Topic: Anime & Manga (NO SPOILERS PLEASE)

@Ralizah I haven't finished it just yet, I will get to that soon.

I was watching Magic User's Club on Funimation, and while I got through the OVA episodes fine, about halfway through the TV series I realized they had the episode order jumbled up & they don't even have all the episodes (for example both episodes 2 & 8 play the contents of episode 8, there's no way to actually watch episode 2, and it isn't the only one jumbled up like this), which is absolutely laughable for a paid service.

Oh well, it was kind of a cute series but nothing to write home about.

I dunno how they pulled it off, but Crunchyroll have merged Funimation into them, so you can now watch their fill library including upcoming simulcasts through your Crunchyroll sub. I am ridiculously excited, haha.

@Pizzamorg, it's because Sony owns both. They already owned Funimation, and they acquired Crunchyroll last year or so.

I'm only surprised it wasn't the other way around though (what with Funi being the older, more established brand).

Wow monopolies working for the consumer, for once!

(I too am surprised it folded in this direction).

Worked for me though, I tended to juggle the subscriptions depending on which had the better simulcast slate for my tastes that season, just turned out Crunchyroll was the one I currently had active, so worked out well.

@Pizzamorg, I think I'll just stick with Funi for now since I largely don't watch simulcasts (other than YashaHime) as I prefer to wait for the "uncut/home video" version of a show to be uploaded, which historically Crunchyroll hasn't gotten IIRC (though of course they now have all the uncut versions Funi has).

Oh wow, it seems like they're probably going to be phasing out Funimation altogether.

Not only is Funi's catalog migrating to Crunchyroll, it's no longer going to be getting any new shows (though they'll finish updating shows it currently has), and all subscribers are getting a 60 day free trial of Crunchyroll Premium (an attempt to migrate the userbase, I'm sure).

Business mergers like this are generally quite bad, but considering Funimation had been in competition for years and yet never bothered to put out the most competent updates to its video player, this is a clear improvement until proven otherwise.

Breezed through Bikini Warriors last week. A parody of JRPG tropes (particularly Dragon Quest), though with an extremely lewd twist (it doesn't even show a single nipple, but I'd still say it's the lewdest fan service show I've seen in quite some time).

Still, depending on how you feel about the lewd angle, I'd say it's worth a watch for JRPG fans, especially considering all the episodes are only 4-5 minutes long (this was a new one for me, is this a thing in anime now?). I especially liked episode 3 I think it was, poking fun at how absurd it is in these games that the hero can just ransack people's homes & break their pots for money & resources.

@Objection you're right, Naruto is crap, but dragon ball is even more crap

I've just started one punch man

I was confused at first until I realized you were replying to the 13 year old OP, lol.

I think both shows will always hold a special place for me growing up, but I gotta be honest, I tried to watch... is it Kai, the Dragonball show where it like cleaned up the animation and adjusted the pacing? As an adult and I just thought it was so bad. Like I can see why it appealed to me when I was like I dunno, in single digits, I'd never seen anything like it before, it blew my mind. But as an adult... yeeesh.

Whereas I actually think, sometimes dated animation aside, Naruto actually still holds up pretty well.

Haha, I feel the complete opposite.

Dragon Ball Z just feels like a kid smashing their action figures together, there is barely anything holding the show together, and what little there is usually nonsensical and full of contradictions, with the show sharply shifting in different directions, rarely following it's own established internal logic, no matter how flimsy that might be.

In contrast, I'm not going to tell anyone Naruto is high art, but I think by comparison Naruto is a significant step up from pretty much every stumble Dragon Ball Z makes.

You know, while I've seen parts of it, I never got invested in Naruto (I don't think it was ever on at a time where I could consistently watch it).

However I grew up watching DBZ & still love it. Yeah, it's story & continuity are patchy (which I'm sure is largely due to the fact Toriyama is notorious for just making things up as he goes, and even routinely forgetful of past characters/lore if he hasn't used them in awhile), but it is pure fun, IMO.

I remember reading somewhere that DBZ was written on a near week by week basis and like... you can tell. Probably the only show that felt even more 'I wrote this five minutes before publishing it' was Bleach, but that holds a special place in my nostalgia bank for anime, too.

