Dragon Ball Z #51-78

Dragon Ball Z #51-78

Originally released in 1989

Written by Akira Toriyama

Art by Akira Toriyama

It's insane to look back on how much Akira Toriyama changed up Dragon Ball as a series in the span of roughly a year since Raditz's debut.  In that time, we had the reveal that Goku's an alien, Goku has a brother, Goku has a son, Piccolo's an alien, Goku's dead, the existence of the Lords of Worlds or Kaios (beings who manage a quarter of the galaxy), Yamcha's dead, Chaotsu's dead, Tien's dead, Goku's alive again, Piccolo's dead (and with him dead, the Dragon Balls are useless since his life, the life of the Dragon Balls' creator, and the functionality of the Dragon Balls themselves are all tied together), and Vegeta's still out there, remaining as much of a threat to Earth as ever.

Despite the Dragon Balls (and with it, the hopes of reviving anyone) being gone, there's still a chance that the main cast can undo the damage that the Saiyans did.  Piccolo's homeworld, the planet Namek, has Dragon Balls of its own, so with Goku bedridden from his fight with Vegeta, it's up to Bulma, Krillin, and Gohan to travel to the distant planet, find the Dragon Balls, and revive their friends.  Unfortunately, Vegeta and his employer Freeza also found out about this information, and Freeza making a beeline for Namek and Vegeta rushing there to get the wish before Freeza does. (Freeza's name has a few different spellings, like Frieza, but Freeza feels more natural and it's what the manga goes with, though some of the other name choices like Kuririn can sound a little weird)

Although Gohan and Krillin severely underestimate what's involved in space travel or landing on other worlds, the trio makes it to Namek.  Unfortunately, Vegeta arrives shortly after they do, and Freeza's already there, having gathered four of the seven Dragon Balls.

Freeza's introduction is unusually polite for a guy who just slaughtered an entire village to get a single Dragon Ball. Despite looking almost child-like, he is far and away the most powerful person on the planet - every one of his minions on Namek could join forces to rebel against him and he'd still be roughly ten times more powerful than all of them combined.

When I watched Star Wars: The Force Awakens in theaters, seeing the Star Wars logo and hearing that theme song made me feel like I was eight years old again, and reading this part of the manga had a similar effect on me.  I was quickly taken back to watching the anime as a kid, watching as Gohan and Krillin are forced to stay hidden as Freeza and his top enforcers, Zarbon and Dodoria, slaughter their way through a village. (Freeza's forces rely on scouters to sense where people are, though the heroes and Vegeta work their way around that by keeping their energy low to avoid detection)

Speaking of Vegeta, he may be against Freeza, but he's nowhere near being a hero at this point. He still wants to find the Dragon Balls, become immortal, and kill Freeza so he can become the most powerful in the universe (well, with a few big exceptions, but they weren't created at this point), and he's willing to kill anyone who gets in his way.

It leads to a very different tone compared to Dragon Ball's usual arcs.  Whereas Goku would either fight his way through as many people as possible or find a way to train and close the gap, Gohan and Krillin are forced to be stealthy, avoiding detection from both Freeza's forces and Vegeta.  Goku is on his way after being healed by a Senzu bean, but it will take him about a week to make it to Namek in a spaceship that Bulma's father modified for him.

The elder of a Namekian village destroys the scouters that Freeza's men rely on at the cost of his own life.  The sole survivor is Dende, a young Namekian who is saved by Krillin and Gohan.  Freeza sends Dodoria to deal with the mysterious intruders, only for Dodoria to be attacked by Vegeta.

Dodoria is quickly proven to be outmatched by Vegeta, but in exchange for sparing him, Dodoria reveals the shocking truth to the Saiyan Prince.  Planet Vegeta (not to be confused with Prince Vegeta or King Vegeta, though this also applies to King Vegeta) wasn't destroyed by a meteor like Vegeta was led to believe - rather, Freeza was responsible.

After killing Dodoria, Vegeta sets off to hide one of the Dragon Balls in order to prevent Freeza from finding them all.  Krillin, Gohan, and Dende, unaware of what happened, head back to the cave where Bulma was left. Once Dende is filled in on why Krillin, Bulma, and Gohan are on Namek, and those who can sense ki energy feel Vegeta slaughtering his way through the last remaining Namekian village, Dende takes Krillin to Namek's Grand Elder Guru, who holds the last Dragon Ball unaccounted for by either Freeza or Vegeta.

