No review of Dragon Ball is complete without mentioning its infinitely more famous sequel in DBZ, and this certainly remains true here. With that said, I'd like to establish that this is as far as I'm willing to discuss Z. For starters, Dragon Ball is significantly different in terms of tone and atmosphere as compared to Z. More to the point though, the differences between the two shows are so stark that they'd warrant separate reviews as opposed to simply doing compare/contrasts. For the purposes of this review, I'm treating Dragon Ball as a completely separate entity to Z. With that said, let's get started.
Our story starts off with an orphaned child living on his own in the mountains as his life gets changed dramatically when he meets a teenage girl named Bulma. From that point forward, Dragon Ball becomes a story about an odd 12-year-old kid with a good heart and his adventures in a surreal world that he was otherwise oblivious to because of all the years he spent living away from society. As such, there really isn't any overarching goal that Goku has as he's more or less just trying to enjoy all the new experiences he has whilst kicking ass whenever he needs to.
A critical aspect of Dragon Ball is martial arts and for the most part, the focus is pretty consistent. Energy attacks are seldom used and powerups are few and far between. For Goku, martial arts is a sport that he wants to continuously get better because there's always gonna be a bigger foe for him to take down later on down the line. More to the point though, Goku fights not just to protect his loved ones and the world around him but also because martial arts is a sport that he thoroughly enjoys. The same can be said for characters like Krillin, Yamcha, Tien, et al and why they continue to train as well.
It's this approach to the subject of martial arts that makes Dragon Ball an anomaly in the world of battle shonens. The ultimate goal of every training/tournament arc is obviously to beat the opponent and win the match, but they wouldn't be entering the world martial arts tournament every 5 years if they didn't enjoy fighting. Master Roshi, Goku's first teacher, even goes on to say that he wants Goku and Krillin to continuously keep training like the wild animals they are because their passion for the sport is that great.
Another critical aspect of Dragon Ball is its own namesake - the seven dragon balls and the Eternal Dragon that it summons, Shenron. I won't make any bones about it, the dragon balls themselves are nothing more than plot devices turned plot convenience. More to the point though, most arcs that centre around gathering all seven of them are fairly predictable to say the least. Even so, that doesn't necessarily mean that those arcs aren't enjoyable. Some of the funniest and most iconic scenes from the series (i.e. Bulma accidentally flashing Master Roshi for the 3-star ball, Goku turning into a giant ape for the first time, Piccolo killing Shenron, etc) have come from these arcs. Even so, that doesn't change the fact that you can still see the ending of a ball hunt arc coming from a mile away.
The characters in Dragon Ball remain largely consistent in terms of characterisation: Goku is a slovenly moron with a big appetite and a love of fighting. Bulma is high strung and always has to have her way, Master Roshi is a wise martial arts master whose skills are eclipsed only by his insatiable lust for younger women, you get the idea. Even so, it's not like all of these characters are one-note archetypes meant to get children to point at the screen and laugh. From the very beginning to the final episode, almost every major character changes significantly. Goku started off as a total moron who had to pat the crotches of everyone he met just to see if they were a man or a woman. By the end of the series, he's an accomplished martial artist who actually has a couple of brain cells to spare every so often.
It isn't just Goku who experiences that type of growth over the course of all 153 episodes. Krillin started off his debut appearance as a coward with the outward appearance of someone who's confident in his skills. By the time he left the first martial arts tournament, he developed a newfound confidence in his own skills as a martial artist. That's only over the course of one arc, and the growth just keeps on going from there. Yamcha enters the series as a desert bandit with a crippling fear of women his own age but not only does he get over that fear, he too becomes a powerful martial artist. You get where I'm going with this.
From an art/animation standpoint, Dragon Ball is very much a product of the mid-to-late 80s. Various frames and stills are reused throughout the course of the programme, as are speed lines, repeated cutaways to strong attacks to emphasise its power, etc. There were also plenty of scenes drawn and animated off-model to go around as well. Even so, the animation does clean up quite well for major action sequences. Dragon Ball is at its best from an aesthetic standpoint during an intense action sequence. To get a good idea of what I'm talking about, look at the full fight between Goku and Jackie Chun in the first world martial arts tournament. Speed lines and repeated frames mar an otherwise fast-paced and intense brawl between a stern martial arts master and a young prodigy. Even so, the final stages of the fight where Goku and Jackie resort to using plain old martial arts instead of energy attacks and dirty tricks is nothing short of intense and even though the fight has a foregone conclusion, it's still something that manages to put me on the edge of my seat. That wouldn't be possible if it looked like shit, after all.
From an audio perspective, Dragon Ball is quite honestly one of my all-time favourites in regard to stuff like the OST, the dubbing, and so on. This programme came out around the time that Funimation was actually making English renditions of the Japanese OP/ED, and it's such a shame that they stopped doing so after like what, 2008? Some of the line translations don't hit the ears right, but even so, the fact that they took the time to write an English rendition showed that there was a time when they cared deeply about the shows that they licensed. The dubbing itself is also quite the treat, but it's one of those things you'd really have to listen to in order to truly appreciate. Just watch out for Puar's voice, otherwise you'll be wanting to do cocaine off a vertical mirror like I do whenever I hear it.
On the whole, Dragon Ball is a largely good programme. It has its ups, its downs, but there's a reason why the manga and anime went on to influence an entire generation of shonen programmes. It's honestly a shame that Dragon Ball on its own has more or less been thrown to the wayside as Toei opts to continue focusing its attention on Z/Super. I would've honestly loved to see a Kai version of Dragon Ball with cleaner animation, no filler, and even better dubbing. Even so, what we have here is a programme that has actually managed to age somewhat decently and should be watched by all. Anyway, that's all for now. Feedback is always welcome and with that, I'm out. Peace.
