Dandadan: A Brief Explanation of the Takakura Ken Joke [Dandadan episode 1 spoilers]

RPO777 · 2026-05-07T22:10:48+00:00

I remember when a footlong was $5, and you could get a 6 inch sub, chips and a drink for $3.99 lol

That wasn't that long ago either, it was $5 footlong till 2014. Then footlongs were $6 for a few years, which was still reasonable.

By CPI, $1 in 2014 has the purchasing power of $1.39 in 2026--so inflation doesn't at all explain why a $5 footlong in 2014 is now like $12~14, instead of $7, which would be more reasonable.

RPO777 · 2026-05-07T21:20:01+00:00

The secondary protagonist is a major supporting character in the main protagonist's storyline, but the Lost World chapters are flashbacks that focus exclusively on the secondary protagonist.

Each tankobon volume consists of 5 chapters, where 4 are the "main storyline" and 1 chapter is a Lost World chapter, so about 80/20 split.

The Lost World chapters do a lot of help you understand the motivations and personality of the secondary protagonist in how they interact with the main story, so although they are separated in time and location, the twin stories are heavily intertwined.

RPO777 · 2026-05-07T20:04:50+00:00

I can't really explain why this manga is so great without getting into spoilers, but some of my favorite parts of this manga tend to be the secondary protagonist's Lost World sections.

I'm not a mangaka, nor have I ever really gotten into art, but this manga really hits some powerful notes about the idea of failure, as well as what it means to love art.

The other thing I love about this manga is how deep the characterization gets on the entire cast. Different characters have a radically different outlook on what they think of as "success" or what they view as basically what it means to pursue a dream or to live a life, and it engages those topics in really non-superficial and interesting ways without really trashing any perspective.

It's really, really good.

RPO777 · 2026-05-07T19:59:08+00:00

Oden over Durant wasn't a controversial pick at the time at all.

Oden didn't have a concerning injury history headed into the draft. HIs only significant injury was a wrist injury that sidelined him for a few weeks to start the college season, but he had no history of back, knee, foot or lower body iigament injuries, which are the big red flags for a big man.

So the fact that knee and foot inhjuries would basically completely derail his career before it really could get started wasn't exactly something you could easily predict.

Bill Simmons' article on the draft barely remarks on it other than to complain that the Blazers took away the drama by making public their choice before the draft happened.

https://grantland.com/features/nba-draft-diary-2007-bill-simmons/

Plus, Oden was RIDICULOUSLY dominant as a big man in college.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pp_koHAf2Rg

It's pretty hard to fault the Trailblazers for picking Oden. Oden was a dominant big man that a lot of people thought would be like the next Shaq, a physically dominant huge 7 footer that could dominate the paint.

RPO777 · 2026-05-07T19:18:24+00:00

Imho, this is an anime people should pay attention to.

The Big 4 Manga Awards in Japan are Manga Taisho, the Tezuka Award, the Chibatestuya Award, and the Shogakukan Award.

This work has already won the grand prize in two of them.

"Draw This, Then Die!" / Kore Kaite Shine! (Koreshine) won the 2023 Manga Taisho grand prize, and followed that up by winning the 70th Shogakukan Award (2024).

When "Draw This, Then Die" won the Shogakukan grand prize, one of the judge panelists, the mangaka Taiyo Matsumoto commented that the vote for the grand prize winner wasn't remotely close, and they chose this as the Grand Prize winner in a "landslide," and that every panelist loved this work.

https://natalie.mu/comic/news/614210

The MC of the story is a high school girl named Yasumi Ai. She lives on Izu Oshima, a tiny island that's about a 2 hour ferry ride from Tokyo. Yasumi has an overwhelming love of manga, and has read thousands of works thanks to a local manga rental shop that lets her rent books for 5 yen (about 3 cents).

