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A review by vimcenzo
Dragonball, Volumes 7, 8, & 9 by Akira Toriyama
4.0
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.
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.