Dragon Ball Z, Volume 1 is the beginning the second part of one of the most successful manga series of all time. Originally published from 1984 to 1995, the 42 tankoban volumes of Dragon Ball and Dragon Ball Z have sold 150,000,000 copies in Japan alone and 230,000,000 worldwide, third only to Golo 13 (280,000,000 copies) and One Piece (380,000,000 copies). Naruto is the only other series to sell over 200,000 copies. For more info on the best selling manga of all time, click here. Moreover, Dragon Ball has served as inspiration for many top manga artists; it started a revolution in manga and anime. The volume released in America is as Dragon Ball Z, Volume 1, is actually Dragon Ball, Volume 17. I found this volume at the Chula Vista Public Library.
Okay, so we've skipped Son Goku's childhood and his battle with Piccolo. He's married and has a son. He's the greatest martial artist the world has ever known. What next? Aliens, or an alien. His name is Raditz, and he is Goku's brother. As it turns out, Goku was sent to Earth as a child to exterminate all humans. Raditz goes on to say that Goku's real name is Kakarrot. As the story goes, Goku suffered a blow to the head when he was a baby, and after that, he was kind and sweet, with no memory of his mission as a Saiyan warrior, one of the four or five most powerful beings in the universe. To defeat Raditz, Goku must team up with his old nemesis, Piccolo, but will that be enough?
I found this volume to be not quite as clever as Hunter X Hunter and not as beautifully drawn as One Piece, but just as fun as either of them. It's the prototype of a Shonen Jump title, and a lot of the ideas expanded upon in later series were developed in Dragon Ball and Dragon Ball Z. The Shonen Jump magazine that published Dragon Ball in Japan had votes as to what readers wanted to see in future titles. Former rivals teaming up to defeat a stronger opponent was always a theme readers enjoyed. Dragon Ball Z is a cultural icon in Japan and arguably the most important media achievement of the 1980s.
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