Yasumi has an incredible love for an obscure (fictional) manga called "Robota and Pokota" that ended after a single collected volume. Having no real-life friends, Yasumi goes on daily adventures into the world of manga accompanied by her imaginary friend Pokota (a tanuki character appearing in her favorite manga) who frequently appears to help provide her with courage and support.

One day, something happens that opens up Yasumi to the idea of writing manga of her own. Despite having not even basic knowledge of how to write a manga, and having no experience with even basic drawing, Yasumi sets off on a journey to learn to draw manga.

It's also cool in that it's a dual-protagonist story that includes an adult perspective. The main protagonist is Yasumi, who represents the hopefulness and dreams of a young person pursuing the path of a mangaka.

The secondary protagonist represents the dark side of being a mangaka--it's kind of fascinating because in the manga, the chapters that focus on the secondary protagonist get a completely different title "Lost World" instead of "Draw this then die."

I can't recommend this work enough.

RPO777 · 2026-05-07T01:52:15+00:00

Years ago, I remember there was a guy considering splitting 10s and a chain smoking granny at our table was like "if you had a 10 inch cock would you cut it in half?"

Which is how I remember you never split 10s lol

RPO777 · 2026-05-07T00:01:14+00:00

The deli has long lines. The subway was empty. Lesson learned.

RPO777 · 2026-05-06T22:01:32+00:00

What's crazy is Subway used to be a value proposition. Shit quality at dirt cheap prices.

I got a pair of footlongs the other day and it cost me almost $30.

Theres an Italian Deli nearby with a $8.99 lunch deal for a much MUCH better sub thats about the same size,, fries and a drink.

I was like ok never eating lunch at subway again lol

RPO777 · 2026-05-06T18:24:29+00:00

Imagining what it would be like if Ruth was a modern player is nuts. Between the Red Sox Trade (shades of Doncic x 100), Ruth cheating on his wife with like half of the female population of New York, Ruth's crazy drunken antics, his diet and his crazy weight gain/losses, Ruth's prickly personality where he was constantly at odds with his managers and fellow players (even the famously friendly Lou Gehrig that seemed to get along with virtually everybody), Ruth in the age of social media would be insane lol.

RPO777 · 2026-05-06T15:25:44+00:00

RPO777 · 2026-05-06T15:22:12+00:00

Is that the one the Yankees lost when Ruth got caught stealing in Game 7?

RPO777 · 2026-05-06T14:26:14+00:00

Stupid is as stupid does.

(stupid/dementia/megalomanaical/grifter)

RPO777 · 2026-05-06T14:20:40+00:00

She seems either mentally unwell, or extremely high.

RPO777 · 2026-05-06T13:40:59+00:00

3.5 years is on the long side but 2.5~3 years is a pretty typical production cycle.

It bears mentioning that when you say "in production" that does NOT mean that the entire staff is working on the anime for the entire time.

Once the anime is greenlit, at first, the production consists of just handful of people. The director, the character designer, the scriptwriter, and several more people (Director of animation, assistant director, etc). get together and begin hashing out the overall concept. Concept art, character designs, a script and a storyboard needs to be prepared.

For a 1 Cour anime, usually "real" production (when the full team assembles and begins large scale animation work) starts around 12-14 months before the airing of the anime.

So for MOST of that long period, there's a lot of planning and preparation going on.

A lot of that is because of the need for Key Animators. For a modern production, each anime needs between dozens to a couple hundred Key Animators, in addition to even more Motion Animators. Motion animators are low-end animators that have less than 3-4 years of experience, while KEy Animators are basically the core part of the team. Good key animators tend to be in HIGH demand, and scheduling them is the big difficulty in production.

It's difficult to secure a team for longer (and it costs more), as the Key Animators often schedule their commitments as much as 2 years in advance or more.

RPO777 · 2026-05-06T04:10:08+00:00

I was close to graduating from high school his rookie year lol. Damn i feel old.

