This week on My Taste is Better Than Yours, we pursue one of my favorite themes: the kaijuu. You know them – the huge shounen franchises that achieve huge commercial success and cultural penetration. Just what is a kaijuu and why do a few series achieve that status, while all the rest fall short? Tune in as Samu and I weigh in on this topic and look ahead to some potential kaijuu in waiting.
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BluBlu
March 23, 2025 at 4:44 pmInteresting episode.
I was preparing my tomatoes when Samu started his stretch about Bleach and Kimetsu. But I have been patient and he finally stated the magic title: Saint Seiya. I mean, I had already more or less mentioned it in my comment in the homage piece to Akira Toriyama, but Saint Seiya and Kimetsu share so much similarities that it is almost funny. And all of this is probably unwanted as Goutouge never mentioned this series but as Samu said, Bleach is very influenced by Saint Seiya. And that one, even Kubo never hided how much he was a fan of. So, I have used my tomatoes for cooking instead.
I have been surprised that Slam Dunk and Dragon Ball were only lightly mentioned. I mean, I have never been to Japan and so I might be biased, but I do not know many series which can have a new edition with no color page and just new covers and paneling which could sell as the new edition did. But maybe the focus of the episode was intentionally more on recent series.
Regarding the topic itself, not an easy topic by any stretch. And I would even say that there is no answer regarding the prediction criteria. And I am happy that the fact that Tokyo Revengers anime mid quality has been mentioned. Because after Kimetsu, it looked as if any success would need beautiful anime. And if I can already hear people say that Tokyo Revengers is not a pure battle manga, well, my point is that you cannot use only one factor and deny any other possible appeals of a series. And some would say pretty boys. Okay, do we want to discuss how many pretty boy manga anime adaptation did no particular thing for them?
To sum what I have said, I think that the capacity to also establish a trend something to take in consideration and I do not think that you discussed that so much (sorry if I have missed it). As I believe that it is a common point of many of this Kaijus once they have been ones (and I mean again trend, not success of these babies born from this trend). By the way, wasn’t Quintessential Quintuplets also one of its kind? (another anime without crazy stylish animation by the way). In any case, something that cannot be denied is how the series generated copycats or trend of harem shounen with sisters/heroines all known from the get-go.
And while I do not like to do tops, if I am participating to the game/question asked, I would say: Slam Dunk / Fullmetal Alchemist & Dragon Ball (ex aequo) and….Ahiru no Sora (oh yeah, the spell cast on me by this series is strong… XD).
By the way, so funny how Naruto is barely mentioned when it has also generated at least two babies in Jump at almost the same time (I won’t say no names…).
Guardian Enzo
March 23, 2025 at 5:08 pmI confess none of Toriyama’s works ever held my interest for that long (including DB) so I don’t know that much about Saint Seiya. If you say it influenced Kimetsu and Bleach, I’ll take your word for it.
This was never intended to be an encyclopedic rendering of Kaijuu history – just a musing on the phenomenon itself. As to whether The QQ meets the threshold, I would say it falls just sort. Much-imitated maybe, but there’s more to being a kaijuu than that (though they almost always are).
Simone
March 26, 2025 at 2:34 am> And I would even say that there is no answer regarding the prediction criteria.
If there were, after all, I’d expect such wisdom to live within the editorial department of Shonen Jump, making them tons of money. Instead even with all their insider experience they still seem to generate these sort of commercial monsters only on a very hit-or-miss basis. Next one up might be Kagurabachi, who knows. Ichi the Witch is good but I don’t know if it has that sort of mainstream appeal. Not a lot of other candidates now that Sakamoto Days has clearly not taken off.
Guardian Enzo
March 26, 2025 at 8:54 amI don’t love Sakamoto Days but with a really good anime it might have had a chance to just reach the minimum kaijuu level. Kagurabachi could (though I’m not a fan). And I don’t think Ichi will either – too quirky – but it could get to SD levels maybe.
Nadavu
March 25, 2025 at 10:22 pmThank you Enzo and Samu for another great episode.
I never got how Demon Slayer got so big. It’s a solid 7 in my books (and dropping the more it goes on)
Guardian Enzo
March 25, 2025 at 10:54 pmYou’re very welcome. I went full-length on that topic in fact.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C1h3chrMEyA&t=127s