The truth is that I watch a lot of anime, and read a little manga. The manga I do not consider as literature per se, but please do not take that as an insult: I think that the manga is in a unique category by itself, since it is not about comics, nor books in a traditional way, but something different and special altogether. I see these amazing stories, either in mangas or in their anime version, and I am always flabbergasted, how these genius can come up with these amazing stories.
I’m reading the Saint Seiya manga at the moment, also known as the Knights of the Zodiac, and as for anime, I recently finished watching Hokuto no Ken (part I and II) and I’m watching Detective Conan and Dragon Ball Super. Recently I also started Reading and watching One Punch Man… what an amazing story and characters! On the weekends, I try to watch some of the important movies in the anime universe. Like Princess Mononoke, and all films from the Ghibli Studio. Recently I watched “Your Name”. I have a list that I found online with the best 100 anime movies in history … I still have about 70 ahead.
A couple months ago, I started re-reading Dragon Ball from scratch, until its very end. The catalyst was a YouTube video showing some scenes of Goku and Krillin training with Master Roshi. I continued reading until I found Dragon Ball Super, as I said before, and since the series is still ongoing, I’m waiting for new chapters to be aired (or published).
I don’t know if I mentioned this already, but I’m a great fan of Sherlock Holmes and Conan Doyle. Not only have I read the books, but I also love the Sherlock series in which Benedict Cumberbatch is Sherlock Holmes himself. I also recommend the Sherlock Holmes audio book series in German; if you can understand German, they are marvellous. The voice actor who plays Sherlock does a lot of dubbing on German television and also appears in many advertisements. The stories are the same as always, with some new ones, as well, but all in the form of a dialogue, which gives a different imprint to the characters. All this to say, that I am also reading the Sherlock Holmes manga, which take the Cumberbatch portrayal as a base. If you don’t know what I am talking about, run to google and type “Cumberbatch manga”. You can thank me later.
Good stories motivate me, because they show me that extreme, that imaginary goal that could be called perfection, to which one can aspire, or at least get as close as possible, if the writer / poet / painter (you name it) works hard at his art.
However, bad stories motivate me even more. It happened to me not long ago, watching Game of Thrones, famous for obvious reasons, but its ending disappointed me terribly. That showed me that a story doesn’t have to be good from start to finish to be good, or become popular. I also have a long list of animes that weren’t great either, but, in order not to hurt susceptibilities, I will only mention examples if there is a discussion about it in the comments section.
For that matter, I do not like to say that «I do not like» something in a blunt and final way, as many do on twitter, for example, trying to be offensive to people who do like that series. Just crying “I hate dragon ball”, and Goku defenders will come to the rescue with thousands of messages. Unfortunately, hatred generates more visits on the internet. That’s just click bait… Just to clarify, I really like Dragon Ball and it has defined my childhood … the manga is better than the anime, because it has fewer filler scenes and no repetition of fight scenes. You see? Non-destructive criticism.
Keep on reading, and watching series,
Questions to answer in the comments:
Do you watch anime or read manga? Any of those I mentioned in the post above? What manga or anime would you recommend? Please answer all these questions in the comments!
GG KLIMT 