It started with one man and his imagination. His ideas would later create an epic story that would spawn billions of fans across the globe. That man is Akira Toriyama and he created Dragon Ball. Whether you watched this anime as a kid on Toonami, read the manga or played the games, Dragon Ball is a pivotal anime that most anime fans has witnessed and know about its presence. Dragon Ball has become so mainstream that you can its name at stores and seen parodies on Western animated series and people can recognize its popularity. From the foundation of the classic Dragon Ball, to the turning point of Z, to the black sheep of GT and to tending Super, Dragon Ball has made its mark in the anime community. As a Dragon Ball fan, I have some research on these four different Dragon Ball series. In the manga, Akira Toriyama created Dragon Ball and it took 42 volumes of the tankōbon to complete it. In America, the manga was split into two due to the anime and we have Dragon Ball and Dragon Ball Z. Dragon Ball GT, however, was created by Toriyama and it a sequel to the anime of Z with an original story. In 2015, the original Dragon Ball got a sequel called Dragon Ball Super and it was worked by the series creator himself. There is also a manga version of Super, but it the art was done by Toyotarou while Toriyama helm the plot. Excluding the classic Dragon Ball, I find DBZ, DBGT and DBS really interesting since some of them share similar themes and characters despite looking different. Whether they are canon or noncanon, they both share a similarity. In this article, I want to talk about these similar differences. These three anime may have appeared on TV in different years and each one has their own plot, but they also hold some key concepts that make them feel not so different whether it is about characters or concepts. I won’t cover everything, but I will talk about topics like characters with similar names and concept idea, but also how are they used in different medias.
Warning: This will contain spoilers for Dragon Ball Z, Dragon Ball GT and Dragon Ball Super. I will only be covering the anime version of Dragon Ball Super. The manga version differs than the anime and it is currently still running.
