Tuesday, September 8, 2015

"Dragon Ball, Vol. 7: General Blue and the Pirate Treasure" by Akira Toriyama


True Rating: ★ 1/2

Goku and Bulma arrive to Master Roshi's Island and he gets to reunite with Kuririn, Lunch, Turtle, and Master Roshi. Kuririn wants to tag along with his friend again and Master Roshi is kind enough to loan his plane/submarine to them in order to pursue for the Dragon Ball. The downside of it all is that Bulma left the dragon balls on the island and the Red Ribbon Army has found their location. They believed that Master Roshi is the inventor of the radar and oblivious to the fact that he is a powerful fighter because of his old man appearance. The general who is in charge of that region is called General Blue and he decides to split his men into two teams (A & B), one would follow Goku and the gang while the other attacks the island.

Since Master Roshi is powerful there is nothing to worry as he defeats the entire team using his martial arts technique. But for Goku and the rest, they are in a danger zone as they discovered that the Dragon Ball is hidden in an underwater cave. General Blue follows them and tries to attack them but realizes that the cave will collapse so instead he gives the misleading impression that they have left Goku alone. While they find the dragon ball and the rumored buried treasure, General Blue plans to attack and steal everything the gang has achieved.

Kuririn and Bulma find the hidden treasure and General Blue decides to attack. Since Kuririn is the only fighter available, he decides to battle Blue and sadly gets his ass kicked. I believe the reason why this happen is because he hasn't continued his training. By staying on the island with Master Roshi and not working out, he has returned to the fighter he was before and unable to defeat Blue.

Luckily for the gang, Goku found them and beats the day lights out of Blue and finds the hidden dragon ball. Unfortunately the cave is collapsing and now time is in the essence. After coming close to death, the gang escape and return to Master Roshi. General Blue survived the cave incident and follows them and is able to paralyze everyone and steal the dragon balls and the radar. Now Goku is mad and when he gets untied, he goes on the dangerous mission of retrieving everything that Blue has stolen.

What I was disappointed for a few pages was that Akira tried to bring Dr. Slump (another series of his) into this manga and did a terrible job of incorporating them into the storyline. This entire manga has this phenomenal pace that left me on the edge of the seat and then out of nowhere it felt abrupt and brought these characters who I have no idea who they are or care for that matter.

While Goku is attack General Blue in the air, Dr. Slump and the rest of gang witness this in the sky and wonder what that is all about. General Blue makes Goku fall to the ground but he fails to pay attention and his plane crashes. He manages to escape the crime scene but needs to find an airplane to escape. Goku meets Dr. Slump and his crew and they help him repair the radar again in order to find General Blue. Since Dr. Slump is the only one with an airplane, General Blue shows up.

They get into a major fight but Dr. Slump robotic girl invention wrestles with General Blue and sends him faraway from Penguin Village. Goku retrieves the dragon balls, but he lost the radar since it was in Blue's pocket. Dr. Slump makes him a new one and now he is off towards finding the next dragon ball. If it weren't for Dr. Slump storyline, it would have been amazing manga as usual.

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