Dragon Ball

The first complete hunt for the seven balls, from deep in the mountains to Pilaf’s castle. This is the saga that sets the rules of the world: the radar, the single wish, the dragon that does not negotiate, and the full moon that turns a child into a disaster.

Training under Master Roshi, then the first major tournament. The series stops being a road movie and becomes a martial arts story with rules, a ring and a ranking.

A military organisation hunts the balls with industrial means. The longest saga of the first Dragon Ball, the one that introduces towers, bases, paid mercenaries and Goku’s first real defeat.

Locating the last ball means paying a fortuneteller in fights. A short but load-bearing saga: it ties death, the afterlife and combat into a triangle the whole franchise reuses.

The Crane School steps in and sets its doctrine against the Turtle School. The tournament becomes a clash of schools as much as of individuals.

The tone flips: a freed demon kills established characters and the dragon itself vanishes along with its creator. This is the saga that teaches the reader the balls have an origin, and therefore a limit.

Three years of training later, the tournament gathers the whole adult cast and works as the hinge into the Z era. The last saga of the first Dragon Ball.