The Monkey King

Akira Toriyama's classic take on Journey to the West. Also features dinosaurs, shapeshifiting cats and pigs, human/animal hybrids, lovingly detailed souped-up motorcycles and other fantastical machinery, in addition to magic wish granting orbs.

If you took all this, and presented the story as if the plotlines were something that a pro wrestling promotion would come up with, you have Dragon Ball.

While this hasn't aged particularly well regarding the sexual humour (how this passed muster even in the 80's is pretty wild to think about), it's a stupendous and colourful story about a really strong socially awkward child who can turn into a homicidal giant monkey (not an ape) during the full moon.

Akira Toriyama has an incredibly distinct show more art style which has won himself fans worldwide, for very good reason. Phenomenal artwork in every respect.

I am almost certainly going to have to check out Dr. Slump, because in my opinion, a really underrated part of this series is all the weird sci-fi gadgetry. Bulma would be the main character if this wasn't a story about a really strong little boy who loves punching and kicking. What do you mean, she builds tiny capsules that can contain literally almost anything?

I have incredibly fond memories of watching the anime growing up and so far I am really enjoying revisiting this series. show less

I grew up watching Dragon Ball Z, but I've only dabbled in the prequel series. With Akira Toriyama's unfortunate passing, I decided to visit the original manga, since it's quicker than watching the show and I've heard it's better.

Dragon Ball definitely has a different tone than Z. The original is a more whimsical story, full of adventure and innocence - it follows Goku as a young boy, and the first few chapters of the manga give interesting backstory to characters who end up being prominent in Z. It's a fun, light-hearted adventure story with a much heavier emphasis on comedy than the sequel series. It's also really, really, raunchy. Z's anime had it's comic relief sex joke gags, but this first volume spent a huge amount of time making show more jokes and panty-related gags. It's juvenile, silly, stuff, and something that was more acceptable back when this was written. I'm not going to criticize 1980's Japanese comics through the lens of 2020's America - and the writing clearly struck some sort of nerve both and Japan and stateside because Dragon Ball remains one of the most popular manga.

For as famous as DB is, the manga is relatively short, only 16 volumes, and it's easy to blow through a volume in just a few hours. I wouldn't say I'm hooked just yet - I find myself wanting to encounter characters that won't show up till Z - but as a person who doesn't normally read manga I'm willing to stick with it. show less

Simple story and charming characters make for some decent, lighthearted entertainment. Not a fan of how pervy the humour can be, however.

A classic of my childhood Dragon Ball is one of the best shows I've ever watched and, Gods forbid, if I ever have children I will be making them watch it.

With that in mind while shopping recently I came across the first two volumes of the manga. I've never bought any manga before so I thought why not.

With no real difference to the show (I have the uncensored, uncut DVDs) there was nothing new but it was good to go back to the start again and see how it originally came out.

A fun, funny and heartwarming tale I highly recommend either the manga or the show to everyone.

Funny, endearingly flawed characters, smutty as a carry-on movie, well written, great cartoonish artwork. What more do you need for entertainment. Recommended.

Oy... I'm torn because this was recommended to me by a Japanese pen pal, so I really want to like it. And the more anime I watch, the more I love it, so I'm thinking I'd like to try manga. This was not the most auspicious beginning. It's fun in a kiddie way, but heavy on the creep factor with all the nudity and sexual harassment. Someone tell me if the series improves, or if Dragon Ball Z is better, or if maybe I should try a different series altogether.

The first Manga I ever bought! I used to love Dragonball on TV, and found myself as addicted to the comic book series as I did to the TV show. Toriyama is incredibly cheeky and his character Goku is a loveable scamp, whom you can't help but follow on all his adventures!