1st Topic Discussion: Dragon Ball Z – Battle of Gods
Greetings readers of the AW blog this is Blitzzz147 here with our first anime discussion topic of the day, Dragon Ball Z - Battle of Gods: For those of you who are unaware or do not keep track of DBZ news here’s what’s happening, in late March of this year Toei Animation will be releasing the latest edition to the Dragon Ball Z storyline known as Dragon Ball Z: Battle of Gods. This is apparently a new movie being released in Japanese theaters that takes place a few years after the end of the Majin Buu Saga, our new villain Bills, the god of destruction has awoken from a long slumber and has heard rumours of a Saiyan warrior defeating the space tyrant Lord Frieza so he decides find and challenge our hero Goku. After meeting Goku Bills defeats him then ventures to Earth to find more worthy opponents, this causes all the Z fighters to challenge him, thus sparks a war between Bills and the Z fighters.
What interested me the most about this synopsis is the fact that Bills actually defeats Goku, seriously when I grew up I strongly believed that nothing could stop the mighty Goku and that he was just over powered among all beings, but I guess now we know that all it takes is a freaking god to beat him. But in all seriousness I have mixed feelings towards this new project because first of all, why are they releasing yet another DBZ movie over a decade after the end of the series? Of course then I thought “who cares?!? New DBZ is very good”, so with that I suffered mixed feelings. I also liked the title Battle of Gods which is stating that Goku has risen so high upon the pedestal that he has to be fighting gods now, what makes it more exciting is the fact that Akira Toriyama, the original creator and writer of the Dragon Ball and Dragon Ball Z series is also writing the story for this movie. The problem I have so far with it is the character design on the villain Bills which resembles a purple kangaroo-rabbit cross breed Egyptian which I find to be very off putting, then again I never liked the design of the Fat Majin Buu so I don’t have any real problems I guess. It’s also funny that everything Toei and Toriyama do now is to continue the story after the Buu Saga but not after the GT series; personally i am not a huge fan of Dragon Ball GT at all but it’s like they never include GT as canon since they keep adding these events that were never mentioned in GT.
And if they really insist on doing this then why was GT made in the first place, I mean you can’t expect me to believe that GT was a colossal waste of time and that the story was never in the main canon, cause if that were true then things like the Super Saiyan 4 never even existed. What bothers me the most is the fact that there actually continuing the story but not the series, if they’re really going to do this then at least start a new one with Akira Toriyama. Because really what else can be added, who else do we need to see, what more is there to be told, apparently Goku fighting the God of Destruction. But in my opinion I hope this movie is good, with all the new animation to work with I’m expecting it to be one hell of a masterpiece. With high hopes as always that DBZ will be revived one day.
2nd Topic Discussion: The Garden of Sinners Recommendation
Now our second Anime discussion for the day will be on Kara no Kyoukai - The Garden of Sinners: For those of you who do not live within the area of Japan most of you will not know what Garden of Sinners is, Garden of Sinners is basically an anime series however instead of being your typical tv series it’s actually a movie series. That’s right it’s a movie series, 7 films each with the length of 40 minutes to nearly 2 hours each, the main reason why I chose to discuss this topic is because I feel this series has been seriously underrated in the anime community specifically those living in the West. Though in some cases this can be understandable as the release order of the series does not follow in chronological order, to put it simply, it follows the act of the Baccano format where the beginning is the end, the end is the beginning and the middle is corkscrewed itself upon finding any meaning towards the actual plot.
The chronological order of The Garden of Sinners follows as 2, 4, 3, 1, 5, 6 and 7, so for those of you who are simple minded and casual anime fans I recommend you to watch the series in this order if you don’t want to get confused, however for those of you who prefer to solve puzzles and enjoy the format of the Baccano series I suggest watching it in release order instead. Sad to say that this series does not feature and English dub and there are many reasons why, firstly it would be the lack of completion within each film as they feel to be more like long episodes of an anime rather than their own movies. Secondly the lack of licencing, due to the fact that the audience would have to be expected to watch the whole series in which case there is no guarantee for that in the West. It was also interesting to find out that the studio was given the budget to make all 7 films and promise to make each one as good as the last however without following a chronological order, these sort of things are almost unheard of in the West as usually a studio would be given the budget to make one film and if that one turned out great then proceed with the sequels. However Garden of Sinners does not do this and instead begins half way into the overall plot with the audience left completely clueless to the events that are transpiring before them, characters are already developed, a story has been set but without the viewer ever getting to witness it from the start. Throughout the progression of the series links begin to tie, puzzles begin to fit and everything eventually returns to where it should be.
Now Baccano being one of my favourite anime series of all time, probably wouldn’t have become one of my favourites if it weren’t for the unique format it had, where the viewer must piece everything together and solved the mystery behind it all, an element that I strongly felt whilst watching Garden of Sinners. Another aspect to point out is the stunning animation that is used throughout the series, which was done by studio ufotable who were also responsible for another favourite of mine known as Fate/Zero; it is just pure splendour to the eyes and shows gorgeous scenery when there is no dialogue, the animation shines well within the action scenes which are one of the animes best points in the series. The soundtrack was amazing and was done by the famous Yuki Kajiura who is responsible for OST from Baccano and many others, the types of sounds ranging from the high speed action scenes to the slow relaxing moments are just breath-taking. (I would also like to add that I didn’t want to spoil the plot of this series merely because I want you to enjoy the experience more)
Overall I feel that this series now stands in my personal favourites especially in the theatrical side of things, and to the point of this discussion I recommend you watch these films if not for the story but for the animation as well because I guarantee you will not regret it, and with that I leave you ladies and gentlemen Blitzzz147 logging out.
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