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8 of 8 found the following review helpful:
 The start of a legend...and uncensored, too!Oct 10, 2003
By Julian Grybowski
When I first wrote a review for this book's first-edition all of two years ago, I reported that this volume, for all its effort in getting a (mostly) true-to-the-original version of the Dragon Ball manga to US audiences, was unfortunately censored. However, as of a year ago (so I'm a little late with this rewrite here...), this is no longer the case.Physically, the book is somewhat larger than its Japanese counterpart, measuring at roughly 12 by 18 centimeters. When these books first came out, they were done as their own franchise, and as such were printed in a different (and larger) format, but have since been incorporated into the "Shonen Jump" line of graphic novels. The cover art remained the same, but the book was shrunk down (not the pages, mind you, just the height and width) to the version you see here. Content-wise, this is basically the same as it was in the comic book form (waaaay back 5 years ago as of this writing). All text and sound effects are redrawn in English, but left in their right-to-left format, as with all of Viz's Shonen Jump comics. As I metioned before, this volume is indeed uncensored, and all of the dirty jokes are left in (so all you sukebes should rejoice). Overall, the translation's decent; it suffers a little bit in that being the first volume, things were still being adjusted while the rewriter (Gerard Jones) found his niche for the series. For example, Goku's backwoods accent is a bit overly pronounced, as are Chi-Chi's and Gyuumaou's. This volume also does more embellishment of the translation than is present later on. There's nothing bad enough to change the meaning of the dialogue, but compared to the later volumes, which are very close to a direct translation, it stands out. (It's also interesting to note that 5 years later, Viz seemingly _still_ hasn't caught on to the fact that the Dragon Balls' names are Chinese, as they still opt for more-or-less a romanization of the katakana...which were only there to help the Japanese readers pronounce the words). Overall, this is a fun read, and if I were you, I wouldn't hesitate to buy it. Although...if you know Japanese, you might want to opt for the recent re-released "Kanzenban" (perfect edition) of the Japanese manga, since it's the original (and has all the color pages in color, too!). For English speakers, though, this is the next best thing, and there is nothing which should really prevent you from getting it.
4 of 4 found the following review helpful:
This Magna is Better than the Anime Series!Apr 15, 2003
By Michael J. Winne
"MikWin"
This is a really great Magna. It's got comedy, action, and adventure. The right-to-left format takes a minute or two to get used to, but after that it just seems natural. One of the things that I like about this Magna is that the pace is faster than the series, and each volume contains the equivalent of quite a few episodes. Plus, you get to see things in the Magna that were left out of the cartoon. Which brings me to another point, even though the cover art looks "kiddish", and the show is more geared towards children, this Magna really isn't a kids book. It's more for teens. You won't see anything worse than a PG-13 movie, but I wouldn't reccomend it for a child. This Magna has some really great moments in it, plus you get to see how all the stars of Dragonball Z meet each other. Hillarity ensues quite often. That's not to say that the action isn't great either. Akira Toriyama does a wonderful job depicting every move that the characters make when they fight. So if you like Magna(japanese comics), Anime, Dragonball, or are just curious, then this is the Graphic Novel for you.
3 of 3 found the following review helpful:
Great!Mar 17, 2004
By justajinx21@yahoo.
As said above me, this is the start of the Dragon Ball series, which is incredibly infamous (moreso for dbz, though) but this is a really great book! It's easily the funniest and most perverted manga volume I've ever read, it made me laugh so hard at times.
The artwork is great, yet simple and uncluttered, and the picture gallery at the book of the book has some really awesome designs which I've never seen included in any other manga series before.
Overall, I think this is a must-have for any manga collector's collection but it does have some parts that's definitely more suitable for kids 13+.
This is my all-time favorite series but I'm not being partial towards it here, I just really think it has a great manga. (plus, it's cheap)
Highy, highly recommended
1 of 1 found the following review helpful:
 A pleasant surpriseApr 06, 2006
By championferret
I've been a long time manga fan, but Dragonball Z was the one series I never could get into. There was just too much testosterone and muscles and screaming for my liking, and it tainted my view on Akira Toriyama himself.
Little did i know the Dragon Ball, the prequel to DragonBallZ, is in fact very different. I read it at my school library and was very pleasantly surprised, what I found was a fun adventure series that is often very racey but always hilarious.
Akira Toriyama has a fabulous gift for characterisation, and the ones he presents in this manga are extremely fun. Goku is a little monkey-tailed, uncivilized kid who has never seen other people before, and is somewhat shameless, Bulma is rather superficial and full of herself but tries to keep Goku in check, and Oolong the shape shifting pig is comedy gold.
As the other reviews can probably tell you, this isnt for the kiddies, but I myself was laughing my head off at some of the 'inappropriate' humour, such as Goku asking Bulma why she has 'a butt on her chest', and his horror-struck realistation that girls are different from boys as they have...'parts missing'.
The reason I give this book 3 stars however, is because of VIZ's english release. I do not like their habit of replacing the original japanese SFX with english, I feel it ruins the art. Aside from that, some of the speech was a little iffy, characters like Goku and Chi-chi were given oddly accented voices which didnt sound right to me. I am glad that for once VIZ DIDNT tone down any sexual jokes or censored any nudity as they have done in other Shonen Jump titles.
1 of 1 found the following review helpful:
The best way to start a collection!!!Feb 04, 2004
Whethere you are a fan of the tv series,manga,anime in all or just want to start out this is for you.This book is perfect,it is the introduction point to db/dbz/dbgt.It containts tales 1-11,making the price very cheap.Once you start and finish reading it,you will want to buy all the volumes in the series.I recommend buying all the dragonball and dragonball z gn,rather thn buying it in dvds.I own dragonball vol.1-13 and dragonball z vol.1-2 and I plan on having them all.
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