Overview
Dragonball, most likely known to nearly the entire world, is the best selling series by Akira Toriyama, following the saiyan Goku as a child. In the eighth installment of the novel-manga hybrid of Dragonball, we follow Goku and his friends as they compete in a tournament to determine the best fighter. Though the novel does come to something of a cliffhanger ending before the final two fights, this volume covers four quite exciting matches, including a large dinosaur-esque creature that gives Goku more than he’d bargained for, and a fight between an attractive girl using her womanly wiles against a man with a real purpose for fighting.
 
Highlights
Since it is intended for children, the novel is short – coming in at only 76 pages – the text is large and the language is simple. But that shouldn’t be a deterrent. Despite being intended for a younger audience, this book is entertaining for even someone older. There’s a smattering of pop culture references, including Jackie Chan, Godzilla, and talk shows; the action, though kid-friendly, is actually intense and enjoyable.
 
Along the way, there are pictures from the manga to help give a visual for what’s actually happening in the novel. The pictures aren’t sloppily included, the text flows nicely around them, and they truly do add to the excitement of the fast-paced action. And since Toriyama’s art is wonderful, it certainly doesn’t hurt to have some involved.
 
Overall
In the end, this manga-novel was purely enjoyable. Occasionally, there would be a word missing in a sentence, but since it happened perhaps two times, and since they were words that were easy to figure out, I don’t believe it took away from the excitement of reading – and seeing – a Dragonball novel.
 
ComicsOnline gives Dragonball volume 8: Fight to the Finish 5 Godzilla references out of 5.

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