About

Dragon Ball (ドラゴンボール) is a international popular media franchise created in 1984. The franchise revolves around Goku (孫 悟空 Son Gokū), a Saiyan Warrior, who saves Earth from many alien species. The franchise consists of 1 manga series, 4 anime series (DB/DBZ/DBGT/DBZK), a large number of video games, movies, action figures, and more.

History

In late 1984, the first issue of Dragon Ball appeared in Weekly Shonen Jump. The series was then published weekly and on a very tight schedule (14 pages per week, plus title page) for nearly eleven years, ending in May 1995. In total, 519 regular chapters and one bonus chapter were published.

A year and a half into the story of Dragon Ball, Akira Toriyama included an issue that had cameos by some of the characters and locations from his previous popular manga, Dr. Slump.

Within a short time after the first publication of the manga, it had reached a level of popularity in Japan that convinced the people of Toei Animation to produce both an anime series and a feature film based on the characters. The anime series premiered in February 1986 on Fuji Television, running weekly and in prime time with new episodes every Wednesday night.

The first time the anime was dubbed for the USA was in 1989

Search Interest

Related Memes

It’s Over 9000!

The catchphrase It’s over 9000! is used to say ‘a lot’. It comes from the 28th episode of Dragon Ball Z.

It’s Oprah 9000!

An obvious troll from Anonymous posted on Oprah Winfery’s message board that he was part of a pedophile group and that there’s over 9000 penises, and they’re all raping children.

Bitch, I Look Like Goku

Bitch I Look Like Goku is an exploitable catchphrase and lyrical reference to Soulja Boy’s 2010 hip hop single “Goku,” a musical tribute to the protagonist character in the popular Japanese manga / anime series Dragon Ball Z.

Shoop Da Whoop

A popular image for Shoop Da Whoop shows a picture of Semi-Perfect Cell firing his laser.

Yamcha’s Death Pose

Yamcha’s Death Pose is an image exploitable series based on a stillshot of Dragon Ball character Yamcha fallen on the ground after suffering a fatal injury in the battle against Saibaman, a relatively weak villain character. The images depict Yamcha or other anime character lying inside the crater and they are typically used to indicate failure or weakness.

The Balls are Inert

Kajetokun created a Dragon Ball Z parody video, The Balls are Inert from a particular scene involving Piccolo, the Namekian alien, and a story about balls… being inert.