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is a Japanese media franchise created by Akira Toriyama in 1984. The initial manga, written and illustrated by Toriyama, was serialized in ''Weekly Shōnen Jump'' from 1984 to 1995, with the 519 individual chapters collected into 42 ''tankōbon'' volumes by its publisher Shueisha. ''Dragon Ball'' was originally inspired by the classical 16th-century Chinese novel ''Journey to the West'', combined with elements of Hong Kong martial arts films. The series follows the adventures of protagonist Son Goku from his childhood through adulthood as he trains in martial arts. He spends his childhood far from civilization until he meets a teen girl named Bulma, who encourages him to join her quest in exploring the world in search of the seven orbs known as the Dragon Balls, which summon a wish-granting dragon when gathered. Along his journey, Goku makes several other friends, becomes a family man, discovers his alien heritage, and battles a wide variety of villains, many of whom also seek the Dragon Balls.

Toriyama's manga was adapted and divided into two anime series produced by Toei Animation: ''Dragon Ball'' and ''Dragon Ball Z'', which together were broadcast in Japan from 1986 to 1996. Additionally, the studio has developed 21 animated feature films and three television specials, as well as two anime sequel series titled ''Dragon Ball GT'' (1996–1997) and ''Dragon Ball Super'' (2015–2018). From 2009 to 2015, a revised version of ''Dragon Ball Z'' aired in Japan under the title ''Dragon Ball Kai'', as a recut that follows the manga's story more faithfully by removing most of the material featured exclusively in the anime. Several companies have developed various types of merchandising based on the series leading to a large media franchise that includes films, both animated and live-action, collectible trading card games, numerous action figures, along with several collections of soundtracks and numerous video games. ''Dragon Ball'' has become one of the highest-grossing media franchises of all time.

Since its release, ''Dragon Ball'' has become one of the most successful manga and anime series of all time, with the manga sold in over 40countries and the anime broadcast in more than 80countries. The manga's 42 collected ''tankōbon'' volumes have over 160 million copies sold in Japan and copies sold worldwide, making it one of the best-selling manga series. Reviewers have praised the art, characterization, and humor of the story. It is widely regarded as one of the greatest and most influential manga series ever made, with many manga artists citing ''Dragon Ball'' as a source of inspiration for their own now-popular works. The anime, particularly ''Dragon Ball Z'', is also highly popular around the world and is considered one of the most influential in boosting the popularity of Japanese animation in Western culture. It has had a considerable impact on global popular culture, referenced by and inspiring numerous artists, athletes, celebrities, filmmakers, musicians and writers around the world.

Setting

Earth, known as the and designated as "Planet 4032-877" by the celestial hierarchy, is the main setting for the entire Dragon Ball series, as well as related media such as ''Dr. Slump'', ''Nekomajin'', and ''Jaco the Galactic Patrolman''. It is mainly inhabited by , a term used inclusively to refer to all of the intelligent races native to the planet, including humans, anthropomorphic beings, and monsters. Starting from the ''Dragon Ball Z'' series, various extraterrestrial species such as the and have played a more prominent role in franchise media.

The narrative of ''Dragon Ball'' predominantly follows the adventures of the Saiyan Son Goku; upon meeting Bulma at the beginning of the series, the two embark on an adventure to gather the seven Dragon Balls, a set of orbs that summon the wish-granting dragon Shenlong. Goku later receives martial arts training from Kame-Sen'nin, meets his lifelong friend Kuririn, and enters the "Strongest Under the Heavens" Martial Arts Tournament to fight the world's strongest warriors. When the Demon King Piccolo, and later his offspring Piccolo, tries to conquer the planet, Goku receives training from Earth's deities to defeat them. Goku later sacrifices his life to save the planet from his estranged brother Raditz, but is revived after training in the afterlife under the tutelage of North Kaio to combat the other incoming Saiyans, Nappa and Vegeta. He later becomes a Super Saiyan and defeats the powerful alien tyrant Freeza; this sets the tone of the rest of the series, with each enemy the characters face becoming stronger than the last, requiring them to attain further training.

