![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
intertribalsince my mother recently expressed the quite distressing sentiment that maybe she shouldn't have let me watch DBZ and get so wrapped up in it at a young age (and by young she means, uh, 12), I feel the need to prove that this show does have redeeming factors and was in fact a valuable shaping influence on my personality and attitude. Oh, yeah, and this is also for those stuck up otakus/Japanophiles who wish they were Japanese and think DBZ is "the worst anime/manga ever" - how I hate those snots. They think Digimon is better than DBZ. That makes my eyes water with hatred. I mean, no offense to Digimon... but it's about digital monsters for shit's sake! I'll eat their fuckin' brains... heh heh. Feel free to disagree with me... this is just my opinion.
Oh, also, I'm basically only talking about DB and DBZ up to and including the Freeza Saga, in case anyone cares. I didn't watch the others and have no desire to. Akira Toriyama has said that he wanted to end it after the Freeza Saga, but fans wouldn't let him - so I take that as a rational ending point. I've seen episodes from the later sagas and they're way worse in every way.
Combat - the defining factor of the show. I don't know what effect this had on me, though, besides making me really, really love combat. Especially in the beginning before huge super-mega explosions are being generated out of palms right and left with barely any effort, and when a power level of NINE THOUSAND is actually something to admire... those were the days. Nobody does combat like DBZ. I learned how to write all my "action" scenes from this show, and it still doesn't turn out half as good. I think part of the reason I love it so much is that it's sort of realistic - and by that I mean, people actually do get hurt when they get hit, they don't just bounce back like rubber, and there are usually long and extensive recovery times involved for those involved (this show may win for the most clips in a hospital). Innocent civilians die, buildings get blown up. And DBZ is also very deliberate about showing how hard it is to attain those high power levels and those advanced fighting techniques. I would say 50% of DB is training, and about 40% of DBZ. And if I compare to other anime, I judge DBZ movies pretty harshly when it comes to combat, because I have high expectations of them - in comparison to other anime, all the movies should really score perfect 10s, because in my opinion at least, you just don't get any better hand-to-hand combat than this franchise. For the first time, there were no dueling machines or prettyboy sword-and-armor jousts - just hard-hitting punches and slams. Mmm. Adrenaline... *drools*
Characters - I would hardly say they're 1-dimensional, because some of them - Piccolo and Vegeta come to mind - are actually quite complex individuals with complex relationships. However, some people have compared DBZ to a soap opera (not a bad comparison, save that it's all fighting instead of kissing), and the characters do tend to get a little hackneyed from time to time, as soap opera characters are wont to do. I think that's actually part of the appeal of the show: the lecherous old man who gets nose bleeds when he sees women in bathing suits and watches aerobics videos, the pathetic loser sidekick who constantly fails at life, the coward who spends most of his time hiding and then pops up out of nowhere to perform a heroic act at the last minute. They're tropes. But they're lovable tropes. And DBZ leaves a lot of room for psychological contemplation on the major characters. A lot of this is cut out of the anime, but the manga still has it. I've heard a lot about how the anime fucks up the characters, and I can vouch that Goku, for example, is a lot more serious and a lot less of a buffoon in the manga, and during his fight with Vegeta he's actually more fatalistic than optimistic - like when he realizes that he was the one who turned into an oozaru (giant ape monster) and killed his grandfather, and he says, "Oh, Grandpa, I'm so sorry... I'll make it up to you, when I see you in heaven," implying that he knows he's dead facing oozaru Vegeta. If you count all the characters in the early sagas, you'll see that they actually make quite the plethora of interesting individuals, diverse and rainbow-like. Toriyama was very careful to give all his characters both flaws and redeeming qualities. As much as Goku is often accused of being a Gary Stu (Mr. Perfect), he has a lot of pretty serious flaws.
