#i mean i know there's a whole lotta real word issues attached to it but

[areyoudoingthis]

why is the only conversation fandom has about sex always about who tops and who bottoms. i don't care what side you land on why is everyone so obsessed with this

[eyeknowmayhem]

💘 and ❤️ for Ray, wingnut and mondo?

❤️ - How did your muse come to realize their romantic and sexual orientations? Was it difficult to accept? Are they proud of who they are?

Wingnut: they may watch a lotta tv as their main information in the outside world, but I think Wingnut did realize she liked girls because of one thing; not at all relating to the idea that girls are super boy crazy - because like, girls are just better. She assumed this was universal and very quickly realized this was not. I think it did kinda click when she used the interwebs to see other ppl’s cosplays of her favorite characters and was very much hit over the head with “holy shit, women!” Beam.

All jokes aside she’s fine with it! Her family accepts her as she is, there’s some teasing here and there about her complete lack of rizz when it comes to girls but that’s more to do with wingnut’s skill issue than her being gay. She’s not exactly a casonva.

Ray: he never really figured out he was gay specifically until a bit later. He knew he liked dudes he just didn’t really know there was a word for it. He would tend to gravitate towards more monstrous men- stuff like werewolves, sea creatures, some kinds of demons. Cuz, he’s not gonna pretend tht he’ll ever have a chance with human men. He says it’s pragmatism, it’s mostly just not feeling adequate enough. He won’t lie- he was a little jealous seeing how well Scumbug and splinter worked out.

Mondo: He loves everyone, and that translates to romantic love too. Mondo never really had a big realization, just as a fact of life and has gone through it knowing that’s just who he was. Honestly it may be a case where all of his siblings knew before he did LMAO. Probably the most likely to own a big ass tyedye bi flag. It’s one of the best qualities in his opinion- the flag colors are awesome.

💘 - What is your muse like when they're in love? What does your muse find attractive in someone else? What are their love languages? How do they show affection? Do they show any distinct signs that they're in love?

Wingnut: if she gets a crush she’s just over. Thats it. She’s done. I feel like- she does like women who- take up space. Loud outfits, loud personality’s, big women, even bigger hearts, enough tattoos to consider yourself a subway wall, the kind of confidence that feels contagious. Though, even with that type I think she’s way too nervous and shy and would make a fool outta herself somehow.

Give it time and she’ll mellow out a little more, offer to spend time doing things they both like. Most likely to end up word vomiting some kind of confession after awhile of simmering on it. In the end though, she’s got a lot of love to give and isn’t afraid to show it- most of the time.

Her love language is that she’s going to binge watch anime with you and talk the whole time (/JOKES) - but real talk. She loves spending time with the one she loves, even if it does mean she’ll have to sit through something she may not enjoy. The company is enough. She’s no stranger to weird, and if they love her weirdness, she’ll love it too.

Ray: unlike the nervous sorta deal Wingnut has his knowledge of having a crush would be - well, apprehension mostly. Especially if it’s a human. Cuz- ok, he can find plenty of men who like other men, they live in New York, but like. The whole “mutant” thing may be a a bit of a hard sell. Though not as much as it was before the humans had more knowledge of mutants. He’s still unsure about it all. Still, it doesn’t stop him thinking about it.

I answered most of the attraction part already in the other ask. As far as like, showing it. He would make a mixtape, then think about how stupid and corny it is to make a mixtape, sends it anyway. He has his own playlist of love songs that he has- he’d rather eat his own tail, stinger attached than ever tell anyone. This also applies to the crush - he’d never be the type to tell them directly; he’s more than content with the companionship. Because sure he’ll never say it with words but would be like- would use one of the “wings” to shield with rain, knows who their favorite musicians are, stuff like that.

Mondo: oddly enough I think he never gets crushes. Not- capital C crushes very often. He’s an affectionate guy and has a lot of love to share but it’s never really relevant if he’s romantically attracted to someone. For him it’s less like, any sorta qualities of someone it’s more a matter of like. It’s weird to describe but like almost like a soulmate sorta deal, where someone just- Gets You on a level few people can.

He doesn’t take love seriously, which isn’t to say he doesn’t care about it, or even hates it. just means it’s another part of life. So if he does like someone, it just means he’ll do what he always does! Invite someone to go to a rave with him, get frozen yogurt afterward, help practice skateboarding tricks at the park- and somewhere in the middle if he confesses or not, but it doesn’t make much difference to him.

[toonstarterz]

BECAUSE I’M NOT POPULAR, I’LL READ WATAMOTE: CHAPTER #137

Once upon a time, there was a girl. An unpopular girl. That nobody knew, nobody cared. She strived to be popular. To have dozens of friends and live the life of a socially fulfilled high school girl. After much time and effort, she had finally succeeded in her goal. She got friends. She got popular. She became normal.

