| About the Series
In the year of 1984, a man by the name of Akira Toriyama started a new project. This gentleman had already been sucessful with his previous project, "Dr. Slump", which started out as a manga in the weekly "Shonen Jump", but soon came an anime on T.V. Toriyama knew he could succeed with his new project if he did things right, and pleased the masses with his fantastic wit and humor, expresed through the new magna. What started as a successfull magna, grew into a world-wide phenomenon and is now the most popular Japansese series, world-wide. The project of course was a tale of a little boy that turned into a powerfull man. It is the story of Goku. The total amount of episodes for the Dragonball series was 508 episodes.
Dragonball
Dragonball was mainly about Goku growing up, and his adventures with other friends such as Krillin, Bulma, Yamcha, Oolong, Puar, Master Roshi and More. They also tried to find the Dragonballs which would grant them wishes. Latter in Dragonball, The Red Ribbon Army was introduced. Also, the Tecnaichi Budokais were introduced. It showed Goku training with Kami-Sami and Karin. It also showed how Goku and Piccolo were originally enimes. Dragonball really started off as a comedy and focused mainly on finding the Dragonballs and didn't have a lot of action. Then, when it progressed into the Tenkaichi Budoukais, Dragonball started having more action and more fighting. This fantastic show showed from Feburay 26, 1986 to Febuary 19, 1989 in Japan with a total of 153.
Dragonball Z
Then Dragonball later grew into Dragonball Z. The Z means Zed if anyone didn't know. The Dragonball Z magna had 519 issues, which was latter condensed into 42 volumes. The amazing series on the T.V. had 2 t.v. specials, 12 movies up to date, and an incredible 291 episodes. Akira Toriyama took a different approach to Dragonball Z. He still made the main character Goku, and it included most of the Dragonball cast, but this time, it was more fighting and less looking for the Dragonballs. Even though it focussed more of fighting, it had an incredible plot to go along with it. Unlike other anime like Sailor Moon where to plot progresses slowly but surely through a long series of spisodes, Dragonball and Dragonball Z moved at a fast pace with each new episode picking up where the last one left off.
Dragonball Z is one of the most popular anime in the world reaching several countries including Japan, America, Greece, Spain, Canada, and many others. This automaticly turned off some people to the series. Then, the plot wasn't so good, so people hated it more. It was a return to Dragonball's genre with Goku and his comrades seeking the Dragonballs, but with a slightly different twist. Later, the series changed tracks and went back to the fighting genre of Dragonball Z. This picked up a greater audience, but becasue it didn't do so good in the beginning, Dragonball GT didn't do so good. Akira Toriyama came into Dragonball GT but wasn't really the head of it. Toriyama didn't want Super Saiyan 4 to have black hair and to have Gold Hair like the rest of his Super Saiyans, but his say really didn't matter so they made Super Saiyan 4 with black hair. Dragonball GT
Dragonball's final spawn was Dragonball GT. GT is about Trunks and other protagonist hunting for the dragonballs not just on earth, but throughout the universe. Goku is wished small by Emperor Pilaf (who appeared first in Dragonball) so the gang must get him wished back to his original size. This is just the beginning, Villains to on to be the Evil Shenlong, Super 17 and more. Why people really don't like Dragonball is becasue it was created by Toei Animation and it has nothing to do with Akira Toriyama, and was drawn by a completely different set of artist.
In America, the Dragonball phenomenon is slowly catching on, and it's slowly but surely moving up from cult status. However, here in America, we may never get the entire series of any of the three, and if we do, for the time being, they are being editted to pieces.
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