Search the Community

Why yes, you did read the title correctly. Info from an article by Crunchyroll: Shueisha's Shōnen Jump Plus digital manga magazine began publishing a brand new DragonBall spin off manga entitled "Dragon Ball Gaiden: Tensei-shitara Yamcha Datta Ken" (or in English: "Dragon Ball Side Story: The Case of Being Reincarnated as Yamcha"). Also important: this manga is illustrated by fan artist DragonGarowLee, famous in the DragonBall community for his unofficial DragonBall x One Punch Man crossover stories, including a work where he pit Saitama against Vegeta. The manga centers around a perverted high school student from the real world who suddenly finds himself reincarnated in the body of Yamcha from the DragonBall series. Being a fan of DragonBall and aware of Yamcha's role in the series as "Ultimate Chewtoy For Life", he uses his knowledge of future events to his advantage and sets out on a quest to make himself, as Yamcha, the strongest character possible. You can read the first chapter here, but of course, it is in entirely in Japanese with no apparent signs of a fan translation or an English release as of this time. But even without words, it's pretty easy to figure out what's going on. Quick note before I go on: I made a thread a while back about Shuiesha opening a new DragonBall department, and I suspect this new project may be connected to that, but I can't confirm otherwise. Also, if you don't follow DragonBall Super, the recent episode was heavily Yamcha centered as it was a comedy filler about baseball, so that might have something to do with it too. Anyways, the manga: This is, by far, the most entertaining and hilariously awesome idea I've seen since... well, the DragonBall Super baseball episode. Yamcha has become such a joke character (and I mean that in the nicest of ways) that even Japan recognizes how much comedy material they can crank out of him with things such as the "Saibaiman Pose" becoming a trademark merch seller as well as the aforementioned DBS episode. And quite frankly: it works. Very well. If you're a fan of Yamcha (if that's even possible... I kid, I kid), I highly recommend you check this out. It's a bit of a stretch in terms of actual storytelling, but it's also obviously a tongue-in-cheek take on the character and his progression through the original storyline, so I think it's worth a few laughs just based on the premise alone. Also, I'm totally behind the idea of more fan artists being called on by Shuiesha to do official DragonBall work ala Toyotaro and the DragonBall Super manga and everything else he's done. UPDATE: According to this tweet from @Herms98 (aka Herms from Kanzenshuu), DragonGarowLee himself has stated that this manga will last 3 chapters.

Only an idiot of his caliber would even attempt to do something like this.