Kahnai's Anime Blog

[Kahnai]

Hello, I am an Anime Junkie!



Don't believe me? You should see my room.



I would like to make this my own personal Anime Blog/Review area, where I'll review and state my opinions on different animes I watch. Feel free to comment if you wish, or just read if you prefer that too.



I want to discuss here a side to anime few look at so keep an eye out if you're interested!

 

[Jazzy]

I look forward to reading your Anime Blog. I'm not that educated in Anime and perhaps this is just the place to start learning.

 

[Kahnai]

CUT V.S. UNCUT ANIME

EXAMPLE: Dragon Ball Franchise

I must set up the plot of this a little bit in order to discuss what I want to dicuss. First Dragon Ball, Dragon Ball Z and Dragon Ball GT are all apart of the DB franchise. The main character is Goku, and you follow his life through the show. In Dragon Ball you follow Goku on his adventures to get strong and find the Dragon Balls. This series follows his life up through to his teens. Dragon Ball Z you follow his life as an adult as he fights enimies and gets stronger. Dragon Ball GT you follow his later years in life which (do to a mistake with a wish) is spent with him being a child once again.



The main plot of Dragon Ball Z is to find Dragon Balls and destory the enimes that emerge along the way. Dragon Balls are a collection of 7 orbs that when brought together with produce the eternal dragon who then grants your wish.



I'm trying to explain this without giving away any spoilers, it's harder to do than it looks.



Anyway, what I want to talk about is the Saiyan Saga of Dragon Ball Z. When a pair of Saiyans threaten Earth the cast trains to prepare to fight them upon their arrival. Goku (the main hero everyone is waiting for) isn't able to come right away and the fighting begins without him (again, I'm trying to explain this without spoilers).



Now, through the process of this battle a few of our beloved main characters perish. Very sad, I won't reveal who or how many incase you're planning to watch.



Anyway, when I first watched this as a child, when the characters died they either died in such a way that their body was non-existant or they simply faded away, their body no longer being present. As a kid, I didn't think too much on this. When I (in later years) purchased the uncut version of DBZ I rewatched the season to find the bodies did not disappear. Rather they remained there, and there was even a scene where the remaining living heroes collected the dead bodies of their fallen friends.



Now this is the question I bring up. Did (when transfering the show to english) they believe that young children should not see dead bodies even in an animated show?



Also, the in the cut version of Dragon Ball (with Goku is a child) there is a large lack of nuidty verses it's uncut counterpart. It's obvious from our standing why this is, but why was this not edited in Japan? Well, I had read some years back that Japanese mothers typically won't blink at the idea of their young children watching a show with nudity or fowl languge but when a show with violence came on they would quickly change the channel. This could explain why Goku (as a child) and Bulma appear naked quite a few times through out Dragon Ball, these scenes are mostly for comedic purposes. Goku being a young boy raised in the woods doesn't feel shame when being naked so he often removes his clothes at inappropriate times and fails to understand the other characters desire for him to be dressed. Because Bulma is the first human Goku sees (aside from his Grandfather) he has a hard time telling the difference between men and women so he'll touch them and say something like, Oh you are a girl, I couldn't tell at fist. This often leads to him getting slapped or punched commically. It doen't explain why Fight scenes weren't edited. Though comparitvely the fighting of Dragon Ball is much more downgraded than the fighting of Dragon Ball Z which has much more action and blood in battle.



This leads me to my next topic. Blood.



Blood in battle was edited out for the cut English version, they would be drawn looking rugged, clothes would be drawn as torn, and they would appear tired, but there was never any blood until the uncut version. It wasn't until then that I realized how bad some characters had gotten hurt. Now, the blood in DBZ is never as bad a shows like Elfen Lied or Bokusatsu Tenshi Dokuro-chan, but at least they actually appeared hurt after battle.



Another difference is the Japnese V.S. English dub. Which I have always considered the Japanese dub of any anime to almost be like an uncut dialogue.



