Dragon Ball was a sensation world wide. Being translated into more than 20 languages. And selling more than 152 million copies in Japan. And more than 300 million copies world wide! Dragon Ball is recognized world wide because of its signature hair styles, comedy, and story. Fans and critics have praised the story art, and the humor for many years. Trying to show the younger generations the awsomeness of Dragon Ball.
     Dragon Ball was inspired by the Chinese folk novel Journey to the West. The book follows the adventures of Son Goku. The story of "Journey" is that Goku is travelliing the world as he trains in martial arts, and looks for 7 wish granting balls, that when gathered, grant you a wish. Son goku defends the world from evil, as evil doers also search for the balls for their own purpose.
     The story was first published in 1986 in Weekly Shonen Jump. Which is a weekly printed magazine. The amount of work needed to make 15 pages, (one chapter), in one week, can usually be exhausting, and not leave you time to live a life you might want to have, or people usually think you might have. That is why, most artists sacrifice their young life, and or teenagehood.
     Soon after being published, a TV company Toei Animation asked Shonen Mag. if they wanted Dragon Ball to be animated. Which they quickly said yes to. 10 years after the first chapter of Dragon Ball, Dragon Ball Z was published. And Toei Animation once again asked to be the animator.
     After a few months. A video game was released, and some cards too. Viz Media was then interested in broadcasting DBZ in the United States. The show was then dubbed, and broadcasted across the U.S. Soon after, Viz Media in Latin America wanted to broadcast the show in spanish. Which happened soon after in select channels.
     Today, Dragon Ball is being broadcasted again in CW 4kids, 10 to 11 in the morning. The show is slightly different, being re-dubbed, recolored, and taken filler stories out. Although the animation is still the same. Dragon Ball currently basses its succes out of the best selling video games. Most of which are follow the story line of the original DBZ and DB. Currently, Super Saiyan 4 is in some games, altough it is not recognized officially by the companies making the games, because of DBGT's flop as a show. While DBZ had over 200 running episodes, DBGT only had 64 broadcasted episodes.
     So all in all, Dragon Ball is one the best anime/manga/card game/video game/anime movie/and shonen storyline in a long time. One of the few mangas that people dare compare it too, is Naruto. Another critically acclaimed manga, that is following closely the steps of Dragon Ball. Not only Dragon Ball a Japanese succes, but also, a world-wide succes. With three different parts. Dragon Ball being the original, Dragon Ball Z the second part, with the most succes, with over 260 chapters in manga. And Dragon Ball GT. Arguably not the most popular part, but popular non the less.