By this point you kinda get what you're in for. There's always a bigger bad, and Son Goku works to crush it. I think the only thing I really take issue with is that things just crop up out of nowhere without any real history to them so you're never really sure about the state of the world. Honestly, most of the backstory has amounted to Bulma being the inheritor of the Hoi-Poi Capsule technology, and that seems to be a consistent piece of the world building. That being said, it's not really the "gimmick" of this anime, or at least not yet if it ever does become that. It's just a bit of world building.

Another improvement is that we realize people can die in this world, in quite a straightforward fashion too. So there are stakes, which is good because they were missing. Though Son Goku is bulletproof, that's not to say that the rest of the world is, and so we know to take situations of regular people seriously because they can and will die.

But the characters are just so charming that it doesn't really matter. There weren't really any standout new characters, but a lot of the familiar established faces are very charming already and I'm just happy to see them again and doing their thing. Aside from the return of my favorite villain near the end driving a fucking Mercedes-Benz at the end, Bulma is as fun as she ever is as the comic relief--vacillating between being an entitled prick to a constantly punished "why me?" dork who's way in over her head. Still not a fan of Kame-Sen'nin.

Four stars. Is it high art? I dunno, that's subjective. It's certainly not an intensely deep story. But what I am saying is that after an exhausting day of work, these are very comfy to slide into and just enjoy myself before I go to bed, and I think of them more fondly than the things I force myself to read in some ways.

(This may have just been my copy, but some of the pages were cut off, with incomplete page numbers or—worse—dialogue. This affected my amount of stars somewhat, although I maintain that it could have just been my copy.)

I almost feel bad rating these so high consistently, but they really are the balm at the end of a weary workday. No nostalgia for the series, but I’m becoming a fan, slowly but surely. At the end of this, I’ll be very fond of the whole experience. I might take a break before tackling Super, though.)

Not as much Bulma this time around, but more Pilaf. It almost sucks that the reputation of this series precedes it, as any character deaths are often transparent when their appearance in other media is so pronounced. Still, the intrigue is there! I want to see how they come back or what gets lost.

Stories are simple fun. Nothing special. Piccolo cuts an intimidating figure; a lot of villains so far were jerks or incompetents, so meeting Piccolo, you finally get the sense you can’t mess around anymore. Mfs are dying!

This had the most satisfying fight so far, with a final action panel smashing the baddie that feels absolutely iconic, you really feel the impact.

Piccolo is the scariest force they’ve taken on so far, but I don’t really buy his whole puppy-kicking plan. What’s the long term goal here? If he was gonna wipe out all 43 districts in the Dragonball universe, what’s to stop any survivors in other cities from scuttling over to the ruins of some old place, since they know that place is out of the running for every Piccolo Commemoration Day? Sure, I guess Piccolo can just change his mind on a whim and re-smite the place, but they treat it almost like a non-possibility, but it’s basically an annually predictable 9/11. Also I’m not sure I get the mentality behind abolishing law enforcement and allowing looting and killing. If it was explicitly a new world order of “might makes right”, I think it would be interesting if he were trying to establish a stable of powerful underlings to maybe even take on greater threats and go intergalactic with his empire. Maybe something like the demon endings in any Shin Megami Tensei game. I dunno, maybe I’m overthinking it, I don’t wanna be out here asking what Piccolo’s tax policy would have been and how he would have enforced something or other, but he’s been the most intimidating villain so far and it feels like a strangely simplistic motivation relative to his powers and eloquence.

I love seeing everyone’s new designs after the timeskip when they’re all allowed to be taller. There’s a passage of time, which I really appreciate. People grow up and get older. They physically age and change. Lunch always stays the same which is good, you can’t improve on perfection. Muten Rōshi/Kame-Sen’nin does too, but I guess he’s old already. You can’t really stack even more wrinkles on the guy or make him any balder.

