Name: Dragon Ball Z, Volume 26
ISBN: 9781421506364

Akira Toriyama

Dragon Ball Z, Volume 26

Dimitris Papastergiou

Trever

Well, that's a wrap! What a ride. This volume is a 4/5, but I guess I can summarize for the whole series:

- Original DB/Kid Goku (Vol. 1-16): 5/5
- Saiyan and Frieza Arcs: 4/5
- Androids Arc: 1.5/5
- Cell Arc: 3/5
- Cell Games: 4/5
- Satan's Budokai/Next Generation: 4/5
- Majin Buu: 4/5

As I expected going in, I enjoyed the plain-old Dragon Ball more than Z. There's a charm that faded with the transition to Adult Goku, and although it did start to creep back in during the Buu saga, it's impossible to recreate the magic of that original Dragon Team.

I genuinely loved the experience, even if I did get a little depressed by the direction the plot headed in. And I got frustrated about some other stuff: Why does Dragon Ball Super exist? It seems like no one likes it. And the whole debate about Goku's merits—is he selfish, does that make him bad, etc. All that is ultimately, though, a testament to how the series spoke to me: I wouldn't be so passionate about all this if I hadn't been engrossed to begin with, after all. As a side effect, I've also become a bit obsessed with Toriyama's work lately—I already enjoyed his art for Dragon Quest, and Dr. Slump (from the bits I've read at least) is entertaining, if different from Dragon Ball.

As a final note: don't let the popular notions of what Dragon Ball is shape your perception of it. Going in I expected it to be all about fighting all the time, but the early volumes come from such a different perspective, and Z ends in such a different direction. I put it off for a while because of all the memes, and I'm glad I set them aside and just soaked in the story.