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Dragon Ball Z #1-26

Dragon Ball Z Complete Box Set: Vols. 1-26 with premium

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Goku and friends battle intergalactic evil in the greatest action-adventure-fantasy-comedy-fighting series ever!

Son Goku is the greatest hero on Earth. Five years after defeating the demon king Piccolo, he’s grown up and had a family—he’s married, and he has a child, Son Gohan. But what is the real reason for Goku’s incredible strength? A visitor from outer space arrives bearing terrible news—Goku is an alien, and the visitor, Raditz, is Goku’s brother! When Raditz turns out to be a ruthless killer, Goku must fight his incredibly strong brother to save his family and the entire human race. A surprising alliance may be Earth’s last Goku will team up with his old enemy Piccolo...archenemies united to save the world!

The Dragon Ball Z Complete Box Set contains all 26 volumes of the manga that propelled the global phenomenon that started with Dragon Ball into one of the world’s most recognizable and best-selling manga. Also includes an exclusive double-sided poster and collector’s booklet featuring fun Dragon Ball Z trivia and guides as well as an interview with its legendary creator.

5104 pages, Paperback

First published February 3, 2009

19 people are currently reading
428 people want to read

About the author

Akira Toriyama

1,917 books1,726 followers
Akira 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.

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5 stars
377 (77%)
4 stars
76 (15%)
3 stars
24 (4%)
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 33 reviews
Profile Image for Drew Canole.
3,168 reviews44 followers
May 21, 2023
Finally read Dragon Ball Z. This was a series I'd always wanted to watch... all the cool kids were into it! But besides for a few random episodes on TV I never got much into it.

I would definitely recommend reading Dragon Ball first, and would probably put that as a better series overall. This one kind of fizzles out a bit near the last few story arcs.

The introduction of the Saiyans, the battles on Namek with Frieza was all amazing. I'd have to say the first half of this series is the strongest. I'd give the first half a 5 and the second half a strong 4.

Once Trunks comes in and introduces the Androids, things fizzle out. I did like the Cell arc but it felt a bit repetitive (just one super powerful dude that Goku and co. need to power up for and defeat). After Cell things seem to repeat once again with Boo being super powerful.

The series comes to a really great conclusion with the Boo arc and we see what the gang are up to in the near future after that too.
137 reviews10 followers
November 5, 2018
I was a little bit disappointed with DBZ after DB, but i slightly expected how it'd turn out. As it progresses, the series becomes obsessed with increasing Goku and his ilk's 'strength' through various Deus Ex Machina' s, and the entirety of Toriyama's effort is to draw male action figures with rectangular chests delivering punches (or Kamehahas). Over time the series takes a very obvious toll on him, with his humour completely vanishing towards the end and he sounding like a short broken record, portraying his own (originally inspiring) protagonist as the paragon of exercising hard in the world (impressing his peers, teacher, earthlings, lord of earth, lord of world and lord of lords in the way (you can see how it drags on. Toriyama first uses adjectives, then brings in a unit to measure power, has it revved up , then introduces another one, and finally moves to adjectives again)). On a seperate note, the series os replete with misogyny and harrassment and the frequency with which old lechers appear reminds you of a certain movie industry. I dont mean to undermine Toriyama's obvious effort in drawing explosive battles with great cleanliness, but i wish he had hired a storyteller
(Edit: spellings)
Profile Image for Anne keijser.
75 reviews2 followers
April 11, 2025
Ik deed er een jaar over, maaar nu is ie eindelijk uit. DBZ is een van de eerste anime en manga die ik heb gekeken en gelezen en om de volledige serie de hebben in mn boekenkast is een zege (en een blessing in disguise, want nu heb ik minder plek voor andere boeken) :))
Profile Image for Jesse Graczyk.
108 reviews
May 6, 2024
I felt like I was stepping back into my 8 year old self reading this and couldn't have loved the experience more. It was very cool to see where the show was adapted from. RIP Akira, thanks for giving us the world of dragon ball.
Profile Image for Iain.
85 reviews177 followers
December 30, 2019
Son Goku is the greatest hero on Earth. Five years after defeating the demon king Piccolo, he’s grown up and had a family—he’s married, and he has a child, Son Gohan. But what is the real reason for Goku’s incredible strength? A visitor from outer space arrives bearing terrible news—Goku is an alien, and the visitor, Raditz, is Goku’s brother! When Raditz turns out to be a ruthless killer, Goku must fight his incredibly strong brother to save his family and the entire human race. A surprising alliance may be Earth’s last hope: Goku will team up with his old enemy Piccolo…archenemies united to save the world!
Profile Image for ellis.
529 reviews6 followers
July 31, 2018
this series is a ride. the humor - especially the subtler stuff - was top tier and the art was really amazing.
(i skimmed the fights, tbh)
i really hoped that we'd get more domestic/high school type drama when gohan went to school, but it wasn't meant to be.
the characters from this series are so pure of heart and well written. they're genuinely good and it's great to see, especially in the most popular manga of all time.
now back to my regularly scheduled shoujo.
32 reviews
December 10, 2018
This is one of the most revolutionary manga ever made. It was a fantastic read and I am well aware of this series faults, but I don't care much about them because of what this series did for manga. It literally revolutionized the medium creating a path for every major shonen series after it to follow. Not the best manga ever made but still very enjoyable and good. Overall I would give this a 9/10 (this is both my dragon ball and dragon ball z manga review)
Profile Image for MJ.
128 reviews7 followers
November 15, 2022
It's all about giving it all you've got.


