Review: Dragon Ball: That time I got reincarnated as Yamcha

It's been a long time since I reviewed anything Dragon Ball related. In fact I think the last thing I reviewed was the first episode of Dragon Ball Super a few years ago, since then the series has gone on to have a renaissance of sorts through the Video Games, Manga and the recent movie. Much of this was thanks to the creation of 'The Dragon Ball Room' by rights holder Shueisha which was formed in order to support and expand the franchise.

With this room being formed in June of 2016 almost a year after the airing of the first episode of Dragon ball Super I was really excited to see what they could come up with, but I can honestly say I had no idea they would facilitate a Manga like 'That time I got reincarnated as Yamcha'.

I originally heard about this Manga online when the first chapter was released in English by Viz for free. However I never found the time to get around to reading it other than catching some scans of the odd page here and there when people would talk about it online. It was due to discussions about this Manga on Twitter that I would come to see images posted that initially I believed were from this Manga with one well known example in the fan community being Yamcha fighting Golden Frieza.

When I saw these kind of images I would laugh out loud at how ridiculous the scenarios were and decided to look a little closer into why this Manga existed in the first place, it was then that I came across the Mangaka Dragongarow LEE. LEE is responsible for the art used within this Manga as well as the general story and is well known within the Dragon Ball community due to his Doujinshi (Fan Manga/Art), so it is easy to see how he would come to be scouted to work on a one-shot like this.

According to an interview with an Editor at Shueisha it was not LEE that came up with the concept of the story initially. However due to his previous work in which Vegeta came to Earth as a child rather than Goku, being so popular amongst other staff members it was decided that LEE could also be trusted to come up with his own ideas for the story and create something that the fans would love to see.

The thing about Yamcha is, he's just a little bit useless. When he was introduced he seemed to be a pretty cool character and really fit into the adventure setting of the original series. Yet as time progressed he was shown to be a bit lazy and neglect his training until he has no other choice. It was not long after Dragon Ball Z began that Yamcha would become a joke. This was due to his loss against the Saibamen via one of them self destructing.

At the time this technique wiping an established character out instantly really showed the level of power the enemy had, even if it was just a small minion of the main threat, but in retrospect the horrible way he died just became a little funny and has become somewhat of a meme within the community. It's no secret that Shueisha would know this and perhaps it's a reason why they chose LEE who is passionate about smaller characters like Yamcha, to take the reigns.

So what is the plot? Well as the title suggests it's about being turned into Yamcha after your own death and having to deal with the world that he resides in. In other words the overall story is a case of a what if scenario where Yamcha has full knowledge of everything that was going to happen in Dragon Ball and what he would do with that information.

I'd rather not give too much away about the story because it would ruin some of the comedy involved but I will say the comedic timing and style of LEE is not dissimilar to that of original Dragon Ball author Akira Toriyama. Perhaps that is because we are reliving certain scenes where the comedy is already in place for the most part, yet LEE puts his own little spin on it and adds that extra layer that really feels welcome in the Dragon Ball world.

The art style is another big plus for me and perhaps I'm not the best authority on the matter but I really wouldn't have been able to tell that this was not drawn by Toriyama if I did not already know it was LEE. LEE's emulation of the traditional Toriyama style is absolutely fantastic and I would argue it is much better than the majority of the work on the Dragon Ball Super Manga which is headed by Toyotaro, another member of the Dragon ball community who also began as a Doujinshi Mangaka.

That is not to say that Toyotaro is bad and he has certainly improved but it has been a gradual journey that the fans have seen with each Manga chapter. Yes, LEE likely had way more time to work with and was only working on a single volume rather than an ongoing series but the differences in their emulation of Toriyamas art is hard to ignore.

I think one of the funniest aspects of the whole Manga is that the character inhabiting Yamcha just wants to get together with Bulma initially. After he realizes he's likely stuck as Yamcha forever he thinks about how he's going to survive as arguably one of the weakest character in the franchise. Thankfully he actually gets serious about making Yamcha stronger and uses his knowledge of the Manga to push himself to the highest level he can.

What's interesting is that while he does his best with his training, he is still limited in how far he can push Yamcha. He quickly discovers that he will still be no match for enemies like Frieza or Cell and due to this the Manga actually keeps itself 'realistic' within the world that it is set in. That is not to say that the story abruptly ends because of these points but it's interesting to see that Yamcha can only be pushed so far until there is no way he can continue to keep up with characters like Goku and the power of Super Saiyan.

