Thursday, January 7, 2016

"Dragon Ball Z, Vol. 19: Death of a Warrior" by Akira Toriyama


Rating: 


Previously on Dragon Ball Z

(I) Trunks who is the son of Vegeta and Bulma come from the future and help Goku in order to guarantee a better future.

(II) Goku fights with Cell but easily discovers that while Goku may use up all of Cell's energy, his son Gohan is the only one who can destroy him.

(III) Cell tortures Gohan's friends and family in order for Gohan to achieve Super Saiyan 2 which he becomes successful but now Gohan is a force to not be reckoned with. 


That is what you missed on Dragon Ball Z!

The previous volume in my opinion was epic because we got to see Goku kicking ass but also giving the reins to his son to replace him and become the next saga of this series. Between that and the drama with Cell building up it allow this volume to succeed as we conclude the Cell storyline and the fighting scene between Gohan and Cell.

When reading this volume I entered with no expectations because sometimes the type formulas that Akira Toriyama has used in the past may not necessarily be applied for this epic fight and I am grateful for pursuing these thoughts.

We finally get the fighting scene with Gohan and it is intense. Gohan from my perspective has finally grown up and with this new sense of being a Super Saiyan I believe he mirrors exactly to his father in the God-like appearance when they are about to obliterate an enemy in this series. Gohan is no longer acting on childish whims and by trusting in his powers and his loved ones he was able to turn Cell from fantastic evil villain to a wild animal with rage. 

Because of this transition, Cell has become like Trunks who turned into Super Saiyan 2 and was only fighting based on rage meaning it leaves open spaces to attack and somehow in Cell's blind rage, he throws up Android #18 making him now incomplete. With that information Cell becomes fatter and fatter turning essentially into a bomb that can destroy the entire Earth. 

In order to protect it Goku sacrifices himself and transport Cell to Kaio-Sama's place and they all die. Unfortunately for Goku, his death was in vain because when Cell exploded himself a piece of himself was still intact an as long as his "cells" are alive he can immediately regenerate so Cell heads to Earth again to kill everyone. 

Since Cell has part Saiyan in his blood, this huge fight with Goku and Gohan has made him practically invincible and kills Trunks instantly. When Vegeta witness the death of his son, the connection between the love and bone of father and son appears and Vegeta goes into a rage that we have never seen before reaching new levels in his abilities as he tries to destroy Cell. Vegeta is no match for Cell.

Gohan and Cell fight it off again but with the one move that may destroy them both which is the Kamehameha. Cell believes he is indestructible and launches the attack and Gohan performs the same attack but the difference is he has his father with him in spirit and having this new level of confidence and just giving everything he got his Kamehameha becomes superior to Cell and finally the Earth is saved from this evil monster.

Now that Goku is dead and the gang is alive, Dende and the gang summon Shenlong to grant them their three wishes. Yamcha makes the wish to bring back Goku but Shenlong announces that once a person has died, they cannot be resurrected. The wish then becomes if everyone who has been killed by Cell be resurrected and the wish is granted. 

Kuririn has a major crush on Android #18 and asked if she could become human because he knows that she is not completely evil and Shenlong tells him that because they are bio-organic robots and all this weird science stuff its a completely gray area and cannot make them human but he can remove the bombs that are inside them which Kuririn wishes for. 

Android #18 was not anticipating this to happen and wonders why Kuririn performed this task but its quite obvious that he is in love with her and I feel like because no one ever did something this kind for her especially when she didn't ask for it she develops feelings for him but doesn't make it obvious which I completely love and stay true to the characters.

Everyone mourns now the death of Goku because he was one of the best characters of all time let alone in this series and they cannot believe he is completely gone. I love that mini scene where Vegeta is completely angry because his wish to beat Goku is ruined. Since everything was resolved Trunks now leave this world and go back to his future.

I love Akira Toriyama for countless reasons but what I didn't expect was he included a bonus story of what happens when Trunks returns to his present world and how he deals with the Androids and Cell. Trunks is a new and improved hero because of his countless training and learning the ways of martial arts and combat. Having that ability he can now mourn the death of those who has perished in his timeline and seeks vengeance and successfully kills Android #17 & 18.

The last time travel he was not expecting Cell and because of that and his lack of training he died and let Cell come into the past world to destroy Goku and the gang. Now that he knows what to expect he prepares himself to fight against Cell and actually wins. He has finally brought peace on Earth and I love everything about this story.

I felt heartbroken now that Goku is dead and I wonder how they are going to bring him back alive because I know before as I was reading and now that this isn't the last time we see Goku and the Gang fighting to restore peace to the universe. I love this series and cannot say goodbye so until next time stay tuned for another episode of Dragon Ball Z!...

No comments:

Post a Comment