''Dragon Ball Super'' establishes that the franchise is set in a multiverse composed of twelve numbered universes, with the majority of the ''Dragon Ball'' series taking place in . Each universe is ruled by a number of benevolent and malevolent deities, respectively called Kaioshin and Gods of Destruction who are appointed by a higher being called the Grand Zeno, who watches over the multiverse.

Production

Akira Toriyama was a fan of Hong Kong martial arts films, particularly Bruce Lee films such as ''Enter the Dragon'' (1973) and Jackie Chan films such as ''Drunken Master'' (1978), and wanted to create a manga inspired by martial arts films. This led to Toriyama creating the 1983 one-shot manga ''Dragon Boy'', which he later redeveloped into ''Dragon Ball''. Toriyama loosely modeled the plot and characters of ''Dragon Ball'' on the classic Chinese novel ''Journey to the West'', with Goku being Sun Wukong ("Son Goku" in Japanese), Bulma as Tang Sanzang, Oolong as Zhu Bajie, and Yamcha being Sha Wujing. Toriyama wanted to create a story with the basic theme of ''Journey to the West'', but with "a little kung fu" by combining the novel with elements from the kung fu films of Jackie Chan and Bruce Lee. The title ''Dragon Ball'' was inspired by ''Enter the Dragon'' and later Bruceploitation knockoff kung fu films which frequently had the word "Dragon" in the title, and the fighting scenes were influenced by Jackie Chan movies. Since it was serialized in a shōnen manga magazine, he added the idea of the Dragon Balls to give it a game-like activity of gathering something, without thinking of what the characters would wish for. His concept of the Dragon Balls was inspired by the epic Japanese novel ''Nansō Satomi Hakkenden'' (1814–1842), which involves the heroes collecting eight Buddhist prayer beads, which Toriyama adapted into collecting seven Dragon Balls.

He originally thought it would last about a year or end once the Dragon Balls were collected. Toriyama stated that although the stories are purposefully easy to understand, he specifically aimed ''Dragon Ball'' at readers older than those of his previous serial ''Dr. Slump''. He also wanted to break from the Western influences common in ''Dr. Slump'', deliberately going for Chinese scenery, referencing Chinese buildings and photographs of China his wife had bought. Toriyama wanted to set ''Dragon Ball'' in a fictional world largely based on Asia, taking inspiration from several Asian cultures including Japanese, Chinese, South Asian, Central Asian, Arabic and Indonesian cultures. The island where the is held is modeled after Bali (in Indonesia), which he, his wife and assistant visited in mid-1985, and for the area around Bobbidi's spaceship he consulted photos of Africa. Toriyama was also inspired by the jinn (genies) from ''The Arabian Nights''.

During the early chapters of the manga, Toriyama's editor, Kazuhiko Torishima, commented that Goku looked rather plain, so to combat this he added several characters like Kame-Sen'nin and Kuririn, and created the Tenkaichi Budōkai martial arts tournament to focus the storyline on fighting. It was when the first Tenkaichi Budōkai began that ''Dragon Ball'' truly became popular, having recalled the races and tournaments in ''Dr. Slump''. Anticipating that readers would expect Goku to win the tournaments, Toriyama had him lose the first two while planning an eventual victory. This allowed for more character growth as the manga progressed. He said that Muscle Tower in the Red Ribbon Army storyline was inspired by the video game '' Spartan X'' (called ''Kung-Fu Master'' in the West), in which enemies appear very fast as the player ascends a tower (the game was in turn inspired by Jackie Chan's ''Wheels on Meals'' and Bruce Lee's ''Game of Death''). He then created Piccolo Daimao as a truly evil villain, and as a result called that arc the most interesting to draw.

