Big Eaters?

johnboy1 · Post by **johnboy1** » Sun Dec 06, 2009 1:57 am

I seem to recall from an Asian American Lit class that I really, really regret taking a few years ago that, in some Chinese legends, big eaters (those who can pound down seemingly impossible amounts of food) had some sort of supernatural/otherwise extraordinary significance to them. Did my deranged mind just come up with this, or is it true? And if it is, do you think Toriyama had this in mind when he gave Goku the ability to eat an entire restaurant out of stock, despite being able to fit in a breadbox?

Chuquita · Post by **Chuquita** » Sun Dec 06, 2009 3:04 am

I always thought the hero/heroine that has a huge love of food and huge appetite to match was a common anime/manga trope. I never really thought about why though. The more unproportionately large the amount of food to the smaller size of the body easily consuming it the more comedic it becomes. :3

It's why child Goku devouring gigantic feasts is funny to me.

I'd like to know more about the history behind it though.

Ultimate_DB_Fan · Post by **Ultimate_DB_Fan** » Sun Dec 06, 2009 3:20 am

Eh, I think Toriyama just wanted to have saiyans' love for food be a stand-out, comedic trait, without any supernatural elements involved. I mean, Naruto can't get enough of Ramen sometimes. It could be argued, however, that since Kishimoto looked at DB as inspiration for his manga, it wasn't a coincidence.

Kingdom Heartless · Post by **Kingdom Heartless** » Sun Dec 06, 2009 3:41 am

Eating in an over the top manner is definitely very common among anime characters...

http://i89.photobucket.com/albums/k222/ ... dinner.jpg

http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j38/S ... burger.jpg

http://khrisnaresa.files.wordpress.com/ ... olepsy.jpg

Kendamu · Post by **Kendamu** » Sun Dec 06, 2009 7:11 am

It could be all these things. Also, Saiyans are constantly training and fighting to get stronger. You need a lot of fuel for that sort of training. It could be said that their appetites are the result of the amount of energy they need... the same way that someone doing extreme strength training needs to eat meals that balance quality protein and plenty of carbs every three or four hours. The idea can be supported by the fact the Gure was surprised by Saiyan appetite in the Jump Special despite her being married to one. Guessing the Tarble doesn't really train, he wouldn't have such an appetite.

This is all me looking too deeply into it, though.

Gogeta 00 · Post by **Gogeta 00** » Sun Dec 06, 2009 12:07 pm

Kingdom Heartless wrote:Eating in an over the top manner is definitely very common among anime characters...

http://i89.photobucket.com/albums/k222/ ... dinner.jpg

http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j38/S ... burger.jpg

http://khrisnaresa.files.wordpress.com/ ... olepsy.jpg

These are all examples from anime after Dragonball, with 2 of them being influenced by Toriyama's story. So it is possible that these were homages to Dragonball.

The excessive eating can be found in countless anime, but does anyone have any examples of it being used in an anime/manga before the release of Dragonball? For all I know, Toriyama could have started this whole trend.

Velasa · Post by **Velasa** » Mon Dec 07, 2009 2:12 pm

The first two who come to mind for me are Lina Inverse (and friends) of Slayers and Usagi of Sailor Moon- I'm not certain of the dates but I believe they were somewhere between contemporary with DB or older than it. The main character who eats a lot and never seems to gain weight is a common trope in anime that goes back a long time, but I'm uncertain if there's a specific source in the medium or if it came from something in Japanese culture or whatnot.

SHINOBI-03 · Post by **SHINOBI-03** » Mon Dec 07, 2009 2:44 pm

Velasa wrote:The first two who come to mind for me are Lina Inverse (and friends) of Slayers and Usagi of Sailor Moon- I'm not certain of the dates but I believe they were somewhere between contemporary with DB or older than it. The main character who eats a lot and never seems to gain weight is a common trope in anime that goes back a long time, but I'm uncertain if there's a specific source in the medium or if it came from something in Japanese culture or whatnot.

For the "new" shounen shows, I always see it as homage to Dragon Ball... especially if the authors said they were influenced from it. (One Piece, Naruto, etc.) And maybe others picked it from them thinking it's a stereotypical thing for a shounen hero.

Train Heartnet from Black Cat is also a big eater.

As for old ones, I know there's Kabamaru from Iga No Kabamaru (1982-1983) ((Kabamaru was voiced by Ryuusei Nakao BTW)) who is a big glutton and eats anything he can get! especially if it's yakisoba noodles ((Or Chow mein in the Arabic dub)) or fried shrimps.

Godo · Post by **Godo** » Mon Dec 07, 2009 3:23 pm

When Japanese or overall Asian cuisine is mentioned, I cannot do much more than drool, and I get instantly hungry, even though I just ate.
Just like Bruce Lee, I prefer Asian food because of it's diversity of ingredients.

So, to somehow explain this post: If I was a shônen hero, I would as hell eaten lots of food, and my choice would be the same as Naruto's: Ramen.
Too bad many restaurants focus on noodles and sushi. I have yet to find some good ramen in Sweden. The problem is also that there are so many different types from as many provinces in Japan.
The closest I have come to ramen is cup noodles so far...the dream is to visit Japan and eat the shit out of the restaurants serving ramen. If the cup ramen is that good, the real deal must be awesome!