As Goku trains in twenty times Earth's gravity on his way to Namek, planning to work his way up to one hundred times Earth's gravity, he's contacted by Kaio, the Lord of Worlds, who has met a few others that want training of their own - Yamcha, Tien, Chaotsu, and Piccolo.  Aside from Piccolo, this winds up going nowhere; Chaotsu, in particular, winds up doing nothing of note beyond this point, and Yamcha doesn't fare much better.

Upon discovering that Freeza is on Planet Namek, Kaio immediately tries to tell Goku that the tyrant is way too powerful for anyone to fight, and that they should just get the Dragon Balls, make their wish, and get out of there.  This backfires instantly, as Goku becomes interested in fighting him, and Piccolo encourages Goku, showing a willingness to work with his former rival that would have been unheard of before.

Zarbon, the androgynous-looking assistant of Freeza, encounters Vegeta, who's been waiting until Freeza's henchmen were separate from him before attacking.  At first, Vegeta seems stronger than Zarbon, only for Zarbon to reveal his trump card - he can transform, massively increasing his power, though he generally avoids doing so because it makes him look ugly.

Vegeta is beaten to near death, but with a need for new scouters and an uncharacteristic feeling of uncertainty, Freeza calls in his elite squadron, the Ginyu Force, as he thinks to himself about a Saiyan myth that could (and will) prove to be his demise - the Super Saiyan.

Meanwhile, Dende takes Krillin to the Grand Elder, who is massive, incredibly old, and on the verge of death.  That last part is a problem, as much like Earth's Dragon Balls, when the creator (Guru) dies, the Dragon Balls become impossible to use, and death by natural causes is something that the Dragon Balls can't undo.

Even though I've read through twenty chapters by this point, I want to keep going.  It's helped by the short length - each chapter averages about 14 pages, compared to 19 for most series or 50+ for the first chapter of a series.  The manga flies by at an incredibly fast pace compared to the anime - I'm pretty sure that each chapter is stretched out to the length of a 22 minute episode, whereas in the manga, I could get through a chapter in a few minutes.

The Dragon Balls are quickly scrambled - Zarbon brings Vegeta back to the ship to heal him before torturing him for the location of the Dragon Ball that the Saiyan hid, but Vegeta recovers faster than expected and takes Freeza's collected Dragon Balls for himself.  Meanwhile, Gohan tracks down the Dragon Ball that Vegeta had hid earlier, as Krillin makes his way to Bulma's hiding spot with the Dragon Ball that he got from Guru.  Guru has the ability to awaken the power sleeping inside a person, so Krillin wants to bring Gohan to meet him, only for Gohan to be gone by the time that Krillin gets to where Bulma is.

Krillin is being followed by Vegeta, while Vegeta is being followed by Zarbon, with the first two so single-mindedly focused on their goal that they have no idea that they're being followed.  Upon confirming that the Earthlings are on Namek and they're after the Dragon Balls, Vegeta has a rematch with Zarbon, swiftly defeating Freeza's enforcer even in his transformed state.

Gohan has an encounter with Vegeta, but he manages to make it through the conversation without realizing that Gohan took the Dragon Ball that Vegeta had hid and stashed it a few feet away from them.  The fast pacing can take away from the series at times; the conversation felt more tense in the anime from what I recall, though it has been a while since I saw it.

As Gohan visits Guru to awaken his hidden potential (and given how much stronger he gets when he's angry, he has a lot of that - Vegeta mistakes his energy for Goku's at first), Vegeta catches up to Krillin, only to sense that five energy signatures are entering Namek's atmosphere, who are as powerful as he is if not moreso.  With no options left, Vegeta, Krillin, and Gohan are forced to work together if they want to live, though neither Krillin or Gohan are particularly keen about working with Vegeta.  Still, if they don't, then they have no chance of surviving the dreaded (and extremely flamboyant) Ginyu Force, whose overwhelming strength is only matched by their dedication to striking poses.

I could keep going - Goku's only twenty minutes away from arriving on Namek, and the fight with the Ginyu Force is a great one - but I have to stop somewhere, and I'm sure I'd wind up reading the entire arc if I had the opportunity.  Dragon Ball made its debut in Shonen Jump forty years ago this week, and it remains as addicting as ever after all this time.  It's a series that I grew up with, and I'm so glad to see that it remains as engaging now as it did back when I was a kid.