I’ve read through the first two volumes (and have the other four to go through … at some point). It’s … a pretty baffling beast. Most chapters only have one or two alternations from the original material, with the rest being panel-for-panel, line-by-line recreations, albeit with truncation.
It seems like its main point is to run in Saikyo Jump to introduce young readers who may have come in through Super or the games to the content of the original Dragon Ball, though that makes the existence of collected volumes a bit of a headscratcher, considering the continued availability of the original series in Japan. The only potential appeal I can think of is that, if you’re a parent, six volumes for junior is cheaper than the equivalent twenty-four or so of Dragon Ball proper. (Up through the mid-Namek arc, where it currently stands.)
I won’t be joining this one, but good luck to all participating! I wound up just wanting to reread the original Dragon Ball after two volumes of it, which I went on to do instead. Maybe that’s the true point of the series.
Enjoy Naho Ooishi’s art–a former fan artist from the doujinshi sphere with some … rather spicy output before she was put on this project, in addition to a lot of comedy–and silently wish she were on something where she could flex her creativity a bit more.
If you’re truly coming into this as an “absolute beginner” looking for first-time native content, you can get through it, but beware Toriyama’s very colloquial dialogue, which is preserved in full force here. Read what interests you, but know there are certainly easier things to dive into.
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