My Manga Journal (Retrospective #127): Dragon Ball
Written & Illustrated by Akira Toriyama
Score: 9
Geez, where do I even start with this? Is there even anything I can say about Dragon Ball that hasn’t been said ad nauseum by anime historians and video essayists the world over? What started off as a fight-happy monkey boy and his adventures with the wish-granting Dragon Balls has become one of the biggest anime and manga franchises of all time, one so big that even non-fans looking in will know what Dragon Ball is.
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I suppose I should start by saying that anyone who’s only really experienced the anime or just gained some second-hand knowledge from other fans should toss out all of their preconceptions of the series immediately. The Dragon Ball manga is a completely different experience from the anime, even if they cover the same story beats. The anime was a faithful adaptation with minimal filler, but in order to achieve that they were forced to drag out short scenes and pad out episodes, making rewatches sluggish and painful. The manga, however, is lightning fast, so fast that it’s almost ironic considering the anime’s reputation as a bit of a slog.
Part of that speed comes from the impeccable readability of the manga. Hours of analysis have been done on Akira Toriyama’s incredible paneling and page flow, but the fact is you won’t realize just how much this affects your reading experience until you’ve read through it yourself. Panels flow into each other naturally, and you never spend more than half a second deciphering the fight scenes. It’s honestly the series’ strongest point.
The art itself is another incredible aspect of the series. By now, Toriyama’s art style is easily recognizable, but even when it was coming out Toriyama’s work was so distinctive that you could never mistake it for anyone else’s. Of course, there are a lot of people who have been able to mimic Toriyama’s work over the years (including Toyotaro, the mangaka behind Dragon Ball Super), but none have managed to take influence from his artstyle and make it their own, a sign of someone with true artistic genius. It’s also effortlessly timeless; Dragon Ball came out during the same era as Fist of the North Star and City Hunter, but looks considerably less aged than those two do.
As a final word, I want to say that Dragon Ball really is one of the best manga out there, but if you insist on “best” meaning “mature, thought-provoking, and philosophical”, you’ll never understand that. You have to allow Dragon Ball to do what it does best, which is be a silly, goofy, sometimes stupid fantasy manga with lots of high-intensity action and lowbrow comedy. It has flaws — any story does — but its best moments are some of the best in storytelling, period.
Originally published at http://talesfromsquareone.wordpress.com on June 11, 2026.
