Summary
At this point,a lot of us are just tired of isekai. However, it will never be a good idea to write off an entire genre, or an entire medium based on the various failed attempts at capturing an audience’s attention or doing something that fundamentally changes anime and manga in some way. Sometimes, a work’s best quality is that it isn’t completely original, but a derivation of something else that manages to breathe new life – even if temporarily – into whatever inspired it in the first place.
That’s whatDragon Ball: That Time I Got Reincarnated as Yamcha!by dragongarow LEEis, a work based on Akira Toriyama’s legendaryDragon Ballfranchise that imagines what it’d be like if the averageDragon BallZealot found themselves “isekai’d” into the same universe as Goku and the others as one ofthe weakest of the Dragon Fighters: Yamcha. Is this manga worth reading?
The Plot Is Exactly What It Sounds Like
Our Nameless MC Dies A Ridiculous Death and Wakes Up As Yamcha
A nameless main character and his friend are walking home from school and talking about a liveDokkan Battleevent taking place at a nearby university. After laughing about Yamcha being strong in the game, they spot a girl with a short skirt (no, really) and MC wants to get a closer look at her, but trips as he descends a flight of stairs and dies, in a manneras unceremonious as Kazuma from KonoSuba, and perhaps twice as pathetic.
When he opens his eyes, he realizes he’s now Yamcha, shortly after the fight against Goku when he got his tooth knocked out. So our protagonist realizes that he died a ridiculous death while trying to get a glance at a poor girl’s underwear, and wakes up as Yamcha. He takes a panel or two to lament not being reincarnated as Vegeta, but he snaps out of it when Oolong talks to him and he sees Bulma and Goku asleep nearby. Realizing how pretty Bulma is and how adorable kid Goku is in person, “Yamcha” gets giddy at the prospect of actually being in theDragon Ballworld.
However, after the novelty of having a girlfriend and being Yamcha wears off, the protagonist realizes that being Yamcha means dying a terrible death in the Saiyan Saga. Rather than taking off to West City with Bulma,he decides to leave to train with Master Roshiwith Goku, preparing for the invasion years in advance.
When the Saiyans arrive, Yamcha is so confident in his abilities that he not only takes on all the Saibamen by himself, but survives a collective self-destruct sequence from six of the cultivars. However, the protagonist didn’t train to take on small-fry: realizing that there’s no guarantee that he could return to his own world (since he’s literally dead), he learns that his only chance of happiness is to kill Vegeta and avoid the canonical development where Yamcha is sidelined by Bulma for the guy who literally got him killed.
What Makes Reincarnated As Yamcha A Good Read
Yamcha Does Everything You’d Probably Do
If Yamcha knew everything that would happen in theDragon Balluniverse, he’d be far less unlucky, and in this case, the protagonist has done all the training he could do on Earth. He asks Mr Popo to prepare Piccolo/Kami’s spaceship and send him to Namek, where he could get Guru to unlock his potential the way he did Gohan and Krillinduring the Frieza Saga. With his mind-reading ability, Guru is able to figure out that “Yamcha” comes from an alternate universe, and grants him the potential unlocking he requested because “he must have his reasons”.
After getting his potential unlocked, he gets very close to saying “I can fight, I can win, I can do this!”, and afterward, he trains with Nail for a few months; however, Bulma calls to tell him that the Saiyans will be arriving within a day. Despite having an encyclopedic knowledge of theDragon Ballverse, “Yamcha” failed to remember that the initial ETA of one year ended up being false: the Saiyans arrive sooner than planned. Remember, everything the protagonist is doing is toensure a happy ever after with Bulma Briefs.
He asks Guru to summon Porunga so he can be instantaneously sent back to Earth. When he arrives, he bolts for the massive power levels closing in on Piccolo and arrives right on time – with a power level that’s over 10 000. After crushing Nappa, Goku and Yamcha tag-team Vegeta and even manage to push him back, but as Yamcha charges a blast to finish off the fleeing Vegeta, he remembers how dire things get for humans in the narrative, and how crucial Vegeta’s existence is in ensuring the future, so he lets him go.
All of this takes place within two chapters, with the entire miniseries ending in three chapters, with the second chapter revealing that there’s someone else with the same kind of ki as Yamcha – another reincarnated individual. Without spoiling things further, what makesReincarnated As Yamchaa fun read is how it reads like somethingmade by a super fan of theDragon Ballseries, but doesn’t just rely on the developments of the central world and even creates its own internal story. At just three chapters long,Reincarnated As Yamchawraps up very quickly but leaves a lasting impression because of the fact that, at its core, it’s another fan-made comic by aDragon Ballfan, forDragon Ballfans.
Dragon Ball
Dragon Ball is a franchise by Akira Toriyama which follows the adventures of Goku, a powerful warrior who protects the earth with his group of friends. A recent title from the series is Dragon Ball: The Breakers, an action style game where 7 players have to survive being hunted by the Raider.
