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Dragon Ball #6
Dragon Ball Z, Vol. 1
The ultimate science fiction martial arts manga – and one of the best-selling series of all time –
Dragon Ball Z
is the second half of Toriyama’s touchstone saga,
Dragon Ball
. After years of training and adventure, Son Goku has become Earth’s ultimate warrior, and his son, Gohan, shows even greater promise. But the strikes are increasing as even deadlier enemies threaten the planet – and means non-stop action! The VIZBIG edition of Dragon Ball Z contains volumes 1-3, bonus color content and updated text.
Son Goku is the greatest hero on Earth. Five years after defeating the demon king Piccolo, he's grown up and had a family--he's married, and he has a child, Son Gohan. But what is the real reason for Goku's incredible strength? A visitor from outer space arrives bearing terrible news--Goku is an alien, and the visitor, Raditz, is Goku's brother! When Raditz turns out to be a ruthless killer, Goku must fight his incredibly strong brother to save his family and the entire human race. A surprising alliance may be Earth's last hope: Goku will team up with his old enemy Piccolo...archenemies united to save the world!
Son Goku is the greatest hero on Earth. Five years after defeating the demon king Piccolo, he's grown up and had a family--he's married, and he has a child, Son Gohan. But what is the real reason for Goku's incredible strength? A visitor from outer space arrives bearing terrible news--Goku is an alien, and the visitor, Raditz, is Goku's brother! When Raditz turns out to be a ruthless killer, Goku must fight his incredibly strong brother to save his family and the entire human race. A surprising alliance may be Earth's last hope: Goku will team up with his old enemy Piccolo...archenemies united to save the world!
528 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1984
28 people are currently reading
649 people want to read
About the author
Akira Toriyama
1,919 books1,727 followersAkira Toriyama (鳥山明) was a Japanese manga artist and character designer. He first achieved mainstream recognition for creating the popular manga series Dr. Slump, before going on to create Dragon Ball (his most famous work) and acting as a character designer for several popular video games such as the Dragon Quest series, Chrono Trigger, and Blue Dragon. Toriyama came to be regarded as one of the most important authors in the history of manga with his works highly influential and popular, particularly Dragon Ball, which many manga artists cite as a source of inspiration.
He earned the 1981 Shogakukan Manga Award for best shōnen/shōjo manga with Dr. Slump, and it went on to sell over 35 million copies in Japan. It was adapted into a successful anime series, with a second anime created in 1997, 13 years after the manga ended.
His next series, Dragon Ball, would become one of the most popular and successful manga in the world. Having sold 260 million copies worldwide, it is one of the best-selling manga series of all time and is considered a key work in increasing manga circulation to its peak in the mid-1980s and mid-1990s. Overseas, Dragon Ball's anime adaptations have been more successful than the manga and are credited with boosting anime's popularity in the Western world. In 2019, Toriyama was decorated a Chevalier of the French Ordre des Arts et des Lettres for his contributions to the arts.
In October 2024, Toriyama was inducted into the Harvey Awards Hall of Fame.
He earned the 1981 Shogakukan Manga Award for best shōnen/shōjo manga with Dr. Slump, and it went on to sell over 35 million copies in Japan. It was adapted into a successful anime series, with a second anime created in 1997, 13 years after the manga ended.
His next series, Dragon Ball, would become one of the most popular and successful manga in the world. Having sold 260 million copies worldwide, it is one of the best-selling manga series of all time and is considered a key work in increasing manga circulation to its peak in the mid-1980s and mid-1990s. Overseas, Dragon Ball's anime adaptations have been more successful than the manga and are credited with boosting anime's popularity in the Western world. In 2019, Toriyama was decorated a Chevalier of the French Ordre des Arts et des Lettres for his contributions to the arts.
In October 2024, Toriyama was inducted into the Harvey Awards Hall of Fame.
Ratings & Reviews
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 72 reviews
May 1, 2024
An absolute classic, Dragon Ball Z is just as fun and action-packed as I remembered. Capturing the majority of the Saiyan Saga in one omnibus, it remains a fantastic introduction that establishes the time skip and most of the main characters. The tropes are all ticked and well executed, and the opening story has been a joy to experience again.
October 18, 2015
I loved reading this! I WANT MORE. The artwork is so, so, so beautiful and amazing! The story is epic!
