Reviewer: Jesse Baker
Story Title: Tale 139: Yajirobe’s Prey/Tale: 140: The Martial Artist Hunters/ Tale 141: Goku vs. Tambourine
Quick Rating: Cliffhanger central….
Written by: Akira Toriyama
Penciled by: Akira Toriyama
Inked by: N/A
Colored by: N/A
Lettered by: N/A
Editor: N/A
Publisher: Viz
This is the final issue of Dragon Ball, as Viz has decided to cancel the monthly “floppy†format in favor of collecting the rest of the first half of the Dragon Ball Saga in trade paperback format. They pick a rather interesting point to end the monthly series, choosing to end with a cliffhanger of Goku facing off against Demon King Piccolo (not to be confused with the Piccolo Jr., who is running around as a good guy in the pages of Dragon Ball Z serial over in Shonen Jump).
Brightening up this issue is the introduction of the cowardly Yajirobe and the continued presence of King Pilaf, who freed Demon King Piccolo from his prison and is now serving as his lackey so as to ensure that he gets control over a portion of the Earth once Piccolo conquers it.
But it is really sad that they decided to end the monthly comic with the cliffhanger that they did. I think it would have been better and more dramatic to end with Piccolo beating Goku to an inch of his life or with Goku drinking the Super-Holy Water only to keel over in unspeakable pain that one must endure as a side effect of drinking the Super-Holy Water.
Regardless, ending the Dragon Ball ongoing series with the image of Piccolo and Goku about to fight is not the worst way to bring the series to an end given the numerous problems of the Dragon Ball Z anime series. And at least we fans will know that Viz will finish up the series instead of leaving us high and dry with no guarantee that we’ll get an ending.
