Dragon Ball Z #1
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/1.jpg "Dragon Ball Z #1")
| Writer | Akira Toriyama |
| Artist | Akira Toriyama |
Sci-Fi martial arts action!
After years of training and adventure, Goku has become Earth's ultimate warrior. And his son, Gohan, shows even greater promise. But the stakes are increasing as even deadlier enemies threaten the planet. DRAGON BALL Z is the ultimate science fiction-martial arts manga.
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,
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CRITIC REVIEWS Back to Top
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8.0
The Graphic Library - Sara Campbell
Feb 13, 2025After sixteen volumes of bawdy humor and tournament fighting, plus fetch quests and training in martial arts, not to mention Goku being descended from a monkey, Toriyama flips the narrative on its head by changing Goku’s origin story. Holy Ret-con batman! As much as Dragon Ball was about fighting, Dragon Ball Z takes the fighting and turns it up to 11 by introducing increasingly more powerful foes for Goku to fight, and higher stakes for him to overcome. DBZ is also quintessentially what people think of when they think of Dragon Ball. While some of the charm and mythos of the overall story is lost, as well as the historical fights, from starting with what is essentially volume 17, there is a bit of a soft reset on the series where Toriyama allows for new readers to join in the fun and put behind them some of the humor that doesn't stand the test of time. Read Full Review
USER REVIEWS Back to Top
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7.5
I'm personally not a huge fan of the Saiyan arc but this is classic Dragon Ball Z. There really isn't much better manga than this. Much earlier in Toriyama's art style, his characters are much more rounded off, and smoother than they would later develop into. They don't have that iconic look that most are familiar with here but it's still the top of the list here. One hang-up I have is Piccolo's dialogue. It's very Olde English. Very proper and I wasn't expecting that. Might just be a translation choice but it threw me off.
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7.5
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