March 20, 2024
Piccolo isn’t the stepdad but the dad that stepped up
March 6, 2023
I know its foundation is toxic, but the father son relationship between son gohan and piccolo is everything
January 4, 2022
I’ve been a die hard fan of Dragon Ball Z for as far back as I can remember. My childhood was defined by Goku, Vegeta and Piccolo. I became a father last year and spent a lot of my sleepless nights in those first few weeks rewatching the series while holding my son. That’s to say it’s still very fresh in my mind and even if it were not I could still have probably recited the entire series from memory with very few mistakes.
So what’s the point? Well I guess I’d just wondered how much value would I find in reading the manga of a tv series I know so well. Turns out…quite a bit. For one the artwork is just absolutely gorgeous to look at. In black and white it’s beautiful but the few sections in color are really something.
The dialogue between characters is also far more snappy. It feels more like real people talking and less of “as you know…” style exposition speak. There are also little extra details in the manga opposed to the show. You wouldn’t think they’d change much but they really kind of flesh the world out. For one Piccolo is much more harsh to Gohan and stays harsh for much longer. This makes his eventual change of heart feel far more earned. Also the scene where Vegeta and Nappa talk over the potential threat of human/Saiyan hybrids after reviewing Radditz’s battle. It makes me wonder why they wouldn’t at the very least discuss how their nearly extinct race can actually breed with aliens. I mean…that’s kind of a big deal. Like I said: little things but they add so much.
The biggest improvement is controlling the pacing. There is no filler unlike the anime. The manga is all meat. This one volume covers the start of the series to nearly the end of the Saiyan saga. Quite a lot compared to the show.
I can easily recommend this to a Dragon Ball Z fan. Even if you know the show inside and out. I don’t know if I’ll have something to say for each volume I read going forward. I plan to stick with the series at least up to the Buu saga. I’ll probably just drop a number score going forward unless I have something very specific to complain about or praise.
So what’s the point? Well I guess I’d just wondered how much value would I find in reading the manga of a tv series I know so well. Turns out…quite a bit. For one the artwork is just absolutely gorgeous to look at. In black and white it’s beautiful but the few sections in color are really something.
The dialogue between characters is also far more snappy. It feels more like real people talking and less of “as you know…” style exposition speak. There are also little extra details in the manga opposed to the show. You wouldn’t think they’d change much but they really kind of flesh the world out. For one Piccolo is much more harsh to Gohan and stays harsh for much longer. This makes his eventual change of heart feel far more earned. Also the scene where Vegeta and Nappa talk over the potential threat of human/Saiyan hybrids after reviewing Radditz’s battle. It makes me wonder why they wouldn’t at the very least discuss how their nearly extinct race can actually breed with aliens. I mean…that’s kind of a big deal. Like I said: little things but they add so much.
The biggest improvement is controlling the pacing. There is no filler unlike the anime. The manga is all meat. This one volume covers the start of the series to nearly the end of the Saiyan saga. Quite a lot compared to the show.
I can easily recommend this to a Dragon Ball Z fan. Even if you know the show inside and out. I don’t know if I’ll have something to say for each volume I read going forward. I plan to stick with the series at least up to the Buu saga. I’ll probably just drop a number score going forward unless I have something very specific to complain about or praise.
December 11, 2022
In the interest of saving a little bit of money, I bought a pre-owned copy of this volume that was really falling apart....
I've said this before, and I'll say it again, and I guess I'll never stop saying it: it's just impossible to reconcile this era of the manga with everything that came before it. The entire manga is called Dragon Ball, with the "Z" thing being Toei's way to show the tonal shift when adapting to animation. I'll continue to call the manga by its proper name rather than the faulty distinction made in VIZ's localization, but... DBZ really is its own thing compared to the events of the manga before Raditz's arrival.
Like many Americans, I'm actually far more used to Dragon Ball starting here, as a result of the Ocean Group's early English dub in the mid-'90s. I'm so used to Raditz and Nappa being completely irrelevant immediately upon the start of the Namek Arc, and Vegeta's shift into an ally essentially overriding the significance of Yamcha or Tenshinhan, so I sometimes forget how "edgy" the Saiyajin Arc really is. Yamcha has been a "jobber" since the very first Tenkaichi Budoukai we've seen, so it's not a surprise he gets his ass beaten here, but it is fucked up he dies in such a pitiful way, and to a piece of shit enemy that's functionally the same concept as Drum or Cymbal from the Piccolo Daimaou Arc. Then we have Tenshinhan get an arm cut off, an example of brutality extremely rare for human characters in the rest of the manga. Then Chaozu fuckin' suicide-bombs Nappa, to minimal effect. And then Ten finally shows the fatal side-effects of using the Kikouhou. Piccolo dying probably isn't so "edgy," as it's more a heroic sacrifice and important character development, whereas the other deaths were basically just to showcase how strong the new foes are.
