Dragon Ball (ドラゴンボール Doragon Bōru?) is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Akira Toriyama. Inspired by the Chinese folk novel Journey to the West, the series follows the adventures of Son Goku from his childhood through old age as he goes through several trainings and the research for seven mystical objects known as the Dragon Balls, which are supposed to grant any wish.
The manga was serialized in the Weekly Shōnen Jump magazine from 1984 through 1995, and its 519 individual chapters were published into 42 tankōbon volumes by Shueisha. It is licensed for an English language release in North America by Viz Media, in the United Kingdom by Gollancz Manga, and in Australia and New Zealand by Chuang Yi. Dragon Ball was adapted into three anime series, seventeen animated feature films, three television specials, a collectible trading card game, and a large number of video games. An American live-action film began production in 2002 and is slated for release on April 10, 2009.
Dragon Ball is one of the most popular manga series of its time, and continues to enjoy high readership today. By 2000, more than 126 million copies of the manga series had been sold in Japan and by 2007, this number had grown to pass 150 million. The initial Dragon Ball anime was ranked number twelve in a list of the top one-hundred series in Japan. Other manga artists have acknowledged that Dragon Ball was an inspiration for their own works.
