Manga

A wild mountain boy with a monkey tail collides with a city girl hunting magical wish-granting orbs. Goku meets Bulma, loses a car, gains a traveling companion, and fights off a pterodactyl, launching the adventure that defines the entire series.

Bulma pops out a pocket-sized house and tries to civilize her wild new traveling partner. Goku meets his first bathtub, his first bed, and his first girl without a tail, all in one very awkward overnight stop in the forest.

A lost sea turtle wanders into Goku's camp and begs for help getting home. The detour to the ocean introduces the Jan-Ken Fist, a monstrous bear bandit, and a mysterious old man in a shell who turns out to be much more than he looks.

The strange old man reveals himself as Master Roshi and hands out two unlikely rewards: a magical flying cloud for Goku and a third Dragon Ball for Bulma. Three days later, the trail leads the pair to a suspiciously quiet village.

The empty streets of Aru Village hide a shapeshifting menace. To earn another Dragon Ball, Goku dresses in a wedding gown as bait, and the creature terrorizing the town finally shows its true face.

Oolong's shapeshifting tricks run out of time as Goku chases the panicked pig through Aru Village, exposing the so-called demon as nothing more than a lazy swindler whose stolen girls were living in pampered luxury all along.

The journey toward Fry-Pan Mountain drags the trio into the scorching Diablo Desert, where Bulma loses her capsules in the river, Oolong learns the hard way not to eat strange candy, and a teenage bandit named Yamcha spots them through a telescope.

Yamcha ambushes the travelers in the desert and gets his first real fight against Goku, whose grandfather's name earns him the bandit's full attention, while Puar and Oolong settle an old grudge from their shapeshifting school days.

Oolong's capsule house gives the group a night of comfort, but eavesdropping bandits, drugged juice, and Bulma asleep in nothing but a towel turn the evening into a chaos of schemes and mistaken identities.

A new day brings a new assault on the House-Wagon, and after Yamcha's rocket attack fails against Goku's raw power, the humiliated bandit changes tactics and decides to befriend the travelers long enough to track them to the final Dragon Ball.

Two days after setting out in Yamcha's borrowed car, Goku, Bulma and Oolong finally reach the burning slopes of Fire Mountain. A helmeted warrior girl reveals herself to Yamcha in brutal fashion, and the fearsome Ox-King turns out to be far more connected to Goku than anyone realizes.

A strange bargain sends Goku and the Ox-King's daughter soaring across the Diablo Desert toward the distant Kame House. Along the way, Chi-Chi develops a secret crush, Yamcha learns a dangerous weakness, and the turtle hermit steps into the story for the first time in the manga.

Goku delivers Chi-Chi to Master Roshi only to discover that the legendary Bansho Fan has been lost to a kitchen accident. Unwilling to leave Fire Mountain burning, the old hermit agrees to handle the blaze himself, though his price is the kind of lecherous bargain that will define him for years to come.

Master Roshi scolds the Ox-King for his greed, closes the deal with a reluctant Bulma, and then unveils the attack that will become the most iconic technique in the series. The Kamehameha arrives for the first time, and its debut is every bit as destructive as its reputation will claim.

Goku copies the Kamehameha on his first try, accepts Master Roshi's offer to become his student, and watches Bulma scramble to honor her end of the bargain with help from a very unwilling Oolong. Chi-Chi also makes a marriage promise Goku completely fails to understand.

Still hunting the final Dragon Ball, Goku, Bulma, and Oolong roll into a village where every citizen flinches at the sight of Bulma. A disguise fixes the misunderstanding, but two rabbit-eared thugs soon appear and demand attention, so Goku obliges with his fists.

The Rabbit Mob's boss, Monster Carrot, arrives with a dangerous trick up his sleeve: a single touch transforms anyone into a carrot. When Bulma is turned into produce, Goku, Yamcha, and Puar have to combine their efforts to reverse the curse and punt the mob into orbit.

A mysterious enemy ambushes the group in the Mushroom Forest and makes off with five of their Dragon Balls. Trailing the thieves leads the gang straight into a trap inside a looming castle owned by a self-styled emperor with galactic ambitions.

Trapped inside Pilaf's castle, the gang is gassed into sleep so Mai and Shu can pilfer the final Dragon Ball. Goku punches a hole in the cell wall in time to watch the emperor call upon Shenron, the mystical dragon who grants a single wish.

Just as Pilaf is about to ask Shenron for world domination, Oolong blurts out a wish of his own and ruins the emperor's moment. A vengeful Pilaf locks the gang inside a glass-roofed oven and leaves them to bake under the desert sun.

Trapped inside Pilaf's sealed observation chamber with no way out before sunrise, Goku casually shares the story of the monster that killed his Grandpa Gohan on nights of the full moon. When the boy glances upward, the chilling truth of that old tragedy suddenly takes a very physical form above the castle.

With Goku transformed into a rampaging Great Ape, Pilaf's castle comes apart around its owner while the gang scrambles to escape. Yamcha must find the one weakness in the towering monster before it crushes everyone, including the boy underneath all that fur.

Morning arrives with Pilaf defeated, the Dragon Balls scattered and a whole year to wait before they will wake again. The group recognizes that their adventure together is over, and each of them chooses a different road to follow until the wish stones call them back.

Goku rides to Kame House hoping Master Roshi will take him on as a student, but the old hermit has a very specific tuition fee in mind. Goku goes hunting for a cute girl to bring back, and the result is not exactly what Roshi had pictured for his big date.

Master Roshi gets more specific about the woman he wants Goku to bring him, and the boy returns with a genuinely pretty companion who turns out to have an unexpected twist. Meanwhile, a short monk named Krillin shows up at Kame House with his own request to be trained.