Once Goku and company had become the strongest on Earth, they turned to extraterrestrial opponents including the ; and Goku himself was retconned from an Earthling to a Saiyan who was sent to Earth as a baby. Freeza, who forcibly took over planets to resell them, was created around the time of the Japanese economic bubble and was inspired by real estate speculators, whom Toriyama called the "worst kind of people." Finding the escalating enemies difficult, he created the Ginyu Force to add more balance to the series. When Toriyama created the transformation during the Freeza arc, he was initially concerned that Goku's facial expressions as a Super Saiyan made him look like a villain, but decided it was acceptable since the transformation was brought about by anger. Goku's Super Saiyan form has blonde hair because it was easier to draw for Toriyama's assistant (who spent a lot of time blacking in Goku's hair), and has piercing eyes based on Bruce Lee's paralyzing glare. ''Dragon Ball Z'' anime character designer Tadayoshi Yamamuro also used Bruce Lee as a reference for Goku's Super Saiyan form, stating that, when he "first becomes a Super Saiyan, his slanting pose with that scowling look in his eyes is all Bruce Lee." Toriyama later added time travel during the Cell arc, but said he had a hard time with it, only thinking of what to do that week and having to discuss it with his second editor Yu Kondo. After Cell's death, Toriyama intended for Gohan to replace Goku as the series' protagonist, but later felt the character was not suited for the role and changed his mind.

Going against the normal convention that the strongest characters should be the largest in terms of physical size, he designed many of ''Dragon Ball'' most powerful characters with small statures, including the protagonist, Goku. Toriyama later explained that he had Goku grow up as a means to make drawing fight scenes easier, even though his first editor Kazuhiko Torishima was initially against it because it was rare to have the main character of a manga series change drastically. When including fights in the manga, Toriyama had the characters go to uninhabited locations to avoid difficulties in drawing residents and destroyed buildings. Toriyama said that he did not plan the details of the story, resulting in strange occurrences and discrepancies later in the series, including changing the colors of the characters mid-story and few characters having screentone because he found it difficult to use. Since the completion of ''Dragon Ball'', Toriyama has continued to add to its story, mostly background information on its universe, through guidebooks published by Shueisha.

During the second half of the series, Toriyama has said that he had become more interested in coming up with the story than actually drawing it, and that the battles became more intense with him simplifying the lines. In 2013, he stated that because ''Dragon Ball'' is an action manga the most important aspect is the sense of speed, so he did not draw very elaborate, going so far as to suggest one could say that he was not interested in the art. He also once said that his goal for the series was to tell an "unconventional and contradictory" story. In 2013, commenting on ''Dragon Ball''s global success, Toriyama said, "Frankly, I don't quite understand why it happened. While the manga was being serialized, the only thing I wanted as I kept drawing was to make Japanese boys happy.", "The role of my manga is to be a work of entertainment through and through. I dare say I don't care even if y workshave left nothing behind, as long as they have entertained their readers."

Manga

Written and illustrated by Akira Toriyama, ''Dragon Ball'' was serialized in the manga anthology ''Weekly Shōnen Jump'' from December 3, 1984 to June 5, 1995, when Toriyama grew exhausted and felt he needed a break from drawing. The 519 individual chapters were published into 42 ''tankōbon'' volumes by Shueisha from September 10, 1985 through August 4, 1995. Between December 4, 2002 and April 2, 2004, the chapters were re-released in a collection of 34 '' kanzenban'' volumes, which included a slightly rewritten ending, new covers, and color artwork from its ''Weekly Shōnen Jump'' run. The February 2013 issue of ''V Jump'', which was released in December 2012, announced that parts of the manga will be fully colored and re-released in 2013. Twenty volumes, beginning from chapter 195 and grouped by story arcs, were released between February 4, 2013 and July 4, 2014. Twelve volumes covering the first 194 chapters were published between January 4 and March 4, 2016. A '' sōshūhen'' edition that aims to recreate the manga as it was originally serialized in ''Weekly Shōnen Jump'' with color pages, promotional text, and next chapter previews, was published in eighteen volumes between May 13, 2016 and January 13, 2017.

Spin-offs

Another manga penned by Ōishi, the three-chapter '' Dragon Ball: Episode of Bardock'' that revolves around Bardock, Goku's father, was published in the monthly magazine ''V Jump'' from August and October 2011.

