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| Overall | Art | Animation | Character Design | Music | Series Story | Episode Story | Reviewer | |
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| Buy | 8 | 7 | 7 | 8 | 10 | 8 |
 Anonymous #3161
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[series:423#3161] |
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One of the best classical animes i have ever seen! Akira Toriyama is a freaking genius.
Last updated Tuesday, September 15 2009. Created Tuesday, September 15 2009. | ||||||||
| Watch | 6 | 5 | 6 | 5 | 6 | 6 |
 Ggultra2764
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[series:423#1552] |
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The granddaddy of shounen battle titles alongside Saint Seiya and Fist of the North Star, Dragon Ball popularized the genre that would spawn later titles like Bleach, Naruto and One Piece. While Dragon Ball Z is the most popular and widely known title in the Dragon Ball franchise among anime fans, Dragon Ball was what led the series to its start in becoming a popular franchise among anime fans. The series actually starts off as a gag comedy series spinning its own take on Journey to the West with its focus on Goku and Bulma seeking out the whereabouts of seven Dragon Balls that will grant any wish to whomever gathers all of them. A number of the characters in the series like Goku and the Ox King are based off characters found within the Chinese tale, who either adopt elements prominent to said character or are loosely adapted with aspects greatly exaggerated. After the first arc with King Pilaf, the series then goes off into a standard storytelling format for a shounen title that revolves between Goku and pals locating the Dragon Balls against enemy threats, Goku receiving training to get stronger and then entering a martial arts tournament. Starting off as a gag comedy, Dragon Ball is mostly comical in its earlier episodes focusing on the exaggerated traits of its characters and their interactions with each other as the main source of humor for the series. It gets increasingly serious in later episodes as Goku encounters stronger and more deadlier enemy threats, as such where they challenge Goku's highly formidable martial arts prowess. The humor was a bit hit-or-miss for me as I did get some laughs out of some elements to the characters like Goku's naivete of understanding proper behavior in the outside world and Launch's angered personality wrecking havoc, while the show's focus on perverted characters like Oolong and Roshi had me feeling more indifferent towards their antics. Beyond the comedy, Dragon Ball does offer a good amount of world building in exploring the various areas that make up its world and the major characters/ factions in the series are fleshed out enough where you can understand their backgrounds and motives, even if they may seem a bit on the simple side compared to modern shounen titles. The battles for it were also more engaging for me than DBZ since there are a wider range of battle abilities characters demonstrated while DBZ got mostly monotonous with showing off transformations and energy attacks. The storytelling does have its bumps at points such as consistency in plot developments, the Dragon Balls eventually turning into a plot device used by the heroes to undo any of the evil deeds done by a major villain and the occasional filler episodes that add nothing to advancing the plot or exploring more elements to the world of the series. Plus, the show's not really groundbreaking in any way for what it offers up with its premise for a shounen title as later shounen titles milk use of its character types and storytelling cliches. Visually, the show's drawing style is rather outdated in its rough lining and washed-out colors for scenery and character designs. Animation shortcuts are employed often during battle scenes such as speed stripes, reused animation frames and still shots. The music for the series consists of upbeat and energetic tracks meant to accompany the show's various comedic and tense moments that do their part well, but aren't really memorable in any way. While I'm not the biggest Dragon Ball fan, I still find myself thinking that the first series was better over its overly hyped sequel since it had more appealing elements to it besides the fights. The animation's dated for it and it doesn't really offer anything groundbreaking since later shounen titles have milked its storytelling and character tropes to death. But its moments with comedy, world building and more engaging fights still made it a decent watch for its 153 episode run. Last updated Saturday, June 14 2014. Created Sunday, November 16 2008. | ||||||||
| Watch | 6 | 5 | 7 | 8 | 8 |
 Lordcloudstrife
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[series:423#2553] | |
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This is not my favorite out of the Dragonball animes. A lot of people liked it more then Dragonball Z, I'm still trying to figure it out. Possibly because it is a bit less serious then Z and GT. It has more comedy moments and less action. Of course it still had action. My favorite was the Master Roshi versus Goku fight. Dragonball being compared to Z is kind of pathetic, if they never made Z I might have been more positive about it. The art of course was bad, it was made in the 80's. For the 80's it was good though. It brought the story together and was a good watch. I probably wouldn't buy all the episodes but maybe a some of my favorites. It wasn't bad for its time and it is aired on the Dish channel Colours at 9:00 Mon-Fri. Any die hard DBZ or DBGT fans who want to know what Goku was like as a kid should watch it.
