Part of Series
Akira Toriyama's groundbreaking, iconic, best-selling series now in an omnibus edition! Dragon Ball introduces a young monkey-tailed boy named Goku (a wry update of the classic Chinese "Monkey King" legend), whose quiet life changes when he meets a girl named Bulma who is on a quest to collect seven "Dragon Balls." If she gathers them all, an incredibly powerful dragon will appear and grant her one wish. But the precious orbs are scattered all over the world, and Bulma could use the help of a certain super-strong boy... The World’s Most Evil Crime Organization You do not want to mess with the Red Ribbon Army. To get what they want, they’ll sic you with scary thugs, machine-gun fire and even torpedoes! Only Son Goku would think nothing of challenging this evil crime organization—anything to get back the one Dragon Ball his grandfather gave him. As the Red Ribbon Army closes in on Goku and his friends, Goku must face an array of opponents while preventing all seven Dragon Balls from falling into evil hands. First, there’s cruel General Blue, who has a mysterious power up his sleeve. Then there’s master assassin Taopaipai, so strong that Goku’s blasts barely faze him. But neither of these opponents compare to the masked challenger Goku faces at Baba Uranai’s—he’ll give Goku the shock of his life!
Author
Akira Toriyama (鳥山明) was a Japanese manga artist and character designer. He first achieved mainstream recognition for creating the popular manga series Dr. Slump, before going on to create Dragon Ball (his most famous work) and acting as a character designer for several popular video games such as the Dragon Quest series, Chrono Trigger, and Blue Dragon. Toriyama came to be regarded as one of the most important authors in the history of manga with his works highly influential and popular, particularly Dragon Ball, which many manga artists cite as a source of inspiration. He earned the 1981 Shogakukan Manga Award for best shōnen/shōjo manga with Dr. Slump, and it went on to sell over 35 million copies in Japan. It was adapted into a successful anime series, with a second anime created in 1997, 13 years after the manga ended. His next series, Dragon Ball, would become one of the most popular and successful manga in the world. Having sold 260 million copies worldwide, it is one of the best-selling manga series of all time and is considered a key work in increasing manga circulation to its peak in the mid-1980s and mid-1990s. Overseas, Dragon Ball's anime adaptations have been more successful than the manga and are credited with boosting anime's popularity in the Western world. In 2019, Toriyama was decorated a Chevalier of the French Ordre des Arts et des Lettres for his contributions to the arts. In October 2024, Toriyama was inducted into the Harvey Awards Hall of Fame.
