Post by s***@comcast.netPost by Ping Kuonot one of my favorite.
what didn't u like? i thought this was one of the better series i've
watched, and i read a few chapters.
well...
you need to understand why it is one of the most popular series in
Japan in the first place.
Japanese salaryman is probably one of the most dysfunctional people in
the world, they took it from their customers, they took it from their
boss, at home they took it from their wife and kids, low pay and long
hours (adjusted to living standard.) it is a credit to the Japanese
culture that so few of them went on a rampages, which also partly
explained the high suicide rates of Japan,
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2002/10/04/1033538769464.html
they are so polite and considerate, (or well trained/beaten down,
depend on how you look at it.) even when they want to scream to let
their feeling out, manga depicted them timed it w/ airplane overhead so
they won't be a nuisance to their neighbors.
so this is a series that play exactly to the deepest, darkest desires
of every salaryman, which is chauvinism, machoism, nationalism, and
racism, as Kintaro took it to the bully boss, corrupted politicians,
egotistic foreigners, back stabbing co-workers, and every single high
strung woman he ever met,
I dislike "preaching" manga, I dislike propaganda disguised as
entertainment, which is why I took a very dim view of titles such as
Silent Service, Eagle, Zipang, and Spirit of the Sun, or the recent
trend of the Christian literatures that is popping up in bookstore's
sci-fi shelf, I dislike atory that try to led the readers on as if to
incite a riot by playing on their feeling and emotion, so in the end
they will be bended to a particular view w/o knowing that they are
being manipulated, no matter if I agree w/ that view or not in the
first place.
not to mention I don't think this is a well executed manga, period.
story can get bored and start to drag, then they lost readership and
forced to stop, very seldom do you read a title that can keep dragging
the same thing over a long period of time, (they can drag, but it had
to be different things.)
this one, every single arc is the same, w/ exactly the same solution,
and one of the most misunderstood fact of this series is this is no
GTO, where Onizuka solve problems w/ his super-nature shonen manga
body, this one Kintaro is exactly the opposite, that he as an
extraordinary person by Japanese standard, yet solving problem by
conform to social standard, by begging, by apologizing for his
outburst, by building relationship w/ people in position to help him,
etc. Not a single arc did he get what he wants by being a bad ass
biker, while the story seemingly are dissing corrupted dirty
politicians and backhand dealing businessmen, the way Kintaro solving
problem is exactly like those people by going backdoor and cutting
corners, only w/o the dirty money involved.
so in the end, you have a guy who could be the CEO of a major company
(Yamato Construction) and any women he wants, but he stays as a regular
salaryman because he "wants" to, not because he was forced to be one,
which I guess, must be comforting to all the salarymen reading it,
seeing there are cool people who want to be one of them, so it must be
a noble job, etc.
now I never watch the anime, and I guess the live action is probably
the best of them all for the simple reason that it is short, so it
can't drag, plus it toned downs the chauvinistic approach of the manga,
the manga is a different story, I start having problem w/ the dragging
by #10-15, and I think they just keep repeating itself until the
intermission, what, #26-28? they are so similar I hardly remember what
each story arc are at all, all the differences are just locations (need
a new arc? let's goto US.) and business type. a google search shows
that there are actually 11 more digital chapters on Rakuten that would
be continuation from the end of Young Jump series when Kintaro started
to work for a US bank,
http://dl.rakuten.co.jp/shop/rt/sp/kintaro/
wiki show that it is back on Young Jump now, so I guess this is still
an on going series, those I had not read,