Get Ebooks Dragon Ball, Vol. 1 (VIZBIG Edition)
A seminal series from a legendary creator. Dragon Ball, a wry update on the Chinese "Monkey King" myth, introduces us to Son Go Son Goku, a young monkey-tailed boy whose quiet life is turned upside-down when he meets Bulma, a girl determined to collect the seven "Dragon Balls." If she gathers them all, an incredibly powerful dragon will appear and grant her one wish. But the precious orbs are scattered all over the world, and to get them she needs the help of a certain super-strong boy. The VIZBIG edition of Dragon Ball contains volumes 1-3, bonus color content and updated text. Before there was Dragon Ball Z, there was Akira Toriyama's action epic Dragon Ball, starring the younger version of Son Goku and all the other Dragon Ball Z heroes! Meet a naive young monkey-tailed boy named Goku, whose quiet life changes when he meets Bulma, a girl who is on a quest to collect seven "Dragon Balls." If she gathers them all, an incredibly powerful dragon will appear and grant her one wish. But the precious orbs are scattered all over the world, and Bulma needs Goku's help (and his super-strength)! With a magic staff for a weapon and a flying cloud for a ride, Goku sets out on the adventure of a lifetime...
Series: Dragon Ball (Book 1)
Paperback: 560 pages
Publisher: VIZ Media LLC; Vizbig ed. edition (June 3, 2008)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1421520591
ISBN-13: 978-1421520599
Product Dimensions: 5.8 x 1.5 x 8.6 inches
Shipping Weight: 2.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars See all reviews (102 customer reviews)
Best Sellers Rank: #165,394 in Books (See Top 100 in Books) #436 in Books > Teens > Literature & Fiction > Comics & Graphic Novels > Manga #520 in Books > Comics & Graphic Novels > Manga > Science Fiction #537 in Books > Teens > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Fantasy > Sword & Sorcery
::: Edit to my original review.(THIS REVIEW IS FOR THE RELEASE, NOT THE CONTENT!!!! The Dragonball story is excellent, 5 stars.)Not only is it censored in a really odd way that just didn't need to be done, but they only include a FEW of the original color pages, about 20%!!! What is the point of making it so close to perfect and yet so far?All the pages you see that have an ugly grayscale shading, like the first appearance of Kamesennin, were actually in COLOR, but Viz just didn't want to cut into their profits by printing them the original way.They were re-released in Japan about 3 years ago in 35 Volumes, with all the color pages in tact. So it's not like they weren't available.This release drops down to 2 stars. That's just shady what they did.If you haven't bought any of the books though, I still recommend this set as it's the closest to the original Japanese version.:::One word, CENSORED.They included the beautiful full and spot color pages, smaller than the original pulp release in Shonen Jump but larger than and higher quality than the small reprint versions.They put 3 volumes together so you get a nice big chunk of story.Great translations, except that they translate certain Japanese dialects as "American Hillbilly". VERY annoying.But what boggles the mind is that they leave in young Goku's naked genitals, which is fine, because that's how it appeared in the original manga. But then they go and censor "the middle finger", essentially changing that part of the story to something that is not in the original manga. They also censor, REDRAW, certain female body parts.It seems so pointless to go through the trouble of creating a "definitive" edition, but then go backwards and make it "un-definitive".
When I first wrote a review for this book's first-edition all of two years ago, I reported that this volume, for all its effort in getting a (mostly) true-to-the-original version of the Dragon Ball manga to US audiences, was unfortunately censored. However, as of a year ago (so I'm a little late with this rewrite here...), this is no longer the case.Physically, the book is somewhat larger than its Japanese counterpart, measuring at roughly 12 by 18 centimeters. When these books first came out, they were done as their own franchise, and as such were printed in a different (and larger) format, but have since been incorporated into the "Shonen Jump" line of graphic novels. The cover art remained the same, but the book was shrunk down (not the pages, mind you, just the height and width) to the version you see here.Content-wise, this is basically the same as it was in the comic book form (waaaay back 5 years ago as of this writing). All text and sound effects are redrawn in English, but left in their right-to-left format, as with all of Viz's Shonen Jump comics. As I metioned before, this volume is indeed uncensored, and all of the dirty jokes are left in (so all you sukebes should rejoice).Overall, the translation's decent; it suffers a little bit in that being the first volume, things were still being adjusted while the rewriter (Gerard Jones) found his niche for the series. For example, Goku's backwoods accent is a bit overly pronounced, as are Chi-Chi's and Gyuumaou's. This volume also does more embellishment of the translation than is present later on. There's nothing bad enough to change the meaning of the dialogue, but compared to the later volumes, which are very close to a direct translation, it stands out. (It's also interesting to note that 5 years later, Viz seemingly _still_ hasn't caught on to the fact that the Dragon Balls' names are Chinese, as they still opt for more-or-less a romanization of the katakana...which were only there to help the Japanese readers pronounce the words).Overall, this is a fun read, and if I were you, I wouldn't hesitate to buy it. Although...if you know Japanese, you might want to opt for the recent re-released "Kanzenban" (perfect edition) of the Japanese manga, since it's the original (and has all the color pages in color, too!). For English speakers, though, this is the next best thing, and there is nothing which should really prevent you from getting it.
I live in Indonesia, where Dragon Ball is the most popular saga among kids. But I give five stars for this book is also because I think the Dragon Ball series is a lot funnier than the Dragon Ball Z or Dragon Ball GT. While DBZ and DBGT give you plenty of space adventures, world-destroying aliens and extreme battles between super beings ( who have similar powers ), DB takes us down to( Akira Toriyama's )earth where a shapeshifting pig, a floating cat and a boy riding a cloud are everyday sights. On the graphic side, I think DB is better as well. If you like the tiny, silly details Mr. Toriyama put on his other book Dr.Slump, you will find this book as lovable. I can't wait for volumes 2 - 14 to be released. I have the complete volumes 1- 42, but they are censored and poorly translated here in Indonesia.
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