No Cutesy Females - this is perhaps one of the top reasons I love DBZ. There is an utter absence of the googly-eyed, leggy teenage schoolgirl type in DBZ. Toriyama's style doesn't lend itself to it, and he often gets accusations of drawing "ugly". Yeah, I think most anime is drawn "misogynistic", so eat that. The girls do not have unrealistic body figures or faces, and none of them are cutesy. They're all bitches, in fact, loud and shrill and commanding of attention - not because they're so cute and spunky, but because they're so goddamn... cantankerous. The only girl who's vaguely cutesy, Maron, is hated by everyone and eventually leaves her boyfriend with these guys that happen along the beach, making her flake central. While the female characters are by no means perfect, at least they're not stupid, vapid robot-dolls that get "turned on" by getting pressed between the legs (Chobits... my GOD I hate this show). This is a comment I've read: the female characters just look like the male characters only with toned down muscle mass and prettyfied. Deep breaths here: THAT IS WHAT WOMEN ARE. PRETTYFIED MEN WITH LESS MUSCLES. THEY ARE NOT BUBBLEHEADS WITH GOOGLY EYES AND BALLOON BREASTS. HOLY FUCKING JESUS. LEAVE YOUR ROOM!!!
Redemption - one of the main "themes" of the series, it deserves a mention. Redemption here means villains that become good guys - but over a very long and exhausting process, it's not overnight like Darth Vader. Piccolo's redemption is probably the best - he trains Gohan and in between throwing him off cliffs, learns to care for him and eventually sacrifices his life to save him. Vegeta is also redeemed, but you're never quite sure if it works, and part of the reason the Freeza Saga is so entertaining is because Vegeta switches sides through most of it. Still, when he is killed by Freeza and begs Goku as he's dying to avenge the Saiyan race... that was emotional. I remember having my face frozen solid after watching that episode. Only two big villains in the whole thing actually prove irredeemable - Freeza and Cell. Well, and Radditz, but he's not really a biggie. And all of the Z-fighters - every single one of them - start out as Goku's adversaries in DB. Which goes to show that when it comes down to it, DBZ does advocate letting one's opponents live and giving them a chance to do-over, and further, that organisms are "basically good". And that's always nice.
Perseverance - I used to tell myself when I was in middle school to remember Gohan. He was four when he watched his father die, was abducted by a green alien that up till then he thought was an enemy, and forced to train for the first time under harsh duress, away from his mother, without food or shelter. Chumbawumba's "Tub Thumping" song: "I get knocked down, but I get up again, you're never gonna keep me down" is pretty much the attitude of the Z-fighters. This makes for some hella emotional scenes. I think my favorite is Gohan insisting on going up to fight Recoome despite being completely battered, despite Krillin telling him to "stay down". Gohan goes up anyway, saying, "I'm the son of Son Goku the warrior... I won't let you beat me!" And then Recoome breaks his neck.
Emotion - I think this is what actually keeps me coming back to this show. Besides the combat, that is. This is probably the most highly emotional show I have ever watched. For supposedly being a silly kids' show, it can pack a hell of an emotional punch. Notwithstanding the self-sacrifice scene in the Cell Saga, which I can't really talk about because I never watched it, DBZ is filled with under-the-surface emotional tension that occasionally explodes, and when it does, it's actually kind of frightening (see the infamous p.24 scene in Viz's #12). Another good example is the episode "Embodiment of Fire", my favorite episode because of the dream sequence Goku has when Freeza's holding him down, drowning, in the water. Essentially he sees all his friends and family - particularly his wife and son - screaming or dying as Freeza destroys Earth. For one, the episode reaffirms the G/CC pairing. For two, the dream sequence motivates Goku to power back up and scream, "and I don't care if you're a million times stronger than me, I won't let them down!" I get goosebumps just thinking about it. Granted, if you're not "in" it, then you probably won't feel it. But if you are "in" it, then this, combined with combat creates a feeling that's pretty much a high, that I haven't been able to replicate with anything else.
