Combat Commentator: Difference between revisions

Line 1:

[[File:combatcommentators_1567.png|link=Jo ~~Jos~~ Bizarre Adventure (Manga)|right|Oftentimes you'll have Combat Commentator'''s''']]

[[File:combatcommentators_1567.png|link=Jo Jo's Bizarre Adventure (Manga)|right|Oftentimes you'll have Combat Commentator'''s''']]

{{quote|'''Riza:''' Since you'll be the only one not participating in the battle, you have to give an excruciatingly detailed play-by-play of what's going on, as if you were describing it to a bunch of idiots.<br />

Line 13:

Near-obligatory for a [[Tournament Arc]]. Often make use of [[Talking Is a Free Action]], allowing commentators to provide a thorough, detailed explanation of the effects, drawbacks, and origins of a move within the two or so seconds it takes to execute.

== Anime and Manga ==

* Common in ''[[Jo ~~Jos~~ Bizarre Adventure (Manga)|Jo Jos Bizarre Adventure]]'', along with [[Exposition Diagram|Exposition Diagrams]] to help the readers understand the complex strategies employed by the heroes.

* Common in ''[[Jo Jo's Bizarre Adventure (Manga)|Jo Jos Bizarre Adventure]]'', along with [[Exposition Diagram|Exposition Diagrams]] to help the readers understand the complex strategies employed by the heroes.

* ''[[Initial D (Manga)|Initial D]]'' went through several commentators -- Nakazato Takeshi covered most of season one and two, along with Takahashi Ryousuke. Ryousuke continues commentary through Fourth Stage, though Ninomiya Daisuke and "Smiley" Sakai are added to the commentator roster after their defeat by Project D.

* ''[[Dragon Ball (Manga)|Dragon Ball]]''

Line 24:

* Several characters offer commentary on Go matches in ''[[Hikaru no Go]]''.

* Kage Houshi often commentates for fights in ''[[Flame of Recca]],'' to the point where, during the arena arc, she is invited to be a guest commentator at the play-by-play table. This is particularly egarious because Recca's team was missing a member and they had to recruit a former villain for the role. Since Kage Houshi is {{spoiler|Recca's mother, quite skilled in ninjutsu and literally unkillable, it boggles the mind why she didn't just step in that role instead. Granted having your Mom win your battles for you may be emasculating for the average shonen hero...}}

* ''[[Ranma ~~One Half~~ (Manga)|Ranma One Half]]''

* ''[[Ranma ½ (Manga)|Ranma One Half]]''

** Nabiki Tendo occasionally offers play-by-play ''and'' color commentary on Ranma's fights.

** Pretty much every bystander, named or not, performs this role during battles, especially when the combatants are out of reach. Even Ranma himself stood back and delivered commentary during the first half of the [[A God Am I|Asura]]/[[Attack of the 50 Foot Whatever|Pantyhose Tarou]] aerial battle.

Line 39:

** On occasion, the show itself will stop and explain a tactic; as an example the first time Hiei used Dragon of the Darkness Flame, the screen paused with the dragon forming around his arm, printed "Dragon of the Darkness Flame" across the bottom, and a narrator explained how dangerous it was and how hard it was to control it.

* ''[[Eyeshield 21]]'' has characters on the sidelines recognizing maneuvers used by the players, from running and passing patterns to special "attacks" such as Shin's Spear Tackle. There are, of course, actual commentators, Riko Kumabukuro and "Machine Gun" Sanada, but players from nonparticipating teams are usually present and have things to say. A running gag eventually developed around one of them, Onihei, always being ''wrong'' in his analysis.

* In ''[[Inuyasha]]'', Kagome and Shippo - as the weakest combatants of the [[Five Man Band]] - are almost always relegated to this role. Less justifiably, Miroku and Sango also fall into the role of commentator more and more as the series progresses, thanks to Inuyasha's penchant for insisting on doing everything himself and the ease with which Miroku's strongest weapon can be turned against him by Naraku's poisonous insects.

