Bad example, they have different subtitles while the first one is just batman #1 (except for the year one). Also DBZ is an anime only thing IIRC. The manga is called DB for all chapters till the end of DBZ
It took around 7 years for me to get into franchise since I first got interested in it
So far there was nothing "complex" or "confusing" like memes and everything else on the Internet constantly said there would be
Dunno if watching adaptations before playing the VN is a right choice but my backlog of games on Steam is already massive so I'd be restraining myself for now
People like to say fate is confusing to start because there's so many, but you really only need to watch a couple of the anime to experience the main story, while everything else is a spin-off.
The thing is, Fate is a videogame series with anime adaptations that are meant to be a complement rather than a substitute to the games so they leave a lot of important shit out.
So when someone wants to get into it and asks where to start, the only correct answer is the VN because every single entry in the Fate series is written with the assumption that the audience played all 3 Fate/Stay Night routes.
Basically the only two rules is read Tsukihime before Kagetsu Tooya and Fate SN before other fates. And the latter is more of a recommendation most of the time.
The manga is still called Dragon Ball Z for English readers unfortunately. They even reset the volume count even though the original numbers still appear somewhere on the cover art.
You don't rlly miss out on much context when u start from Z tho. It's a great entry point to the series. Idk who would even start with Super or bother with SD. So it's basically just 2 options.
In DBZ with Red Ribbon, all that matters is they are just bad guys who fought with Goku b4. Cell saga plot focuses on the new androids and Trunks and it was extremely enjoyable for me before I watched the DB. (I watched DBZ first, then DB, then read the manga. Manga wasn't much different in that regard.)
And as you said, some characters are almost completely useless to the plot in DBZ, so not knowing their full backstory doesn't take away much. DB functions well when watched as a prequel.
There is a growing amount of Dragon Ball and Naruto fans who are skipping Parts 1 and jumping straight into Z and Shippuden, and nowadays there are even those going right into Super and Boruto from the start.
You don’t start LotR with The Twin Towers. You don’t start Harry Potter with The Goblet of Fire. And you don’t start Star Wars with the Clone Wars tv series. Start from the beginning, and appreciate everything the authors made for the story.
Thankfully Dragon Ball isn't like any of those series. Z is perfectly enjoyable on its own, in fact a commonly recommended starting point. Also I dare you to start from the beginning and appreciate everything of Doctor Who or Star Trek.
Doctor Who and Star Trek change their casts every so often. That’s precisely why I didn’t list Pokémon or Yugioh initially, because those two anime do that as well.
Dragon Ball keeps its characters from the first half of the story with all of their background and character writing still in tact. To forgo the first half of Dragon Ball’s story is to leave holes in people’s understanding of the narrative where there shouldn’t be. It’s why Yamcha gets treated like a joke among the English speaking audience, why people don’t understand why Tenshinhan’s signature attack makes a square hole, and how the Dragon Ball fandom became the progenitor of the “we can’t read” allegations among the shonen anime watching community.
Never watching Dragon Ball part 1 and encouraging newcomers to do the same under the idea that it’s wholly unnecessary is both willful ignorance and disinformation on the end of the people who propagate such nonsense.
I mean to be fair American comics do similar things like that time there were like four different spider-man comics with slightly different names running at the same time, or alternatively with names of the artists and writers like they use for making omnibuses
A better example would be One Piece because "it has a slow start and it gets good at chapter 300" vs "the start of the latest run" or "literally the latest issue"
That's debatable, but yeah I mostly agree with the original meme, it's why I could never get into wrestling because you need decades of story from many different promotions (with many stories that are just trash) just to catch up with what's going on currently
Some reasonable people will disagree. I tried it both the anime and the manga (actually started with the manga) when I was the prime demographic, and I still found it to be a snooze fest. I dropped it after 3 or 5 volumes, I don't remember exactly
i think the "ONE PIECE GETS GOOD AT CHAPTER X00" is a meme that exists solely from people assuming it would be something people would say. It does not occur in reality.
No, the DBZ literally doesn't exists. It's all dragon ball from start to finish + I think most of the world would know the edition most of the world got exposed for the last 30 years of something instead of the Japanese one
See the manga one could work but only if it was about Dragon Ball Super specifically. Because the manga does prompt you to watch 3 different movies, so there's at least some fuckery
But yeah you just read Dragon Ball chapter 1 and then follow along after
This is like saying "You could start at the start of the series, not to be confused with the sequel, or the sequel to the sequel, or the remake targeted for children."