But it wasn’t everything she hoped it would be.

And so Golden Week came around. She made plans with her new friends. And the popular girl can’t help but wonder...

“Is this really what I want?”

Chapter 137: Because I’m Not Popular, I’ll Prepare for Golden Week 

Okada: “Is my forehead that big?”

Katou: I wonder if Kuroki-san is doing anything after this...?

Tomoko: “Man, I’m tired.” 

Komiyama: [ Exactly what it says. ]

Y'all know the drill by now. Tomoko expects the least, ends up getting the most.

Katou is honestly a very difficult character to get right in this kind of manga. For a series as excruciatingly real as this, a beautiful, popular girl like Katou could easily come off as “unrealistic” or an “otaku’s fantasy” with the way she reaches out to Tomoko. But Nico Tanigawa manages to keep Katou within the realm of believability, and I think it’s because she treats everyone with motherly kindness. It’s her natural instinct, so it doesn’t seem forced in the slightest.

Yeah, buzz off, Kiyota! You’ve already exceeded this manga’s male quota for the next ten chapters.

It sure is swell that Tomoko’s friendship with Yuri has grown enough that even people outside of the loop can see how joined-at-the-hip they’ve become.

I’m getting flashbacks of the KBBQ dinner right now. Someone invites Tomoko, she invites Yuri, Yuri gives a double negative response, etc. What gal pals.

Again, more KBBQ flashbacks, only with a twist. At the party, Yuri took the affected role, stating that her decision to go would be based on whether Tomoko would. But now, the roles have switched with Yuri suggesting that Tomoko wouldn’t go if she wasn’t there with her. I don’t like where this is going...

Mako is totally the type to keep track of how she divides the time between her friends, always balancing a bail with a hangout. Such are the difficulties of being the “nucleus” friend.

For better or worse, Yuri‘s been taking Mako’s “rejections” in stride lately. Better, because that means she’s no longer unhealthily dependent on her best friend. Worse, because that could means she projected her attachment issues onto Tomoko and Yoshida. Have her insecurities been dissolved, or have they just been spread wider across their little quartet?

Mako and Yoshida talking when the others aren’t around is total friendship-baiting and I’m behind it 100%.

The ultimate tug-of-war between a mom who knows their daughter’s faults and a daughter who’s too stubborn to heed her mother’s concerns. 

Sorry, Yuri dear, but at that, I’mma callin’ shenanigans. 

It should be fairly obvious by now that Yuri is becoming dangerously co-dependent on her relationship with Tomoko. It’s not so much that Tomoko needs Yuri with her, but that Yuri needs to feel that she’s invaluable to Tomoko so that she herself can be validated. It’s a self-fulfilling prophecy that can only get worse since Tomoko and Yuri are going in opposite directions, with the former becoming more self-assured, and the latter becoming more reliant. 

Katou rolling her sleeves up inexplicably raises her “mom” appeal three-fold.

For those who don’t know, this the same joke that happened when Tomoko peeked at Ucchi during the sports festival. Only eating rice is suggestive of just having done something exhausting, usually perverted in nature. Oh, that Nemo.

Still, it’s telling that Nemo actually made that joke and got shot down by Tomoko right in front of the others. Their bantering is usually kept just between them, but doing it within earshot could lead to some pretty tense situations if the others jump in.

That’s quite the unique face Yuri’s making. Not exactly anger or resentment, but there’s something negative about her expression. My best guess is exasperation, but low-key, as only Yuri could. And I hate to say it, but it’s pretty hypocritical of Yuri to get all bent out of shape about Katou’s smothering, when she herself came just to ��support” Tomoko.

This might seem innocuous at first, it really speaks to Yuri’s non-indulgent behavior when receiving attention from others, as is very common of introverts. Just like how Tomoko chose something moderate when Okada treated her.

The whole exchange here is incredibly awkward, but it comes off more sincerely than it is cringeworthy. The kind of awkward that makes you facepalm is the result of knowing that the whole thing could’ve been avoided, or at least done better. Okada’s apology and Yuri’s dismissive forgiveness really couldn’t be handled differently, so while there’s this unspoken barrier between them, we can get behind it because you can tell Okada and Yuri are doing their best to clear the air.

Food porn.

Is it embarrassing? Yes. Is Tomoko going to do anything about it? Nah, she’s going to milk Katou’s motherliness for all she’s worth.

And let’s be real-Can you really blame her?

This whole “normie” business didn’t make a whole lotta sense to me when I first read it, but by comparing it to another label used in the West, I was able to make a connection.