Innagadadavida · Post by **Innagadadavida** » Mon Dec 07, 2009 3:42 pm

I like the idea of the super eaters being a reference to super natural or extraordinary powers. Drunken Master has a scene with Jackie Chan loading his gullet with an absurd amount of food and then walking out trying to pin the bill on somebody else. Drunken Master was a big influence on early Dragon Ball. What with Roshi going by Jackie Chun and using the Drunken Fist in the 21st Tournament.

penguintruth · Post by **penguintruth** » Tue Dec 08, 2009 4:17 am

I thought the trope comes from the fact that the Japanese are very polite and formal in eating, and to eat in an exaggerated manner comes off as flying in the face of that, showing what free spirits those particular characters are, or perhaps subtly criticizing them for being uncouth. Sometimes both.

Look at the way Goku eats even in the presence of gods. He is completely unimpressed with Kaio and devours tons of his food like it was nothing.

Look at the people in the show who are big eaters. Most of them are hillbillies or barbarian types.

Keep in mind, Chi-Chi can put it away, too, but she's just as much a hick as Goku.

Post by **VegettoEX** » Tue Dec 08, 2009 2:35 pm

Significant clean-up made.

Hey, forum! Let's all remember that not everyone here resides in North America, and humor sensibilities do not necessarily carry over between nationalities. Just because they tend to type English halfway decently doesn't mean they understand the intricacies of your passive-aggressive sarcasm.

I'm all about having fun, but if you can't gear your conversation toward relevance while having that fun, please do not bother posting.

Teclo · Post by **Teclo** » Tue Dec 08, 2009 6:07 pm

As always, quite a lot of examples here:
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/BigEater

StrangebuttsPHD · Post by **StrangebuttsPHD** » Sun Dec 13, 2009 2:44 pm

I've slowly started to see it as a metaphor for how humans bullshit themselves with dinning formalities, myself.

The Time Traveller · Post by **The Time Traveller** » Sun Dec 13, 2009 3:11 pm

Kingdom Heartless wrote:http://i89.photobucket.com/albums/k222/ ... dinner.jpg

What the hell's up with that girl looking at Naruto? Some lame attempt at an original character?

StrangebuttsPHD · Post by **StrangebuttsPHD** » Mon Dec 14, 2009 8:45 pm

The Time Traveller wrote:
Kingdom Heartless wrote:http://i89.photobucket.com/albums/k222/ ... dinner.jpg
What the hell's up with that girl looking at Naruto? Some lame attempt at an original character?

Now that's what I call "fanart"!

The Time Traveller · Post by **The Time Traveller** » Mon Dec 14, 2009 9:10 pm

StrangebuttsPHD wrote:
The Time Traveller wrote:
Kingdom Heartless wrote:http://i89.photobucket.com/albums/k222/ ... dinner.jpg
What the hell's up with that girl looking at Naruto? Some lame attempt at an original character?
Now that's what I call "fanart"!

Wait, there wasn't even a girl there to begin with, it's just the pink girl flipped and drawn on, what the fuck?!

Thanos6 · Post by **Thanos6** » Tue Dec 15, 2009 3:14 am

I always liked the way that Mirai Trunks (aside from one scene in the animated special) never ate like this. As I put it in a fanfic of mine, with the tidbit about his eating bento serving as inspiration:

As they dined, she noticed again something she had seen before; Mirai did not eat with the same whirlwind ferocity of all the other Saiyans she had met, his counterpart native to this universe included.

It was because of his upbringing, he had explained the first time she had mentioned it. When he was still young, right up through his mid-teens, he had indeed eaten like that whenever he had the chance. But those chances were rare, and had only gotten rarer as 17 and 18 ravaged more and more of the world's arable land. Like all the other survivors, he had learned to survive on mostly prepackaged food, the kind found at places like convenience stores. For a human, it was just barely enough; for a Saiyan, it was nowhere near it.

Almost his entire life, he had been starving.

As he had grown up and his outlook had matured, he had learned to control his natural instincts to devour his meals as fast as possible. He wanted to make them last. And even when he had come to this time line--first temporarily, then permanently--the lesson had remained. Now that he finally, finally could satisfy his appetite as well as it deserved, he chose to do so slowly. He had all the food he could want, and he wanted to savor it. And so, though he ate faster than most full-blooded humans, it wasn't as fast as the typical Saiyan (for one thing, it was possible to have a mealtime conversation with him).

I don't know if Toriyama planned it, but if so, it was ingeniously subtle.

obiwan23s · Post by **obiwan23s** » Tue Dec 15, 2009 3:55 am

In the Saiyuki series, which also based on Journey to the West (where many of Goku's traits are derived from, such as his superhuman strength, the nyoi-bo, his tail and his monkey transformation), the Son Goku character also has an insatiable appetite like the Son Goku from Dragon Ball.

While Saiyuki did come after Dragon Ball, I don't think its Son Goku also having a large appetite is any kind of tribute to Toriyama or DB. I think it's a coincidence and most interpretations of Journey to the West involve the Goku character always being hungry because he was imprisoned in a mountain for 500 years.

I think Son's appetite has little to do with a foreign concept of its fictional heroes needing to gorge themselves in the name of some kind of hero cred.

SHINOBI-03 · Post by **SHINOBI-03** » Tue Dec 15, 2009 4:36 am

I hate Saiyuki for two reasons...

One, it bastardized the legend with the wrong personalities and mixing the SciFi with the mystic...

The other is Saiyuki Goku's personality is a Dragon Ball Goku ripoff.