Dragon Ball Z, Vol. 26

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!

You really get your moneys worth with this. Great art, interesting story and overall a really good manga.

I will have very happy boys this Christmas!

It is the best manga series iv ever read!! The characters the stories are all really creative the characters are really like able.Son Goku is the best hero ever, and the djinn buu is the bad guy but at the same time is funny and likeable aswell.

LEGENDARY