“I enjoyed the hell out of this. Which I guess could be a sorta problem.
Here’s the thing. There’s some pretty weird, sexist stuff in here. Now, I should be clear. These were originally published in the early 80’s, which is when I was a baby, and they were published in Japan. Do old sensibilities excuse racist/sexist material? And what about a foreign sensibility? And what about the combination of both?
I don’t know. I honestly don’t know. But here’s what I did: I took note of it, I wouldn’t say I cared for those portions, and then I let myself enjoy reading.
There’s a perverted old man, and although he’s kinda gross, the other characters ALSO seem to find him kind of gross and outlandish. There’s some non-nude-nudity, which it turns out was nude-nudity until it hit the western world, at which point most of it was censored. They also censored some other stuff. I guess the characters have a penchant for flipping the bird, which was edited out.The name “Mr. Satan” was changed to “Hercule.” Guns were turned into laser guns, which I guess we’re cool with for whatever reason.
I’m actually knee-deep in a book by the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund regarding Manga, book challenges, and where western culture and Manga tend to disagree. I wish I was a little further because I think it would give me much better perspective on the whole thing. From my limited manga reading, I suspect that the old pervert is a not-uncommon manga character, or at least a character that shows up a lot more in manga than does in western counterparts.
Which is kind of interesting, when you think about it. I mean, western comics certainly don’t shy away from drawing a scantily-clad woman. I think we’d be lying if we said that this was just some sort of coincidence, that the artists drew them this way without even thinking. But where we’ve chosen to draw the line is having characters comment on it. Yes, today that’s happening more and more, but I’m talking 1984 here. I remember reading the Phoenix Saga, for example, and there was a weird, bodice-bustin’ romance-y sequence, but the whole thing felt pretty chaste, even to a young Pete who knew as much about sex as…well, he knew just slightly less than adult Pete.
What I’m saying is, mainstream Western comics were remarkably sexless considering how sexy the drawings were.
Here’s another way sex is used in this book. The Goku character is basically a child raised by wolves. He hadn’t seen another person his entire life. So he struggles telling the difference between men and women, and he just walks up to characters and pats them on the groin. This is the most surefire method he’s come up with so far. Which in the comic, to me, feels very innocent and funny.
Oh, and you know what else? I just thought of this, but the lady nudity has been censored out for the western versions. But you see naked little boys every so often. Full-frontal, naked boys. It’s always because the characters are emerging from bathing or about to swim or something like that, but it’s definitely in there a few times.
I guess, in writing it out, I do feel like the nudity and the perviness and whatnot are played for humor in the book. That explains, to me, the boy/woman censorship inconsistencies. Male nudity is, in both the west and the east, often played for humor. Whereas lady nudity is seen as a more loaded subject in the west, certainly.
If it’s played for humor, I guess that means I have less of a problem with a problematic character or scenario. Maybe I don’t find the humor in it, but that amounts to a joke being funny or not more than it does a cultural criticism. Again, I’m only saying that in this specific instance. The world created in this volume is very interesting, very fun, and I have to say, I loved the ride. I think what I’m doing probably sounds like excusing bad behavior, but really what I’m saying is that I want to acknowledge that there’s an old pervert in here, say that it will probably turn off some readers, and say that I enjoyed the shit out of this book anyway.
It’s a little like dancing to a great song. You’re having a great time, you’re dancing like crazy, and then you catch the lyrics and realize the song is basically about climaxing on someone’s face. Is that problematic on some level? Definitely. Am I going to stop dancing? No. And not just because I’m drunk. Although, if I’m dancing, that certainly plays a part. “