‘Dragon Ball’ Artist Shows Off Yamcha Throwback

An acclaimed Dragon Ball artist shared an old-school take on Yamcha and Puar on Twitter this weekend that had nostalgic fans floored.

The artist who goes by the name of Dragon Garow Lee online. He is best known for drawing fan-art and fan-comics set in the Dragon Ball franchise, some of which have even been published on the Shonen Jump website. He showed off both his illustration skills and his deep-cut knowledge on Sunday when he posted a portrait to celebrate Puar’s birthday.

The picture showed Puar grinning on Yamcha’s shoulder while he smiled back. Yamcha was in his original outfit, just as he looked when Goku and Bulma first met him out in the desert. The only thing missing were the goggles, which the two wore early on in their time as bandits. Yamcha has the familiar green shirt with the kanji “raku” on it, meaning “comfort” or “easy.”

Lee’s drawing was meticulously colored and shaded. Even Yamcha’s massive, 1980s hairstyle added to the vintage look, as the light sketch lines were reminiscent of old print. Still, the expression on his face was not common for Yamcha in that era of the show — he looked neither cocky nor mortified, his two standard states of being at the time.

Yamcha is near and dear to Lee’s heart, as one of his best-known comics is called “The Case of Being Reincarnated as Yamcha.” The gag manga follows a normal schoolboy who falls down the stairs and awakens in Akira Toriyama’s fictional world as Yamcha himself. With his encyclopedic knowledge of the series, he attempts to make better decisions to turn Yamcha’s life around and prevent himself from dying — or losing Bulma to Vegeta.

In typical Yamcha fashion, Lee’s body-swapping hero still ends up bumbling and losing, though he learns some valuable lessons along the way. The comic was a viral hit on social media, especially on Reddit.

“Geez. For a comedy manga, this is getting surprisingly intriguing,” one person wrote.

“Dragon Ball in a nutshell,” observed another.

Sadly, Yamcha may be woefully absent this Decemeber when Dragon Ball Super: Broly hits theaters. The movie is said to be jam-packed with story, including threats from both Freeza and the Legendary Super Saiyan himself. However, the IMDb page does not include any entry for Yamcha in the main cast and crew, likely meaning that he was left out for time constraints.

Dragon Ball Super: Broly hits theaters on Dec. 14 in Japan. It is expected to reach the U.S. sometime in January of 2019, though an exact date has not been set.