Archive for the “Commentary” Category

A few days ago, I read something from ANN’s The Gallery series for the first time. In that series, they profile fan artists that could use a bit more exposure and this time it was about Stephanie Kao. I’d never heard of her before but she said some things I’d like to comment on, particularly since I’m going to a con this weekend and will take at least one cursory walk through Artists’ Alley.

Kao mentioned having to deal with negative reactions to her art style – a mix of traditional, anthro, and anime influences – from both the anime and the anthro (aka “furry”) fan communities. The first time it came up, she admitted it wasn’t easy to stick with the style she likes to draw in; the second time concerned putting together a recent sketchbook and deciding to push away some of the anthro-stuff from the front of it so more readers might be drawn in. I personally don’t mind anthro and I think it’s gotten a bit of a bad rap based on skewed perceptions about that broader community, such as a certain episode of CSI from 2003.

I don’t participate much in artists’ communities, fan art or otherwise, mainly because I’m not much of one myself. I can appreciate art on aesthetics (what it makes me feel) and mechanics (e.g. use of lines, empty spaces, etc.) and support a level of artistic freedom that lets artists work with as few restrictions as possible so that less diluted expressions of their intentions might be produced.

Kao also said “it makes [her] sad when artists feel like they must do fanart that they have no passion for”. I’m more inclined toward original works since their reception is not potentially hampered like prior conceptions about characters held by a collective audience, like fan art is, and because I get more pleasure in seeking out and experiencing new things than settling for what’s familiar. A potential risk for original stuff, though, is its lack of instant familiarity/recognition of their subjects that could be achieved through fan art. Determining at what place on that continuum an artist is most comfortable seems like it might help him/her in producing better work and enjoying it as well.

Drawn by pixiv user petunia

Over the weekend, I read the first ten chapters of the K-On! manga because I wanted to experience the original characters and flow before reluctantly dipping my toes into the KyoAni adaptation. I was unconsciously recognizing certain things that I read from my followees on Twitter (which I once called the “backchannel” – the moniker still holds) and in my Google Reader feeds, e.g. Yui in awe of Mio’s fingers. I enjoyed what I had read and will continue to keep tabs on it. However, I now feel little to no ambition to watch the anime since I believe it will cover the same bases and I’d rather spend those 25 minutes per episode on something else. I could see how certain people could be head over heels for Mio but I just wasn’t feeling much for her; my favorite characters so far have been Sawako-sensei and Ritsu.

On Monday, I thought about the comparisons some made to Lucky Star (this one in particular) and saw some credence to that theory. (I personally felt a slightly stronger comparison to Manabi Straight but I’ll humor this route at the moment.) Mio and Ritsu could be roughly mapped, like Kagami and Konata, as a studious tsukkomi and bullheaded boke duo; Yui, like Tsukasa, as an airhead who means well; and Tsugumi, like Miyuki, as a nice girl from a rich family. I’m not saying that these are exactly the same – of course not! Among the differing aspects: Konata took after her father’s perverted tastes, Yui’s parents always seem to be away on trips overseas, and Tsugumi’s vacation home and her busily-booked house.

A tangential thought slowly grew regarding the quartet structure of main characters of slice-in-life comedy series, viz. “why does it appear as often as it does?”. I’ve already mentioned Lucky Star and K-On! but there is also Hidamari Sketch. Scott of Anime Almanac suggested that the artists may be thinking in fours due to the structure of the strips but that would imply the artist being unconsciously influenced by the form, something I’m unlikely to buy into – though I would accept conscious playfulness within such restrictions. When I try to think about “regular order” manga with core casts of four, two come to my mind immediately: Hyakko and Ichigo Mashimaro, though I’m not too familiar with the latter. (For the sake of inclusion in this post, I’m considering Nobue as an “adult” figure.)

I suspect there is much cross-influence in the slice-of-life manga arena and I think four recurs as a number of core characters, constituting a solid square of sorts. Even though I could extend this inquiry into other genres, I would rather not because that would require possible explanations to strain in encompassing a breadth of dissimilar series. Examples include Asu no Yoichi (the Ikaruga sisters), Noir (Mirelle, Kirika, Chloe, and Altena), Yozakura Quartet (the freakin’ title), Burst Angel (the four girls), and Weiß Kreuz (the four guys). I don’t have much to contribute on the already existing concept of relationship squares, or quadrangles, in comedies such as Kannagi and Maburaho so I won’t at this time but may in the future if I do think of something.

While writing this, I also thought of the number five and how that frequently appears in sentai/magical girl series, e.g. Sailor Moon and Saint Seiya, and played upon by comedies like Negima and Bamboo Blade. However, I currently lack enough deep analysis spark to speculate on that. Besides, I’m certain that subject has been written on a fair amount.

Drawn by TMO

This spring season features the highest amount of premiering anime being streamed legally with more than a half dozen premiering series currently “simulcast” on the Internet. Most of them are on Crunchyroll – Saki, Hayate no Gotoku!!, Natsu no Arashi, Shangri-la, Mainichi Kaa-san, and Ristorante Paradiso – while FUNimation is following up Shikabane Hime with Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood except this time, they are restricting the new episodes to their video portal.

The ball got rolling in spring 2008 when Gonzo GDH placed Tower of Druaga and Blassreiter onto YouTube, BOST, and Crunchyroll (CR); Strike Witches went onto those same three services that July. October saw CR play host to premiering series Linebarrels of Iron and FUNimation push Shikabane Hime onto YouTube, Hulu, Joost, and their newly launched video portal. Crunchyroll added Shugo Chara and Skip Beat in November; in January, they took on Gintama, Natsume Yujincho and Naruto Shippuden, the latter of which Viz also streamed through Naruto.com, Hulu, and Joost. Crunchyroll added Hitman Reborn in March.

