No, I get it. My best friend was 100% into the whole japanese culture and merchandise to the point where he bought a bokken and started going to Kendo.

Back in high school. He stopped.

I dont know what is a bokken

A stick, that looks like a sword.

I had a weeb phase that kinda ended with the end of golden wind lol

So a practice sword?

Yes, I just thought it was funnier to call it a stick.

Well it is besicaly a stick

I had to convince him that swords were no longer effective weapons on modern battlefields.

Anyways I think easter hand to hand martial arts tend to be better while sword fights is more developed in europe but they are very similar anyways

I am just saying, flamboyant Italian swordsman are cooler that samurai

They arent but they are still cool

Well, it's all basically the same, really.

Knifes for the job that a sword could be used for much more effectively in modern warfare, swords weren't even meant for war like ever lol, they are self defense weapons you are meant to carry with you most of the time

It's all just pop-cultural phases that society is passing through. Once upon a time it was punk to be into eastern culture, then it became mainstream, and then it became cringe.

Well it was always cringe when people just misinterpret the culture

Like most weebs only apreciate japonese culture on the pop level really, that is fine , but there is more to Japan to apreciate

True.

But you understand what I'm getting at. Modern HEMA? That's getting big. But soon it will be so mainstream that the Punks who want to stand out from the crowd won't go into it, and then the people who hang with the punks will follow them into whatever new fad they're bringing out.

Yeah I think I get it

And the big problem with these cultural phases is that they bring with them the grifters.

Can you explain what you mean by that?

People who are basically just looking to make a quick buck by filling the market with trash.

So people who actually enjoy the hobby can't find what they like.

Well I think even so you can find the stuff you like but you just need to change your strategy really

Yeah, maybe I need to start hanging around weebs to find good Mangas to read, come to think of it.

If something becomes really popular and accessible it means before it was inaccessible, those market fillers making the good stuff less accessible generally just kinda balance in many cases

Well you need someone that knows the medium well to get the good stuff

It also depends on what you like

Baki is very different from Emanon

Like Emanon is this artsy kinda pretentious at times thing and baki is dudes punch each other as hard as they can because dynamite was invented I gues

Wait, what?

~~anyway I would recommend both but from different reasons~~

Came back to see the above message and just busted out laughing.

"Dudes punch each other as hard as they can because Dynamite was invented I guess."

The plot of one of the arcs of baki is that dynamite was invented as a coincidence exactly 200 years before the story , sometimes really big coincidences happen for no reason, so the 5 worst criminals in the world are fucking swimming arcos the sea and ocean to fight the main character

5 criminals that never talked about it

The plot of Baki is total madness

Ok, got it. So Baki isn't a genre, it's a specifiic anime.

Yeah

Baki and Emanon are two mangas