Akira Toriyama Is Gone

Akira Toriyama, the creator of Dragon Ball, has passed away.

He was twenty-eight years old when the Dragon Ball manga was first published in 1984.

The Dragon Ball universe is such a legendary franchise of the Japanese manga and anime world that it’s hard to wrap one’s mind around this loss. Whether Dragon Ball was a favorite of yours or not, as an anime fan there’s no denying its impact around the world. People who never watched anime in their lives know who Goku and Vegeta are. Dragon Ball touched every part of the globe.

It could be said that Dragon Ball was the beginning of shounen manga, which of course led to the shounen anime shows so many of us love.

I came to the Dragon Ball universe through Dragon Ball Super, which I loved, after which I watched Dragon Ball Z and most of the movies. I have yet to watch the original Dragon Ball series (I didn’t mean to watch the series in reverse order - it just happened that way).

It’s the characters that I enjoy the most about Dragon Ball, wildly original characters like Beerus and Frieza, as well as main characters Bulma and Vegeta and Gohan and so many more.

The Dragon Ball story is epic. It was the original franchise-level story universe before there was Naruto or One Piece or any of the others.

The reactions are still coming in but I’ve seen comments from fans that are epic in their own way. People are mourning but also giving Toriyama-sensei the best kind of sendoff, like saying they’ll gather the Dragon Balls and call on Shenron to bring him back, or that he’s now in the Lookout heaven with Dende and Mr. Popo.

Rest in peace and power, Toriyama-sensei. Thank you for giving us your very best.

Funimation Is Finally Redundant and Fall Season Update

Hello again! It feels like a long time since I’ve posted.

I was distracted from the end of September until mid-October getting ready for a convention where I was one of the official authors. I had to order promo cards and arrange for my books to be sent to the convention, etc.

Now I’m back... and just today I took care of some leftover business with my anime subscriptions... namely Funimation.

Last year I wrote about the Crunchyroll-Funimation merger and how clumsily Sony was handling the whole thing. It took so long for Funimation’s catalog of titles to be transferred over to Crunchyroll that after a while I literally forgot about it.

I’ve done this before. I paid for a subscription to the Anime Network (anyone remember them?) back when they were the only site that streamed Zettai Karen Children (Psychic Squad). I kept the subscription long after I bought the entire series on DVD until I finally remembered to cancel it.

So after my convention was over and I had the time to take care of some things, I recalled that I still had my paid Funimation subscription and decided to check whether every series I cared about had been transferred to Crunchyroll by now.

I actually hadn’t logged in to Crunchyroll in months. Remember, my mainstay anime Boruto is currently on a long hiatus. The most recent cour of Bleach ended last month, but Bleach is on Hulu now and not Crunchyroll.

For years, logging in to Crunchyroll was a daily thing for me. It felt odd to log in again after months away.

It was a task to compare the Funimation and Crunchyroll catalogs. (It had been even longer since I’d logged in to Funimation.) I looked at my watchlists on both sites and tried to remember if there were other anime series on Funimation that weren’t on my watchlist but that I’d wanted to watch.

I’d kept the Funimation subscription mainly for four series: 1) Dragon Ball; 2) Junjou Romantica; 3) Hetalia; and 4) Heaven Official’s Blessing.

Funimation had all of the Dragon Ball series, while Crunchyroll only had Dragon Ball Super. I was relieved to see that Crunchyroll now has all of the Dragon Ball titles.

After I’d cross-checked that Junjou Romantica, Hetalia, and Heaven Official’s Blessing were now on Crunchyroll as well, I suddenly remembered The Prince of Tennis, one of my old favorites.

The Prince of Tennis has always been on Funimation but not Crunchyroll - or at least not consistently on Crunchyroll. However, the good news is that the whole series is now available on Crunchyroll... for the moment anyway. I get that licenses can and do end, but it’s good to know that Crunchyroll has it for the time being.

So I canceled my Funimation subscription today. I will be saving a whole $5.99 a month (lol). Well, it starts to add up if you include my now-deceased Netflix DVD subscription which was $7.99 a month.

