Saving The World Is Just A Hobby.

Stratadrake · Posted: Wed Feb 09, 2005 7:26 pm Post subject:

In a universe of all the ways to separate the "have"s from the "have not"s, allow me to submit this one for discussion.

This one applies mostly to animes and cartoons where the protagonists are ultimately required to [i]Save The World[/i]. What do the main characters do when they are [i]not[/i] working toward that ultimate altruistic goal?

Or, phrased a better way, do the main characters have a day job?

How many animes are there in which the main character has a regular job and at other times is called upon to fight for The Cause? Schoolkids certainly aren't the only ones.

And how many animes involve plucking the main character out of their known world/life and dropping them into a new one, leaving them no recourse but to survive, find friends, and ultimately Save The World?

In what ways are one better than the other? When does vice versa apply?

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Fayore · Moderator Joined: 12 Mar 2004 Posts: 6195

Main character with a job?

Well, I can give you genres: shoujo, romance, schoolkids, and I suppose hentai ought to count, too.

Especially mahou shoujo, it's usually about girls who have a life, but they also have to save the world at the same time (eg. Sailor Moon, Tokyo Mew Mew, Mermaid Melody Pichi Pichi Pitch, etc).

Anime where someone gets thrown into another world... Ergh. Too many. ;_; As you can see, I'm not really a fan of this stuff. :/ Too cliche for me.

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Inu-Yasha-fan · Very bored Joined: 25 Aug 2004 Posts: 218

Yes, i do believe that the whole "saving the world" thing is getting out of hand. But then again, if you look back at some movies that made history its the same thing. I have found some animes/mangas that do not focus on saving the world but falling in love (Onegai Teacher), learning about mysteries (Serial Experiment Lain) and just trying to get through life.

Raymei · Posted: Fri Feb 11, 2005 9:15 am Post subject:

Serial Experiment Lain was so freaking confusing.....

As far as "saving the world" scenarios where someone has a job, etc

um.....The ones that are coming to mind right now all either invovle being sent to another world (where you don't have to worry about that Laughing

) or school kids o.o;;;

Or it is there job.
Dang this is going to bug me all day. I know there's at least one :blink:

But saving the world isn't just an anime thing; spiderman, x-men, Fantastic 4, about 100 American movies that involves aliens, etc etc

It's just the "ultimate conflict"

Stratadrake · Posted: Fri Feb 11, 2005 11:28 am Post subject:

[quote]um.....The ones that are coming to mind right now all either invovle being sent to another world (where you don't have to worry about that Laughing

) or school kids o.o;;;

Or it is their job.[/quote]

Damn that is SO TRUE! I was going to mention that in my starter post but then I thought, nah, better not. But yeah, how come it's always the school-age kids entursted with saving the world these days?
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Fayore · Moderator Joined: 12 Mar 2004 Posts: 6195

Because Fate has a bad sense of humor.

Actually, judgement.

But anyway, I don't understand that, either. I don't find that schoolkids are particularily responsible people, so that's a rather good question.
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cstdenis · Posted: Fri Feb 11, 2005 7:09 pm Post subject:

how about "Sumeba Miyako no Cosmos-sou Suttoko Taisen Dokkoida" (i'm not even going to bother translating that long title)

Suzuo's job IS to save the world (he even gets paid for it)
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silver_dreams · Elder Than Dirt Joined: 05 Feb 2004 Posts: 5102

[quote="cstdenis (Cstdenis)"] "Sumeba Miyako no Cosmos-sou Suttoko Taisen Dokkoida" [/quote]
"You can get used to living anywhere of Cosmos-

forget it @_@. i don't know 'suttoko' or 'dokkoida'

Fayore · Moderator Joined: 12 Mar 2004 Posts: 6195

Lol. When I translate stuff, I prefer to have the kanji, otherwise it's too difficult sometimes.

GEtting paid to save the world? This isn't a comedy, is it? It sounds so silly. Razz

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Saizo209 · Rookie Joined: 10 Feb 2005 Posts: 37

Allmost all anime and mangas now are all saving the world wats up with that.why won't they make an anime thats all about skimpy clodes and whole kinds of perverted stuff. you know wat I mean. Wink

cstdenis · Posted: Sun Feb 13, 2005 5:09 pm Post subject:

[quote="silver_dreams (silver)"] [quote="cstdenis (Cstdenis)"] "Sumeba Miyako no Cosmos-sou Suttoko Taisen Dokkoida" [/quote]
"You can get used to living anywhere of Cosmos-

forget it @_@. i don't know 'suttoko' or 'dokkoida' [/quote]
Close.

