Arc Division

I had planned to start my review with the next instalment, but I decided it's important to talk about the arc division of the manga first. Since I'll be discussing, comparing and ranking the arcs, I think the first step should be to determine where the arcs should actually be divided. Because there are a few different ideas of how to do so.

To start with, here's the most popular division I see used by fans for the manga:

1. (The) Search/Hunt for the Dragon Balls
2. 21st Tenkaichi Budokai
3. Red Ribbon Army
4. 22nd Tenkaichi Budokai
5. Piccolo Daimao
6. 23rd Tenkaichi Budokai
7. Saiyan
8. Namek/Freeza
9. Android/Cell
10. Majin Boo

For a total of 10 arcs. It's very common, and I used this division myself for some time. But I have some problems with it that I'll get into when I discuss the next division.

Next, Shuiesha, the publisher of Weekly Shonen Jump, has two divisions: one that was used in several guidebooks, and one that was used for the digital colour release of the manga. The guidebook division is:

1. Search for the Dragon Balls
2. Training with Kame-sennin
3. 21st Tenkaichi Budokai
4. Red Ribbon Army
5. Uranai Baba
6. 22nd Tenkaichi Budokai
7. Piccolo Daimao
8. 23rd Tenkaichi Budokai
9. Saiyan
10. Freeza
11. Android
12. Cell
13. High School
14. 25th Tenkaichi Budokai
15. Majin Boo

For a total of 15 arcs. That's quite a lot. Compared to the above, I think it is unnecessary to separate Kame-sennin's training from the 21st Tenkaichi Budokai arc, because the training is in preparation of the 21st Tenkaichi Budokai arc, but I can understand the logic behind it. I just don't agree.

I also disagree with separating the Android and Cell arcs, because there's no real resolution to the Android arc at the time Cell shows up. Cell himself is an Android, so I don't think it should stop being considered the Android arc because he becomes the main villain. Plus the arc ends with Future Trunks returning to his timeline to save it from Androids 17, 18 and Cell.

For the Boo arc, I'm not sure. The High School and 25th Tenkaichi Budokai arcs cover different things, and Majin Boo and Babidi's posse aren't introduced at all until the 25th Tenkaichi Budokai is already underway, so it feels wrong to lump the whole thing under the Majin Boo arc to me. On the other hand, neither the High School nor the 25th Tenkaichi arc have any real climax and resolution, leading directly to the next "arc".

I do agree that the Uranai Baba arc is not part of the Red Ribbon Army arc, though. That's all resolved when Goku storms the base and defeats the entire army. Sure, they need the final Dragon Ball to revive Bora, so they're still cleaning up the fall out of the arc, but that feels too indirect to fall under "Red Ribbon Army". If they're to be considered the same arc, I think that "(The) Second Hunt/Search for the Dragon Balls" is much more fitting as the title. I know I'm not the only one who thinks that.

I also prefer Namek arc as a title than Freeza arc, because Freeza isn't active at the start and the heroes' goals were more to do with Namek than Freeza until fighting him was inevitable. I don't see a good reason to split them, so it's one arc named Namek for me.

And then there's the digital colour release division, which is:

1. Son Goku Training
2. Red Ribbon Army
3. Piccolo Daimao
4. Saiyan
5. Freeza
6. Cell
7. Majin Boo

Seven arcs total, and I have to wonder if this was done to match the number of Dragon Balls. I know that prior to this, I'd seen fans divide the series this way for exactly that reason, with one difference: the placement of the 22nd Tenkaichi Budokai.

Most of the time I see fans combine the 22nd Tenkaichi Budokai with anything, it's with the Red Ribbon Army arc. Shuiesha combined it with the Piccolo Daimao arc, and I think that's a better idea. The 22nd Tenkaichi Budokai arc has nothing to do with the Red Ribbon Army or Uranai Baba arcs, other than it being mentioned at the end of the Uranai Baba "arc". However, the 22nd Tenkaichi Budokai is immediately followed by the Piccolo Daimao arc - it ends on the same day as the Piccolo Daimao arc starts in-universe.

Still, I think that these arc combinations are too tight. It's nice that they match the number of Dragon Balls, but it's just not logical other than that. The first arc has nothing to do with Goku's training, Piccolo Junior is a separate character from Piccolo Daimao (even though he is Daimao's reincarnation) etc. They should definitely be separated further than that.

So the only two troubles I have are, first - whether to treat Red Ribbon Army and Uranai Baba as separate arcs, or combine them into one the Second Hunt/Search for the Dragon Balls arc. Combined, they do cover Goku's second search for the Dragon Balls, but they could also work as separate arcs if you consider the search for the Dragon Balls less important than the other events that are happening. I'm not sure that I would.

Second - whether to consider the High School/25th Budokai (and the training leading up to it) as separate arcs from the Boo arc. This one is really hard for me. I feel I'm contradicting my own logic whether I separate them or not. I might end up coming up for my own name for the pre-Kaioshin stuff and just calling it the "Gohan & Videl" arc since everything before the Budokai mainly focuses on those two.

I'll cross those bridges when I get to them! Plus, there's some inconsistency as to what chapters start and end each arc, so I'll cover those as I get to them rather than in here. Next instalment, I cover volume 1 plot holes. And then maybe, hopefully I'll cover volume 1.

Dragon Ball reading: Introduction

Welcome to my blog, where I'll be doing a casual review of the Dragon Ball manga and reading the entire series for the first time. Well, I've read everything but some parts of the Namek and Android arcs, but not all in order!

Anyway, one of the reasons I'm doing this (other than just plain wanting to read it all) is because I'm interested in pinning down my preferences for each of the arcs and exploring what it is that makes me love Dragon Ball. Another is that I am one of those fans who creates their own Battle Power lists, and I want to tweak mine and make sure I'm happy with its accuracy, though I probably won't be covering that in my review. Unless people are interested in that, but I'm assuming not.

And finally, I'm rather interested in looking at the plot holes present in the manga. There's quite a few, and I plan to divide them up by arc to see what the spread of them is like. I want to identify the potential plot holes, determine whether they are genuine inconsistencies or contradictions, and offer explanations that could fit (mostly to satisfy my OCD tendencies). I will also cover some points that are widely considered to be plot holes, but... aren't.

That won't be the main focus of the reading, however. Each entry will cover one volume of the manga, and I'll mainly be talking about what I liked about each volume, what I didn't, and do the same at the end of each arc. Each arc I finish will be compared to the ones before it, so that when I've finished the manga I'll have a list of best to worst story arcs. This is very similar to MistareFusion's Dragon Ball Dissection series however a key difference is that I will not number the arcs as I go along - because I honestly do not know what the order will be until I reach the end, and as such can't number them in advance. If you're interested in this blog, then you'll likely be interested in his series as well, so I recommend you check that out.

By the way, I'm going to be using manga names for everything. I won't be using the Funimation dub names like Tien, Krillin, Special Beam Cannon and the like, nor Viz's name changes like Pocus, Djinn, and Vegerot (except for 'Android' and 'Kakarot' which I'll explain later). Just a heads up if that's going to bother you.

With that said, I'm going to bed! And then tomorrow months later I will make my first third entry, on Dragon Ball volume 1: I don't know the title of volume 1.