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Dragon Ball #3
Dragon Ball, Vol. 3
A seminal series from a legendary creator. Dragon Ball, a wry update on the Chinese "Monkey King" myth, introduces us to 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...Only Goku, Bulma and Kuririn stand between the Red Ribbon Army and the seven Dragon Balls which can grant any wish in the world! Using a submarine loaned by Kame-Sen'nin, the heroic trio explores a pirate's undersea cave in search of the next Dragon Ball, but gun-toting bad guys are on their tail! Dragon Ball, the most famous of legendary manga creator Akira Toriyama’s works, was originally serialized in Japan’s Weekly Shonen Jump magazine from 1984 to 1995, the series was collected into 42 volumes and quickly became an international bestseller. (In the United States, volumes 1 through 16 were published as Dragon Ball, and volumes 17 through 42 as Dragon Ball Z.) Widely acknowledged as a landmark series,Dragon Ball has been adapted into animated television series, movies, video games, toys and collectibles worldwide.
560 pages, Paperback
First published June 1, 1986
11 people are currently reading
273 people want to read
About the author
Akira Toriyama
1,916 books1,726 followersAkira Toriyama (鳥山明) was a Japanese manga artist and character designer. He first achieved mainstream recognition for creating the popular manga series Dr. Slump, before going on to create Dragon Ball (his most famous work) and acting as a character designer for several popular video games such as the Dragon Quest series, Chrono Trigger, and Blue Dragon. Toriyama came to be regarded as one of the most important authors in the history of manga with his works highly influential and popular, particularly Dragon Ball, which many manga artists cite as a source of inspiration.
He earned the 1981 Shogakukan Manga Award for best shōnen/shōjo manga with Dr. Slump, and it went on to sell over 35 million copies in Japan. It was adapted into a successful anime series, with a second anime created in 1997, 13 years after the manga ended.
His next series, Dragon Ball, would become one of the most popular and successful manga in the world. Having sold 260 million copies worldwide, it is one of the best-selling manga series of all time and is considered a key work in increasing manga circulation to its peak in the mid-1980s and mid-1990s. Overseas, Dragon Ball's anime adaptations have been more successful than the manga and are credited with boosting anime's popularity in the Western world. In 2019, Toriyama was decorated a Chevalier of the French Ordre des Arts et des Lettres for his contributions to the arts.
In October 2024, Toriyama was inducted into the Harvey Awards Hall of Fame.
He earned the 1981 Shogakukan Manga Award for best shōnen/shōjo manga with Dr. Slump, and it went on to sell over 35 million copies in Japan. It was adapted into a successful anime series, with a second anime created in 1997, 13 years after the manga ended.
His next series, Dragon Ball, would become one of the most popular and successful manga in the world. Having sold 260 million copies worldwide, it is one of the best-selling manga series of all time and is considered a key work in increasing manga circulation to its peak in the mid-1980s and mid-1990s. Overseas, Dragon Ball's anime adaptations have been more successful than the manga and are credited with boosting anime's popularity in the Western world. In 2019, Toriyama was decorated a Chevalier of the French Ordre des Arts et des Lettres for his contributions to the arts.
In October 2024, Toriyama was inducted into the Harvey Awards Hall of Fame.
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Displaying 1 - 23 of 23 reviews
February 26, 2023
The end of this book always gets me - Goku’s reaction to finally seeing his grandpa is everything
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
June 17, 2023
So far, this has been my favorite volume(3-in-1). With the cast more fleshed out, we spend less time on explaining why everyone's working together and can focus on the interactions amongst the cast. Although most of the manga follows the journey of a solo Goku, the moments with the rest of the cast are in my opinion the more memorable. The manga seems to be really growing into a shonen while keeping the humor and shenanigans of the previous two volumes. There's something charming about the childish humor the gang gets themselves involved with. Just like before, the villains are silly albeit the toughest foes yet. I do have the feeling that this kind of introduces the formula that Dragon Ball seems to follow going forward. Goku's the strongest-> introduce villain who manages to beat Goku-> training scene->Goku's the strongest. But hey, its shonen
Without spoiling too much of this 40 year old manga, some of my favorite parts were Upa's father and the fights around that, Commander Black's revelation, and the end of the all seeing crone arc.
