Dragon Ball Plot
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The story of Dragon Ball unfolded gradually over 11 years of publication. During those years, the tone and the style of the stories gradually changed to reflect the tastes of the readers and the editors of Japanese Shonen Jump.
The early volumes of the manga (volumes 1-11) are primarily humorous fantasy stories, but containing some minor sci-fi elements, much like Dr. Slump. Notable fantasy elements include not only the monkey boy Son Goku and the Dragon Balls themselves, but also many talking animal characters, unlikely martial arts techniques, and characters identified as gods and demons. Despite the fantasy elements, the world does contain highly advanced technology including hoi-poi capsules, space-saving capsules which are pocket sized but can store almost any object, including flying cars, and similar "near future" objects. The overall mood of the earlier volumes is light with few deaths and an emphasis on adventure and humor.
A subtle but significant change in mood began after Son Goku's best friend Kuririn was killed (the first of many deaths in this arc). This began the Piccolo Daimaō arc (volumes 12-16) in which the manga enters a darker tone compared to its earlier volumes.
Dragon Ball fully transformed into an action based shōnen manga at the onset of the Saiyan arc (volumes 17-20). Starting with introduction of Son Goku's first son, things begin to take a much more serious and harder sci-fi approach. Many characters which previously had fantasy origins (Son Goku, Piccolo) are recast as aliens from other planets. Space travel, alien threats, and powerful cyborgs & androids take center stage instead of more fantastic villains.
After the defeat of Vegeta, and the conclusion of the Saiyan arc, the survivors of the vicious Saiyan attack head off to the Planet Namek to resurrect their friends. This begins the Freeza arc (volumes 21-28). The Freeza arc is noteworthy for introducing the first Super Saiyan, now a staple of the series. It also set the tone for more awesomely powerful characters. For example, the antagonist Freeza has a "power level" (the series' futuristic measure of a fighter's speed and strength, i.e. one average human is listed as 5) of 530,000. He then transforms into a more powerful form, at which point his power level is over one million. After two subsequent transformations, he reveals that he is still only using a fraction of his full power.
The Cell arc (volumes 29-35) introduced Trunks, a mysterious Half-Saiyan Half-Human from a destroyed future world where all of the Z Senshi have been killed by evil, seemingly invincible war machines called the Jinzōningen, and the enigmatic and villainous Cell who was made from the cells from most of the heroes as well as some of the villains. It was between this arc and the last arc that creator Akira Toriyama stopped measuring characters' power levels in the stories, deciding that it limited the stories.
After these arcs and Son Goku's death and staying in heaven is the Majin Buu arc (volumes 36-42) which is the very last arc of the Dragon Ball manga. The Majin Buu arc features more of the humor and fantastic plot elements that were present in the very early volumes of the manga. The beginning of this final arc concentrates on a teenaged Son Gohan mostly. Son Goku makes his return after being dead for seven years. All the male saiyans manage to reach the level of Super Saiyan at least (including fusions). Super Saiyan 2 is reached by Son Gohan, Son Goku and Vegeta. And the ultimate level of the Saiyans, Super Saiyan 3, is reached by Son Goku and Gotenks. A considerable number of fusions also take place to add to the series, allowing Son Goten and Trunks to merge to form Gotenks, and Son Goku and Vegeta fuse to create the incredibly powerful, invincible Super Vegetto. During this series, Majin Buu manages to kill everyone on Earth including central characters like Vegeta and increasing his own power by absorbing Gotenks, Piccolo and Son Gohan. Majin Buu also succeeds where the villains Vegeta, Freeza and Cell had previously failed and destroys Earth. Majin Buu's evil side is destroyed by Son Goku's Genki Dama, and everyone (including Earth) is restored. Majin Buu's evil side is reincarnated into a being of pure good called Uub. Son Goku and Uub fight at the 28th Tenkaichi Budokai, and Son Goku decides to live in Uub's village in order to train Uub to become even stronger than himself, the strongest fighter in the entire Universe.
To say goodbye every hero character to ever appear in the entire manga (except minors), all wave to the readers and a huge "THE END" sign floats above them.
After completing this series, Akira had a rest and then made another manga called Neko Majin. This manga featured many elements and characters from Dragonball, including Mr. Buu, Vegeta and even Son Goku himself.
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