If you’ve played The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, you know that the only weakness on Ganon’s body once Ganondorf has transformed is the tail. This might seem strange, but it is very coincidental when you look at Dragon Ball Z. In DBZ, there is a race called Sayians (one of many spellings). The Sayians look human enough but they have the special ability to transform into large beasts that often run amuck. I noticed that in one of the battles, the character of Vegeta is fighting Earth’s protector, Goku, and Vegeta decides to use his special ability. When he does, the only thing that stops him in his large, beastly form is when someone cuts his tail off. The correlation is apparent but whether or not the creators of Zelda were influenced by the legendary Dragon Ball Z cartoons is up for speculation.
- Contributed by Andy W.

There are a few “tail” incidents in Dragon Ball Z – someone’s always getting his tail cut off. However, unlike Zelda, the monsters’ tails in DBZ are their strength – they use their tails to fight (like Frieza). When the tail is cut off (a much more difficult feat than slicing Ganon’s appendage), so is their strength. In Zelda, Ganon’s tail is his weak point – he does not use his tail to fight, but is continually turning away from Link so he can’t hit at his tail. Herein lies the microscopic error in the correlation.
- Contributed by Jess

In reading the link one person found between the weakness of the tails for both Ganon (Zelda: Ocarina of Time) and the Sayans (Dragon Ball), I have noted a few things. First, I believe that these were sexual references, because of how tails were used early on during the Japanese version of Dragon Ball. In earlier episodes withheld from the American market, one would see Goku (just a boy at the time) using his tail to fiddle around with Bulma.

Sure, he used his tail for more practical purposes for hanging and such but the sexual reference became distinct when he used his tail with Bulma. (This was due to the original intentions for Dragon Ball to be a semi-hentai series, more for comic relief than overpowered fighting monsters.) Now what does this have to do with the tails being the weakpoints for the Sayans? This is simple. What is the single most extreme pain that a guy can feel? That’s right, a kick to the ahem. If indeed the tails represented the male sexual organ, but put in a way to be able to show children, then my theory would be all too true.

As for Zelda‘s Ganon, it may be based more on fact than just coincidence with Dragon Ball. One may not have noticed this, but tails are weak. When a pig has his tail grabbed, it squeals and does not like it. Dogs who wag their tails too much often have it snap off (yes it is indeed a disgusting picture) and therefore some people have their tails snipped before something like this happens. By this simple rule, the creator Shigero Miyamoto may have seen this, and decided, “Well if the bad guy is an animal with a tail, perhaps its best to put the weakness there since it would make sense.” On the other hand, it simply may have been that Ganon’s tail is the only accessible part of his body that would make sense to attack during the fight. After all, Ganon represents the ultimate evil, with incredible power. In most stories (Norse mythology for example) the extremely powerful people have a single weak spot. Baldir had the mistle toe, as did Achilles with his ankle. With all these ideas combined, it made a lot of sense to go with the tail as a weakpoint in the game.
- Contributed by PodularKix

One reader wrote in with these lines:

“In earlier episodes witheld from the American market, one would see Goku (just a boy at the time) using his tail to fiddle around with Bulma. Sure he used his tail for more practical purposes for hanging and such but the sexual reference became distinct when he used his tail with Bulma. (This was due to the original intentions for Dragon Ball to be a semi-hentai series, more for comic relief than overpowered fighting monsters.)”

This is completely untrue. I have read the first twenty odd issues of Dragon Ball (unedited) and I have not once seen anything to back that statement up. Nor have I ever heard such a thing regarding the anime in any of the various magazine articles or books I have read that addressed the series. Dragon Ball started out as a comedic version of the Chinese legend of the Monkey King with martial arts overtones, then it reversed the formula, more martial arts with comic moments. There is only sparse nudity in the comics, and nine times of out of ten this is Goku himself. There were hentai references, mostly because of Muten Roshi who is a perverted old man, however this is a common rendition of martial arts masters. Happosai, Roshi, and the Playstation game Thousand Arms were built around this concept.

Many anime and manga reviewers have pointed out that one of the most appealing points of the series is that, no matter how powerful he became or how many battles he went through, Goku retains his wide-eyed innocence throughout the entire series. This hardly seems like a character that would “use his tail to fiddle around with Bulma”.
- Contributed by Michael S.

Add to: Facebook | Digg | Del.icio.us | Stumbleupon | Reddit | Blinklist | Twitter | Technorati | Furl | Newsvine

We know that most of you out there in academia are currently thinking:

Traumatizing anime? Isn’t that some sort of redundant tautology?

While it’s true that for every single Kiki’s Delivery Service there are about seventeen Sister Lovecraft’s Ninja Maid Story Neko Octopus Ninja Room, one must realize that “traumatizing” is truly a relative term. Only the crème de la crème of subjectively disturbing, stomach-turning sequences have descriptions like this:

 Aforementioned naked chick proceeds to get the hell out by tearing off the head of any guard unfortunate enough to be in her way. One has his legs ripped off; another is lobotomized by a ballpoint pen. All of this is done by a pair of horrifying invisible nightmare arms sprouting from her back.

