Although Goku and his martial arts skills (which let him and his friends fly, throw ki blasts, and occasionally read minds) dominate the battles, the story is also about Goku's son Gohan and how he faces these challenges. Goku and his friends, reinforced by former enemies have to fight progressively more powerful villains with each new adventure, with the villains now becoming a more focal point of each story. He was sent into space shortly before the Saiyan planet was destroyed (with shades of Superman, Golden Bat, and Prince of Gamma ). This part of the story continues by revealing that Goku is not simply a freakishly strong boy with a tail but one of the last of an alien race called Saiyans (and a runt of one at that). The reason is that the anime changed showrunner and some of the animation team (and the author thought it would be ending soon, hence the Z). In 1989, the anime experienced a name change to Dragon Ball Z, while the manga continued under Dragon Ball (including all future translations, except English).
Many tropes such as enemies becoming allies, facing off against progressively more powerful villains and having to train and power up to defeat them were introduced here, but would not become the regularly repeating tropes the franchise is known for until a bit later. This portion of the story introduces and develop Goku's friends and enemies, as well as Goku himself as he discovers his love of fighting and adventure. After defeating these major threats to the world, Goku finally wins the tournament on his third attempt and goes off to get married.
The first third of the original series is generally broken down into six arcs, with Emperor Pilaf, the 21st World Martial Arts Tournament, the Red Ribbon Army, the 22nd World Martial Arts Tournament, Demon King Piccolo, and the 23rd World Martial Arts Tournament, plus a few filler mini-arcs, comprising the original Dragon Ball anime series, for a total of 153 episodes. On top of all this, Goku is training up to fight in the periodic "Strongest Under the Heavens" tournament. Of course, no sooner has someone gathered and used the Dragon Balls than they have to be sought out again. The story follows Goku and a huge cast of friends and enemies as they search for the magical Dragon Balls that can make any wish come true. The manga was soon adapted into one of the most popular anime productions ever made, starting in 1986 and ending in 1997. It began as a manga that was serialized in Weekly Shonen Jump from 1984 to 1995, chronicling the adventures of a cheerful monkey boy named Son Goku, in a story that was originally based off the Chinese tale Journey to the West (the character Son Goku both was based on and literally named after Sun Wukong, in turn inspired by Hanuman).
Dragon Ball is a Japanese media franchise created by Akira Toriyama.