So I haven't written a journal entry in a while. And I really like the prospects of what a journal entry could be. Somehow just the way life works we cant find a way to manage all of the things we want to do. And so I havent been writing as much as I want to. But this here may be something like a warm-up.

So I have the full 42 volume set of the Dragon Ball saga, basically 16 volumes of Dragon ball and 26 volumes of Dragon Ball Z. This manga is probably the first manga I was introduced to when I first started reading, which was a good 6 years ago or more. The story was always a mystery to me at the time because I kept tuning in on episodes my friends were watching or picking up one of the random novels they had laying around, and I wasnt getting much of anything in order. Plus there were movies, added scenes... and things like that to keep me unaware of the full potential of this story.

Anyway, last night I finished reading the whole story for probably the third time. Even after 42 volumes, I just cant seem to be happy with an ending. I think a lot of people have the impression and understanding that Dragon Ball is one of those badly written mangas. In the sense that Akira Toriyama didnt really have a complex story, or complex characters, there's really not many morals or messages in the story and maybe for most people its just a story for little kids... like ninja turtles or something. And each time I read DBZ im confronted with the dilemma of creating my own opinion concerning this issue. It is definitely true that the problems and solutions of DBZ are not very in depth. You can summarize most of the problems like so: a bad guy or enemy threatens earth and Goku is not strong enough to beat this threat, so what does Goku do?? Well Goku trains or finds some way to become stronger so that he can best his foe.

And this happens in a number of ways, whether its training initially with the Muten Roshi, or Lord Kaio, or training in a +gravity room, or many other options (room of time), whatever the way the saiyans increase their power many fold in plenty of different ways. What the heck right? What was Toriyama-san thinking? Many times while reading DBZ I find myself discouraged at the fact that many of the characters becomes basically useless and taken out from the story. Tenshinhan was a super interesting character, Yamcha and Puar, were cool as well. However, reading the story again refreshes my interest in these characters, I suppose in the end I feel that Toriyama-san doesnt really have important characters. Maybe only Goku. Its kind of hard to explain without going into extreme detail which will just over complicate the manga. So i'm a little lost in my thoughts. But mainly what I'm trying to get at as far as characters go, is that while not every character remains dominant throughout the manga, each has his or her interesting impact on the story. This is a fun manga, many characters turn from enemies to friends, somehow this manga warms you up to something you feel like you belong to.

I suppose Dragon Ball Z for me stands for something. Its insurmountably powerful. The mere fact that its 42 volumes, written over a span of 10+ years, with characters who become stronger than their gods, defying law by law, totally breaking character boundaries, its amazing. Lets not forget both Dragon Ball and Dragon Ball Z have amazing humor, we're talking about the same author who wrote Dr.Slump. And I dont know that I'm still fully convinced of the lack of complexity in the manga. The Cell era of DBZ leaves us with a very interesting character: future Trunks. Basically Toriyama-san introduces us to a world uninhabited by any of the main characters except Trunks and Bulma. But all in all Dragon Ball is like this structure within me that will hold something powerful forever. As I said its hard to explain but... Reading all of Dragon Ball does something to you, it kind of transforms something inside of you. I'm not quite sure what it is, but its solid, its real and its strong. And in the end I'm always happy I have the volumes to read and enjoy, look at. Honestly even though I've read it and know the story, I find myself rushing through pages to see how a certain part in the story is executed. Its amazing.
Anyway Much love out to Dragon Ball Z, i wish one day I could express my gratitude of this awesome collection of work to Akira Toriyama-san (although i doubt it will ever happen )
Thanks
-Z