- What's up GQ,
This is Israel Adesanya, The Last Stylebender.
Today we're gonna talk about anime,
and which ones cracked my top five.
[hip hop beat]
I think after school every kid watched "Dragon Ball Z"
and then would come back to school the next day
and then talk about what happened.
I was part of that wave,
during the Goku Super Saiyan, you know, three era,
Kid Buu, all that.
For me, when I first really got into like anime was,
I believe episode 48 of "Naruto Shonen Jump,"
and that was the Gaara versus Rock Lee fight.
So I just got shown that by a friend on a CD.
So I watched that fight,
and that was the one that got me hooked.
And then I watched all 720 episodes after that.
So you watch me when I fight Silva.
When I fought Silva,
I like to emulate sometimes a character or a theme
for each of my fights.
Not for the just walk out, but like for the fight itself.
So when I fought Silva,
I felt like it was two taijutsu masters fighting.
So my character was Rock Lee.
So you see me in the intro.
When Bruce Buffer was announcing my name,
I took the weights off and I went like that, boom.
And I hit a flip, I hit the pose.
It was gangster.
If you know, you know,
it's like I play to my crowd.
I wouldn't toot my own horn,
But I'd say I was partially responsible
for anime being kind of mainstream,
and in sports,
because I felt like once I did it,
I started to see like NFL players, Olympians,
and so on and so forth,
do their celebrations, like anime style.
And it was cool.
I wouldn't say I paved the way, but I'd say,
I just expressed myself the way I wanted to.
And then people followed suit.
[lo-fi music]
Japanese subtitles or dubbed?
Now the weebs would be like, sub, or get the fuck out.
But I like to watch the fight scenes,
sometimes when they're doing the fight scenes,
if I'm focusing on the subtitles, I'll miss the action.
So that's the only reason I like dub.
Look, if you like sub, you like sub,
if you like dub, you like dub,
you don't have to like dis each other
and make each other, put each other down or whatever.
It's like, hey, you like what you like,
you wanna be authentic.
If you wanna learn Japanese so you can listen to it,
you know, authentically with no subtitles, go do that.
No one's gonna stop you.
But yeah, let people enjoy things.
"Spriggan."
It was futuristic.
I like the suit he was in,
like it was like a overpowered suit,
but it was a lot of blood.
I like when I see anime and I see blood.
I don't want you to sugarcoat it,
and oh no, all this fighting's happening,
and there's no blood and no one dies.
It's like, nah, I want to see people's heads get ripped up,
sliced up, don't sugarcoat it for me.
"Jujutsu Kaisen,"
I'm still watching that.
That's the thing,
I'm still watching "Jujutsu Kaisen,"
so I haven't been back on it for like, maybe five months.
What made it crack the top five again was just
the universe was based in,
yeah, the school for wizards or witches,
or sorcerers I should say.
And yeah, they're just battling like evil forces and demons
in their own school,
and then put them against each other.
But I like the fight scenes, the fight scenes,
the monsters that they have in there.
That's for me, like I said,
is key in a top anime is just the fight scenes
and the way it's executed, the fluidity,
the fluidity of the animation.
"Death Note."
How did I learn about "Death Note?"
I don't remember, but definitely it got recommended
to me by some people.
And then I think I watched the first episode
he was at school, he found the note,
and then slowly just it grew on me,
it grew on me and,
but I love a good thriller, I love a good thriller.
I love something that makes me think
and makes me think outside the box.
It makes me have to, you know,
try and guess, play Guess Who?
Just the way the Shinigami even like just
appeared out of nowhere.
And it was a really beautiful story.
The way it was written was crafted very well,
and just kept me intrigued, every episode.
I want to know what's next.
So like I said, every fight,
I always have like a theme,
and Robert's, I guess, fight name is the Reaper.
So I was just like,
I'm gonna show you who the real god of death is.
So yeah, I did everything with intention.
When I stepped in there and I took his name,
I wrote it on a death note, like there's some,
there's some forces you don't tap into,
but I like to tap into them once in a while.
That was the theme of that fight, you know,
the battle to see who the real god of death is.
And I showed him who the god of death was.
L was cool, 'cause I'm like,
I guess I can be extroverted, but I'm very introverted.
Like when I'm in my house I feel more like L.
I've got my spot on the couch,
I've got this L couch,
that I just chill and watch TV, or game, or plot.
I can just chill there and just be there for hours,
And see L was,
actually I'm kind of dressed like him right now,
even with the pants, he's like right here.
That pose is always just like, mm, interesting.
