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Long ago, manga aspired to be like Dragon Ball Z: graphically iconic, with a story more coherent than it probably needed to be. Now there's the ADHD-addled Drag

Long ago, manga aspired to be like Dragon Ball Z: graphically iconic, with a story more coherent than it probably needed to be. Now there's the ADHD-addled Dragon-Ball-Z-inspired One Piece, a manga for the Twitter age if there ever was one. Pop culture was best when you, the reader of this sentence, were 12: http://i46.tinypic.com/1625ims.gif http://i46.tinypic.com/1625ims.gif I remember watching DBZ after school, and while it is certainly "graphically iconic", there is no legitimate way to claim it has a coherent plot. It seems like the author is remembering his Saturday morning cartoons through some rose-tinted cokebottles. I won't even touch "Anime is terrible. It used to be okay."

jayair 17y ago
Reading the article I felt that just like how he is comparing current Anime to DBZ (what he remembers) is the same way he is comparing his current feeling towards Japanese culture to what he thought it would be. It feels like reality has settled in and his daily life has some deeper rooted problems than the stickers being placed on the barcode a certain a way. Regardless he gives a view of the culture that you don't often hear about.
xenophanes 17y ago
What are you talking about? They have, e.g., 30 eps in a row of goku fighting frieza. it's an extremely slow plot, but every episode follows after the next. (except after a saga ends, then they just do a time skip to the next big fight)
- itistoday 17y ago
  Man does this bring back memories from back when I was still a young hackling... Watching in eager anticipation what will happen next. For four straight episodes it was Goku with his hands in the air constipating, and somehow I loved every minute of it.
  - camccann 17y ago
    constipating That is not a word that should ever exist... yet I cannot imagine a better description.
  - deleted 17y ago
    [deleted]
  - Groxx 17y ago
    I think this is the comment I've laughed hardest at out of every comment I've read on YC. "Constipating" xD So awesomely descriptive. I'll be chuckling about this for quite a while (earning crazy-looks from random passers-by)!
michaelcampbell 17y ago
Correct or not, your post reminded me of a recent Jon Stewart (Daily Show) deconstruction of Glenn Beck's and Sean Hannity's rant about how great "America used to be". The idea was that your own country is ALWAYS great TO YOU when you're 12.... BECAUSE YOU'RE 12!
- noilly 17y ago
  http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/tue-january-5-2010/even-better-than-the-real-thing http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/tue-january-5-2010/even-be...
mtts 17y ago
I was in college when it hit over here. Couldn't make head nor tails of it. It seemed like crap to me. Then again, I used to watch TMNT after school and to this day will maintain that it was actually quite funny, even though someone older than me will, with some justification, villify that as well. Some of this article was worth reading. The complaints about how things used to be better, however, were not.
KirinDave 17y ago
While I wouldn't call DBZ's plot unique, it wasn't bad. You might have experienced a bad, emasculated version which was aired in America, stripped down to nothing but fight scenes and completely devoid of anything involving adult life. That version really sucked.
patrickgzill 17y ago
No love for "Shikabane Hime" ? What is wrong with this guy?!
- GFischer 17y ago
  I was looking for something to watch - I'll try Shikabane Hime then :) (not the author btw)
dkarl 17y ago
I would like to check out some manga to see what it's like. I almost posted a request for manga recommendations on a LibraryThing manga forum, but I decided against it. I tried writing up a description of what I was looking for, but it devolved into rejection of a bunch of anime stereotypes: - No ordinary schmoes who turn out to have amazing supernatural powers. - Nothing that revolves around a series of contests with enemies of escalating power. - No robots or exoskeletons. - It would be nice if the central character was an adult. An adult whose love interest is not an adolescent. - While I'm on that topic, nothing that will make people think I'm a pervert if they catch me reading it. So, while I was wroting this up, I started checking out the lists of mangas that had been previously recommended in the forum, and I started to feel like I was shitting all over everything they loved, so I decided not to post my request. People talk quite a lot about manga being a serious art form for adults. Am I missing something?
- jmillikin 17y ago
  The problem with forums about anime or manga is that they self-select for people who have been rejected from every other community. A solid science-fiction or horror story can find discussion in the appropriate forums, but nobody normal is interested in some high-school student's harem of magical girls. Here are some manga / anime recommendations. Some have not been licensed for distribution in the US, or have been only partially released here, so you will need to hunt a bit for fansubs. I watch only the animated adaptations, as they're easier to hide, but feel free to order the original manga versions if you don't feel ashamed about reading comic books. Not all are adaptations -- the movies, and a few television series, are original animations. - Monster < http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monster_%28manga%29 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monster_%28manga%29 > - Planetes < http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planetes http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planetes > - Mushishi < http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mushishi http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mushishi > - Mononoke < http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mononoke_%28TV_series%29 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mononoke_%28TV_series%29 > - Tokyo Godfathers < http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tokyo_Godfathers http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tokyo_Godfathers > If you're willing to relax your standards a bit, there are many outstanding series aimed at younger viewers. - Denno Coil < http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Denn%C5%8D_Coil http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Denn%C5%8D_Coil > - Yokohama Shopping Trip < http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yokohama_Kaidashi_Kik%C5%8D http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yokohama_Kaidashi_Kik%C5%8D > - Kino's Journey < http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kino%27s_Journey http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kino%27s_Journey > - Cromartie High School < http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cromartie_High_School http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cromartie_High_School > - My Neighbor Totoro < http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/My_Neighbor_Totoro http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/My_Neighbor_Totoro > , or almost anything else by Studio Ghibli < http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Studio_Ghibli http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Studio_Ghibli > - The Girl Who Leapt Through Time < http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Girl_Who_Leapt_Through_Time http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Girl_Who_Leapt_Through_Time > - Yotsuba&! < http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yotsuba& http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yotsuba&! >

jayair 17y ago

Reading the article I felt that just like how he is comparing current Anime to DBZ (what he remembers) is the same way he is comparing his current feeling towards Japanese culture to what he thought it would be. It feels like reality has settled in and his daily life has some deeper rooted problems than the stickers being placed on the barcode a certain a way. Regardless he gives a view of the culture that you don't often hear about.