Adults Only - I think part of the reason a lot of these things I've mentioned work for me is because the people they concern are all adults (except when explicitly mentioned, like Gohan). A lot of anime centers around bratty teenagers, and you're expected to believe that a bunch of meddling kids totally have the fate of like, the entire world in their hands, when really all I want to do when I see these spoiled whineypusses is shoot them. The adults in most anime shows are either villains, stupid parents, wise old teachers, or lovely unattainable older women who will die to save the life of the bratty teenager, as if life really does end after you turn 21. DBZ thankfully does not adhere to this, and really this is probably why I love it so much. If you're going to make your main characters children, then do it purposefully and seriously think about the implications of what you're doing by making them under 18 - both Akira and Neon Genesis Evangelion, my runner-up favorites, do this to a precise art. Otherwise, just make them adults. It makes the story stronger. There's just a certain extra wallop of importance when your main character is fighting to protect not only his friends or his planet, but his child. You can feel how much more it means. It also makes the main characters much more relatable, in my opinion, for life, because it just makes them look like average Joe Schmos (except... completely un-average) trying to protect their families, and that's a feeling you don't get when your heroes are all so young they have no life experience. This actually strikes me as a much more American rather than Japanese trend - Americans are more likely to have grown-up heroes, especially when it concerns their blockbuster action heroes, like Rambo and Rocky and whoever Bruce Willis's character is in the "Die Hard" series. Characters with baggage and skeletons in the closet. Besides, could kids really be responsible for saving the world?
No Romance for Me, Ma - as much as I bemoan the lack of romance and affection between the couple I'm devoted to, this being a hardcore shonen anime, I'm actually glad. You know why? Because the Japanese don't know how to do romance. They are scary when it comes to romance, in my opinion. Toriyama was once asked why he always skips the years without fighting when babies get born (the 5 years between DB and DBZ out of which comes Gohan, the 3 years in the Android Saga out of which comes Trunks and Goten), and he just blushed and said he didn't know how to write romance. Yeah, well, don't feel too bad, Toriyama, cuz it apparently goes for that whole country of yours. I saw an episode of this anime, Eureka Seven, where the main boy and girl are sort of getting closer and expected to kiss, and the boy just ends up going all red and hentai-ish and the girl gets these soft vulnerable doe eyes, the way Japan always draws their female characters before they have sex, and I just wanted to vomit. It's mushy, it's ridiculous, it's over-the-top. It turns the guys into blithering perverted idiots and turns the girls into weak-in-the-knees damsels in distress. Somehow they still have time for this despite the world needing to be saved. Basically, love in Japan = peeks at the female characters naked. Besides, people never actually get married. Hell, they're all 14* . So in retrospect, I'm glad DBZ doesn't do romance. It does, however, credibly show support for the G/CC pairing in several episodes - and it's never the stupid giggly headrush romance that Japan likes to do either, it's mature love between adults. Granted, I put a bit more than that into Ilium Agonistes. But then again I can write romance. Unlike Japanese people.
* - an important exception to this tirade against anime romance: Berserk.
Generally Hated by Anime Fans - and not considered anime, even! Of course, this begs the question - what is anime? Is it anything animated that comes out of Japan? If so, then it is, sadly, anime. If anime is, however, mostly bishojo and bishonen (pretty girl, pretty boy), elaborate details, angsty plotlines involving the sword of blah blah blah, with unrealistic characters with no real problems other than that they happen to be half-demon or half-witch or half-fucking-Pokemon, then ok, it's not anime. Good. I think DBZ should just get adopted by Marvel or DC Comics. Never thought I'd say that considering I'm not a big fan of the two big comic conglomerates of America, but DBZ would probably fit better there. I personally am of the opinion, as of right now, that anime gives DBZ a bad name. Then again, I think that this could also be traced back to my love of the movie "Hero" and my complete hate for the one that came after it, "House of Flying Daggers". Why? "House of Flying Daggers" was so over the top emotional and "beautiful" that it generated no emotion in me at all. During the ending scene where they're dying in the field of snow I was like, geez, why don't we have some rose petals fall on you too while we're at it. "Hero" on the other hand was about what you'll do to save your country. Sorta like the people who say DBZ is all fighting, what's the point of that? Yeah, what is the point of it? I mean, millions of people die every year in conflicts, fighting is obviously not an undercurrent of our daily life*. I am, however, a political scientist. And a pretty strident one at that. I study power. You can say it's not important... and I can say that, well, that's nice, until some pissed off country decides to blow you up as you're getting a Starbucks frappucino. Ok, got a little off topic there. My point is, DBZ is often shunned by anime otakus. For this I am very glad, because I'm starting to think anime otakus, and the great majority of anime, are basically the scum of the Earth. And don't tell me that I'm just one of those "newbies" that needs to see what I'm missing. I have tried to watch/read several animes. Here's a list of the ones I like: Akira, Evangelion, Berserk. Here's a list of the ones I don't like: .hack, wolf's rain, lain, chobits, gundam (sorry, Kim, it's just not for me), pokemon, digimon (again... sorry), full metal alchemist, eureka seven, fushigi yugi, sailor moon, inuyasha, ruruoni kenshin, saint seiya, flcl, fruits' basket, hellsing, love hina, naruto, yu yu hakusho, scryed, zatch bell. I know I'm missing a lot, but I'm tired of giving this genre a chance.