After determining that guards’ blood is in fact a kind of magenta neon paint, Lucy finishes by beheading a clumsy secretary and using her corpse as an improvised meat-shield before going on her merry naked way.

Now what self-respecting 16-year-old male wouldn’t think that was The Awesomest Thing Ever? Answer: none. But we digress.

The 5 Most Traumatizing Anime Sequences in Recent History: A Scholar’s Guide >Catena Ex Situ

Contributed by “PRomanIV”

I read in one of the dozens of over-analyzations on this site that Japanese “children’s” anime has a tendency to allow a bit more violence than western cartoons. This got me to thinking: Have you ever noticed just how ridiculously far Voltron (the original, I’ve never seen the new one) goes to insure that NO ONE DIES.

I’m doing this from memory, but let me site the examples I can think of:

1. In order to show just how cruel Zarkon is, they constantly show him observing gladiatorial bouts in his arena. And yet, they make a point (in pretty much every episode) of mentioning that the gladiators are robots. So, in effect, Zarkon is just watching the Universe’s Most Elaborate Mortal Kombat Game.
2. Prince Lotor (I think that’s how it’s spelled), in a fit of rage, cuts up a bunch of his father’s minions with his laser sword. Then, once it’s all over, he mentions, for no apparent reason, that they’re all just robots.
3. In another episode, Lotor kidnaps a whole busload of peasantfolk and holds them hostage, ordering the Voltron boys to surrender. His bluff is called, and, in order to prove his toughness, Lotor orders a random peasant shot. Blast blast, the man goes down. Then he says “That was just a stun ray, but the next shot will be real!” or something to that effect. At this point, the Voltron Force gets all scared, decides “he’s serious” and surrenders.
4. There is one episode where Zarkon causes it to rain fire or lava or some such down on the planet, causing some nasty damage to the local flora. Later in the episode, the princess mentions that EVERYONE made it safely into the caves.
5. In one of the very last episodes, Lotor usurps his father and has him imprisoned in a robeast. He sends the robeast out to battle Voltron. Naturally, Voltron wins, and destroys the robeast, which blows up quite impressively. Next shot is a close-up of daddy Zarkon’s face, hastily saying something to the effect of “I managed to escape, some day I will wreak my revenge on my treacherous son!” He is never heard from again.
6. In the final episode, Lotor and Sven are fighting it out in Lotor’s palace. Sven draws a knife and comes at Lotor, cut out there’s an explosion, the two are struggling, they fall into a lake. Sven emerges shortly thereafter saying “I’ve finally defeated the evil Lotor!” But then the narrator cuts in an announces, “And yet, unbeknownst to our heroes, Lotor has escaped!” Then he makes the obligatory “I’ll get you next time!” bad guy curse, and climbs into this escape pod that came from lord-knows-where.

The only exception to this “no death at any cost” mentality is when Zarkon’s first general (no idea what his name was) gets turned into a robeast and blown up. I’m fairly certain we are left to assume he went boom with his robeast, but I don’t particularly remember. Either way, he is never heard from again.

My point in all this? Well, let’s examine #3 for a second, as it is the most airtight proof of my theory that I have. In that scene, the mention that it was “just a stun ray” completely kills any tension that previously existed. Even an eight year old would have to pick up on just how ludicrous it is for the Voltron Force to be kowtowed by a villain who can only stun his hostages. It would have been much simpler for them to just surrender before Lotor did anything, if they didn’t want to show a hostage get killed. The whole stun ray statement is said rather quickly (even for a dubbed cartoon) and doesn’t seem to fit into the flow of the conversation. All the other “I’m not dead” statements are the same way, and the pictures that accompany them in #5 and #6 seem equally out of place, either displaying no background whatsoever, or displaying an entirely different background than the rest of the scene.

Then, going back to #1, in one of the very first episodes (maybe THE very first episodes) we see Zarkon pitting helpless looking (and obviously organic) slaves against his evil minions (who are explained to be robots in later episodes, but I’m fairly sure no mention of this fact is made in the episode I’m talking about now). Also, the one exception that I mentioned above also takes place relatively early in the series. So, what does it all mean?

Most likely, the original Japanese version included some fairly dark and disturbing scenes (like Zarkon’s arena and the fire rain episode, and even the hostage crisis), but, when it was shipped to the states, somebody in the chain of command panicked and backlashed, forcing the introduction of several extra scenes and lines of dialogue designed to insure this was an entirely “kid friendly” show. I think it’s also safe to assume that some scenes have been removed entirely from the translated version. If anyone speaks Japanese, can get their hands on the original version, and has WAY too much time on their hands, they can check this phenomenon out for themselves and see whether or not I’m right (I’m fairly certain I am).