xenophanes 17y ago

What are you talking about? They have, e.g., 30 eps in a row of goku fighting frieza. it's an extremely slow plot, but every episode follows after the next. (except after a saga ends, then they just do a time skip to the next big fight)

itistoday 17y ago
Man does this bring back memories from back when I was still a young hackling... Watching in eager anticipation what will happen next. For four straight episodes it was Goku with his hands in the air constipating, and somehow I loved every minute of it.
- camccann 17y ago
  constipating That is not a word that should ever exist... yet I cannot imagine a better description.
- deleted 17y ago
  [deleted]
- Groxx 17y ago
  I think this is the comment I've laughed hardest at out of every comment I've read on YC. "Constipating" xD So awesomely descriptive. I'll be chuckling about this for quite a while (earning crazy-looks from random passers-by)!

michaelcampbell 17y ago

Correct or not, your post reminded me of a recent Jon Stewart (Daily Show) deconstruction of Glenn Beck's and Sean Hannity's rant about how great "America used to be". The idea was that your own country is ALWAYS great TO YOU when you're 12.... BECAUSE YOU'RE 12!

noilly 17y ago
http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/tue-january-5-2010/even-better-than-the-real-thing http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/tue-january-5-2010/even-be...

mtts 17y ago

I was in college when it hit over here. Couldn't make head nor tails of it. It seemed like crap to me. Then again, I used to watch TMNT after school and to this day will maintain that it was actually quite funny, even though someone older than me will, with some justification, villify that as well. Some of this article was worth reading. The complaints about how things used to be better, however, were not.

KirinDave 17y ago

While I wouldn't call DBZ's plot unique, it wasn't bad. You might have experienced a bad, emasculated version which was aired in America, stripped down to nothing but fight scenes and completely devoid of anything involving adult life. That version really sucked.

patrickgzill 17y ago

No love for "Shikabane Hime" ? What is wrong with this guy?!

GFischer 17y ago
I was looking for something to watch - I'll try Shikabane Hime then :) (not the author btw)

dkarl 17y ago

I would like to check out some manga to see what it's like. I almost posted a request for manga recommendations on a LibraryThing manga forum, but I decided against it. I tried writing up a description of what I was looking for, but it devolved into rejection of a bunch of anime stereotypes: - No ordinary schmoes who turn out to have amazing supernatural powers. - Nothing that revolves around a series of contests with enemies of escalating power. - No robots or exoskeletons. - It would be nice if the central character was an adult. An adult whose love interest is not an adolescent. - While I'm on that topic, nothing that will make people think I'm a pervert if they catch me reading it. So, while I was wroting this up, I started checking out the lists of mangas that had been previously recommended in the forum, and I started to feel like I was shitting all over everything they loved, so I decided not to post my request. People talk quite a lot about manga being a serious art form for adults. Am I missing something?

jmillikin 17y ago
The problem with forums about anime or manga is that they self-select for people who have been rejected from every other community. A solid science-fiction or horror story can find discussion in the appropriate forums, but nobody normal is interested in some high-school student's harem of magical girls. Here are some manga / anime recommendations. Some have not been licensed for distribution in the US, or have been only partially released here, so you will need to hunt a bit for fansubs. I watch only the animated adaptations, as they're easier to hide, but feel free to order the original manga versions if you don't feel ashamed about reading comic books. Not all are adaptations -- the movies, and a few television series, are original animations. - Monster < http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monster_%28manga%29 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monster_%28manga%29 > - Planetes < http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planetes http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planetes > - Mushishi < http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mushishi http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mushishi > - Mononoke < http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mononoke_%28TV_series%29 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mononoke_%28TV_series%29 > - Tokyo Godfathers < http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tokyo_Godfathers http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tokyo_Godfathers > If you're willing to relax your standards a bit, there are many outstanding series aimed at younger viewers. - Denno Coil < http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Denn%C5%8D_Coil http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Denn%C5%8D_Coil > - Yokohama Shopping Trip < http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yokohama_Kaidashi_Kik%C5%8D http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yokohama_Kaidashi_Kik%C5%8D > - Kino's Journey < http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kino%27s_Journey http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kino%27s_Journey > - Cromartie High School < http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cromartie_High_School http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cromartie_High_School > - My Neighbor Totoro < http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/My_Neighbor_Totoro http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/My_Neighbor_Totoro > , or almost anything else by Studio Ghibli < http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Studio_Ghibli http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Studio_Ghibli > - The Girl Who Leapt Through Time < http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Girl_Who_Leapt_Through_Time http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Girl_Who_Leapt_Through_Time > - Yotsuba&! < http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yotsuba& http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yotsuba&! >