What are the Dragon Ball Daizenshuu?

Daizenshuu means roughly Complete Works, and the set was built as the manga ended to be the shelf that answered everything. Volume 1 is the complete illustration collection of Toriyama's Dragon Ball art. Volume 2 is the story guide, volume 3 the TV animation guide, volume 4 the world guide with maps and race histories, volume 5 the second TV guide, volume 6 the movies and specials guide, and volume 7 the great encyclopedia, an A-to-Z of characters, techniques, and terms with the series' most complete official timeline.

The set's authority is why fans still cite it by volume and page. Power level figures, birth years, technique classifications, and the franchise's chronology all trace to Daizenshuu 7 and the story guide, and later publications, including the Chozenshu successors of 2013, reorganize rather than replace much of it. Toriyama's interviews across the volumes, on villains he designed, arcs he restructured, and his working methods, are quoted throughout the Library because they are the record straightest from the source.

Physical facts matter here. The main seven are sturdy hardcovers with dust jackets, made to be kept, and complete jacketed sets in clean condition are the standard Daizenshuu purchase; loose volumes 1 and 7 trade most often because art and encyclopedia are the pair casual buyers want. The supplementary volumes, the TV Animation Part volumes and the Carddass and film books sharing the brand, confuse listings, so a seller's volume count and ISBNs should be checked against the seven-volume spine run.

English readers have only a fragment: Viz published Daizenshuu 1 as Dragon Ball: The Complete Illustrations in 2008, with a later reissue, leaving six-sevenths of the reference shelf Japanese-only. That asymmetry is why the Library treats the Daizenshuu as the model case for its Japanese-edition coverage: the most important Dragon Ball books after the manga itself were never fully translated.