“Dragon ball” is one of the best-selling manga series in the world and is available in a total of 42 volumes. It is about the boy Son Goku who collects magical crystal balls to summon a wish-granting dragon.
– In Japan, readers are divided into clear groups and series are created for different demographic groups. This one is aimed at boys aged 8-10 and is about martial arts. The main character starts as a novice and then works his way up. In the last volume, he even fights planets, says series researcher Fredrik Strömberg at Malmö University and continues:
– When it came out in Swedish in the 2000s, many librarians told me that it got many young guys to read it.
According to Fredrik Strömberg, Toriyama created a new form of visual storytelling.
– You can say that he modernized the visual storytelling in Japanese comics. There was a drive and he laid out the comics in a way that made you want to keep reading.
Fredrik Strömberg suggests three other manga series worth reading in the clip below.
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Fredrik Strömberg suggests three anime series to tackle. Photo: from Gyo, Sword Princess Amaltea and One Piece