Probably the most important thing here is the excuse of having Son Goku train with Kaiō-sama for a while, as it forces the "weaker" characters to keep throwing themselves against the wall that is Nappa, building hype for when Goku finally returns, and we can see just how much stronger he's become by how easily he takes care of Nappa after almost everyone died trying. More or less the same thing will happen on Namek, twice (against the Ginyu Tokusentai, then against Freeza), and it's always cool - mercifully, the "trope" isn't reused too much afterward.
It's interesting to read this after having seen the new film, Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero, as the introduction of Son Gohan and his subsequent training under Piccolo will continue to be a mainstay of the franchise forevermore. Gohan's big thing is an absurd potential strength lying dormant for ages, to be summoned partially by the Namek Elder, then more thoroughly later by the Old Kaiōshin, with the latter laying the groundwork for Gohan's latest transformation, basically playing on the same rage-as-strength seen all the way back here when Gohan pops out of the space-pod to headbutt Raditz. And of course we know Vegeta will become Son Goku's eternal rival and closest ally, and the two full-blooded Saiyajin will reach such heights of power that no other heroes will be anywhere close to them, meaning necessarily Gohan and Piccolo are stuck in a distant second-tier despite Gohan's Super Saiyajin 2 and Ultimate upgrades having temporarily placed him in the #1 spot for a bit.
It's interesting as well to see Kuririn use the Kienzan, as this will become one of the most significant moves for the rest of the franchise, with Freeza using a variant, Kuririn's future wife does it (but I can't remember if she did it in canon), Goku uses it in Super, I think there's more but I'm brainfarting right now.
There are a couple times where Nappa powers up and seems to have electricity around his body, which is odd because that will become a trait for Super Saiyajin 2 and 3 much later, and I'm quite sure no Saiyajin will show electricity except in the cases of those transformations. It reminds me of the apocryphal belief that Lunch was abandoned in the manga because her sneezes clash with the blond hair of the Super Saiyajin form, or how people often joke that Raditz gets swept under the rug because he cannot be resurrected as an ally and go Super Saiyajin 1 without clashing with the design for SS3....
I also kind of wanted to note how it's made clear here that Muten Roshi has been surpassed by his pupils and it's more worthwhile for God and Mr. Popo to train fucking Yajirobe than for the Turtle Hermit to join the fight against Nappa and Raditz... despite Super making it so Kame-Sennin can catch up to a level close to Kuririn and Ten, if not actually quite a ways higher, at least in a time when Gohan is still out of practice and inferior to the Jinzouningen twins (though, in fairness, #17 was made one of the top four fighters of the main heroes in that same arc...).
I've said this before, and I'll say it again, and I guess I'll never stop saying it: it's just impossible to reconcile this era of the manga with everything that came before it. The entire manga is called Dragon Ball, with the "Z" thing being Toei's way to show the tonal shift when adapting to animation. I'll continue to call the manga by its proper name rather than the faulty distinction made in VIZ's localization, but... DBZ really is its own thing compared to the events of the manga before Raditz's arrival.
Like many Americans, I'm actually far more used to Dragon Ball starting here, as a result of the Ocean Group's early English dub in the mid-'90s. I'm so used to Raditz and Nappa being completely irrelevant immediately upon the start of the Namek Arc, and Vegeta's shift into an ally essentially overriding the significance of Yamcha or Tenshinhan, so I sometimes forget how "edgy" the Saiyajin Arc really is. Yamcha has been a "jobber" since the very first Tenkaichi Budoukai we've seen, so it's not a surprise he gets his ass beaten here, but it is fucked up he dies in such a pitiful way, and to a piece of shit enemy that's functionally the same concept as Drum or Cymbal from the Piccolo Daimaou Arc. Then we have Tenshinhan get an arm cut off, an example of brutality extremely rare for human characters in the rest of the manga. Then Chaozu fuckin' suicide-bombs Nappa, to minimal effect. And then Ten finally shows the fatal side-effects of using the Kikouhou. Piccolo dying probably isn't so "edgy," as it's more a heroic sacrifice and important character development, whereas the other deaths were basically just to showcase how strong the new foes are.