There is one point in particualr in the english version of Dragon Ball Z Goku is badly hurt and another character (also hurt) is a short ways away from him. In the english version he encourages the character in an attempt to get him to fight since he is so badly wounded that he cannot. In the Japanese version he actually insults the other calling him a name (I won't mention) in a despreate attempt to make him realize how serious the situation was. This scene was a wake up call for me as it changed my perception of Goku all together. Upon further watching I discovered Goku curses quite a bit in the series (outside the english dub) as do many of the other characters. The different dubs can change your preception of some of these characters on who they are and can make situations seem more intense.



Cigarettes and alcohol are also present in the uncut version of DBZ as many characters smoke and drink. Bulma and her father, both smoke. Master Roshi drinks and reads porn magazines etc. (Though you find this out from Dragon Ball as well).



What was the point of my writing all this?



I had a lot to write on this show alone, and I didn't even cover everything in the differences between cut and uncut, dubed and undubed. Imagine your favorite anime and what you could be missing from not checking out all versions. If you watch and like an anime in one version you should watch the others as it can reveal bits of the show that isn't present and in some cases (the Dragon Ball Z franchise falls into this category, in my opinion) can make it seem as though you're watching a new show with merely a similar plot and same characters.



Getting more out of your anime is always a good thing right?

 

[Evil Eye]

I'd heard about shows being softened, but I didn't think they'd go that far...

Bokusatsu Tenshi Dokuro-chan

They just play it for laughs half the time.

Getting more out of your anime is always a good thing right?

Yes.

 

[Kahnai]

Kahnai's Anime Blog

I also noticed that Goku is pretty much unstoppable and the strongest, right?

Unstoabable no, he has been stopped and has been killed by enimies in the past. In the sereies where he was a child (Dragon Ball) he exuded a can do attitude and seemed to have everything under control in any fight. His battles would begin where it seemed easy, then he'd run into a bit of trouble, then he would easily defeat them in the end.

Come Dragon Ball Z where he is an adult his anger plays a much bigger role and if he got angry enough because of his friends being hurt or even sometimes killed, then he had the power to defeat him. This idea of needing to be angry to be strong was especially present with the character Gohan as he seemed to have a power that surpassed even Goku's when he got angry enough.These battles seemed to go as follows: In trouble, in trouble, probably won't win, but he's claims he'll fight until the end, he gets angry enough, then destroys his enemy.

Come the latter end of DBZ I think Goku has some sort of midlife crisis because he comes to the realization that (even as strong as he is) he will not be around for ever, so he does his best to strengthen other characters in the show, so should a tough enemy appear they'll be able to defeat him without Goku being there.

Come GT Goku has a more give up attitude (at least in my opinion, others may disagree), during one of the battles he actually says something along the lines of, I'm sorry everyone I failed you, just before an enemy is about to kill him. It left me thinking Goku went senile a bit. I mean, his whole life was spent fighting terribly hard battles and saying, I won't give up, and I will stop you! even when the situation seemed hopeless.

One of my favorite lines of Goku's comes at the end of the Return of Cooler, movie.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N68oY5Bf1P4
Lines at: 0:58

Cooler states: You can't win.

Goku responds with: Even if that's true, every breath in my body will be spent trying!

Love that line, because it sounds like Goku...

Also Goku isn't unstopable because of how badly he gets hurt sometimes. Though I will admit the recovery aspects of Goku and the others gets crazy towards the end of the franchise.

What I mean by this is, in the begining when Goku was hurt he stayed hurt until he either ate a senzu bean (which was something that recovered their health within seconds) or until he spent time in a hospital. Come the end of the franchise and in most of the movies Goku and other characters appear so hurt that the battle can't possibly go on and after they muster enough strength to destroy the enemy suddenly their up walking around and laughing...

In GT Goku says he can't move at all before he's about to be killed, and then after another Character shows up and begins battling with the enemy, Goku suddenly jumps up and takes off to deliver the final blow where moments before he claimed he couldn't move and was about ready to lay down and die.

I could spend hours talking about this show...

 

[Fatal Dawn]

I rather enjoyed reading your first post. It's interesting how you touched on some of the cultural differences as well.