* - another qualm of mine: "brainless fighting"? Brainless? You know what brainless fighting is - pro-wrestling. This is fighting to save the goddamn world, you piece of fucks!
Entertaining - DBZ is addictive and entertaining. Period. Sometimes the humor is intentional, sometimes not. Sometimes it's in the sarcastic comments made by Piccolo and Vegeta ("you had the incomparable power of the dragonballs serving you, and you brought this useless sack of trash to life!" "sorry I'm a useless sack of trash..."). Sometimes it's in the bugged out expressions on characters' faces. Sometimes it's just watching Krillin fail at life for the millionth time. As much as I hate the Majin Buu saga, I have to admit, the episodes The Innards of Buu and Mind Trap are the most wonderfully fucked up episodes in the series. Yes, some of the humor is purely physical - i.e., Master Roshi falling on his head on the ground when he tries to jump out the window and Goku lets loose a power blast. So what? You only live once. If you can't laugh at old people falling on their heads, I guess that's your loss. In fact, looking over this post makes me just want to drop everything and watch more and more episodes!
God told me, I've already got the life...
SHIP TANGENT: I'm collecting episodes with G/CC in them and found these two recently - "Our Hero Awakens" and "The Time Chamber", taking place in that Cell Saga I don't otherwise watch. They offer undeniable proof of my ship's right to be the couple of DBZ. Goku's just recovered from his heart disease and is going off to train in the Hyperbolic Time Chamber for a year to see if he can get any stronger so he can beat Cell. Lights, camera, action. Italics are thoughts.
Goku: Hey, Chi-Chi, I'd like to take Gohan with me if that's okay with you.
Chi-Chi: That's a joke, right? Right? Well, what do you think I'll say, Goku? Yeah. Go ahead. I can't stop you. But I want you to make sure Gohan gets as strong as possible... *lightly punches him* ... 'kay?
Goku: Sure.
Chi-Chi: Now, if I let Gohan go and battle those androids with you, you have to promise to let him study when he gets back, alright?
Mr. Roshi: Hm, interesting. Chi-Chi never lets Gohan put down the books. This must be some kind of a trick.
Chi-Chi: I want you and Gohan to give it all you've got.
Goku: Thanks, Chi-Chi.
Chi-Chi: I could never deny you anything, you big lug. Goku. I don't know what I'd do without you.
Mr. Roshi: That's sweet.
Goku: Well, see ya. I'll miss you, Chi-Chi.
Chi-Chi: I'll miss you too.
*Goku puts his fingers to his forehead to do instant transmission, briefly glances at Chi-Chi, and then vanishes.*
Chi-Chi: Come back... soon.
As Kim says, that's really all the proof I need right there.
Oh, also, I'm basically only talking about DB and DBZ up to and including the Freeza Saga, in case anyone cares. I didn't watch the others and have no desire to. Akira Toriyama has said that he wanted to end it after the Freeza Saga, but fans wouldn't let him - so I take that as a rational ending point. I've seen episodes from the later sagas and they're way worse in every way.