Probably the most important thing here is the excuse of having Son Goku train with Kaiō-sama for a while, as it forces the "weaker" characters to keep throwing themselves against the wall that is Nappa, building hype for when Goku finally returns, and we can see just how much stronger he's become by how easily he takes care of Nappa after almost everyone died trying. More or less the same thing will happen on Namek, twice (against the Ginyu Tokusentai, then against Freeza), and it's always cool - mercifully, the "trope" isn't reused too much afterward.
It's interesting to read this after having seen the new film, Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero, as the introduction of Son Gohan and his subsequent training under Piccolo will continue to be a mainstay of the franchise forevermore. Gohan's big thing is an absurd potential strength lying dormant for ages, to be summoned partially by the Namek Elder, then more thoroughly later by the Old Kaiōshin, with the latter laying the groundwork for Gohan's latest transformation, basically playing on the same rage-as-strength seen all the way back here when Gohan pops out of the space-pod to headbutt Raditz. And of course we know Vegeta will become Son Goku's eternal rival and closest ally, and the two full-blooded Saiyajin will reach such heights of power that no other heroes will be anywhere close to them, meaning necessarily Gohan and Piccolo are stuck in a distant second-tier despite Gohan's Super Saiyajin 2 and Ultimate upgrades having temporarily placed him in the #1 spot for a bit.
It's interesting as well to see Kuririn use the Kienzan, as this will become one of the most significant moves for the rest of the franchise, with Freeza using a variant, Kuririn's future wife does it (but I can't remember if she did it in canon), Goku uses it in Super, I think there's more but I'm brainfarting right now.
There are a couple times where Nappa powers up and seems to have electricity around his body, which is odd because that will become a trait for Super Saiyajin 2 and 3 much later, and I'm quite sure no Saiyajin will show electricity except in the cases of those transformations. It reminds me of the apocryphal belief that Lunch was abandoned in the manga because her sneezes clash with the blond hair of the Super Saiyajin form, or how people often joke that Raditz gets swept under the rug because he cannot be resurrected as an ally and go Super Saiyajin 1 without clashing with the design for SS3....
I also kind of wanted to note how it's made clear here that Muten Roshi has been surpassed by his pupils and it's more worthwhile for God and Mr. Popo to train fucking Yajirobe than for the Turtle Hermit to join the fight against Nappa and Raditz... despite Super making it so Kame-Sennin can catch up to a level close to Kuririn and Ten, if not actually quite a ways higher, at least in a time when Gohan is still out of practice and inferior to the Jinzouningen twins (though, in fairness, #17 was made one of the top four fighters of the main heroes in that same arc...).
May 11, 2024
My first foray into the world of Manga couldn’t have gone better. This gave me a whole new appreciation for the TV show. It may be one of the best adaptations of any written material I’ve ever seen — just not as bloody or violent.
Not a huge fan of the sudden halt ending, but omg I can’t wait to pick up volume 2. Kame Hame Ha!
Not a huge fan of the sudden halt ending, but omg I can’t wait to pick up volume 2. Kame Hame Ha!
Read
January 1, 2021yay
March 6, 2024
What a great experience! After having only watched the bits and pieces of the anime, all dependent on if I got home in time in elementary school, I finally am reading this masterpiece!
Read
December 1, 2019it was good and dramatic and I could not get my eyes out of the pages
March 10, 2017
The book "Dragon Ball Z Vol.1" by Akira Toriyama is about Goku an alien called a Sayian who was sent from space to a planet called earth and his soul purpose was destroy the earth but ended up being the earths greatest hero. After Gokus home planet was destroyed there were 4 saiyians remaining and one of them being Gokus brother Raditz that he had no idea about. Raditz came to earth to try to reunite his brother Goku with the remaining Sayians. But Goku had other plans Raditz had a far great power level so Goku got unexpected help from a mystery character. Also Raditz was not their biggest problem the other 2 Sayians had farther greater powers from Raditz. Who wins the fight and how do the other two Sayains respond? Overall this book was a great book to enjoy and take a break from life because It has action, a bit of comedy and crazy. It's PG13 so everyone can read it. I recommend this book to anybody because any reading level will understand this book and it's overall just a fun book to read. The best character to enjoy from this book is Goku because he can teach people life lessons. No matter how tough the situations get and if they seem impossible he will always find a way to over come it and that relates with me because I face tough challenges in the water everyday and Goku helps me get through it because I imagine that he was in 1000 times worse situations than me so I can imagine to my self that what I am doing is very easy even though it's not. I hope you enjoy this book and learn a few life lessons.
