Dragon Ball, Vol. 4

Overview

The fourth volume of Dragon Ball picks up the ongoing story of Son Goku as he grows from a wild, tailed boy into a disciplined martial artist. Having survived his first brushes with real danger, Goku continues training under Master Roshi's unconventional methods, building strength and skill while the manga's episodic rhythm alternates between quiet character moments and bursts of slapstick comedy.

Alongside Goku, a widening circle of companions and rivals begins to take shape, setting the stage for the tournament arcs that would come to define much of the series. Akira Toriyama's linework favors clean, expressive character design and dynamic motion, giving even low-stakes gags and training exercises a sense of physical comedy that carries over into the fight choreography.

As with earlier volumes, the tone shifts frequently and without warning — a comedic aside about food or mischief can give way, a page later, to a tense standoff or a display of growing power. That elasticity, part sitcom and part adventure serial, is part of what distinguishes this stretch of the story from more straightforwardly heroic manga of its era.

A Manga Finding Its Footing

By this point in its run, Dragon Ball was still transitioning from the looser, gag-driven comedy of its earliest chapters toward the tournament-and-power-escalation structure that would make it one of the most influential shonen manga ever published. Volume four sits at that hinge point, still comfortable with juvenile humor even as it lays groundwork for more serious martial-arts drama.

Toriyama's blend of broad comedy, borrowed martial-arts and folklore motifs, and an increasingly ambitious sense of adventure helped popularize the shonen manga format for English-language readers, many of whom encountered the genre for the first time through this series. Its later chapters and spin-off, Dragon Ball Z, would become a defining touchstone of global pop culture, but the tonal DNA — comedy sitting shoulder to shoulder with combat — is already fully present here.

That same tonal mix is also what has made the series a recurring subject of debate among librarians and parents assessing graphic novels for shelving and age recommendations, since its cartoonish art style and its content don't always signal the same intended audience.

Why Dragon Ball, Vol. 4 Has Been Challenged

Most objections to this volume center on its suitability for elementary and middle-grade readers, the age group most often drawn to it by its cover art and its placement alongside other all-ages graphic novels. Critics point to recurring comic-relief nudity and sexually suggestive gags, most involving Master Roshi's lecherous behavior toward female characters, as content that reads as harmless slapstick to some readers and as inappropriate exposure for young children to others. Cartoon violence tied to the series' martial-arts combat has also drawn scrutiny, though it is typically raised as a secondary concern alongside the sexual humor.

Underlying much of the debate is a mismatch between packaging and content: a title shelved by its visual style near children's and tween graphic novels, but containing jokes and imagery some parents consider more appropriate for older teens. That disconnect has been enough to generate challenges in 2 states and 2 districts tracked in this catalog, with reviewers weighing whether the humor is age-inappropriate innuendo or simply broad comedy consistent with the series' anime and manga origins.