Hey, Answerman!

Con Crud

Why hello there, peoples! Welcome back to Hey, Answerman!

And speaking of haggardly slumping! This Mucinex hasn't kicked in yet, and I should get to answering these questions while I wait for modern medicine to remove all this snot from my face.

Hi Answerman,

I was wondering why 3D CGI animation isn't being used in anime as much as anywhere else - the only anime films I can think of that are in 3D are one of the Yu-Gi-Oh! movies, and Tekken: Blood Vengence. So why hasn't anime used 3D to the same extent as Hollywood has?

Well, there *are* a lot of CGI studios in Japan, and they're pretty ubiquitous, actually. They're very busy doing a lot of things.

If someone could pull it off in a successful way, that'd be cool, but I'd rather they focus on the stuff that still matters - story, characters, style. The basics.

Dear kind Answerman,

Looking at the forums on ANN, we can conclude that a lot of people are worried about Sentai Filmworks. Why? Not because of their lack of licensing, but their ridiculous amount of licensing. Do we have a right to be worried? Could this possibly be too much to handle? I mean I think I counted 17 different anime licenses by Sentai just for Anime Expo alone, and they seem to be licensing more than anyone else nowadays. I am worried that they might go bankrupt again, because at least in my opinion not all of their new licenses look like gold mines, although there are a few that I am eager to purchase. Please Answerman, tell me I am going to get to purchase these few titles before Sentai drowns in their abyss of licenses.

Wow, are we a cynical bunch of people or what?

So sit tight and hold on, people! I know these past few years have essentially beaten down our souls to the point where we brace for the worst of all possible outcomes when it comes to licensing, but why not just live in the moment? Somewhere amongst the dozens of things Sentai has licensed over the past few weeks, there's probably one or two shows you really care about. So let's just hope for the best. And of course, buy them when they become available for pre-order. That's pretty much the one thing you can do to ensure that Sentai doesn't choke on the magnitude of all this licensing. Everybody chill out, put your money where your mouth is, and everything should be alright.

Hey Answerman,

I was curious why it is that many anime (quite a few of which are airing this season) can pull off initial concepts that sound horrible and bizarre, but then are done in such a way that they become great series? I'm thinking of My Little Sister Can't Be This Cute, Yakitate!! Japan, Sankarea, and AKB0048. In other mediums, it seems that something with a bizarre premise never turns out all that well. is this something that's purely part of anime?

I don't think this is necessarily the strength of anime, so much as it is manga. Manga, without turning this into a Manga 101 lecture that we've all heard a million times, tackles any and every possible scenario for voracious Japanese readers. We've got sports manga, wine-tasting manga, piano manga, manga about being the best Famicom player, manga about microbes... you get the picture. When it comes to creating compelling characters and story out of the most bizarre of places, manga is still the place to be.

Unfortunately, a lot of the time that simple rule gets misconstrued, and we are fed archetypes instead of characters. I would be much more forgiving of fanservice-y shows if their characters were more than jerk-off fodder - the shy one, the one with glasses, the tsundere, et al. I can't say I care about characters when I've already figured out what their character arc is, because I've seen it done a thousand times before. All it takes is a little bit of investiture on behalf of the writers and artists to make us, as readers and viewers, care about the characters, and we'll happily go along through the bizarrest of the bizarre, the weirdest of the weird. Unless we're talking about Jojo's Bizarre Adventure. That's just weirdness for wierdness' sake. AND I LOVE IT.

Hey, everyone! Seeing as how I was preoccupied last week, that means I've got quite a bit of a backlog of Answerfans answers! Last week as I was pondering how I would feel if I had *actually* created Elfen Lied, I wanted to ask you all this question:

Our first answer comes courtesy of none other than ANN buddy (and one of the people I'm glad I could've met in person at AX!), Hope Chapman:

Well, the easiest answer to this question for not just me, but probably MANY fans is giving one last episode to Berserk.

(SPOILERS FOR BERSERK, needless to say...)

Ignoring the fact that the reboot films are attempting to tell the whole story from the Golden Age on up, it's my understanding that the manga is getting a little long in the tooth, and the 25-episode anime was very nearly a perfect standalone story, that could have been given its own conclusion, a separate creation entirely from the manga. There were a lot of little differences laid throughout the story to begin with, so if I just wanted to make the anime work as a standalone and make a 26th episode, and that sounds like a good idea to me, I would put Zodd in the role of the Skull Knight in getting Gutts and Caska out of the Eclipse and then flash forward to what WAS the first episode of the TV series: where Gutts takes the snake-apostle's behelit and goes to meet Griffith. (Or vice versa. Flashing back to the setting of the first episode and then parsing in Zodd's rescue of Gutts and Caska in media res probably works better.) Speaking of that first episode, the TV series seemed to imply Griffith had become King of Midland, so we'll depart from the manga there as well and make him king...and Gutts is finally on his doorstep.

