Reviews for Dragon Ball Z, Volume 26

The average rating for Dragon Ball Z, Volume 26 based on 2 reviews is 5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2014-10-30 00:00:00 Matt Mcknab And we are done! That's it, the last Dragon Ball book - finished. Boohoohoo!! What am I going to read now - Marvel and DC superheroes seem crappier in comparison! Ahh… but what a great ending! It went out with a bang in the best possible way. I am totally satisfied. Going into this book, you know Son Goku is going to beat Boo and I don't think it's a spoiler to say that he does - what, he was going to lose, everyone would die and Boo would fly off, ready to destroy everything else in the universe? But there's absolutely no way in knowing how it gets to that point, and I loved that unpredictability. What can I say without going into spoilers? It's an enormously ambitious final arc that's extra-long. The previous book ended with Son Goku and Vegeta both back from the dead and ready to face Boo - there was no one else, they were the last barrier. And that's an inspired setup, especially with the potara earrings which fuses the two, which we briefly see at the start of this book (by the way, Vegerot is the worst name ever!). But it's almost like Akira Toriyama's sensing that this isn't good enough and he has Vegeta smash up the earring - this isn't how we're going to win. There on out, all bets are off and it's one surprise after another until the final final final fight between Goku and Boo. It's also THE best way the series could've gone out. It incorporates everyone from the series - all 42 volumes! - into it in a way that's not contrived and is completely epic and fitting. Vegeta has some great scenes here and he even grows as a character by the end. He started out as the bad guy at the beginning of Dragon Ball Z and manages to find some redemption by the end so that he's almost - almost - a good guy. It's a brilliant arc. Then it's 10 years later and I won't say how everyone turns out, but it's happy endings all round. I will say though that the final scene of the book is kinda brilliant - well, that and the one before it. The Strongest Under the Heavens tournament makes another appearance, and the ending is open-ended enough to allow Toriyama to return to Dragon Ball if he wanted to. That said, this title ended in 1995 and, to my knowledge, he hasn't felt the need to come back. It's a great ending though that reinforces the positive message of the series: try your best at everything you do and never stop learning! For me, it's up there with the endings of Transmetropolitan and Scalped as among the finest finales in comics. Dragon Ball, you were awesome - I'll miss you! * This next part is a series overview/mash note to Akira Toriyama that's separate from the final volume's review above. I started reading this series back at the start of July this year and, as I write this, it's the day before Halloween. This title is 42 volumes long (Dragon Ball is 16 books, Dragon Ball Z is 26) and you don't read this many books in under four months if they're no good. Nor does a series sell millions and millions of copies unless it's really something. I highly recommend the series to any comics fans but it does have special significance for me. I came across Dragon Ball for the first time as a kid living in Japan many years ago but couldn't read it because I was a toddler and couldn't read any language, Japanese or English! The books literally stayed with me for years, even though I couldn't read them. I don't know why it took me so long to get around to it but I'm so glad I finally took the plunge this year and got to understand the characters and their stories behind the pictures. And a lot of it was new to me because I never got into the popular anime series. Dragon Ball goes from being a Chinese myth mixed in with contemporary/futuristic Japanese society to cosmic superheroes and the end of the world. It's a helluva journey but it wouldn't be anything without the characters. Son Goku is now firmly up there as one of my favourite characters in literature ever (even though there was a really weird panel in one of the books where he smacks his wife Chi Chi "playfully" and breaks her arm!). The supporting cast is fantastic and has the unique quality of being almost entirely made up of former enemies: Vegeta, Piccolo, Tenshinhan, even Boo by the end! All of them fought Goku once upon a time, and all lost - but he still kept them around as his friends. And that's what I love about the series too: its message of redemption and forgiveness. But at its core it's a martial arts comic and the biggest impression Dragon Ball left on me was how good fighting could be in a comic. Up until this series I'd seen fights in superhero comics from DC and Marvel and they almost never interested me. They felt like filler or a dumb way of keeping the reader's attention, like jangling keys in front of a baby. Toriyama elevated comics fighting to an art form. I can't stress enough how compelling the fighting in this series is. Some battles are literally book-length fights yet they were never boring and always served the story - in fact, the two were inextricably linked. THIS is how you combine action and story. Now when I read fights in Marvel/DC books, I'm always disappointed. The fights are over within a couple pages - maybe five pages max - and they never feel fluid or kinetic. The characters are static on the page and everything feels staged, like a WWE match. "Fighting comics" sounds like a really dumb sub-genre until you see how Toriyama does it in Dragon Ball. It takes real skill to maintain the excitement and interest in a fight between two figures that lasts for hundreds of pages, and Toriyama has that in spades. I've yet to see anyone's treatment of a fight top Toriyama's. Dragon Ball is not a perfect series and there are a few average books dotted about here and there, even a couple of poor ones. But looking at that number again - 42. He wrote and drew 42 books in this series! - the good easily outweighs the bad to an overwhelming degree and it's incredible he produced as many good to great ones as he did. The story, the art, the cast, the originality, the imagination, and Toriyama and his Bird Studio assistants at the centre of it all, keeping it going - Dragon Ball is rightfully a modern classic and a true benchmark in quality comics.