The final chapter of Toriyama's 2013 manga series ''Jaco the Galactic Patrolman'' revealed that it is set before ''Dragon Ball'', with several characters making appearances. ''Jaco'' collected volumes contain a bonus ''Dragon Ball'' chapter depicting Goku's mother.

In December 2016, a spin-off manga titled ''Dragon Ball Side Story: The Case of Being Reincarnated as Yamcha'' began in Shueisha's ''Shōnen Jump+'' digital magazine. Written and illustrated by Dragon Garow Lee, it is about a high school boy who after an accident wakes up in the body of Yamcha in the ''Dragon Ball'' manga.

Crossovers

Toriyama also created a short series, ''Neko Majin'' (1999–2005), that became a self-parody of ''Dragon Ball''. In 2006, a crossover between ''Kochira Katsushika-ku Kameari Kōen-mae Hashutsujo'' (or ''Kochikame'') and ''Dragon Ball'' by Toriyama and ''Kochikame'' author Osamu Akimoto appeared in the manga. That same year, Toriyama teamed up with Eiichiro Oda to create a crossover chapter of ''Dragon Ball'' and ''One Piece'' titled ''Cross Epoch''.

Reception

''Dragon Ball'' is one of the most popular manga series of all time, and it continues to enjoy high readership today. ''Dragon Ball'' is credited as one of the main reasons manga circulation was at its highest between the mid-1980s and mid-1990s. During ''Dragon Ball''s initial run in ''Weekly Shōnen Jump'', the manga magazine reached an average circulation of 6.53million weekly sales, the highest in its history. During ''Dragon Ball''s serialisation between 1984 and 1995, ''Weekly Shōnen Jump'' magazine had a total circulation of over 2.9billion copies, with those issues generating an estimated () in sales revenue.

''Dragon Ball'' also sold a record number of collected ''tankōbon'' volumes for its time. By 2000, more than 126million ''tankōbon'' copies had been sold in Japan alone. It sold over 150million copies in Japan by 2008, making it the best-selling manga ever at the time. By 2012, its sales in Japan had grown to pass 156million, making it the second best-selling ''Weekly Shōnen Jump'' manga of all time, behind ''One Piece''. ''Dragon Ball''s ''tankobon'' volumes sold 159.5million copies in Japan by February 2014, and have sold over 160million copies in Japan as of 2016.

The manga is similarly popular overseas, having been translated and released in over 40countries worldwide. The total number of ''tankōbon'' volumes sold have reached 350million copies worldwide. not including unofficial pirated copies; when including pirated copies, an estimated total of more than 400million official and unofficial copies have been sold worldwide.

For the 10th anniversary of the Japan Media Arts Festival in 2006, Japanese fans voted ''Dragon Ball'' the third greatest manga of all time. In a survey conducted by Oricon in 2007 among 1,000 people, Son Goku, the main character of the franchise, ranked first place as the "Strongest Manga Character of All Time." Goku's journey and his ever-growing strength resulted in the character winning "the admiration of young boys everywhere". Manga artists, such as ''One Piece'' creator Eiichiro Oda and ''Naruto'' creator Masashi Kishimoto, have stated that Goku inspired their series' main protagonists as well as series structure.

Manga critic Jason Thompson stated in 2011 that "''Dragon Ball'' is by far the most influential shonen manga of the last 30 years, and today, almost every ''Shonen Jump'' artist lists it as one of their favorites and lifts from it in various ways." He says the series "turns from a gag/adventure manga to an nearly-pure fighting manga", and its basic formula of "lots of martial arts, lots of training sequences, a few jokes" became the model for other shōnen series, such as ''Naruto''. Thompson also called Toriyama's art influential and cited it as a reason for the series' popularity. James S. Yadao, author of ''The Rough Guide to Manga'', claims that the first several chapters of ''Dragon Ball ''"play out much like ''Saiyuki'' with ''Dr. Slump''-like humour built in" and that ''Dr. Slump'', Toriyama's previous manga, has a clear early influence on the series.Yadao, James S. ''The Rough Guide to Manga''. Penguin Books