So, in this 26th episode, we meet Caska. She's traumatized and mute as she was characterized in the manga, why not, I'll take bits of source-faithfulness where I can get them, and Gutts tells her to wait for him as he goes to confront Griffith. He leaves the tent she's being sheltered in to reveal a dry, browning field just outside the castle, littered with dead guards and half-demon men, doubtless his off-screen handiwork. A montage follows with Gutts plowing his way through the castle, cutting through every man in his way like they were made of (red and meaty) dust. At long last he crashes into the throne room, once again killing everything present there until he's faced with only Griffith. They talk only briefly, and it's a talk that slightly mirrors their eventual confrontation in the manga, at the Hawks' burial ground, (to keep the characters as thematically true to themselves as possible.) The long and short of their chat? Gutts is bitter and furious but powerless to say anything useful or express himself very well and Griffith is distant and unrepentant about the events of the Eclipse, though not really angry at Gutts...he feels nothing anymore.

THEY FIGHT! Griffith becomes Femto...but a more grotesque version of Femto that would look genuinely threatening in a one-on-one battle, perhaps with enormous talons, pale calloused skin, and distended, veined eyes. He holds a powerful stance over Gutts, half-flying constantly, tearing at him from above, aiming for his other eye and using an extra talon (maybe he should have a bunch?) to crush Gutts' chest cavity and grope deeper for his heart. Gutts is almost crushed until the brand on the back of his neck starts bleeding again, then popping and bursting violently as he struggles to push Griffith back. He whites out and finds himself confronted by the God Hand who tell him he is once again more than able to defeat Griffith, and offer him ownership of the behelit he stole from the snake-apostle, now tied off to his sword-hilt. All he need do is reach for it, and the God Hand will assume he has accepted and give him just enough power to...end...

Gutts snaps back into reality and finds himself being lifted into the air, Femto attempting to twist him in half. Gutts lashes out with his sword, lopping off one of Femto's limbs, but this only angers the demon-god, as he dives downward and smashes Gutts' body into his granite throne, partially demolishing it, attempting to crush him into a pulp. Gutts' violent swipe and the ensuing crash tears off his sword-hilt and the attached Behelit, which skitter away just a few feet out of reach. As he crumples Gutts' bones into power, Griffith gloats that he knows what the God Hand offered Gutts...but he was chosen by fate, and conquering this challenge from the demon lords and his right-hand man, his "only mistake," has earned him his right to keep the throne. He will nest in Gutts' dried blood for centuries to come. He presses on more weight, squeezes Gutts harder, leans closer in... Gutts mocks Griffith for talking too much in battle, and says he was wrong all this time: Griffith's just the same man Gutts fought on that grassy hilltop years ago...but Gutts is not.

He loudly rejects the God Hand's offer and *bites down on the egg of the king wrapped tightly around Femto's neck.* Then he jerks his head backwards and swallows it.

Femto doesn't lose his powers or anything. Quite the contrary. Griffith's behelit begins to destroy Gutts from the inside as he roars in agony. Femto/Griffith starts to claw at Gutts' stomach to retrieve his prize, but he's left himself open. Gutts grasps at his sword and plunges it into the demon, slamming his body against Femto's, charging across the room in a mad rage. As the egg of the king shreds and splinters Gutts' skin and fraying muscle tissue, his body underneath only bolsters in size, quickly beginning to resemble the Hellhound. (Gutts' inner beast from the manga. Yay fidelity where it can be achieved!) Griffith, more than a little scared by this time, protests that only he can control the Egg of the King, and Gutts, barely coherent, agrees...so as he warps further into the Hellhound, he bares his saber-teeth and begins to consume Femto alive, uniting behelit and master inside his red-ribbed maw. Griffith's last moments are spent looking up at his former subordinate, reaching outward to retrieve the Egg of the King, which occasionally pulsates and oozes around in the Hellhound's amorphous belly. I feel like Griffith should have some striking last words, but far be it from me to put them in his mouth. Miura should be consulted for that.

Eventually, there's nothing left of Griffith, and Gutts, still slavering in rage, is instantaneously brought before the God Hand, restored to human form...but not human sanity. The God Hand begins to offer him Griffith's position among them, but he flies at them in a blind rage, cutting down one in mid-sentence and saying a few "last words" of his own (again, Miura would know better what those should be,) before we cut away.