I think that delves a little deeper into a common problem many may find with the series, in that the power levels are just astronomical at this point and you never get to see a lot of the side characters like Yamcha or Piccolo during the latter parts of Z. This has been slightly rectified in recent years with Revival of F movie and the Tournament of Power Arc in the Anime but it is still very much the 'Saiyan show' overall.

Skipping ahead, the last chapter honestly took a turn that I did not expect and even involved the Mobile game Dokkan Battle which I'm embarrassed to admit took up too much of my time in the past. I wasn't sure how I felt about the sudden change in story and tone at first but now I have had time to sit on it, and after reading the Manga a number of times since then, I felt it was a satisfying end to the story rather than having Yamcha just 'Retire' it gave one last hurrah to the character in some form.

There are some Bonus chapters that answer questions such like, 'if he knew everything why didn't he use fusion on some tougher enemies' which has a hilarious result and even uses the characters knowledge of games like Dragon Ball Fusions to their advantage. The Manga generally ties into so many different aspects of the franchise and the whole reason the main character even got reincarnated as Yamcha is etched into characters I thought would be totally absent from this story.

It's fair to say this is a Manga by a fan for the fans, much like the Doujinshi worked on in the past by LEE. It's reasons like this that make me so proud to be a part of this global community that never ceases to amaze me.

The Manga is relatively short, so much so that you will likely finish it in under 30 minutes. I wouldn't say this is a complaint as such because the quality of everything involved is fantastic but I wish I could have seen a little more about Yamcha during the Namek Arc or prior to the arrival of Vegeta and Nappa as the story skips around quite a lot. We do get some slight looks at Yamcha fighting Burter or Tambourine and although the outcome is predictable due to the nature of the story I wish I could have seen some of that action.

Overall I really enjoyed this Manga because it did something different while remaining linked to the core of Dragon ball, a nice fun adventure. In no way do I want to see the market flooded with titles like this and I feel like you need to have a franchise like Dragon Ball to be able to do something like this effectively. Nevertheless I would love to see some more crazy stories set in the Dragon Ball world whether they are canon or not.

I hope the Dragon Ball Room continues to expand and give new artists and writers a chance to shine, especially those with proven track records from within the community like Toyotaro and LEE. I will say that I believe they have to be particularly selective in who they allow to take the wheel of such an important franchise.

I think if you're a fan of the series and want a short but great read then you absolutely have to pick this Manga up when you can, you won't be disappointed!

Ultraman Season 1 (Netflix)

Ultraman is a new anime adaptation released on Netflix in April of 2019 and production as a co-production by Production I.G and Sola Digital Arts. It is based on the long running Ultraman series in Japan and acts as a direct sequel to the original live action show from 1966. The shows tend to revolve around an alien threat effecting Earth and Ultraman in one way or another being Earths defender.

Ultraman started as a Tokusatsu (Special effects) series in Japan in 1966 and was actually a semi-sequel to another show called Ultra Q which also aired in 1966 and did not include the Ultraman character. The series has since spun off into it's own entity and has enjoyed a long running success in Japan.

Now for me I've never watched a show in the Ultraman series but I am aware of it and the general story of the original show. I have however grown up with series similar to it such as Power Rangers which is the American version of Japans Super Sentai Tokusatsu series and Kamen Rider which America got as Masker Rider back in the 90's.

As a child I always had a huge affinity for Power Rangers until I was around 9 or 10 years old but then it was seen as a bit too childish so I stopped watching it through fear of ridicule. When I was around 15 and getting back into Anime again I discovered that a lot of the series I used to watch such as Power Rangers were actually Japanese in origin, I started to look into this further and found that they were allegedly much more 'adult and violent' than the versions we had in the UK.

I was interested so began to watch Kamen Rider which like Ultraman and Power Rangers had been running on and off for a large number of years. Now personally I don't find it that different to what we got in the UK in terms of violence etc so I think that was just people trying to justify watching a show that was aimed more at kids.  However I did enjoy the series I watched (Kamen Rider Decade, W, Kabuto, Fourze and 000s) because they were goofy, had some decent choreography and plot points and really they took me back to the nostalgia of watching the shows as a kid.

Really they are not that different to watching Marvel or DC movies now just on a much smaller budget so I don't see any shame in it, it's just as cheesy as any MCU movie can be. I haven't watched a series in quite a while though unless the Power Rangers movie from a few years ago counts, so take what I say with a pinch of salt.