* In ''[[Inuyasha]]'', Kagome and Shippo - as the weakest combatants of the [[Five-Man Band]] - are almost always relegated to this role. Less justifiably, Miroku and Sango also fall into the role of commentator more and more as the series progresses, thanks to Inuyasha's penchant for insisting on doing everything himself and the ease with which Miroku's strongest weapon can be turned against him by Naraku's poisonous insects.

* For ''[[Pokémon (Anime)|Pokémon]]'', the role of battle commentator usually falls to Brock, due to his experience as a Gym Leader. Occasionally he is substituted by Professor Oak, who draws upon his expertise in Pokémon research instead. Tournament battles or other matches with an audience will have real commentators in addition to the main characters commenting. This carried over to the ''Pokémon Stadium'' games and [[Spiritual Successor]] ''Pokémon Battle Revolution''.

** The extremely irritating commentators. "TAKEN DOWN IN ONE HIT!!!!!!"

Line 76:

** During the fight between Starrk and Kyoraku, neither are keen to explain their abilities and repeatedly attack without the usual preamble. They make far more observations of one another, however, and the lack of understanding leads to some bad mistakes from both men - in part because they are actively ''deceiving'' each other.. Lampshaded (?) by Ukitake when, asked by Starrk how he appeared to fire a cero, he tells the Espada to work it out for himself by firing at him some more. Starrk does figure it out a bit later.

** Kyoraku later plays it straight after releasing and using his Shikai - it forces combatants to fight using rules of children's games and he explains them.

** The worst example may be [[What an Idiot|Shinji.]] He fights Aizen, knows Aizen's powers, knows that he has ''one shot'' to take out Aizen, Aizen doesn't know Shinji's powers, and has every advantage. So, out of the blue, Shinji spends a good five minutes explaining his sword's powers, and throwing away every single advantage that he has in the fight.

** The worst example may be [[What an Idiot!|Shinji.]] He fights Aizen, knows Aizen's powers, knows that he has ''one shot'' to take out Aizen, Aizen doesn't know Shinji's powers, and has every advantage. So, out of the blue, Shinji spends a good five minutes explaining his sword's powers, and throwing away every single advantage that he has in the fight.

* In Episode 13 of [[Fullmetal Alchemist (Anime)|the 2003 anime version]] of ''[[Fullmetal Alchemist (Manga)|Fullmetal Alchemist]]'', Hughes acts as a combat commentator when {{spoiler|Roy and Ed fight. Roy himself also sort of explains what's going on, something he does in the manga during his fight with Lust as well.}} For the most part FMA is noticeably lacking in combat commentators.

** One of the reasons FMA is one of the better shonen anime out there. More action than there is talk.

Line 101:

* In ''[[Virtua Fighter]]'' the narrator provides explanation of the finishing move in the major fight of each episode, complete with slow-motion replay in wireframe.

** In the English dub, it's even more ridiculous, with the announcer always going "This move is un-(adjective)-able!"

* Spoofed in ''[[Beelzebub (Manga)|Beelzebub]]'' along with [[Calling Your Attacks]]. The protagonist calls a normal punch and kick by impressive names made up on the spot, and his [[Non Action Guy]] sidekick ''immediately'' comes up with some bullshit to "explain" to the people standing near him.

* Spoofed in ''[[Beelzebub (Manga)|Beelzebub]]'' along with [[Calling Your Attacks]]. The protagonist calls a normal punch and kick by impressive names made up on the spot, and his [[Non-Action Guy]] sidekick ''immediately'' comes up with some bullshit to "explain" to the people standing near him.

** Later spoofed again in a [[What Do You Mean ~~Its~~ Not Awesome]] game of extreme volleyball, in which one of the two commentators is wearing a cat costume, and is supposed to only say "meow". He occasionally gives genuine comments, but is promptly chastised for such by his partner.

** Later spoofed again in a [[What Do You Mean It's Not Awesome?]] game of extreme volleyball, in which one of the two commentators is wearing a cat costume, and is supposed to only say "meow". He occasionally gives genuine comments, but is promptly chastised for such by his partner.