The clouded sky outside the castle clears, and a little life, barely anything, sparks in Caska's eyes. She voicelessly mouths Gutts' name and stumbles out of the tent, staring out into the silent morning for a few moments. Suddenly, there's a cry from the tent. She slips inside, stepping back out quickly with an infant in her arms...but it's hardly a human infant. It's slightly monstrous, with white hair, black eyes and slightly malformed, yet powerful-looking limbs. It looks neither more or less like Gutts or Griffith...who's to say exactly what it is. Both. Or neither. Caska remembers, in a fevered, silent flash, Gutts' command for her to wait for him in the tent, her eyes flicker...and then she walks out into the open plain with her baby, in a daze, headed toward a confused but now-liberated town. The sky continues to brighten, the only clouds remaining visible far, far in the distance. Suddenly, lightning lances down from one dark and distant cloud, and the thunder that follows it is Gutts' maddened, bestial roar.

Does he win? Does he lose? It doesn't particularly matter because Gutts has asserted the value of his reason to exist...which is just to exist. He's both grown away from and come back to where he began and it ties in well with his first-episode monologue about the nature of humankind. The marriage of the two rivals' ideals survives in Caska's child...along with something dark best left to the imagination, which Caska's potential recovery is also left to. So it's a good place to end it all.

THAT, by the way, is one way to do ambiguity with closure. Not what we got in episode 25. (READ THE MANGA, READ THE MANGA!) Nah. Just make a good, standalone story, dude. Just do that.

Nicole picks a show that put me to sleep before I had the chance to finish it:

Hands down, if I had to pick one show or manga (ironically in this case it's both for the same series) to finish out, it would be Yukiru Sugisaki's Megami Kohousei (Pilot Candidate/Candidate for Goddess in the US). The manga and the anime followed each other fairly closely right up until episode 9/volume 4, and then the series hit that dreaded No More Volumes gap. The anime series came up with 3 more episodes that opened up a lot of questions and answered none, and when Vol. 5 of the manga finally came out a year later (I think), it took off in a completely different direction and ended with a cliffhanger. And then. There. Was. No. More. If ever there was a series that deserved at least *some* form of ending, I feel it was this one - there's far too much potential packed into what was released, and it all has nowhere to go! I've actually lain awake at night *pondering* the ending of this series (and then realizing that I have no life, and then deciding I don't care), just trying to figure out where it might have been going. So, there you go. If I had $100,000.00 I'd finish Megami Kohousei, because it's not likely to ever be finished in one media or the other on its own.

I for one also wish for Jessica's magic wand to restore Ai Yazawa's health:

Well Brian that is the easiest question you have ever asked. If I could wave a magic wand and complete an unfinished piece of work, it would be NANA, both the manga and the anime. It is a juicy piece of josei goodness better than any soap on TV. Volume 21 was just devastating. SPOILER -The entire last volume features the characters mourning the death of a main character. It felt like my heart was torn out, then stomped on, then burned to ashes; then torn, stomped and burned again. Artistically its brilliant, but call me a Mary Sue if you must, I want a satisfying ending. It doesn't have to be a happy ending but better than that, please anything but that.

The manga isn't cancelled, but on indefinite hiatus following Ai Yazawa's undisclosed illness. The last volume came out in Japan in 2009. I'm hopeful that she has made a full recovery and will be able to resume her work soon, but there is always this lingering thought that she may have moved on creatively or her health not up to full time mangaka work. If I had the money and the power I'd get her a co-author or more assistants, or just fly to Japan and beg at her doorstep. Make her tea, massage her hands, run errands, whatever it takes.

The anime only covered about half of the manga, but it was also fantastic. Good long running josei anime is such a rare breed anymore that it is an even longer shot of ever getting made than the manga resuming. So if there was any money left, and I still had any shreds of dignity after convincing Yazawa to finish the manga, I'd get that made as well. Not some rushed anime ending though, Yazawa's ending in all its glory, however devastating and heart wrenching it may be.

Against the rules, Lacey? THERE ARE NO RULES:

Oh-ho-ho. A 100,000 dollar check, you say? To add on to ANY anime series I please? Why, a second season of Big Windup!, of course!

Oh, wait. That all ready exists, doesn't it? Poo. Someone stole my idea.

No, I would probably buy the rights to the second season of BW myself, considering that, according to the great F-bomb themselves, the first season didn't sell well enough for the second season to come to Funimation's door. (Seriously, dub-loving family. Give it a shot. It's a cute show.) Is that against the rules? For me to use my money on a second season that all ready exists?

