Synopsis: Living in the woods all alone, a young monkey-tailed boy named Son Goku spends his days all alone eating and training. His life is suddenly changed forever by the arrival of a teenage girl named Bulma. At first, the two don't hit it off, but Bulma manages to win over the young boy by revealing that she's a girl – something the boy is too naïve to tell on his own – thus reminding him of his grandfather's lesson to always be nice to girls. When the two go back to Goku's place, Goku introduces Bulma to his 'grandfather', which turns out to be a memento of the old man's – a small orange orb with four stars inside of it. Bulma reveals to him that the object is actually called a Dragon Ball. There are seven in total, and in addition to the two she already has, Goku's makes three. When all seven balls are brought together, a Dragon god by the name of Shenlong is summoned and will grant the user any one wish they desire. Already having a wish in mind, Bulma tries to convince Goku to give her his Dragon Ball, but he refuses. Eventually though, she manages to convince him to come along with her to find the remaining balls so that she can borrow his at the end to make a wish (Bulma keeping to herself the secret that the balls will fly away once a wish is granted). The pair set off on a spare capsule motorcycle Bulma had due to Goku wrecking her car earlier, but soon have to make a pitstop for Bulma to use the bathroom. Hearing Bulma's screams, Goku runs in to find her captured by a giant pterodactyl that flys away with the girl in tow. Using both the motorcycle and his nyoibo staff, Goku defeats the pterodactyl, saves Bulma, and all's well that ends well! Save for the fact that Bulma's now peed her panties, that is. Review: While it certainly sets the pace and formula with which a lot of Shonen Jump manga follow suit with their own opening chapters, Dragon Ball still stands tall with the very best of them, even outdoing them in a lot of cases. It's astounding how little 'early story awkwardness' there is in this first chapter in comparison to those that will follow. By and large, the world we're presented with here right at the start feels like the same world we'll still be in by the end of the series, though certain elements will rise while others will falter over time. I mean, let's set aside Goku and Bulma themselves for a moment. You've still got a world with dinosaurs and futuristic technology like the capsules, sitting comfortably right beside talking animals and orbs that can grant wishes. That's the sort of world Dragon Ball is, and it was that way from it's absolute beginning. There wasn't a world here to build, only one to expand, because it's already all right here at the start. You'd almost think Toriyama was a genius mastermind to have crafted all of that right from the very beginning, but in truth? It's likely just the sort of thing he likes, and allows him to tell whatever kind of joke or story comes to his mind, no matter what sort of whim strikes him. And yet, somehow, it just works. That's the beauty of Toriyama's creation. But enough gushing about the world for now. One element of the franchise that does show it's infancy here is the fighting, which you'll notice right away is playing second fiddle to the story and the comedy both. While this only truly lasts for the first arc – starting with the second, fighting will almost always be pretty equally at the forefront along with the story – it is often cited as a reason that a lot of fans discount the earlier half of the story and instead focus solely on the 'Dragon Ball Z' era of the story. In fact, some fans even recommend the series in that manner to new fans in the same vein, “Oh you can just skip Dragon Ball, start with DBZ.” While this is a standpoint that I can't disagree with more (and one that owes something to the out-of-order nature the series was brought over to the US in the first place, but that's a whole other discussion), as skipping out on the original series deprives you of a lot of world building and just plain fun material, I'd be remiss if I wasn't honest. Yes, the earlier portions of this series are decidedly less action-packed than basically everything else in it. That said though, if all you come to Dragon Ball for is JUST the action? You're missing out, honestly. Now let's bring back in those characters that I set aside earlier, Goku and Bulma. There's not as much to say about them right now as what I'll have to say as the series goes on, but there is a few things I want to note with them, as the story presents them at this point in their lives. In this opening act, Goku is at his most reserved. We see that he has a lot of strength and even more naivety about the world around him, but that's about all there is to him at this point. He lacks the sort of drive to better himself and to fight strong opponents that are hallmarks of his character, sometimes to a detriment, later on. There's every possibility that if Bulma hadn't happened across him in the woods, he would have lived out his entire life on that mountain top, just doing basic exercises and hunting for food, never venturing out any further than he needed to, and never seeing the big wide world – much less the universe and beyond – around him. He's almost unrecognizable when you stop and think about it. And part of that is how the story itself functions at this point, but I'll touch on that later on. In the case of Bulma however, she's already very much in line with how her character will be for much of the rest of the series. She's more selfish than she'll grow to be later on, but she's already a genius far beyond her years, and she's already developed an extremely high opinion of herself. Even when she's using her body to try to get what she wants, it almost comes across less as 'you're a guy, of course you're perverted' and more 'I'm such a babe, how could you NOT want this'. Speaking of Bulma's body – I swear there's a point here – the level of nudity and sexual humor already present in just this first chapter alone merits a brief mention as well. Another aspect that sets this early part of the series apart from it's later portions is the level of raunchy material within it's pages. We'll see more of it as we go on, and a lot of it is definitely dated, and the sort of thing you couldn't get away with as easily in the pages of Jump nowadays. Whether that sort of thing is your cup of tea or not will definitely increase or decrease your enjoyment of these earlier chapters, so be forewarned. For myself? I love me some pervy humor when it's done well, and Toriyama's certainly a master of it. I've spoken quite a bit about elements that will come into play later because this chapter sets it all up, but let's talk a little more about this chapter itself for a moment, as there are a few interesting things that are in it's pages alone. Firstly, while a lot of people remember that Bulma's the first girl Goku ever meets, a lot of people seem to gloss over entirely his statement that she's the first human PERIOD that he's ever met, not counting his late grandfather. Am I the only one that finds that just a little bit weird? Gohan must leave the mountain to go shopping for things they can't get otherwise on some occasions surely, so why did he never take Goku with him? Then again, Gohan doesn't own a car since Goku's never seen one of those either, so maybe Gohan's lifestyle really is even more hermit-like than I imagine. It's also interesting to note that Bulma mentions having to do research about the Dragon Balls to even figure out what they were, but we never get any details on exactly what that research entailed. I'd assume it was looking through a bunch of old books until she found one that detailed the legend, but she even knows about them splitting up once the wish is granted – that's one heck of a first-hand account she stumbled across. Phew. There was quite a bit more to say on this first chapter than I thought, even if most of it is stuff I can only say by virtue of already being intimately familiar with the series. Following reviews may be a good deal shorter except for chapters with big events in them, but we'll cross those bridges when we get to them. Until next time! Favorite Panel: Next Time: *singing* Gotta find those MISSING BALLS!
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About the AuthorAspiring author and big anime/manga fan, just trying to do my best in the world. For more details, go to About Me. Archives
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