Combat - the defining factor of the show. I don't know what effect this had on me, though, besides making me really, really love combat. Especially in the beginning before huge super-mega explosions are being generated out of palms right and left with barely any effort, and when a power level of NINE THOUSAND is actually something to admire... those were the days. Nobody does combat like DBZ. I learned how to write all my "action" scenes from this show, and it still doesn't turn out half as good. I think part of the reason I love it so much is that it's sort of realistic - and by that I mean, people actually do get hurt when they get hit, they don't just bounce back like rubber, and there are usually long and extensive recovery times involved for those involved (this show may win for the most clips in a hospital). Innocent civilians die, buildings get blown up. And DBZ is also very deliberate about showing how hard it is to attain those high power levels and those advanced fighting techniques. I would say 50% of DB is training, and about 40% of DBZ. And if I compare to other anime, I judge DBZ movies pretty harshly when it comes to combat, because I have high expectations of them - in comparison to other anime, all the movies should really score perfect 10s, because in my opinion at least, you just don't get any better hand-to-hand combat than this franchise. For the first time, there were no dueling machines or prettyboy sword-and-armor jousts - just hard-hitting punches and slams. Mmm. Adrenaline... *drools*
Characters - I would hardly say they're 1-dimensional, because some of them - Piccolo and Vegeta come to mind - are actually quite complex individuals with complex relationships. However, some people have compared DBZ to a soap opera (not a bad comparison, save that it's all fighting instead of kissing), and the characters do tend to get a little hackneyed from time to time, as soap opera characters are wont to do. I think that's actually part of the appeal of the show: the lecherous old man who gets nose bleeds when he sees women in bathing suits and watches aerobics videos, the pathetic loser sidekick who constantly fails at life, the coward who spends most of his time hiding and then pops up out of nowhere to perform a heroic act at the last minute. They're tropes. But they're lovable tropes. And DBZ leaves a lot of room for psychological contemplation on the major characters. A lot of this is cut out of the anime, but the manga still has it. I've heard a lot about how the anime fucks up the characters, and I can vouch that Goku, for example, is a lot more serious and a lot less of a buffoon in the manga, and during his fight with Vegeta he's actually more fatalistic than optimistic - like when he realizes that he was the one who turned into an oozaru (giant ape monster) and killed his grandfather, and he says, "Oh, Grandpa, I'm so sorry... I'll make it up to you, when I see you in heaven," implying that he knows he's dead facing oozaru Vegeta. If you count all the characters in the early sagas, you'll see that they actually make quite the plethora of interesting individuals, diverse and rainbow-like. Toriyama was very careful to give all his characters both flaws and redeeming qualities. As much as Goku is often accused of being a Gary Stu (Mr. Perfect), he has a lot of pretty serious flaws.
No Cutesy Females - this is perhaps one of the top reasons I love DBZ. There is an utter absence of the googly-eyed, leggy teenage schoolgirl type in DBZ. Toriyama's style doesn't lend itself to it, and he often gets accusations of drawing "ugly". Yeah, I think most anime is drawn "misogynistic", so eat that. The girls do not have unrealistic body figures or faces, and none of them are cutesy. They're all bitches, in fact, loud and shrill and commanding of attention - not because they're so cute and spunky, but because they're so goddamn... cantankerous. The only girl who's vaguely cutesy, Maron, is hated by everyone and eventually leaves her boyfriend with these guys that happen along the beach, making her flake central. While the female characters are by no means perfect, at least they're not stupid, vapid robot-dolls that get "turned on" by getting pressed between the legs (Chobits... my GOD I hate this show). This is a comment I've read: the female characters just look like the male characters only with toned down muscle mass and prettyfied. Deep breaths here: THAT IS WHAT WOMEN ARE. PRETTYFIED MEN WITH LESS MUSCLES. THEY ARE NOT BUBBLEHEADS WITH GOOGLY EYES AND BALLOON BREASTS. HOLY FUCKING JESUS. LEAVE YOUR ROOM!!!
