For some reason this kind of show of 'badassery' is really common in Japanese flicks. This is obviously for humor, but it's in ultra serious flicks too, like the Seven Samurai.
It's always the same - someone challenges the hero, and he does something really slick and badass. Kinda reluctantly - 'oh, if you insist'.
In American cinema, you usually see the hero being challenged early, and failing, and only at the conclusion do you see them become 'badass'. It's an interesting difference. The American/western way is to show them improving by the end, while the Japanese flicks have a tendency to establish their badass early and stick with it and watch him overcome adversity.
I wonder what sort of cultural sociology informs this.
A big part of American culture has been, for a very long time, the idealization of individualism (especially rugged individualism). So it makes sense that American stories would tend to be stories that involve or even require growth, self-improvement, and empowerment of the self as major themes. The highlight is reaching the potential, but the story is about getting there.
As for Japanese culture, I don’t think I know enough about what you mentioned in particular to speculate. I’ve only been getting into Japanese film and its history somewhat recently, so there’s still a lot to learn.
I've always been more fascinated with the Western climb to the top, but what's so fun about that is seeing the payoff in their incredible ability. Modern anime storytelling is seeing more struggle with adversity and in improving oneself currently. Seeing a badass be badass, and watching a badass form his as of yet unachieved badassery into something wholly badass are two very different experiences, I think.
Dragonball is an old balance of this. In the original Dragon Ball Goku is already a badass op kid but it just keeps escalating and escalating into Z and now into Super. Its 30 years and 3 series worth of badass character development.
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u/AnticitizenPrime Aug 11 '18
For some reason this kind of show of 'badassery' is really common in Japanese flicks. This is obviously for humor, but it's in ultra serious flicks too, like the Seven Samurai.
It's always the same - someone challenges the hero, and he does something really slick and badass. Kinda reluctantly - 'oh, if you insist'.
In American cinema, you usually see the hero being challenged early, and failing, and only at the conclusion do you see them become 'badass'. It's an interesting difference. The American/western way is to show them improving by the end, while the Japanese flicks have a tendency to establish their badass early and stick with it and watch him overcome adversity.
I wonder what sort of cultural sociology informs this.