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Manga shelf
The volumes and their chapters, mapped to the episodes that adapt them. This is the reference layer of the archives: the anime follows from it, not the other way round.
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Shūeisha
These links open third-party sites. Their text and artwork belong to their authors: nothing from them is reused here, neither copied nor reworded.
Filters
45 results
Volumes
The 42 volumes of the original work, plus the Dragon Ball Super adaptation. Each volume states the saga it covers.
07DBJP 1987
FR 1994
An officer able to paralyse at range forces the series to invent something other than brute force to get out of it.
Editions
The same work republished in several formats. The question is not how many volumes exist, but which one to buy.
Collected edition
The first collected release of the serialisation: 42 volumes, 519 chapters, published alongside the magazine run between 1985 and 1995.
What it changes for you
This is the reference cut, and the one every chapter number used on this site refers to.
Territory : Japan
Large format
A 34-volume reissue in a larger format, with restored colour pages, new covers and an ending partly redrawn by the author.
Databooks & reference works
The Daizenshuu and the guides published by the manga's publisher. These are the works this site takes its illustrated-archive angle from.
Encyclopedic collection
The first volume of the encyclopedic collection published as the serialisation ended: it gathers the author’s colour illustrations, covers and magazine pages included.
Shūeisha1995Daizenshuu
Value for these archives
The reference for dating illustrations and identifying where they were first published.
Encyclopedic collection
A chapter-by-chapter breakdown of the manga, with the in-story dating markers that underpin every timeline of the series.
Shūeisha
Serialisation
The manga existed in a magazine first, one chapter a week. That constraint explains the shape of the story as much as the author's choices do.
Shūeisha · Monthly
A magazine aimed at younger readers, home to the spin-off series attached to the card games, including the one accompanying Super Dragon Ball Heroes.
Publication periods
since 2010
Spin-off stories tied to the card games
Shūeisha · Monthly
A monthly magazine oriented toward games and cards, which hosts the Dragon Ball Super manga adaptation. Its monthly rhythm explains the gap with the anime.
Publication periods
Sources
Chapter range reconstructed between two documented boundaries; still to be cross-checked against the printed edition.
08DBJP 1987
FR 1994
Introduction of the principle that will govern the whole franchise: you progress through ordeal, never through a magic item.
JP 1987
FR 1995
A single child dismantles the organisation, and its research branch is revealed as something that will outlive its chain of command.
10DBJP 1987
FR 1995
Locating the last ball means paying in fights. The volume ties death, the afterlife and combat into a single device.
11DBJP 1988
FR 1995
The Crane School faces the Turtle School: the tournament becomes an argument about doctrine as much as a fight.
12DBJP 1988
FR 1995
The fastest and most credible conversion in the series: a paid killer switches sides on a single realisation.
What it changes for you
The version the author treated as definitive. Fewer volumes does not mean less content: the format is simply thicker.
Territory : Japan
French large format
The French counterpart of the Japanese large-format edition, in 34 volumes, with original reading direction and a new translation.
What it changes for you
Not to be confused with the original 1990s French edition, published in 42 volumes and long printed flipped.
Territory : France, Belgium, Switzerland
Coloured
A republication by story arc, with colour applied to every page rather than only to the original colour inserts.
What it changes for you
Sold by arc rather than as one continuous series: you pick an arc instead of following a single numbering.
Territory : Japan
Digital
An official, free release of part of the catalogue on the publisher’s reading service, with a scope that varies by territory.
What it changes for you
This is the legal offer these archives highlight on the manga shelf. The available scope changes; this record does not guarantee it.
Territory : International
Collected edition
The collected release of Toyotaro’s adaptation, serialised in a monthly magazine and therefore far slower than the anime.
What it changes for you
Super’s manga and anime diverge across several arcs: reading one does not replace watching the other.
Territory : Japan
Value for these archives
The main source for the “Age” datings used on the timeline page.
Encyclopedic collection
A record of the first animated series’ episodes, with broadcast dates, per-episode crews and production sheets.
Shūeisha1995Daizenshuu
Value for these archives
This is the work that would let the broadcast log’s reconstructed dates be replaced with recorded ones.
Encyclopedic collection
A systematic description of the universe: races, planets, organisations, techniques, objects and divine hierarchies.
Shūeisha1995Daizenshuu
Value for these archives
The structural reference for this archive’s cosmology section, whose category split it directly inspires.
Encyclopedic collection
The continuation of the episode record, covering the second animated series through to the end of its run.
Shūeisha1996Daizenshuu
Value for these archives
The indispensable companion to volume 3 for covering every episode of the first two series.
Encyclopedic collection
A census of the feature films and TV specials, with their crews and their position relative to the main story.
Shūeisha1995Daizenshuu
Value for these archives
The source for the films section of the series hubs, notably on whether they attach to continuity.
Encyclopedia
The collection’s closing volume, organised as a dictionary of the universe rather than a sequential guide.
Shūeisha1996Daizenshuu
Value for these archives
The closest model to what this site attempts: one entry per concept, cross-linked to the others.
Illustration collection
A condensed revival of the encyclopedic collection in four volumes, published for the series’ anniversary.
Shūeisha2013
Value for these archives
More accessible than the 1995 collection, with a partial update of production data.
Guide
The second part of the same set, covering the manga’s second half and the close of the series.
Shūeisha2004
Value for these archives
Completes the previous volume on the later arcs, the least documented by the 1995 encyclopedic collection.
Guide
A companion to the large-format reissue, revisiting the manga’s first half with working documents.
Shūeisha2003
Value for these archives
Useful on character genesis and abandoned designs, which the manga does not show.
Guide
A pair of books that cleanly separates character records from the story’s course, with commentary from the author.
Shūeisha2009
Value for these archives
This archive’s character / story split follows the same logic: one record answers one question.
since 2015-08
Dragon Ball Super, art by Toyotaro
Shūeisha · Weekly
The magazine where Dragon Ball ran for over ten years, one chapter a week. That rhythm explains the shape of the story as much as the author’s choices do.
Publication periods
1984-11 → 1995-06
Dragon Ball, chapters 1 to 519