I believe Netflix have been doing pretty good with Anime that they have had some hand in releasing, Devilman Crybaby remains one of my favorite anime released in the last few years and Aggretsuko has been a lovely short series to watch. I know there is a meme about their adaptations side of things like the live action Death Note movie (Which I actually enjoyed) being received poorly but I think they've been slowly releasing some gems recently, so how does Ultraman fare?

I found the characters to be generally well written, I really enjoyed the main character Shinjiro just being expected to become Ultraman because he has had the power passed down to him, whether he wanted to or not. It was great to see him be a complete novice to being a Superhero and how he would mess up quite a bit but always take something away from each battle or event and ensure that he did his best not to make the same mistakes again.

It was important for him to see that if he doesn't act or does not improve then people will and do get harmed. I also liked that his superior Moroboshi was much more accustomed to being Ultraman and was happy to not hold back in telling Shinjiro that if he can't or won't do something then he doesn't deserve to be Ultraman. I felt that was a huge catalyst in Shinjiro deciding to use the power he has rather than expect others who don't have the exact power set as him to do it and potentially suffer.

Moroboshi was your typical arrogant counter-character to Shinjiro. Shinjiro was the novice and heroic type whereas Moroboshi is the darker and more serious type. He has no issue with killing an enemy if it means the threat is neutralized and has no time for being nice to Shinjiro. Now at first Moroboshi to me was just the typical dick Anime character who hates the main character because they don't believe they had earnt the right to do X Y Z on their own.

As time progresses though, while we haven't yet seen his background story you can tell he is committed to protecting the Earth from any threat whatever the cost is, even if that means putting himself at risk. He seems to warm up more to Shinjiro over time as Shinjiro begins to get much more serious and I actually feel like they make a great team, Moroboshi actually shows some subtle respect to him which is great.

Hokuto is the third Ultraman in the show who we are introduced to during the seasons twilight episodes. I found him quite annoying and disliked him at first because he follows the typical archetype of an annoying character that would follow the main character around all the time and bother them. However as the show got to it's last few episodes and we saw exactly what his motives were he really grew on me, quickly becoming my favorite character so far.

Now there are other characters I enjoyed a lot but I can't really comment on them much without spoiling some really key plot points. I would like to mention though that this season has not had any interesting female characters... In fact I think there is only one who could be considered part of the main cast and she is not particularly well written. Perhaps that changes later on but it is a bit of a negative point so far.

I really enjoy when Superhero Media deals with the negatives that can come with being a hero. Much like the Marvel Cinematic Universe and the Comics with Civil War there are issues surrounding those that get caught in the crossfire of Superhero battles. Yes they are necessary fights but the argument is, could more not be done to prevent causalities or destruction? Now this is not the only issue of course but it's touched upon in the show a few times.

One characters hatred for Ultraman comes from the original live action series where the hero and monsters used to grow to a giant size and cause so much destruction during their fights and because of that a family member got killed by falling debris.

It's interesting that many members of the public accuse the new Ultramen of just being Cosplayers and not true heroes, the public act in a way that suggests they really don't want the Ultramen around. It's interesting to see the perspectives rather than everyone just cheering them on all the time. I hope that this is explored further with the coming seasons.

I enjoyed the way the story progressed throughout the season but I do have a few issues with the show. I really do not like this new trend of Anime having this 3D animation style. I'm not saying it cannot be done right because examples like the recent Dragonball Movies have proven that it can but I feel that's because they are only really used during certain action scenes.

The problem with Ultraman is that this style is used throughout the entire show, it makes the characters look totally static and like a poor Video game cutscene. It makes a lot of the characters look expressionless and wooden,  personally it does not work for me.

A lot of the monsters they come across look like they are made of rubber or ironically have someone inside the suit operating them but I guess you could argue that is intentional because that's how it would be if it were a live action Tokusatsu.

While I dislike this style generally I will say it works for the actions scenes and the Ultraman suit designs,it actually helps the suits look more like some futuristic armor. Interestingly most of the fights are actually done via motion capture which is not something I really expected to happen for an Anime series, perhaps this is one of the reasons the action scenes look so good, or is that down to both this and the choice in animation style? Perhaps the animation will grow on me in time but If you look at the way the Manga is drawn it feels like a bit of a disservice.

So without talking too much more about the show what do I think about it overall?
I think it's a step in the right direction. It's got me hooked on a decent story in the Tokusatsu genre (Kind of) and has made me want to pick up the Manga. I do wish the animation style was perhaps more traditional but I don't think this is going to change. I would say if you're new to this kind of series this would be a good place to start but feel you could also just start with an actual live action series.