And thinking.
I've got tea.
Yeah, yeah, I just liked his demeanor
and he was really smart, like super genius,
and the way he played, you know, Kira,
finesse.
"Naruto."
So "Naruto" is definitely one of my favorites as well
because the lessons I learned from it as well.
But the fight scenes,
the fight scenes were really key in that one.
And also the whole space of,
you know, the Hidden Leaf Village,
the Akatsuki gang, you know,
the villains on there.
They were all so in-depth,
and I say backstory, you wanna talk about backstory,
these guys will give you
the back-back-backstory of these characters.
And then you get to really get invested in the character
and know what made them who they are,
why they are the way they are.
And then they're relatable as well,
the good guys and the bad guys.
And there are so many,
so many characters in Naruto, that, you know, again,
took me four years to watch 720 episodes
and movies in between.
You can get a lot from that series.
But the main thing I really liked was the fight scenes.
The fight scenes were cool.
And also like the tactics,
like when someone from the Uchiha clan
uses their Sharingan.
when they put you in a genjutsu, and you're like,
ugh, like sometimes when Itachi would do it
so subtly, as well,
you think you're watching the scene,
and before you know it, boom,
this guy's behind the barrier
and he's like, what the fuck?
Oh shit, I'm in a mirage, I'm in a genjutsu.
And yeah, that kind of shit's gangster to me.
It's been a while since I've practiced,
and I remember I have a video of me
doing it for the first time.
It's an old video and I was really slow.
Then you go to the part where I'm just like,
I was on, yeah,
it's been a while but I'll get back to it one day.
[heavy hip hop beat]
"Avatar," okay.
So some people might be like,
"oh that's not even an anime, it wasn't made in Japan."
Shut up.
Doesn't matter where it was made.
The style of animation is what makes anime, you understand?
Doesn't matter if it was made in fucking Alaska, wherever.
If it's a style, anime is a style.
It doesn't have to be created in Japan for it to be anime.
You hipsters need to just fuck off.
But yeah, "Avatar" for me was,
it is probably one of my favorite animes
because of the lessons I learned,
because of the lessons I learned from the story.
Toph, I related to her story as well
because of her upbringing,
affluent rich child who learned how to earth bend
from badger moles.
Even when Aang met, what's his name, Guru Pathik?
the lessons he got from him
on learning how to unlock the avatar state and control it,
about his chakras, all seven chakras,
that was one of the most key episodes in "Avatar."
It was really underrated.
There's so much gems in that,
and I feel like that's why it's one of the best ever.
And also the fight scenes.
You don't have to wait three episodes
for a fucking fight scene to get going.
You just boom, and they hit it,
and they start fighting, and it's beautiful.
And the fact that the animators as well used like
actual, you know, martial arts styles,
and incorporated it with bending,
like the way people earth bend,
[imitates air whooshing]
like, oh, it's gangster.
Honestly I thought earth bending looked cool.
Yeah, I always thought earth bending looked the coolest,
because the way Toph made it look,
and some of the other earth benders as well.
Aang always made the,
what do you call it, the air scooter look fun.
But I mean, I'm the Stylebender, I like all styles.
But I think earth bending was just, was gangster, yeah.
So my nickname I coined from the "Avatar" series.
Aang was the protagonist, right?
And he had to realize his destiny
by mastering all the elements to become the avatar.
I felt like in my world, I'm player one,
I've always seen it that way,
and I felt like I had to master
all the elements of martial arts
to realize my destiny as the avatar of this game.
And I have, but now, you know,
you have so many ups or rounds
so I just have to, you know,
keep being the avatar,
and stake that claim, and it was very relatable.
So that's why I coined the term the Stylebender.
'Cause I mean, when you're in the octagon,
you have to be able to adapt to any style,
and I can do that.
I do love anime because for me,
I've always loved even video games as a kid, like Tekken.
And that that's one thing that made me want to, you know,
I like to do cool shit.
So I like to emulate the people I see
in cartoons or anime, and do it in real life.
And I feel like I do a really good job.
I'm a real ninja, like in real life, actually.
So yeah, I take inspiration from these characters,
and I might incorporate it into a different fight,
because I feel like this makes sense for me.
This is what for this arc and this story,
it makes sense for me.
GQ, that was my top five anime, kind of.
You can mix and match but yeah,
don't believe the hype, you know,
right now everyone still tries to clown on anime,
but it's mainstream and people try and jump on
just to try to seem cool,
but hey, you do you, boo boo.
Enjoy what you love, and let people enjoy things.
[blows kiss]