This series starts when a little innocent 13 year old boy named Goku and a teenage girl named Bulma cross paths. From that day on their adventures of finding the Dragon Balls begin. Bulma is in search of the dragonballs because she wants to wish for a boyfriend after she finds out the legend of the Dragon Balls. The legend is that the carrier of all seven of the balls would be granted one wish, any wish, by a dragon named Shenron that lives inside of them. The problem is that Pilaf (he is the ruler of some small kingdom) & sidekicks Mai (a girl) and Shal (a ninja dog), wants to get the balls also to expand his reign of terror to include the entire world. Along the way of this exciting adventure of getting the Dragonballs before Pilaf, we meet new and interesting characters. The first person they meet is Umigame, a turtle that had lost its way. Goku helps him find his destination and it is there where he meets Master Roshi.

  Master Roshi gives Goku his "Flying Nimbus". Only those that are pure in heart are able to ride on this cloud, and Goku is just that and more. This cloud is a means of transportation for Goku through out the series. Later they go to a city where there is a being that is scaring everyone away. This person is Oolong, a pig that can change the way he looks, after being defeated by Goku he tags along for the excitement as well.

  Their next soon to be friend is a desert bandit named Yamucha and his sidekick Puar. Puar is also able to change his appearance. Bulma and Yamucha have a "thing" going from that point on. The next to come are The Ox King (he was a martial arts student of Master Roshi) and Chi-chi (his daughter), who live and are the rulers of a mountain top called Fry-pan, where a dragonball is gathered. The mountain top has caught on fire and Master Roshi helps The Ox King by blowing off the fire with a "Kame-hame-ha".

  After seeing Master Roshi do this Goku attempts it and does it for the first time, something that took Master Roshi fifty years to master. After some time collecting the dragonballs using Bulma's dragonball radar which she invented Goku and the others go to the palace of Emperor Pilaf to gather the remaining dragonballs that Pilaf has collected. On their way there they are trapped and Emperor Pilaf now has all seven of the Dragonballs and is about to make his wish to rule the entire world. Goku makes a tiny hole on the wall of the room that they are trapped in by using his new technique the "Kame-hame-ha". Since the hole is too small for any of them, Goku, Bulma, or Yamucha, Oolong and Puar convert into bats and go flying towards Pilaf to try to stop him. Right as Pilaf is making his wish Oolong saves the day by interrupting the wish and making a wish of his own, a pair of women's underwear.

  As a result the dragonballs are once again spread across the face of the Earth and wont activate again until another year.

  After this they are all recaptured and are placed in a room where they are going to fry the next morning. It is a full moon outside and Goku is telling everyone about a monster that comes out during the full moon. No one believed him and he told them that his Grandfather Gohan was killed by one of those monkeys in the full moon and with his dying words told Goku never to look at the full moon. Goku said that he slept through the whole thing so he didn't remember the monster. The rest of the team are getting scared and hoping that it isn't Goku that turns into a monster by looking at the full moon. So Bulma points at the moon and tells Goku not to look over there. Goku does, which causes him to turn. And to their surprise Goku changes into a ware monkey called Oozaru right before their eyes. As he turns into Oozaru and goes on a rampage and destroys everything in his sight, so in a way they were all saved from the room where they were destined to die the next morning.

  To try to stop Goku they cut of his tail and it works, he changes back to his normal self and does'nt remember anything. His friends decide not to tell him because it would hurt him to much to find out that it was he that killed his grandfather.

  Goku goes to Master Roshi's island and decides to train with him, while everyone else decides to live in the city. Bulma gives her radar to Goku because she doesn't need it anymore, because she already has her wish, a boyfriend (Yamucha). They say good bye with the hope of seeing each other again.