Dragon Ball Z, Vol. 5

Dragon Ball #10

by Akira Toriyama

R to L (Japanese Style). Change Your Perspective--Get BIG A Collection of Volumes 13 - 15! Dr. Gero's Laboratory of Terror! Trunks, a mysterious warrior from the future, has arrived to warn Son Goku and pals of a horrendous menace that could destroy the universe. Dr. Gero--the diabolical genius of the Red Ribbon Army--has constructed androids designed to defeat Goku and take over the world. Goku must locate and destroy these androids before they're activated--or face certain doom! But little do they know that another visitor from the future is watching their every move. Another hideous creature from the demented mind of Dr. Gero, this monster was created from the cells of the most powerful beings in the universe--including those of Son Goku! Between deadly androids and a biologically engineered nightmare, Goku will have to transcend the power of a Super Saiyan if he's going to prevail!

Genres: Manga, Fantasy, Comics, Graphic Novels, Comics Manga, Fiction, Science Fiction

560 pages, Paperback

First published October 20, 2009

About the author

Akira Toriyama (鳥山明) was a Japanese manga artist and character designer. He first achieved mainstream recognition for creating the popular manga series Dr. Slump, before going on to create Dragon Ball (his most famous work) and acting as a character designer for several popular video games such as the Dragon Quest series, Chrono Trigger, and Blue Dragon. Toriyama came to be regarded as one of the most important authors in the history of manga with his works highly influential and popular, particularly Dragon Ball, which many manga artists cite as a source of inspiration.
He earned the 1981 Shogakukan Manga Award for best shōnen/shōjo manga with Dr. Slump, and it went on to sell over 35 million copies in Japan. It was adapted into a successful anime series, with a second anime created in 1997, 13 years after the manga ended.
His next series, Dragon Ball, would become one of the most popular and successful manga in the world. Having sold 260 million copies worldwide, it is one of the best-selling manga series of all time and is considered a key work in increasing manga circulation to its peak in the mid-1980s and mid-1990s. Overseas, Dragon Ball's anime adaptations have been more successful than the manga and are credited with boosting anime's popularity in the Western world. In 2019, Toriyama was decorated a Chevalier of the French Ordre des Arts et des Lettres for his contributions to the arts.
In October 2024, Toriyama was inducted into the Harvey Awards Hall of Fame.

Reviews

[Molly™☺ · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's getting hard to review this series without the excessive use of the word iconic. The Cell arc is another classic, and whilst this collection doesn't contain the highlight, the build-up of the big bad is pretty damn good. Vegeta's complexities continue to cause trouble for the team, but the planting of the seeds for the gradual shift from villain to anti-hero serves the story well and kicks off my personal favourite character journey.

[Claudia · Rating 5 out of 5]

Cant wait for Gohan’s major power surge!!

[-moonprismpower- · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoy the android/cell saga! Future Trunks is great!

[swag Royale · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love this series

[Bradley · Rating 5 out of 5]

Akira Toriyama drops the Dragon Ball with volume 5. With hindsight, and as someone who knows the plot of the television show inside and out, the android/cell saga loses its magic with some machine-like (narf narf) narrative. The tone shifts. At least that’s how it starts. I’m writing this review as I read the manga. Since it’s maybe the weakest addition to the series I’ll make this my longest review xD Makes sense. I’m gonna` give each character a little bit of a spotlight then wrap up. Spoilers ahead? Haha, feels like nonsense to say.

Yamcha takes a back seat like we’ve never seen before. I don’t have any particular fondness for the character one way or the other but to see someone, anyone, especially one of the Z fighters, lose their fighting spirit just doesn’t sit well with me. The martial arts aspect also takes a turn as we’re introduced to cold fights. Infinite power supplies. Draining abilities. The spirit of Dragon Ball balanced itself slightly towards the positive side even while things got out of hand. Now it’s favored on the negative side. What happens to Yamcha and Goku, Vegeta & Piccolo stepping up. These changes aren’t bad. They are startling. The desperation of it all captured in Future Trunks.

Future Trunks. He’s likely my favorite character in Dragon Ball Z. To this day I think he’s the best written. The current saga reveals its beauty once the entire story comes to fruition. It’s always risky to introduce time travel. With the parameters here it’s interesting. The story doesn’t go too out of whack with infinite, parallel universes and lose all its luster. Well, coming from someone who has not (probably will not) read or watch Dragon Ball Super. That’s irrelevant anyway. To have Cell juggled in the mix with the changes in the androids along with #16. The vibes are different, but it’s definitely brilliant.

Piccolo would be next. Maybe my longest running favorite. An alien, isolated, meditates, fights with his own style, tactical, wise, willing to sacrifice, just about everything I love. Piccolo and Tien sit among the top of the Z fighters for me. Everyone has a special place. As a kid I loved Nail. When Nail fused with Piccolo and he stood ground against Freeza forcing a transformation…Exhilarating.

