Using the Italian release of this Full Color volume for lack of the original Japanese release. Even though I'm technically using a translation of the Digital Colored Comics version, which is something else entirely.... The Full Color Volume 2 seems to end at a weird spot, after Son Goku and Kuririn have both won a preliminary match each for the Tenkaichi Budokai, though I think it may have been better to either end on their passing the prelims or otherwise end right before the prelims begin....
After twenty-three chapters, the first story arc comes to a close! Shenlong is summoned from the Dragon Balls, but the wish is wasted by Oolong in order to thwart the evil Emperor Pilaf! Luckily, Bulma and Yamcha realize they can fulfill each other's wish without needing to wait a year for the Dragon Balls to reawaken! So begins the next arc, in which Son Goku sets off to train under the Muten Roshi while he waits for the Dragon Balls to activate, allowing him to use Bulma's Dragon Radar to retrieve his grandfather's Four-Star Ball.
I misremembered the Monster Carrot stuff as being a tad longer, and so mislabeled it a "mini-arc" in my last review; I feel it's actually way too "mini" to really be called an "arc," though technically it isn't not an arc. Anyway, this greater Journey to the West Arc (as I call it) climaxes with the arrival of Emperor Pilaf and his crew, leading many other people, most notably the awful folks at Funimation, to label the whole thing "the Emperor Pilaf Saga." The way I personally view the "arcs" of a manga such as Dragon Ball is to reduce a cluster of chapters to the smallest sub-story reasonably possible by the point of its beginning, often broadening the scope of a set of chapters using a title that can allow for certain sub-stories to shift into other, related stories, without yet moving into something completely different. For an example later in Dragon Ball, we have the so-called "Cell Arc," which Funimation breaks down into "Trunks," "Androids," "Imperfect Cell," "Perfect Cell," and "Cell Games" "Sagas" for its anime localization. In Japan, the "Androids" are referred to as "Artificial Humans," a term that works as well for Cell as for Nos. 19, 20, 16, 17, or 18, and so I lump it all together as "the Artificial Humans Arc," which is especially "necessary" in my eyes because a) Cell is clearly an afterthought after the first few humanoid "Androids" are introduced, and b) there's not a clear enough point, in my opinion, to reduce the manga further into "Imperfect" and "Perfect Cell" arcs, especially as e.g. the No. 17 vs. Piccolo fight occurs after Cell has already been around for a little while. So, earlier in the manga, we have the "Journey to the West Arc," which I feel is a sufficient explanation of how the story begins, being a tale about gathering the Dragon Balls in parallel to the flow of the original Journey to the West novel. I can also accept something like the "Dragon Ball Quest Arc" or even the more vague "Journey Begins Arc," but "Emperor Pilaf Saga" is stupid when there's nothing to set Pilaf up based on earlier chapters. So saying, I used to consider the next arc to be "the 21st Tenkaichi Budokai Arc," but I forgot the first few chapters of Son Goku training under Kame Sen'nin don't really mention the tournament, or foreshadow in any way, so from now on I think I'll call it the "Kame-sen Arc," as such a term can encompass both Son Goku and Kuririn's training under the Muten Roshi, as well as the pay-off for their training during the tournament, including "Jackie Chun" as the major "boss battle" (where perhaps Goku's initial Great Ape transformation in the previous arc may act as its major climactic setpiece, arguably set up by general things like Goku's tail, his mysterious strength, and the oft-mentioned death of his grandfather). (For what it's worth, the next arc is currently in my head as "Red Ribbon Arc," as many may agree, but which I think I extend to include the Baba stuff as well, as Goku needs the Dragon Ball hidden by Pilaf (the location of which is obscured, for which reason they need Baba's assistance) in order to resurrect Bora after he's killed by Taopaipai, who was hired by Red Ribbon. I view the next arc as "22nd Budokai Arc," but sometimes interchanged with "Tenshinhan Arc"; I think I may change it to "Crane School Arc" or something...)
(God damn. Give me the opportunity to write/talk about Dragon Ball, and I just won't fucking shut up!)
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I would prefer not to do this same little "bullet points of things I find 'fun' from the volume" as I've done for the Cell and Boo arcs, as well as One Piece, but I accidentally started doing it here...:
Bulma runs into her future daughter-in-law! Kind of! Since the Pilaf gang will be de-aged into children in Dragon Ball Super, and Mai will crush on Trunks...!
The whole-page panel of Shenlong's summon is pretty dope. The later panel of Shenlong before the Pilaf gang is doper still.
The vertical line-up on the cover for Chapter 20 reminds me of the classic Ginyu Tokusentai line-up. Which... obviously comes way later.... I wonder if Toriyama intended that later image in reference to this one?
"What's going to happen to the title of this manga...?"
The two-page spread of Great Ape Son Goku bursting out of the prison is really dope. The cover of Chapter 22 with the doofy Great Ape wearing the gi and Nyoibou is... a good way to diffuse the tension/hype of the Great Ape's appearance....
"More importantly, just what is he, anyway... An alien?" ;)
It's always funny to go back and see how Kuririn used to look.
It's also always nice to have Lunch still in the manga, before Toriyama forgot.... Reminds me, I need to buy a third Lunch S.H.Figuarts figure, so I can use the sneezing faceplate and pose the black hair and blonde hair forms on either side, rather than just having the two....
Goku's grin when headbutting the cop is funny.
Chapter 27 has a semi-iconic cover, at least in the sense that I have a figure of Lunch in that maid uniform in the same pose. I might have a recolor figure of blonde Lunch the same way, but I don't remember off the top of my head, as I have way too many figures; it's the Glitter & Glamours line by Banpresto, whose first Lunch was just the blonde version in the green tank-top and a recolor with a white tank-top; looks like the second Lunch was indeed the maid, one with black hair, the other the blonde form, though I can't remember if I have both (but I'm pretty sure I do!).
Kuririn's face when seated behind Lunch's ass in the beginning of Chapter 27 is funny. The Kame-sen uniforms are funny as well.
"However, for some reason, there's a shark in this lake. Be careful."
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Best part in this volume is probably the moments before Goku's transformation into the Great Ape, followed of course by the first appearance in that big-ass panel. If I'm not mistaken, this bit occurs in Volume 2 of the manga's original release, so, combined with the Kamehameha by Muten Roshi, it's like I'd grant "5 stars" to that volume, should I re-read it in that format.