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[Neyvn]

The more I watch Dragon Ball, the more I'm convinced the story is based off some heavily modified D&D game.

Isn't the story basically a really weird sci-fi pseudo-telling of Journey to the West?
Come on, the main character is even called Son Goku.

Just for those that ARE wondering, Hawkfrost is correct, Dragon Ball (the original manga) is heavily based off Journey to the West. Many of Goku's characteristics and abilities are based off the character Sun Wukong in the story, his flying cloud Nimbus, the Staff and his naive personality is all reflecting that. Even the fact that Goku has the Tail of a Saiyajin, a term which was not actually used in Dragon Ball I believe as that was an idea brought into the universe from that of Dragon Ball Z...
I think even the search for the Dragon Balls are spos to represent that of the artifacts used as the MacGuffins in Journey to the West...

[MorleyDev]

an immature audience who wouldn't know a healthy balanced relationship if it bit them in the arse and thus there is never self-awareness in how silly/stupid/insane/terrible the romantic interests are.

I'm gonna be honest, this describes like 95% of relationships that are focused on in all media. It's simply because conflict is central to a story, so healthy balanced = little conflict = boring. Some people like boring for their personal lives, but it's still boring to watch. Conflict is fun. Unhealthy, maybe, but a relationship that's like fireworks is still more interesting: Loud, explosive, and liable to maim you if you hold on too long.

[kaijyuu]

Personally I believe the best romance plots ARE the healthy ones; leave the conflict/etc for the rest of the story.


As a side note, there are plenty of examples of western romcoms that show healthy (if humorous) relationships. To do that they're pretty much stuck with the exact same formula for almost every movie, though...

[MorleyDev]

Actually, thinking about my favourite romance stories...Not quite sure if people'll agree it falls under healthy, but Fruits Basket is one of my favourite mangas of all time and the romances in that vary but the healthiest ones are the most interesting and focus of the plot (Kyo and Tohru, Yuki and Machi). But that's because the people in them (heck, everyone in that series!) all have some deep issues, and those relationships are a big part in their healing or coming to terms with those issues. The conflict is in them dealing with their issues, not the relationship causing them.

[Flying Dice]

That's the point, though. The relationships aren't a source of conflict, but something else is. A story without any sort of conflict isn't a story, and romances will either have (as in FB) relationships existing alongside the conflict or relationships causing the conflict. If the writer(s) decide on the former then the relationship(s) can run the whole gamut from completely healthy and boring to absolutely insane, but if they're relying on the relationship to be a source of drama and conflict it is inherently necessary for it to not be entirely healthy or stable.

It's like ranting about how stories are written with an absolutely unrealistic concept of, say, war. It's completely absurd for the fate of millions of people to be decided by two champions dueling with their super special powers, rather than by hundreds of thousands of soldiers killing each other, and yet it happens all the time in fiction because it is interesting.

If every story ever written portrayed realistic, normal situations then nobody would read, watch, or play anything, because they could easily get the exact same experiences in their own lives. That's what fiction is all about, presenting things that are explicitly out of the ordinary in one way or another (for the most part, anyhow), and objecting to fiction for being fictional seems just a tad silly.

[Neonivek]

Well Fruit Baskets wasn't a story about a bunch of good healthy ordinary people.

It was about a clinically depressed girl who likes to pretend she is happy, who through her utter selflessness of spirit and ability to project her cheeriness onto others manages to heal a wounded family with deep psychological issues.

Yet honestly the final nail in the ship SS.Wonderful was that she didn't feel entirely like a solo act. She was actually surrounded by the friends she have made and they would often say to people "No she is putting on a brave face, this is actually something you need to talk about".

Very few of the relationships in that story were healthy but that was the point.

TO ADD!!! My usual complaint about weird animes I watch is that I always expect them to fully explore the concepts they put forward because that was why I decided to watch them in the first place3, but they always tend to skirt around it or ignore it completely (A world where everyone can summon sword that causes explosions, where the social implications is that no one really cares about sword hands... *Clap* *Clap*). Fruit Basket however doesn't shy away from how being unable to touch the opposite sex without turning into an animal would do to you psychologically and takes that one step further.

[MorleyDev]

Yeah, the best of any media tackle those implications. The best comic books are often the ones to tackle the psychology and social weirdness of Superheroes and a world with them (Watchmen, Kingdom Come), the BBC Sherlock tackles and addresses a lot of the problems a man like Sherlock faces socially, as you said Fruits Basket tackles the issues that kind of curse would cause. Deconstructions and Reconstructions are popular for a reason, they don't ignore this kind of thing and instead address and incorporate it.

[Carnwennan]

Hiya, anime thread! VN's get discussed here too, right?

I have been working my way through VN's from the most popular list on the vndb (mainstream ftw! ), and I was wondering what order I should be playing/ reading the muv-luv series in? Alternative is literally the best rated VN on the site and I wanted to give it a go some day, but I don't want to spoil myself if I end up liking the characters and wanting more .