Kami. Not too quick to judge the androids. He plants a seed for what makes the android/cell saga truly incredible. Which also comes in the form of Android 16. And in the form of Gohan. It’s life. No one else may look as deeply as I like to (or with rose colord glasses) at DBZ. Perhaps I’m just deluding myself, but when we introduce androids on the scene life becomes the most important aspect of Dragon Ball Z culminating with a very poetic wish. The more I sit on it DBZ is just way too special sometimes.

Hope written on a time machine.

I’m not letting it go just yet. The other sagas are special in different ways. I feel like there’s so much to be gleamed in this one. It’s just not as apparent at first glance. In a manga dedicated to fighting it seems to scream something when everyone lowers their fists and tries to figure out what’s going on.

The character design of Dragon Ball Z feels unmatched. The art captures movements, impossible movements by the way, incredibly well (even alien ones *looking at Cell, Piccolo, and Android 16*). Androids 17, 18, 16, Cell, Gero, all of the new additions just have the Dragon Ball Z flair. I used to love Android #17. I always thought he was the coolest, maybe because he looked the most emo/edgy. As a child I always viewed him as the strongest and would pick him in a lot of fighting games next to Gotenks.

I think the weakest portion of this volume is at the start. The introduction of 17 & 18 even their fight with Vegeta feels a bit uninspired. It’s gotta` be due to all the amazing fights DBZ has dished out. Best of the best. About the time Piccolo visits Kami’s lookout things turn around. My journey looks like this.

Interesting. -> Whoa, time travel with complexities -> These power jumps are insane. -> Incredible. -> Wait, what!? -> WAIT, WHAT!?

It was subtly hinted. When Kami fused with Piccolo the Dragon Balls went as well. Cell became increasingly stronger. Piccolo fell. Cell became EVEN STRONGER…So my boy Tien Shinhan had to step in.

It’s worth reiterating. If my insides stir from reading….You are worthy of five stars. The hairs on my whole body stand on end when I see Tien step up to a plate no one thought he could ever bat.

“I’m sorry Chaozu…I think I’m going to die.”

I’m proud, man! It’s silly. It really is, that a work of art (because damn it! That’s what this is.), can make me feel so strongly. In many ways I grew up with the guy. To see him back on the pages and to watch him perform the neo-ki-ko-ho…

Stay tuned for the next volume of DRAGON BALL Z!!!!!

[Adam · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Android saga is where the Dragon Ball storyline got a little too repetitive and the quality dropped. It doesn't really feel like it treads new ground; it mostly feels like Toriyama had run out of ideas and lost enthusiasm for the work.

Volume 5 of the VizBig edition collects the 13th through 15th volumes of the Dragon Ball Z series.

Volume 13 has the fight with Androids 19 and 20 just beginning. A heart virus strikes down Goku, so Vegeta has to step in and take down Android 19. 20 escapes, so Piccolo chases him down and gains the upper hand, but 20 is able to escape again and activate Androids 17 and 18.

In Volume 14, 17 kills Dr. Gero and 18 activates Android 16. Vegeta tries to fight 18 but is outclassed, and Trunks, Piccolo, and Tenshinhan are beat down by 17 when they try to interfere. Trunks starts to suspect the past has been changed, and Bulma, Trunks, and Gohan confirm this when they find Trunk's time machine rotting in the wilderness with an egg and a moult nearby. This turns out to be Cell, a monster that spurs Kami-Sama to merge with Piccolo.

In Volume 18, Piccolo confronts Cell, and easily overpowers him, before Cell is able to escape and hide his chi. Days pass, as everyone powers up for the big showdown. Cell absorbs bodies and escapes before Piccolo can track him down. Goku takes Gohan, Vegeta and Trunks to the Room of Time and Spirit to train, letting Vegeta and Trunks go first. The androids arrive at the Turtle House, and Piccolo faces off against 17, but Cell shows up. 17 and 18 refuse to run, and despite Piccolo and Android 16's best efforts, Cell absorbs 17, becomin unstoppable. Tenshinhan temporarily stops him with a Ki-Ko-Ho.

Really, this is several volumes of buildup. Cool plot developments like Piccolo's merger become outclassed quickly by the power of enemies. Overall, the Android/Cell Saga is the weakest part of the series.

[Jack · Rating 5 out of 5]

The villain progression of the androids after Freeza doesn’t make logical sense, but sense isn’t really something the series cares about. Sure, the inventions of an Earth scientist more powerful than a space warlord. Yeah, sure, whatever. All that’s important to the story is that there’s a new obstacle.