Without spoiling too much of this 40 year old manga, some of my favorite parts were Upa's father and the fights around that, Commander Black's revelation, and the end of the all seeing crone arc.
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January 1, 2021love this series
May 24, 2024
I am completely in awe and I understand completely why Dragon Ball, and Toriyama's work paved the way for modern shonen. I love this world and these characters
April 26, 2024
Commander red was valid. My favorite book in the series so far, full of nonstop action and adventure. Though I've gone through dbz there's still so much in dragon ball I didn't know anything about so it was cool seeing all these moments like goku seeing his grandpa again. I like the native Americans as well. Also the red ribbon army was an interesting antagonist in that it was a series of different colorful characters and battles rather than one single enemy. Especially General blue + Taopaipai they were lit.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
September 25, 2024
This volume wraps up the Red Ribbon Army arc, and while I still liked it a lot, it’s pretty easily my least favorite volume so far. Between all the Red Ribbon soldiers and Baba champions Goku fights, it starts to feel very “villain of the week” and gets kinda repetitive. At least it ends on a great note. Goku reuniting with his grandpa is such a wholesome moment. I’m binge reading this and it still got me emotional, I can only imagine how it hit for folks reading week-to-week back in the day.
June 28, 2025
This book was another great addition to the series. It was, so far, my least favorite but it was still rlly great. The story was of course entertaining and meaningful, but it seemed like their wasn’t a huge over arching goal, besides get the dragon balls. I guess the tournaments and villains in the last 2 books have been slightly more engaging! Still a great read though!
4.7/5
4.7/5
November 9, 2020
I don't remember a lot of this from watching the series as a kid, so it's been lots of fun reading this manga. If you liked the anime series, this will have a different feel, but you're sure to enjoy it.
August 7, 2019
This manga just keeps getting better I have no idea why I never read it before. Thank you Akria Toriyama
October 27, 2019
I can’t stress enough how much fun Dragon Ball is. Goku keeps getting stronger and the weird, crazy turns Toryama takes the story are a blast.
It’s some tail.
It’s some tail.
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August 22, 2021So so funny
February 2, 2023
I think this was my favorite story so far only because there is now a real purpose for the journey. The shenanigans are getting a bit repetitive, but overall this was the more entertaining volume.
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March 27, 2024In which Son Goku and Co. face off against DRACULA… THE INVISIBLE MAN… THE MUMMY…. and THE DEVIL!
July 25, 2024
If you haven't read the Dragon Ball manga....what are you even doing?
April 20, 2021
Toriyama hitting his stride. After being pushed uncomfortably towards shonen action, he makes peace with it and figures out how to mix it back in with his world-spanning adventure side. The cast is fully-established and bounce off each other wonderfully, and while Goku is left alone for a time, he's now fully-formed enough to support a solo adventure. Just great stuff.
February 10, 2024
A continuation of the fun and comical adventures of Goku and crew. Love learning the backstory of all the characters I would watch on the anime. It’s an irresistible nostalgia rush that I am enjoying every step of.
June 15, 2020
This volume wraps up the Red Ribbon story and then handles the 5 battles against the Old Crone's champions. The Red Ribbon stuff was pretty fun adventure stuff, with robots, pirate treasure, a giant octopus, General Blue's paralyzing stare power, Taopaipai the assassin, Korin's tower, and the assault on Red Ribbon base. The Old Crone's champions was a lot of straight up fighting.
I liked this volume slightly less than the first two. There are a few reasons for this that I'll outline.
First, it just wasn't as funny or clever as the first two volumes. It made me laugh less often, and a lot of the humor was downplayed. Part of this is just due to the writing not containing as many jokes, and part of this is due to this volume's focus on action and adventure. There was some humor involved in the visit to Dr. Slump's island. But being unfamiliar with that manga, it was mostly just references I didn't understand or appreciate. Suppa Man did make me laugh though.
