10 Ways Dragon Ball’s Manga Surpasses the Anime

Dragon Ball is arguably the most popular title in anime history. After acting as the de-facto leader of the major Shōnen Jump adaptations during its initial airing in Japan, the series helped open the door for anime in the West during the late ’90s and early 2000s, and has remained legendary around the world.

However, though countless fans might argue otherwise, Dragon Ball is at its best when it isn’t on screens. The original manga series by Akira Toriyama is what initially launched the series to mass popularity in Japan, and his version of Dragon Ball is superior to its many anime adaptations in a variety of ways.

The Dragon Ball Manga Is a Quicker Way to Experience the Story

Little Time Is Ever Wasted Throughout Akira Toriyama’s Manga

As the years continue to pass since Dragon Ball first debuted, the scale and length of the series have begun to intimidate newer anime fans looking to dive in for the first time. The original Dragon Ball and Dragon Ball Z combine into nearly 450 episodes at around 24 minutes in length—a demanding ask for those not already familiar with the series.

The manga, while still a lengthy 500-plus chapters, is a much quicker ordeal, with the average entry taking all of about 5 minutes or less to digest. The anime version of events took its time to get through the source material, meandering in certain sections where the manga kept a steady pace forward.

The Manga Has No Filler

Dragon Ball’s Manga Is an All Gas, No Brakes Experience

Because both of the original Dragon Ball anime series were airing weekly as the manga was still being published, Toei Animation was forced to inject their own original material into the story in order to prevent the production from catching up to Toriyama’s work. Sections like Garlic Jr. and Princess Snake never occurred in the manga.

While some of Dragon Ball‘s filler can be enjoyable, much of it slows the series to a crawl, and often fails to add anything of note to the story. The manga, on the other hand, goes from one major plot point to the next with little time wasted, keeping the energy and excitement up at all times.

Akira Toriyama’s Art Is Some of the Best in the Business

The Manga’s Visuals Are Much More Consistent and High-Quality Compared to the Anime

Dragon Ball and Dragon Ball Z haven’t aged wonderfully. The fans that grew up with both shows are likely to enjoy the look of them, and others might find the vintage aesthetic pleasing. However, to most modern anime fans, the ’80s and ’90s weekly anime look isn’t all that pleasing, and it’s fair to say that the art wasn’t exactly consistent even back then.

Dragon Ball has never looked better than it does in Akira Toriyama’s manga, and the quality remains high throughout the entirety of the series. Reaching its peak during the Saiyan and Namek Sagas in particular, Toriyama’s character models are always on-point, and the action is fast, fluid, and pretty.

Goku Is a Better Written Protagonist in the Manga

The Anime Failed to Accurately Depict Goku

Goku might just be the most recognizable protagonist in anime and manga history, but the former often failed to accurately depict his character, especially during the Dragon Ball Z section of the series. When Goku became an adult, the anime had a habit of painting him in a far more serious, heroic light, but that wasn’t really the case in the source material.

Akira Toriyama made it a point to write Goku in a way that wasn’t ultra-heroic. He was always meant to be a somewhat selfish, super strong guy who enjoyed fighting a tad too much. He was never as careless as some of the fan base, or the later Dragon Ball Super, made him out to be, but he was far more easy going in the original manga.

The Manga’s Power Scaling Is Far More Consistent

The Anime Tends to Lose Track of Its Characters’ Abilities

Dragon Ball is known for having some of the strongest characters in anime and manga. From the very beginning of the series, Goku was able to accomplish what would be impossible for any normal human. By the time he transformed into a Super Saiyan, he could likely destroy entire planets with ease.

It’s far more difficult to imagine what the Saiyans weren’t capable of during the Dragon Ball Z section of the series, yet the anime often got a little too generous, especially in its original filler sections. Feats like being able to breathe in space directly contradicted the source material, and caused a few issues throughout the anime’s version of events.

Power-Ups Are Devastating in the Manga

The Anime Often Undersold the Power of Transformations

Dragon Ball‘s transformations have become its selling point. The many stages of Super Saiyan have entertained fans for decades, and the fan base is known to celebrate the moment a new level is introduced into the series. However, the original golden-haired forms were originally far more overpowered in the manga.

Where both Frieza and Cell hung around in their battles after Goku and Gohan transformed, that wasn’t the case in the slightest in Akira Toriyama’s version of the story. The moment both ascended, the battle was already won, and they went on to completely humiliate their opponents quickly and effectively.

The Manga’s Pacing Is Far Better Than the Dragon Ball Anime

The Anime Has a Habit of Stretching Certain Sections and Battles

Dragon Ball, especially Dragon Ball Z, has earned a reputation for its characters standing around and talking rather than actually fighting. Much of that, like the filler sections, had to do with the anime team trying desperately not to catch up with the manga.

The source material, however, featured very little standing around and talking. When it came time for Dragon Ball‘s characters to fight in the manga, they got down to business, and quickly. Toriyama was a gifted artist when it came to action, and his battles were typically fast, furious, and stylish, with little downtime.

Toriyama’s Action Is Nearly Unparalleled in the Manga Scene

The Dragon Ball Manga Offers Some of the Best Action Around

There’s one thing Dragon Ball fans care about more than anything else when it comes to their favorite series: action. While the anime offers some fantastic battles in both tournament settings and wider arenas, especially for the time, it doesn’t come close to the masterfully crafted fights in the manga.

Akira Toriyama, inspired by Kung Fu movies, was gifted at designing fight choreography and drawing battles in a way that was incredibly easy for the eye to follow. Some manga titles struggle to keep their action easily readable, but Dragon Ball is clean, smooth, and incredibly entertaining in its major bouts.

Dragon Ball’s Fights Are Brutal in the Manga

The Anime Toned Down the Violence of the Original Manga

Because it was targeted towards a younger audience, and forced to comply with whatever television standards of the time, Dragon Ball and Dragon Ball Z were forced to tone down the violence that was on display in the manga. Akira Toriyama’s version of the story was often brutal, and much of that was lost when translated to the screen.

In particular, Gohan’s massacre of the Cell Juniors was toned down quite a bit in the anime. In the source material, he brutally dismantled each of the tiny terrors one by one, even punching the brains of one of the bugs straight from the back of its head. Dragon Ball is meant for a younger audience, but no one would know that reading the original manga.

The Manga Is Dragon Ball as Akira Toriyama Envisioned It

The Artist’s Intentions Are Clear in the Manga’s Version of Events

Dragon Ball fans have always argued over subjects like what’s canon in the series, what the characters are actually capable of, which hero is stronger than the other, and so many other topics. None of which would likely lead to arguments without the anime’s many questionable interpretations of the source material.

The Dragon Ball manga is the series as Akira Toriyama envisioned it, and reading the source material is as close as fans can come to knowing and understanding its world and characters. One manga series forever changed the world of anime and manga, and it remains an incredible read decades on from its debut.