Akira Toriyamaโs Dragon Ball (ใใฉใดใณใใผใซ) began in issue 51 of Weekly Shonen Jump, on sale November 20, 1984, and ran until issue 25 of 1995. It closed at 519 chapters and 42 volumes, later reissued as a 34-volume Complete Edition. The story starts when a boy named Son Goku sets off with Bulma to find the seven Dragon Balls, orbs that grant any wish once gathered. The first half is an adventure and fighting story built around the Tenkaichi Budokai tournament; the second half turns on the revelation that Goku is a Saiyan, an alien warrior race, and runs through the battles with Freeza, Cell, and Majin Buu. Worldwide, the series has 260 million copies in print, a Shueisha figure reported by the Nikkei in March 2024.
Korea has a long history with the series. On December 14, 1989, the weekly comics magazine IQ Jump began running Dragon Ball under an official license, and the magazine went on to sell 500,000 copies per issue. The series is widely credited with opening the market for licensed Japanese manga in Korea. Seoul Cultural Publishers released the 42-volume edition, followed by the 34-volume Complete Edition and a 32-volume full-color edition. As of 2009, more than 20 million copies had been printed in Korea.
Toriyama died on March 1, 2024, of an acute subdural hematoma. He was 68, and Shueisha and Bird Studio made the announcement on March 8. A work he was deeply involved in before his death, writing the story and designing the characters, was Dragon Ball DAIMA, the 40th-anniversary TV anime. Produced by Toei Animation, its 20 episodes aired on the Fuji TV network from October 11, 2024 to February 28, 2025. In Korea it streamed on Netflix from October 14 and aired on Tooniverse from October 19.
The reason to pick the series up again now is that the 40th-anniversary program has carried on into 2026. The game Dragon Ball: Sparking! ZERO, released October 10, 2024, sold 5 million copies worldwide by the end of 2024, the fastest pace of any Dragon Ball game, and on November 14, 2025 the first official store, DRAGON BALL STORE TOKYO, opened in Tokyo Station Ichibangai. The closing event, Dragon Ball Genki Dama Matsuri, was held on January 25, 2026 at Makuhari Messe in Chiba, exhibiting Toriyamaโs color originals and scripts from every anime series, and two new titles were announced on stage. One is a new series, Dragon Ball Super Ginga Patrol (Galactic Patrol), which picks up after the Universe Survival arc of Dragon Ball Super and pits Goku and Vegeta against Moro, a planet-eater; no air date has been announced. The other is Dragon Ball Super Beerus, an enhanced version of the existing Dragon Ball Super with new cuts and every shot re-photographed, confirmed for Fuji TV in fall 2026.
If you are new to it, starting from volume one is an easy ride. The early volumes read like an adventure comic, and the story known from the Z anime begins with the Saiyan arc. The English edition is on Shueishaโs MANGA Plus, and the Korean edition is available as an e-book on Ridi. (As of August 21, 2026)