Back in the day, the word “nerd” was a derogatory term, used to insult people who were into comics, video games, anime, etc. But by the turn of the last decade or so, this idea of a nerd became antiquated when people realized that the things that nerds were once ridiculed for were actually entertaining in their own right. The standard of being a nerd dropped to the point where mildly enjoying pop culture was enough to make you a nerd. And thus, when everyone became a nerd, nobody was. And the nerd became an identity that only the most hardcore of nerds could adopt.

I never realized until now just how much social stock Tomoko has put into having a boyfriend. You’d think that after her perceptions of the “normies” evolved, she’d understand that having a boyfriend or having a romantic relationship, in general, isn’t as valuable as society makes it out to be.

Now the whole “hanging out at the cafe” thing being normie...maybe.

Quickly researches the reputation of Aoyama Academy.

Oh. So like, Stanford or Princeton. Dream on, Tomoko.

Dat tiny smile on Yuri is too precious.

One thing that I’ve always wanted to see more of is Tomoko’s sense of humor at work. She doesn’t do it often, but the few times when she casually jokes around are met with positive reception, most notably with Yuri. While the readers are more used to Tomoko’s raunchy, crude humor, Tomoko can also play up the “I’m an idiot”-type humor. And it works especially with Yuri and Nemo, who can tell when she’s half-bullshitting them. 

A rare moment of genuine playfulness between Tomoko and Nemo.

Of course, because Tomoko actually is an idiot at times, it can be hard to tell when she being actually stupid, or being fake-stupid for the laughs.

Mama Katou doesn’t know this yet, so naturally, she has to protect her daughter from the mean bullies. Her dialogue here could easily come off as confrontational if it were spoken by anyone else, but as we’ve seen before, Katou is more of the “quiet rage” kind of girl.

Yeah, I saw the video of Cristiano Ronaldo defending the Japanese boy from the audience. Referential humor tends to be hit-or-miss, depending on whether the joke is sustainable without it. In this case, it’s the kind that can be lost in a few years time. So despite being a piece of common entertainment knowledge in Japan, once in while for the series is just enough to keep it fresh. 

I must admit, I used to think that Katou was a replacement character for Imae after she left. But now that we’ve had time to get to know her, I see that that’s not really the case at all.

Sure, Katou is caring and sweet like Imae, but what sets Katou apart from her besides her “mommy-ness” is her naivety. Katou has all the tenderness and effort of a guardian, but she lacks the sensibility...somewhat. But that bit of cluelessness is essential to rounding out her character, enough so that even this stylish riajuu can play the outcast in times like this.

Damn, girl. It’s one thing to view Tomoko as a good person. It’s another thing to see her as some societal paragon. Now I’m kind of hoping she doesn’t get corrupted by the Tomoko virus.  

Even though this is being played for laughs, it does key into an actual strength of Tomoko’s that none of the others have. That being, her extreme candidness. Tomoko, frankly, sucks at pretending to be someone she isn’t, but is incredibly impressionable when she's her unrestrained self. Yes, there’s a time and place for that kind of thing, but sometimes, an incestual eroge is exactly what you need to get your point across.

Precious Lil’ Bean and Jealous Lil’ Bean. Take your pick. 

Yeah, yeah, Nemo getting in Tomoko’s face is nothing new. However, what is new is how Nemo dishes it out and how Tomoko takes it. Nemo usually glowers over the girl as if to assert dominance, but she’ll occasionally crouch down, like a cheetah ready to pounce. Tomoko always cowers a bit during Nemo’s provocations, shrinking down with caution. But here, Tomoko doesn’t waver. She stays upright, even looking down at Nemo for once despite being obviously flustered. Stand your ground, Tomoko. Stand. Your. Ground.

Low-key bitching followed by buddy-buddy invitation equals the politics of friendships.

Sweetie, the girl can’t even bother to use your own name. What do you think?

Normally, I’m not fond of this kind of storytelling where the author tacks on additional, never-before-seen events to a previously seen memory just to add plot tension. The only reason I let this slide is because, as is soon revealed, this memory is more for Yuri’s characterization than for story direction. Plus, it’s interesting to compare how close they are now as opposed to back then. You win this time, Nico Tanigawa.

Taking the easy route even in college, eh, Tomoko? I expect nothing less from you.

Taking the easy route even in college, eh, Yuri? I also expect nothing less from you.

Lazy Sisters Unite!

Promised, my ass.

You’re killing me, Yuri, making me call shenanigans on you twice in one chapter. But yes, twisting your friend’s words into a promise just to suit your needs, and then playing the victim card when said friend doesn’t keep their “promise” is a serious friendship offense. As much as we will all want to Yuri have beautiful, lovely friendships with these girls, it suddenly makes a whole lot of sense why Yuri didn’t have these friendships in the first place. My emotional spectrum is out of whack right now, unable to determine whether Yuri’s behavior is a regression in character or a reconstruction of one.

