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Culture shock
Someone recommended this for me to read and fairly certain someone else recommended it to me before. I was never interested but figured I would check the appeal.
It feels a lot like One Piece where it is a big adventure with characters and enemies coming and going, everything up in the air as the protaganists try to achieve their goal.
It's got everything it's got light comedy, action, suspense, and... nudity. It didn't hit me until the tits came out I thought damn I can't tell if this is or was totally fine back in the 80s in Japan but certainly feels quite taboo with a modern Western lens. The girl is 16 years old and loses her clothes and/or panties more than once hanging with a bunch of pervs. Granted, she also offers and teases as well. I think that the loophole seems to be that the other characters are "non-human" and thus no rules apply.
I got this straight from the library no problem so I guess it's all fine. Very curious now to see how all of this plays out in the seemingly much more popular Dragonballz TV series.
So basically it is culturally a bit shocking for me and absolutely see the appeal where "boys will be boys." With that It packed a punch above One Piece for entertainment value due to the above-mentioned surprises.
All that said it is not my cup of tea, and most things aren't anyway. The aimlessness and randomness is a bit too silly, comedy not funny enough, and nothing really that gripping. Maybe I just need a bit more intellectual stimulation.
Update: What has been bothering me is stepping into cookie cutter manga and anime based on some sort of formula to maintain interest and try to become a hit. And I have not even read nor seen very much yet. Elements of a [boys] manga series: naked / flirtatious girl, simple humor, teaser curiosity story element, supernatural powers. And then as if optimizing against a crowd of ADHD viewership or Youtube algorithym like Mr. Beast Youtube videos i.e. how much x can we waste by putting in y in 8 minutes, but in manga rather flash random combinations of those elements in an ever changing story to hold your interest page after page?
In other words it is the cookie cutter formula and randomness that is holding your interest just enough to flip the page or buy the next volume to see what happens next, dopamine hit like social media notifications or a slot machine, versus a well thought out piece of literature. Dragonball versus 童夢. Commerialization versus artistic expression. Same goes for music.