critique.

I would dare to say this image is among the ones that formed my childhood

Well as I mentioned above the story is inspired by the classic Chinese novel Journey to the west, having several of the characters and other lore based on the content of the novel(but really Toriyama....Son Goku...Sun Wukong). Though there is a big change from the original plot in the transition from Dragon Ball to Dragon Ball Z.

In Dragon Ball the plot focuses far more in exploring and adventure rather than fights while searching for the seven Dragon Balls; in Dragon Ball Z the plot centralize in saving the earth from whatever threat is attacking that time or reviving a certain amount of persons(including Krilin and some other characters and/or the entire planet)

Now is time for what I believe is the most extensive part in Dragon Ball, development , for better or worse the character development in Dragon Ball and in Dragon Ball Z is a huge factor.

One of the thins I believe made Dragon Ball so successful is that it's characters literally grew older with their readers.

Since the transition from Dragon Ball to Dragon Ball Z is so extensive I believe is necessary that we do a little review of some of the development from the original to it's sequel. And one of the very first that comes to mind is the introduction of one of the main characters, Yamcha, he is one of the first characters with some degree of relevance alongside Oolong and Puar.

Legend said there was a time when Yamcha was strong and useful

The next character of relevance to show up is Goku's future wife Chi-Chi(whom I still prefer to call Milk as in the Spanish version), where we can see some of the old Toriyama comic style as Goku thinking marrying is some sort of food agreed to have...Chi-Chi as his future wife (I still can get use to that name...), later on is introduced the first villain/comic relief character that will continuously show up as the story progress Pilaf(whom later shows up on Dragon Ball GT just to..be more comic relief...).

As the story progress several more characters are added and Goku's martial art training progress under the training of the strongest martial artist of the world Kame-Sen'nin(better known as Master Roshi) alongside his best friend and rival Kuririn(I will call him Krilin from now on). Together they fight at the Budokai Tenkaichi ("Strongest Under the Heavens Martial Arts Tournament" , hey I finally know what the video game title means, also wow 2 Japanese words turned into a whole sentence....), soon after the tournament one of the major events of the story take place; which is the fight against the Red Ribbon Army (one of my personal favorites~) where we can see the shift in the plot from an adventure and exploring based series into a more battle oriented one.

Believe it or not there was a time when Master Roshi
was actually stronger than Goku.

Still remember the fight against each general of the Red Ribbon Army
..make me feel old..

So after a single little kid wiped out an entire army and their professional assassin which for some reason had a need to travel on a tree. Once again they reunited the Dragon Balls (just this time the wish is something a tad more important than a pair of panties...) then the second martial art tournament take place where yet again new characters are included.

Taopaipai Brother and Master Roshi's rival alongside his diciples Tien Shinhan and Chiaotzu

Not sure if Taopaipai is shocked or
just remembered something important

I remember this as one of the best fights in Dragon Ball
prior to the heavy usage of "ki based powers"

Finally we have the last portion of Dragon Ball, where we will start the transition to Dragon Ball Z (and what I believe to be the beginning of a tedious but hilarious and highly parodied topics in DBZ), in this final portion the story focused on reviving Kriling which was murdered by Piccolo Daimao.

He as a really smart bad guy (unlike several others I could mention) swiftly takes out any possible treat (those capable of seal him back) and establish what will be the format for the upcoming Dragon Ball Z plot.

The very first of many to come...Kriling pwn counter:1

What I believe to be the unofficial end of Dragon Ball

Starting with the next battle against Piccolo Daimao incarnation Piccolo Jr. Dragon Ball transition finished, what began as a story for questing and exploring will turn into a pure "Battle Manga" having several of the original characters become useless as the story progress (except Tien who despise being weeker than several still had the guts to fight Cell and even Buu) and the awful way in which character power exponentially grow without limits.

[Fun Fact: To destroy a Planet the size of Planet Earth you need a minimum of 53 quadrillion megatons in which each megaton would be 4.184*10^15 joules per megaton, meaning that you need more energy than even the collision of a celestial body the size of Mars can produce. And Vegeta when he first arrives Earth has enough power already to destroy it.]

Finally changing to the next subject , the background story of Dragon Ball is really deep. Every time a new character or new event happen we are explained in detail from where it came from or what it was (sometimes might have not been in the best way).

The world in which Dragon Ball take place is colorful an vastly explored, having both fantastical and ancient creatures such as dragons, demons , dinosaurs and more.

Dragon Ball does and exceptionally good work immersing the audience into it's fantasy world where future and past combines and creates a world filled with things to observe and discover.