It’s a little lame that Yam’cha reached a skill ceiling and he’s forever on a bottom rung. Since Toriyama takes (took…) the effort to always draw all the background characters, giving a very diverse crowd to react to all the shit happening in any battle, it almost feels crual to keep having Yam’cha participating and getting wiped each time. With Muten Rōshi/Kame-Sen’nin no longer in the proceedings it’s starting to get a little mean. I dunno. Maybe Bulma bullies him into it…

The stakes are higher than they’ve ever been, and we finally get a scope of the limitations of the Dragonballs and the wishes. So now we know the stakes of a given situation and what it means to die, so a fight is no longer such a willy-nilly affair. Things are very tense, and Toriyama’s fleshed-out characters are more interesting than they’ve ever been. Piccolo’s arc was especially interesting and is almost the focal point, it weren’t for Vegeta’s debut. Still, Piccolo steals the show for me—I’m paying attention to Vegeta because of real-world knowledge that he either persists for a while or matters greatly, but Piccolo and Gohan have a fascinating dynamic. Should Piccolo carry on the legacy of his “father”? The father was the mote of evil present in Kami-Sama, but is he really meant to follow in those footsteps?

Anyways—the info on what Goku and Piccolo are in the first place is fascinating all on its own, and seeing where that takes us will be interesting. Can’t wait to read more! Long live Dragonball!

This one was a very stressful read. Of course, it should go without saying that the fact I care so much about the characters is why I’m invested in whether they live or die, but in the earlier volumes there was a give and take with these things. The Tenkaichi Budokai would happen while the Dragon Balls recuperated, and then the new big bad would show up. With this volume, it’s all constant buildup, with stronger and stronger foes, and there’s no letting up. It’s a little exhausting to read! Entertaining, though. I’m just saying some genuine R&R (that isn’t in a hospital) would be appreciated.

Vegeta is an interesting addition to the cast, and these three volumes end up really showcasing his depth more than anything. I didn’t like the last three-in-one for lacking downtime, but this one showed a lot of introspection from Vegeta that makes him worth keeping around. It made up for it.

Vegeta is very self-absorbed, but not to a point where he won’t acknowledge that Son Goku or even Kuririn and Gohan lack anything to teach him. He’ll simply absorb their techniques into his repertoire, because he understands that to dismiss the techniques thar may help him, such as scouter-less chi detection, is only to his detriment. His alliances are only out of convenience, and he doesn’t hesitate to do things to benefit himself first and foremost. But his capacity for edification is very interesting to keep watch of. In many ways, he is a much more mindful Goku.

The other characters take a backseat a little; my favorite, Bulma, doesn’t really show up much. She has a really funny panel where she’s sitting in a dinky little lawn chair eating a meatloaf by jamming a fork into it and nabbing bites off it without using a knife, like a child. But otherwise nothing much. Goku shows up and he’s cool and all; the twist at the end was an interesting curveball to throw considering how much he trained before reaching Namek now to have that (sort of) backfire. Curious where that’s going to go and how we’re going to resolve the sticky Freeza, village elder, and dragon ball situation.

This left on such a cliffhanger that I moved to the next book immediately before writing this review, I needed the resolution that badly.

From the word “go,” the ensuing character deaths, the high stakes of those who survive, and the development of Son Goku as he obsessively pursues perfection in combat is unmatchable. The crackerjack timing that’s required of so many small plans to be pulled off all in the wake of the insanely destructive battle against Freeza is terrifying and the paves fly by as you’re desperate to find out if everyone makes it out okay. This might be the best in the series even if I prefer the relatively comfier stories in the Dragonball-not-Z saga. I won’t deny this was exciting.

Thank God I didn’t like DBZ as a kid. If I got to that cliffhanger as a kid, I would have torn my own hair out waiting or begging for the next book.

This might be a five but I don’t want to suggest the series peaks here. Hopefully it can still surprise me, or I might consider earlier volumes more deserving retroactively.