Redemption - one of the main "themes" of the series, it deserves a mention. Redemption here means villains that become good guys - but over a very long and exhausting process, it's not overnight like Darth Vader. Piccolo's redemption is probably the best - he trains Gohan and in between throwing him off cliffs, learns to care for him and eventually sacrifices his life to save him. Vegeta is also redeemed, but you're never quite sure if it works, and part of the reason the Freeza Saga is so entertaining is because Vegeta switches sides through most of it. Still, when he is killed by Freeza and begs Goku as he's dying to avenge the Saiyan race... that was emotional. I remember having my face frozen solid after watching that episode. Only two big villains in the whole thing actually prove irredeemable - Freeza and Cell. Well, and Radditz, but he's not really a biggie. And all of the Z-fighters - every single one of them - start out as Goku's adversaries in DB. Which goes to show that when it comes down to it, DBZ does advocate letting one's opponents live and giving them a chance to do-over, and further, that organisms are "basically good". And that's always nice.
Perseverance - I used to tell myself when I was in middle school to remember Gohan. He was four when he watched his father die, was abducted by a green alien that up till then he thought was an enemy, and forced to train for the first time under harsh duress, away from his mother, without food or shelter. Chumbawumba's "Tub Thumping" song: "I get knocked down, but I get up again, you're never gonna keep me down" is pretty much the attitude of the Z-fighters. This makes for some hella emotional scenes. I think my favorite is Gohan insisting on going up to fight Recoome despite being completely battered, despite Krillin telling him to "stay down". Gohan goes up anyway, saying, "I'm the son of Son Goku the warrior... I won't let you beat me!" And then Recoome breaks his neck.
Emotion - I think this is what actually keeps me coming back to this show. Besides the combat, that is. This is probably the most highly emotional show I have ever watched. For supposedly being a silly kids' show, it can pack a hell of an emotional punch. Notwithstanding the self-sacrifice scene in the Cell Saga, which I can't really talk about because I never watched it, DBZ is filled with under-the-surface emotional tension that occasionally explodes, and when it does, it's actually kind of frightening (see the infamous p.24 scene in Viz's #12). Another good example is the episode "Embodiment of Fire", my favorite episode because of the dream sequence Goku has when Freeza's holding him down, drowning, in the water. Essentially he sees all his friends and family - particularly his wife and son - screaming or dying as Freeza destroys Earth. For one, the episode reaffirms the G/CC pairing. For two, the dream sequence motivates Goku to power back up and scream, "and I don't care if you're a million times stronger than me, I won't let them down!" I get goosebumps just thinking about it. Granted, if you're not "in" it, then you probably won't feel it. But if you are "in" it, then this, combined with combat creates a feeling that's pretty much a high, that I haven't been able to replicate with anything else.
Adults Only - I think part of the reason a lot of these things I've mentioned work for me is because the people they concern are all adults (except when explicitly mentioned, like Gohan). A lot of anime centers around bratty teenagers, and you're expected to believe that a bunch of meddling kids totally have the fate of like, the entire world in their hands, when really all I want to do when I see these spoiled whineypusses is shoot them. The adults in most anime shows are either villains, stupid parents, wise old teachers, or lovely unattainable older women who will die to save the life of the bratty teenager, as if life really does end after you turn 21. DBZ thankfully does not adhere to this, and really this is probably why I love it so much. If you're going to make your main characters children, then do it purposefully and seriously think about the implications of what you're doing by making them under 18 - both Akira and Neon Genesis Evangelion, my runner-up favorites, do this to a precise art. Otherwise, just make them adults. It makes the story stronger. There's just a certain extra wallop of importance when your main character is fighting to protect not only his friends or his planet, but his child. You can feel how much more it means. It also makes the main characters much more relatable, in my opinion, for life, because it just makes them look like average Joe Schmos (except... completely un-average) trying to protect their families, and that's a feeling you don't get when your heroes are all so young they have no life experience. This actually strikes me as a much more American rather than Japanese trend - Americans are more likely to have grown-up heroes, especially when it concerns their blockbuster action heroes, like Rambo and Rocky and whoever Bruce Willis's character is in the "Die Hard" series. Characters with baggage and skeletons in the closet. Besides, could kids really be responsible for saving the world?
