A grand adventure starring a boy with a monkey tail who is a master martial artist goes on an adventure to find the seven magical dragon balls.
General Information:
- Series: Dragon Ball (Book 1)
- Price: $8.49
- Paperback: 192 pages
- Publisher: VIZ Media LLC; 2nd edition (March 2003)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 1569319200
- ISBN-13: 978-1569319208
Plot:
The plot of volume one in the Dragonball manga series starts with a young Goku who is practicing his martial arts in a remote area, living in the jungle training. He is a peculiar boy with a monkey tail but is clearly gifted at martial arts. There is where he runs into Bulma, a young lady who is travelling looking for the seven dragon balls scattered across the globe in order to have a mystical dragon grant her a wish. Goku’s grandpa left him a dragonball and she tries to get Goku to give it to her. He refuses and she tries to persuade him using feminine wiles (does not work as Goku has zero contact with the outside world at this point). Bulma then convinces Goku to go on this quest with her to keep the dragonballs safe and find the rest of them which he is glad to do! Eventually he meets other key characters such as Krillin and Master Roshi and acquires a magical staff and a flying nimbus (cloud) as his tools besides his incredible strength and great martial arts skills.
Reading and Interest Level:
This manga has a marketed reading and interest level for 4-6 graders and ages 9-11. I believe that the writing level may be appropriate for that age but the content within it has a lot of adult innuendos within the text and may be more appropriate for 6-12 graders.
Evaluation:
Dragon Ball Volume 1 is one of the most well written/illustrated manga that a library can own. This manga was the first volume of an immense fan base that has stretched multiple generations and had at least 3 sequel series to date. It is a mixture of action/adventure, martial arts and fighting, and comedy rolled into one series. Volume one in particular is effective and valuable because Goku is setting out on his own finally and learning about the world right at the age a lot of middle schoolers are also starting to learn more about the world as their knowledge and life experience starts expanding. They are confident just like Goku but easily influenced and may be misguided on certain facets of life such as Goku is. They can grow up with Goku and watch his transformations (literally in some cases) as they also grow and transform. Overall it is a very effective book as it reaches so many readers.
Bibliotherapeutic Value:
The bibliotherapeutic value of this book stems from the relatable characters and the way the story is written. Goku is someone who has little outside knowledge of the world but he does have certain skill sets. He goes off and learns while going on a grand adventure. Throughout the adventure friendship and morality are all themes that Goku must deal with as the real world tests him in ways that even his super strength and martial arts skills may not be able to easily deal with. All of this is very relatable for readers of all ages but particularly middle school and early high school students.
Issues Present:
The issues present in Dragon Ball Volume 1 that cause the book to be controversial and repeatedly challenged stem from nudity, inappropriate sexual innuendos, violence, and unacceptable per religious beliefs. This book has been challenged and banned multiple times throughout its existence and will likely continue to be.
Defending the Title:
Now defending this book generally starts with where it is located. My library shelves it in the teen collection but I have seen many librarians put it in the juvenile manga sections and that is where some issues may occur. The nudity in this book is not drawn in any sexual manner as Goku runs around naked in the jungle. At one point this becomes a running joke in the book as Bulma forces him to get dressed. The sexual innuendos are not something a young child will likely understand as they are extremely subtle in nature, likely to appeal to some of the older readers as comedic relief. There is a lot of violence in the book as he is a super strengthened martial artist but then is little to no blood in the fight scenes and no one dies in them. The final issue of it being unacceptable from a religious point of view falls under the library bill of rights and how others do not have the right to censor based off of personal feelings or opinions.
Book Talk Idea:
The book talk idea that I would run with this manga would be for my readers to focus in on Goku and how he handles what should be normal interactions within the civilized world. First off, a lot of it will provide some comedic relief but it also is a great insight of how a child with limited knowledge no matter how powerful will look goofy as he is learning about the world in a grander scope. They will be inquisitive and possible do unexpected things (such as patting genital areas to check peoples gender) in order to further themselves. As this is a manga there are no page numbers but there are many instances throughout the book that can support a discussion on this topic.
Genre:
The genre of this book is Teen Manga with subject matter being adventure, friendship, fighting, and comedy.
Similar Reads:
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Author’s Website:
There is no official website but the author does use a twitter account!
https://twitter.com/rptoriyama?lang=en
Awards Won:
Top Selling Manga Series
Was the inspiration of many other top selling series
Professional Reviews:
https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/industry-news/comics/index.html
www.rationalmagic.com/Comics/DragonBall1.html
Why I chose to read this series?
I was originally going to use this series as the basis behind the controversial book challenge presentation before I read Living Dead Girl. This series is one of the best series written and drawn and continues to be one of the most circulated items within our teen collection. We rarely actually see more than a volume or two within the shelves as this book and all of the subsequent books are almost always checked out. This book is an inspiration for may series and is one of the greatest books to give to reluctant readers, especially male reluctant readers.
Librarianship 