Goku and Krillin go girl hunting from the back of the Flying Nimbus, while a blonde fugitive armed with grenades leads the local police on a wild chase. When one sneeze changes absolutely everything about the woman they are about to meet, the two hopefuls decide Roshi will love her either way.

Launch arrives at Kame House and accepts Roshi's invitation to stay and train, with no clue what she is walking into. When a fly brushes her nose mid-lesson, her other personality returns to Kame House with a machine gun and no memory of the three strangers standing in front of her.

Master Roshi relocates the whole household to a larger training island and gives his two new students their first real test, a straightforward hundred-meter sprint to measure how solid their legs actually are. What Roshi shows them when his own turn comes makes it clear how far they have to go.

As dusk settles over the training island, Master Roshi hurls a marked stone into the jungle and gives Goku and Krillin thirty minutes to retrieve it. The loser goes hungry. What begins as a stamina drill turns into a scheming contest as Krillin tries to outwit his simpler rival.

Morning on the training island begins with a blonde Launch squeezing a trigger and Goku kicking back. From there Master Roshi marches his new pupils through a delivery route, teaching that real martial arts starts with sweat, errands, and a talk about a certain world tournament.

Master Roshi drags his pupils through an unrelenting day of field work, reading lessons, construction, swimming, and a booby trapped beehive. By nightfall the old master straps twenty pound turtle shells to their backs and quietly warns them that this punishing routine is now their life.

Eight months of Turtle Hermit conditioning race by in a montage of milk runs, heavier shells, and impossible leaps. With the World Martial Arts Tournament one month away, Master Roshi finally reveals why he has been pushing the boys so hard and takes them off the island.

The first round of the tournament preliminaries sorts 137 fighters into four brackets at Papaya Island. Goku and Krillin step into the ring wearing fresh Turtle School uniforms and immediately prove that eight months under Master Roshi was more than enough.

The elimination rounds continue and both Turtle School students keep rolling through their brackets. An old friend with a scar on his cheek slides back into the picture just as Goku and Krillin punch their tickets into the final eight of the World Martial Arts Tournament.

With the top eight locked in, Goku and Krillin reunite with the old travel crew before the main bracket is revealed. Among the names drawn is one Jackie Chun, a mysterious elder nobody has seen before, whose timing on the card is no accident at all.

The main bracket finally opens with a grotesque first match. Krillin squares off against Bacterian, a towering slob whose entire fighting style leans on smells, fluids, and every other foul weapon a human body can produce, and Goku shouts the punchline that turns it around.

The second preliminary match of the 21st World Martial Arts Tournament puts Yamcha against the mysterious Jackie Chun. The desert bandit brings his full arsenal, including the Wolf Fang Fist, but the old stranger ends the bout with a single dismissive gesture that stuns the entire arena.

The desert fighter Nam faces the flirtatious Ranfan in a match that exposes the quiet stranger's deeper purpose. Fighting not for glory but for the water his drought-stricken village desperately needs, Nam must see past Ranfan's theatrics and find a way to end the bout without letting his honor betray him.

Goku finally takes the tournament stage against the hulking reptilian Giran. The opening exchanges favor the small fighter, but Giran answers with a weapon nobody was prepared for, a sticky substance called Merry-Go-Round Gum that leaves Goku completely immobilized.

Trapped in Giran's gum and hurled from the ring, Goku is saved at the last instant by the Flying Nimbus. When his missing tail suddenly grows back during the match, everything changes, and the terrified monster realizes he has stumbled into something far beyond a normal tournament bout.

Fresh off his victory over Giran, Goku fields the announcer's silly questions before Krillin walks out to face the mysterious Jackie Chun. The old master puts on a show for the crowd, but when the match actually starts, Krillin learns he cannot even see the punches coming.

Krillin and Jackie Chun trade blows too fast for the crowd, or the announcer, to follow. Pushed to his limits, the young monk resorts to a desperate and deeply silly trick that exploits the one weakness he is certain his opponent shares with Master Roshi.

Launched from the ring by Krillin's dirty trick, Jackie Chun unleashes a signature Turtle School technique to save himself, sparking fresh suspicion about his true identity. After the dust settles, Yamcha keeps searching for the proof that would confirm what everyone is thinking.

Goku and Nam collide in the third semifinal of the 21st World Martial Arts Tournament. The desert warrior counters the boy's speed with a high-flying finisher, leaving Goku dizzy and grounded as Nam's Cross Arm Dive hurtles downward.

Pinned under Nam's Cross Arm Dive and staring down the final count, Goku has to invent a way out of a bout he should have already lost. What follows turns a tense quarterfinal into one of the most talked about finishes in the entire tournament bracket.

Between the semifinals and the championship bout, Jackie Chun quietly reveals the secret behind his mask to the one opponent who might appreciate it most. Then the final match begins, and the disguised master steps forward to meet his own young student.

The championship match opens with Jackie Chun intent on ending things quickly, but Goku refuses to stay in the air or out of the ring. The exchange builds toward a Kamehameha duel that leaves the entire stadium frozen in open disbelief at what a child just pulled off.

Jackie Chun tries to wear Goku down with blinding footwork and a loose drunken stagger, but the small fighter turns out to have a wild answer of his own ready to go. By the end of the chapter, both combatants have eaten the side of the arena gate at least once.

Unable to land a clean hit, Jackie Chun resorts to a trick that sends Goku straight to sleep in the middle of the ring. A desperate shout from the stands saves the boy, and an impromptu game of Rock Paper Scissors forces the disguised master to reach for his hidden trump card.

Jackie Chun reveals a technique he once used on Grandpa Gohan, unleashing twenty thousand volts of electricity into the ring. Goku is seconds from surrender when his eyes drift upward and the full moon over Papaya Island takes complete control of his mind.