I feel happy that these Japanese heroes are becoming more accessible to viewers in the west and would LOVE Netflix to do a Kamen Rider series in this style if they could refrain from making it all 3D animation. I'm very excited to see what other Anime titles Netflix puts out in the future and hope you are too.

Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam (1985)

 

It’s been a really long time since I posted here but I wanted to talk about a series I rewatched recently called Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam from 1985 which was the first in a series of sequels to the original Mobile Suit Gundam. I’ve been collecting the Blu Rays of the Gundam series recently as they have slowly started to come to the UK thanks to the fine folks at AlltheAnime and Zeta was one of my favourites when I first watched it almost 10 years ago.

Now I’ve seen pretty much everything Gundam related that’s been released but Zeta had always had that status for me that it was one of the highest points the franchise could hope to reach and from what I’ve seen online from the fan base this seems to be the general opinion.  I remember I really enjoyed it when I originally saw it but I feel almost 10 years is enough time to warrant a rewatch of the series and re-evaluate if I still hold it in high regard. So allow me just to pick a few things I liked as disliked about the show this time around.

I think right off the bat I need to mention how in love I am with the Mecha designs in Zeta. They are absolutely some of the best in the Universal Century and in the Gundam franchise itself. I have to say they know how to take simplistic designs and add to them such as the Gundam Mk II which is pretty much the original Gundam with only small ‘upgrades’. While this keeps the Mobile Suit looking new and perhaps sleeker it doesn’t hesitate to preserve some elements that made the original suit so iconic. 

To counter this point they are also not afraid to take what we are already familiar with and totally change it. For example the Zeta Gundam itself was different from anything we had seen up until that point. The famous Gundam head design was refined and the transformation gimmick gave a real sense of changing times for the series both in the show itself and to its fans. 

I am happy they kept with the general theme of the ‘bad guys’ having single 'mono-eyed' Mobile Suits even more so in this series because the Titans who are this shows antagonists used to be considered the ‘good guys’ in the previous series but have become their own entity not governed by the Earth Federation. By having them go back to using Mobile Suits typically associated with ‘evil’ and even having an in-show reason for this such as Zeon technology being more advanced I felt it really helped to emphasise that the Titans were to a corrupt version of the Earth Federation.

One of the best aspects of the show is Char now being a protagonist under the name of Quattro. Char was the primary rival in the original series whose motivations were never exactly clear until partway through that show. It was questionable whether he was evil or just saw things from another perspective. I find that is the case for many factions and characters within the Universal Century and feel this only boosts Chars appeal to fans.

In this show we see a new side of him where he has become a true leader and Father figure or Teacher to many of the younger cast members, specifically Kamille who I feel at times could either be the next Amuro or the next Char. I feel that Char can see this too and attempts to mould him in that direction. I would not say he is doing this for any ulterior motive I truly believe he sees it as his own way of paving the road for the next generation and Newtypes in general.

 

I find that the protagonist of the show Kamille shows real growth and development throughout the series. He is annoying at first and very childish but as the show progresses he really grows into an adult and a capable pilot. I think his progression raises interesting questions such as how a teenager would react in a literal war zone when they are the pilot of arguably the most important machine in the war. This of course is answered in the original series too but this time around Kamille is surrounded by people who have done this before and are in many cases Veterans.

Now while he does show he is a capable person over time he does have a number of missteps where he lets his emotions run wild. With examples such as when a friend is killed or when the love of his life is actually under the control of the enemy and has their memories tampered with. It takes Kamille a long time to start using his emotions as a weapon in order to benefit his faction but once he does he becomes a force to be reckoned with. 

Kamille most of the time as mentioned above shows that he could go either the way of Char or the way of  previous series protagonist Amuro. This is shown quite early on in the series when he loses Four Murasame in a situation quite close to that of what Amuro and Char went through when Lalah was killed in Mobile Suit Gundam. What is important and allows Kamille to stand out though is that he doesn’t specifically follow either characters advice and allows himself to pave his own way. By being able to do this he is not just a mirror image of his seniors he is his own person and a much more interesting character because of it. I feel this point is the main reason he matures throughout the show.

I also have to say I found Jerid likeable at times. Jerid was this aggressive rival to Kamille right off the bat purely because he thought Kamille was a girl’s name… While this starts off extremely petty each one of them continues to antagonise the other with Jerid always rushing into battle the moment he knows Kamille is on the battlefield. This has consequences for both characters though as each one of them end up killing those close to the other party.

Naturally this only intensifies their hate for one another but in a roundabout way it showed that Jerid actually was a good pilot and could continue to improve. At times it would even show he had leadership skills and those that would follow him. Personally, I feel he had the edge at times as he was continuously getting new mobile suits to pilot yet he really could have become a Newtype to rival Kamille if he had lived longer.