Bless Mako and her patience.

Oh god, Nemo’s Yandere Stare is spreading.

Hmm, the extra text on Yuri’s date is ripe for some overanalyzing. My first instinct is to say that writing more of a description is indicative of Tomoko actually caring more about spending time with Yuri than she does with Nemo and Katou. But then again, it could just very well be that Tomoko didn’t want to be redundant and write the same thing over three times. 

Whatever the reason, at least she managed to write out Yuri’s last name. I might have died if she just drew a face with pigtails. 

This has always been one Tomoko’s key developments, realizing that being a normie or popular doesn’t give you a pass in life. Everyone has their own shit to deal with no matter how (un)popular you are, and now that Tomoko has gotten a taste of that, the next step for Tomoko’s personal journey could be one of self-actualization: 

Stay where you are and possibly lose your roots, or go back to where you came from and potentially lose what you gained?

Exact-a-mundo. A lot of people have criticized this manga for turning Tomoko into a normie and betraying who she was. But in my opinion, Tomoko is not a normie. Such a self-deprecating label is more defined by one’s personality rather than their social network. Tomoko knows a lot of normies, but until she stylizes up her hair, disregards her hobbies and pulls a Nemo, she’ll always be our lovable mojyo.

On a final note, it’s easy to see Tomoko as the dense protagonist of harem manga right now, and yet, these punchlines regarding her “pursuits” seem to be much more effective if you look at Tomoko’s “harem” as just platonic and devoid of romantic subtext (whether or not it’s actually doing that is another story). Perhaps it’s because while Tomoko is oblivious to everyone’s jealousy, she actually has a great deal of agency that is not often seen in harem protags. The girls are so responsive to Tomoko’s actions, and thus, the emotional core of the Tomoko’s harem actually carries some well-earned weight. 

Can we have more manga with a strong, platonic harem, please?

[sniickt]

uHHhhHh hey everyone ! underneath the cut u can read up abt laura h. kinney. there’s two sections, longer headcanons that focus more on backstory not incl in her bio & short headcanons that are just lil #facts, but ill eventually get a history page up or smth so !! this is just for now !! enjoy !!

the first thing that you learn is how to be alone. you learn, or suffer. it is an easy lesson. you suffer more when people are around. people make you feel alone, and loneliness is a quiet wound.

meet LAURA HOWLETT KINNEY ( legally X-23-23 ); the TWENTY ONE year old daughter of LOGAN HOWLETT / THE WOLVERINE, who hails from CANADA onEARTH-TRN414. Here she lived with the remainder of the X-MEN and the other TRANSIGEN KIDS.

short, fun, mostly unimportant headcanons. 

she’s possessive af. like. i mean it, fam. laura comes from a place where like.. food and things are rationed. new supplies have to be gathered, every other week. having material items you’re attached to is a no-no, but if you do, you keep that shit SAFE. it’s a hard habit to break from, so just... don’t mess w her shit, ok. 

there’s not much of a problem at wdu with this stuff, but.. just keep the ever loving fuck away from her w firearms or knives or weapons of literally any description. she don’t mess w that shit, and she won’t hesitate to mess w you for bringing that shit.

also. just. don’t fight her. don’t try it. don’t even think it. i’m 99% sure she smells fear, but 100% sure she does Not go halves in any sort of fight.

she doesn’t have an issue with a ‘trigger scent’ like her comic book self - rather, much like logan, trn414 laura’s issue is with her own rage. when she hits a point of what little patience she has being lost, there’s very little that can pull her from the resulting fury. so just.. try Not to push her buttons. she doesn’t have a lotta patience to begin w, but * captain america vc * son.. just dont

she’s wicked at racquetball

she’s rly fucking bad at emotion, and talking, and being a normal functioning human. the following are some headcanons, based upon that:

laura prefers to work in silence. in fact, she just prefers silence full stop. she can be quite quippy, but.. in fights, she rly is Not, and that’s hugely telling of her characters. she was created and raised to be a weapon - she doesn’t exchange witty comebacks in an actual fight, because she is a machine, and machines don’t talk. they just do. 

she isn’t very good, at feeling things. she’s not very good with emotions, or showing them. and when it comes to crushes, or love and relationships… she’s never experienced either, consciously, and if she ever does she won’t know what they are. she knows that she enjoys sex. it’s a sort of mindless activity that requires little to no thinking about, like murder, and she does enjoy it - but she doesn’t ever really feel anything for the people she’s sleeping with, which is what makes it so easy for her to move on. close connection is hard for her, if not perhaps impossible. i would consider it so, but who knows.

