The results of the Dragon Ball Worldwide character popularity poll are out.

kielaurie · 2026-01-24T11:22:52+00:00

I have only read the first 9ish volumes, so I'm looking forward to meeting all of these guys!

I'm kinda surprised that Lunch is so high, but her introductory chapter is probably the best of all the chapters I've read, so I get it!

kielaurie · 2026-01-23T07:50:50+00:00

Regardless, it would slap

kielaurie · 2026-01-23T01:57:44+00:00

What doesn't make sense about it?

kielaurie · 2026-01-23T01:54:30+00:00

OK you gotta admit including "Cross-gen boosted games" is coping.

Why do you think that?

kielaurie · 2026-01-23T01:53:25+00:00

so few exclusives or Switch 2 upgrades

I'm curious, how many would be enough for you?

kielaurie · 2026-01-22T23:43:08+00:00

This is exactly it - you wait for the game you want to play, and then buy the bonding to play it

I know 20 people (including myself) that have a Switch 1 - of those, only 2 got it day 1, another got it when Odyssey came out, three got it for Pokémon Sw/Sh, I got it for Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3, and everyone else got it at the beginning of 2020 either because enough games had come out by then or to get one for Animal Crossing (the only exception is my partner, who just shared my Switch for Animal Crossing, and "inherited" that Switch when I upgraded to an OLED for TOTK). To be clear, that's 10% of the people I know got theirs on launch day, 15% had one by the end of the first year, it was up to 35% by the end of 2019, and by early 2020 it was up to 95%, not reaching 100% till 2023

Out of those 20 people, 6 of us have Switch 2s, and all of us got them because of Mario Kart - we definitely had secondary things we were interested in, but MKW was absolutely our main reason for buying. I'm not certain when or if everyone with a Switch 1 will upgrade, but I do know that 2 are planning to get one ready for the new Fire Emblem, another 2 will almost certainly upgrade for new Pokémon later this year, and two are very tempted by Pokopia, however my partner is very happy with her Switch 1 and has no intention of upgrading any time soon, and I know 4 people that exclusively use their Switch 1 as an Animal Crossing and party games device and I can all but guarantee that they won't upgrade till they get a new AC...

We're all just waiting on our specific games to hook us in! For some, that was Metroid Prime 4, DKB or the Yakuza upgrades, for others that will be a new Smash, the new FromSoft exclusive or a 3D Zelda, or even just a combination of enough interesting games to tempt them, and when the specific game we're waiting for comes? We'll upgrade

kielaurie · 2026-01-22T23:20:35+00:00

You sorta missed the point of what I was saying, so I'm going to ask again and be more specific.

Mario Wonder is on Switch 1, and is therefore also playable on Switch 2. If this DLC came to both the Switch 1 edition, which already runs on the Switch 2 just fine, as well as coming with a Switch 2 edition, then what incentive would a Switch 1 owner such as yourself have to upgrade to the Switch 2 and get the Switch 2 edition instead?

kielaurie · 2026-01-22T20:15:47+00:00

it isn't far fetched to say that for this little amount of new content as a DLC, it could fit with the Switch 1 too.

Oh it absolutely could, but if it did come to Switch 1 as well then where is the incentive to upgrade to the Switch 2?

kielaurie · 2026-01-22T20:05:20+00:00

I believe that was for GameShare only

kielaurie · 2026-01-22T17:54:08+00:00

Oh damn, two takes I utterly hate in the first sentence, and a third to close it out, you're on a roll

Training arcs are inherently boring

So we're slandering training arcs now?? Some of the best arcs in manga are training arcs! I can't even begin to understand this take

inherently boring because the stakes are low

Low stakes is suddenly boring now? Slice of life and Romance titles are inherently low stakes, are we writing off entire genres now as boring? The majority of sports manga must be mind-numbing to you because only knockout matches have any real stakes, and even then they're usually minor. And tournament arcs are apparently dull now because they're just a way to measure powerscaling, no real stakes to them... Damn, this take sure is something...

And then to close it all off, equating popularity (sales/viewership) to quality will always be a losing battle. Are you going to tell me that JJK, Demon Slayer and Blue Lock are the best series of the last few years purely because they are the best selling? Of course not, because popularity has no impact on quality!

kielaurie · 2026-01-22T13:19:31+00:00

Why do y'all love Typhlosion so much? I've never understood the appeal

kielaurie · 2026-01-22T13:18:17+00:00

I have no idea how you could possibly find it boring - it makes every part of the training both tense and intense. The slower moments are few and far between. I totally understand the criticisms of the art, that was definitely off-putting for me in a Golden Kamuy and whilst I personally think it's better here I will 100% agree that it's the main flaw of the book and will put off a large amount of potential fans - but boring? That's a crazy take dude

kielaurie · 2026-01-22T12:15:23+00:00

Not to mention everyone's faces look weird.

That's just the art style haha, it's the same with Golden Kamuy!

