One Punch Man - Satire

*obligatory spoiler warning*

This week we’ll be talking about satire, since that’s the dumb assignment Mr. Ravenda decided to give us this week.

Satire is the use of irony, humor, exaggeration, etc., to make fun of something, but also to make some kind of point. So, I thought it would be fitting to talk about the hilarious shounen anime, One Punch Man.

One Punch Man is about Saitama, a superhero who can take out any monster or villain with just one punch.

Saitama is really just a regular person. He worries about things like when the next sale at the supermarket is gonna be, and is just really blase overall. To him, being a superhero is just a hobby he does for fun, but is getting bored with because of his immense strength. Saitama is like a shounen protagonist after they’ve finished their big journey or whatever. He’s already the strongest, and doesn’t have to worry about big things anymore.

Things start to change when he saves Genos, a cyborg and aspiring hero, from a mosquito monster lady.

Genos decides that he should start following Saitama, in order to learn how to be stronger as a hero. Saitama pretty much becomes Genos’ senpai.

Genos is a takes everything very seriously, much like an archetypal shounen protagonist, but Saitama usually just tells him to like chill.   

After following Saitama around for awhile, Genos suggests that they join the Hero Association (which exists since the world they live in is pretty much townsville from the powerpuff girls). The Hero Association is an organization where local heroes can earn money from the government depending on their rank, and how many monsters and/or villains they defeat. Really strong and high ranking heroes are treated as celebrities.To join, people must take an exam to determine whether they can be a hero, and if so, it determines their rank as a hero. Genos immediately joins at S class (the highest class), but Saitama joins the C class (the lowest) due to his low intelligence.

Eventually, Saitama makes it to B Class, and starts to gain public recognition, and more importantly, profit.

This show is absolutely hilarious. I was constantly hysterically laughing from the jokes and how much it made fun of typical shounen anime. There was one part where they got to a building where one villain dwelled. It was most likely a giant maze inside, which would usually be an entire arc in a regular shounen, but they just blow up the entire building, and go to the basement, where they needed to be.

This show just takes typical shounen tropes and just destroys them in a hilarious manner. It’s really funny and makes its point clear: Shounen anime take themselves too seriously sometimes. The genre is great but usually very ridiculous. They make their arcs way too long, resulting in forever running series’ like Dragonball, Bleach, Naruto, One Piece, etc. This show contrasts that by making each episode feel like an entire arc.

It makes fun of all these anime in while also being great by itself.

Over The Garden Wall - Life Lesson

*SPOILER WARNING*

Life lessons are messages that convey useful knowledge or principles. Where better to put life lessons than in cartoons? Children will see them, and learn important values while being entertained at the same time. Today, I’ll be talking about one cartoon in particular, Cartoon Network’s first mini series, Over The Garden Wall.

This short format, 10 episode show is littered with subtext and is very emotional. Over The Garden Wall teaches a simple lesson: as easy as it is to give up, you should always keep trying. The show conveys this message many times throughout the story through the characters Wirt and Greg.

Wirt is a cynical, pessimistic high schooler.

 After getting lost in the woods with his little brother, Greg, Wirt desperately wants to go home, but he gives up hope many  times along the way. But, in the woods of the unknown, giving up means you turn into an edelwood tree, to eventually be harvested by The Beast, never to return home.

Then, there’s his goofy, optimistic, and adorable half-brother Greg. Greg never gives up hope of returning home, and believes that Wirt can lead him.

Greg is incredibly brave, if not just oblivious to all around him. He doesn’t flinch at the sight of danger, but instead faces it head on.

      When Wirt finally decides that there’s no way of getting home, and starts to turn into a tree, Greg makes a deal with the Beast, sacrificing himself in order to save his brother, believing that Wirt will find his way home, and out of the unknown.

Wirt eventually musters up some courage, and saves Greg from the Beast’s clutches. Learning from Greg’s optimistic attitude, and deciding not to surrender to despair, they defeat the Beast in the end, and end up getting to leave the forest of the unknown. 

The overall lesson of Over The Garden Wall is very clear in the end. With growing up, you gain a certain cynicism and negativity, but this show is trying to say that you shouldn’t let that overtake your goals. You should remain hopeful no matter the situation.

Myth - Spongebob and The Seven Deadly Sins

Everybody loves and remembers Spongebob Squarepants. He’s a hilarious sponge who lives in a pineapple under the sea. But, what if that beloved children’s show represented something darker than we thought? What if each main character of Spongebob was supposed to represent The Seven Deadly Sins?
The Seven Deadly Sins are the sins of Envy, Wrath, Greed, Pride, Sloth, Gluttony and Lust.

As mentioned before, all these things relate to each of the main characters. And I’ll go down the list one by one.

Envy is wanting what someone else has, and this perfectly describes Plankton. He will stop at nothing to get the Krabby Patty formula, because he wants a successful restaurant just like the Krusty Krab. He’s even gone as far as winning Spongebob at a bet with Mr. Krabs, and mind controlling the entire city.

Wrath is the undying and extreme anger from a person. This sums up Squidward pretty well. Squidward hates his life. Nothing good ever happens to him. He tries so hard to have a good cultured life by playing clarinet, and painting, but his horrible neighbors and low-paying job always ruins his mood. He copes with this by showing outwards hate to the ones around him, and being overall bitter all the time.

Greed is the never ending want for wealth, and power. Mr. Krabs is the greediest character, no doubt. He even sings a song about how greedy he is in the episode “Selling Out”. He is always looking for any kind of money he can find. He got his hand stuck in a sink drain once, for a dime, and even fired Squidward once because he thought Squidward stole a dime out of the cash register, and got eaten by a clam for a dollar.

Pride is the feeling that you’re more important than other people. Sandy is very prideful. She makes sure everyone knows she’s from Texas, and will DESTROY anyone who thinks Texas is dumb,

and is very smart because she’s a scientist. She is also very stubborn, and thinks she’s right all the time.

Sloth is being emotionally or physically inactive. Patrick takes this one, hands down. He usually spends his time doing nothing, or eating. There was even an episode where he won an award for doing absolutely nothing longer than anyone else. He’s also very stupid. He would be completely useless to anyone except for Spongebob.

 

Gluttony is the over indulgence and over consumption of food. This is best represented by Gary. Gary doesn’t do much else than eat. But that’s usually normal, since he’s a pet. But, Gary will take some extreme measures to get at some food. Like once, he stayed with Patrick for days, because he wanted the cookie in Patrick’s pocket.

And, when Spongebob left too much food out for him, he ate it all, without a second thought. He even ran away when Spongebob forgot to feed him.

This last one is a bit of a stretch, but Lust is very strong sexual desire. Although there’s clearly nothing sexual about him (especially since seas sponges reproduce asexually), Spongebob is the best one to fit this sin. He always has unconditional love for everyone around him, even those who’ve outward hate or disdain toward him. There was even an episode where he fell in love with a Krabby

Patty, but he’s not the first to do that.

I think this myth is pretty solid, aside from a few minor holes, and even gives Spongebob some type of educational purpose, It was confirmed to be a complete afterthought. The creator of Spongebob, Stephen Hillenburg has said that he didn’t intend for the characters to end up representing the seven deadly sins.