Other than that, any recc's on what I should have a look at? I have read (off the top of my head) all KEY VN's bar rewrite and kanon (fakeedit: oh! and Air); finished Steins;Gate a few hours ago; Saya no Uta was done last week, as was Katawa- and Karano- Shoujo. Hey, it's summer break; I have lots of free time that I should be spending socializing (or so my classmates would have me believe).

[Vector]

Hatoful Boyfriend.

[Furtuka]

Hatoful Boyfriend.

+1 for genuinely non ironic reasons

[Tellemurius]

Liar-soft's What a Beautiful series are amazing reads and very gritty.

[Neyvn]

We talking bout Romancy Anime/Manga???
Welp here we go...

Last Game - http://mangafox.me/manga/last_game/
Site Blurb -
 Yanagi's dad is a president of a large hotel, he himself is handsome and clever, always wins the favor among girls. Moreover, he's always on the top of class and champions in all sports meetings when he was in primary school. But after he met Kujou, a transfered student, he had never savored the taste of victory in any single match with this girl for ten years. "Let's bid for final victory, Kujou." There here comes the last game. Will Yanagi fall in love with Kujou while he hates his competitor but cares so much about this girl?

Personal Blurb -
Quite a cute story, Boy is Wealthy and Popular with ladies even at a young age. Girl is Independent and Oblivious to Social situations due to being brought up by her Single Parent Mother...
Boy attempts to impress Girl who doesn't even realize she is completely putting him in his place, just being honest. Boy spends rest of his life trying to make girl fall in love with him then accidentally falls in love with her. Stupid Romancy stuff happens...
Still good read...

Horimiya - http://mangafox.me/manga/horimiya/
Site Blurb -
Hori may seem like a normal teenage girl, but she's a completely different person after school. In her workaholic parents' absence, Hori has been like a parent for her little brother since she was young herself. Between taking care of her brother, feeding them both, and housework, she doesn't have much time for a usual teenage social life. One day, she meets someone else who does not present his true self at school: a quiet, glasses-wearing boy called Miyamura. She'd assumed he was bookish, and possibly an otaku, but Hori couldn't have been more wrong. Outside of school, Miyamura is a friendly guy with many piercings, and he's not very good at academics. Now the two of them have someone with whom they can share both halves of their lives!

Personal Blurb -
Hidden Identies for these Highschool characters. One is a "Stay at Home Mum" for her little brother, meaning that she never really has time for anything a teenager should be doing. The other appears to be a Loner Otoku but is in fact 3x more attractive then any other male in the school, is skilled baker due to family business and has more tats and piercings that would put a gothkid to shame. Yet he doesn't put anything on in ways of his presence at all. These two discover eachothers secrets then start hanging out with eachother cause no one else knows about their true selves... Do they get together......... Kinda...

Now for something NSFW...
Minamoto-kun Monogatari - http://www.mangahere.com/manga/minamoto_kun_monogatari/
Site Blurb -
Minamoto-kun has a face pretty enough to make people think he's a girl. Because of his face, he was bullied by the girls in middle school who were jealous of his face. He developed a fear of women due to the trauma and he ended up attending a high school for boys. Just as he enters college and makes a promise to himself to overcome the trauma of his past, his father remarries and asks him to move out of the house. His father arranges him to live with his aunt (Minamoto-kun's father's younger sister) for the time being. She is an extremely beautiful woman who is also a non-tenured professor at his college. When he arrives at her apartment, she shows him her breasts and tells him that he will be her "guinea pig" in her reverse Hikari Genji project.

Personal Blurb -
This is one of those Manga that you get embarrassed for the character. The Site Blurb is a better explanation of this manga, but if your interested in what I gotta say, read on. Virgin Boy ends up living with his Aunt who is also a Uni Teacher for one of his classes. The woman is and 9/10 in hotness and knows it, torments the boy in a study. Using him as the main character in her project to emulate an old Japanese Story about a young noble much like her nephew. But is it just that or is she trying to help him become more a man then he really is, cause damn, this kid is pathetic. Once again. NSFW. Gets quite Raunchy most of the time but nothing too explicit, well until the latest chapter out anyway...

[Neonivek]

Minamoto-kun Monogatari

Dang that reminds me of another romance (sort of) about a Teacher in a fictional China who is asked to live in the Emperor who is rumored to be gay.

It is kind of interesting in that it actually has a real plot that she is BARELY a part of, for a main character she is more of a pawn in everything then an actor, but it almost feels like it is just context for the romance.

[Tellemurius]

Minamoto-kun Monogatari

Dang that reminds me of another romance (sort of) about a Teacher in a fictional China who is asked to live in the Emperor who is rumored to be gay.

It is kind of interesting in that it actually has a real plot that she is BARELY a part of, for a main character she is more of a pawn in everything then an actor, but it almost feels like it is just context for the romance.

Oh God Botato's site have hilarious comments for that manga XD
lets just say the last chapter was a field day for people.

[Chaoswizkid]

-snip-

Have you looked into Nasu's works? Fate/stay Night and Tsukihime?

-snip-

Neyvn, I just want to thank you for posting all these little preview things and exposing people to some somewhat (or completely) obscure stuff that they might like. You're an awesome person for that.