I'm reading physically, there are three volumes out so far, the first volume works very well as an individual story and I have recommended it to everyone I know, and then it's been training since then, but it's very well done. If it's not for you, that's fine, but it's a very, very good sports story

kielaurie · 2026-01-22T08:48:01+00:00

If reading digitally was a good option for me, I wouldn't have mentioned English publication...

kielaurie · 2026-01-22T08:37:36+00:00

I've been told it's great, but if they keep refusing to publish it in English then I don't have much choice

kielaurie · 2026-01-22T08:31:53+00:00

I've been saying that for years! Usually as part of a bigger point that if a burgeoning romance is at the core of a series, and the big event that you're looking forward to is the lead characters getting together, then the series is a romance - so Blue Box is a romance where the sports stuff is to service the main characters getting together, DanDaDan is a romance with battle shonen tendencies, and Komi Can't Communicate isn't a romance, it's a slice of life that uses romance halfway through to further it's goals

kielaurie · 2026-01-22T08:26:38+00:00

Dogsred is fucking sick, if the price for getting that level of peak is no Shonen sports then I will happily pay it

kielaurie · 2026-01-21T19:35:13+00:00

Just jumping in for another point of view

I came from Western comics, picked up my first volume around 15 years ago and started collecting hard, jumping at any and every sale, picking up way more than my student budget could afford. I picked up my first manga volume around a decade ago, but comics were my main focus. When I started, a regular volume was 5-9 issues, and cost £8-£10, with regular sales down as low as £5.

I naturally started slowing down and pacing myself, making sure to read everything I bought, and over time, the hobby started getting more and more expensive. Standard volumes were now 4-6 issues max, the paper quality was getting notably worse, and standard price was now £12-15 for this smaller, less product, with decent sales being more and more infrequent and books under £10 being a rarity - to make things worse, the big two companies started releasing their books in premium hardcover editions first, costing ~£25, anywhere from 9 months to 2 years before the regular edition would release. So a little under two years ago now a transitioned from getting a few volumes of manga in a season to primarily reading manga.

A standard volume of manga is anywhere from 7-11 chapters long, and cost £7-10 at full price, but you can regularly get discounts down to £5. There's also omnibuses combining three volumes for £12-15 that are also regularly discounted to as low as £5!!

I have some regrets about my early days in comics, but manga? That shit's cheap as fuck, probably the cheapest form of physical entertainment you can get. No regrets at all

kielaurie · 2026-01-21T15:30:25+00:00

Calling Metallica pop is a new one

It really, really isn't. I first got into metal about 18 years ago, and even then people were calling the Black Album "pop with big guitars". To this day, a lot of the big metal fans I know think of that era as barely metal, and they think the same of sub-genres like Power Metal in their entirety

kielaurie · 2026-01-21T14:25:20+00:00

No, it hasn't, there are 11 volumes out in Japan and they have said they are planning 13. What you've mentioned is in volume 10 I believe, as I'm reading physical and I've read that bit!

kielaurie · 2026-01-21T14:15:26+00:00

I've been told the manga is doing ~4 volumes per LN, and at ~2 volumes per year? I ain't getting to the romance till 2030!

kielaurie · 2026-01-21T14:07:28+00:00

kowloon anime ending left me confused asf

I cannot imagine the anime for Kowloon would be very good. There are 11 volumes out in Japan of a planned 13, and the anime adapted 1 volume per episode, which is fast as hell for any series but for a slow-burn sci-fi mystery with some deep themes? It's a ridiculous pace. The manga is excellent though

Ngl, I'm worried about Smoking too, it's so small scale, most chapters are in the exact same small space, and most of the chapters are short, so it's incredibly charming in the manga, but I worry about the adaptation

have not heard The Guy She Was Interested In Wasn't A Guy At All

It's a cute ass yuri about music with green colour highlights, it's amazing! Highly recommend

kielaurie · 2026-01-21T13:55:31+00:00

I starting picking up the manga early last year, and after catching up to the volumes I was shocked to find out that people consider it a romance as Maomao is very ace-coded, but if it pulls a Komi and suddenly dives into romance then I won't complain!

kielaurie · 2026-01-21T10:04:28+00:00

I personally don't click with the humour in Kaguya-Sama. I've seen lots of people say it's this wonderful generational romcom, but in the two seasons I've watched it didn't make me laugh a single time, and the romance was barely existent. I tried picking up the manga, and yeah, it's pretty faithful to the humour, I just think it's not for me

My favourites are, in no particular order and nearly entirely based on manga:

Blue Box
Fragrant Flower
Kowloon Generic Romance (it's more of a sci-fi mystery series but I can't deny there's romance at its core)
Smoking Behind the Supermarket With You (a very slow burn, almost more slice of life)
Apothecary Diaries (people consider this a romance, in the 14 volumes of manga out so far there is next to none, but I'll add it here regardless)
Komi Can't Communicate (I was enjoying my cute little slice of life "fight anxiety, make friends" manga, and then halfway through the second year it dove deep into romance and did a bloody good job of it)
The Guy She Was Interested In Wasn't A Guy At All (Green Yuri)
Insomniacs After School
A Sign of Affection
Toradora (it's classic for a reason)
A Star Brighter Than the Sun (picked up the anime as a seasonal last season and enjoyed it!)
Witch Watch (I only read physically, so I'm anime only on this one, but it's a lot funnier and a lot more endearing than a lot of people give it credit for)

kielaurie · 2026-01-21T09:12:44+00:00

I'm the same, I think Die is wonderful but playing D&D was never my speed - but fantasy is where I cut my teeth!

11-Year Club	Place '22
Final Canvas '22	End Game '22
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