never let her stoic nature fool you - laura is highly intelligent, and certainly wouldn’t have survived as long if she weren’t. she’s best with strategy. fighting is methodical, it’s mindless, it’s easy, but it’s more fun when she’s up against someone who’s a worthy adversary and who makes her really have to think about how to best them. but she’s not, by any means, unintelligent in other areas. if she’d been given a chance, she would have found herself excelling in school subjects. as was, life never allowed her the opportunity to learn like a normal girl her age, until she came here

* katie ryan vc * frickin horses. she loves frickin horses.

laura loves classics. you have to keep in mind, she comes from roughly 2039 ( part of the reason her world is unexplored & her coming here was never considered a chance was bc it’s so far ahead, and such an awful place ), and her access to the modern media and such of the time is limited greatly by eden’s wilderness location, and her own nomadic lifestyle. often, it was only old movies and novels that she had real access too, and she loves them. it didn’t stop with shane for her, and she can quote parts of plenty of old westerns and classic movies/books, and does know quite a bit about the people of the times, if she cared to open up and share as much.

she’s bilingual ( having been taught english by transigen doctors & mexican spanish by the nurses ) and the eden kids varied what they spoke to each other in quite a lot, but she is losing proficiency in her ‘second’ language. she often mixes things up - for example, she’ll remember a word in one language but not in the other, or know a phrase but not its equivalent in the other language - and struggles, especially, in speaking for whole periods of time in the latter. it’s a lack of practice, more than anything. 

laura is not one for sentimental bullshit. none of the transigen kids were. since they never knew their birthdays, only rough estimates, and were never allowed celebrate other events, they just… didn’t, so there were no trinkets or whatnot kept as memories of a happier time or anything. the only thing that laura has ever had with sentimental value, that happens to be the only thing from her earth that came through the dimensional anomaly with her, are logan’s dogtags - rictor took them from him right before they laid him into his shallow grave and handed them off to laura. at the time, she imagines it was done symbolically - their leaders way of silently passing the mantle from him to her. but laura has never felt worthy of the wolverine mantle, and so has only ever tucked the tags into her inside pocket, never once wearing them around her neck. perhaps, someday, she will. 

headcanons based on backstory

following their arrival at eden, laura became something of a nomad. as soon as she knew the other transigen kids were safe with the remaining x-men ( among them ororo monroe & scott summers ), she took to the road. it was both a journey of self discovery and a journey for revenge. a lot of transigen labs remained, so laura did what she did best whenever they crossed paths... purposely, or otherwise.

but she always returned to ‘eden’ ( in reality, a small abandoned town in the middle of the canadian wilderness ). always. in time to fight for them, in time to bring them desperately needed supplies, in time to be of aid when they needed it most. she was always a presence, even if she wasn’t really present, and had a knack for appearing when needed and disappearing again as soon as that need passed.

she loved them, like brothers and sisters. she was loyal to them and to them only. but she’d learned that her ‘dad’ was right all those years ago - it was easier to be alone, and to keep others at a distance. bad things happened to the people she cared about. 

she arrived here on earth-616 when she was eighteen years and six months old, through a dimensional anomaly that she encountered in an abandoned alkali-transigen lab in texas. it took eight agents & three avengers to make her comply when she first came through. two are dead. four suffered permanent damage that leaves them at a distinct disadvantage, to this day. 

she’s spent nearly three whole yeas in a secure shield holding facility in upstate new york, where agent phil coulson ( known mostly now in the agency as the adoptive dad to a whole variety of misfits. looking at you, agent johnson ) took primary charge of her care. in the early days, coulson was the only person who saw her in a way she hasn’t been seen in, in years - not as a kind of monster, but as a girl, scared & alone. he himself recommended wda & when reminded of the injuries and death she caused when she first arrived, in turn reminded those at the meeting that if they hadn’t come at her with guns blazing from the get go, then she wouldn’t have reacted the way that she did. 

since she can’t go back to her world, she has for now decided that this is an okay plan, until, of course, she decides it is not. since she trusts coulson - something hard to do, and a huge testament to his character - she’s voluntarily agreed to being ‘tagged’, meaning shield have put an ankle bracelet that tracks her whereabouts at all times on her. some pushed to have it give electrical shocks if she used her ‘mutant’ powers, but, that was decided against fairly quick. if she decides she doesn’t want it? you can be sure it’s gone. three agents are stationed permanently in an unassuming house in the middle of buena vista, and she’s required to check in with them daily, and they, in turn, have to check in with her regularly. it’s all very official. go shield. 

[xb-squaredx]

Dragon Ball Super Fans Deserve Better

Akira Toriyama’s Dragon Ball series is one of the most influential, beloved and important pieces of popular culture ever made. The manga, and the anime that followed, formed the foundation of the modern shonen action show as we know it and inspired countless authors that followed in Toriyama’s footsteps. And after nearly 20 years, Akira Toriyama returned to the Dragon Ball series with a new anime continuation, Dragon Ball Super. Continuing the adventure of Son Goku and his many allies, it’s safe to say that Super is a pretty big deal…but in reality, it’s been nothing but a disappointment.

