Dragon Ball (artifact)

A Dragon Ball is a fictional artifact from the manga and anime Dragon Ball/Dragon Ball Z, as well as Dragon Ball GT. They also appear in the Akira Toriyama manga Dragon Boy (the proto-Dragon Ball one-shot series).

The Legend of the Dragon Balls

The Dragonballs as they appear in the Dragonball series

Seven magical stones scattered across the Earth that when gathered can sommon the dragon god, Shenlong (Shenron in the English Dub) who will grant the sommoner a single wish within his power, even reviving a person who died to unnatural causes and within a year of that person's death.Each dragonball is about the size of a softball and is a crystalline orange-ish color. The Dragonballs also have reddish colored stars inside (Black in the case of the Black-Star Dragonballs introduced to us in Dragonball GT). Each dragonball has a different amount of stars from the next one. After each usage, the dragonballs scatter randomly around the Earth again and become inert for 365 days. The Dragonballs were actually only supposed to be used once every hundred years because then negative energy gets built up inside them.

The Namekians are the beings who had developed the Dragonballs. The God of Earth named Kami originally made the balls after he traveled here from his home planet called Namek. The Dragonballs are directly connected to Kami's life force, when Kami dies or his individual life force becomes absorbed into something, the dragonballs become inert. Other restrictions on the balls include not being able to grant the same wish to the same person a second time. Shenlong will not revive a person a second time and he can't transform anyone into something that they naturally are not, but he can grant eternal life.

The first Earth Dragonball we are introduced to is the four star ball, possessed by the main Character of Dragon Ball named Son Gokuu (Goku in the English Dub). Goku's adoptive grandfather named Son Gohan had given the ball to Goku when he died. Goku spent his life protecting the balls, after he learned of their true purpose from Bulma, a young girl who came looking for his ball so she could get her wish granted of having the perfect boyfriend.

The other set of Dragonballs that we know of was made by the wisest Namekian called "The Honorable Elder", or Guru in the English Dub. Those Dragonballs reside on the planet Namek, they are like the Earth Dragonballs in everyway, except they are much larger, about the size of a volleyball or a basketball. There are also two extra precautions taken on the Namekian Dragonballs; the sommoner cannot summon the dragon unless they utter the password that is required to unlock the Dragon God named Porunga, and the other precaution is that the Dragon only grants wishes that are spoken in Namekian language. Porunga looks quite different then Shenlong, and he is much larger. Once Porunga is sommoned, he has the ability to grant three wishes that are somewhat less powerful then Shenlong's wishes. Porunga could only revive one person at a time while Shenlong could revive an infinite amount of people at a time, but Porunga can revive someone as many times as they want. The Namekian Dragonballs' restoration cycle was also 180 days, not the 365 like the Earth Dragonballs.

Later on, both dragons were modified, after the conflict with an evil overlord named Freeza which resulted in the destruction of the planet Namek, Porunga (on a re-established Planet Namek) was modified to have the power to revive more then one person at time, even though he didn't seem quite as powerful as Shenlong when it came to that power because he had to work harder then Shenlong to revive numerous people. Shenlong's modification was that he was given the ability to grant two wishes instead of one.

Dende, a guardian from Namek, became the Earth's guardian when Kami combined with his evil counterpart named Piccolo "The Great Demon King" so that Piccolo and him could become a whole being again. Since Piccolo and Kami's individual life forces became one, the Dragonballs became inert because Kami's individual life force ceased to exist. Rather then creating new dragonballs, Dende revived and modified the old ones based on Kami's design. This was when Dende also gave Shenlong the power to grant 2 wishes instead of the original one. Near the very end of DBGT when all the Dragon Balls were returned to normal, Shenlong appeared and declared that no more wishes would be granted for at least 100 years (the original resting time of the Dragonballs) because of the side effects of negative energy. Upon saying this he asked Son Goku to join him on a journey. Goku accepted the dragon's offer and rode away with Shenlong. The Dragon Balls were then absorbed into Goku's body.

In Dragon Ball GT, the concept of "Black Star Dragonballs" was introduced. This set of Dragonballs was created by Kami-sama, in a time when the kindly Guardian of the Earth had still not expelled his darker side in the form of Demon King Piccolo. Presumeably because this Kami was not pure good and was much more powerful (As seen during the Android/Cell saga when Kami became absorbed into Piccolo's body, creating the most powerful Namek to ever exist). The Black Star Dragonballs can summon a much more powerful Red Shenlong, a mighty dragon that is not restricted as much as the normal Shenlong (eg. Red Shenlong can kill a person if wished to). To counter this powerul improvement, the Black Star Dragonballs have two big downsides. First, when Red Shenlong grants a wish the Black Star Dragonballs scatter across the galaxy, rather than the Earth. Secondly, the planet upon which Red Shenlong grants a wish will be destroyed in one year unless the Black Star Dragonballs are returned to the planet that the original wish was made on.

Like many aspects of GT, most fans consider them non-canonical. The primary reason for this is that the Dragonball GT series was never part of the written manga or even created by Akira Toriyama, therefore most of it is void of true facts. The existence of the Black Star Dragonballs does present a bit of a plot hole. Bulma's Dragonball radar never picked up the signature of the Black Star Dragonballs. If the original counterpart of Kami and Piccolo created an original set of dragonballs (the Black Star Dragonballs), why was he so surprised when he learned of their existence from Pilaf? Furthermore, how did Emperor Pilaf find out about the Black Star Dragonballs if no one else, not even the Black star Dragonballs' creator, knew they existed?