Last updated Thursday, April 19 2007. Created Thursday, April 19 2007. | ||||||||
| Watch | 6 | 7 | 7 | 6 | 7 | 8 |
 Tammi
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[series:423#1732] |
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The first thing you'll probably notice about this series is the humor. I'm not sure if you'll find the jokes amusing, or everything else. I go out of my way to watch it because the lines are horribly funny, and its SO amusing! The jokes are pretty bad, but some are okay ^^; It's really quite amusing because of the character's- Goku isn't a big super strong legend yet- he's just a little monkey boy! The art and animation isn't that good in my opinion. Unlike DBZ and DBGT, there aren't whole epsiodes where the two fighting simply scream the whole time, and switches from screaming to worried people. Dragon Ball still has that new show kind of thing going on- you're just learning what its about, and the series isnt just being stetched out. The best part is the look on the bad guys faces when they get beat by a little kid XD Last updated Thursday, December 16 2004. Created Thursday, December 16 2004. | ||||||||
| Rent | 7 | 6 | 7 | 4 | 7 | 7 |
 Dunpeal
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[series:423#946] |
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This series is completely different than the other 2, that's why I like it so much. Goku was so funny because he was so innocent and naive... like when he sees a car for the very first time and thinks it's a monster. Yamcha was pretty funny too at the beginning when he was afraid of girls. But my favorite was the "dirty old man" Master Roshi. What a pervert! He wanted a date with Bulma and she was only 16! "Ehh heh heh" Last updated Wednesday, September 03 2003. Created Wednesday, September 03 2003. | ||||||||
| Buy | 6 | 6 | 6 | 1 | 8 |
 Kari
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[series:423#798] | |
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This was the only show in the Dragon Ball trilogies that I really liked. Sure the fights drag on and on, but nowhere near as long as those of Dragon Ball Z/GT. Dragonball is also really funny. I think it's one of those shows even old people can enjoy. I could forgive the Goku character for his stupidity in this show, because he was supposed to be a kid.
Last updated Tuesday, August 03 2004. Created Tuesday, July 08 2003. | ||||||||
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 Stretch
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[series:423#628] | ||||||
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I found Dragonball to have a unique style of it's own--simple enough for children to enjoy (the fighting part, plus the silly charachters), yet also cleverly written and therefore amusing for adults. This is about the only Anime series which I have both seen on TV and read some of the corresponding Manga, and it's clear that the original comic-book version was somewhat more risque than the Cartoon Network Anime version. My impression is that the series is at it's best at or near the beginning, with priceless charachters like "Boss Rabbit", and of course the perverted Master Roshi. Goku and Bulma work well together--He's both incredibly strong and seemingly incapable of doing wrong. His only weakness is that he is extremely naive, too. Bulma is beautiful, clever, but also rather vain. Anyway, later on it seems as if Dragonball is trying to become more like the extremely popular (but somewhat overrated) Dragonball Z, as the level of violence increases and silliness decreases. For example, Goku eventually sets out to destroy the infamous "Red Ribbon Army" single-handedly, but by this point DB has for all intents and purposes become a completely different show than it started out as. I would recommend that you start watching from the beginning, and stay at least until Emperor Pilaf's castle gets demolished, but after that don't be afraid to quit if you detect a loss of the initial charm DB had. 7/03 Last updated Tuesday, March 16 2004. Created Saturday, July 05 2003. | ||||||||
| Watch | 6 | 7 | 8 | 7 | 8 | 8 |
 .hack//Phil
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[series:423#656] |
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If you like DBZ or DBGT, then you have to watch this. It is the entire story of Goku and let's you see what everyone was like before the Z team. I watched DBZ before I saw DragonBall. I found it very interesting to find out what the charactors were like before DBZ. It's also pretty funny to watch them walk around thinking they are the best when you know the power that they have in DBZ. Last updated Sunday, April 27 2003. Created Saturday, April 26 2003. | ||||||||
| Rent | 7 | 5 | 7 | 5 | 7 | 7 |
 Cenit
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[series:423#45] |
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This is the first of the Dragon Ball series, and its in one word kind of stupid. Dragon Ball starts telling the story of the Dragon Balls, but soon after that its just the story of Goku, a little kid with super strength. Because Goku loves to fight he becomes stronger and stronger, and the series itself becomes just a cycle of bad guy/bif figth, and so on. It is not an action anime, I would put it down as a comedy, and as a comedy is not that bad. And of course, Akira Toriyama classic trademark of poorly design characters is evident here. Last updated Friday, May 31 2002. Created Friday, May 31 2002. | ||||||||
Other Sites
| Name | URL |
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| Japanese Series Web Site | http://www.toei-anim.co.jp/tv/dragon/ |
