Dragon Ball by Akira Toriyama

Dragon Ball by Akira Toriyama

Goodreads Synopsis
Meet a naive young monkey-tailed boy named Goku, whose quiet life changes when he meets a girl named Bulma who is on a quest to collect seven "Dragon Balls." If she gathers them all, an incredibly powerful dragon will appear and grant her one wish. But the precious orbs are scattered all over the world, and Bulma needs Goku's help (and his super-strength)! So begins the adventure of a lifetime...

It's been a fun ride and thanks so much for sticking out the Dragon Ball series with me and my reviews! Hopefully they made you consider picking up Dragon Ball, or even another manga, and giving it a shot. It is a wonderful medium and one that should be more widespread. While this review covers the entire series, the covers I chose to feature are my favourites from the series!

The beginning half of the series was all about world building and establishing the type of setting that Goku and company would be in for the series. There is lots of action and adventure coupled with comedy and some crushing defeats. But there is nothing Goku can't do, especially when he works with his friends to try and overcome evil. While he is fairly naive, he has a good moral compass and ensures that everything he is doing is for the good of those around him and not just himself.

There are many complex and diverse characters that make each scene fun and dynamic. I already know that we see the majority of them in Dragon Ball Z. It was such a fun ride to see the characters go from children to adults over the course of the series and learn not only how to handle adversity but also to thrive in conflict. While everyone got physically stronger, they also learned how to get emotionally stronger, all thanks to Goku and his unwavering heart.

There were some sagas I didn't enjoy as much as others, but the last half of the series really picked up the pace again and had a fairly dark turn that made it so much more interesting to me. However, the comedic parts were where Toriyama was in his element and I was laughing out loud at some points of the series.

Overall: 4.5/5 for this series because while it was great overall, there were some parts that lagged to me. But not enough that it will ever discourage me from picking up the series over and over again.