Review # 2 was written on 2015-12-08 00:00:00 Oliver James To find all my reviews: Previously on Dragon Ball Z (I) A new evil has arrived in the Dragon Ball Z Universe and its name is Super Boo. (II) Goten and Trunks have successfully transformed into Gotenks, except that Super Boo tricked them and absorbed them including Gohan. (III) Goku is luckily alive now that the original Lord of Lords sacrificed his life to resurrect Goku who now is Earth's last hope. That is what you missed on Dragon Ball Z! We have finally arrived at the final volume of this manga series and I couldn't be anymore excited and proud. In total I have read 42 volumes of Goku's live and I cannot believe this is the end but the journey was worthwhile. I have never read 42 volumes of mangas which is excruciating because I have been editing all the Goodreads information from the titles, the descriptions, and the images to make it authentic and perfect. It is exhausting editing for 42 volumes but it is worth it because I love this series and highly recommend it for all readers. Dragon Ball Z is overrated for many because it impacted our mainstream animation for decades now. The mangas were already popular, then came the animation which lasted for over 100 episodes each series (Dragon Ball & Dragon Ball Z) and then you have the video games and all other merchandises. Just writing it alone it is tiring but nonetheless I love and cherish this series. I believe it is one of the all-time greatest with Sailor Moon and other famous Mangas. In a way I felt as though you grow up with these characters. You witness Goku from as a child and you get to see him as full adult with children and hopefully grandchildren in the future. While Goku is the main protagonist, you get to witness that he is already accepted that the new era of fighters is approaching and he needs to retire but not without a fight! Goku witness Gotenks and Gohan getting absorbed by Super Boo and now needs to fuse with another strong fighter in order to beat Super Boo. At first you believe it is going to be the pathetic Hercules but luckily at the last minute Vegeta is able to come back to Earth like how Goku did in the previous volumes and fuse with Goku. It is interesting how Vegeta was able to put his pride aside because never in a millions years you would think that Vegeta would bond with Goku in order to become a stronger fighter and help humanity. They become essentially Super Vegerot and beat the living shit out of Boo. I know every volume there is always fighting and I am writing constantly how badly these fights out but its true worth the read to witness these different fighting sequences. Super Boo tries to pull the same stunts to Vegerot but it doesn't work since they are not idiots. In the moment that the blob is going to absorb Vegerot, they enable a force field that is able to protect them and they are able to enter Super Boo is cellular form. Now that they are inside Super Boo, they witness that everyone is still alive inside of Super Boo's organs, they are simply tied to him in a cocoon. Vegerot finally reverts back to their original selves and Vegeta destroys the earrings never again to fuse again with Goku. They help released their friends and escape except Super Boo notices what they are doing and enters inside his body. He tells them not to cut the original Boo out of his body because at that point he will lose that tiny shred of humanity and become a spawn of pure evil. They don't listen to him and immediately he is transformed into Kid Boo. The difference between Super Boo and Kid Boo is that Kid Boo has no moral compass and works with pure evil and anger as fuel and has no limit in his abilities. The gang escape to Kaio-Shin's planet and Kid Boo follows them. Vegeta is already dead so they fight will Goku finds a way to save his strength and destroy Kid Boo. Meanwhile Dende reach the planet where the Namekians live and ask them to summon the Dragon Balls to help his friends and the Earth. He is able to restore the Earth back before Boo destroyed it and summon everyone who is not evil and have been killed by Boo which they are all granted. Goku makes the connection that the only way to destroy Kid Boo is by summoning Genki-Dama which is a chi-ball that worked in the previous volumes with destroying Freeza and other people. He receives a bit of chi from his family and friends, the planet but not enough to kill Kid Boo. The clock is ticking and now the Original Boo decides to fight Kid Boo to help the gang. Vegeta at that instant finally accepts that Goku is the ultimate fighter. Vegeta makes the connection that Goku never became a stronger fighter because of pride or simply being the best, Goku essentially was humble about the whole experience and simply wanted to protect those who he loves, and the Earth that he lives in. Vegeta at that instant I believe completely changes and I absolutely love this moment. I felt like at this moment Vegeta is redeemed by his past and accepts Goku as a friend. Vegeta makes the connection that this time Goku has saved the Earth too many times and for once he needs