RIP Akira Toriyama. Thank you for the incredible manga and wonderful franchise you gave to all of us.

The manga is the definitive version. Toriyama had a skill for dynamic illustration like few in the industry. There's a reason when this man was at his peak, he was essentially without competition.

The way Toriyama made the action flow from panel to panel made reading it very enjoyable. You can practically feel it when you read, that's how good it's conveyed

It amazes me how many DB fans don’t realize the late great Toriyama had little to do with the anime. The manga is his work!

I recently read the manga within the past year, I agree with all of the points you made. Seeing the original work by Toriyama himself is reason enough to read the manga.

"I was elected to lead, not to read." -Arnold Schwarzenegger in the Simpsons Movie

The manga is so enjoyable to read that you can get lost in the panels admiring the art and storytelling. It's super addictive to read that you can finish reading all the dragon ball volumes before you know it. It's a totally different experience from its anime counterpart.

They did Future Gohan better in the TV special than the Manga. He held his own pretty well against the androids despide having one arm (definetly Kamiccolo level unlike his manga counterpart where he is weak). His death hit a lot of people because he's the reason Trunks went Super Sayan 🔥

Currently walking on the treadmill. W CONTENT THO RIP TORIYAMA

Did you just tell DB fans to actually read for once?

Sometimes it takes me over a week just to draw a single character, so you gotta appreciate & respect Toriyama's ability to do whole chapters week to week.

Mike your passion for Dragon Ball was on fire here!🔥

I have to agree. Like many others, I started out watching DBZ on Toonami. I eventually started watching the Original JPN with subtitles. That was how it was for many years. One day, I decided I wanted the Season 2 DVD and ended up going to the mall to get it. They didn't have it. In fact, all they had were the Androids/Cell DVDs. I was a bit salty and was ready to go home when I noticed these Dragon Ball Z books on a shelf in the corner. I picked it up. Felt a bit odd because I was reading it the wrong way. I had never touched a Manga prior to this. Despite that, the artwork of Majin Vegeta beating up on Fat Boo was amazing. The other book (Vol. 24) had Gotenks on the cover. I started looking through that and saw Super Saiyan 3 Goku beating up on Fat Boo and was loving the art and dialogue. I ended up buying both Vol. 23 and 24. Those were the only ones there that day. I never looked back since. I eventually bought them all over time. I'm so happy that particular store didn't have the DVD I was looking for that day. If it did, I probably wouldn't have continued looking around. I love the Anime, but the Manga was a game changer. It enhanced my understanding of the series in general, which made discussions around it much more fun.

Mike, you've inspired me to read the manga. I've always been on the fence about it and have bought various Shonen Jump in the past but I've never sat down and read the entire Dragonball manga. Thanks for putting this out there and thanks for putting "hardcore Dragonball fans" in check.

Mike I don’t think a person has to read the manga to love Dragon Ball some people are just anime fans. I know what you are saying but I don’t like to get into debate of what is a real fan. It’s like some people think that to be a real baseball fan you have to spend thousands of dollars in merch and go and spend more money on tickets, some people don’t have the money others don’t have the time and other just don’t like the manga medium. Yes, Akira Toriyama’s heart is in the manga but so is in the anime and the anime also has the heart of a lot of voice actors, animators that were inspired by Akira Toriyama. Would I recommend people read the manga if they want to see how awesome it is, definitely. Would I say they are not real fans and they do not love Akira Toriyama’s work because they are not interested in the manga, No!! Because I started with the anime and it wasn’t until recently (a couple of years back) that I got to read the manga and I still loved Dragon Ball with a passion.

Volume 26 aka the final volume of the original manga run covering the end of the Buu Saga was my first ever manga I ever owned back sometime during middle school. To this day I still like referencing the fact that the manga translation called Vegito "Vegerot" xD Later on in high school I got ahold of an uncensored english version of volume 1 which I'm pretty sure is a somewhat rare variant. The uncensored part being the Bulma shower scene when Yamcha was sneaking around which in newer releases used the classic "anime steam censorship".

I started leaning japanese just to read this story from the original source, I even have the original manga run from japan.

Every certain amount of years I’ll reread or rewatch the series. I actually kind of love having my manga and watching the original Z anime scene by scene and seeing the differences and similarities.

