Dragonball: Evolutionby Sheena McNeilReviews may contain information that could be considered 'spoilers'. Readers should proceed at their own risk. Publisher
Credits Grade: 4 Goku's "normal" life is turned upside down with Lord Piccolo escapes from his mystic prision. He is determined to gather the Dragon Balls which will summon the dragon and grant him a wish - helping him destory Earth. Can Goku accept who he really is and master his powers in time?Basically, the book reads ok. It's interesting, easy, and develops the characters and plot fairly well. There are two or three main flaws with it. The first is that there are some very important things that happen that are glossed over or conclude too quickly. The ending is terribly anticlimatic! All this wonderful battling with several scenerios at once, and then 'oops, I got tricked again' followed by 'yay! now I have time to flirt'. Huh? It builds through the whole thing for ... a big fat nothing? Yeah, Goku manages to control his Saiyan powers, but it comes down to the good guys loosing till they pull a cheap trick. I'm not even that upset at it for ending that way. What upsets me is the sudden lack of detail or interest in telling us what is happening or how it works. It's just kind of written off rather than told in a manner you can envision! That happens other times through the book as well. The other main problem is the screen shots they included from the up-coming movie. I know this book is based on the movie (which is based on Akira Toriyama's wonderful manga) so it makes sense to include. But seriously, that is NOT Piccolo! He's not even close to being green. He has no antenna. He's been given exaggerated features that make him look more like a sick vampire or a demon from Charmed than an alien. I may have to boycott the movie just for that (but judging from this book and its images that wont be the only reason not to see the movie). And why does Goku feel out of place in this world? Because they've taken out Toriyama's anthropomorphic creatures and the fact that fighting tournaments are popular not shunned! That's part of what makes this series great and it's completely missing!! Thank god they didn't "ignore" the fact that Goku and Piccolo are aliens, but it's horribly down-played. I hope they do a decent job with Goku's Saiyan form, but I doubt very much they'll make him grow in size... (I also think Goku looks really goofy, but there is something about him that looks like Goku ... stuck in a weird teen-age moment). Another sticking point for me is this has been turned into a teen-age drama. Rather than using child-Goku (an unfortunate difference between western and easter heroes is that the US doesn't have the same opinion on child-heroes, but they work so well, especially with younger viewers/readers!) or adult-Goku, we get akward, bumbling 18-year-old Goku who's trying to chase a skirt (and he should have been a much more in charge of his powers since he's been training since childhood - and in the series knows Kamehameha at a very early age). At least they used some of the creatures created from Piccolo to provide an interesting battle sequence. Anyone who's a fan of Toriyama's work will be sorely disappointed! If you're unfamiliar with DragonBall but you like high-school angst and romance (not an emphasis in Toriyama's works!!) mixed with martial arts and alien invasion then give it a read. I'd say if you're kids enjoy the movie they'll read the book, and reading is always good. Fans may want to stay far, far away. Written: March 16, 2009
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