Manga Guide
DragonBall was originally a gag manga (comic) created by famed mangaka Toriyama Akira, that evolved into an martial arts action manga, becomig the standard to which all future shounen manga would be compared. It began its run in December 1984 in Weekly Shounen Jump, a popular manga anthology magazine in Japan. Each week a new chapter would be published with approximately 14 pages per chapter. When it was all said and done, the series had come to a total of 520 chapters, including one side-story, which was an amazing feat at the time.
These days, fans essentially have two options for owning the original manga; the tankoubon, which were released as DragonBall was being published in Weekly Shounen Jump, and the kanzenban, which started to be released in late 2002. For more information on both of these release formats, you can visit their respective pages in this guide. I do highly suggest you take a look at our first feature in the "Features" section, which provides a detailed comparison of all three release formats; the original weekly serialization, the economic tankoubon, and the more expensive kanzenban. In addition, we've provided some manga relevant "mini-guides" to help answer specific questions.
Manga Comparison ChartA detailed comparison of the tankoubon and kanzenban, and the chapters that comprise them.
Over the years, other manga formats have been released to capitalize on DragonBall's success. The most notable of these are the animation comics which contain screen shots of the animation adaptations of the manga presented in a comic form. Sounds redundant, right? The main purpose of these comics is to provide a cheap and mobile version of the anime or film for those that can't afford to buy the entire series on DVD. We will be referring to them as the film or TV animation comics, respectively, although they are often referred to as "Cine-manga" or "Ani-manga."
More information on both of these releases can be found by visiting their respective pages in this guide and information concerning their respective original adaptations (both the Movies and Anime) can be found in our "Movie Guide" and "Episode Guide." It should be noted that only the DragonBall Z TV series has been adapted for an animation comic release and so far there has been no mention of a similar release for the DragonBall or DragonBall GT TV series'.
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42 Volumes | New Book Format (11 X 17 cm)
| Released: |
September 15, 1985 – August 9, 1995 |
| Retail: |
¥390 |
| Publisher: |
Shueisha Publishing Co., Ltd. |
| Contains: |
DragonBall Tankoubon volumes 01 through 42 (complete series) |
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34 Volumes | A5 (14.5 X 21 cm)
| Released: |
December 4, 2002 – April 2, 2004 |
| Retail: |
¥933 |
| Publisher: |
Shueisha Publishing Co., Ltd. |
| Contains: |
DragonBall Kanzenban volumes 01 through 34 (complete series) |
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20 Volumes | New Book Format (11 X 17 cm)
| Released: |
March 30, 1992 – July 23, 1997 |
| Retail: |
¥690 |
| Publisher: |
Shueisha Publishing Co., Ltd. |
| Contains: |
Film Animation Comics volumes 01 through 20 |
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38 Volumes | New Book Format (11 X 17 cm)
| Released: |
November 4, 2005 – Ongoing |
| Retail: |
¥710 |
| Publisher: |
Shueisha Publishing Co., Ltd. |
| Contains: |
TV Animation Comics volumes 01 through 34 |
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22 Volumes | B6 (12.8 X 18.2 cm)
| Released: |
July 12, 2004 – Ongoing |
| Retail: |
¥650 (Film) / ¥550 (TV) |
| Publisher: |
Shueisha Publishing Co., Ltd. |
| Contains: |
Shueisha Jump Remix re-releases of both the film and TV animation comics |
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Kids Animation Comics 17 Volumes | Size Unknown
| Released: |
September 1994 – December 1995 |
| Retail: |
¥450 (TV) / ¥480 (Film) |
| Publisher: |
Shueisha Publishing Co., Ltd. |
| Contains: |
Kids Animation Comics volumes 01 through 17 |
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Information/Images by: Hujio |
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