With Cross Epoch being released in the US via the 100th issue of Shonen Jump, I guess it is time for me to review the only crossover between Dragon Ball and One Piece. Unlike any other crossover, it has its own story and a different take on the characters and does not involve epic battles but about friends gathered by the mystical dragon, Shenron.
Cross Epoch is a collaboration between Dragon Ball’s Akira Toriyama and One Piece’s Eiichiro Oda who just met, learned that they are fans of each others manga and decided to do a one-shot story about Dragon Ball and One Piece characters meeting.
The story begins with all the Dragon Ball and One Piece characters in a group. Krillin is with Chopper and they are driving a train, Bulma is with Nami and they are robbers… SPACE robbers! While Master Roshi and Sanji, the sheriffs learning about the robbery, and the fact that the robbers are chicks, and obviously, these perverts will chase them!
Vegeta, Trunks, Robin and Usopp are pirates, while Piccolo and Zoro are lost and plans to steal the train that Krillin and Chopper are driving, and ends up being passengers on the said train! Finally, Goku and Luffy are heading to somewhere, like the other characters before them!
Blocking them is Tettiri no.55, a papier-mâché air ship owned by the weakest villains from Dragon Ball and One Piece, Pilaf and Buggy the Clown! With them blocking their way, can Goku and friends go to that place that they want to go? That is for you to find out.
On to the review, if you read the one-shot for the first time, you will find it senseless, I am dead serious. Why, it is because the aim of the story is really weird, it doesn’t involve something serious but something fun, something illogical that you might end up thinking about Alice in Wonderland and what the heck is the story all about!
Unlike most crossovers, that I know that involves two very diverse series meeting for each other, what Toriyama and Oda did is that they created a separate universe and let their characters meet and like they know each other for a long time. This is good because it is a 19-page one-shot and they need to give us a story that would fit with the allotted number of pages!
What makes it a plus because it removes the awkwardness of the characters meeting for the first time and goes straight to the point on how they will interact with each other. And it is fun to see two perverts talking about chasing chicks instead of going for trouble and seeing Luffy riding Kintoun, which proves that even if he is a pirate in a different world, he has a pure heart!
Shenron, chillin'
As for the plot, to sum the entire one-shot, it is about all of our characters having a tea party with Shenron! See how senseless it was? But at some point, it makes sense. What Tori and Oda did here is that they abused one plot point from Dragon Ball. What happens to the Dragon Balls that needs to rest for a year? In this universe, Shenron is having a tea party with his friends! It was weird seeing Shenron holding a teacup while waiting for Goku and Luffy to arrive. But hey, at least Shenron is enjoying himself and does not have plans to stop granting wishes!
Vegeta as... Vegeta w/ horns!
As for the characters, I love that they retained most of their personalities and their costumes for this series! My only disappointed is that they introduced many characters and never had time to play with all of them within 19 pages.
Overall, Crosh Epoch is one senseless yet fun read. It is senseless because it is about their adventure of having tea with the mystical dragon and fun because it is senseless! The entire chapter reminisce the adventure feel of the original Dragon Ball manga, one of the aspect that I liked about this chapter asides how they are grouped with characters that are similar to them (i.e. Nami with Bulma, Goku with Luffy, etc.) and how they interact with each other (points at Roshi and Sanji). If you want some clean and senseless fun, better read this one-shot then! We will not know if Toriyama and Oda will do a collaboration after this one or if Toei has plans to do a Dragon Ball x One Piece movie in the future!