So, for my first anime review on the blog, let's tackle a classic!
Classic anime reviews are a bit different from my regular anime reviews-they are less reviews, per se, and more a commentary on what made the anime great or long lasting, and how well they have held up in today's anime market.
So, Dragon Ball Z, or DBZ for short. This show was many anime fan's gateway drug, ushering a generation of middle and elementary schoolers into the world of anime. There was a time when you could tell the age and relative maturity of forum goers based on their forum name. If their handle was something similar to “Supersaya-jin Gogeta IV” they were probably a 12-13 year old who would protest vociferously if you said anything negative about the crown jewel anime in America at the time, which was Dragon Ball Z.
The show about an alien named Goku from the planet Vegeta and his son, who fight increasingly more powerful bad guys, ran on Cartoon Network every day on weekdays and was highlighted in the New York times for its use of over the top violence. Kids loved it.
These users faded out, however, as the anime market moved on, and DBZ was replaced with shorter, more self contained series, like Cowboy Bebop and Ghost in the Shell. Anime fans aged up, from pre teens to teenagers, who were trying to find the same type of entertainment while simultaneously disregarding the “immature” shows of their past, much the same way first graders make up vulgar songs about Barney while enjoying Blues Clues.
I too went through these stages. When I was 12-13, I watched DBZ as religiously as I could considering parental monitoring on Cartoon Network. I loved it. Goku's battles were epic, and I remember my sister and I thrilled with excitement as Goku fought Frieza. I even remember getting teary eyed 3 o' clock one morning when I caught the episode where Frieza killed Vegeta.
Then the reruns began, and any DBZ fan remembers these. Frieza is killed, but instead of more new episodes, the channel looped back, playing the show all over again from the beginning. It wasn't as bad as Naruto fillers, but at the time it was the bane of a DBZ fan's existence. I knew there was more in the series, but I could not find it short of purchasing expensive VHS tapes, which I couldn't do. Friends who did told me how fascinating the story became- “Androids! Vegeta has a kid! Trunks!” But without being able to watch it myself, my ardor faded. I would see people online bashing DBZ, saying how boring it had gotten, and I agreed. Too much filler. Low budget animation. Slow pacing, lots of screaming, five episodes for a planet to blow up in five minutes! I spent a lot of time agreeing with people who had only seen a few episodes and gave up in disgust, forgetting my initial love for the show.
Fast forward to now. I remember years ago, I would watch anime and while watching an episode, I would be checking the clock and despairing when it would near the half hour mark, because it meant the episode would end, and I wouldn't want it to. Lately, though, when I try to sample a new anime I often end up checking the clock to see when will end. I don't feel any desire to watch the next episode when it's over, and no desire at all to go out and buy the next DVD. Then, years later, with a dearth of anime that I found interesting at the time with the moe boom (Which I'll discuss in a future post), I rewatched the first six seasons of Dragon Ball Z, with three more to go. And I fell in love with it all over again.
I'm not trying to be one of those old fogeys who goes on about how entertainment was better back in the day, because I know I haven't sampled enough of what's out there today to say that. But after rewatching DBZ, I know my inability to enjoy more recent shows is not because I'm burned out on anime, considering I stayed up an hour too late before the morning of an exam to finish watching Goku beat Captain Ginyu, and waiting for Vegeta to blow Jace's head off.
Even if I know what's going to happen, I still can't stop watching. DBZ is that good. Yes, it has flaws, and they are the same flaws that every detractor picks on. But it is unmatched in suspense and the sense of sheer discovery--unlike, say, Naruto, where Naruto only matches his teachers in technique and nothing new is really discovered, you find out with Goku about the legend of the Super Saiyan and what it means. The story always moves forward, and people continually grow--nothing is ever retconned. The characters have incredible amounts of depth for a silly shonen action show, and we get to watch them grow in their own independent ways. Goku is a noble character, and yes, he may be loosely based off of all of those ancient noble heroes like Hercules and Beowulf. But you know what? Those stories were written centuries ago, and we still remember them for a reason.
So why all the hate, back then and now? Part of the problem is the length of the series. Yes, there are parts of DBZ where it drags. Even I admit that there are parts of the Android and imperfect Cell sagas that my friends and I refer to as the “saggy middle of DBZ.” For those who heard of the epic anime DBZ as they were getting into anime, and started watching during those sagas, I can see why they would be fooled into thinking so negatively about all of the pacing problems and ridiculous fillers, and why they may have given up before really getting into the story.
For those of who you have seen the series from the beginning and hate it, that's fine. This is anime, after all, and opinions are subjective. But if you are simply agreeing with the majority of the haters and haven't seen DBZ, or have only seen a few episodes? Watch from the beginning. Watch it subbed if you don't like the dub, or dubbed if you don't like the sub. There are people above the age of 13 who enjoy the show. It deserves to be given a chance.
No comments :
Post a Comment