AI overview
Dragon Ball is a Japanese media franchise that began as a manga series and expanded into anime, films, and merchandise. It matters because it became one of the most influential and commercially successful anime franchises globally, helping to popularize Japanese animation worldwide and shaping the superhero action genre for decades.
AI-generated from the Wikipedia summary — may contain errors.
Article
Dragon Ball (Japanese: ドラゴンボール, Hepburn: Doragon Bōru) is a Japanese media franchise created by Akira Toriyama. The original manga, written and illustrated by Toriyama, was serialized in Weekly Shōnen Jump from 1984 to 1995, with the 519 individual chapters collected in 42 tankōbon volumes by its publisher Shueisha. Dragon Ball was originally inspired by the classical 16th-century Chinese novel Journey to the West, combined with elements of Hong Kong martial arts films. Dragon Ball characters also use a variety of East Asian martial arts styles, including karate and Wing Chun (kung fu). The series follows the adventures of protagonist Son Goku from his childhood through adulthood as he trains in martial arts. He spends his childhood far from civilization until he meets a teenage girl named Bulma, who encourages him to join her quest in exploring the world in search of the seven orbs known as the Dragon Balls, which summon a wish-granting dragon when gathered. Along his journey, Goku makes several other friends, becomes a family man, discovers his alien heritage, and battles a wide variety of villains, many of whom also seek the Dragon Balls.
Toriyama's manga was adapted and divided into two anime series produced by Toei Animation: Dragon Ball and Dragon Ball Z, which together were broadcast in Japan from 1986 to 1989 and 1989 to 1996, respectively. Additionally, the studio has developed 21 animated feature films and three television specials, as well as an anime sequel series titled Dragon Ball GT (1996–1997) and two anime midquel series titled Dragon Ball Super (2015–2018) and Dragon Ball Daima (2024–2025). From 2009 to 2015, a revised version of Dragon Ball Z aired in Japan under the title Dragon Ball Kai, as a recut that follows the manga's story more faithfully by removing most of the anime-exclusive material, known as filler. Several companies have developed various types of merchandise based on the series, leading to a large media franchise that includes films (both animated and live action), collectible trading card games, action figures, collections of soundtracks, and numerous video games. All these have contributed to making Dragon Ball one of the highest-grossing media franchises of all time.