Dragon Ball

Dragon Ball is the foundational shonen adventure that started it all — Akira Toriyama's beloved manga adaptation that introduced the world to Goku as a small, naive child with a monkey tail and an extraordinary talent for martial arts. Following Goku from his first meeting with Bulma through the original World Martial Arts Tournament, the Red Ribbon Army arc, and the battle against Piccolo Daimao, Dragon Ball is pure adventure storytelling at its most inventive and joyful. Toriyama's character designs have a timeless appeal, the humor is genuinely funny, and the tournament arc format for martial arts competition has been imitated by virtually every shonen that followed. Dragon Ball laid the groundwork for an entire genre of power-based action anime, and its influence on Japanese popular culture is incalculable. The 2024 Daima series confirmed that the Dragon Ball universe still has new stories to tell, and tells them with genuine affection.