No Romance for Me, Ma - as much as I bemoan the lack of romance and affection between the couple I'm devoted to, this being a hardcore shonen anime, I'm actually glad. You know why? Because the Japanese don't know how to do romance. They are scary when it comes to romance, in my opinion. Toriyama was once asked why he always skips the years without fighting when babies get born (the 5 years between DB and DBZ out of which comes Gohan, the 3 years in the Android Saga out of which comes Trunks and Goten), and he just blushed and said he didn't know how to write romance. Yeah, well, don't feel too bad, Toriyama, cuz it apparently goes for that whole country of yours. I saw an episode of this anime, Eureka Seven, where the main boy and girl are sort of getting closer and expected to kiss, and the boy just ends up going all red and hentai-ish and the girl gets these soft vulnerable doe eyes, the way Japan always draws their female characters before they have sex, and I just wanted to vomit. It's mushy, it's ridiculous, it's over-the-top. It turns the guys into blithering perverted idiots and turns the girls into weak-in-the-knees damsels in distress. Somehow they still have time for this despite the world needing to be saved. Basically, love in Japan = peeks at the female characters naked. Besides, people never actually get married. Hell, they're all 14* . So in retrospect, I'm glad DBZ doesn't do romance. It does, however, credibly show support for the G/CC pairing in several episodes - and it's never the stupid giggly headrush romance that Japan likes to do either, it's mature love between adults. Granted, I put a bit more than that into Ilium Agonistes. But then again I can write romance. Unlike Japanese people.
* - an important exception to this tirade against anime romance: Berserk.
Generally Hated by Anime Fans - and not considered anime, even! Of course, this begs the question - what is anime? Is it anything animated that comes out of Japan? If so, then it is, sadly, anime. If anime is, however, mostly bishojo and bishonen (pretty girl, pretty boy), elaborate details, angsty plotlines involving the sword of blah blah blah, with unrealistic characters with no real problems other than that they happen to be half-demon or half-witch or half-fucking-Pokemon, then ok, it's not anime. Good. I think DBZ should just get adopted by Marvel or DC Comics. Never thought I'd say that considering I'm not a big fan of the two big comic conglomerates of America, but DBZ would probably fit better there. I personally am of the opinion, as of right now, that anime gives DBZ a bad name. Then again, I think that this could also be traced back to my love of the movie "Hero" and my complete hate for the one that came after it, "House of Flying Daggers". Why? "House of Flying Daggers" was so over the top emotional and "beautiful" that it generated no emotion in me at all. During the ending scene where they're dying in the field of snow I was like, geez, why don't we have some rose petals fall on you too while we're at it. "Hero" on the other hand was about what you'll do to save your country. Sorta like the people who say DBZ is all fighting, what's the point of that? Yeah, what is the point of it? I mean, millions of people die every year in conflicts, fighting is obviously not an undercurrent of our daily life*. I am, however, a political scientist. And a pretty strident one at that. I study power. You can say it's not important... and I can say that, well, that's nice, until some pissed off country decides to blow you up as you're getting a Starbucks frappucino. Ok, got a little off topic there. My point is, DBZ is often shunned by anime otakus. For this I am very glad, because I'm starting to think anime otakus, and the great majority of anime, are basically the scum of the Earth. And don't tell me that I'm just one of those "newbies" that needs to see what I'm missing. I have tried to watch/read several animes. Here's a list of the ones I like: Akira, Evangelion, Berserk. Here's a list of the ones I don't like: .hack, wolf's rain, lain, chobits, gundam (sorry, Kim, it's just not for me), pokemon, digimon (again... sorry), full metal alchemist, eureka seven, fushigi yugi, sailor moon, inuyasha, ruruoni kenshin, saint seiya, flcl, fruits' basket, hellsing, love hina, naruto, yu yu hakusho, scryed, zatch bell. I know I'm missing a lot, but I'm tired of giving this genre a chance.