a break. Goku alone cannot destroy Kid Boo and Vegeta tells him that Earth should be the one to help Goku and destroy Kid Boo because if they don't then in all honesty they really don't deserve their planet to be saved. Vegeta with Lord of the Worlds help, he announces to all humans to give their chi to Goku to help destroy Boo. Goku receives like about 10% which is pathetic and you can hear the thoughts of people who believe this message is Bobbidi and refuse to help. Vegeta is losing his patience with screaming and not apologizing for his language and forces them to help. Kid Boo beats Boo and witness Goku and is trying to stop him so Vegeta is trying to fight Kid Boo with no success. Humans keep arguing until finally Goku speaks and ask for their help. In that instant I wanted to cry because that scene in the manga is what makes this entire series come into full circle. We witness every single individual that Goku has encounter since he was a little boy and we see them after all these years/volumes and they give their all to Goku. We witness Android #17, Upa & Bora, Frankenstein, and the entire snow village from Dragon Ball. They provide now 50% power-up which is extremely powerful but still not enough and humans are still being a pain in the a@$. Finally Hercules yells from the top of his lungs saying that give their chi to him to destroy Kid Boo and sure enough in 1 second, the chi-ball reaches 100% and Kid Boo attacks. The chi-ball is the size of the moon and nothing can stop this attacks but still it is hard to release this attack since Goku is powerless. So Dende ask for his 3rd wish to restore Goku's normal levels of power and it is granted. Goku has reached his peak and devours Kid Boo within the chi-ball. As he wishes Boo farewell, he admires that Boo fought all by himself and practically killed everyone and hopes one day he could be resurrected as a good guy so that way Goku can fight him. Kid Boo is destroyed and the Earth is saved. I cannot believe it is finally over. No one more evil, danger, and peace to the galaxy. Vegeta wants to kill the original Boo but Hercules doesn't allow him and in order to protect him on Earth, they erase everyone's memories of Boo in order for him to be safe. The gang meet back up at Kami-Sama's palace and it is the best feeling in the world to be reunited with your family again. Everyone forgets about Boo but they know that somehow Hercules saved them from something and once you believe the story is over it is not quite. We are shifted 10 years into the future which would put Goku is in mid-30s or late 30s and everyone is living the wonderful life. Gohan quit fighting, got married to Videl, and has a kid name Pan who is a mini-Videl excited to compete. Goten and Trunks are teenagers now and Goten looks horrible with that messy hair but Trunks looks marvelous. Goku is hanging out with Vegeta, Bulma, and the rest of the gang as they are getting ready for the Tenkaichi Budokai tournament. No one understands why Goku is competing but apparently this new fighter has shown up and is quite powerful to Goku estimates. Goku makes sure that this contestant fights him and as the match begins we learn it is a little boy named Oob. I didn't make the connection at first and felt like an idiot but Oob is the reincarnation of Boo! Duh! Well Oob doesn't want to fight and Goku teases him until Oob strikes back and he is powerful and never knew about his abilities and strength. So in the end Goku becomes Oob's master and they fly far away so they can begin their training and help the next generation of fighters. I really loved this ending because it went back to the roots of Dragon Ball especially how Oob is the new kid Goku. I love endings of the stories that leave it wipe open in case Akira Toriyama decides to continue the series in manga form or anime. After Dragon Ball Z ended, it makes you wonder about what new evil will come to Earth now that Oob is this powerful fighter and wanting more Goku adventures to come. Knowing how impactful the anime is for both Western and Japanese Cultures, you would think they would continue the anime after the conclusion of Boo. Nope. They focus on the video games more and made a few movies that take place a few years after the ending with this God of Destroyer who looks like an Egyptian cat. Then they did re-edits of the original anime and it is now that in Japan they have started the new Dragon Ball Z sequel called Dragon Ball Super that takes place 18 years later after the defeat of Kid Boo. I don't know any details since I haven't seen the anime yet. I cannot believe I am saying Goodbye to Goku and all these hilarious unique characters but I know they will always be a part of my memories and my childhood. I loved every second of this magnificent journey and for now I believe it is a temporary farewell. Who knows what will happen in the future and it would fantastic if Akira Toriyama continues the manga after all these years as a tribute to the fans. Thank You Akira Toriyama for this enchanting story and all the handwork you have put into Dragon Ball and Dragon Ball Z. Goodbye.