Right off the bat, I want to say that, taken by itself Dragon Ball Super is not a bad show. People love to harp on its animation and writing, and while there are legitimate flaws found within the show itself, the fact is that many of these issues were also in the original series. The pacing, the endless powerups, deux ex machinas aplenty…they can be found multiple times throughout the series. Those are not something I take particular issues with, but rather…my problem is that Dragon Ball Super, for all of the time that’s passed between the ending of Z, is still having the same problems. It is a continuation that is, quite literally, more of the same. Super feels as if it started airing a week after the finale of Dragon Ball Z, and in some respects I can applaud Toriyama and Toei Animation for being consistent…but with such a large gap in time between the series, the stagnation on display is nothing short of maddening.

“Stagnant” is really the word I would use to describe Dragon Ball Super. It takes no meaningful steps forward, and is content to continue pulling from the same bag of tricks Toriyama pioneered two decades ago. And in those two decades, the manga/anime industry has seen some major steps forward, and at this point, I think it’s fair to expect more out of the genre. As influential as Dragon Ball was, it has been surpassed in many ways by a variety of series. From world building, to writing, to characterization, Dragon Ball has been blown out of the water by the likes of Eiichiro Oda, Masahashi Kishimoto, Tite Kubo, Kohei Horikoshi, ONE, Yoshihiro Togashi and so many more.

Now, to be fair…Toriyama was a pioneer who never really intended to get into action-heavy stories. He’s a comedy writer, first-and-foremost, as the likes of Dr. Slump and his various other one-offs and side-stories can attest to. Dragon Ball started as a parody of Journey to the West, as well. It’s no secret that Toriyama often wrote by the seat of his pants, and really it’s kind of incredible that things often ended with all plot threads tied up neatly in the end. Sure, he forgot Launch existed, and it’s often said that Goku getting blond hair for his Super Saiyan form was to save on inking, but Toriyama and Dragon Ball on the whole gets a LOT of slack because of its pioneer status. It stands to reason that later series would go on to avoid a lot of the mistakes Dragon Ball made because they had a chance to learn from those mistakes. So it’s all the more frustrating to see that Dragon Ball Super hasn’t learned all that much.

All those flaws from before remain; redundant transformations and power ups, glacial pacing, plot holes you can drive a truck through—they’re back and just as annoying. Any hope of flaws being acknowledged and avoided was crushed when the series BEGINS with Goku acquiring another power up. From there, it’s business as usual. Goku is the strongest around until a NEW threat appears, where upon he must then train and become even stronger than before, and all’s well that ends well. Any REAL breaks to the status quo are usually remedied with the Dragon Balls and if THOSE fail, there are new, STRONGER Super Dragon Balls to do that. And then the next arc begins anew and the process repeats. While the Goku Black arc IS an admitted step up from the norm, the story itself is one of the most clichéd fanfic-level scenarios I can think of. I don’t expect Dragon Ball to be Shakespeare, but when something like Naruto or BLEACH is putting more effort into their narratives and characters (well, sometimes), you’re doing something wrong.

But writing was never the series’ strong suit. While I’d love for the writing of the series to be better, if it could deliver on the action I’d overlook it. However, Super is left in the dust by more modern action shows, and I find myself outright bored by a lot of the battles in Super more often than not. A lot of this comes from a lack of stakes or tension. Considering this takes place before the epilogue at the end of the Majin Buu arc of the original series, we can be assured that events aren’t going to directly contradict it. Frieza destroyed the Earth? Well of course Whis is going to undo that. Piccolo died? They don’t even wait for his body to get cold before shouting “We can just bring him back later with the Dragon Balls!” We can be assured that no matter what, Goku will win, or events will bend over backwards to get rid of the danger if he somehow can’t. It helps that he’s pals with SEVERAL deities by now.

For a while now, Dragon Ball confused scale for excitement. The power scaling went out of control years before Dragon Ball finished proper, and after a certain point, it was less about a fighter’s strategy or technique and more about pure force. And then the next fighter had another zero attached to their power level. Fundamentally speaking, just how different was Frieza from Cell or Majin Buu? They all still did the same things: they flew, they punched and kicked, and then shot an energy blast of varying colors. Sure, Frieza can survive in a vacuum, Cell could regenerate and use a variety of skills gained from having fighter’s DNA in him, and Buu could turn you into candy…but now think about how they’re beaten. Pure force. For all their formidable abilities, it’s nothing that can’t be beaten by punching harder than before or shooting off a bigger energy blast. On that same note, what’s so different about Super Saiyan 1, to 2, to 3, aside from looks? They just make the character in question ���stronger.” We’re now at the point in Super where Goku is using Super Saiyan God Super Saiyan Kaioken X 20, and no that is NOT a joke. With his freshly unveiled (as of the time of writing) “Ultra Instinct” power, these power up amalgams are going to be even worse mouthfuls soon enough. Fights are decided not by tactics or any real skill, but by moving goalposts.

