Anime: Muscles, Plot Holes and Contradictions

The above photograph was added for no reason other than the fact that I find it incredibly amusing and it's somewhat relevant to the article. Fuck you if you don't like it, that's brilliant.


You know among my two favourite Anime are Yu Yu Hakusho (My top #1 most favourite Anime of all time) and Dragon Ball, the original Dragon Ball. Not Z, I like Z but not enough to consider it a 'favourite', I'm very critical of things I like too and it's because of this that recently I'd been thinking.. There are a lot of goddamn plot holes and contradictions in Dragon Ball and especially Z and when it comes to muscles? Dear god. Abominations.

Can I just point this out? In Dragon Ball the muscles were more realistically proportioned.. Sure there were moments when someone would use a super special technique like Muten Roshi's 'True Full Power Kamehameha Wave' but more often than not normally the muscles looked like muscles I could see being realistic. They weren't goddamn abominable aberrations that seemed to sprout up as kraggy masses of unnatural flesh and meat which had been eerily injected into the characters extremities.

Notice the aforementioned kragginess of the muscles? Not only that but compare Toriyama's work in Dragon Ball to his later work in Z of the same character, Tien Shinhan;

Tien Shinhan from Dragon Ball whose muscles are far more realistically defined, smooth and organic and then Tien Shinhan from Z;

Whose muscles had become over grown unnaturally masses of meat which jutted out with such kraggy sharpness that I became convinced that they may either 1. Burst his skin or 2. Cut someone else when they got too close. Muscles DO NOT work like that!

That's one of the reasons I liked Yu Yu Hakusho's artwork over Z's and Dragon Balls is because consistently in most situations even the main characters musculature remained more realistically defined and proportioned.

The main character is usually the character to receive an insaneo muscle upgrade but Yusuke throughout the series retains a muscular but realistically proportioned frame even when he powers up to his full Yokai form which is supposed to be his 'max power'.. But then for every Anime there's that character, even Yu Yu Hakusho had one whose muscles were such abominations they mutated into tree-bark like appendages on his damn body.. I am of course speaking of Younger Toguro;

 To be fair though, this was literally Younger Toguro's special ability so I'm not sure if this example really counts.. This was literally his special power, percentages of musculature and power increase which caused him to transform until eventually he reached the point of 'kraggy tree barkiness' that you see displayed in the third example.

All I'm saying is compare the two series side by side. Look at Vegeta here, his biceps are literally fucking pointed.. Who in gods name has pointed, jagged and sharp fucking biceps? Even the most defined of muscles are smooth and organic looking! It's like the spikiness of his hair as a Super Saiyajin infected the rest of his body or granted him something like vorpal goddamn muscles.

But it's not just muscles, it's also plot holes. Specifically in Dragon Ball and Dragon Ball Z that irritate the hell out of me.. Shall we go over the most obvious?

• The Alleged 'Children of Piccolo Daimao' and the fact that Piccolo Daimao originally introduces himself as a DEMON, not Namekseijin. Some would argue that this is simply because he lacked the knowledge of his alien origin but I submit this.. If he were meant to originally be Namekseijin, why do his spawn look nothing like Namekseijin? Have you ever seen one that looked like any of these lot? No you haven't because Cymbol, Tambourine, Drum nor Piano look anything like goddamn Namekseijin. What the hell?!
• Korins Tower and Kami's Lookout can only be reached by climbing.. Which is a cool trick because later on in Z goddamn Bulma of all people flies a fucking plane up that bitch. What happened to having to climb?!
• The use of the word 'Senzu Bean', I've bitched about this before and I'm gonna again, DEAL WITH IT. It drives me CRAZY because 'Senzu' in and of itself means 'Holy Bean', saying 'Senzu Beans' is like saying 'Holy Bean Beans', THE FUCK?! And as someone who speaks Japanese this drives me insane because I hear them say this and I just want to headbutt them.
• Ever notice how the Dragon Balls only seemed to have 'rules' and the Dragon only seemed to bitch about being limited by the creators power when it was a plot device in the story and otherwise.. Well.. Fuck the rules? Yeah.. I'll point this out, the Dragon has the power to revive races who have suffered complete genocide, reform entire planets, grant immortality, restore youth and all sorts of other crazy shit. Precisely when did Kami or any other creator of the Dragon/Dragon Balls ever display the slightest hint of having this sort of power? In fact they seemed weak by comparison. I calls bullshit, the Dragon is just lazy. Also why not just wish a goddamn villain away?
• It was caused because the series was meant to end at the Frieza Saga but one thing that's always irked me in the Anime is that specifically Son Goku is shown at one point at the end of the Saga to have been on Nameksei the moment of it's explosion and therefore to have died except when they decided that the series was going to continue due to popular fan demand we were shown another version of what happened which just doesn't meld with the previous.
• Saiyajin can't breathe in space. Except for all the times they obviously do.
• Majin Buu turns people to candy/foods, chews them up and thereby kills them except for when he eats someone he evidently wants. Some how the 'rules' change then and they're transported into his body where they are encapsulated by 'people pods', yeah. Bullshit.
•  Battle Powers in Dragon Ball Z are completely unrealistic as well, this isn't so much a plot hole as a gripe for me. It's another reason why I thought Yu Yu Hakusho was superior, even at their strongest the characters were only capable of devastating cities however in Z and even in Dragon Ball in fact Muten Roshi whose Battle Power is said to have only been a little over 200 at the point in Dragon Ball during the 21st Tenkaichi Budokai when he destroyed the entire fucking moon with a single goddamn blast, that's a bit over powered. Then we get to Z when characters seem to have the ability to annihilate entire planets and sometimes fucking whole galaxies with a single action. Goddamn.

And Dragon Ball Evolution? The Live Action movie?

Mother.. Fucker...

Dinner:

Oh yeah and you bet I'm proud of tonight's dinner, it's really something special and I branched out a bit for it. Yaita Sakana (Baked Fish) it's a beautiful filet baked in a delicious Creamy Japanese Sauce along with Mushrooms and Carrots all on a bed of Steamed Rice with a Sweet and Salty Caramel Anpan accompanying it.

God.. Damn.. Beautiful!

I gotta say I'm extra pleased with how this came out, it cooked perfectly and presentation wise I don't think I could have done better.