History Of Dragonball Essay, Research Paper

In 1993 Dragonball made its first official appearance in the US. It came in the form of the very first Dragonball feature movie. In 1996, Dragonball resurfaced, but the produces knew that the real action would not be at Dragonball, but at Dragonball Z. So the following year Dragonball Z was introduced to American audiences super charged and ready for consumption. Sadly however its ratings were not good as it was shown at 5:00 am in the morning. You wonder why it didn’t do well! But in 1998 Cartoon Network began to air the show in the afternoon and as many of you know the rest is history.

As Dragonball begins it’s romp in the United States, it has long ended at the place were it all began: in the land of the rising sun (for all who don’t understand, its Japan). Dragonball is the long running serialized Manga created by Akira Toriyama in 1984. The story began as a comedy based on the popular Chinese legend “The Monkey King”. In the beginning, Dragonball was much like Toriyama’s earlier stories (ie: Dr. Slump) filled with its “toilet” humor and silly antics. But as the story progressed it evolved into a adventurous, action packed, character motivated phenomenon, the likes which no one has ever seen. With 508 episodes, it has become a world wide phenomenon!

Dragonball: This is where it all begins. The story starts with Goku at 12 when he first meets Bulma and is introduced to the legend of the Dragonballs, (who ever gets all seven Dragonballs will have their wish granted by Shenron, the Dragon who resides within the balls). As Goku goes along on his adventure he meets other characters such as Master Roshi, Krillin and others. The show was split up into three sagas:

The Palif saga

The Red Ribbon saga

Piccolo Daiomo (the demon) saga

There were 153 total episodes in Dragonball by the time the series ended.