(That’s a lotta goalposts)

Compare this to the ninja trickery regularly employed in Naruto (at the start, anyway) or the various odd Nen techniques in Hunter X Hunter. No two fights are ever solved the same way and legitimate tension is formed when characters have to figure out how to advance past this next obstacle. And with One Piece’s author being a big Toriyama fanboy, it’s especially notable that One Piece is probably the best at learning from Dragon Ball’s mistakes. Luffy’s various Gear techniques are power ups, yes, and are even numbered, but unlike the Super Saiyan forms, there’s not as much of a clear hierarchy. Third Gear IS technically more powerful than Second Gear, but it’s also FAR slower and has nasty recoil, so Luffy has to pick the best form for the current situation. Each form has drawbacks AND strengths, and there’s no point where one technique is eclipsed and replaced by another. Things are constantly kept interesting with each fighter displaying their own unique power, weapons, and fighting styles. But fights don’t even require that to be compelling; as long as there is emotional weight, that can carry you far. Dragon Ball Super could get by just as well with Goku and the current villain of the week punching each other over and over, as long as the fight itself had some kind of emotional hook.

Refer to Naruto and compare the fights between the two main rivals, Naruto and Sasuke. The series spends a LONG time building up the tension and inevitable fight between the two and when the tension is at its peak, the fight explodes off the page (or screen). The fights become more than just fists flying; the fights tell us the stories of the characters and their struggles up until that point. The loneliness Naruto felt in life and the connection he felt with Sasuke is threatened when he breaks from the Leaf Village. The fight is then more than just two rivals trying to come out on top: Naruto wants his friend back, and Sasuke wants so desperately to prove he’s gotten strong enough to avenge his clan, all the while tempted to kill Naruto in order to gain forbidden power. These fights have deeper meaning to each other, in addition to eye-catching art and choreography. The audience engagement is magnified here, and it’s all done without either fighter having the power to destroy multiple planets in one shot.

So far in Super, with the exception of the two movie-adaptations and the Goku Black arc, it’s been a collection of tournament arcs. Sure, there are high stakes in both tournaments, but by and large the fights in these things pit the main cast against a plethora of forgettable, disposable characters that barely get any development, all of course building up to Goku’s fight with his new rival of the month, be it Hit or later Jiren. Most of these fights lack punch, and the rivalries themselves feel rather shallow. Consider when Goku finally fought Frieza. Frieza slaughtered countless planets in his galactic conquest, and just got done killing most of Goku’s friends when he arrives to fight. Vegeta swallows his pride and asks for Goku to defeat Frieza as retribution for exterminating his people, and then Frieza toys with Krillin, Goku’s best friend, before killing him. Just because he can. There’s weight to Goku’s showdown with him. Now compare that to Hit or Jiren. 

(This is the extent of their interaction prior to fighting. Two words.)

People that Goku has no prior contact with before their fight, they exist to give Goku someone to punch. His motivation is to fight them….just to fight, just to become stronger. They aren’t villains, and while losing the tournament has certain consequences, the overall tones of the arcs are still fairly light-hearted and losses don’t feel all that monumental. Tournament arcs are usually considered the highlight of certain shonen series, but here it’s Dragon Ball at its most dull.

Yet again, compare a more recent show. My Hero Academia’s Sports Festival is, after a point, a tournament arc meant to showcase the personalities and powers of not only the main cast, but a variety of secondary characters, some of which go on to be more important later on. The pacing stands out to me especially, with many matches over in an instant. In the anime, one episode is dedicated to showcasing a large amount of fights at once, while the fights that have more weight to them are usually given an entire episode. My Hero Academia knows where focus is most required, and it results in an arc filled with action with very little fluff. The tone is mostly light-hearted, as it IS a school-event after all, but there are still several fights with more emotional stakes behind them. Midoriya and Todoroki’s conflicting ideologies on what it means to be “number one” come to a head in their fight as Midoriya tries to help Todoroki come to terms with his family issues, while Uraraka’s fight with Bakugo is a lesson in how grit and determination doesn’t always win the day. 

