Manga Summaries DBZ Chapter 1: The Mysterious Warrior from Space We are first told this takes place five years after the events in Dragonball. We see a farmer who spots a round space pod crash and goes to check it out. He arrives and sees a round space pod in the center of a large crater. When he approaches with his gun, a tall warrior exits out of the pod and flies up to the farmer. He curses Kakarrot because there is still life on Earth. The farmer tells Raditz to stay away from him but Raditz continues to walk toward the man until he shoots his rifle. The alien immediately catches the bullet and flips it with his thumb right through the farmer. After this, a high power reading is detected by his scouter and he heads to see if it's Kakarrot. He arrives to see it is not Kakarrot, but a green alien (Piccolo). *In this issue of the manga, Piccolo has horrible grammar! Let me give you a few examples: "Have you business with me?" and "Then why do you come here!? Wish you to die!?"* Piccolo gets angry at the warrior's insults and fires a blast at him. But to his surprise, the blast doesn't even phase the alien warrior. The warrior starts to show Piccolo some "real power" but detects a higer power reading. He sees it's the greatest power on Earth and heads after it, knowing it must be Kakarrot this time. DBZ Chapter 2: Kakarrot We are now introduced to Bulma as she has just arrived at Kame Sen'nin's house. She opens the door to see Kuririn, Kame Sen'nin (Muten Roshi), and his turtle. Bulma brings some tea cakes and Roshi says he'd "be perfectly happy just to fondle her bre--" but is cut off as she hits him in the head. She tells them Yamcha didn't come with her because she's through with him. Kuririn tells her Tenshinhan has been gone for five years, last seen chasing Lunch (a female character in Dragonball who has drastic mood swings when she sneezes). Goku arries with his son Gohan on Kinto-un. As Raditz continues to head after him, Goku lands on Kame's island and tells them that the kid with him is his son. They ask him if he's ever seen the full moon and he responds they all go to bed pretty early at his place. Goku tells them that he hasn't been able to train Gohan because Chi-chi won't let him. After they talk about dragonballs, Goku senses something very strong is coming and sure enough the warrior alien lands right in front of them. We learn Goku is Kakarrot and the warrior asks him why he hasn't exterminated the human race yet. Kuririn tells him to get away, "because the last thing they need is drunks hanging around." The warrior hits Kuririn with his tail, sending him flying through the wall of Roshi's house. This issue ends with everyone yelling because they see the warrior has a tail just like Goku did. DBZ Chapter 3: Tales of Future Not-Quite Past Muten Roshi reveals that Goku had a head injury when he was just a child, while living with his foster grand-father, Son Gohan. This injury changed him from hostile to a sweet little kid. The warrior tells Goku that they are both saiyajins and he is Raditz, Goku's older brother. Raditz tells about their race, the saiyajins, who conquer planets for their "future" residents. He tells Goku that adult warriors are sent to more hostile worlds, while children are sent to weaker worlds. He explains Goku would've been able to conquer the earh in just a few full moons, if he hadn't've hit his head. Raditz realizes that Goku has no tail and Goku tells him it was cut off a long time ago. Raditz tells him that the Planet Vegeta was destroyed by a collision with an asteroid, leaving only four survivors. Goku refuses Raditz's offer to help him and the two other saiyajins in conquering a planet. Raditz goes to take Gohan but Goku tries to stop him. He hits Goku with a blow, sending him to the ground in agony. Raditz takes Gohan and tells Goku he has until the next day to kill 100 humans or he will kill Gohan. DBZ Chapter 4: An Enemy in Common Raditz tells Goku that if he kills 100 humans, he and Goku can then leave and go kill millions more. He also reveals that if Goku doesn't do as he says, he and the other saiyajins will come back and finish off Earth in one month. Raditz tells him not to bother fighting him because he doesn't stand a chance and takes off with Gohan. Bulma, Kuririn, and Muten Roshi stop Goku from going off to fight Raditz. Goku decides they must go for Raditz's tail because that was his [Goku's] weakness. Goku tells he can't do it on hiw own and Kuririn and Kame Sen'nin [which is what I will refer to him from now on] agree to go with Goku. Kuririn tells Bulma she can just wish them back with the dragonballs, but Goku reveals Kuririn can't be brought back to life again. They are able to determine where Gohan and Raditz are because of Gohan's dragonball is traced by Bulma's dragon radar. Now Piccolo shows up and convinces Goku that their powers together might stand a chance against Raditz. After Goku takes off on Kinto'Un [Nimbus] with Piccolo, Kame Sen'nin, Kuririn, and Bulma decide to go too. DBZ Chapter 5: An Unexpected Strenth After Raditz puts Gohan away in his space pod, he notices that his scouter is reading a power level of 710 nearby. When the scouter points out Gohan as the source of this incredible power, Raditz discards the reading as a malfunction. Meanwhile, Goku and Piccolo decide to hit Raditz head-on because Raditz can pick up their powerlevels. After Raditz detects Goku and Piccolo, he believes the scouter must be broken because there's no way they could know where he is. When he sees it actually is Goku and Piccolo, he turns around to Gohan, unbelieving that the child could have such a tremendous power. Raditz laughs at Goku and Piccolo for coming to fight him already. As Piccolo takes off his battle armor, Goku notices that Piccolo wears weighted clothing just like him [Goku]. Raditz detects their powers having jumped up more than before because of them taking their battle armor off. Raditz laughs at them again because he knows he's still much stronger than each of them. After Raditz easily blocks Goku's and Piccolo's attacks, he hits them in the back, sending them in different directions. At the end of this part, Raditz reveals that the other two saiyajins are much stronger than him. Next: Chapters 6-10 Back to Manga Summaries | Back to Dragonball Site design and content ©1999-2007 by James Walker (Sir Viktor) The Next Dimension is a non-profit fansite. Any copyright violations are completely unintentional. I highly recommend viewing this website with Microsoft Internet Explorer and Javascript enabled.