Manga observation

[jeriendhal]

Flipping through this month's Shonen Jump and reading the latest installment of Hikaru No Go, I'm forced to confront a question. What the fnord is it with manga villians and their obsessions with being the "Best" at incredibly trivial life goals? Okay, Naruto wants to be the best Ninja, to overcome his stigma of being born of a fox demon. Luffy wants to be the best pirate because-- Well, he's an obvious loon, so it doesn't matter. Kaiba in Yugi Oh, OTOH who seem ready to go to murderous lengths to master a fucking card game? Who gives a rat's arse about beating him to save Grandpa's soul? Just call the damned police and get him arrested for attempted murder (you can't tell me all those murderous games in the "Death T" facility weren't taped for Kaiba's amusement.)

Okay, Hikaru No Go isn't the best example, given that Hikaru's obsession with finding out what the deal is with the nimrod kid who claims to know little about Go but can kick his butt is actually understandable. Nobody likes a shark.

Comments

[jvowles.livejournal.com]

Because it's more dramatic to want to be the best, than to want to be just *good*.

Re:

[jeriendhal.livejournal.com]

Yes, but I'm just waiting for some manga to come out about the cuthroat world of French cooking, and the two fourteen-year prodigies (one good, the other eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeevil), duking it out to become tops in the cooking world. It would all be (inconclusively) decided in the eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeevil (but fabouslusly rich) kid's deadly "Kitchen of Death".

Oh, wait. That's "Iron Chef". :)