New Kanzenban Ending - "Daizenshuu EX" Style!

[omae no kaasan]

Jersey, Thank you, I appreciate your words.

Dragon Ball Z, plot wise, is certainly far from complex. Super new bad guy arrives, beats everyone up, good guys train, good guys win. Throw in some transformations, and you've got every DBZ saga and a few DB ones too.

Thank you! Yes, see, it is true? And, again I`ll say it, nowhere in this entire topic did I say that was a bad thing.

What do you think I am? A Naruto fan?

Not once did I say there was anything negative about DB`s formula. It certainly appealed to hmmmm only THE ENTIRE WORLD ^O^ But when you read what Toriyama says about the work, when you look at what those inspired by his work have produced, you can see that DB was a rudimentary action adventure series. And that series has managed to stay in, in a brand new format, 20 years after its debut.

First two years I came to Japan it is true that DB was just an echo. But this past year you cannot walk in a bookstore or electronics shop without being pounded with DBZ merchandise. Hell, they sell "Saiyan on Board" window plushes at Denny`s!

Because DBZ`s story is so frigging sweet and relatively simple, it can be enjoyed by many people across many ages.

I can tell you for a fact that a helluva lot more older people in Japan can relate to DB than they can to One Piece. DB`s popularity is such that it comes up in casual conversation amongst stars during variety television programs. Why, just this past week, the popular program Spring of Trivia had a piece of trivia on Masako Nozawa!

I never said DB was a poor series for being simple. I`m just saying when you sit down with a Japanese individual that watched animation as a child vigorously, then try to convince them that Dragon Ball was a complex series with serious character development you will either be laughed at (if they`re drunk) or they will tell you that just isn`t the case. I speak from experience.

Might I add, this contradicts a helluva lot of things I said back in 1997-1999. And that`s because I was a dumbass.

[Jerseymilk]

Hell, they sell "Saiyan on Board" window plushes at Denny`s!

I want one those.

[Neon Z]

You said it perfectly. Many Gundam series are BIG culprits of the "look at us, aren't we clever" racket. Having a military leader hold roses and soliloquize poetry does not constitute intelligent programming.

... Gundam Wing+Endless Waltz OVA =/= Many Gundams

And about DB charachter development... it IS there. But it's much subtle and smaller than other series, and it isn't present in Goku, the main charachter. There are hardly any scenes just about charachter development. You usually just see that the charachters are acting in a slightly different way. So, it's easy to see how it'd be ignored.

DB isn't about charachter development, nor has a lot of it, but to claim that it isn't there is foolish.

[omae no kaasan]

And lest we forget, I never said DB was completely void of character development. In fact, for one of the more brilliant signs of that in manga history, I offer Piccolo. That was probably Toriyama`s greatest accomplishment.

[oponok]

I was just giving one example from one Gundam series. Liam already gave another one.

[Neon Z]

I was just giving one example from one Gundam series. Liam already gave another one.

But Liam's example is also from Gundam Wing....

[oponok]

Well, I didn't know someone played chess in Gundam Wing, but I remember a Gundam series in which this one character played chess and talked to himself quite often. Or maybe it was some other game or another show, but I'm convinced it was a Gundam series. I believe it was on Cartoon Network.

Or perhaps I'm wrong.

[B-kun]

I think they played chess while in space in GW. T'was oddly amusing. I think Quatre plays it often.