One very important detail I want to give Toriyama credit for is his visual storytelling. It doesn't matter what language it is or what is translated into, you can tell a story just based on the characters and actions alone and still get a chuckle out of it, or suspense! He is the type of Storyteller that doesn't need a lot of words and narrative to convey a message! He captures it all wonderfully through visuals alone❤

Thank you for the review, I just got the first volume and it’s really good

If I had a nickel for every time I went to the library to take out some manga I could probably buy my own library lol. I’m super thankful that the library system is so vast and can borrow/lend to other cities. My branch has almost nothing, but you go online or even to the front desk and just ask them nicely if they can look for it and boom! Two weeks later a whole bunch of free manga.

Buying the complete manga almost 20 years ago was one of the best decisions I could ever make. I already liked the DB anime back then, but the manga made me really love the franchise. I remember reading one of the 42 tankobon every week to not burn myself out and it was such an amazing experience. I wish I could go back in time and read the DB manga for the first time again.

Good video as always Mike.

Love your conversations minus the last rant you had. But good content nonetheless. Keep up the great work.

this is why i chose to read this amazing story in manga form. im collecting and reading dragon ball aswell, im collectinmg the single volumes.

I've read much more manga (and comics) than I've seen anime and that's the same with Dragon Ball as well. I first read trough the original Dragon Ball manga almost 20 years ago when it was first released in my country. Toriyama's panel and page layouts are simply amazing and one of the greatest influences for my own comic projects.

Reading it all the way through as a pre-teen and a teen, back in the 90's, reading it now, together with my 6-year old son. Same magic. Also, referencing it A LOT when teaching my Literature and Mythology classes.

I first read the manga thanks to my older cousin who let me read it on his phone during church service ( my dad didn't like I was doing it during church) so I only got to read it up to the 22nd tenkaichi Budokai. My parents got me the first box set for Christmas of 2020 and the second one once I graduated high school in 2022. Once I finished I have vastly preferred it to anime. Although I do read it with music. Kikuchi, faulconer and yamamoto

Just for the title page artwork alone I'd recommend getting the manga. So much of Toriyama's amazing work is missed by those who only watched the anime. As great as the anime was, there artwork didn't always match up to the legend himself.

I own all 42 volumes of Dragon Ball manga. Bought it when it came out in the early 2000s translated in Finnish (in, into, not sure about the preposition, I don't speak English that well XD) They released 1 volume every month

I found out I had symptoms of dyslexia at work when I worked the cash register I’d read the customers change to them backwards and it doesn’t help I get severe social anxiety and I’m speed talking. It seems to happen that I notice more so when I’m under stresses like that.

I've never read the manga but I'm a HUGE Dragon Ball Z nerd and I know there's differences between the two and that Dragon Ball Z Kai was more manga accurate but I still hear it's not a perfect adaptation to the manga but I know the story is essentially still the same such as the Gohan is taken by Raditz in the start of Z, Picollo trains Gohan, the saiyans come to earth, The Z warriors fight the saiyans, then go to Namek etc, etc come and all that stuff but yes I know the manga sheds light on the anime series but I don't think people should feel forced to read the manga since there's some subtle differences between the manga and the anime. I think I definitely should read the manga but I don't feel like I need to thanks to the fans and KZfaqrs that have already made content and the own conclusions I've made myself. I don't want to lose the characters I already have in my mind about each one. LIke I was digging for some content on Future Trunks and since I was a kid I've been a huge fan of Trunks he's definitely in my top 10 favorite DB characters and it's insane when I realized Trunks didn't do as much as I thought he did and when you listen or read back through his dialogue you start to notice wow this character isn't quite as interesting as I thought he was when I was 12 same with a lot of other characters. I even bet there wouldn't be that many people who hate on Goku or other characters if not for the internet. I know this comment is long lol it's definitely not a hate comment I just felt like sharing my thoughts. I just don't think it's essential to be DB fan if you never read the manga I see a person as a fan if they just love DB for what it is and how they interpret the characters and the show.

It's sucks that there is no physical release in english that keeps the colored chapters in color

Hey Mike! Love your content! And the Manga is amazing 🔥🔥🔥

Well, they say Dragon Ball fans can't read...

