A Bullet Timer?

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Lucky
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A Bullet Timer?

Post by Lucky » Thu Mar 20, 2014 12:44 pm

How seriously should one take the sound effects in a comic?

Here you have a superhuman martial artist performing a special attack: http://www.furinkan.com/ranma/misc/items/tech19.html

Would it be reasonable to assume the character being attacked with the bokken is dodging supersonic attacks?

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Re: A Bullet Timer?

Post by Jedi Master Spock » Mon Mar 31, 2014 6:07 pm

I'm not sure anything about a comic like that is reasonable. The physics just tends not to work at all.

It wouldn't be out of place for an exceptional swordsman to clock a sword tip at 200 mph, making a "superhuman" Mach 1 swordtip not quite as ridiculous as it might seem at first, but you're not going to actually cause harm with the shockwaves from breaking the sound barrier with a sword.

Comic book physics, and particularly comic book martial arts physics, just aren't particularly tractable. You're best off treating the martial arts moves like they're magic spells - ignore the mechanism by which they're supposed to work, and concentrate on the quantifiable end effects.

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Mr. Oragahn
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Re: A Bullet Timer?

Post by Mr. Oragahn » Tue Apr 01, 2014 9:33 am

Yes, the effects are magic and the moves are what unlocks them. In return, once unlocked, some magic allow the fighter to complete magic moves, aka comics physics moves.

Lucky
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Re: A Bullet Timer?

Post by Lucky » Sun Apr 06, 2014 7:40 am

Jedi Master Spock wrote: I'm not sure anything about a comic like that is reasonable. The physics just tends not to work at all.
That is true for pretty much any comic even if the characters aren't suppose to be blatantly superhuman.
Jedi Master Spock wrote: It wouldn't be out of place for an exceptional swordsman to clock a sword tip at 200 mph, making a "superhuman" Mach 1 swordtip not quite as ridiculous as it might seem at first, but you're not going to actually cause harm with the shockwaves from breaking the sound barrier with a sword.

Comic book physics, and particularly comic book martial arts physics, just aren't particularly tractable. You're best off treating the martial arts moves like they're magic spells - ignore the mechanism by which they're supposed to work, and concentrate on the quantifiable end effects.
I wasn't talking about the shock wave being a sign of supersonic movement, but the machine gun like sound effect.

One of the things that commonly happens is for a more powerful and skilled character to move so fast that he or she is invisible while moving and appear to teleport to weaker and less skilled characters. They also throw hundreds of punches so quickly that it looks like one punch at later points in the series.

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Mr. Oragahn
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Re: A Bullet Timer?

Post by Mr. Oragahn » Sun Apr 06, 2014 8:48 pm

I think the most silly one was that episode in whatever show with a female character walking at a leisure pace, while there were wiffs in the air, signs of her sword being swung at supersonic speeds, cutting enemies left and right.
Some kind of super retardo slash move.
Unless the chick was like the fucking Shrike, there was little way for her armour, hair and all that (or even the atmosphere) not to move and be affected by simple things such as inertia and what have you.

Anime, frankly, always exagerate stuff. It's ACME on steroids, only with 9999% more SRIOUS inside.

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Re: A Bullet Timer?

Post by Lucky » Sat Apr 12, 2014 4:48 am

Mr. Oragahn wrote:
I think the most silly one was that episode in whatever show with a female character walking at a leisure pace, while there were wiffs in the air, signs of her sword being swung at supersonic speeds, cutting enemies left and right.
Some kind of super retardo slash move.
Unless the chick was like the fucking Shrike, there was little way for her armour, hair and all that (or even the atmosphere) not to move and be affected by simple things such as inertia and what have you.

Anime, frankly, always exagerate stuff. It's ACME on steroids, only with 9999% more SRIOUS inside.
What're describing is not something that would be out of place in most western comics and cartoons, or "western" fiction in general.

Anime and Manga cover the same range as their western comics and cartoon counterparts.

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Re: A Bullet Timer?

Post by Mr. Oragahn » Sun Apr 13, 2014 12:21 am

Lucky wrote:
Mr. Oragahn wrote:
I think the most silly one was that episode in whatever show with a female character walking at a leisure pace, while there were wiffs in the air, signs of her sword being swung at supersonic speeds, cutting enemies left and right.
Some kind of super retardo slash move.
Unless the chick was like the fucking Shrike, there was little way for her armour, hair and all that (or even the atmosphere) not to move and be affected by simple things such as inertia and what have you.

Anime, frankly, always exagerate stuff. It's ACME on steroids, only with 9999% more SRIOUS inside.
What're describing is not something that would be out of place in most western comics and cartoons, or "western" fiction in general.

Anime and Manga cover the same range as their western comics and cartoon counterparts.
Yeah and sometimes they even use mere steel blades... that don't even bend nor break.

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