Spider-Man vs Goku - Why Anime Fans Will Succeed in Life while Marvel Fans Will Not
In this article I’m going to analyze the typical Western superhero against their Eastern counterpart and draw parallels to how the Western attitude towards achievement and success differs from the East.
And more importantly, which attitude should you adopt for yourself?
The most important difference I want to talk about is this: Western superheroes just get their powers overnight, due to some freak incident. But Eastern superheros get their powers through a lifetime of training, practice and discipline.
Just think about what profound impact this simple outlook has on our population. We, who’ve adopted Western culture and lifestyle want success at the drop of a hat. We wish for something magical to happen that will change our life dramatically overnight.
A Lock on our Potential
Look at the story of Spider-Man. A nerdy, loser adolescent boy, who gets bullied at school, suddenly gets bitten by a radioactive spider that transforms him overnight into a sharp, strong guy with super powers. Now he can go stand up for himself and protect those who matter to him. In fact, he’s taken it upon himself to save the world! (more on this ridiculous idea later).
How many loser teenage kids have wished for something like this to happen in their lives? I know I have. If only a magic spider would bite me and transform my miserable life instantly! And this has been what we grew up with. This harmful attitude of wishful thinking stays with us till today.
Now, let’s contrast this with how Goku from Dragon Ball-Z got his super powers. Ever since he was a child, he was trained in martial arts by his grandfather, who was the greatest fighter during his time. Then he found a guru who was the strongest man in the world and he put Goku through a grueling a 8-month training program. In the comics, they describe his routine for one day which is absolutely insane (and comically exaggerated of course) - it includes crossing a vast river, doing mining activities with bare hands, running from dinosaurs and a huge list of impossibly grueling tasks. After the first day, the master tells the 14 year-old Goku, that this was just the first day so he went easy on him. Next day onward, he’d have to do the same things, except by wearing a 20 kg weight on his back the whole time!,
Do you see the difference?
What if we all grew up with immense hard work and discipline being glorified as the path to success? But that’s not easy, is it? It’s a hard pill to swallow. It’s much easier to wallow in wishful thinking. Let me further extrapolate how ridiculous the western superhero ideal is, and how much it has affected us unconsciously, when it comes to achieving success in life.
You Can Never Be Them
Heroes like Superman, Spider-Man, Iron Man, Green Lantern, Captain America - you can never be them. Some kind of miracle has happened with them to make them how they are, and that’s just the way things are. Batman is a good exception, which is why I definitely love Batman more than any of these other losers - but even then, his seemingly infinite wealth just makes him overpowered for no reason.
You can never be them. You can look up to them. You can root for them. But there’s no way you can ever be like Superman. Sorry, that’s just how it is.
Elitist much? Personally, I don’t have a problem. This is not an SJW rant. The sleeping masses have brought it upon themselves. How can you allow this ridiculous notion to be okay? That a class of people who are just overpowered in every single way is telling you that they’re going to save the world and protect you. YOU are completely helpless. It’s up to them to save your loved ones. Yeah, you can do your own little bit, but you’ll never be as cool as THEM.
That is just retarded. Our society has swallowed this Kool-Aid and willingly put shackles on their own hands. Take one look at the Eastern character, One-Punch Man, the immensely powerful hero who can end his enemies in a single punch. How did he gain this ability? One day, a woman was attacked in front of him and he tried to help. But he was so weak and helpless that he got completely overpowered. Simmering in this defeat, and refusing to give up, he trained so hard that his hair fell off!.
It’s about the training. It shows that an incredibly strong person can be you - you just have to train as hard as he did. Easy? Not in the slightest. Impossible? No…
Contrast this with Superman’s strength, and the lesson is that he is just born that way, and there’s no way you can hope to be like him.
The Eastern heroes never have such an inflated ego, that they think they need to save the world. Look at Naruto or the Elric brothers from Fullmetal Alchemist. All they want to do is protect the ones they care about and recover what they’ve lost. After that, they’re happy to live their own lives in peace.
How classic of a Western ideal, to go out and save the world!
Leave the Web of Misery
So, here’s the thing. We’ve been fed certain ideologies that will simply keep us down. I’m just here to point out how certain pop culture influences are harming us unconsciously. Heck, I enjoy a good Spider-Man movie myself. But when it comes to our own goals and dreams, let’s not wish for a magic spider to bite us, let us instead train till our hair falls off!
This is not West-bashing. I, myself, am in India and I can tell you that everyone who’s sitting around sucking their thumbs is waiting for their own radioactive spider or a fucking Iron Man suit to come along before they do something. And everyone who’s successful in the West has gotten there through training, practice and has put in incredible amounts of hours into their craft to be where they are now.
And YOU can too. Marvel-like superhero stories make you celebrate and watch an external hero doing things, while you sit on the sidelines holding your dick. While the Eastern stories imply that the hero within you (a real, powerful hero, with superpowers) can be uncovered through sheer dedication, effort and courage.
So that’s the moral of the story. Don’t wait to become Spider-Man, start training like Goku today!