I agree with Jazzy, you offer a lot of knowledge on your subject, Kahnai.

 

[Kahnai]

I rather enjoyed reading your first post. It's interesting how you touched on some of the cultural differences as well.

I agree with Jazzy, you offer a lot of knowledge on your subject, Kahnai.

Thanks so much. I'm glad you enjoyed!

 

[Kahnai]

Kahnai's Anime Blog

Just or Unjust

Anime: Death Note

Sometimes in anime as well as other show you don't know who to root for...

Death Note is one such anime.

First the plot: An anime based of the manga Death Note by Tsugiumi Ohba, it stars a young high school boy named Light Yagami who is incredibly intelligent for his age. He lives in a world where crime is everywhere. Basically our world today. People getting stabbed, people getting killed in other words (as it was put in the anime), Day in, day out, the same news on permanent repeat.

One day he notices a book that falls from the sky. It reads Death Note on the front and upon opening it he finds a list of instructions on how to use the book. Here were the rules:

1.) The human whose name is written in this notebook shall die.

2.) This notebook will not take effect unless the writer has the subject's face in their mind when writing his/her name. Therefore, people sharing the same name will not be affected.

3.) If the cause of death is written within 40 seconds of writing the person's name it will happen.

4.) If the cause of death is not specified the person will simply die of a heart attack.

5.) After writing the cause of death, the details of the death should be written in the next 6 minutes and 40 seconds.

He is disbelieving at first, even returns the book to the place on the ground where he found it, but changes his mind a moment later and he takes the book with him. To test it out he writes the name of a man who is holding some people hostage after his name and face appears on the news. Forty seconds later and he is shocked to find the man has died.

Thinking this may be a coincidence he tests it out a second time, and he finds his opportunity, outside the bookstore where he is at. Some motorcycles surround a young girl being very vulgar. The leader introduces himself to the girl before the men proceed to attempt to gang rape her. Using his foolish introduction Light writes his name in the death note with the details that he'll be hit by truck. Sure enough, seconds later, it comes to pass...

It is later discovered that this is the notebook of a Shinigami, a Japanese death demon who controls death. The book he finds belongs to a Shinigami named Ryuk and the Shinigami soon comes to Earth in search of the books new owner. When later asked why the Shinigami dropped the notebook Ryuk responded simply saying he was bored. The two form a sort of odd partnership.

Anyway, Light takes it upon himself to write the names of the world's major criminals, and to eliminated the vermin from the world. His delusions of grandeur only grow the more he uses it, his goal is to change the world, purify it. Make people so terrified to do anything evil that no one will ever commit evil acts again.

A lot of it is summed up by the last few lines of the first episode:

Light: It'll be a new world free of injustice and populated by people who I've judged to be honest, kind, and hardworking.

Ryuk: But if you did that it would make you the only bad person left.

Light: I have no idea what you're talking about. I'm a hardworking honors student who is considered to be one of Japan's best and brightest. And I... I will become the God of this new world.

Ryuk: It's just as I thought. Humans are so interesting.

As I first watched the show I couldn't help but agree with the concept.

World - All evil people = Better world

It's a simple concept, and I think nearly everyone has thought these same ideas at one point or another, but most of us tend to realize it's not our place to pass these judgments. Light failed to.

Eventually the cops catch onto the fact that someone is causing these deaths, and a special investigator known only as L is hired to track down Light who is known to the public as Kira.

Thus an EPIC cat and mouse game ensues where they try to outwit one another. Kira, continuing to make the world a better place by ending the lives of criminals, and L trying to keep his identity a secret while trying to track him down.

The complexity of the plans made by these to are at times borderline brilliance in my opinion. Where my jaw anatomically able to drop to the floor I'm sure it would have done so more than a few times throughout this show. You are literally on the edge of your seat each episode wondering who will have the upper hand by the end.

Throughout the show you wonder is this just or unjust?

Light wishes to make a better world, without evil and peaceful, and a part of you in the beginning wants him to succeed. Later on (at least for me) my ideals switched as Light seemed to get more and more psychotic as he engages in his battle of wits with L. So who wins? I won't say.