As much as I enjoy much of the characterisations in the show I do feel that some characters seem to have ridiculous motivations for what they do. The worst offender for this is Reccoa who was with the AEUG from the start of the show and was a valued member of the team, she was capable and another of those the younger team would look up to. The issue is she goes on reconnaissance and meets the antagonist Scirroco and immediately begins to almost love him.

Because of this she abandons the AEUG and joins the Titans, a group of people she has fought against for some time, a group she has seen commit countless atrocities. There are times early on when she joins the Titans that she is seen to disagree with their methods but eventually she becomes just as bad as they are, all because she wishes to be closer to Scirroco.

I find this utterly ridiculous and some could argue it is because Char does not return her affection early on. Regardless we have Emma who was originally on the side of the Titans but once she begins to see how they operate she joins the AEUG because she does not agree with what the Titans has become, this is a much more reasonable explanation for someone to join another faction!

I found the pacing of the series to be quite good as I never believed there to be an episode that was not warranted like I do with a lot of Anime nowadays. Everything that happened seemed to happen for a reason and if there were ever deaths they felt like they served a real purpose to the rest of the cast. 

The last two episodes are where I feel the pacing seemed ever so slightly rushed in terms of character deaths, in the space of only a few minutes you could have two or three major players bite the dust! I think you could counter this by saying this is to show you how terrible war can be and that no particular person is actually safe just because they are one of the main cast. Zeta Gundam does do this well to be fair the show ends with both sides pretty much obliterated. The Titans have pretty much all their major players killed and are disbanded, The AEUG is crippled with only one pilot being left and our protagonist is in a comatose state. I don’t know of many other series that leave the protagonists in a state such as this! It’s aspects like this that can make me see why a lot of the fan base consider this series to be depressing. 

Personally I feel it’s not that bad as it leads into an immediate sequel ZZ Gundam albeit with a new cast joining and being much more light-hearted. But I certainly agree that the ending to this series as a whole is depressing if you are to take ZZ out of the equation. I wonder if it is jarring to people who only watch these shows in English as ZZ was not dubbed yet the follow-up movie CCA was!

Now I should mention as a side note there are three compilation movies for Zeta that were released between 2005 and 2006, I have watched them and I don’t remember enjoying them as much as the series itself as they would primarily reuse old animation and just condense the story however they would randomly add newly animated scenes which at times totally changed what happened in the original version, for example certain people who died may now have lived. 

My issue with the compilations was that it was so jarring to go from 1985 animation to mid-2000’s animation, there was nothing wrong with how either worked and I really believe they should have just reanimated the entire thing as it would help flow of the scenes and their transitions. Failing that why not just do these compilations with the original animation back in the 80s…

So overall do I still feel like Zeta is still one of my favourite series in all of Gundam? I would say no, it’s still worth a watch and I don’t regret rewatching it because it allowed me to appreciate certain elements I missed previously but I feel like its status for me has changed dramatically. As I’ve said there are plenty of elements I love about this show but I find the motivations of certain characters to be utterly ridiculous, so much so that it really makes me question what the writers were thinking at the time.

I feel there is a lot of fluff in the series that otherwise could be trimmed down and the ending is severely lacking but I’d recommend it to anyone interested specifically in Universal Century Gundam series, it is a small piece of a much larger saga and it certainly has earnt its place as it has  monumental moments for the characters such as Char, Amuro and Kamille.

Zeta you’ve got a lot of flaws, but you’ve also got some of the best Mech designs in the entire franchise, you showed us how to continue the story of the original cast while bringing in the next generation along with them and ultimately you set up a lot of major elements for the rest of Universal Century, you’re worth the watch!

Abandon the Old In Tokyo - Yoshihiro Tatsumi (1970)

Abandon the old in Tokyo is a collection of short Manga stories by artist Yoshihiro Tatsumi which were first serialised in various magazines in early 1970. Tatsumi's work is widely regarded as the first ‘Gekiga’ which is the Japanese term more akin to the term ‘graphic novel’ in the West, Tatsumi coined the term originally in 1957 when he did not want his art to be considered to be something aimed at children. This collection was actually Tatsumis second batch after his first release in 1969 of The push man and other stories but  his earliest work was Black Blizzard which began the 'Gekiga' genre off back in 1956.

Abandon the old In Tokyo is perhaps the most popular of his works in the West and was first published in English in 2006, from there is gained a few awards such as Best U.S Edition of Foreign Material and paved the way for future releases of his work in the West.