In addition, it fell into the boring and predictable cycle that DBZ did so often: a new enemy is hyped up as being very strong, this enemy fights Goku, Goku defeats enemy with very little effort or clever tactics. Goku has a string of very easy victories in this volume. And they don't really come off as funny or clever, so it just feels like Goku beating people up time and time again. That was what basically drove me away from DBZ, so sad to see it happen here as well. Goku is often separated from the rest of the cast as well - making a lot of the fights less interesting or silly, and more straightforward slug fests.
He is able to beat Commander Yellow in one punch, take out Taopaipai the second time with little effort - he's so much stronger that he lets Taopaipai hit him with a huge combo and then just stands up and is like "that was fun." He takes out the entire Red Ribbon army, and the leader without breaking a sweat. He takes on the last 3 champions of the Old Crone putting in minimal effort and thought.
That sort of power difference is always just so cliched and dull to me. If there is absolutely no sense of danger or conflict, there's not much to enjoy in the action. Unless you make it funny and clever - but this volume dropped the ball on that a lot of the time.
There are definitely some highlights, almost all of them involving the other members of the cast. Dragon Ball really shines when the other heroes are involved, or the villains are really fun. Taopaipai is a great character. A mixture of a deadly serious assassin and a ridiculous showman. His method of travel, his obsession with his clothes, and his tongue assassination are all the sort of wackiness I want from Dragon Ball. Pu'ar and Upa fighting Count Dracula was clever and fun, and Yamcha fighting the Invisible Man was a great bit of action comedy.
Overall still a good manga. The art continues to be simple but effective. The world building is still fantastic and fun. And the characters they introduced also are amusing and unique. It is likely my own predisposition to dislike Goku because of DBZ that holds me back on this volume. But I really appreciate the silliness, and comedy of Dragon Ball, and felt that was missing some in this volume. In addition I want more of the rest of the cast, and less of Goku just beating everyone with little effort.
I liked this volume slightly less than the first two. There are a few reasons for this that I'll outline.
First, it just wasn't as funny or clever as the first two volumes. It made me laugh less often, and a lot of the humor was downplayed. Part of this is just due to the writing not containing as many jokes, and part of this is due to this volume's focus on action and adventure. There was some humor involved in the visit to Dr. Slump's island. But being unfamiliar with that manga, it was mostly just references I didn't understand or appreciate. Suppa Man did make me laugh though.
In addition, it fell into the boring and predictable cycle that DBZ did so often: a new enemy is hyped up as being very strong, this enemy fights Goku, Goku defeats enemy with very little effort or clever tactics. Goku has a string of very easy victories in this volume. And they don't really come off as funny or clever, so it just feels like Goku beating people up time and time again. That was what basically drove me away from DBZ, so sad to see it happen here as well. Goku is often separated from the rest of the cast as well - making a lot of the fights less interesting or silly, and more straightforward slug fests.
He is able to beat Commander Yellow in one punch, take out Taopaipai the second time with little effort - he's so much stronger that he lets Taopaipai hit him with a huge combo and then just stands up and is like "that was fun." He takes out the entire Red Ribbon army, and the leader without breaking a sweat. He takes on the last 3 champions of the Old Crone putting in minimal effort and thought.
That sort of power difference is always just so cliched and dull to me. If there is absolutely no sense of danger or conflict, there's not much to enjoy in the action. Unless you make it funny and clever - but this volume dropped the ball on that a lot of the time.
There are definitely some highlights, almost all of them involving the other members of the cast. Dragon Ball really shines when the other heroes are involved, or the villains are really fun. Taopaipai is a great character. A mixture of a deadly serious assassin and a ridiculous showman. His method of travel, his obsession with his clothes, and his tongue assassination are all the sort of wackiness I want from Dragon Ball. Pu'ar and Upa fighting Count Dracula was clever and fun, and Yamcha fighting the Invisible Man was a great bit of action comedy.
