Originally Posted by
Ryllharu
Historically, at the time both were developed and launched, Japan was deeply influenced by Hong Kong cinema the same way the US was, just explosion of content from the territory that people became very enamored with. So no, I mean the whole plot in general of Ranma 1/2 is explicitly wuxia and written to be one. It's a Japanese author making a wuxia series because she wanted to tap into the craze, aimed at women and children. It has Chinese elements because she couldn't think of a better way to make the mysticism of series fit well.
Dragonball is not really the same thing. It is a comedic Journey to the West combined with Jackie Chan's Drunken Master that then just becomes its completely own thing. It isn't necessarily wuxia, though it started as one thematically, it's just Dragonball. It's shaped more heavily by Toriyama and his editor(s) adapting to the Japanese market like any shonen series does. Toriyama was forced to write it so they'd let him end Dr. Slump. Dragonball is Toriyama just completely making a wuxia-style setting up that then goes bonkers because he wrote Dr. Slump, so of course it does, but then shifts back to a pure fighting series because that is what the market wanted.
All three countries influence each other's comics industries in strange ways due to their history with each other. Obviously, Japan has the biggest influence, but from post WWII to the 1990s, Japanese media was banned in Korea. In that time, Korea was more directly influenced in content and art style by wuxia and other comics from China directly in contrast. Korea's industry exploded in the early 2000s thanks to their shift to the webtoon format. Chinese manhua was then deeply influenced the webtoon format (easier to read on phones, and you scroll through pages rather than flip) as well. Now Japan is shifting to color comics and web-only series. One big circle.
Solo Leveling is a web novel, that was adapted into a very popular webtoon.
Reply With Quote