And speaking of Netflix DVD... I was hoping that Netflix would have some kind of offer for loyal DVD subscribers after Netflix DVD bit the dust, something like a special discount for Netflix streaming for example. And then in early October I received an email from them that offered three free months for streaming with ads and $6.99 a month thereafter, which I’d say is a good offer from them. I also have a whole 12 months to accept the offer, which is cool.

Now that I’ve logged back in to Crunchyroll and updated my watchlist to include all the titles ported over from Funimation as well as everything I wanted to watch in the current season, I feel plugged into the animesphere again. And I have a ton of stuff lined up to watch.

I have to wonder when the Funimation site will be shut down for good. I’m not sure what it has these days that Crunchyroll doesn’t have. I hope people who still have paid subscriptions there will do what I did and cross-check their watchlists with Crunchyroll. Honestly, there doesn’t appear to be any reason to pay for both anymore.

Dragon Ball Posts - Art Styles and Character Designs

Dragon Ball. So where to start?

It might be best to start with the obvious. This blog is called Neo-Shonen Fujoshi. Note the “Shonen” part of the blog name.

(For the full reasons why the blog is called “Neo-Shonen Fujoshi,” click here. It has to do with Daryl Surat and Otakon and Fist of the North Star and Rurouni Kenshin and a number of other things...)

Shonen anime is—along with BL/yaoi anime—my favorite kind of anime. I love Naruto. Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood is brilliant, a work of art, unforgettable. I enjoyed watching Bleach and Gundam 00 and many, many similar anime series.

I’ve known of Dragon Ball all the years I’ve been an anime fan. How could I not? It’s one of the biggest story universes in all of manga and anime. And it’s shonen, obviously—right up my alley as an anime fan.

So why, until my accidental initiation into Dragon Ball at Crunchyroll Expo, did I avoid anything to do with Dragon Ball all this time?

Reason No. 1

You can call this the Old Animation Style reason. Early on, in the mid-2000s when I was first getting into anime, I took a look at Dragon Ball and its 1980s look and went “...” Plus, it seemed to be aimed at children. So I kind of turned away from it.

You could argue that Naruto is also aimed at children, and you’d be right, especially about the early seasons. But I saw right away that Naruto Uzumaki lived in a big world. There were the other ninja students, adult shinobis, a Hokage, other ninja nations, as well as powerful enemies with amazing and scary abilities. I saw Naruto’s bigger world, its increasingly expanding world of ninja lands, characters, villains—and had no problem saying yes to all of it.

But we’re discussing art styles, not anime for children versus anime for adults, so let’s get back to it.

I began my excursion into Dragon Ball by first watching Dragon Ball Super. In other words, I started with the Dragon Ball series with the most up-to-date animation quality. Now I’m working my way backwards through the universe, with the original Dragon Ball series to be the final series I watch.

I just finished Dragon Ball Z a few weeks ago. Through the progression of the 291 episodes, you can clearly see the changes in animation technology. By series end, the visuals are looking pretty modern, and could hold their own against many anime series of today.

But that’s not to say Z’s earlier episodes were shabby-looking. They weren’t. From what I can tell so far about the Dragon Ball setting, it takes place in Earth’s future, and considering Z’s first few seasons were broadcast in 1989, the futuristic cityscapes and other designs are very well done.

So while the dated art style initially gave me pause, it wasn’t the determining factor.

Then why did I avoid watching the Dragon Ball series all these years I’ve been an anime fan?

Reason No. 2

I think it may have come down to the character designs.

I like to think, as an anime fan, that I’m not that picky about characters’ looks. If the story is compelling, it has me.

That said—if the character designs actively turn me off, it’s another thing entirely.

Take Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure, for example.

I watched the first season of Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure. The over-the-topness didn’t bother me, the craziness didn’t bother me, but those faces really squicked my eye.

And not to start a fight with One Piece fans, but those character designs too...

In sum—there are a lot of anime series out there, and only so many hours in the day. Personal choice is always an individual thing as an anime fan: we gravitate toward what we already like.

Now specifically, which character designs kept me away from Dragon Ball for so long?

It certainly wasn’t the non-human characters. In fact, the aliens are the best and most memorable character designs in the Dragon Ball universe I’ve seen so far. Piccolo, Frieza, Cell and Majin Buu. Each character’s design is highly distinctive and unforgettable.

