DRAGON BALL: THAT TIME I GOT REINCARNATED AS YAMCHA

Based on Dragon Ball by Akira Toriyama
Story and Art by dragongarow LEE

This goofball manga was published in Japan in 2017 and received an English-language release from Viz in 2018. I read it via "scanlations" when it was first released, and liked it so much that I bought Viz's digital edition. It's the story of a Japanese teenager, who happens to be a huge DRAGON BALL fan, and who is accidentally killed when he falls down a flight of stairs -- only to wake up in the DRAGON BALL world, reincarnated in the body of Yamcha, circa the end of the initial DB story arc, the "Pilaf Saga".

Our protagonist pretty quickly adjusts to his life, and what follows is a three-chapter storyline in which he uses his meta-knowledge of future events to his own advantage. The story skips straight past all of DRAGON BALL (after establishing that Yamcha is going to train with Master Roshi alongside Goku rather than travel to the Western Capitol with Bulma), and jumps to the Saiyan Saga. We learn that Yamcha has climbed Korin's tower and trained there, and has even borrowed Piccolo's spaceship to fly to planet Namek, where the Great Elder of Namek unlocked his hidden power and he trained with the warrior, Nail. Because of all this, Yamcha is able to fight alongside Goku and defeat Vegeta.

The story jumps again at this point, to the Cell Games, which feels a little weird... Yamcha was dead during the original Freeza Saga, so it might've been fun to see how that story played out here. Did he accompany Goku to Namek? Did the other fighters come along, since Yamcha defeated the Saibaimen and Nappa and prevented them all from dying? I'd like to know!

But anyway -- we reach the Cell Games and it appears most of the storyline has continued as it originally went, with Super Saiyans all over the place. Yamcha decides that Gohan will be able to handle Cell as in the original story, and he someplace else to be: he travels to an area not far from the Cell Games and confronts Chiaotzu, who it turns out is also reincarnated from the real world. Yamcha deduced this years ago and has finally decided to get to the bottom of it. Chiaotzu is also a DB super-fan who died, only he's lived several lives in this body -- and after dying so many times, he's decided to be a villain. Yamcha fights him and nearly defeats him with the Mafuba technique, before stopping his attack and bonding with Chiaotzu over their shared love of DRAGON BALL. Chiaotzu sees the error of his ways, and renounces evil.

Yamcha then decides that he's done all he can to reach his ceiling, and that going forward it will be up to Goku and the rest to carry on as fate intended. He plans to retire from fighting and live out his life in the Dragon World. At that point, he and Chiaotzu return to their bodies on the "real" Earth, and the story ends with a surprise cameo from Beerus and Champa, who it turns out are playing a "Reincarnation Game" -- basically a board game.

There's a sub-plot running through the series in which our protagonist wants to woo Bulma before Vegeta has a chance to do so. The collected edition includes a bonus chapter, set between the Freeza and Android sagas, where he visits Capsule Corporation, intending to do just that -- but when he sees the two growing close, and realizes how much of the Dragon World's future hinges on them being together, he calls off the plan. We also get another goofy mini-chapter, in which Yamcha and Chiaotzu attempt fusion with the expected ridiculous results.

I really like this story for a few reasons: one, anything that revisits the earlier parts of the DRAGON BALL saga is worth reading, in my opinion. Two, it's really well thought-out! Dragongarow LEE finds several creative ways to ramp up Yamcha's power and keep him relevant as the sagas progress. I kinda wish Toriyama himself had done that in the official canon. And speaking of Toriyama, I love dragongarow LEE's impression of him. He does a great job of capturing every phase of the DB artstyle, from the early "soft" stuff in the Pilaf Saga to the harder, angular lines of the Cell Games -- plus the hybrid between the two styles as Toriyama evolved during the Saiyan Saga.

Basically, it's just fun to see a new DRAGON BALL story, even a weird non-canon one like this, that keeps the human characters relevant! This is where I'll mention my dream DRAGON BALL revival, for those who care: a new movie or mini-series (or even an open-ended series!) set during the five years between the twenty-third Tenka'ichi Budokai and the beginning of the Saiyan Saga. Goku and his friends are adults. No one has ever heard the word Saiyan. Universe-shattering power levels haven't been reached yet (nor have planet-shattering levels, for that matter). Piccolo is still a bad guy, and is the world's second-strongest fighter behind Goku (and Tien is number three)! The "Z-Fighters" consist of Goku, Tien, Krillin, Yamcha, and Chiaotzu (the group from the end of the original "Cha La Head Cha La" opening). And they have adventures with more of a DRAGON BALL feel than a DBZ one. I would read and/or watch the heck out of something like that -- and, much as I like DB SUPER, I would like this about a zillion times more!*

Basically, I've always felt that the DRAGON BALL era transitioned into DBZ too quickly. There should have been a longer period in between, following Goku and friends as young adults before all the spacefaring, universe-spanning stuff began with the Saiyan Saga. But I feel like I'm mostly alone in this sentiment. People love Vegeta. They love Saiyans and Super Saiyans and Gods and Super Saiyan God Super Saiyans and so forth. But hey, a guy can dream, right...?

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* The alternative to this idea is a DRAGON BALL SUPER spinoff, using the episode where Goku goes to recruit Tien for the Tournament of Power as its "backdoor pilot" -- a series about Tien and Chiaotzu running their dojo in the mountains. Keep Yurin, the episode's antagonist, as a co-star. Bring back Lunch as another co-star. Have a semi-reformed Crane Hermit move in as the "obnoxious annoying uncle" character. Create some new human fighters to round out the cast. Let Yamcha guest-star once in a while. And most importantly, no Saiyans (or Namekians or any other aliens) allowed! Have it be something like DRAGON BALL: THE NEXT GENERATION, a comedy/action series about relatively lower-powered martial artists having (again; say it with me) classic DRAGON BALL-style adventures. Once more, I say that I would read or watch the heck out of it.