Sneha Jaiswal (Twitter | Instagram)
Akira Toriyama ends Dragon Ball Volume 1 with leads Goku and Bulma finding five out of seven Dragon Balls needed to summon the wish-granting dragon Shen Long. Now the two, along with the mischievous shape-shifting Oolong, have reached Fry-Pan Mountain, where the powerful “Ox King” Gyūmaō holds a sixth ball among his treasures.
Suprisingly, Gyūmaō is willing to strike a deal with our heroes to give the ball to them, but he needs them to bring him a little something from Kame-Sen’nin, his legendary Turtle Master, who also trained Goku’s grandfather Gohan. Yes, the same old dude who gifted Goku the magical flying cloud ‘Kintoun’.
Titled ‘Wish Upon Dragon’, volume two is an entertaining, fast-paced adventure where Goku meets Gyūmaō’s daughter, Chi-Chi, and the two kids fly in search of Kame-Sen’nin. Meanwhile, Yamcha, the dashing bandit who is scared of women, and his shapeshifting sidekick, Puar, continue to tail the protagonists in order to steal all the Dragon Balls once they’re gathered. Although Yamcha isn’t the only villain looking to steal Bulma’s treasures, there are new villains lurking around to do the same.
Getting Kame-Sen’nin to help Gyūmaō is hilariously easy. But the old master’s a bit of a creep and gets the clueless Goku into agreeing to a condition he doesn’t really get. Chi-Chi only appears briefly but leaves a strong impression. She is a cute, fiery kid who freaks out when Goku gives her his signature “pat-pat” gender check (a habit he picked up in volume one) and promptly decides he’s going to be her future husband.
In their hunt for the final Dragon Ball, Bulma, Goku, and Oolong travel to a distant corner of the world, where they stumble upon a bizarre new land ruled by a gang of goons terrorizing the locals. Sounds a bit like Oolong’s backstory, doesn’t it? But the trouble doesn’t stop there, more danger lies ahead, making the quest for the last ball both thrilling and life-threatening.
As the title ‘Wish Upon Dragon‘ suggests, the dragon Shen Long finally appears to grant a wish in this volume of ‘Dragon Ball’ only for it to be hilariously wasted. Possibly the dumbest, most useless wish in wish-granting history of fiction. But Akira Toriyama surely knows how to get laughs out of his readers.
The best thing about Volume 2 is that the first two installments work perfectly as a duology, a complete, self-contained action-comedy adventure. The climax sees the group part ways to chase their own goals, since once a wish is granted, the Dragon Balls scatter across the world and take a year to reappear. Little Goku heads off to start his next adventure: training with the legendary Kame-Sen’nin.
Rating: 4 on 5 stars.
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