Posts Tagged “Editorial”

It is pretty clear that FUNimation’s roll out of their new license Shikabane Hime onto streaming video websites on Friday trumped what little bit of buzz ADV planned to generate with its Monday license revelations, not only because the title debuted only three weeks ago on Japanese television but also because of the strings and behavior involved in what will be the company’s most ambitious venture into digital distribution yet.

Let me make this clear before I proceed: I will not intentionally imply or assert that FUNimation has any ill intentions despite what the title of this editorial might suggest through subtle reference to contemporary politics; I simply wish to flesh out the many promises and concerns I have about their influence on how the handling of Japanese animation in North America will evolve in the near future. I will give them respect when due but I will also not hold back on expressing any pertinent criticisms.
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Trivia: Greg Ayres voiced Chrono in the ADV dub.

I suppose I should have anticipated that, the day before a large convention, a firestorm that would spawn from Scott’s post on the divisive issue of fansubs with relation to Greg Ayres’ Anime Next panel but I was still a bit surprised by the blogocube aftershock. Hinano composed a breakdown of his piece to present the other extreme of being a raw-only watcher (the first extreme being no fansubs/raws, period). Her post led with what I agree is an important distinction — downloading raws IS essentially different than watching fansubs.
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I’m gonna throw in my two cents on my current feelings about Lucky Star (albeit possibly tardy…or maybe not) as a slight fuss arose in the anime blogocube following Scott’s post. Like Scott, I showed the series in question in my anime club with the final episode shown this past Wednesday. While most people liked it watching for the first time, I began to be pretty passive about it rewatching, working on a crossword or reading some articles for a class. On principle, I usually don’t watched something I have already seen (anime, movies, TV shows, etc.) except I am looking for something in particular to pick out or if I am listening to a director’s commentary. For example, I can recall somehow seeing Love Actually three times within a 9-month period and enjoying it less and less on each subsequent viewing.
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Earlier this week, ANN reported that listings for recent ADV Films titles including Kanon, Gurren Lagann, and Sgt. Frog have been removed from the company’s website and store. Soon after, a spokesman for the company told them that they are “working through a few short-term challenges and fully intends to continue our releases”. However, further information has come out in the form of a canceled ICv2 article that was posted on a couple forums and subsequently Robert’s Anime Corner Blog and, at least for me, puts a new light to the breaking down of negotiations with Geneon late last year. It’s not as horrible as Geneon – the reason why it’s a canceled article is that something got worked out – but it’s still something I’m concerned about as this industry continues to traverse a rough patch.
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The back-and-forth between Hidoshi of That’s Not Kanon and the anonymous author of Ani-Nouto about classic anime made me think about not exactly what should be consider a classic, but rather how old must be something be before becoming a candidate in the first place. The argument over what is and is not a classic is a subjective one while devising a method for making something a candidate for classification is a step toward objectivity. So the following is my suggested method of qualifying anime for consideration of classifying them as classics.
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One of the tenets of keeping peace within any anime club is making sure people who have previously seen the shows being screened do not talk about future plot points and effectively “spoil” the experience for those yet to watch them. Same rule applies for AMVs of shows being screened that use footage from as-of-yet-unseen episodes. The definitions of what is considered “spoiler” material differs from person to person but there seem to be underlying standards in classifying them. Although this type of jerkish behavior occurs in other media like movies or television, I think it’s due to happen more often with anime because different people watch fansubs/DVDs along a seemingly wider spectrum of time.
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I had been working on and off on this for a couple months until I finally decided to finish it and push it out the door. If you’ve been in a bookstore (e.g. Borders) with a manga section, you have most likely seen a couple people reading volumes in the aisle. Some might even be laying in the adjecent aisle. Now, if they read through that entire volume and put it back, is that ethically wrong? Short answer: yes; long answer: maybe not. Read the rest of this entry »

I recently received an e-mail from YouTube informing me that some of my videos had been “rejected” for copyright infringement. The company that reported the infringement was none other than Yomiuri Broadcasting. The videos rejected were an short clip and the entire episode it came from, which was posted after many requests from other members. The short clip was posted to demostrate how numbers on Japanese license plates could be read as words like “yoroshiku” (46-49). Read the rest of this entry »

[from Newtype USA interview, Nov 2004]

“While [Satoshi] Kon has built a career out of pushing beyond the boundaries of anime, he worries about the industry overall, suggesting that anime is currently caught in a vicious circle. One limiting factor is the fact that many creators are anime fans themselves, so they tend to make new works along the lines of something they’ve seen and liked. ‘That’s part of the problem,’ Kon says. ‘The other half of it is the fans. It’s probably an overstatement to say that all they want is stuff they’ve seen before, but it certainly seems to be the case. I don’t necessarily think they’re to blame for feeling that way, but I also don’t think it’s asking too much for people on the production side to start working toward getting the fans to watch other things. There are other stories out there to tell.’ Kon also believes that the tradition of adapting popular manga into anime is unhealthy for the industry; he feels that animation ultimately ends up as less of a creative force than manga. ‘We need to start demanding shows that were conceived as animation from the start. It sounds kind of overblown to say it like this, but this needs to start with the animation industry.’”

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