The great thing about this title is you can easily pick it up in English to own if you go on Amazon as it is pretty cheap new or even used, but If you really don't want to pay for it you can find it on sites like Manga Reader quite easily which is what I did originally. However I now want to own it and will be picking up the other two short story collections along the way and I really would suggest you do too if you're curious enough as the covers look fantastic.

The stories presented in this Manga are not related in terms of characters but they all take place in the same city and follow the plights of a persons daily life, their struggles and their responsibilities, each story is really not very long and gets right to the point. I shan't go spoiling anything because I think each story is well worth reading fresh and could honestly be spoiled in a single sentence I would rather speak about the themes and how they made me feel as a reader.

First though I would like to speak about the art style, which is very simplistic in terms of character designs, it reminds me of something more like Astro Boy in that respect but I think where it really shines is the art of the world itself, it really shows how congested and busy the world is. Especially in the story relating to noise pollution and how when reading it by seeing the bombardment of sound the character has to deal with on his commute.

One major gripe I have with the art  is that pretty much all the characters look the same, I generally thought it was the same character in about 4 of the stories which is not the case, It did take me out of some of the stories to some degree and I know a lot of artists get accused of 'same face' syndrome but this was literally a complete copy of a character used about 4 or 5 times, I can forgive this as the stories were really good but I would have preferred a bit more variation where possible.

I like that the Manga does not really shy away from the more ‘disgusting’ aspects of human life like disfigurement, old age and their effects. It creates a much more human story where not everything is perfect and anything in life can hit you when you least expect it, it also shows that we as humans have a lot of things that perhaps make us ashamed of ourselves or the race in general but that they are all aspects of life that are biological, particularly sex. There is one story in which I male remembers when he walked in on seeing his friends Parents having sex and was embarrassed and disgusted by seeing parents who are seen as these authoritative figures in life reverting to what he believed were animals.

In a lot of cases the tales focus on one person taking care of someone or something else, the man and his elderly mother, the father and his daughter a man and his monkey and even a man and his failing business. Each of these stories have the same theme in that each character has tried their best to take care of someone or something because that is the responsibility that has fallen upon them, although brief the author does well to portray each characters internal struggle with themselves and how their responsibility has changed their life. It shows also how these characters carry the weight of the world on their shoulders and in most cases cannot cope, with disastrous effects.

Another Theme of the stories revolves around fear and social anxiety, specifically in one story where a man no longer wishes to work for his company and hands in his resignation only to lose an arm in an accident, due to losing his arm he can no longer find work and everything goes wrong for him, the story ends with him being in a large crowd of people and running in fear. The anxiety aspect is quite well done throughout and doesn’t always make it the main point of the story, in many cases it just shows how crowded and busy the streets of Tokyo are on the commutes to work and to me just seeing that imagery and imagining being in those situations on a commute get me all anxious, I hate rush hour and certain times of the working day as it is and just thinking about having to deal with those situations makes me shudder.

I think we need to remember this was written in the 70s when the male was the breadwinner primarily and in Japan there was a great sense of honour in being the patriarch of a family. In most of these stories the male is put in fear by his own failings and how this has effected the female members of his family, be this being unable to afford to look after his elderly mother, being able to commit to his fiancé or being able to live with the shame of his daughter having an affair with the company president but taking care of the product (a child) of that affair.

This may be more relaxed nowadays in most places but there seems to be this immense pressure of day to day life forced upon most of the male characters of these stories some of which are out of their control and some of which are their own fault. These events and pressures only shows their downward spiral which in every occasion ends up negatively for them but also shows their yearning for a simpler life that would possibly make them a happier individual. I think a lot of us have wanted to sometimes jack in their job or commitments and just escape some time, I don’t even live in a city myself but sometimes I just want to move away and live in the middle of nowhere and relax, but that’s just a temporary feeling and I feel the characters in these stories have had this feeling for a long time.

The message to me in these tale generally revolve around the monotony of life, especially as an adult and how you can become a negative person if you get stuck in such monotony. I think this speaks to me because I’m in a full time job where I work long hours and I think with anyone in full time employment they can get stuck in a rut and really dread the first shift of the week. I think this Manga reminds me to make use of my free time well and always try and do something that I can enjoy otherwise I’ll focus too much on my professional life and let that take over entirely.