As someone that has watched and re-watched the anime various times, I can confirm that the manga is a totally different beast all on its own, and it's so SO good. Anyone that considers themselves a fan of Dragon Ball has to read the whole thing from beginning to end at least once. It's worth it.

I haven't read the manga yet, but I'm definitely going to start soon! As for the issues that you ran into, it's basically the same that I run into when it comes to the YGO! Manga.

Loved reading the entire manga as when I got to it in the 2000s it made me realize just how much Akira Toriyama put into the story with his art, dialogue, and even the small tidbits like the front small text in the beginning of the volume. Plus, it made me aware that it was really just one big story as it was the anime where it was split from db to dbz. Also, the dialogue was so much better closer to the Japanese as it was the 2000s once again when I started to watch the series in Japanese.

I’ll go against the grain here and say that my first true exposure to DB came when the show was in limbo after being dumped from syndication and no one knew if anyone would pick it back up. I decided to hop online and grab scanlations and never needed to finish the show after that. The anime ceased to exist for me. And since I read from the beginning I knew why Tenshinhan was a big deal.

The manga is Toriyama’s true version. If you wanna get what dragon ball is, read the manga. But Toriyama has also stated that the anime is in and of itself its own version, that is also the true version of dragon ball. All in all, both media are great, but reading the manga truly gives you insight into how amazing of an artist and writer(yes, writer) that Toriyama was.

I'm looking for a new job and am planning on rewarding myself with buying the full colored version of the manga when I do. I haven't read it yet but really look forward to it

There was only the manga in Sweden. It single handedly put the concept of manga and anime in everyone's minds

I’ve been a dragon ball fan since the early 2000’s and I have to admit after watching it so many times I’ve never read the manga. I assumed it would be just a copy of what I’ve already seen. Been heavy into reading Baki and Hajime No Ippo. But when I finish reading berserk I’ll get back to dragon ball. A big flaw with me is I’ve always brushed off the OG dragon ball in favor of DBZ. I’ll try to keep an open mind

The manga is amazing, one of the best things about it is the pacing. For many the anime moves too slow but the manga by comparison move fast(of course this will vary by your speed of reading).

It is definitely something I intend to read at some point, and currently have it bookmarked. So it will definitely happen one day. I tend to have a few interests though which I want to pursue. The manga I am currently more focused on trying to catch up on is One Piece. I am up to chapter 914, so maybe when that happens I can start Dragon Ball.

I’ve bought the entire manga twice so Mike still has me beat hahah, got the collector’s edition boxes and the uncensored Shonen Jump 3-in-1 volumes on my shelf rn, plan to read them with my daughter when she is a little older :]

I actually am working on this, I've read a good bit of the dragon ball manga but now I'm gonna be grabbing the start of Dragon Ball Z and Naruto from my library and at least finish dragon ball. (They don't have OG dragon ball 😭)

I’ve read the entire manga 3 times and amazes me how many people never touched it! The art is just out of this planet, toriyama flow is just extraordinary, a 10/10 for me! I couldnt agree more with you my friend

That’s it. I have been a huge db fan since middle school yet have never read the manga. I’m gonna do it now tho. Thank you!

I could understand like 15 years ago , but not now a days . There’s so many resources for manga now .my local rural library even has manga rental . You can arg anything these days too

Love it. I want the color prints

I feel like we shouldn’t be surprised that Dragon Ball fans haven’t read the manga tho. 90% of them include the ones who have never or even think about watching the first series rather than Z. As a huge dragon ball fan I just have to be more self aware with how the majority of the fanbase actually are as people

The manga is good but I feel like some people over praising it just cause of Toriyama’s death. The manga is more gory and I’d say from the saiyan to Namek saga in the manga is better. But from the Cell saga to Buu saga the animation brings the fights to life along with the music whether you watch it in Japanese or English

The masterwork as he crafted it. Arigatō, Toriyama-sensei.