Dokkoida is the name of the main character when transformed.

The next ep previews translate it as "Living in hourse Cosmos, Suttoko war, Dokkoida"

and yes, its a comedy.
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Rindi_chan · Posted: Fri Feb 25, 2005 11:49 pm Post subject:

Whee. Dokkoida was awesome.

As for anime that combine 'having a job' with 'saving the world'... Has anyone seen Shinesman? The main character ostensibly works for a trading firm, but his real job is to fight aliens with his coworkers. Funny stuff.

SilentSoul92 · Posted: Sat Feb 26, 2005 10:33 pm Post subject:

hm...well, most of the ones I've read are the schoolkids saving the world type ones. I don't think I've actually read one where the person has an actual job. Dang, that's gonna bother me for a while till I find one.

Thirteen_Black_Roses · Has No Life Joined: 22 Aug 2004 Posts: 510

I love Shinesman! Very Happy

There should've been more of that show...

Most characters don't seem to [i]need[/i] to have a job. But that could be because of the large number of heros who are still in highschool...

As a member of my anime club put it, "Saving the world is a problem for student councils everywhere.

Really, most of the time, whether they have a job or school, it never seems to be an issue unless it can be made into a plot point for a particular episode. No one ever seems to care that these kids must be missing a lot of class and/or homework while they're secretly saving the world. For example, in Inuyasha Kagome is always complaining about missing class, but she never really does anything about it. I think pulling people into another world is just a handy way to avoid that problem.

flaming_weasel · Very bored Joined: 19 Mar 2004 Posts: 178

"Gundam," anyone? In all its incarnations (except G-Gundam and Gundam SD, which I consider blasphemies), the main character is a soldier, pure and simple - even if he's a rediculously young and pretty one. As a soldier, his job is to fight the opposing army bent on destroying Earth. It's his job, and it's relatively realistic at that, though that doesn't mean he won't get all righteous about it. <_<

Hmm... I'm trying to think of any other "save the world" anime I like...

Well, there's [i]Akira[/i], where Kaneda has to save the world from Tetsuo, but he's a total delinquent and one wouldn't expect him to have a job anyway.

And in [i]Rurouni Kenshin[/i], Kenshin's just a vagrant so he doesn't have a job either (in fact, nobody seems to have a job in that show...), besides his unrelenting obsession with protecting others.

Mmm... those are the only ones that I actually care to watch, so... yeah...

Barney--TheAnti-Christ · Posted: Mon Mar 28, 2005 12:56 pm Post subject:

the whole save the world thing, to me, is unorrigional. Almost every show out there has some kind of "only you can save us now" or 'the fate of the world lies in your hands now" quote in it, and it's getting really old, really fast. -.-

KiSsImI · Newb Joined: 12 Mar 2005 Posts: 19

um well shaman king is kinda different it's like well...you kinda have to watch it. it's about saving the world yes but yet it's not about saving the world...the plot kida leads to saving the world ..ack this is hard...and um well as for a job..faust is a doctor sorta I guess wow...um yeah just ignore this <_<

Barney--TheAnti-Christ · Posted: Thu Mar 31, 2005 7:44 pm Post subject:

yeah, not all of the anime completely revolve around it. Some have some pretty well thought out side plots. Those anime's are cool^^

Barney--TheAnti-Christ · Posted: Fri Apr 01, 2005 7:42 pm Post subject:

''Only you...can save us all...our lives are in your hands now.''
how I hate that quote...grrrrrrrr.

lucifer · Very bored Joined: 08 Aug 2004 Posts: 133

[quote="Barney--TheAnti-Christ ()"] ''Only you...can save us all...our lives are in your hands now.''
how I hate that quote...grrrrrrrr. [/quote]
That quote is evil indeed. If it was the end of the world, I'd go save myself instead of leave it to some random human being. Even though they also have a habit of magically overcoming those ridiculous odds and stuff.

Chosen ones get dull really fast, and they're way too common. Though it's so easy to want to use a chosen one!...to me at least... the manga I am attempting to write sort of uses it...in a sort of weird way...Vitius is the one person nobody wants their well-being in the hands of, but it just sort of ends up being in his hands and well we all know he'll suceed unless I REALLLY want to shake things up, which is likely...I already put the villain in nothing but white clothes(and he cries havoc every time he gets his precious chocolate on it)...