Neko Majin

Akira Toriyama is most likely known best nowadays, for being the creator of the Dragonball manga-series and the franchise that followed it.Though before that, he was pretty well known for his more comedic work and even the early Dragonball had parts of that. And so this manga is basically a gag manga that takes place in the universe of Dragonball. There isn’t really much story. It follows three different Neko Majins, though it mostly follows Neko Majin Z, during some adventures where they meet either very strange or just ordinary people. And all the funny and bizarre situations that come from it. It doesn’t really havemuch story and focuses more on the weird humor happening in each chapter. And to me, the humor is...alright. There isn’t anything that made me really laugh, but there wasn’t also anything really awful or unfunny about it. And with only a few chapters, it stops, before the humor gets stale or boring and goes on for too long. Which helps keep the manga just fun enough as a quick read. The art is what you expect from Toriyama. It’s nicely done and manages to enhance the comedic scenes a bit more, helping in not making them feel unfunny or boring. Some characters are fun in how they get exaggerated, be it through their designs or their reactions. And the one-two times a fight scene between two characters breaks out, it’s drawn pretty well too. There isn’t much to the characters. They are fine as comedy relief, but there isn’t really much to them. The Neko Majins are probably closest to Buu in personality, except as cats. So there isn’t really much to say, except that the characters do work for these short comedic chapters and as references to Toriyamas other characters and work...but otherwise, they do fall completely flat. Though I do like the occasional Dragonball cameo. An ok, short gag-manga, that parodies some aspects and characters of the Dragonball universe without getting too long that it becomes too boring to read. If you are really into gag manga and it just has to be in the Dragonball universe, then this one might be for you.

A quirky Toriyama flavored story that combines a lot of the early light action of Dragonball with a lot of his previous gag comedy styling. While there is little significant plot, only overing 8 distinct one shot chapters with few repeating characters other than the eponymous "Neko Majin", a fun loving cat who was canonically trained by Goku. Along the way, a (few) canon characters make brief appearances, most notably Vegeta, but also Uub, some of the Goku clan, and the introduction of what is Freiza's son, Kuriza. While Kuriza is totally under utilized, it was a nice fun addition, and realistically Toriyama keepingthe stage open for the potential of another Freiza-like arc. Kuriza could easily do everything Freiza did, and more, and essentially is a reincarnation for all intents and purposes. I wish he played more with this character, and explained some of the backstory regarding Neko Majin's training. Otherwise, there is little to complain about and is a light fun read for anyone who enjoys Dragonball.