Mugen Monday - 25th Edition

Are you a student of Mathematics or predicate logic? If so you may have come upon certain things called functions - or formulas where you put in some values and it produces a result.

A + B = C is a simple formula, it has no specific example yet, but it applies universally that if two distinct numbers are put together, they give as output a third individual number. So 1 + 2 = 3.

Okay, before you think I wrote the wrong newsletter, hear me out - I am still all Anime. The point I am trying to make is a simple one, mainly that we individuals seem to generalize certain formulas out of individual examples. These are usually called tropes.

You know how American action movies are always about aliens, armageddons, disasters and what not happening only to the U.S.? Yeah, that’s a trope. Ever seen a Gerald Butler movie? Those all look like part of some Butlerverse. Not that it’s bad, I enjoy Gerald’s each and every action flick, even if they are repeated plotlines. I love him.

Basically, we can find common elements in multiple individual works. The same is the case for the world of Animanga. And it seems many of these tropes were set by the legendary story of Dragon Ball.

• Today, we will see how tropes have helped shape multiple animanga works of art

• We will look at how Dragon Ball has been a phenomenal influence on shaping tropes in Shonen

• How modern day Shonens have evolved to incorporate techniques over appearance-based transformations alone (such as Super Saiyan)

Well, it will be a fun ride, why don’t you stick til the end?

- From the Editor’s Desk

Rhytham Das, Editor-in-Chief, Spiel Anime