Take That/Anime and Manga

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.
"Are you watching Shintaro? Talk is cheap...but all the talk in the world won't save your floundering economy...let alone your Earth!"
—Sergeant Keroro taking a swipe at then-Governor of Tokyo, Shintaro Ishiro, Keroro Gunsou

Anime and manga writers can be as blunt or as subtle as anyone at dishing out criticism.

  • One of the many interpretations of Neon Genesis Evangelion is that it's a big Take That on otaku culture.
    • This is also an implication from The End of Evangelion, being as Hideaki Anno was quite upset people didn't like what he saw as a fitting conclusion to the original series (He got death threats about it. Imagine that when you're extremely depressed).
    • Soon after, Sunrise tried to smack it down with GaoGaiGar.
  • The intro to Puni Puni Poemi features the main heroine brutally killing magical girls from various other shows, including one scene where she snaps the neck of Sailor Moon.
  • Twice in the Read or Die OVA the President of the United States, who is visibly based on George W. Bush, is shown visibly losing bladder control in response to frightening events going on around him. Just to add an extra bit of English to the insult, though, the dub gives him a Texan accent not unlike that of Bush. R.O.D. The TV repeated the pants wetting gag and as further insult, revealed his name to be "President Al Gore" without changing who he actually resembles. America is also frequently shown to be power-hungry yet completely ineffectual and bothersome on the world stage. Britain is revealed to be an effectual power-hungry nation that is willing to obliterate entire countries and practice mind control on the world's citizens in order to retain its prominence. China is shown to be brutal but requires stealing others technology to succeed. Japan is of course innocent and chaste.
  • Magical Project S, made in the mid-90s, depicted a President of the United States that looked like a Valentino caricature.
  • Supposedly, in the Pokémon anime, Ash's rival Paul is a shot aimed at some competitive players who bash the people who don't take the games as seriously as they do.
    • This has been a common theme that dates back to Blue in the original games, who Oak chastises for not giving his Pokémon the love they deserve. A similar revelation occurs to the next game's rival, Silver, whose Golbat does not evolve into the happiness-required Crobat until after said revelation.
    • There's also a backwards message here that says "Leo Burnett and 4Kids are the devil! Leo Burnett!"
    • Burgundy's critiue of Ash's Pokemon could be seen as a Take That to "Stop Having Fun!" Guys who believe that only certain natures/abilities/moves are good for certain Pokemon, and instead of being happy with the one you have you need to catch a "right" one. She gets better.
  • In the same vein Kagurazaka, a one-shot Ditto Dueler from Yu-Gi-Oh! GX is meant to be a jab to the TCG players that try to win duels by "net-decking", copying a Championship-winning deck in the hopes of achieving a cheap, effortless victory.
    • As another "take that", when copying one such high-powered deck against Sho, who is supposed to be one of the weaker characters, Sho beats him handily and admits he was inspired by how Judai beat the deck's original user. Which is pretty much how the TCG goes, once someone figures out how to break an overpowered deck, everyone follows suit and the overpowered deck becomes an underplayed deck.
  • The second episode of Cromartie High School has the main character sitting in school, delivering a rant in voice-over about how whenever a manga is made into an anime fans of the manga "bitch about everything from character designs to the voice actors." It slowly devolves into a self-depreciating Take That at anime's budget-cutting habits, however--the character then realizes "Wait a minute--some anime this is! Nothing's moving!" followed by a reused animation from the first episode of a pencil dropping and the character saying "Oh, oh, wait, now it's moving!"
    • Taken a step further when that last line is abruptly interrupted by The End of the introduction.
  • Sayonara, Zetsubou-sensei features numerous Take Thats against Suzumiya Haruhi No Yuutsu. Also:

Kiri Komori: "Hey, guess what..."
Majiru Itoshiki: "No, stop, you're going to talk about something stupid. Like how you like to eat a chocolate cornet!"

Narrator: An entire city block was flattened in the blink of an eye, including a retirement home for aging ninja turtles!

    • A similar Take That appears in the theme song itself.
  • In the English dub of Bleach, during the Bount arc, there's a scene where Orihime offers Rukia a pudding-filled rice ball. Rukia's response is as follows:

Rukia: It's kinda like a cream filled doughnut, only it's not cream-filled, and it's not a doughnut.

  • Naruto has one that's fairly subtle and obscure: Deidara notes that his art is not "pop art" but "superflat". You'll only notice that Take That if you know what superflat and remember that Deidara is evil and his "works of art" are in fact explosives.
  • Earlier chapters of the Keroro Gunsou manga feature swipes at numerous Japanese politicians.
    • They also take swipes at the last US president and former Vice President Al Gore.
  • Full Metal Panic! has Shinji's dad mentioned he's surprised a model AS replicated the arm-joint weakness present in the real machine, but then notes that it's probably because it's made by Banpresto.
  • The Code Geass fandom has a rather vocal segment which feels that the School Festival Filler episodes are pointless wastes of time that distracts from the main plot. Bandai's response came in the dub, when during one of those selfsame School Festival episodes, Milly comments that "Sometimes life just has these little filler moments - and that's okay!".
    • Unknown if this is dub only, but episode 18 appears to have a subtle Take That against the Never Say "Die" in American Anime Editing.