So my question is, if you had a Death Note, would you use it?

My answer...

Unknown. Going from my thought at the moment, no I wouldn't. Though a few days or weeks down the road I really can't say. When I first watched this show I would have used it if I had found one. Would you?

This show is filled with mystery and if you enjoy shows like CSI or Law and Order, you'll like this.

Though, the biggest mystery in the Death Note show was (in my opinion) the number of pages in the Death Note itself. It's not a very thick notebook, I often wondered how he didn't run out of paper...

Episode 1 if you wanna check it out:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dfa_Qu-4djk

 

[Evil Eye]

I often wondered how he didn't run out of paper...

Magic

Spoiler

Two notebooks, a page per day for about seven years. (Unless I'm not remembering right.) That'd be almost 1300 pages per notebook. And it didn't look like super-thin paper either.

Therefore, magic.

 

[Nebulous's iconNebulous]

RE: Kahnai's Anime Blog

So Kahnai, what are your favorite anime shows / comic books / manga?

 

[Kahnai]

RE: Kahnai's Anime Blog

Dragon Ball Z
Death Note
Sailor Moon
Fushigi Yuugi
Karnival (Manga) *just started reading*
Kuroshitsuji
Rurouni Kenshin
Blood Plus
...and many many more. XP

 

[Kahnai]

RE: Kahnai's Anime Blog

Yaoi in Anime

For those who don’t know Yaoi meaning boyxboy. Some people don’t like to hear or read about this sort of topic however it is a rather large part of the anime world and therefore must be discussed in my anime blog. My warning therefore has been given. If you don’t wish to learn about this topic leave now. For all others continue reading (Warning may contain spoilers to many shows as well):

Spoiler

Boyxboy moments appear in anime a lot as fan service where the characters are not really gay. However, there are a few animes where they actually are.

First yaoi in general is good to me, because gay men exist in the world and bringing them into the anime fandom is great for sexual equality. However I don’t like yaoi in the aspect that it’s very hard to find any yaoi anime that doesn’t feature the three dreaded plagues that seem to seep its way into yaoi animes.

The 1st Plague: Abuse and Rape

I’d like to find just one where the characters have a healthy romantic relationship but are gay. In all honesty I have yet to find this. If you know of one please let me know.
However I have found a few animes that come close.
Gravitation.

Now this show features Shuichi a love struck singer who falls in love with Yuki a pessimistic novelist. I like it because it tried to touch base with a regular couple with the stresses of falling in love. Shuichi pushes it a lot more that Yuki but they have some cute moments and they do get you rooting for them to succeed and fall in love by the end. This scene features a kiss and is rather cute but also has its own problems.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V1lHsr1YyAA

The comical punch at the end makes you laugh but at the same time stresses the abuse that seems to come up in yaoi shows oh so often. Also during the show our main character does (sadly) get raped. Not by his love interest but in order to protect him. Yet again, we can’t just have a simple romance, someone has to get raped or hurt. Love is stressful enough without that, so why can’t Yaoi animes just feature regular stress that comes with romance? I don’t know I wish they would.

Junjou Romantica

This features a number of yaoi couples living their daily lives. Some have to deal with the dreaded plague that seem to follow yaoi characters but there are a few pairs that seems to just deal with their regular problems (that even straight couples could have) without abuse or rape having to butt in. I like those couples. It makes them seem more real and really makes you want them to fall in love and have that stereotypical happily ever after.

Sadly, other than those two I have no run into an anime that even comes close to my ideal yaoi anime vision. Someday perhaps. Someday. Or perhaps someone reading knows of one. Let me know!

The 2nd Plague: Gender-Bender

Many animes feature a character who is a boy but dresses as a girl in order to be with the man they love. This is a terrible thing to happen in yaoi’s (though not quite as bad as the first plague). Why won’t these writers just let the men be men? They have to make one dress up like a girl in order to try and hide the idea that they’re a gay couple. Typically this happens in yaoi animes after one of the characters believes the first would like them more if they were a woman thus they dress up like it. Even Graviation fell to this plague as one episode Shuichi dresses up like a girl thinking that Yuki would like him more. (-.- ) Please let the gay men be themselves!