May 17, 2022
I didn't know what to expect. This was my first manga. I loved the series when I was a kid, but it's been decades since I had seen or read anything Dragon Ball related, so I wasn't sure if I would still like it, but I did. It was funny, and a different feel and experience from what I remember of the series. It was a nice distraction from our world on fire and falling apart. I am looking forward to reading more of them.
January 24, 2010
It is good book, even though comics, but it tell me a lot about how to over come the problem.
July 20, 2019
Thrilling!!
May 17, 2023
Dragon Ball is a manga series by Akira Toriyama and collected in 42 tankobon or graphic novel volumes. It is licensed by Viz Media primarily for the North American English-speaking market and divided in two phases. The first phase of the series, the adventures of a young Goku, is branded as Dragon Ball. The second phase is named Dragon Ball Z and demarcated by the 5-year time skip that lead to Goku marrying and having a child named Gohan.
This actually reflected how the anime for the series was produced. When it came to animate the time skip stories, the title Dragon Ball Z was used because a new production staff came in to take the reins. The story became very popular in North America as an anime, and when the time came to localize the manga, it used the same title convention to ride on the popularity of the anime.
This Viz Big Edition is a "wideban" format that collects the original graphic novels in 3 per volume. That is convenient for the collector, less books to collect, if you didn't for the box sets already. This larger format is in better paper than the tankobon newsprint, and even comes with full color chapters. This is my preferred format for enjoying this series. The author's clean line art really pops with the better paper and larger trim size.
Volume 1 sets the new post time skip status quo, Goku now has a kid and his mother would not allow her precious Gohan to follow the path of the fighter that Goku underwent in the first phase of the series. Then the author switches from the fantasy elements of the earlier stories to a science fiction milleu, as an alien invader totally wipes the floor of Earth's most powerful fighters. It took Goku's sacrifice to defeat the invader. Goku is dead, and that is just the first volume. Don't get whiplash.
Volume 2 is mostly a training arc to prepare for the coming of two alien warriors even more powerful than the first one. These warriors are called Saiyans, and Goku is one of them. This gives Goku a new element to his backstory, which was already based on the mythical Monkey King. It mirrors Superman origin. Goku may not be the last son of his world like Kal-El, but after this arc, there could be only one left and it won't necessarily be him.
Volume 3 is the battle you were waiting for after those first two volumes. The two invaders show how power creep totally rendered the most powerful fighters from the earlier stories into cannon fodder. There's a new power system in town, and it's time for new villains.
This actually reflected how the anime for the series was produced. When it came to animate the time skip stories, the title Dragon Ball Z was used because a new production staff came in to take the reins. The story became very popular in North America as an anime, and when the time came to localize the manga, it used the same title convention to ride on the popularity of the anime.
This Viz Big Edition is a "wideban" format that collects the original graphic novels in 3 per volume. That is convenient for the collector, less books to collect, if you didn't for the box sets already. This larger format is in better paper than the tankobon newsprint, and even comes with full color chapters. This is my preferred format for enjoying this series. The author's clean line art really pops with the better paper and larger trim size.
Volume 1 sets the new post time skip status quo, Goku now has a kid and his mother would not allow her precious Gohan to follow the path of the fighter that Goku underwent in the first phase of the series. Then the author switches from the fantasy elements of the earlier stories to a science fiction milleu, as an alien invader totally wipes the floor of Earth's most powerful fighters. It took Goku's sacrifice to defeat the invader. Goku is dead, and that is just the first volume. Don't get whiplash.
Volume 2 is mostly a training arc to prepare for the coming of two alien warriors even more powerful than the first one. These warriors are called Saiyans, and Goku is one of them. This gives Goku a new element to his backstory, which was already based on the mythical Monkey King. It mirrors Superman origin. Goku may not be the last son of his world like Kal-El, but after this arc, there could be only one left and it won't necessarily be him.