But my favorite aliens are probably...

I remember staring in fascination at Beerus while watching Super. He’s like a purple Egyptian pharaoh cat-rabbit god, if that makes any sense, while Zenou-sama, with those blankly-staring eyes and child’s voice, is equal parts unnerving and endearing.

And Chiaotzu! So adorable!

I haven’t watched the first Dragon Ball series yet, so I’m not sure what Chiaotzu is, but he doesn’t appear to be a regular human being.

So the non-human, alien character designs are great. What about the human characters?

The women in Dragon Ball are fine: Bulma, Chi Chi, Videl, et al. And the child characters are really cute.

Okay, so that leaves... Yeah.

That leaves the two main characters in the Dragon Ball world.

Taste is individual, as I said before. And no, I don’t need my anime protagonists to be handsome in the conventional sense, or any other sense, though I hardly think it would be a crime if I did.

No, I have to say it: Goku kind of squicks my eye, and so does Vegeta. Maybe it’s a Saiyan thing?

And when I was first watching Super, and saw Goku’s default clueless expression—eyes staring blankly, mouth hanging open—I was not too impressed. This is the hero of Dragon Ball? I wondered if maybe you had to watch Dragon Ball from the beginning in order to love Son Goku. Maybe you had to know Goku as a child first, be in his corner from day one, to really get him as a character. Because, after watching Dragon Ball Super and now Dragon Ball Z, I still don’t feel like I know who Goku is.

In a way, it was good that my gateway into the Dragon Ball universe was Super. In Dragon Ball Super, Goku’s universe of family and friends were such a large and interesting group of characters that it didn’t matter that Goku himself didn’t interest me.

And it’s a good thing too that I found so many of the characters likable and funny, and the story compelling, and the anime so much fun that it made watching Dragon Ball Z inevitable, or I would have missed out on some great anime watching otherwise.

So those were my reasons for avoiding Dragon Ball early on, but those reasons are gone now.

Next up on my viewing list: Dragon Ball, the original series. ;-)

The Greatest Magicmaster's Retirement Plan

Tadaima! I’m back again. And...

I have an announcement today. It actually explains, in part, why I haven't been able to update this blog for such a long time, to be honest.

I’m happy to announce that I am the series editor for J-Novel Club’s light novel series, The Greatest Magicmaster’s Retirement Plan!

Here’s the synopsis:

In a world where the Fiends run rampant... Magicmaster Alus Reigin, the young prodigy that has defeated more Fiends and reclaimed more of humanity’s lost territory than anyone else alive, requests retirement from military service at age 16. But due to the twists and turns of fate surrounding his status as the No. 1 Magicmaster in the nation—the top Magicmaster out of more than 100,000—he ends up as a student at a special magical institute, hiding his identity and training his successors – a pair of beautiful Magicmaster girls! Not to mention continuing to defeat Fiends in secret... Get ready—the epic adventure of the Greatest Magicmaster Alus Reigin begins now!

It sounds like an isekai story, but it’s not. From what I can tell so far, it’s actually not set on Earth. I guess we might find out in Volume 7 that it’s taken place in an alternate Japan all along (lol), but for now, this is set in a fantasy realm.

I’m really pleased to be a series editor again in this industry. If you haven’t visited J-Novel Club’s website yet, you should give it a try. Many of their titles are isekai stories, but they also have general titles you already know from mainstream anime and manga like Amagi Brilliant Park and Kokoro Connect.

Most recently, the publisher scored a major title: Full Metal Panic!

The site has not only translated light novels, but translated manga series. It’s a subscription-based site, but the first part of every title they publish is available free to read for non-members. Each week, a new part of each story is published, so it’s basically a serialization site. When the entire book has been published, it’s compiled and then made available for sale as an ebook, not only from JNC but also Amazon, the iBookstore, etc.

JNC has some good non-series standalone books too. I’ve written here before about Last and First Idol, which I thought was brilliant. I’ve been busy working on Greatest Magicmaster so I haven’t had the chance to try many of their series, but I fully intend to. I’m currently reading Amagi Brilliant Park on the site and enjoying it a lot.

I’m also enjoying Greatest Magicmaster. Working with a series in a focused way, such as being its editor, is a privilege. You become deeply enveloped in the world and appreciate its finer points.