Note: I’d like to point out that what I am upset about with the 2nd plague is when a male character who typically would not dress like a woman puts on the clothes in an attempt to please the other. I am not upset about anime or real life men who wear women’s clothes and feel comfortable in them (like Haurhi’s father in Oruan Host Club).

The 3rd Plague: Inappropriate Ages

Now this one is a bit controversial. Many yaoi’s are featuring a young male being paired up with an adult male with a fairly drastic age difference, and again animes with this idea often feature the first two plagues as well.
In one aspect I want to belive in the love conquers all idea despite age, despite sex, if you’re both in love then you should be together. At the same time these anime shows with this age gap plague don’t often show where a young male character loves an adult and vice versa. More often than not it features a young male being abused and or hurt by the older male character and this saddens me because it’s taking away from the idea that male relationships can be healthy and appropriate.

Take the show Loveless.

While this show does not feature the first or second plague you still get the feeling that something is clearly wrong with their relationship.

Ritsuka (12), and Soubi (21) are the main love interests in the anime.

However their relationship doesn’t feature a “true love,” type story where perhaps Soubi will wait until Ritsuka is an adult before their relationship becomes physical (though it still might). Soubi was a fighter and romantic interest for Ritsuka’s brother until Ritsuka’s brother (supposedly) dies, and Ritsuka sort of inherits Soubi from him (for lack of a better term).
Now toward the end of the episodes you really begin to think Ritsuka cares about Soubi. However until then Ritsuka just seems uncomfortable around him and his advances. Now there is no sexually explicit content in the anime and a kiss is basically as far as it ever goes. However you know this relationship isn’t healthy or appropriate for either Soubi (who has been ordered to love Ritsuka) or Ritsuka (who endures romantic advances from Soubi).

Now we must discuss: Fanservice.

This isn’t a plague it’s just another way yaoi makes it into anime.
So what is fanservice?
To me fan service occurs when sex is referenced in anime. Either:
Visually (including but not limited to): pantie shots, removal of clothing, bras, cleavage, etc.
Physically: actual acts of sex, kissing touching etc.
Implied (and this seems to be the most popular): questionable acts that are meant to be innocent but can be taken to be sexual.
Implied fan service typically takes place when yaoi, or yuri moments sneak into an anime where the characters aren’t gay.
Below is a video that represents a bit of what I mean by implied fanservice. The twins featured in this video from the show Ouran Host Club are not actually gay. Their job in the host club is to bring the yaoi fan service to the ladies they entertain.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y3QOoz-ti-w

However there is fanservice between Haruhi (female) and her co-star Tamaki (Male) where they have a few cute and romantic scenes. Some people believe that unless it references yaoi, yuri,or explicit sex it’s not fanservice. However I belief fanservice can be present with a straight couple as well. The video below features some scenes with Haruhi and Tamaki and some fanservice between them. It also has some just regular funny scenes but the scene I’m referencing specifically is at: 10:06 to 11:41. I would consider this a fanservice moment, but some would not.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tDBI0XfDVlc

The meaning of fanservice is different for a lot of people, the above is just my definition.

I hope someone comes out with Yaoi animes that avoid the Three Plagues, or if anyone knows of Yaoi animes that do I would be happy to learn about it.

I mention in a previous post that just because animes are cartoons it doesn’t mean it’s appropriate for children. Keep that in mind before letting your children watch anime.

I will cover Yuri at a later date for anyone interested…

 

[McConnaughay]

RE: Kahnai's Anime Blog

Have you ever seen Full Metal Alchemst, Eden of the East, Deadman Wonderland, or FLCL?

 

[Kahnai]

RE: Kahnai's Anime Blog

Have you ever seen Full Metal Alchemst, Eden of the East, Deadman Wonderland, or FLCL?

I've seen two of four; full metal and flcl.

Haven't seen Eden of the East or Deadman Wonderland. They any good?