What is the Kamehameha?

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Herms
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Re: What is the Kamehameha?

Post by Herms » Sun Aug 02, 2015 2:03 pm

KameRule wrote:Also correct me if I'm wrong, but I thought that Toriyama said that Ki was naturally invisible, which is something MatPat outright contradicted in that video.
Toriyama has said that although ki is traditionally supposed to be invisible, he made the ki in DB visible since it made for a better comic.

Which ties into the main thing: the ki attacks in DB derive directly from the idea of an intangible life-force prevalent in Asian culture (and much of the rest of the world). This idea in turn comes from the association between breathing and life, and because of this the character for ki (気) is primarilary used for gas and weather-related words, and for mental states. That's mainly where you'll encounter it in ordinary, everyday language these days. But the "mystical energy" aspect of it is still played up in traditional martial arts novels, which tend to have a fantasy bent going right back to Journey to the West. Those novels and various movies/TV shows/games/etc based on them made the idea of martial artists being able to harness the life-force and use it in their attacks standard, and Toriyama just took the Kamehameha straight from that tradition, while putting his own spin on it. Though he's hardly the first person to depict ki attacks as visible.

So that's what the Kamehameha is: a cartoonish representation of the traditional Asian notions of a mystical life-force, as commonly depicted in martial arts stories. That's what Toriyama has in mind when he made the thing.
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Re: What is the Kamehameha?

Post by Alex9196 » Sun Aug 02, 2015 3:34 pm

I hate it when people just make unnecessary jokes during an entire video. Especially I am sick of the Krillin, Yamcha and how often everyone dies jokes. I am pretty sure most of the people, who are making fun of Krillin or Yamcha cant even do 10 pushups. And Goku only died twice. Not every 10 episodes.

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Re: What is the Kamehameha?

Post by dbzfan7 » Sun Aug 02, 2015 4:50 pm

For a guy who supposedly researches, he talks a lot of shit about Krillin. Probably just pandering to "that" part of the community. Her Her Krillin isn't stoic and died a couple times, therefore he sucks. Ugh.
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Re: What is the Kamehameha?

Post by Doctor. » Sun Aug 02, 2015 4:55 pm

dbzfan7 wrote:For a guy who supposedly researches, he talks a lot of shit about Krillin. Probably just pandering to "that" part of the community. Her Her Krillin isn't stoic and died a couple times, therefore he sucks. Ugh.
Or... he just dislikes the character.

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Re: What is the Kamehameha?

Post by dbzfan7 » Sun Aug 02, 2015 4:57 pm

Doctor. wrote:
dbzfan7 wrote:For a guy who supposedly researches, he talks a lot of shit about Krillin. Probably just pandering to "that" part of the community. Her Her Krillin isn't stoic and died a couple times, therefore he sucks. Ugh.
Or... he just dislikes the character.
Considering his style of jokes, and I've seen his vids before, he goes for the easy ones. Krillin and Yamcha are the people most mocked in Dragon Ball.
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Re: What is the Kamehameha?

Post by Avery » Sun Aug 02, 2015 5:15 pm

I'm really sick of these outdated jokes. It's been decades and people still mock Krillin for being "useless" as if Vegeta was any more useful.
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Re: What is the Kamehameha?

Post by fadeddreams5 » Sun Aug 02, 2015 5:23 pm

Do you guys remember when Krillin man'd up against Dr. Wheelo at the same time everyone else did, but got clocked? Or the moment when he charged in against Lord Slug, and got swept?

Krillin is a great character, but he's also the butt of jokes within the series itself. Yamcha is even worse. It's just funny. =P

I would say it's pretty old by now, but... TeamFourStar revitalized the Krillin and Yamcha jokes. lol.
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Re: What is the Kamehameha?

Post by dbgtFO » Sun Aug 02, 2015 6:06 pm

fadeddreams5 wrote:Do you guys remember when Krillin man'd up against Dr. Wheelo at the same time everyone else did, but got clocked? Or the moment when he charged in against Lord Slug, and got swept?

Krillin is a great character, but he's also the butt of jokes within the series itself. Yamcha is even worse. It's just funny. =P

I would say it's pretty old by now, but... TeamFourStar revitalized the Krillin and Yamcha jokes. lol.
Isn't it mostly in the movies though, that Krillin is the resident butt monkey?
I think he got hit by the doorknob of Goku and Chi Chi's house in the Cell arc, but I can't recall other joke moments featuring Krillin in Z, at least in the manga.

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Re: What is the Kamehameha?

Post by Herms » Sun Aug 02, 2015 6:23 pm

dbgtFO wrote:Isn't it mostly in the movies though, that Krillin is the resident butt monkey?
Yeah, it's explicitly a running gag in Takao Koyama's movie scripts, right down to him having the movie-only catchphrase "why me?" You can see the seeds of it in the manga, but the anime expands on and exaggerates it a lot, and then the movies take it up to the next level. It's a bit like Chi-Chi's nagging, in that regard.
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Re: What is the Kamehameha?

Post by Sayo-chan » Fri Aug 07, 2015 8:21 am

DNA wrote:
VegettoEX wrote:I think it's an important point to bring up. I generally feel the same way about videos I watch / podcasts I listen to / articles I read. If I feel like I 100% know something for sure is wrong (a pronunciation, a tidbit, a fact, etc.) right off the bat, for me it throws the entire premise into question. I don't trust what they have to say.
That's not the point of MatPats videos. He goes in depth to find scientific reasoning to certain events in video game, tv series or movies. He actually researches a lot, for months. And everyone here is disregarding the entire video over one slip up, same slip up that's been perpetuated by the USA dub, can you really blame him on something so ingrained in your culture? Something that's not even relevant to the theory itself? That's so incredibly nitpicking of you guys. MatPat is also humble enough to own up to his mistakes, so if you feel so hellbent on this issue, feel free to point it out to him.
Research? He makes huge leaps of faith off little more than a hunch. His theory about the Pyro's gender is completely unfounded, his theory about Rosalina's lineage was fairly creepy and not at all based in reality (to which the director of the game debunked it) and this, this is nothing short of a greenhorn's attempt. His "theories" don't fit the definition of theories, they're often vague hypotheses that almost never meet their burdens. Nothing about ki was actually thought out in-depth, which is why to a large extent it's purely supernatural and doesn't operate on any conventional physics. A rudimentary explanation of plasma doesn't explain anything.
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