Volume 3 is the battle you were waiting for after those first two volumes. The two invaders show how power creep totally rendered the most powerful fighters from the earlier stories into cannon fodder. There's a new power system in town, and it's time for new villains.
August 21, 2023
Dragon Ball Z begins with Son Goku and his son Son Gohan visiting Master Roshi, who taught Son Goku how to fight. Son Gohan has never learned combat, because Chi Chi, Son Goku’s wife and Son Gohan’s mother, has forbidden it, as she has determined her son should be a a scholar. It seems that the universe has different plans for Son Gohan.
An alien lands on Earth, who turns out to be Son Goku’s brother, and he is furious at Son Goku for going soft and rails at him for not conquering the planet and denuding it of humans. With the help of his buddies and his enemy Piccolo, Son Goku manages to defeat his brother. However, he is sure that there will be retaliation.
When Son Goku and Son Gohan are separated and Piccolo takes the role of training Son Goku, it is unclear whether Piccolo will have the compassion and patience to train such a young child.
Meanwhile, Son Goku has his own training to do, while his friends recover the Dragon Balls. Together, friends and enemies must combine their efforts to save the planet and all human kind.
The volume has some odd moments, including some potty humor that would please my three and six year olds. There is also death, fighting, aliens, and revenge. The book certainly fits the bill of interesting and entertaining.
Would I teach this book? I suppose if there were some sort of class specifically about manga or creating characters for CCGs, I would consider it. Since I have only read this volume, it would be difficult for me to say whether or not it represents the rest of the series. I am not wild about this genre, but if my students were very interested in discussing it, I would teach it.
An alien lands on Earth, who turns out to be Son Goku’s brother, and he is furious at Son Goku for going soft and rails at him for not conquering the planet and denuding it of humans. With the help of his buddies and his enemy Piccolo, Son Goku manages to defeat his brother. However, he is sure that there will be retaliation.
When Son Goku and Son Gohan are separated and Piccolo takes the role of training Son Goku, it is unclear whether Piccolo will have the compassion and patience to train such a young child.
Meanwhile, Son Goku has his own training to do, while his friends recover the Dragon Balls. Together, friends and enemies must combine their efforts to save the planet and all human kind.
The volume has some odd moments, including some potty humor that would please my three and six year olds. There is also death, fighting, aliens, and revenge. The book certainly fits the bill of interesting and entertaining.
Would I teach this book? I suppose if there were some sort of class specifically about manga or creating characters for CCGs, I would consider it. Since I have only read this volume, it would be difficult for me to say whether or not it represents the rest of the series. I am not wild about this genre, but if my students were very interested in discussing it, I would teach it.
December 7, 2022
My husband introduced me to the Dragon Ball Z anime earlier this year, and I quickly grew to love the story and characters. Beneath the quirky, whacky aesthetic is a story with so much heart and sincerity. Of course when I saw this volume of the manga at the book store I had to pick it up and give the show’s source material a try.
The show, despite its filler content, is very faithful to the manga, based on what I have read so far. So everything I love is present in both. The endearing cast of characters. The terrifying villains. The excellent build up of tension to climactic battles. The careful foreshadowing.
While I knew going in what was going to happen in the story, I still couldn’t put this volume down. I enjoyed reading the story with its intended pacing (without the filler) and tighter dialogue. The art is so rich with detail and could convey so much emotion with just the character’s facial expressions.
This was a delight to read, and I can’t for volume 2 of the set to arrive in the mail!
The show, despite its filler content, is very faithful to the manga, based on what I have read so far. So everything I love is present in both. The endearing cast of characters. The terrifying villains. The excellent build up of tension to climactic battles. The careful foreshadowing.
While I knew going in what was going to happen in the story, I still couldn’t put this volume down. I enjoyed reading the story with its intended pacing (without the filler) and tighter dialogue. The art is so rich with detail and could convey so much emotion with just the character’s facial expressions.
This was a delight to read, and I can’t for volume 2 of the set to arrive in the mail!
February 27, 2023
The main conflict of the Saiyan Saga is the Z Fighters (Piccolo, Goku, Krillin, Tien, Yamcha, Chiaotzu, Master Roshi, Gohan) vs Nappa and Vegeta. The Saiyans have come to Earth in search of the Dragon Balls that they heard about over their scouters from Bulma accidentally. Their plan is to gather the Balls and wish for immortality and sell Earth to the highest bidder. Piccolo states “We’ll need his power against the two Saiyans who will be here within the year…” This conflict is 100% Man Vs Man as Goku is fighting against Vegeta, Nappa, and Raditz. I know the end of the conflict, but since it technically hasn’t happened in the book, I’ll simply leave off here for now.
