Dragon Ball 1

Series: Dragon Ball
Artist, author: Akira Toriyama
Language: Finnish
Released in (this edition): 2013

Dragon Ball is an iconic fantasy/sci-fi action series that follows the adventures of Son Goku, an unusually strong boy, whose goal is to collect the seven mythical Dragon Balls that grant it's collector almost any wish! The series develops in interesting directions and it's an absolute classic that still shapes the shounen action genre today. Worth the read if you're into adventure, action and stupid comedy!

Dragon Ball is iconic in the sense that it was the first Finnish translated manga that was acknowledged as manga. (Keiji Nakazawa's Barefoot Gen came first, but it wasn't really acknowledged as manga, which is why people often don't count it as the first.) The first volume was released all the way back early 2003 and man was it popular! The series fit right in with the animanga boom of the early 2000s. The edition I have in my bookshelf is the 10th anniversary edition released in 2013: it came with a poster! :)

I enjoy Dragon Ball a lot, and I'd say that it's my favorite manga series of all time! I find Toriyama's (especially early) artstyle very charming and the story holds a special place in my heart. What can I say, silly comedy and fun action can really grab a little boy's attention! I completed my full collection of this series sometime in 2017-2018 (the first volume I bought was somewhere around 2010) and I LOVE it. <3