Anyway, the androids are neat, especially 16. The silent heavy is a favorite trope of mine. Cell rocks, too! His first form is Xenomorph-y, which is great, and his second form’s face looks like Bubble Bass from Spongebob. What’s not to love? Vegeta gets more time to be a lovable butthead, too. An all-around good fight-crazy time.

[Chuy Ruiz · Rating 5 out of 5]

Cyborgs! Androids! Time travel! Bio-engineering! No wonder I like sci-fi so much haha I've been watching this stuff since I was a kid. Reading the manga definitely adds a new dimension to DBZ for me.

[Kendra Mikols · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another great volume!

[Brandon · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've accidentally done something pretty cool. In re-reading the Dragon Ball manga, I'm at the rise of Cell, after Piccolo has fused with God. I'm meanwhile nearly caught up with the Super manga, which will feature a second Cell, and have Piccolo get further power-ups to bring him back near the top. And in the anime I'm at the point where Son Goku first starts training under God with the aim of defeating the reincarnated Piccolo at the 23 Tenkaichi Budokai. Quite harmonious...!

Anyway, reinforcing an opinion from the last time I read this bit of the manga: I'm still a little surprised at how fuckin' fast the Jinzōningen Arc goes. And I guess also surprised at how there's actually ultimately much more Cell content than when 16/17/18/19/20 are the prime villains. But that's not quite relevant here... yet. The entire next omnibus will feature Cell, and the Cell Game will continue into the first third of the omnibus after that. Meanwhile, 17 only gets two volumes to shine....

Something fun here: 17 keeps boasting about how he's the ultimate warrior, when... well, he kind of ends up the MVP for a giant battle royale spanning like eight entire universes. So... I mean, yeah, he kind of is the ultimate warrior. Or... he will be, in, like, twenty-six years? Well, in like five years he'll get some more limelight as a main villain in GT, kind of. But that pales in comparison to his eventual role in Super.

I'm so used to artistic liberties taken with 18's design that I think I sometimes forget how big her forehead used to be. Like, it's proportionately not so bad in my MegaHouse "Dragon Ball Gals" figures, or at least it's balanced or offset by the near-comically-enhanced bust sizes....

If I'm not mistaken, around this time in the anime adaptation we get a bit of a big deal with the lineup of Super Saiyajin Son Goku, Future Trunks, Vegeta, Son Gohan, Piccolo, Kuririn, Tenshinhan, Yamcha, and Chaozu, as seen in the title card at the end of the theme song. Bandai have been working recently to bring this title card to life in their S.H.Figuarts line, including finally releasing a 2.0 body of Kuririn, though we're still fucking waiting on a god damned Base Form Vegeta. *Ahem* But, anyway, my point is Chaozu isn't a fighter anymore, and Yamcha is forced to retire early in this omnibus. I mean, he'll appear in the Cell Game, but... like, dude, the new Yamcha figure comes with parts to pose No. 20 impaling him with his hand. Just like the Saiyajin Arc Yamcha came with a Saibaman to kamikaze him.... But maybe it could be worse? I'm used to Yamcha being a jobber since back in the 21st Tenkaichi Budokai. I just read Kuririn get his ass kicked by a tiny cyborg wasp in the DBS manga, so....

The previous volume ended in a way that kind of set the tone for the rest of the franchise, for better or worse, arguably alleviated by the bulk of the Super TV anime, but... probably snapping back in the following movies and manga-original arcs. So, for like twenty-seven volumes of manga, Son Goku built himself into the first Super Saiyajin in ages. Then Trunks comes from the future and can transform with no problem, though it's at least suggested he suffered from the loss of all the rest of the Dragon Team. Well, in this omnibus, we get Vegeta bullshitting his way into Super Saiyajin from sheer jealousy toward Kakarotto; Piccolo fusing with God to become what Kuririn considers a Super Namek-seijin (to be almost immediately outclassed by Cell...); and the four Saiyajin lads aiming to surpass the Super Saiyajin form, which will lead to a fuckin' nine-year-old not only unlocking Super Saiyajin, but mastering it, and evolving into Super Saiyajin 2...! Basically, a precedent was set with Future Trunks such that the whole Jinzōningen Arc is about surpassing Super Saiyajin, then a large part of the Majin Arc will be about different evolutions or alternative routes: Son Goku's SS3, Fusion, Potara, Vegeta cheating again so he can get SS2, and Son Gohan getting another potential-unlock that kinda-sorta technically makes him the strongest person (but only on paper). When I say Super corrects the course a bit, what I mean is they get SSG and SSB out of the way early on, then dedicate almost the entire show to sticking with SSB, until Migatte no Gokui comes around, which really just ties back to Goku's training with God and Mr. Popo. But then Broly is canonized, and his "legendary" form is tied to the Great Ape power, like a pseudo-SS4. And the manga gives Vegeta a new form to parallel Ultra Instinct, even though his focus should be on evolving Blue as in the anime. And Freeza gets a new form not long afterward. And lastly we have a movie where Piccolo gets two new forms (for which I have to say... "Fucking finally!"), and Gohan gets to perfect his Ultimate form. Now where's my fucking canon SS4!?