The main character, Alus Reigin, starts off… well, it’s a bit hard to like him initially. He’s pretty arrogant, being the No. 1 Magicmaster and all. ;-) But it’s clear even from the first volume that this story will be about Alus developing the parts of his humanity that he never could before, having served in the military since the age of six.

And he’s not all he seems at first, either. Later on in the first volume, we see Alus’ compassion come out in a flashback scene, which implies that he’s had to bury his vulnerable side due to his huge burden of responsibility this whole time. He’s a multi-faceted character with hidden depths, and I’m looking forward to continuing to follow his journey.

If you’d like to try out The Greatest Magicmaster's Retirement Plan, the link is below.

Now for a little update on my anime-viewing activities... I’ve continued to marathon Dragon Ball Z, and am basically near the end. Majin Buu – evil Kid Buu – has been defeated, while Big Happy Buu survived (yes! and the puppy too). Earth has been saved by Goku and Vegeta and company, so I guess the remaining episodes will be kind of a long denouement.

I should have more time now for this blog and my writing blog, since I just turned in the final work on Greatest Magicmaster’s first volume. I’m still in the midst of finishing the edit of Homestead, and hopefully I’ll be able to release it at the end of April.

Working on Greatest Magicmaster, and getting through the initial learning curve at JNC, took so much of my time that I’m even behind on Boruto. Before this, no matter how busy my schedule, I could always manage to watch Boruto every week. Not to mention that I appear to have missed an entire anime season - Winter 2019. -_-

But I’ve already started on my first Dragon Ball post. As I said before, it’ll be an intermittent series of posts on random things about Dragon Ball that I want to talk about.

It feels like I'm always saying this, but... stay tuned! More posts to follow.

And here's that link to J-Novel Club:

The Greatest Magicmaster's Retirement Plan

Not the Winter 2019 Watchlist Post Yet

This is not the Winter 2019 Watchlist post. No, it isn't. Because I haven't had the time to really look at the offerings for the winter anime season. Because...

You might think I'm busy with work. I am. And that I'm busy finishing the edits on my latest novel, Homestead. I am busy with that, too.

You may even believe that I haven't been watching anime lately because I'm too busy with all these other things. But the truth is...

... Wait, what's that picture that just uploaded itself to my blog?

And who's that guy, anyway? Wait--

--Could it be that my new anime obsession is an anime that is THIRTY YEARS OLD??

I've written about how I discovered the Dragon Ball universe at last year's Crunchyroll Expo, where Vegeta's seiyuu Ryo Horikawa was a guest and I saw the final three episodes of Dragon Ball Super. Those episodes hooked me in, and I marathoned the series a month or so after I returned home from the convention.

I knew I wanted to continue watching Dragon Ball, but I wasn't sure how to proceed after that.

Finally, I decided to watch Dragon Ball Z. My impression was that it was the most popular of all the Dragon Ball series, at least here in the U.S., and that it would give me the background on the universe and characters that I wanted.

It kind of has, and kind of hasn't. First, I thought that Z would start with Goku as a child, but instead it begins with Goku and Chi Chi married and their son Gohan as a five-year-old.

Also, Goku already has his friends - Piccolo, Tenshinhan, Chouzu, and Krillen, plus the old turtle master Muten Roshi, and Yamcha, and Bulma and her scientist dad, and...

In other words, I didn't start back far enough. After I finish with Z, I'll need to watch the original series Dragon Ball. ;-)

In the meantime, I've marathoned the episodes up to the Cell arc. In the last episode I watched, Cell had just sucked up No. 18 and was entering his final transformation. (I hope I didn't spoil it for anyone. Wait, can one actually spoil a series that ran thirty years ago?)

Along the way, as I've watched Dragon Ball Super and now Dragon Ball Z, I've been introduced to famous characters whose names I've heard forever as an anime fan.

Son Goku!

Vegeta!

Piccolo!

Frieza!

This is the beginning of a number of posts I am going to write about the Dragon Ball universe and characters. It'll be an intermittent series of posts that I'll wedge in-between my posts about other anime and anime-related things.

So stay tuned! More Dragon Ball and other anime obsessiveness is on its way. :-)