Overall still a good manga. The art continues to be simple but effective. The world building is still fantastic and fun. And the characters they introduced also are amusing and unique. It is likely my own predisposition to dislike Goku because of DBZ that holds me back on this volume. But I really appreciate the silliness, and comedy of Dragon Ball, and felt that was missing some in this volume. In addition I want more of the rest of the cast, and less of Goku just beating everyone with little effort.
May 18, 2015
I actually liked this (triple) volume of Dragon Ball a lot. It's much different than the stories that would come to dominate the series later on and Dragon Ball Z.
The first two volumes wrap up the Red Ribbon Army story. It opens with Bulma, Kuririn, and Goku exploring an underwater pirate cave attempting to find the Dragon Ball (how it got there in the past year seems hard to explain). General Blue of the Red Ribbon Army is chasing them, and although Kuririn and Goku put up a fair fight, he telekinetically locks them in place with eye contact. But they escape after causing the cave to collapse and losing all the treasure beneath.
Goku then heads off to the Karin sanctuary for the next Dragon Ball, and meets Upa and his father, the guardian of the sanctuary. The assassin Taopaipai shows up, and kills Upa's father and chumps Goku like he was nothing. The ridiculous power inflation of Dragon Ball is in full swing here, as Taopaipai chumps General Blue, a worthy opponent, by killing him with his tongue. He then almost kills Goku, except for the dragon ball in Goku's pocket that blocked the Dodon-Pa. Goku climbs the Karin tower and trains under Karin for three days, only to descend and easily defeat Taopaipai. How does someone get that much stronger in only three days?
Goku then goes after the Red Ribbon Army, which leads to a funny sequence of Master Roshi and Yamcha gathering a fighting squad to help him, as Goku destroys the entire army singlehandedly, exceeding the rest of the cast's expectations. Goku is by far the strongest character at this point. I did like the conclusion, with Black usurping the leadership role from Red when it's revealed that General Red planned to wish to become taller.
Then to find the last Dragon Ball, which has disappeared from the radar (it's later revealed that Pilaf has it), Goku, Yamcha, Kuririn, Pu'ar, and Upa go to find Baba Uranai, Master Roshi's sister, who can divine a lost object. They have to defeat her 5 champions. This is an amusing mini-tournament, as Dracula bites Kuririn's head, and he bleeds to exhaustion. Upa and Pu'ar team up to defeat Dracula through cleverness. The Invisible Man has Yamcha baffled, until Kuririn has another fourth-wall breaking plan involving Master Roshi and Bulma that is rather inappropriate. Yamcha defeats the Invisible Man, but the Mummy easily outclasses Yamcha. Goku is able to defeat the Mummy with one punch, however (remember that bit about power inflation?). Goku then fights the Devil, who is unable to find even a single speck of evil in Goku, reminding us that we are dealing with a perfectly good character as our hero. And then the masked final opponent turns out to be Son Gohan, after accidentally ripping off Goku's tail. Goku is overjoyed to see his grandfather, and it's a sweet reunion.
I did enjoy this last volume, although I'd enjoy it more if any of the supporting characters were at least in Goku's league. They seem to just be constantly getting beaten down to emphasize how good he is.
Another annoying thing about this volume is it only prints certain pages in color out of the original color pages. Most of the stories are in black and white anyway, so it seems silly to not print all of the color chapters in color.
The first two volumes wrap up the Red Ribbon Army story. It opens with Bulma, Kuririn, and Goku exploring an underwater pirate cave attempting to find the Dragon Ball (how it got there in the past year seems hard to explain). General Blue of the Red Ribbon Army is chasing them, and although Kuririn and Goku put up a fair fight, he telekinetically locks them in place with eye contact. But they escape after causing the cave to collapse and losing all the treasure beneath.
Goku then heads off to the Karin sanctuary for the next Dragon Ball, and meets Upa and his father, the guardian of the sanctuary. The assassin Taopaipai shows up, and kills Upa's father and chumps Goku like he was nothing. The ridiculous power inflation of Dragon Ball is in full swing here, as Taopaipai chumps General Blue, a worthy opponent, by killing him with his tongue. He then almost kills Goku, except for the dragon ball in Goku's pocket that blocked the Dodon-Pa. Goku climbs the Karin tower and trains under Karin for three days, only to descend and easily defeat Taopaipai. How does someone get that much stronger in only three days?