[Jullian · Rating 5 out of 5]

In this book, There are androids that have been built to eliminate Goku and what he doesn't know is they have the power to absorb energy just by grabbing you. Goku was tolled by Trunks, the kid from the future’’,’’that he would receive a heart virus and he even gave him the medicine to cure it. Goku was well aware this event was going to happen but he didn't know the exact time and place this deadly heart virus was going to occur. During this event, a monster from the future (Trunk’s timeline) came to Goku’s current timeline because the androids in this timeline were still alive. In order to achieve his final transformation, be supreme, be the most powerful being. He would have to absorb them as well as innocent people on planet earth which mean peoples population will decrease dramatically.

I really enjoyed this book because I like how the androids who used to be human were customized into androids and programmed to make it their goal to destroy Goku. I like that they are self-aware that they don't need to do what Dr.Gero is ordering them to do but choose to not for him but because in there eyes it's fun and an adventure. I like this author's writing because he makes it entertaining and he packs in the perfect amount of words and even though it's not an insane amount of words there are plenty of pages and per page, I think there is the perfect amount of words. I like the newer villain Cell and I like how his goal is something people don't want to happen and it’s frightening to the people of earth that his final transformation has the power to destroy earth without trying.

The only thing that I don't like about this book is I feel the main character, Goku didn't have many scenes in this story. Other than this there isn't anything else to complain about and I can tell with his writing, he's taking his time and he also isn't slowing it down which is good. Since this is a graphic novel it does have art and the art fascinates me and the author who also is the artist deserves props for how clean it is. I like how he takes his time with each page to make each page more and more stunning and he doesn't slack or fail to catch my attention.

This book may appeal to people who like pictures while they are reading so their imagination becomes a reality. This book may also appeal to others who have read similar novels to this type of content. This book may also catch high schoolers or maybe even middle schoolers attention to this novel. I knew I would enjoy this book because I usually enjoy graphic novels.

[Trey S · Rating 5 out of 5]

Starting from the android saga beginning with 19 and Gero, this ends with cell becoming semi perfect after absorbing 17. This, I think is basically where I left off when I watched the show as a kid, so much of it I’ve forgotten, but of course it’s still so great and I loved reading every page of it. Android 16 is great, I forgot about his personality, though I mean he is a robot and not human so is it real? Idk. Maybe in the world of dragon ball he’s truly sentient… I choose to believe it, I think.

5/5

[Nicolo · Rating 4 out of 5]

Time travel, killer robots, and a messiah from the future, I thought I was reading Toriyama's version of James Cameron's Terminator movies. That said, I thought it was an uneven start to a new arc. It was only with the introduction of Cell that we get a surprising new direction that made the rest of this collection much more interesting to read.

[David Thomas · Rating 5 out of 5]

I never watched the anime past the Frieza saga, so this is all new to me. I had no idea that the android and Cell stuff happened at roughly the same place in the plot. Pretty good beatemup funsies, where even bit players like Tienshinhan and Kuririn have roles to play in side plot stuff.

[Davy · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am starting to reach the outer edges of what I remember watching on TV when I was younger. Not that my 8yr old memory was very good to begin with but most of this is truly “new” to me, and I’m LOVING IT!

[Joey Amorim · Rating 4 out of 5]

This volume covers a surprisingly large amount of ground between the Android and Cell sagas. The pacing feels a lot quicker compared to the anime. This is the first time so far on this read through that I’ve felt such a significant difference between the anime and manga’s pacing.

[Grey · Rating 5 out of 5]

Pogchamp

[Lee Douglas · Rating 4 out of 5]

really good book, one of my favorite dragon ball z books

[Elizabeth Vassberg · Rating 5 out of 5]

I just can't get enough of this series! I'm kicking myself for waiting so long to get into it!

[K · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5

[Shaun · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the start if the last arc that I saw on the anime before I really stopped watching. I have always enjoyed Dragonball Z. It is nice seeing the characters interact with each other and to see how strong they become. Piccolo had the chance to be the strongest Z warrior, but it is almost at a loss due to the strength of the androids. A good manga overall.

[Matt · Rating 2 out of 5]

Yeah, there doesn't seem to be any weakness in the bad guys, one of my big pet peeves (ahem, Cloverfield).

[Owen B]

that the book was alot of action and twist and turns

[Gus · Rating 5 out of 5]

this i the start to my favorite saga the cell saga.