Story[]
Dragon Ball (ドラゴンボール Doragon Bōru) is a Japanese manga by Akira Toriyama serialized in Shueisha's weekly manga anthology magazine, Weekly Shōnen Jump, from 1984 to 1995 and originally collected into 42 individual books called Tankōbon (単行本) released from September 10, 1985 to August 4, 1995.
The story of Dragon Ball follows the life of Son Goku, a monkey-tailed boy loosely based on the traditional Chinese folk tale Journey to the West, from his life and adventures as a child all the way up to being a grandfather. Goku always seek for strong opponents which is the biggest driving force behind his growth. Essentially, the story focuses on Z-fighters who would stand against the evil-doers and fight for the justice.
Canonicity[]
Dragon Ball is one of the most popular franchise out there. Naturally it’s important to know the canonicity, Akira Toriyama's manga is considered as the primary canon and afterwards in “Dragon Ball Super” there’s variations as both anime & manga are canon in their own ways. Anyway, guides books are secondary canon that should be used as long as there's no contradictions and inconsistencies with the series, although it should be keep in mind, not all the databooks are for manga as some are exclusively made for anime & movies too which can't be used to certainly verify a point. Some of the movies written by Akira Toriyama are considered as canon, rest aren't and as for anime, it’s considered as a separated continuity entirely.
See this blog for further information about Dragon Ball Continuities, Canonicity and Guides
Power[]
Dragon Ball verse is decent on it's own when it comes to raw strength. Generally, characters power in OG DB varies from Large Building to Small Town and the top tiers are comfortably sitting at Moon level.
In the BoZ, characters could casually destroy the moon and quickly reaching Planet level in Saiyan Saga. Subsequently, in namek saga top tiers such as Goku & Frieza reached Star level, as the story develops we even get to see Solar System level characters like Cell and so on buu saga characters caps at same tier except much stronger.
When it comes to DBS, top tiers from anime reaches universe level at the very beginning, afterwards we get to see Infinite Zamasu perform a at least universe+ feat and subsequently top arcs top tiers surpassing him. Although God tier of series caps at Low Multiverse level because of mainly Zeno.
DBS manga scaling varies as it’s pretty different from the anime. Top tiers at beginning caps at Multi Galaxy level and subsequently reaches likely Universe level, while the God tier of the verse is comfortably sitting at Low Multiverse level.
When it comes to Speed, OG DB characters are easily Supersonic, gradually reaching Hypersonic and eventually going higher into it at Massively Hypersonic.
During dbz, they reaches Sub-Relativistic at the beginning with Piccolo's feat, subsequently reaching Rel and eventually hitting FTL at namek saga with multipliers. Afterwards it just goes further into FTL, especially buu saga top tiers easily capping at MFTL.
In DBS, top tiers like Goku & Beerus, at the beginning reaches MFTL+ and so on goes higher, eventually reaching quadrillions times of FTL to even quintillions times.
Generally, abilities in Dragon Ball verse are pretty good. Example: Mind manipulation, Time Manipulation, Sleep Manipulation, Energy Absorption, Magic etc.
Note: “Dragon Ball Toei” which basically consists the anime, non canon movies won't be included here.
Characters[]
God tiers[]
Top tiers[]
Hit
High tiers:[]
Gohan (Cell Games, Buu saga)
Evil Buu
Sacred Kaiohshin
Kibito Kai/Kaiohshin
Upper mid tiers:[]
Goku (Androids saga, Cell saga)
Vegeta (Androids saga, Cell saga)
Kaiohshin
Future Trunks (Cell saga)
Imperfect Cell
20/Dr. Gero
19
18/Lapis
17/Lazuli
16
Trunks
Goten
Aka
Mid tiers:[]
Goku (Frieza saga)
Future Trunks
Vegeta (Frieza saga)
King Cold
Tien Shin Han (Androids-Cell saga and above)
Krillin (Androids-Cell saga and above)
Yamcha (Androids-Cell saga and above)
Abo
Kado
Calcs, Feats, etc[]
Feats[]
Some of the most impressive feats in Dragon Ball verse are mentioned right below:
- Roshi destroyed the moon in Dragon Ball
- Piccolo destroyed the moon in BoZ
- Frieza destroyed Planet Vegeta
- Cell claimed he could destroy the Solar System
- Beerus & Goku could destroy the universe
- Zamasu merged with the entire universe and so on
- Zeno destroyed the Future Timeline
Note: Just a reminder, Ki/Chi control is one of the most important factor in Dragon Ball verse which can decide different outcomes at battles & other instances