Goku then goes after the Red Ribbon Army, which leads to a funny sequence of Master Roshi and Yamcha gathering a fighting squad to help him, as Goku destroys the entire army singlehandedly, exceeding the rest of the cast's expectations. Goku is by far the strongest character at this point. I did like the conclusion, with Black usurping the leadership role from Red when it's revealed that General Red planned to wish to become taller.
Then to find the last Dragon Ball, which has disappeared from the radar (it's later revealed that Pilaf has it), Goku, Yamcha, Kuririn, Pu'ar, and Upa go to find Baba Uranai, Master Roshi's sister, who can divine a lost object. They have to defeat her 5 champions. This is an amusing mini-tournament, as Dracula bites Kuririn's head, and he bleeds to exhaustion. Upa and Pu'ar team up to defeat Dracula through cleverness. The Invisible Man has Yamcha baffled, until Kuririn has another fourth-wall breaking plan involving Master Roshi and Bulma that is rather inappropriate. Yamcha defeats the Invisible Man, but the Mummy easily outclasses Yamcha. Goku is able to defeat the Mummy with one punch, however (remember that bit about power inflation?). Goku then fights the Devil, who is unable to find even a single speck of evil in Goku, reminding us that we are dealing with a perfectly good character as our hero. And then the masked final opponent turns out to be Son Gohan, after accidentally ripping off Goku's tail. Goku is overjoyed to see his grandfather, and it's a sweet reunion.
I did enjoy this last volume, although I'd enjoy it more if any of the supporting characters were at least in Goku's league. They seem to just be constantly getting beaten down to emphasize how good he is.
Another annoying thing about this volume is it only prints certain pages in color out of the original color pages. Most of the stories are in black and white anyway, so it seems silly to not print all of the color chapters in color.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
July 7, 2014
I enjoyed this volume of Dragon Ball far more than the previous one. One of the reasons because it more or less "ended" the whole plot with the Red Ribbon Army. I never really cared for them.
The main reason is this volume shows how awesome Goku is! Ever since DBZ, I've always loved how Goku gets his ass kicked, trains, and comes back and kicks some ass. It's not that Goku is a great tactician or figures out a weakness. He just comes back stronger than ever. That determination of Goku has always been endearing.
That said, there was one, minor weakness in this volume. While DB has always been far superior to DBZ when it comes to its supporting cast, here, the cast takes a bit of a backseat. It's mainly about Goku. And while I love Kid Goku, I also love most of the cast of DB. They don't play too big a role until the end.
Onward to the next volume...
The main reason is this volume shows how awesome Goku is! Ever since DBZ, I've always loved how Goku gets his ass kicked, trains, and comes back and kicks some ass. It's not that Goku is a great tactician or figures out a weakness. He just comes back stronger than ever. That determination of Goku has always been endearing.
That said, there was one, minor weakness in this volume. While DB has always been far superior to DBZ when it comes to its supporting cast, here, the cast takes a bit of a backseat. It's mainly about Goku. And while I love Kid Goku, I also love most of the cast of DB. They don't play too big a role until the end.
Onward to the next volume...
March 22, 2015
Another great collection! I love these Viz Big anthologies, which include 3 issues in one!! While I still contend that collection 1 was the best, this was super-exciting, and kept me interested until the end.
July 29, 2011
Son Gokus adventures with the Dragon Balls continues. It's still damned good fun, but it's definitely maturing into the drama that I'm guessing DRAGON BALL Z becomes. I'm loving this series and wish that VIZ would put them out quicker!
June 29, 2012
Even though the main character is nearly invincible (one of my pet peeves), I still really enjoy the playful style of the narrative.
July 31, 2022
These books are SO GOOD! I have the rest of the series, books 4 and 5 and I honestly can't wait to read them!
Displaying 1 - 23 of 23 reviews