{"id":14978,"date":"2017-08-11T03:00:23","date_gmt":"2017-08-11T02:00:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.saporedicina.com\/english\/?p=14978"},"modified":"2022-02-21T17:53:02","modified_gmt":"2022-02-21T16:53:02","slug":"dragon-ball-origins-of-manga","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saporedicina.com\/english\/dragon-ball-origins-of-manga\/","title":{"rendered":"Dragon Ball: The origins of manga and the meaning of its most common terms"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Dragon<\/p>\n

The birth of Dragon Ball<\/h2>\n

For those, alas, who still don’t know, Dragon Ball<\/strong> (\u30c9\u30e9\u30b4\u30f3\u30dc\u30fc\u30eb)is a manga written and illustrated by the very famous Japanese designer Toriyama Akira \u9ce5\u5c71\u660e (also the creator of the manga and anime Dr. Slump and Arale), originally published in installments in the famous magazine Weekly Shonen Jump around 1984, with weekly episodes. <\/p>\n

The manga was then adapted into two well-known anime series, Dragon Ball and Dragon Ball Z, broadcast on Japanese television since 1986, produced by Toei Animation, a famous Japanese animation studio. <\/p>\n

Later two sequels were made, Dragon Ball GT and Dragon Ball Super (still on the air), as well as a few animated films (they’re already up to 19!) and a sort of a remake of Dragon Ball Z, called Dragon Ball Kai which, essentially, is a correct and revisited version of the Z series. <\/p>\n

As was already said, from its first release, Dragon Ball has become one of the most famous manga and anime series worldwide of all time, not to mention the second greatest in sales, with more than 200 million copies, after the very popular pirate series, One Piece. <\/p>\n

Amazingly, the greatest and best known mangaka \u6f2b\u753b\u5bb6 (masters of Manga) of all time \u2013 Eiichiro Oda (One Piece), Masashi Kishimoto (Naruto), Tite Kubo (Bleach), Hiro Mashima (Fairy Tale) \u2013 have cited Dragon Ball as a source of inspiration. <\/strong><\/p>\n

These mangaka have in turn created insane manga \/ anime, just think of One Piece and Naruto to get an idea. Innumerable video games, table games, card games, and Dragon Ball figurines have been produced and, in the ten years between 1995 to 2005, Dragon Ball was the second most searched term on internet search engines! <\/p>\n

And think about it, even today there are tons of people that get tattoos on their bodies with Dragon Ball designs (Vegeta is by far the most popular tattoo among men and women!). <\/p>\n

Not to mention the thousands of cosplays (the practice of putting on a costume of a known character in a specific setting, like the “nerd holidays\u201d periodically held in Japan) of Dragon Ball. <\/p>\n

Basically, Dragon Ball was and continues to be a cult, a masterpiece that everyone should see some time in their life regardless of their age.<\/p>\n

Brief plot review of Dragon Ball<\/h2>\n

To write a brief plot review of Dragon Ball is a hard, and in my opinion, \u201cillegal\u201d undertaking, that positively cannot do justice to the magnificence of this manga \/ anime (can you tell I’m an avid fan?), but I have to do it just to give an idea of what we’re talking about.<\/p>\n

Dragon Ball centers around the story of Son Goku \u5b6b\u609f\u7a7a, a child with a monkey tail and extraordinary powers. It all begins with Goku meeting a young girl called Bulma. <\/p>\n

This girl was searching for the seven spheres of the dragon (the Dragon Balls) which, if reunited, will make a green dragon appear, Shenron, able to grant almost any desire requested, even immortality and the ability to bring back the dead (how many times has he helped the good Crilin\u2026).<\/p>\n

Noticing Goku’s strength, the physically weak but very astute Bulma, manages to persuade Goku with trickery to accompany her in her voyage to seek the seven spheres of the dragon. This is how the two come to leave together on a very long journey, in which they will meet a series of characters that will help Goku in his growth and formation.<\/p>\n

But Goku won’t just find friends, but even enemies that he’ll have to defeat from time to time to stop them from accomplishing their wicked plans. In all this he makes an appearance in a Tournament of Martial Arts that is held every three years. <\/p>\n

When Goku grows, he discovers that he’s part of an extraterrestrial race, the Sayan, a cruel race of warriors and conquerors of planets who sent him to Earth when he was still a newborn so as to conquer it. <\/p>\n

As chance would have it Goku bangs his head as a child and loses his memory. Moreover, he is raised by Son Gohan, a valorous Earthling with a very good soul that’s an expert in martial arts. <\/p>\n

After discovering that he’s a Sayan, Goku ends up saving his own planet from enemies that mostly come from worlds far from the Earth, so the scope of the setting expands more and more until including worlds very distant from the Earth.<\/p>\n

Goku’s strength will grow exponentially as will that of the enemies that he meets from time to time.<\/p>\n

Characters of Dragon Ball and the Japanese language<\/h2>\n

Many of the names of the main characters of Dragon Ball are a play on the Japanese language, let’s analyze a few:<\/p>\n