March 5, 2023
Of course this book was going to be five stars. I mean I rate almost all the books I read 5 stars, that is not the point.
This book is so nostalgic for me. I grew up watching Dragon Ball Z Kai and loved it so why would the manga be any different. It is so cool to see the details the anime took from the manga and the extra details in the manga. Though some of the names are different in the manga compared to the English dub of the anime. The scene when Goku and Vegeta fly to rocky desert to fight, omg. The DBZ Kai opening perfectly replicated that panel. I love it.
If you couldn’t tell I loved this book.
This book is so nostalgic for me. I grew up watching Dragon Ball Z Kai and loved it so why would the manga be any different. It is so cool to see the details the anime took from the manga and the extra details in the manga. Though some of the names are different in the manga compared to the English dub of the anime. The scene when Goku and Vegeta fly to rocky desert to fight, omg. The DBZ Kai opening perfectly replicated that panel. I love it.
If you couldn’t tell I loved this book.
October 6, 2022
I love this book it was my first and favorite anime of all time the series. This was so good and although it was old it had such great pictures and love into it that it gives us nostalgia. If i was to scream so loud and wanted to go super saiyan and do the kamehameha at each other but it didn't work. No anime can beat it but Naruto shippudden was really similar to dragon ball z so i also loved that but still the anime. Nowadays no anime have no comparison compared to the action and nostalgia dragon ball gave us and it shall always remain a beautiful anime.
July 23, 2023
I get it and it works and now I understand more about the Dragonball Z / Dragonball world but I don't love it as much as others and it's likely because I wasn't riding the wave of fame and popularity when it first hit so many years ago because I love some of the newer manga more.
My son had me read it since he's been making his way through manga, new and old.
There's cool action sequences and entertaining humor. And our main character and his son and now meeting an alien brother but he's looking to save the human race.
My son had me read it since he's been making his way through manga, new and old.
There's cool action sequences and entertaining humor. And our main character and his son and now meeting an alien brother but he's looking to save the human race.
March 9, 2025
This collects most of the Saiyan Saga all the way up to right as Goku and Vegeta start fighting, which is admittedly a really odd cutting off point. What is there to say? The Saiyan Saga is arguably the most iconic and recognizable period in the entire franchise. I’d say about 90% percent of Dragon Ball fans (in the West) were introduced to this story through this arc. Time to move onto Goku vs. Vegeta next volume!
May 30, 2025
Had a lot of fun reading this in an afternoon! It makes sense why it's a beloved classic in the manga world, and I've only read the first three volumes! Definitely will invest in more 3-in-1 editions, worth it!
Definitely a recommended read if you're new to manga/anime, a timeless classic for most ages! May Sensei Toriyama rest in peace 🙏
Definitely a recommended read if you're new to manga/anime, a timeless classic for most ages! May Sensei Toriyama rest in peace 🙏
July 1, 2025
Starting from raditz appearing to the fight between goku and vegeta, this was awesome as is expected. Brings me back to my childhood waiting every week to see the new episode (or what I thought was new at the time). Great story of course and the training and buildup to the saiyans arriving is great too.
5/5
5/5
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
June 15, 2021
This is so much easier to read dragon ball than to watch the episodes or seasons because
🐉 ball z vizbig volume has 9
🐲 ball vizbig volume has 5
💐And dragon ball super has 15 volume so yeah is going to be easy to finish it
But I love dragon ball and the characters with all my heart ❤️
🐉 ball z vizbig volume has 9
🐲 ball vizbig volume has 5
💐And dragon ball super has 15 volume so yeah is going to be easy to finish it
But I love dragon ball and the characters with all my heart ❤️
July 3, 2023
I’ve read these first couple of volumes multiple times but I always love coming back to them. Dragon ball is the only manga and anime that has ever really interested me to the point that I’ve wanted to finish the entire series. I just love the characters so much, and the art style is so cute 🥺🥺
June 1, 2017
Old but still AWESOME!
September 27, 2017
BEST MANGA EVERR
December 16, 2018
Great book if you watched the show you will love this. no filler. Best series ever
December 17, 2018
I like dragon ball z its better then flex tape
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