SPOILERS
Yes yes YES to all of this!
In the penultimate Dragon Ball Z book, Akira Toriyama decides, “Hey, I’m not coming back after this series is done so let’s just go CRAZY!” - and he does! Everyone except maybe 10 people on the entire planet are killed by Boo, including almost everyone in the DBZ cast - I mean, why not, right? Then heaven starts getting irreparably smashed up!
Boo is the most awesome bad guy. He’s transformed from the cute pudgy weirdo into this lean, mean psychotic machine. He’s so freakin’ evil he not only killed his master but he killed himself - and came back even more evil! I love how menacing and powerful he is.
He goes up against the Son family in this book. Goten and Trunks have been training for the fusion dance to become super-charged Gotenks, and they’ve got some terrific tricks to play on Boo. The power bands were cool and they achieved Super Saiyan Level 3 (aka giant porcupine hair) but the best was the kamikaze ghosts that look like Gotenks who had some super funny and silly comedic bits!
Toriyama does fights like no-one else but he outdoes himself in this book. They’re intense, they’re clever, imaginative and funny - it’s just fantastic to read.
Then the newly supercharged Gohan is up to fight Boo and… well, Boo reveals a new power at his disposal which pretty much neutralises both Gohan and Gotenks in the space of a few pages.
And here’s where the book goes through the roof for me: Goku AND Vegeta are brought back to life, which means the final book is going to be Son Goku and Vegeta teaming up to fight Boo. How perfect is that? Dragon Ball has been Goku’s story from the start and the fact that it’s going to end with Goku is how it should be. I don’t mind Gohan but Goku is the best character. And when Vegeta showed up? I couldn’t believe it. Even Tenshinhan gets a cameo!
I always think the penultimate book to a series needs to really set the stage for the final chapter and gee the readers up - not every series does this, but the great ones do. And Dragon Ball is definitely one of the greats. I really hoped I would be excited for the last books and I’m so glad that I am pumped beyond belief to read the next book thanks to Toriyama’s expert storytelling.
Alright, let’s do this sucker - onto the FINAL Dragon Ball volume! If this book is any indication, it’s going to be quite something.
Dragon Ball Z, Volume 25: Do Your Best, Super Gotenks-kun
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