Thank you for this. I’m going to start reading the manga soon. Do you know how much of the digital version through the Shonen Jump app is censored?

it's been a long time since I've read a manga,but I haven't been able to go to a bookstore in a few years (I know I can just read manga online) but I love physical copies alot more,but since I know it's going to be impossible to own the entire sets of manga for the dragon ball franchise,I think I'll just read them all online

I've read through the manga start to finish only two times online but I have physical copies of the full set coming in a few days

Mike I own volumes 1-15 of the original inner pages though the covers are in colour but the inner pages of my Dragonball manga are only in black and white and the same goes for Dragonball Z except it's book are in 3in1 comic book understand and so far it's only volumes 16-17-18, 19-20-21, 22-23-24 and 25-26-27 the other 3in1 book volumes will come along soon in fact they might be for my 33rd birthday in June 5th later from Amazon UK this 2024 as presents counting book volumes 28-29-30, 31-32-33, 34-35-36, 37-38-39 and 40-41-42 soon that is here I may just have to wait until June comes along later this summer 2024 Heck I'm still waiting for the Spring still being in the winter season here in March Currently. Reading takes time even in my head and I don't know how you are able to find the innard pages in colour online infact it amazes and surprises me how and I'm only going to read Dragonball Super Manga online here in Britain on a laptop computer. I'm not collecting Dragonball Super manga books I've got enough Dragonball and Dragonball Z 3in1 manga books her already In fact in the coloured on manga pages on your screen I'm still noticing Great Saiyaman Gohan's orange bandana and Semi-perfect Cell's partially yellow head and Kibito's Purple skin and Young East Shin/Supreme Kai's pink skin. I know i have Aspergers Syndrome here but i don't have and don't suffer from dyslexia

Do a read along of the Manga from beginning to end in honor of the man himself I'd join if you did it live or weekly just do it !!! Lol your videos are always good to watch

Are there any differences in editions/English translations etc? I’d love to go back and start from the very start and have the best experience possible.

I haven't watched the video yet but I am currently saving to get the manga sets of OG Dragon Ball through Z. It's a decent chunk of change.

I picked it up to do my annual reread after hearing of Toriyama’s passing and it was a little hard to get through that first chapter this time around.

I have been a very big anime for a long time but have only recently gotten into reading manga. Super is the first one I’ve read consistently. I want to start Berserk soon. But with the passing of Toriyama Sensei I’ve been inspired to buy all of the Dragonball mangas.

YES!!! The anime is cool, but you'll never realize how great Dragon Ball is until you read the manga.

RIP Akira Toriyama... 😭😭😭 Great video, thank you ! 🙏❤

Gohan breaking the fourth wall was also done in the anime! But very nice video 😎 I read every manga page ✌️

It was over 5years old when I last read my 42 volumes of the Dragon Ball manga. I don't know if the version I owns have any speeches/quotes from Toriyama himself, but I look for them when reading the whole story again.

Need to read technical manuals, other things that are self-help, and then last fiction & history. For fiction & history I would rather read things I have a lack of knowledge about already. If I had the oppurtunity in the 90's I would have but after hitting adulthood I do not have time so as stated above. I listeen to peeps like you for information past what I remember while doing work, life and reading things that are higher on the list. If work ever drops maybe I will go back and read the manga. Always knew they were more graphical. Questions at 14:20 was the kid stronger than the mom, since we can not see her lower half but can see the whole baby or were the vilians just nicer to the baby? Feel like her death was the worst of the three. Kind of want the story behind the scene.

that Majora's Mask wallpaper is awesome

I read the manga. Started reading after the frieza saga aired for the first time in the UK for the first time. I have all mangas now.

I just started reading the manga for the first time last night. The art is amazing

I read the manga itself but even sometimes you have issues like the viz translation (I don't read in Japanese) & some errors toriyama made e.g. trunks referring to android 19 & 20 as 17 & 18 intially so I think it's fine to enjoy dragon ball content in variety of different mediums whether anime or manga (why not both? 😂) especially 😅 remember toriyama is still human who can make mistakes thus the manga isn't perfect either (not trying to disrespect the guy or his work don't get me wrong).

Im kinda in between. I only have 8 volumes of the manga. Tho most of that is volumes of super. I only have 3 volumes of Z. I originally started about 15 years ago getting them. But shortly after the bookstore I was buying them from closed and im in the middle of nowhere. Eventually i gave up til a few years back when I started getting the moro arc. Eventually i want to get all of Z but undecided which version i want.