* In ''Yattodetaman'', one of the [[Time Bokan]] series, every episode culminates in a battle between the good guys' mecha and the baddies' weird giant robots, and every battle is followed by the same reporter and his camera operator (a man so tall, his face is always off screen). [[Rule of Funny|This is strange]] because, while good and bad guys can travel through time and space, the two guys are never shown to do so, and just appear there(they must have their own time machine). Oh, by the way, those two guys are based on members of the production crew.

* In [[Yaiba]] usually Musashi ([[Miyamoto Musashi|Yes, that one]]) will end up doing this. Justified since as a 400 years old swordmaster he knows a lot of techniques and fighting styles that Sayaka or Gerozaemon may not know.

Line 130:

* Bae the commentary fly is present at every [[Humongous Mecha]] battle in ''[[Juken Sentai Gekiranger]]'', due to him living in the stomach of chameleon-themed villainess Mele. On the rare occasions Bae was not able to give commentary, other [[People in Rubber Suits]] have filled in for him.

** This has been brought over to ''[[Power Rangers Jungle Fury]]'' where Flit the Fly performs the same function, though less often then Bae did. This has not been well received.

* Shinichiro Ohta, Kenji Fukui, and Dr. Yukio Hattori (plus the celebrity guests) on ''[[Iron Chef]]''. Alton "''[[Good Eats]]''" Brown and Kevin "''The Thirsty Traveler''" Brauch provide a [[What Do You Mean ~~Its~~ Not Awesome|less hyperbolic]] version on ''Iron Chef America.''

* Shinichiro Ohta, Kenji Fukui, and Dr. Yukio Hattori (plus the celebrity guests) on ''[[Iron Chef]]''. Alton "''[[Good Eats]]''" Brown and Kevin "''The Thirsty Traveler''" Brauch provide a [[What Do You Mean It's Not Awesome?|less hyperbolic]] version on ''Iron Chef America.''

* In ''[[Burn Notice]]'', the main protagonist, Michael provides the audience with a commentary, aided by the subtitles. One example would be in the pilot, when he explains how he disabled a drug dealer safely by shooting him in the knee, with a pistol, duct tape and various home-improvement tools.

{{quote| '''Narration''': ...Guns make you stupid, duct tape makes you smart.}}

Line 179:

* [[The Beautiful Game|GOOAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAALLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!]]

* The robot combat show, Battlebots. Color commentary was provided by Bill Dwyer, Sean Salisbury and and Tim Green, who got just as excited at the spectacle of two glorified RC cars tearing each other to pieces as they ever did at a football game. Also, ''[[Robot Wars (TV)|Robot Wars]]''.

* Two of the most famous commentators in boxing are HBO's Larry Merchant and Showtime's Al Bernstein. If it's a three-man crew (typically on HBO), the third man will usually be a trainer or boxer, sometimes retired, sometimes active. This has run the gamut from [[So Cool Its Awesome|So Cool He's Awesome]] (Roy Jones Jr.), [[So Okay ~~Its~~ Average]] (Emmanuel Steward and Max Kellerman), [[So Bad ~~Its~~ Good|So Bad He's Good]] (George Foreman), to So Bad He's Horrible (Lennox Lewis). Surprisingly, real life [[Cloudcuckoolander]] Mike Tyson is actually very knowledgeable and surprisingly competent.

* Two of the most famous commentators in boxing are HBO's Larry Merchant and Showtime's Al Bernstein. If it's a three-man crew (typically on HBO), the third man will usually be a trainer or boxer, sometimes retired, sometimes active. This has run the gamut from [[So Cool Its Awesome|So Cool He's Awesome]] (Roy Jones Jr.), [[So Okay It's Average]] (Emmanuel Steward and Max Kellerman), [[So Bad It's Good|So Bad He's Good]] (George Foreman), to So Bad He's Horrible (Lennox Lewis). Surprisingly, real life [[Cloudcuckoolander]] Mike Tyson is actually very knowledgeable and surprisingly competent.

* Mixed Martial Arts has the duo of Joe Rogan and Mike Goldberg for the UFC, and Michael Shiavello aka The Voice and Guy Mezger representing HD Net's coverage of fight sports. The famous Bas Rutten often plays the role of color commentator for smaller orgs.

* Sport fencing.