Welcome to the Fantasy Zone
This Zone is dedicated to the lesser known elements of anime hosted by the cast of Victory Script.
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You name it, it's all covered here in the Fantasy Zone!
I really hate having to talk about controversy but this needs addressing.
When it comes to success in the realm of geekdom, it comes with a few scenarios where 1% of said fanbase decide to make controversy about something stupid; this is fairly common in gaming, movies and comics with GamerGate and pretty much any film or franchise that experiments with trying different audiences to make sure everyone is included being prime examples. In anime it tends to spam around shows in the last couple of years being brought over for licensing in the States and not reading the current trends very well.
Here are a few examples.
Keijo was criticised for it's portrayals of women engaging in a game that revolves around using breasts and butts to knock each other into swimming pools.
Except there are practically no male characters and no one is forcing these girls to do this and the reviewer who called this out was already on their back foot when they said they haven't watched Free, another swimming themed anime with constant near naked men and the fact that no one ever brings up the harem genre in any sexism argument.
Then there was Goblin Slayer who received utter contempt for it's violence in the opening episode, except there have been far more violent anime and the writers made it clear that Goblins are assholes that all need killing, some even called it tame.
Getting stupider now and we now have Rising of the Shield Hero and the false rape claim, except it's made perfectly clear that Malty is a prolific liar who even tried to over throw her own family and when the creators heard about how the west saw it they replied, "It's not an issue over here"
Then there's the king of controversy Dragonball Super, I'm not going to talk about the Vic Mignogna case because if you can't be bothered to turn up to your own defamation court case then you deserve to have your career ruined but the aftermath meant that there are people going out their way to try and find controversy for pretty much any little thing they can get their hands on with one of the stupidest ones being the leaked gag reel in which the voice actors decided to record their characters acting out sex scenes; first of all this is nothing new, ADVFilms did it all the time and Ghost Stories was dubbed as a gag series on purpose, second it's no different to fans drawing pornography of characters and least we forget Japan has a Doujinshi market for pretty much any franchise and any taste, and finally most people don't really care to begin with.
To get to the point you are never going to find much controversy in any anime licensed in the west because it wasn't made in America and even if you hold all the voice actors accountable for their behaviour then they'll just not bother dubbing anime which in this day and age is a dying art as more and more people would rather watch the next best anime now than wait several months for a company to dub it into English.
I pray this is the last time I bring up one of these topics but in an age where people forget how to human, I won't get my hopes up.
Time for another character ranking, this time on DBZs Movie Villains.
This will cover the 13 original movies in the Dragonballz run, no specials or Super films, they will get a future rank, and main villain only, no lackeys.
Garlic Jr is the only villain who also appears in the main series and yet that was also filler. I best describe him as a roided Emperor Pilaf, a little incompetent when you realize he basically defeats himself.
Dr Wheelo there isn't much to him, a former scientist who just wants a body to steal, he surprisingly looks the least threatening.
Turles I wish was with Nappa and Vegeta, he's a brutal fighter with some vicious attacks.
Lord Slug is dumb with a dumb weakness, doesn't give nameks much to be proud of.
Cooler started as a more competent Freiza but ultimately became Freiza by the end.
Meta Cooler didn't feel like an upgrade as he was mass produced so his impact is not that great in the movie.
Android 13 felt like the Android final boss we deserved until we got Cell. Ruthless and brutal and punches Goku in the balls.
Broly is probably the best movie villain ever produced, it's no surprise he was built into the canon for Super but his motivation is pathetic.
Bojack having to follow Broly and 13 and the fact that it's another over roided character is just a tired concept by this point and we need some creativity.
Broly MK 2 is not what I meant, he feels less intimidating now and you kinda think that Gohan should've won.
Bio Broly is embarrassing nothing more.
Janemba thank you, you actually have a villain that is good enough to be canon and better than Majin Buu.
Hirudegarn felt like a homage to Toriyama's Chrono Trigger as it feels like a reject monster design, still it's rare to see a proper kaiju in DBZ.
Garlic Jr 6.8/10
Dr Wheelo 5.9/10
Turles 8.7/10
Lord Slug 4.3/10
Cooler 7.3/10
Meta Cooler 5.9/10
Android 13 8.5/10
Broly 8.9/10
Bojack 7.0/10
Broly MK2 7.2/10
Bio Broly 1.3/10
Janemba 9.6/10
Hirudegarn 8.0/10
Okay this has nothing to do with Dragonball Kai but I do want to talk about this part of the franchise.
Everyone knows how useless Yamcha is, he couldn't beat a Saibaman, outclassed by pretty much every fighter in the franchise, even when he does get screentime it pretty much ridicules him.
But a "What if" manga story puts Yamcha on center stage as he not only prevents his own death but completely changes history in the Dragonballz universe up to the end of the Cell Games.
This happens when a boy dies in the real world and gets reincarnated as Yamcha, but since he retained memories of the events of the whole of Dragonballz he sets about changing history by turning Yamcha onto a different path, agreeing to train with Roshi, preventing his own death and even going to Namek to have his potential unlocked.
It's a bizarre manga but it gives some sympathy to a character who is otherwise dead weight among a group of planet destroyers.