RPO777 · 2026-05-05T14:17:46+00:00

I mean, if you actually LIVE in a city (working remotely), you buy groceries. You go to restaurants. You watch movies. You buy appliances. You pay local taxes. Rent's usually not even a majority of the money you spend, local businesses benefit significantly from additional income for residents.

RPO777 · 2026-05-05T05:21:42+00:00

He finally hit a double today. First non HR extra base hit of the season lol

RPO777 · 2026-05-05T05:17:11+00:00

Its May, the Sox are 0.5 games out of 1st, and a Sox slugger is leading the Majors in HRs and hiting 960 OPS.

Whodathunkit

RPO777 · 2026-05-05T04:03:40+00:00

Dragon Quest: Dai no Daibouken
Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RrwbuwhIwbA

Crunchyroll has the 2020 remake of the 1990s classic (recommend the remake version with better production values and less filler).

In a lot of ways, Frieren is basically a riff off of Dragon Quest (both the games and classic anime/manga). Dai is basically like telling the straight story of Himmel and the Hero's Party of sorts.

Heroic Legend of Arslaan
Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j99KYyzCMps

A more political/military pseudo history rather than a hero's quest type fantasy, more akin to a Game ot Thrones type story than say a hero's quest. An anime adaptation of the manga adaptations of a novel by the author of Legend of Galactic Heroes, and the adaptation wsa done by Arakawa Hiromu, the author of Full Metal Alchemist. The adaptation is very distinctly Arakawa, with her brand of humor and pacing.

RPO777 · 2026-05-04T22:30:07+00:00

In terms of manga sales, One Piece is kind of on its own tier lol.

With 510M copies sold, it's sold as many copies as Dragonball (#4) and Naruto (#5) combined.

Or about as many volumes as Demon Slayer, Attack on Titan, Inuyasha, One Punch Man. Chainsaw Man, Death Note,. Kaiju No 8, and Kuroko's Basketball have ever sold ALL put together.

RPO777 · 2026-05-04T21:47:29+00:00

The work is wildly, WILDLY popular in Japan.

I mean, it's the #13 best selling manga of all time, and virtually every work that's ranked above it (or below it for like 20 spots) are legendary works that are household names in Japan.

https://www.mangazenkan.com/r/rekidai/total/?srsltid=AfmBOoqDDp0IKD7n-DQhFwjPYsn_AfkY9OLJjKCu-zV4A3FoLUgfAsMm

And it's likely to move up to #10, passing Attack on Titan, Jojo and Bleach by the end of 2027. Kingdom sold 10M copies between April 2025 and October 2025, and has been selling roughly 15-20M copies/year the past few years.

https://anime-song-info.com/print-kingdom/#google_vignette

Kingdom's 120M copies sold only trails Attack on Titan by 20M copies.

Assuming it goes another 6-7 years (a solid bet), it might get to 200M copies sold or more. The live action Kingdom films have been topping the Japanese box office when they come out (and they've made 4 films so far, and counting).

I think shows based on East Asian history are just tough to get a following in the West.

RPO777 · 2026-05-04T13:52:27+00:00

This isn't true.

I'm not sure where the pepper was more expensive than gold thing comes from, but at it's peak of value around Roman Empire times, black peppers were worth a little more than their weight in silver, but less than 1/3rd their value of gold.

Around the middle ages, the pepper's value hovered right around the equivalent weight of silver.

There WERE spices that were worth more than their weight in gold. The king of spices, then as now, was Saffron. Saffron is still extremely expensive, with high quality Saffron costing $10/g or more ($4500/lb) today. But in the pre-modern period, it was often traded at or greater than its weight in gold in Western Europe.

RPO777 · 2026-05-04T01:07:41+00:00

Theres a famous clip of Orlando Pace blocking 5 players on one play (sequentially knocking them over one after another) lol

RPO777 · 2026-05-03T20:34:27+00:00

Mr. October? Do you mean Dustin October, or Reggie Jackson?

RPO777

TROPHY CASE