Tuesday, September 15, 2015

"Dragon Ball, Vol. 13: Piccolo Conquers the World" by Akira Toriyama


Rating: 

Previously on Dragon Ball, Goku is fighting King Piccolo hoping that he will destroy him as he avenge for his friends but sadly fails. Tenshinhan and the gang are trying to gather all the dragon balls to resurrect Kuririn. Goku shows his true strength and is able to beat up Piccolo but he was still outmatched by this powerful demon. When Piccolo escapes, he sets on the mission to declare that he is King of the World and goes to the castle to become King. We get insight into this fictional Earth and clearly Akira Toriyama was brilliant by not including religion and politics to ruin this fantasy world.

In this world, they do not have Presidents, Prime Ministers, or any other high elective official except a Monarchy who controls the world and better yet the King is a talking dog! I love the humor of this manga and it always surprises me in moments like this when we lose track on how silly this fantasy world is in this parody of our Earth. When Piccolo arrives, he easily penetrates the Kingdom guards and security and forces the King to give up the crown to him. When this is announced in a live broadcast, all hell breaks loose and the world is on the tip of complete destruction. Master Roshi realizes it is Piccolo who is behind all this and is shocked that he is resurrected since his Master is the one who sealed Piccolo in a rice cooker centuries ago.

Instead of resurrecting Kuririn, their new plan is to gather the dragon balls and destroy Piccolo and then later on bring back their friends alive especially since they believe that Goku is dead. They gather all five of the Dragon Balls and plan to trick Piccolo and rob the other two but when Piccolo arrives to destroy them, he swallows the two dragon balls making it impossible for them to retrieve it. Tenshinhan fights Piccolo but gets paralyze through the process, and Master Roshi tries to do the Mafuba which is the move that put Piccolo in the rice cooker but missed something in his martial arts move and failed. By doing that dangerous move, the person who cast it is supposed to die but Piccolo make it personal and killed Master Roshi.

Now that all 7 are together, Piccolo summon the dragon and Chaozu tries to grant the wish of killing Piccolo but wasn't loud enough for the Dragon to hear and Piccolo killed him in the process. Now that everything is set in stone, Piccolo gets eternal youth and kills the dragon so that way the dragon balls could never be summon again. Meanwhile all this is going on, Yajirobe is taking Goku to see Master Karin who will hopefully heal him and make him stronger to destroy Piccolo. Only Tenshinhan and Goku have the only fleeting chance of destroying Piccolo and the world gets darker by the hour. Will Goku or Tenshinhan accomplish this goal? Stay tune until next time on Dragon Ball...

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