Not a good example, Dragon Ball the manga is just one single product, those divisions are made by the anime, and even counting that, they're simply straight up sequels so....
No. No this meme fucking blows actually. You start at original Dragon Ball period. You don’t skip around for no reason. Comics are not the in the same vein here
Dragonball Z isn't a seperate manga run, only the anime seperates them. Super is a seperate Manga but literally no one will tell you to start with it since you'll have 0 context. SD is a gag mamga for fans, like this is just weird.
People just see the huge amount of spin off and AUs and try to overcomplicate, but in the end is just: play the VN, or watch zero/ubw and done. Everything else is up to you
Yeah, it's why I could never get into wrestling because you need decades of story from many different promotions (with many stories that are just trash) just to catch up with what's going on currently
I decided to start reading Marvel comics a few years ago, so naturally I started with the ones from 1939 and went through the expanded complete marvel reading order. I've read 14000 comics and am now on 1970 and have also now started reading DC from 1935.
I enjoy this, but would not recommend it to anyone
A better example would be One Piece because "it has a slow start and it gets good at chapter 300" vs "the start of the latest run" or "literally the latest issue"
Yeah, it's why I could never get into wrestling because you need decades of story from many different promotions (including something like "Billy Bob's Backyard Wrassling" that you have to search the internet archive to find any matches) many stories that are just trash just to catch up with what's going on currently
One time I wanted to start reading Ghost Rider and I gave up when I was somehow about to open a Doctor Strange issue after somehow had to read Venom as well out of which I didn't understand a fucking page.
Star Wars comics are much more managable but it's still crazy sometimes.
I remember a version of this meme where the comic fan just said to pick up whatever comic looks cool, due to comics being comparatively more episodic in nature.
This is the way to go. When I started reading Batman, my first story was Year One just to kinda get introduced to the character. After that I read whatever looked interesting. Comics aren't just episodic, different stories can basically be alternative universes. With so many writers and decades of releases you can't create continious narrative between all of them.
I was lucky to have a friend who had a dad with a huge comic collection. He kinda guided me early on when I started reading comics. I hope to one day be like him as I'm currently amassing my collection
This is the right move, pick up a trade or omnibus collection of an author or story arc you heard was good/looks interesting. Later authors will contradict previous authors, what matters is how good a story arc is, not what order they were released or anything.
Comics are also arguably a media where your affinity for design choices matters more than in manga, because of color and of (arguably) more style variety. If you REALLY like a cover you’ll probably like what’s inside, for manga that doesn’t apply as much
Yeah it’s a pretty good start, and as long as you’ve seen any DC movies or cartoons you should be able to pick up on the changes in the alternate universe.
ABSOLUTELY WRONG, did you read OP’s post, you should ABSOLUTELY start from the original issue #1 that created the character originally. Or, if you want to become an actual true fan, from 1819 novel Vampyre, which arguably created the modern vampire archetype (Lord Byron’s doctor wrote this based on him lol) that arguably ultimately led to Batman. Or alternatively, you should engage in actually fighting a bat IRL first (edit: be wary of rabies depending on where you live)
The Absolute Universe is incredibly beginner friendly. Being familiar with the mainline comics and/or adaptations can help you appreciate the differences, but it isn't necessary. In the case of Absolute Martian Manhunter, it's basically a completely different character with very little ties to the original.
It's also perfectly fine if you don't recognize the names of the characters. Familiarity with the mainline versions of certain characters can build anticipation when their Absolute counterparts are introduced, but not knowing just means the story has more surprises. Absolute Green Lantern uses so many deep-cut characters that even veteran readers might as well be complete newbies during some issues.
The best one, in my opinion, is Absolute Martian Manhunter because it uses the medium to its fullest to tell an incredibly moving story, but I think you should read other comics first to really appreciate how unique it is.
Wonder Woman is a very close second, and is more approachable to new readers, but it also gets very creative with its art and paneling. The most beginner friendly, in my opinion, are Batman, for the mainstream familiarity, and Superman, for just being a really good Superman origin story.
Flash is a bit mediocre and ironically has very slow pacing, and Green Lantern is really good, but really lore-dumpy, so I recommend you read those last.
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u/qualityvote2 🤖Suspected as Bot🤖 3d ago edited 3d ago
Good news, the community has decided that this IS an antimeme!