One of the things that worries content providers about putting their video portals is whether the sites will actually generate revenue. It seems that Crunchyroll has gotten off to a good start by establishing an attractive platform for foreign content owners to get their properties global reach – a Yomiuri article about TAF 2009 relays the following figures for Crunchyroll: 4.5 million visitors who were often exposed to advertising, 1.5 millions of hours viewed monthly, and almost 15,000 paying memberships at $6.95 a month ($100,000+ of regular revenue).

On its about page, Crunchyroll says “[p]roceeds from the subscription service are shared among [their] content publishers”. It’s assumed that a portion of advertising revenue also goes toward that pool of creators. The question is whether the allocated distribution is based on a uniform rate or dependent of video views. That distinction could be be important for a studio in financial troubles like GONZO, which is undergoing restructuring.
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News came yesterday from former Anime Insider editor Rob Bricken that the magazine’s current editorial staff has been fired (found via Anime Vice) and the magazine has ceased publication. The April issue, #67, is its last and is currently on sale at newsstands and magazine racks.

While it is easy to point at the availability of news on the Internet and young people’s desires for instant gratification as main reasons (which they are), there is another contributing factor: decreasing advertising revenue across the board for newspapers and periodicals. Along with Anime Insider, it was announced that that same day that Blender would no longer be produced in print form but still maintain its website. Unfortunately, the complete divestment of AI’s staff combined with sluggish online updates rule out a web-only avenue for the brand.

I don’t have many personal feelings toward Anime Insider except for being something I occasionally bought when I saw it on newsstands. They did have interviews and a manga preview in each issue but not much beside that appealed to me on a consistent basis. I will admit that the Flash in Japan made me aware of Flame of Recca (or was it Animerica?) and Kaze no Stigma — FUNimation will release Part 1 of the latter on DVD June 30th. A coupon screw-up by Best Buy in issue #50 happened to provide fuel for a post back in Nov. 2007.

The magazine will be missed as part of a shrinking magazine market (only Otaku USA and Protoculture Addicts, both bi-monthly, remain) but I will not mourn its absence, partly because their final issue is very video game focused. I do wish that the writers are able to find work elsewhere, either in print or online.

It’s been two weeks since Kadokawa began broadcasting the Haruhi-chan and Churuya-san shorts on their YouTube channel. Most of the episodes have been funny, though I took a couple for Churuya-san to click with me because I felt its 4-koma origins initially shone through too much in its joke structure. Each episode has been posted in both raw and English-subtitled versions and those subtitles have occasional misspellings and instances of odd grammar.

As a nitpicker, I have listed below errors and oddities that have appeared in their subtitles so far. Hopefully, whoever is doing the translating for Kadokawa gets a native English speaker to look over their translations because their current competition for English-language eyeballs is coming from a non-professional group, which also offers scripts in French, German, and Russian.

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When I read on February 20th that Viz Media asked Hulu and Joost to disable embedding of their episodes, I wasn’t that surprised because it was part of a larger (possibly temporary) pullback by entertainment studios in general regarding how their content is streamed online.

Earlier that same week, there was a back-and-forth between CBS and Hulu following the disabling of embeds Feb. 17 on TV.com, which was part of CBS’ acquisition of CNET Networks in June 2008. (CBS content doesn’t show up on Hulu because the network hosts videos on its proper site as well as TV.com.) That was followed by Hulu pulling content off Boxee (a media center program) and explaining that it was done at the request of their content providers. TV.com came out with an iPhone/iPod Touch application (iTunes link) on Friday, increasing the sense of competition between the two sites.

Joost wrote a short message about the anime matter, saying they “hope to be able to allow you to embed and watch these shows on other sites again soon”. Just before publishing this post, I checked Joost and embed codes have returned to Viz’s shows – I was able to get self-embeds of Death Note and Naruto Shippuden from Hulu to play more often than not, so maybe Viz’s posturing has ended for now.
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Over two months ago, I was curious about what was inside a paper copy of those guides ICv2 issues on a quarterly/bi-monthly basis so I ordered ICv2 Guide #60: Graphic Novels & DVDs for $14 including shipping. I got it a week later, flipped through it, and planned to read it more thoroughly later for a post about its contents. But I misplaced it and couldn’t find it until a bit of cleaning last week yielded a white envelope and the guide contained within. So now, here is what I gleaned about their editorial perspective among other things after reading through the Guide.
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Image drawn by pixiv artist 葉月ハル

I had trouble coming up with predictions and resolutions for 2009, like I did last year, so excuse the tardiness and the small reduction to three of each type. At least I finished within the first week.
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Image drawn by pixiv user リヨ

It’s the final day of two thousand and eight — time to see how well my prognostications fared and how poorly I stuck to my self-pledges. (Here are my rationalizations from early January.)
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I was offline most of Tuesday as I spent time out with some friends watching Transformers on Blu-Ray (still an average movie but in greater visual fidelity) and playing video games. In doing a cursory catch-up on Twitter messages (i.e. NOT trudging through numerous pages of updates), I came across one from Borderline Hikikomori’s CJ Blackwing that linked to RACS’ Full Metal Alchemist anime page. According to them, FUNimation will be releasing two season sets this upcoming spring: Season 1 (ep. 1-28) is set to come out January 27th and be a smushing together of the previous first and second DVD box sets, which collectively bundled singles 1 through 7, while Season 2 (ep. 29-51) has a date of March 10th and collates box sets 3 & 4, aka singles 8 through 13.
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