It’s an arc wherein there are no inherent stakes, but every victory is still important and every loss is absolutely crushing for the cast. Compare how the losses Uraraka and Yaoyorozu affect them and instill a desire to improve to Tien being knocked out of the Tournament of Power. No one cares. While the Universe Survival Arc DOES have some standout moments to allow certain characters to get a bit more limelight, it’s remarkably unfocused and ultimately it’s all going to come down to Goku vs. Jiren, more likely than not. Whereas My Hero Academia is bold enough to NOT have its main protagonist win the tournament, or even get to the final round, and was a lot more even in its focus of the cast.

That’s not to say that Dragon Ball Super doesn’t have some good moments. I’ve been dancing around it, but the Goku Black arc felt like a step in the right direction. It had better established emotional stakes and spent time developing its main villain, with a climax that felt quite a bit more earned than arcs before or after it. On top of that, there are a number of one-off episodes that are often either hilarious, or heartwarming in their own way. There are some fighters introduced in the tournament arcs that DO make for some interesting fights, and it is clear that Toei Animation IS trying. But with over 111 episodes under its belt at the time of writing, I feel that’s come too little too late. At least for me.

It having so many episodes is a testament to the fact that, despite what I think, there are clearly people out there that like what they see. And I understand that. I grew up on Dragon Ball Z, same as any ‘90s kid. My friends and I would shout “Kamehameha!” at each other in the playground. We’d buy up the games, rent the movies, and practice the Fusion Dance. I’m sure a large portion of Super’s fanbase grew up on Dragon Ball and carry a great deal of nostalgia for it, and in a lot of ways, Super scratches that itch for more. It can make fans “feel like a kid again!” I can understand the idea of “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” The fear that any sort of “update” or “change” from the original can shatter that which fans held so dear. But with so much time in-between the series, and so many glaring flaws that could be addressed, I’m reminded of a similar revival that happened earlier in 2017.

Samurai Jack was a Cartoon Network original show with plenty of flashy action and stylish animation. It was rather popular for a time, running for four seasons. A show in which Jack traveled the word, helping people, making friends and enemies, all with the goal of defeating the villain Aku and returning to his own time, preventing the bad future Aku had created. It ended before it ever got a true conclusion and for 13 years fans were left wondering what an ending would be like. And then we got it. A ten episode “miniseries” of sorts, this fifth season gave a definitive end to Jack’s tale and I can’t help but compare this miniseries to Super as a whole. For the issues I might have with the final ten episodes of Samurai Jack, I respect it as a series far more than Super. Genndy Tartakovsky and Cartoon Network realized after 13 years, that the series would have to update a few things and step up their game. It could not afford to fall behind all that had happened in that gap in time.

They realized their audience had grown up, and the show matured as well. Not in the “bloody, sexy and vulgar” way, but it did have noticeably darker themes in its narrative. After four seasons of episodic stories, it evolved to have a more serialized structure in order to give us a definitive end. It offered us insight into Jack’s inner struggles, and continued to show us this wonderful fantastical world that had been created. There is value to this show’s continuation. We gain closure, development for Jack, a new protagonist in Ashi, and action and style that keeps the spirit of the original show. I was disappointed by some aspects of it, sure, but I came away happy to have watched it. Happy to have that closure and feeling I had gotten something out of it.

As I look at Dragon Ball Super, I feel remarkably empty about it. I don’t care about Beerus, I don’t care about Goku finding a way to add Kaioken X 20 to Super Saiyan God Super Saiyan, and I don’t care about the Tournament of Power. I feel as indifferent to it as I did to the later movies, to GT and the countless video games that came out after the series finally “ended.” While it’s more of a rumor than it is a proven fact, people often say that Toriyama tried to end the series multiple times after a while, and really, Dragon Ball does seem like it could have ended anywhere. The infamous power creep the series underwent assures us that eventually there’s nowhere else to go. Goku started the series fighting goofy carrot monsters and shapeshifting pigs, before fighting the equivalent of Satan with Demon King Piccolo, and then his son after that. Then, after growing up and getting married, it all could have ended….except Raditz showed up. Then Vegeta and Nappa, and then Frieza. Goku could have ended the series in space, defeating the strongest being in the universe and becoming a legendary Super Saiyan in the process. But there were these Androids, you see, and a boy from the future. And then, Goku’s son seemed fit to take over the throne as the world’s strongest by defeating Cell, but we had to have another timeskip to fight Majin Buu and give Goku one last time to shine. The series had plenty of opportunities to end, and for a time it did after the Majin Buu arc. But for it to come back now, it better have a good reason to. It needs to give viewers some kind of value, and I have to ultimately question…what does Super actually give us? Another palette swap for Goku? I think I’ll pass.

Dragon Ball Super can have its moments and really, if you liked the original show, there’s plenty to like here as well. The series feels like it’s resting on the laurels of its legacy, not content to continue to take risks or at least address its flaws. Toriyama can do better than this, Toei animation can do better than this, and ultimately, its fans deserve better than this.

Until next time,

-B