Comparative Essay

Captain Bellamy

Since e1n was so kind as to lock the previous topic, let's give it another shot.

I'm in my final year of Media Studies and we have to do a comparative 3000 word essay. In my infinite wisdom, I decided on the following question - Compare and contrast the representation of villains in the manga 'One Piece' and 'Dragonball'. I thought getting some views from you lot would be an easy way to get some meat for the above mentioned essay. Now the villains I'll be talking about in particular are …

Buggy the Clown/Pilaf (filling the dual role of the comedic/recurring villain)
Kaku/Chaotzu (filling the role of the side villain)
Captain Kuro/Arlong and Tao Pai Pai (filling the role of the minor villain)
Crocodile/Piccolo Daimao (filling the role of the main villain)
Commodore Smoker/Tien (filling the role of the Anti Hero)

Now if you have any ideas about bad guys that would better fill these roles, please say. As for what I need you wonderful people for is this: do you like this characters and why/why not? Do you think they forfill the role of the villain in the traditional sense and if they don't, how are they different? Finally what do you think they add to the story? Any other interesting tidbits would be welcomed.

Thanks in advance for any help!

MajorBojangles

I was about to scream out Enel / Majin Buu but then I noted that you're on the topic of DRAGONBALL. (Villains capable of mass destruction, but with a playful/impulsive mind set.)
If you weren't focusing solely on villains, you could also add Shanks / Master Roshi as the self-sacrificing hero.
Eh…I didn't really contribute much, I guess.

Malintex_Terek

>>Buggy the Clown/Pilaf (filling the dual role of the comedic/recurring villain)

I can agree with this.

>>Kaku/Chaotzu (filling the role of the side villain)

I'm not getting the connection, really. Wouldn't Chaotzu's counterpart be Tashigi? What with her rivalry with the second-in-command (Zoro) that mirrors Krillin and Chaotzu's views of one another.

Captain Kuro/Arlong and Tao Pai Pai (filling the role of the minor villain)

Arlong is more of a central villain along the lines of Sir Crocodile; Tao himself was a disinterested third party working for the main antagonists, there's no clear comparison character in OP for him yet.

Crocodile/Piccolo Daimao (filling the role of the main villain)

Agreed. Throw in Arlong along with Croc as well, though Croc works a lot better.

Commodore Smoker/Tien (filling the role of the Anti Hero)

Yeah, that works as well.

…

I'd also recommend throwing in an "Anti-Villain" like character - a villain who has a lot of heroic traits as well. Zodd in Berserk is one such character, I don't know of anyone in OP like that except MAYBE Arlong because of his twisted views on friendship. Tien fits the Anti-Villain more given where he started off in DB but becomes a normal hero by the start of the Piccolo Daimao arc.

Captain Brooke

Here, just read this, most of the characters were placed together because they act mostly the same!

http://www.onemanga.com/Cross_Epoch/0/

Gorlom

doesnt smoker pair up better with Tao pai pai and Robin with tien? (tien is the guy with 3 eyes right?)

captain brooke: that doesn't really help that much as his essey focus on the villains while cross epoch focuses on the heroes.. =P

Captain Brooke

Nope, Robin pairs up better with Vegeta, don't have time to explain now, but just think about it!

Hints: Both were originally enemies, both were hard to get through to show their feelings, etc, their too much alike, that's why they were paired together in the Cross Ep.!

Gorlom

That depends on if Captain Bellamy's essay is just concerning DB or if it is including DBZ as well, since iirc Vegeta doesn't become a good guy until DBZ.

(Or did DBZ start before vegeta showed up at all? =S)

*Meh*

What do you mean, American or Japanese publications? [/MontyPython]

Comparatively, Buggy fits well with Pilaf in that both wish to be taken seriously, yet at the same time act in an exaggerated or eccentric manner (Buggy's nose references, Pilaf's speech to Mai about 'low-brow' humor in vol. 2) By contrast, Buggy is the more effective of the two villains in that he has only been defeated thus far by intervention from others on behalf of the protagonist (Nami, Dragon{?}), whereas Pilaf is defeated twice by the protagonist without outside aid- sorry folks, the moon doesn't count as 'aid'.

Since that was the easisit one, I suspect it's also the one you already had the most material for. Anyway, good luck.

Captain Bellamy

The bad guys in each section don't have to be completely alike (like Buggy and Pilaf). Infact, if they're different it's a good excuse to pop in stuff about how characters in that role have evolved over time. Tashigi is tempting but there's not much I think I could elaborate on with her (where as Kaku has two sides to his character, allowing me to suggest that villians are becoming least two dimensional). I'm searching my brain for a better minor villian than Tao.

Good point about Tien being more of an Anti Villian. I'll definitely put that in.

Gorlom

2 dimensional… doesn't that mean that they are flat and without depth? (ie not having 2 sides?)

COWMAKAZE

Interestingly enough, Pilaf and Buggy have the same voice actor in Japan. I don't know if that has anything to do with your paper, but it might work as a comparison if you're headed in that direction.

Captain Bellamy

writes down Pilaf/Buggy VA info

Two dimensional means that the character has is a fully rounded character, with a variety of atributes. Maybe Chiaotzu isn't such a good one to compare to Kaku in that respect … wait! That could be a good trend to point out. Side villians having some heroic/nicer attributes.

Gorlom

@Captain:

writes down Pilaf/Buggy VA info

Two dimensional means that the character has is a fully rounded character, with a variety of atributes. Maybe Chiaotzu isn't such a good one to compare to Kaku in that respect … wait! That could be a good trend to point out. Side villians having some heroic/nicer attributes.

:wassat: Are you absolutely 100% sure about that?
That sounds really wrong to me. At least in my language 2 dimensional means that the character has no depth (since it's lacking the third dimension). It's flat, boring and/or without a well developed personality.

I think Gorlom-san is right. I believe 2 dimensional is a bit more of a bad thing. It could be a case of 1 dimension, 2 dimensions, then 3 dimensions, though, I suppose.

But I believe the case is more that 3 dimensional is a fully rounded character, with varying character attributes, whereas 2 dimensional is more of a stereotype of a character, that doesn't extend beyond the boundaries of its stereotypes, e.g. the villain has either always got to be the ruthless, moustache-twiddling, laughing maniac, or the misunderstood youth.

1 dimension could be what you're referring to, when we say 2 dimensions, though, in which case, it's just a simple case of "You say 'tomato', we see 'tomato'." (That saying really doesn't work on the Internet with the IPA, or the prior knowledge thereof. =.=;; )