Dragon Ball Z Uncensored

[Vinny]

What is YOUR TOP FIVE, SPAMDINI?

Hell, WHAT IS EVERYONE'S TOP 5?

1. Jojo's Bizarre Adventure
2. GANTZ
3. Hajime no Ippo
4. Berserk
5. Fist of the North Star

Only the first three were easy to choose. 6 for me would have been in Mad Bull.

[Theldorrin]

Just television shows and manga? Or are you including movies?

[Vinny]

Permanent injuries would be awesome for certain manga. Guts has tons of scars but they really seem tossed on there randomly since it's easy to argue that every inch of Guts has probably bled at one point.

Vagabond (by the SLAM DUNK guy) is a samurai manga that has really awesome art. An interesting thing about it is that every wound the main character receives a scar that lasts through the rest of the manga. Of course, it's semi-realistic so he hasn't got slashed many times, but still.

Vagabond would be better if the guy lost a finger and he contemplated exactly how much speed his DOWN SLASH because of it and then him having to devise a new technique to compensate.

[Seru]

Anyway, the HOLY IRON CHAIN KNIGHTS arc and the apostle slaughter are far from average.

And the reunion on THE HILL OF SWORDS.

Basically everything after Roshinu up to that point, really.

Oh, and Slan in the Qliphoth!

And the harbour battle against Ganishka!

Fuck you, Spamdini.

[Vinny]

I just don't think BERSERK has as much appeal as its fans think it does. I mean, I like it a lot, but I remember being bored an uninterested after the Mozgus stuff until SLAN SHOWED UP. Before that I was bored and uninterested until MOZGUS showed up, and before that I started reading because I wanted to see what happened after the Eclipse.

Right now I've been bored this whole time and I really didn't get even a 20th as excited as the rest of the board did when Guts rode Zodd.

Regardless, the Mozgus stuff alone beats 95% of manga in existence.

[Seru]

Says the guy with Gantz in his top two.

[Spamdini]

I mentioned it earlier, but it's:

1) Fist of the North Star
2) Dragonball

Then Jojo, Ippo and Baki in no particular order. For the sake of an order let's make iiiiit...

3) Hajime no Ippo
4) Grappler Baki
5) Jojo's Bizarre Adventure

Jojo loses marks for everyone looking really faggy, but the other two are essentially tied for 3rd in my book. Ippo got the honor of being 3 because it has a much better anime and because some of the later raw scans of Baki look like the later story arcs are a little lame.

[Magic Juan]

My top 5 right now is:

1. Dragonball Z
2. Jojo's Bizarre Adventure
3. Hellsing
4. Fist of the Northstar
5. Gundam Wing

[Spamdini]

Griffith is fighting a cloud man! Doesn't that sound exciting?! I can't wait to read the conclusion to that epic sometime next February!

[Vinny]

I don't know, GANTZ has almost always been interesting to me but that might just be my sensibilities. I was so enamored with the series that I remember shitting my pants over the issue where the Tanaka alien first appeared, just walking around and nothing really happening for 18 pages.

[Magic Juan]

I've haven't read/seen a lot of anime, manga I guess.

[Vinny]

There's really no reason to read things outside what is recommended here.

[Magic Juan]

Gundam Wing is pretty gay but my nostalgia for it is powerful enough for me to include it.

[Yogurtman]

Magic Juan, it really pains me as a Gundam fan to see anyone put Gundam Wing in their top five anything.

Gundam Wing is not good.

My top five MANGA would be
1. Berserk
2. Fist of the North Star
3. Rurouni Kenshin
4. Jojo's Bizarre Adventure
5. 20th Century Boys

Dragonball is not listed because I processed it primarily in anime form.

I honestly think Guts and Griffith (or at least pre-Eclipse Griffith) are the two most interesting, well-developed anime/manga characters I have ever seen. I mean, when Griffith goes to have sex with Charlotte after he loses to Guts, IT'S NOT IMMEDIATELY OBVIOUS TO THE READER WHAT HE IS THINKING. That is amazing and almost unprecedented.

[Seru]

I guess I should have thought twice before discussing the merits of storytelling with a Fist of the North Star fan.

Shove it!

[Vinny]

Actually, I think Berserk is really well-developed despite the fact that you could open a random page and see five severed heads spinning wildly above a cloak-shrouded Guts.

I was talking to Rice the other day about how, if I had to make a Berserk movie, what I would cut out. He got mad when I said I'd cut out the OPENING MANGA SCENE where Guts fucked a monster. I said it was just put in there to make Guts looks badass but it's the kind of thing that betrays what the author is trying to do now (in summary, it's bizarre to start off such an epic story with Guts plowing the Queen from Aliens).

He seemed more concerned with all the VIOLENT AWESOME SHIT where I said I'd cut out things like the Count arc since shit really didn't move along in that. When he said shit like that IS THE STORY, I said that he was clearly REACHING HIGHER. The example I used was when Guts sees Griffith reborn for the FIRST TIME. A lesser writer would have used this time for Guts to degenerate into his RAGE, INK STREAKS EVERYWHERE MODE that he's done approximately five hundred times in the series (except maybe making it last 10 pages).

INSTEAD, he does that only for a PANEL, and then the RAGE gradually RECEDES as the CAMERA rotates to reveal Caska BEHIND HIM. It was masterfully done, in my opinion.

[Theldorrin]

You people seem to like things because of the violence, rather than in spite of it.

[Seru]

Don't forget, he had to kill that thing to avenge Corkus.

Come on!

[Yogurtman]

Everything in that post is absolutely true, and that is why Berserk stands above most (all?) other manga.

The fact that the VIOLENT PARTS are fucking awesome doesn't hurt, though.

[Seru]

Cut out the COUNT arc?

That would eliminate the first appearance of Puck!

And retarded demon fetus!

AND FUCKING GOD HAND!