Serious Business/Anime and Manga: Difference between revisions

* In the world of ''[[Yu-Gi-Oh]]'' and especially the sequel ''[[Yu-Gi-Oh GX]]'', the card game of "Duel Monsters" is a global phenomenon. National tournaments, academies, politics, etc. all revolve around a [[Blatant Lies|fairly simple]] collectible card game. And this isn't even including the mystical occult properties, known only to a few: that ''Duel Monsters'' is actually based on magical games powerful ancient Egyptians used to play. Yes, ''ancient Egyptians.'' {{spoiler|From the latter part of the first series onward and in every subsequent series to date, ''Duel Monsters'' becomes a ''[[Cosmic Keystone]]'' or a method of manipulating one. Should children really be playing this card game?}}

** The main villain of the Battle City arc is fond of ''making'' the game serious with human lives at stake.

** ''GX's'' protagonist Judai attempts time and again to convince his opponents that their reasons for getting into the game are wrong, and need to remember that the main point of the game is to have fun. Pretty amusing when you consider that ''these people go to a prestigious boarding school for the sole purpose of learning how to play it better''.

*** Judai [[Deconstructor Fleet|eventually stops enjoying the game]] in Season 4 after spending most of Season 3 playing with his and/or other's lives at stake. The two-part finale, after all the villains have been defeated, consists of him regaining the sense of fun he'd lost... {{spoiler|by going ''back in time'' to duel Yugi.}}

** And if that world doesn't become more insane for ''[[Yu-Gi-Oh Ze Xal (Anime)|Yu-Gi-Oh Ze Xal]]'', this troper will eat his deck.

** Kaiba actually goes over his duel with Yugi (which ends in Yami Yugi's [[Mind Rape]] of him) from every angle, including [[You Keep Using That Word|quantum analysis]]. What the carbon-14 of Kaiba's Blue Eyes White Dragon turning into nitrogen-14 (for example) has to do with anything is beyond the viewers.

* ''[[Akagi]]'' breaks people's ''minds'' by playing [[Mahjong]].

** The fact that there is an extreme amount of money riding on each game, which is enough to easily break and ruin a person, probably helps.

* ''[[Initial D]]'': Street racing + Serious Business. That some people get like this in real life just makes it all the more hilarious.

* In ''[[Beyblade]]'', the sport of Beyblading itself. It seems like if anyone wants to [[Take Over the World]], they have to do it with duelling tops.

** It is not so much as the tops as the "Bit Beasts" - artificial or spiritual entities of animals that allow the tops to pack as much yield as a nuclear bomb without the nasty side effects. Serious Business however.

** Also: using a giant robot to make pizza. And everything else related to the [[Absurdly Powerful Student Council]], for that matter.

* As far as Gintoki from ''[[Gintama (Manga)|Gintama]]'' is concerned, ''[[Shonen Jump]]'' and sugar are both extremely serious business.

* ''[[Bakugan]]'' suffers from this, to the point where it almost seems to be a parody of the [[Mon]] genre. Sadly, it is not. It's just an anime that apparently has children who are overly attached to their Bakugan, and {{spoiler|don't get started about how the Bakugan Universe gets into this matter}}.

* Subverted in ''[[Kidou Tenshi Angelic Layer]]'', [[CLAMP (Creator)|CLAMP]]'s version of a typical [[Shonen]] battle-game series. At first, it seems to fit perfectly, as Angelic Layer matches are broadcast on the sides of buildings to large crowds, Angels are treated as [[Companion Cube|Companion Cubes]], and {{spoiler|Shuuko has abandoned her daughter in favor of playing professionally.}} However, as we progress through the series, we realize that it was just a busy public place where people wanted to watch a sport (much like football), people that take the game too seriously frequently [[An Aesop|learn]] from [[Defeat Means Friendship|being defeated]] that they should just have fun, and {{spoiler|Shuuko's debilitating self-loathing, which propelled her to leave her child, is cured by her coworkers' support and her daughter's forgiveness.}} Most people see the competition as just a game--albeit a tad odd.

* ''[[Grander Musashi]]'' takes sports fishing ''very'' seriously, to the point that anglers [[Calling Your Attacks|call out a technique]] whenever they throw fishing lines into the water, and treat their fishing rods and lures as [[Companion Cube|Companion Cubes]]. There's even an academy that trains would-be anglers in the dark arts of fishing. In the sequel, [[Gotta Catch Em All|seven divine lures that everybody is after]] created by Poseidon ''are the reason for the sinking of Atlantis''.

* ''[[Keroro Gunsou]]'' plays with this trope by having Keroro and Giroro treat ''everything'' from vacuuming, to going to the beach, to jumping rope, as though it were either a major military operation or a [[Cooking Duel]] to decide the fate of the galaxy.

* ''Metal Fighter Miku'' makes women's wrestling serious business. Arguably justified in that this is a basic tenet of pro wrestling in the first place (see below).

* Likewise, ''[[Kinnikuman]]'' features wrestling matches that can decide the fate of the earth, and are frequently to the death.

** You can also mention Sakuma, who takes [[Death Is Dramatic|dramatic deaths]] (going so far as to hand a person a gun), and [[Moe Moe|Moe fetishes]] seriously (he wreaks [[Stuff Blowing Up|explosive violence]] on someone for tricking him with fake moe glasses)

* In ''[[Suzumiya Haruhi]]'', a ''baseball game'' of all things decided the fate of the world given that Team SOS-dan were playing against a really good baseball team. Their loss would aggravate Haruhi as she's a [[Reality Warper]], and a sore loser, and would literally mean [[The End of the World As We Know It]].

*** Come to think of it, Haruhi takes pretty much everything this way, game or no. Which makes it [[Serious Business]] for the rest of the SOS Brigade: if losing a baseball game means Haruhi will throw a world-destroying sulk, that really does up the ante.

** It's a little different from the usual Serious Business you see in anime since most of the world is entirely unaware of it, but it is no less serious.

* ''801 T.T.S. Airbats'' has a ramen-eating contest bet on by not only the entire JSSDF, but Chinese and American troops as well.

* In ''[[Mahou Sensei Negima (Manga)|Mahou Sensei Negima]]'', Negi and Fate attempt to have a diplomatic meeting and nearly come to blows while arguing about whether tea or coffee is superior. {{spoiler|The negotiations later fail for an unrelated reason.}}

* One [[Hentai|H-manga]] by Shiwasu no Okina applies this to '''''fellatio''''', of all things. The competition between one high school's competing fellatio clubs is a matter of ''life'' or ''death''.

** [[Sex and The City|"Oral sex is hard work. That's why it's called a blow-JOB!"]]

** In fact, the main character's uncle {{spoiler|''dies from exhaustion from working on his manga''}} before the start of the series.

*** However, this can be [[Justified Trope|justified]] by the [[Truth in Television]] of the staggering amount of people in Japan who die of overwork. His uncle had been focusing only on his manga and setting aside sleeping and eating properly.

* Sex is serious business in ''[[School Rumble]]''. Guy students stampeding towards the museum to see Itoko's nude portrait or conducting clandestine meetings to determine who is the hottest girl in their school (again Itoko) is nothing new.

** [[Truth in Television]]?