Dragon Ball Z, Vol. 16 (Volume 16): The Room of Spirit and Time

It’s probably because the androids are wiped out in this volume, but I’m starting to like Dragon Ball Z again!Vegeta and Trunks emerge from the Chamber of Spirit and Time, fully levelled-up, to take on Cell. Vegeta fights Cell alone but, even though he’s able to best him easily, he allows Cell to remain alive to absorb Android #18 and assume his final form. Because he’s a dumb Saiyan Warrior who only wants to fight extremely powerful beings!Actually it’s not totally Vegeta’s fault that the world might be doomed; Kuririn had his shot too but he didn’t take it because #18 kissed him once and he fancies her now - aww! Noseless boy loves the robot girl!For the most part, Akira Toriyama’s writing is perfect for this series, but the dialogue he gives Trunks is among the clunkiest I’ve read in modern comics. Every single thing he says is a massive load of exposition that reads like Toriyama’s notes for the story rather than remotely realistic dialogue for a teenager to say.Son Goku and Son Gohan enter the Chamber of Spirit and Time to begin their year of training (which, outside the chamber, is just a single day) with Goku training Gohan to become a Super Saiyan. Their only major plot development is Goku cutting Gohan’s hair, which is the right thing to do - Gohan’s hair looked like a freakin’ giant black porcupine perched on his head! All of the Saiyan’s hair styles are all totally bizarre but his was the strangest!That’s pretty much the whole volume. Lots of enjoyable, frenetic fighting between Cell and Vegeta, small advancements of the other plot strands, and the androids are all gone - hurray! Please let them stay gone! With his many transformations and lizard-like appearance, Cell does seem very reminiscent of Freeza, so maybe that’s why I’m enjoying this arc more - it’s the kind of storyline Toriyama can do really well so that’s what he’s going back to do.Volume 16 is an improvement but given the overall poor quality of the Cell arc, that’s not saying much. I’m hoping Goku beats Cell soon and we can get to the next, hopefully much better, villain.

You really get your moneys worth with this. Great art, interesting story and overall a really good manga.

i think the book is very good because even though the book is english its written backwards to show the Japanese style i recommend this book to everyone especially all dragon ball z fans

Quickly became one of my favourite manga