* - another qualm of mine: "brainless fighting"? Brainless? You know what brainless fighting is - pro-wrestling. This is fighting to save the goddamn world, you piece of fucks!
Entertaining - DBZ is addictive and entertaining. Period. Sometimes the humor is intentional, sometimes not. Sometimes it's in the sarcastic comments made by Piccolo and Vegeta ("you had the incomparable power of the dragonballs serving you, and you brought this useless sack of trash to life!" "sorry I'm a useless sack of trash..."). Sometimes it's in the bugged out expressions on characters' faces. Sometimes it's just watching Krillin fail at life for the millionth time. As much as I hate the Majin Buu saga, I have to admit, the episodes The Innards of Buu and Mind Trap are the most wonderfully fucked up episodes in the series. Yes, some of the humor is purely physical - i.e., Master Roshi falling on his head on the ground when he tries to jump out the window and Goku lets loose a power blast. So what? You only live once. If you can't laugh at old people falling on their heads, I guess that's your loss. In fact, looking over this post makes me just want to drop everything and watch more and more episodes!
God told me, I've already got the life...
SHIP TANGENT: I'm collecting episodes with G/CC in them and found these two recently - "Our Hero Awakens" and "The Time Chamber", taking place in that Cell Saga I don't otherwise watch. They offer undeniable proof of my ship's right to be the couple of DBZ. Goku's just recovered from his heart disease and is going off to train in the Hyperbolic Time Chamber for a year to see if he can get any stronger so he can beat Cell. Lights, camera, action. Italics are thoughts.
Goku: Hey, Chi-Chi, I'd like to take Gohan with me if that's okay with you.
Chi-Chi: That's a joke, right? Right? Well, what do you think I'll say, Goku? Yeah. Go ahead. I can't stop you. But I want you to make sure Gohan gets as strong as possible... *lightly punches him* ... 'kay?
Goku: Sure.
Chi-Chi: Now, if I let Gohan go and battle those androids with you, you have to promise to let him study when he gets back, alright?
Mr. Roshi: Hm, interesting. Chi-Chi never lets Gohan put down the books. This must be some kind of a trick.
Chi-Chi: I want you and Gohan to give it all you've got.
Goku: Thanks, Chi-Chi.
Chi-Chi: I could never deny you anything, you big lug. Goku. I don't know what I'd do without you.
Mr. Roshi: That's sweet.
Goku: Well, see ya. I'll miss you, Chi-Chi.
Chi-Chi: I'll miss you too.
*Goku puts his fingers to his forehead to do instant transmission, briefly glances at Chi-Chi, and then vanishes.*
Chi-Chi: Come back... soon.
As Kim says, that's really all the proof I need right there.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2007-02-12 04:04 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-02-19 12:15 am (UTC)Sooo, power... seriously though, it's been in my reading a lot lately, as have politics in general (and religion and language)...this definitely isn't because I'm taking Language & Politics and Debates in the Ethnography of Southeast Asia, which might as well have been two parts of the same course, so far, especially when the anthropologists who write the ethnographies also have a political stance... I don't think I have a point here, just rambling. I'm slighty amused though by what I ended up studying and what that says about my own psychology. Clearly, you are my formative experience as a human being. But c'mon, for an anthro course, I had to choose between SE Asia, Post-Mao China, or Christianities. It seemed the obvious choice to me...then again, I guess most people I know think Christianity is just fascinating, and the China course is popular enough to have two sections. But Jon doesn't teach Post-Mao China, and I love Jon, and he needs student support. He makes faces back at me when I make faces in class! And he will come to teach us even when near death...he is devoted, young, poor, incredibly sarcastic, smart, and engaged to a woman he rarely gets to see. I get too attached to professors. Especially self-deprecating visiting professors that are on a yearly-contract and have to live in Reed-owned housing. Whoah, okay, stopping with the tangent now. But we should talk more. Sorry I've been distant lately. I'm still catching up, actually, but I needed a break from reading...which is probably why my tangent is on this subject.