There a few things to keep in mind as you read this review: 1. Dragonball is THE fighting manga! Akira Toriyama really knows how to build up the tension then give them the reader the fight they want to see! 2. Dragonball is it incredibly hard to review without spoilers. But I will try my best. 

This 3-in-1 focuses on the battle between Piccolo, Gohan, Kuririn and Chaozu versus Nappa and Vegeta.

Readers that only casually know Dragonball may look at that character list and wonder where Goku is. That would be a spoiler. But the first chunk of the book is Nappa fighting the minor heroes as Vegeta screams warnings and berates his performance like a cosmic gym coach. Tellingly, as powerful as Nappa is, he barely questions Vegeta. We know who the alpha dog is before Vegeta even does anything.

And Vegeta is a remarkably likeable bad guy. Depspite his cruelty and vile goals, his fighter’s mentality makes him appealing. You get the sense he really wants a good fight above all else. You have to admire his commitment to battle!

The main battle in the volume focuses on Goku and Vegeta. Goku is helped by Gohan, Kuririn and even by the ridiculous Yajirobe. Although Yajirobe gets a surprisingly heroic splash page at one point.

That treatment of a minor character made me think about another tent pole of Dragonball’s appeal. For a manga where every science fictional/fantastic/mystic thing you can think of happens, Dragonball has a humanist heart. Both Goku and Piccolo are aliens that adopt humanity. Heck, Goku’s link to humanity is so deep that at one point he is drawing power from every living thing on earth. He’s not doing that because he is some Lorax-like nature sprit, he is doing it out of love for humanity.

Enough about the writing, I  want to talk about the art. Not the kinetic fight scenes, but the visual world-building that is pervasive enough in Dragonball as to go unnoticed. Despite the fact that there are dog people and dinosaurs right next to regular people, you don't question it. It just feels natural.  

Leaving aside the afterlife and whatever other planets/dimensions may or may may not be talked about in this volume, think about how wonderfully surreal Dragonball’s earth is. Capsule Corp technology looks the world’s cutest dark future. There’s a very interesting juxtaposition between the art and script. These people in innocent little toy cars are under fairly constant alien attack. Granted the aliens in Dragonball seem to be much bigger believers in honorable combat than aliens in others stories. Still, it’s a grim narrative for the heroes that engage in the combat. It’s no spoiler to reveal that at one point Goku goes to the hospital. I was thinking he must have very good insurance!

The afterlife is very interesting too. I think by this point Akira Toriyama had stopped playing with Chinese mythology and created his own vision of the afterlife. It’s a sphere, very identifiable as a planet. Sure it’s a planet dominated by a circular brick road, symbolizing infinity, but a planet all the same.

The last part of this 3-in-1 is the hardest to review without going into spoilers. There IS a victory but Vegeta backstory is more complex than readers were lead to believe, and battle’s aftermath sets up a hell of a cliffhanger. I’ve known what happens for years, and I still want to read the next part! I will say that by the end it is full blown Science Fiction.

To witness one of the greatest battles in manga history, click here!

by Robert McCarthy