Favorite quotes:


"Power comes in response to a need, not a desire. You have to create that need."


"You'll laugh at your fears when you find out who you are."


"My greatest opponent is myself."


"But really what's draining your strength is your own doubt."


"It's not over when you lose, it's over when you quit."

....
Profile Image for Seban Pulickan.
13 reviews
December 26, 2024
Man,...was this beautiful. I love the original, but hands down Z was better. It has the strong points of the original, fun and comedic but deathly serious and emotional when it needed to be. There are moments I will cherish on my death bed. Z isn't just a product of it's time either. It still holds up and is far better than the majority of Manga that took inspiration from it afterwards.
Profile Image for Aditya Watts.
69 reviews42 followers
March 22, 2018
I loved this so much. What a great artist Akira Toriyama is! One of the few experiences in my life i've had tears in my eyes as I bid this universe goodbye :)
Profile Image for me22luss .
20 reviews
July 3, 2025
I re-read this series more times than I can count. Just recently re-read as an adult and it’s amazing how they still hold up. Deserves its place as one of the best Shonen fighting series of all time.
Profile Image for Jacob James.
68 reviews1 follower
November 27, 2025
Demolished a 26-volume book series in days get on my level (this was almost entirely pictures and it was fantastic). The inner child in me has been sated.
Profile Image for Ciaran Hyland.
8 reviews
December 22, 2025
The Saiyan, Namek into the Freeza arc is Toriyama at his absolute finest. The following arcs are flawed but still tremendous fun.
Profile Image for Max McKinnon.
216 reviews7 followers
April 3, 2021
I’ve read this three times now. (This review is for both dragon ball and dragon ball z mangas)

Once as a kid who loved Dragon Ball Z on cartoon network but didn’t see or understand much of it, I went to Barnes and Noble and read the whole thing in a day. Unfortunately Barnes and Noble didn’t have every book in the series so I missed some

I again read it in college, this time everything, from Dragon Ball’s stories of Goku and Bulma to Dragon Ball Z with Frieza, Cell, and Buu.

This weekend I binged through the whole series again, up until the new Dragon Ball Super books that I’m excited to get into now.

There’s so many nice memories in these stories. So much intensity, struggle, and progression. The philosophy scattered in is really great too, such as an Android being the one that snaps Gohan into harnessing his emotion.

Dragon Ball is more of the backstory of Goku.

There are a number of metaphors of the journey being the destination. Two examples are when Goku dies and has to run the 1 million km road above hell to meet his next trainer, doesn’t need any water/food/sleep since already dead, the challenge is pushing harder and harder, and that itself is the training. Similarly with the legendary Z sword, Gohan training to pull it out, as well as training to use the stupidly heavy thing, was the reward itself. It turned out the sword was just a dumb very heavy sword.

Lots of comedy as well. The weigh in world tournament where everyone was trying to hide their real strength on the measurement device then Vegeta simply destroyed it was so funny.

Also it was a great scene funny and feel good scene where Hercule takes credit for the victory over Cell, befriends the nice Buu, and through this he is actually the one that helps defeat evil Buu by asking his fans to hold up their arms after Goku and Vegeta fail to get any response on their same request.

Adding to the top all time list. Looking forward to my fourth read through at some point.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
17 reviews
October 1, 2019
My first attempt at reading manga ( or comic/graphic novel of any kind) and I only choose Dragonball as my brother has gotten me hooked on the anime. I was not disappointment ( except maybe only when it ended). The art work ( in my opinion anyway) is great considering the amount of expected fight scenes and does not over power the story, rather the story is told ( with fantastic pacing) with both the dialogue and the art ( well duh I guess thats what a good comic/manga/ graphic novel does). All I know is that I enjoyed this box set immensely and read all volumes back to back and you know its good when all you thick about at work all day is going home and snuggling in your favorite chair with a cuppa, a blanket and both your cat and dog and getting stuck into the next volume.
A must read for any fan of the anime who will enjoy the pretty much non stop action and who likes to appreciate the origin of their favorite show. Also a great introduction into the manga world and has left me wanting to explore more.
Profile Image for Oliver Bateman.
1,519 reviews84 followers
September 2, 2017
not as good as the piccolo jr arc that preceded it, but everything up until the end of the cell saga is solid. after that, the humor of the earlier series returns, albeit in a context that makes little sense.
Profile Image for Vaith Schmitz.
3 reviews
January 11, 2021
Goku is an adult with children and the stakes are getting much more serious than in the previous Dragon Ball series. The enemies Goku and the gang are facing this time around no longer only threaten earth, but the whole universe. The fights are getting longer, enemies have more phases and we learn a lot about Goku's backstory and how he came to be the strongest in the universe.

A great finish to the series, with whacky, evil characters and even more absurd displays of otherworldly strength than in the preceding series.
50 reviews2 followers
June 5, 2024
Because of the passing of Akira Toriyama Sensei I decided to honor him by reading all of the Dragon Ball manga. I watched DB and DBZ anime when I was in college and have always been a fan, but never had the chance to read the manga up until now. I read all of it, and loved it. I hadn't watched Super, but that's also something I'm doing now. Reading it in manga form is a little bit different, but you can appreciate the genius of Toriyama, the graphic design, the values, the fun, it was a great experience.
Profile Image for Derek Padula.
Author 22 books26 followers
August 25, 2012
The iconic shonen manga that all others are compared to. The best of the best.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 33 reviews

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