I just find DBZ quite unwatchable as an adult, personally. Even with the animation and pace tweaking of Kai, I still didn't find the action balanced out how bad everything else was. I tried getting into Super and was amazed that it was still like basically the same show from the mid 90s. Like great for the fans, but I've seen the shounen genre run because DBZ walked, Super just seems so basic by comparison.

Like there are still some moments and set pieces that will always be seared into my brain from when my like eight year old mind was blown, but I am happy to just keep them there.

I think people are overthinking Dragon Ball Z, I always took it as dumb fun which tries to offer a series of awesome moments. It's like the show is a series of iconic memes strung together which meant to make you look at them to say that's so cool rather than a re-telling of Journey To The West/Monkey.

To be honest I always preferred the original Dragon Ball over Dragon Ball Z/Kai/Super when I last watched it, it was a bit more earnest and focussed on adventuring which seemed to connect with me better.

@Pizzamorg, yeah, it's definitely full of holes & stuff.

One thing I realized long ago is that the Android/Cell arcs shouldn't have even happened. The whole premise for Future Trunks' timeline is that Goku died before they appeared and couldn't be brought back (with Earth's Dragon Balls) because he had already been brought back once, but there are a few MAJOR flaws with this:

1. This explanation comes mere episodes after they reveal the Namekian Dragon Balls can revive people more than once.

2. It's established these people (at least Goku) are able to waltz on over to King Kai's place every time they die.

Certainly Goku would have learned of the Androids once all his other friends started showing up in other world, and through King Kai would have asked the Namekians to revive him (which I'm sure they'd be more than obliged to). Heck, even if they couldn't bring him back specifically if the heart virus falls under a natural death, that wouldn't stop them from being able to revive Vegeta & Gohan (multiple times, in fact). Even assuming the Androids learned how they were being revived & could survive in space long enough to travel to Namek, do they even know where it is?

But yeah, Toriyama admittedly made it up week to week. He dropped Launch (a prominent character from the original Dragon Ball that changes personalities when she sneezes, one of which has blonde hair) because she hadn't appeared since a few appearances in the Saiyan arc, and after Namek he feared new readers would confuse her for a Super Sayain (no in universe reason is given for why she never appears again).

Reportedly Androids 19 & 20 (Gero & the fat one) were going to be THE androids until his editor thought they looked too silly to be main antagonists, so he came up with 16, 17, 18 until he was told that they didn't look threatening enough so he finally came up with Cell (and apparently even then his editor thought he was too ugly, "but I'm sure he has transformations like Frieza, right?", so that's why Cell had multiple forms).

The Buu arc wasn't even supposed to happen (it was supposed to end with Cell and Gohan officially taking over Goku's role), but he was pressured into continuing the story due to popularity. Even then Gohan was ultimately supposed to be the one to defeat Buu after his Supreme Kai training, but he was pressured to ultimately end it with Goku due to fan complaints apparently.

During the production of Battle of Gods, the team had to remind him that Android 18 was blonde (he thought she had purple hair), and that Super Sayain 2 even existed (because it's appearance isn't that different from SS1, he reportedly forgot about it and thought SS3 was SS2). Remember, this is the guy that invented all this, lol.

And that pain can certainly be felt while watching it. Like as a kid you smooth over a lot of this stuff, as your brain operates in the same way the storytelling does but as an adult you are just like ???

I tried to follow the Super power system and I just can't. Like ultra instinct God awoken ascension with the blue hair. It feels like they are just taking the piss at this point and waiting for fans to realise.

@Pizzamorg, I don't mind the god forms in theory (they're sorta unrelated to regular Super Sayain forms, being borne from a sort of pure hearted enlightenment rather than anger), but I think they just handled them sloppy, largely due to the fact that Battle of Gods (and Resurrection F) was supposed to be a one off, then they decided to rework the entire concept with Super (which reimagined those arcs).

But yeah, Super is even sloppier than the rest of the series in terms of narrative/continuity, IMO, with the Goku Black arc in particular being a particular flustercluck. What gets me is that apparently Toriyama isn't a big fan of the whole Goku being "Japan's Superman" thing, so Super goes out of it's way to establish that they can still be hurt by conventional weaponry if they don't dodge/deflect it (despite even going back as far as Nappa these guys could tank full on military assaults), which is completely at odds with them attaining literal god forms, lol (I still can't believe they had Zamasu/Goku Black retreating from a freakin' gas canister, lol).