Dragon Ball: That Time I Got Reincarnated as Yamcha Graphic Novel cover image

Dragon Ball was a long-running Japanese manga written and illustrated by Akira Toriyama.  It was originally serialized in Weekly Shonen Jump from 1984 to 1995 and was comprised of 519 individual chapters.  The hero of Dragon Ball was Son Goku, and the series began with the story of his childhood.

Since its ending, there have been spin-offs and crossovers of the Dragon Ball manga.  Dragon Ball: That Time I Got Reincarnated as Yamcha was originally published in the digital manga magazine, Shonen Jump+, beginning in 2016.  VIZ Media is releasing an English language edition as a stand-alone graphic novel.

Dragon Ball: That Time I Got Reincarnated as Yamcha (Chapters 1 to 3) introduces an unnamed young man who is a fan of all things Dragon Ball.  He and a friend are heading for a Dragon Ball event when he is seemingly killed in an accident.  The high school student wakes up in the body of Yamcha, an ally of Dragon Ball hero, Son Goku, and Dragon Ball heroine, Bulma.

As a fan who is familiar with the Dragon Ball's continuity, the fanboy knows that Yamcha was eventually killed.  So the reincarnated Yamcha sets about making himself strong enough to survive, but will the Dragon Ball characters eventually catch on to the fact that there is something odd about Yamcha?

[This manga includes bonus content, “Extra Story” and “The Reincarnated One's Secret Plan!”]

THE LOWDOWN:  I am only an occasional reader of the Dragon Ball manga, mainly because of copies-for-review that I get from my VIZ Media rep.  I have found some of these titles to be quite entertaining and worth the read.

Dragon Ball: That Time I Got Reincarnated as Yamcha is one of those good reads.  There is something oddly alluring about this single-volume manga.  I read most of it in one sitting, and I can't quite say why I found it amusing, even fun to read.  The truth is that I would like to see more of this story line, and I think Dragon Ball manga fans will agree.

I READS YOU RECOMMENDS:  Readers looking for more Dragon Ball manga will want to try the Shonen Jump title, Dragon Ball: That Time I Got Reincarnated as Yamcha.

B+
7 out of 10