Britannian Soldier: Sir Bradley, you have permission to destroy the Guren.
Sir Bradley: Irrelevant; Killing is all one should do on the battlefield.

  • Pluto makes only the barest attempts to hide its criticisms of the Iraq War. The United States of Thracia suspects another country of making Robots of Mass Destruction, but before other countries can complete their investigation into whether it's true, Thracia sends troops in and starts a horrific, wasteful war that desvastates the country and leaves just about everyone who fought in it with PTSD, human and robot alike. And the president of Thracia is a guy taking orders from a teddy bear.
  • One episode of Dancougar Nova features a blatant Eagle Land Type 2 general who does everything but foam at the mouth as his Humongous Mecha crushes Dancougar, declaring that because his country is strong, they get to decide what's right. It also has a reporter outright say "The Iraq War was fought over oil."
  • The main female character of Paranoia Agent looks and acts like an adult version of Osaka from Azumanga Daioh, and this was part of the creator's attack on Japan's love of cuteness.
  • Student Council's Discretion: "Let's add an orb around the star!!" "...evolution." "It's so bad it's awful!! Don't even mention it!!"
  • In Maria Holic, Mariya chastises Kanako for mistaking a cross necklace for a rosary, describes what an actual rosary is supposed to look like and be used for, and points out that they're not meant to be worn as jewellery -- i.e. a series of swipes at Mariasama ga Miteru.
  • Mayoi Neko Overrun takes a subtle jab in the first chapter at magical girl shows (Pretty Cure being used as an example) about making anime shows for little girls that even older men can enjoy. A case of a Take That on Misaimed Fandom.
  • Ghost Stories. The dub. Subtlety is for the weak: "Our president is an idiot and a liar. God bless America, land of free speech!"
  • Around 99% of the Japanese version fans agree that Yu-Gi-Oh 5 Ds was created completely as a stab at 4Kids because:
    • Playing Card Games on MOTORBIKES is 'don't try this at home' bait.
    • The plot is literally almost impossible to get through without watching every single episode.
    • Any and all violent parts are completely vital to the plotline.
    • The main antagonists of the second season have to DIE to become villains.
    • One of the main Plot Coupons is on a severed arm.
  • In Azumanga Daioh, Chiyo's father has the Berserk Button of people not believing that he is a cat. However, he is especially angered when Osaka thinks that he looks like the former Prime Minister, Mori. As indicated in the link, Mori was really unpopular, to a near 0% Approval Rating extent. No wonder Chiyo's dad was pissed.
    • In the dub, Osaka suggests that he resembles "that American man, Bill Clinton".
    • Which doesn't make sense because Bill Clinton left office with the highest end-of-term approval rating of any American president.
  • Hunter X Hunter has some fairly blatant ones against the government of North Korea. The repressive Republic of East Gorteau is run by a guy whose name is an anagram of Kim Jong-Il, and he gets eaten by a giant ant shortly after being introduced (and after the giant ant makes a little speech about how pathetic the dictator is).
  • Go Nagai is responsible for one of the biggest take thats in the history of manga if not one of the biggest take thats in general. After PTA forced Shonen Jump to end his debutant series Schameless School, Go Nagai finished series by having titular school attacked by PTA and all characters killed while fighting evil forces of censorship.
  • Team Medical Dragon is one massive Take That to the Japanese Medical System, there is generally more focus on the politics of the profession than the actual medicine. That makes the original writer's death from Liver Cancer complications all the more poignant.
  • In The English dub of Dragon Ball Kai, Goku references the CW turning Mr. Popo blue by pondering what the dragon on Namek will look like, adding "Maybe he's blue."
  • The Funimation dub of One Piece will sometimes go above and beyond even the original Japanese with their language and adult references (Such as alcohol), some of the more pointed, out of the blue ones are very likely to be take thats towards 4Kids and their dub.
  • The overarcing theme of Martian Successor Nadesico is that it's alright to enjoy anime, even bad ones, but don't take it seriously and let it run your life. Unfortunately, this often gets misconstrued as an attack against anime period.
  • Panty & Stocking with Garterbelt has Alpha Bitch Queen Barby, a less than subtle knock at Barbie. When Panty and Stocking arrive on the scene, Panty even says to "ditch the idiot with the outdated doll's name." Funimation, not wanting legal issues with Mattel, understandably cut the Take That for their dub.
Back to Take That
Retrieved from "https://allthetropes.org/wiki/Take_That/Anime_and_Manga?oldid=1961317"