Negative Energy

Another concept introduced was the existence of negative energy in Dragonballs. According to Dragonball GT, when ever a wish is made on the Dragonballs, an equal amount of negative energy is created along with the beneficial, wish granting energy. To prevent this energy from causing problems, the Dragonballs absorb this dark energy and it disperses after the original hundred year resting period for the Dragonballs. The Dragonballs can only store a limited amount of it, the Dragonballs scatter across the planet, giving them time to dispel the dark energy (since it would, in theory, take centuries for someone to find all the Dragonballs and summon ShenLong again). Unfortunately, this counter measure was proved near useless when Bulma invented the Dragonball Radar, allowing the characters of "Dragonball" to easily find the Dragonballs and summon Shenlong usually effortlessly. Eventually (during Dragon Ball GT) all seven Dragonballs were filled to full capacity, causing them to crack and the dark energy to leak out. When these damaged Dragonballs were used to summon Shenlong to restore the Earth after Goku's battle with Super Android #17, the Dragonballs summoned years worth of dark energy instead, which manifested into an evil Black Smoke Shenlong, who in turn swallowed the Dragonballs and split into seven lesser evil Shenlong dragons called "Shadow Dragons", each one made by a wish that was made within the past 100 year period (all the wishes made by Goku and his friends). Each Shadow Dragon had a unique ability, and then all of their abilities in one form made Syn Shenlong (Omega Shenron in the English Dub), who could harness all the evil energy in the world and condense it into an ultimate attack.

Wishes Granted

Dragon Ball:
*Oolong wishes for a pair of panties off a "hot babe". (Brought forth Oceanus ShenLong in DBGT)
*Son Goku wishes for Bora to be revived. (Brought Forth Haze ShenLong in DBGT)
*Piccolo Daimao wishes for his youth to be restored. (Brought forth Nouva ShenLong in DBGT)
*Reviving everyone killed by Piccolo Daimao and his children.DragonBall Z:

Saiyan Saga:
*Master Roshi wishes for Son Goku to be revived. (Brought forth Reige ShenLong in DBGT)

Freeza Saga:
*Dende, Son Gohan and Kuririn wish for Piccolo's life to be restored. (\Granted by Porunga)
*Dende, Son Gohan and Kuririn wish for Piccolo to be transported to Planet Namek. (Granted by Porunga)
*Mr. Popo wishes for all those killed by Freeza and his henchmen on Planet Namek brought back to life. (Granted by ShenLong)
*Dende wishes everyone on Planet Namek to go to Earth except Son Goku and Freeza. (Granted by Porunga)
*The Z-Fighter's lives to be restored. (Granted by Porunga)

Cell Saga:
*A wish to revive all people killed by Cell and the other androids.
*Kuririn wished for the self-destruct bombs in #17 and #18 to be removed.

Majin Buu Saga:
*Bulma's wish for all the good people who got killed by Majin Vegeta to be revived. (Granted by Shenlong) (Brought forth Naturon ShenLong in DBGT)
*A wish that would bring the planet Earth back (Granted by Porunga)
*A wish that would bring all those killed by Majin Buu back to life (except the really evil ones). (Granted by Porunga)
*A wish to restore Son Goku's strength for the Genki-Dama. (Granted by Porunga)
*All memories of Majin Buu would be erased, save for Goku and the other Z Senshi's. (Granted by Shenlong)

Dragon Ball GT:
*Pilaf accidentally wishes for Goku to be turned into a child. (Granted by Blackstar Shenlong)
*Baby-Vegeta's wish for a new Planet Vegeta to be created and located near Earth, complete with buildings and plants. (Granted by Blackstar Shenlong)
*A wish to restore the Earth after being destroyed by the side effects of using the Black Star Dragonballs. (Granted by Porunga)
*A wish to revive all the people who were killed during the Super 17 and Evil Shenlong Sagas.

DragonBall Movies:

Dragonball Movie 1: Curse of the Blood Rubies
*Pansy's wish for the end of the rubies

Dragonball Movie 3: Mystical Adventure
*Goku wishes for Bora to be revived.

Dragonball Tenth Anniversary Special:
*Goku wishes for ShenLong to rebuild Mechanical Man (Jinzoningen/Android)#8 and remove the bomb inside him.

Dragonball Z Movie 1: Dead Zone
*Garlic Jr.'s wish for immortality.

Dragonball Z Movie 2: The World's Strongest
*Dr. Koichin wishes for Dr. Wheelo to be released from his prison.

Dragonball Z Movie 3: Tree of Might
*Bulma, Son Gohan and Kuririn wish to restore the forest.

Dragonball Z Movie 4: Lord Slug
*Lord Slug wishes for his youth to be restored.

Dragonball Z Movie 10: Broli, Second Coming
*Son Goten wishes that his father were there, and an image of Goku appears; though this creates an interesting plot hole. Not only did Shenlong not appear, but at this point, Dende had powered up Shenlong to grant two wishes, though when Goten asks to see Son Goku, the Dragonballs still scatter at the end of the movie. It doesn't really matter though, as the movies are non-canon.

Dragonball Z Movie 12: Fusion Reborn
*ShenLong appears, but no wish is made due to his inability to grant the one Gohan wanted, leading to a somewhat comedic ending. (You notice the English Dub is a mistake, Shenlong when he appears in the movie says he can grant three wishes.)

Dragonball Z Movie 13: Dragon Fist Explosion
*Goku's wishes to unlock a box Son Gohan and Videl found (Tapion was in it).

Dragon Balls in other media

In the manga Dragon Boy, Dragon Balls are small balls that appear very similar to the balls in the Dragon Ball series. However, instead of granting wishes, they can be opened using ki energy to release a small baby dragon that does not grant wishes.

In the video game series Worms there is an attack called "Dragon Ball", being very similar to the Kamehameha wave.