The comedy is the real adventure here, not the dragon balls. Goku's innocence isn't naiveté, it's a weapon that turns every conversation into slapstick gold, and Bulma's exasperation at traveling with a feral kid who doesn't understand girls fuels half the show's best moments. You're watching a road trip comedy that happens to have martial arts tournaments, not an action show pretending to be funny, and that distinction is everything.

Goku is a young boy living alone in the woods until Bulma crosses his path while hunting for the Dragon Balls, seven magical objects said to grant one wish to whoever gathers them all. Bulma wants to wish for a perfect boyfriend. Goku owns one of the balls and will not give it up, so the two strike a deal: he joins her journey, and she gets to borrow its power. Along the way they meet the elderly Muten-Roshi and Kuririn, an aspiring disciple, and Goku trains alongside him to become a stronger martial artist ahead of the World Martial Arts Tournament. A power that can grant any wish draws people with far worse aims than Bulma's, so the group trains to stop them and uses its growing strength to help the people it meets. The series mixes action, comedy, adventure and fantasy.