Overall I enjoyed reading this for the brief time that I did as it was certainly different from any kind of Manga I have read before, it is definitely not something I could compare in anyway to the likes of Jump Manga and I appreciate that. I’m happy I picked this at random as it really opened my eyes to the different genres that exist in the Manga world and I hope to find more like it quite soon as I am about to order some of Tatsumi's other works now on Amazon. If you’re looking for something different that is not too time consuming then seriously consider giving this a read.

Dragonball: Episode Of Bardock (OVA: 2011)

 
This week I take a look at another obscurity within the Dragonball franchise titled Episode of Bardock which was originally a spin-off Manga published in 2011 issues of V-Jump by Naho Ooishi who was relatively new to the franchise with only being hired in 2009 and having experience from producing the Manga adaptations of Yo! Son Goku and friends return as well as the Dragon Ball Heroes card game. The original reason for this Mangas creation was actually due to DB Heroes which is a card based arcade game in exclusive to Japan which primarily features a lot of 'what-if' scenarios with one of them being Bardock becoming a Super Saiyan. This Manga set out to explain this 'what-if' scenario in more detail, perhaps as a way to have more people be interested in the game.

In 2011 Bandai along with V-Jump decided to create an animated adaptation of this Manga along with the re-release of The plan to eradicate the Super Saiyans as a part of the SSSS Project, which has been described as a way "to take the first step towards new developments and further expansions of Dragonball titles." This was originally released for streaming online and then later in March 2012 on a disc that came with an issue of V-Jump. Finally it was made avalible to fans worldwide with the release of the Dragonball Z game for Kinect on the Xbox 360, which I'm sure nobody picked up because it was terrible.

As Bardock was such a popular character within the franchise thanks to the TV special featuring him the studio decided it was time for this expansion on his character and his story after his 'death' at the hands of Freeza. The general outline of this story is that after being killed during the destruction of Planet Vegeta Bardock wakes up on a mysterious planet that looks similar to that of Planet Vegeta. As he awakens he soon realises he is being nursed back to health by two small aliens named Ipana and Berry with medicine similar to that used by the Saiyans and Planet Trade organisation.

Shortly after two Space Pirates arrive and claim they are to conquer Planet Plant, cementing that this is indeed Planet Vegeta in the past, Bardock makes short work of them and decides to take off alone. In the next scene a Freeza like being named Chilled (HAH) arrives to the planet and pretends to be the Galactic Police in order to get close to the inhabitants of the planet, he soon finds out his underlings were killed by Bardock and decides to seek him out. Berry begins to suspect that something is amiss here and warns Bardock, however Chilled has already begun to start terrorising the planet, which sends Bardock in to a rage as he remembers the death of his comrades.

Bardock then attacks Chilled after mistaking him for Freeza, Chilled overpowers him at this point and begins to gain the upper hand while stating he is the 'strongest in the Universe' much like Freeza was known to do. As Chilled is about to deliver the finishing blow Berry jumps in the way and takes the hit, causing Bardock to remember the destruction of the Saiyans and thus become a Super Saiyan.
Naturally Bardock lays the smack down on Chilled much to the appreciation of the Plant people and does a typical heroic walk off into the sunset.

We then see Chilled just moments away from death on his ship informing his underlings of the transformed warrior he had just faced known as a Super Saiyan, he then informs them to warn his descendants of this warrior, suggesting that this is how Freeza came to fear the Saiyans and also that Bardock may have been the original Super Saiyan of legend.

Like most of the Dragonball OVA's Toriyama did not have much involvement at all especially in terms of the story, which he was totally absent from, it seems he was only really involved with the design for Chilled as around the time of the Mangas release some concept art was shown in V-jump. Although he was not very involved with the project it would be interesting to see what he thinks of the project as he is a known fan of Bardock and did use him again shortly afterwards in the Jaco Manga.

I really liked the design for Chilled and naturally it followed the style of Freezas first form as it was designed by Toriyama himself, but it also put a spin on it having him be much shorter in appearance than Freeza, yet much more menacing looking thanks to the Orange colour scheme and the twisted almost Devil like horns. Chilled seems to be much more demonic and impish looking when putting him next to his descendent, he also reminds me of Freezas son Kurieza from the Neko Majin Z Manga with his short stature.

I thought Chilled was a pretty decent addition to the DB universe as a way to explain how Freeza came to learn of the legend of the Super Saiyans and why he feared them so much, but I feel like it would have been just as good to have the original Super Saiyan take the role of defeating him rather than Bardock, I just feel the entire use of Bardock in this special is kind of silly. This is partly because It's quite ambiguous as to why Bardock has suddenly woken up in the past.

