Top Gun

"First of all, nobody fucks Yamcha but life."

Heh, you think this is slow? Just wait.

A lot of these ads must be local-market things, because I can't remember seeing many lower-budget sorts recently.

It's funny how you still can't tell the difference between personal enjoyment and critical analysis.

Why not both? Watch the Japanese premieres during the week, and then keep up with the dubbed episodes on Toonami. (And people still watch current Shippuuden? It already finished the story and is literally just making shit up at this point.)

Toriyama founded his entire franchise on a literal deus ex machina. Even taking into account the long-form shounen given of "yeah they won't really die here," any sense of temporary drama or tension blissfully vanishes the moment one remembers that everything's just going to be undone as soon as the dragon's summoned. This works a lot better in the original Dragon Ball, which was light-hearted enough to almost cross into gag territory at times, but when DBZ rolls around and there are supposed to be these apocalyptic world-ending stakes being established, it just falls completely flat. Hell, even when Toriyama placed limits on the Dragon Balls' resurrection abilities, he then swiftly proceeded to emasculate them by creating a whole new set without those limits. Good news Krillin, you can keep getting offed indefinitely! (And dear sweet lord, Cell's final resurrection there. "So yeah, I survived my own self-destruction by sheer luck. And now I'm stronger than ever. And now I have Goku's magic teleporting. Because reasons." I could feel my individual brain cells melting.) As loath as I am to agree with moose, he raised an excellent point. Dragon Ball was an immensely influential series that made Toriyama a household name and spawned myriad descendants. But at least in the DBZ portion...it barely has what one could consider a plot. Everyone's either fighting the big baddie, or in some sort of contrived training to face the next big baddie. There's no meat whatsoever on the narrative skeleton. And yes, it does nail the rare moment of awesome that hits home for your inner 12-year-old, but beyond that there's really nothing to recommend it beyond nostalgia. Future shounen series took what Dragon Ball spawned and did so much more with it, providing actual world-building and long-form character development and a general sense of being able to sink your teeth into them. Whether it's One Piece or Hunter x Hunter or Naruto or...well maybe not Bleach, but you get the idea.

Akira Toriyama's been drawing the same freaky-looking faces for a few decades too.

The decision's an obvious one. But after doggedly avoiding DBZ for so long, now that I'm forcing myself through Kai I have to describe it as nothing less than weaponized dumb.

This is gonna hurt my thinky parts, isn't it?

...wait, it was down?

And then they'd hit a salt and vinegar one and murder you.

Do what I just did (for something else, anyway) and import it from the UK. Even with having to buy a multi-region player you'll still come out on top financially.

Man, calculus is awesome. Easily my favorite part of math. Differential equations, however, can eat several dicks.

Because this thread pre-dates nuToonami by about eight years, and the old Toonami folder was godawful?

Roses are red Violets are blue Omae wa mo Shindeiru

Um, this has nothing to do with the MPAA. It costs actual money to get movies in theaters, and anime is a very niche-audience sort of thing that's never going to warrant a wide release.

Huh, I wonder if that was some sort of selectable option. I'm almost certain clicking on the thread title just jumped to the OP for me.

Lithium didn't work that way, did it? Like I'm almost positive there was a little "jump to first new post" icon.

I'm an old man now and usually can't make it through the whole block live without conking out, so nah, I don't think it moves too fast. Fortunately that's what DVRs are for.

Eh, the separate button is a pretty standard forum thing, and personally I think it's nice being able to still access the OP without being automagically whisked away to the most recent post.

"The Vegeta store called, and they're running out of YOU!"

I thought the Internets collectively murdered image sigs around 2005.

And nothing of value was lost.

Trunks is a collective delusion of disturbed minds.

Apparently this board does need a sarcasm detector, at least.