At 11:11 and 17:00, I thought you wanted to show the angry and pitiful face of goku, but it didn't show up? You definitely know which image I'm talking about

I haven't read the manga but i have heard summiries of it. Its just my preferred method of taking things in but im planning to read it in its entirety real soon. Especially given the fact we recently we lost the great man himself rip akira toriyama

Ill admit I haven't read it, but I also take the time to gather information from different sources before I speak on anything DB related.

I've watched every Dragon Ball series multiple times, but i have only read a bit of the manga (end of Frieza to the end of the Cell saga) back in the early 2000's when Shonen Jump existed.

Does anyone know how often or when manga box sets restock, I’m looking to collect the db and dbz box sets but they’re currently out of stock.

Joey Wheeler ah man now we need that Yugioh content for sure to ask who screws up worst Vegeta or Kiba.

Honestly I have read the DB manga, though haven't read Super. And when I did read it I honestly just felt like it didn't really offer me much.. it WAS fun, but it was just like watching the anime again but with way less content. I did enjoy it though and one day I will read it again.

I hope we eventually get a fully uncut version of the manga

I recently finished reading the manga and it's just an all-around superior experience because the rhythm is perfect. Every panel feels purposeful, especially during the fights, and Toriyama's art is so sharp and expressive. I'd only argue the best way to experience the Majin buu saga in particular is the DBZ Kai version. In the manga it feels too rushed and careless, like Toriyama just didn't care that much anymore. Kai finds the sweetspot, imo.

The manga was the first way I experienced the complete dragon ball story. Didn’t watch the anime in its entirety till Kai dropped.

Gohan did point out krillins hair growth but it was worded differently in the English dub

Long story short I haven’t been able to read the whole manga but I did own the last couple volumes back in the day. I was able to buy the manga box set a couple years ago and it’s been swell reading it in the whole totality.

Is it possible to buy coloured manga irl? Because i've recently been to a shop where they had manga but they only had it in black and white

Anyone know where I can buy that Toon Link poster?

Comparing the manga and anime is like an black and white photo from the 30s vs a color photo of the same time, or a late era 2D SNES/Genesis/GBA/Saturn to a PS2 3D game. The DB manga is close to as good as you can get with black and white manga, and there's just a timelessness that's not there with the anime. The music is good, but its still clearly very tv sized, and the animation and backgrounds don't add that much besides color and voices when compared to modern anime (which uses a lot of CGI) or big budget 2D stuff of the time like Miyazaki. I feel like mid era DBZ is when the anime really evolves into its own thing.

I really wish you would bring back the series were you was reading through the manga

Dragon ball is awesome, yo

Gotta be honest, the anime Buu saga is way better than the manga. The manga has so many off screen fights and moments that were awesome in the anime but only like 4 panels in the manga. And of course the story just isnt there. The anime carries the arc with awesome animation, music, and voice acting. The manga however cannot replicate those factors

Funny enough, I’ve been a fan since of DB since I was around 5 (26 now), and with how much I LOVE this franchise, I never had an urge to read the manga tbh (grew up on the OG Funimation/Toonami dub). Watched DB in JP for the first time with Super, and went back to watch Z in JP. In terms of manga, I’ve only read the beginning of Super. It’s somethin’, fr. I 100% enjoy DB in JP, over English (American btw.)

I haven't finished the manga yet, I'll get around to it at some point. I'm just not a manga guy personally, want to see the action in motion. Only reason why I'm reading Super is that we still haven't got the anime back. 😭

4:48 gotta love alternate colors 👀

I was once a young DB manga denier and just watched the anime.. finally got around to reading it and it was even better than the anime the pace is nonstop fun. It’s the only way I pickup the story again nowadays

I used to read Shonen Jump a lot as a kid, and my parents bought me a ton of the DB manga but I think I ended up selling them or giving them away as I got older. I wish I’d kept them - I have the Shonen jump app now, but it’s not quite the same.

I’m thinking about buying the whole box sets of db and dbz

Coulda swore the Kanzenban were newer editions of the manga with a few volumes inside. Also coulda swore that the colored scans you use are from the Official Digital Color editions, fan translated.

I said the same thing about Naruto. So much misinformation and just general lack of understanding of the series comes from the fact they have never actually read what kishimoto wrote

Takahashi sensei Rumiko chan also drew characters with the full rainbow of hair colors