My Media Pimp

[azurelunatic]

Figment (gods, I want him to get an LJ just so I can link to him) pointed out a crucial bit of the DragonBall series that no one had pointed out to me before: they're the adventures of Monkey, put in a format that will appeal to a Western/younger audience.

This, to the girl who read a six-volume translation of Journey to the West when she was twelve or so.

It now becomes necessary for me to watch these things.

He has succeeded where Darkside failed.

Comments

[easalle.livejournal.com]

Okay, good to hear there are more who think that way. I have been trying to tell Shaun that. He still will not read the book.

[azurelunatic]

The book is kickass. Very kickass. It would make great bedtime stories except for the racy parts.

[pyrogenic.livejournal.com]

DragonBall Z is probably the most boring thing I've ever seen on television that involved fighting and explosions.

I don't know in what possible universe dragonball could be considered geared for a western audience as it originally aired in Japan, based on Japanese manga, based "on the ancient chinese legend of the monkey king." (I just looked that up.) Perhaps he is referring to how it was edited for American television?

This is something in which ten minutes can take ten episodes to pass.

[azurelunatic]

Perhaps that's what he meant.

This clearly looks like an issue where I should ask That Idiot Shawn's advice on whether he thinks the series would appeal to me, because though Shawn is an utter twit, he does have enough of a grasp of my tastes to tell whether something will appeal to me or not.

[kokuten.livejournal.com]

I have to echo pyrogenic here. DBZ is so loosely based on the Tales of the Monkey (filed in brainspace as Legend of Goku, primary visual referent drawn from the Read or Die OVA) as to offer little or no similarity to the original, and no compelling reason to associate it with the original.

This isn't Monkey Lite. This is Extra Smooth Monkey Lite Raspberry Flavored Non Carbonated citrus-flavored beverage with artificial flavor, artificial color, and red #5.

And, looking back at that piece of hyperbole, it's not enough.

the Tale of The Monkey can be told as a thrilling and enjoyable story. DBZ is animated pablum for pre-teens and the mentally deficient.

Which is a shame, because the universe and the functional aspects of the combat system, as well as the cast of characters, could have provided a wonderful little story. Things appear to have gone wrong in early production, perhaps after the producer and director finished doing lines of pure crack off the decayed chest of the corpse of the original author of Tale of the Monkey

[azurelunatic]

Raspberry and citrus aren't two great tastes that go well with each other.

[tygerr.livejournal.com]

Dragonball? Is a retelling of MONKEY???

I am *so* glad that commenters to this post have assured me of the Abiding Awfulness of Dragonball *even given* a connection to the Monkey stories.

Because that MIGHT have been enough to get me to watch some. *ugh*

Monkey Rules!!

[azurelunatic]

So he does.

Do you think it permanently warped my brain that I read a translation of the entire thing when I was that young?