Coconut-helmet
Gohan did it before it was cool

The scrip in Dragon Ball, at times brilliant at times...err..something that would come from a silly comedy, but generally the dialogue in Dragon Ball somewhat always fitted in the situation.

But there is something that no one can deny , and that is the fact that Dragon Ball has influenced not only the audience and kids that grew up watching and reading the manga , but also the entire media. Dragon Ball have serve as inspiration for many other artist to create their own Manga, a huge amount of memes , parodies and abridged series , music and others have been created thanks to it.

Doubt Goku really got a medical degree...

Might have been an amazing Moment in lucky star...but
I recommend Konata to stay in school..

To those Wondering the series is called Gin Tama

Just...Scary....

In the art section Dragon Ball and Dragon Ball Z weren't bad at all , despise the fact that many times they had to recycle the same scenarios and backgrounds (still remember that same rock that always ended up destroyed) it' was pretty good for the time. Maybe not the best in the art department but still a pretty solid animation and drawing.

Dragon Ball/Dragon Ball Z is one of the first Anime I ever watched (and I think it was one of the first for many others too), as I grew older and saw more anime I got to experience different points of views and stories which opened my eyes to a widely more varied taste than just fights and over the top battles.

So when I watch Dragon Ball/Dragon Ball Z now I can only say that....I still liked maybe even more than I used to when I was a kid.

I understand and even point out the flaws on Dragon Ball, yet despise me hating the core of DBZ's plot I still enjoy watching it. Nostalgia is a powerful thing indeed, but I doubt nostalgia alone is a strong enough factor for me to enjoy a series that I know it has so many flaws and there is another thing.

Dragon Ball is the only animated series I know that is still watched even today not only by the not so young kids that grew with it, but even their parents.

My brothers , my Dad and I still watch Dragon Ball Z together, no other series is as known as Dragon Ball to the point that even mothers knew who Goku was (Sadly new generations will be confused by that atrocious excuse of a movie that was Dragon Ball Revolution).

There is also several moments during Dragon Ball that influenced many people and personally I find them among the most memorable.

At the climax of the Planet Namek saga , after a lot of exposition (which DBZ used way too much) and some what decent fights, we see a Goku that despise giving his all(throwing a freaking ball of energy big enough to emulate the sun in the sky) and still not being able to beat the evil emperor Frieza. Goku is exhausted , unable to beat a foe that seems to be invincible , as he watches his best friend being kill in cold blood by Frieza (and no way to save him this time) something inside of him awakens.

We all knew something big was about to happen

For better of for worse , this next moment will give a leap forward in terms of the next DBZ battles , starting the circle of the most ridiculously powerful animated characters ever created (The destroy galaxies for crying out load )

Even today I still get goosebumps whenever I see this scene

The Legendary Super Saiyajin, we spend so many episodes hearing about it, but I bet none of us ever imagined this is how it would look like. Born of Rage, the warrior that knows no limits (literally), and the base form of the next series of characters that we will see around in the future.

The next one is yet the climax of the next saga, the androids saga, where we see the transition from Goku to Gohan as the main character. This one had a bit more of built up and the phase till we reach the conclusion is done really well.

Really felt bad for Android 16...

After a few inspirational words from a dismembered android 16 and then Cell cruelly crushing his head is enough to drive Gohan mad and by mad I mean reeeeaaallly mad.

The song was a bit weird but the whole bird effect was amazing.

Tears of Rage, Cell should have feared Gohan...a lot.

The transformation of Gohan into SS-2 is by far the best transformation on the DBZ series, had a good phase , a dramatic moment and most elements helped to immerse the audience till the right moment when Gohan battle cry shows his true power.

You don't wanna mess with him.

Before I point out the last "epic" moment I would like to make an honorable mention, one of the few really sad moments on DBZ. The moment were a little true innocent and lovable character dies.

Along with the death of the old couple ,
the death of the little dog is among the saddest

The next moment is...yeah you guessed the climax of the last saga in DBZ the Majin Buu Saga, this one I believe is the moment that all of us that watched that episode united in one single movement.

I did raised my hands to help Goku...

That concludes my critique, but before anyone race to the commets alow me to do one last thing, I would like to quote the one and only Akira Toriyama in one interview from 2013.

"The role of my manga is to be a work of entertainment through and through. I dare say I don't care even if [my works] have left nothing behind, as long as they have entertained their readers."

With those words I end my critique, I hope all of you enjoyed it and be sure to share your thought and opinion in the comment section below and I will be awaiting you all in my next series of critiques, farewell.