Time travel is not really a new concept to the franchise with the Android saga featuring it prominently and I think it can work well but it is a tricky subject to work around and to just have it thrown out there that Bardock has suddenly gone back in time with no real explanation really did annoy me, not that this is something they studio have come out and said is 'canon' or is part of the time-line but to have a character who is afflicted with the ability to see the future you would think that they could have worked that in to the OVA as something to do with his sudden time travelling.

I feel as though this story could have just been made to introduce an entirely new Saiyan to us who started off the legend itself by defeating Chilled and it would have had the same effect. I understand that Bardock is a popular character and I'd be lying if I said I did not want to see more of him but I feel that having him suddenly become a 'good guy' in saving a bunch of aliens from a Freeza lookalike and doing some heroic walk off into the sunset is just a little strange for his character. We've always seen Bardock act like a typical Saiyan in that he loves to fight, to kill and to win.

We have seen some examples of him caring with his sending Goku to earth and his love for his wife in Jaco, but I just don't feel like he is the type to care enough about third parties in his battles. It is fair to say he was just acting on his hatred for Freeza at that point but still it is a little strange.

I generally feel pretty mixed on this OVA in that I really love that they are doing all these new projects with the franchise but I feel as though they are creeping closer and closer to fan fiction territory in some cases, especially with the DB Heroes game where everyone can suddenly go Super Saiyan 3 or 4, which is fine in the 'what if' scenarios the games follow  but need to stay away unless explained well in the Manga or Anime format. This is where this OVA fails for me more than anything, it doesn't try to explain anything it just seems to be there for the sake of it being there, for the sake of pleasing some fans who just want to see Bardock go Super Saiyan and just to keep the franchise going.

That is not to say I did not find enjoyment in it at all, I generally liked the fight scene between Bardock and Chilled because it gave us an unhinged Super Saiyan using as much anger as possible to throw Chilled around like a rag doll rather than use any martial arts techniques or constantly use beam attacks, It really did show how Bardocks hatred for Freeza had sent him to a boiling point where he would just explode. It does end in your typical beam struggle fashion but I do like that it didn't actually kill Chilled outright, it let him linger on much like the fight between Goku and Freeza.

I felt Chilled really was the strongest part of this OVA, but I think that may be down to the performance of his Voice Actor Ryūsei Nakao who also voiced Freeza and Cooler, I feel he brings such a menacing and evil portrayal to any villain he plays within the franchise and it really works, especially when you consider that without a voice you're just looking at a small goofy looking imp of a character who really does not look as though he could be the most powerful being in the universe with the command of thousands of underlings and more.

I feel like Chilled did come in to his own slightly too rather than being a copy and paste of  Freeza, yes the same characteristics and motives were there but we almost get this look at a character who has not yet reached the infamy of his descendent and has to resort to much more sneaky and shady tactics in order to get what he wants, such as pretending to be Galactic Police officers in order to get information, rather than just killing civilians outright much like Freeza did on Namek. Overall I believe he was a great addition.

I also enjoyed the animation style used within the OVA, it seemed to be slightly better than Plan to eradicate the Super Saiyans as it used a brighter colour palette and did focus much more on details such as battle damage and backgrounds as well as the fight scenes use of decent choreography involving spins, grabs and throws. I'm clearly no expect on animation but I feel that with every piece of animated media from the franchise from Yo! Son Goku onwards has constantly improved and reached the quality we see in Battle of Gods.

Overall I did find some enjoyment in this OVA with it being a nice excuse to see Bardock again and seeing someone else from Freezas race getting the shit beat out of them. I also enjoyed that it kept to a small 20 minute time frame as the Manga was quite short itself and while I am happy that the franchise during this period did decide to branch out and create a few more animated features I feel as though this is the worst of the bunch, not to say that this is a terrible stain on the franchise but I just personally do not enjoy it anywhere near as much as the other features I've reviewed recently.

I see a lot of people online argue about this being 'canon' to the franchise because it got a Manga adaptation but then again so did DB Heroes but I think the beauty with this franchise is is that there are a bunch of things that are perhaps questionable but it's really up to you if you want to take this as what actually happened or not, personally I just like to keep this as a 'what if' story, but I feel like this franchise has such a wealth of those kind of stories that it just works to have one of them animated, I would even be open to more myself, who wouldn't like to see the return of Tiencha from Budokai 2 right?

I'm still on a huge DB hype at the moment and I will not apologise for it, but thanks for checking this review out, let me know what you thought of it on twitter @Scatmanbegins I'm all for constructive criticism or any feedback at all. See ya next week.