Because, allow me to be honest here, I really love that show. And when they announced that the second season would not be licensed due to poor sales, my reaction was somewhere in between Claire Dane's performance at the end of Romeo + Juliet and the sound a bear makes when his toe is stepped on. Needless to say, I was pretty upset.

So I would use my money to either A; Buy enough copies of the all ready licensed Big Windup so that Funimation might license the second season or B; buy the rights myself just so I can say I watched it legally. Because despite that being one of my favorite shows of all time, I haven't seen a single episode, because it isn't licensed and I love Asa Higuchi too damn much to watch her brilliance for free. And I mean that.

SO, I wouldn't add on to a series with my cash, I would buy the one that all ready exists (and I'm still not convinced that my answer abides by the rules).

Swirling Vortex has an apt name considering the title they chose:

I believe many of us who followed Tokyopop manga will agree with this algorithm.

* Import remaining untranslated volumes: $10-50
* Hire native speakers from local college students to translate: $2,000
* Consulting fee: $97,950

Seriously... Soul Eater. (Anime) [Spoilers Ahead]

You spend the first fifty episodes of the series building up the Kishin as this unstoppable force of madness, then defuse him by having someone stand up to him, like he were some primary school bully who wails on the math team because he lacks self-confidence? Let's give him the win and set up a grim, post-apocalyptic dvrnr instead... opening the door to renewal and continuation.

Five Star Stories, eh Minyuan? Give Mike Toole a shout, he'd be down to pitch in for that:

Dear Answerman,

I realize my answer to this question will inevitably bring spoilers to people unfamiliar with the series, which I will apologize in advance.

A couple of years ago I will probably answer Neon Genesis Evangelion. Even though the movies have done slightly better job in wrapping up the story compared to the last couple episodes of the series, it was still... well... at least very much dull compared to the rest of the series. However, at this time I am going to accept the Re-take doujins as my take of the ending due to its incredible quality of story and *ehm* art.

So if someone has written me a $100,000 check, I am going to use it to fill-in some more volumes of the Five Star Stories.

I first got into the manga when I saw the fashionably designed mecha (Star Drivers kinda reminded me of that). After buying the first few volumes off Amazon last spring, I realize it would be almost impossible to actually own the entire series in English (at a reasonable price) since the books are long out-of-print. Then I realize it is impossible to own the entire series in English because they DIDN'T translate the entire series in English. Luckily I did read the last two volumes in Chinese, and of course the English readers are missing one of the most epic campaigns in the entire series. So hopefully, $100,000 at least will be able to translate the last two volumes, if not re-release the entire series.

But if I could do more, I would like to have an actual ending to the series. I am speculating that Mamoru is using Kaen to move the story, which made some sense that he stopped working on the series after the fall of Harthua. Still, Lachesis and Amaterasu are the heart of the Five Star Stories (well, they are the heart of the movie at least). Their fate is known only through notes. What happened to Lachesis after the explosion in JC 3239? Why did Amaterasu not look for her immediate but hand AKD to his imitator? How did Colus VI wake up Clotho from her long slumber? Finally, how did Amaterasu again find Lachesis in JC 7777 on Fortune, treating her more than just his fatima after a romance more than four thousand years? I wish the author will elaborate more in the Reboot release. The Five Star Stories requires an ending that matches the epic magnitude it has spawn.

Maybe I just wanted an happy ending, where the two again hold hands, underneath the Knight of Gold. Anyways, that is all the rambling I have.

Reader "e n" goes with another Tokyopop orphan:

Considering that one episode of an anime often covers enough material for half a volume of a manga, let's say the $100,000 is for a REALLY long chapter. Or maybe even a whole volume.

So, Sugisaki-sensei, I'm going to give you a big fat allowance, we'll sit down together (with a translator), and we'll talk about how to give a nice and proper ending to the D.N. Angel manga.

I know you HAAATE to actually finish a manga. Your creative juices may struggle with long-term series, and want to move on to new stuff. That's OK. We'll work on this together, because I think it deserves a fine wrap-up to it. This series has given me a lot of enjoyment, and has a lot of interesting concepts and material. Concepts so interesting that they managed to shine through the (hideous) anime adaptation and get me to start reading it.

So we'll hash down EXACTLY how the Niwa/Hikari feud ends, and how Dark and Krad wrap up their rivalry. Here's my thought: How about XXXXXX goes with XXXX XXXXX XXX and XXXXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX the the XXXX XXXXX since XXXXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX. [Parts possibly referring to plot spoilers omitted]

And with remaining thousands left, I'll foot the costs of getting the remaining unlicensed volumes printed in English. And my set will finally be complete.

Agreed with Jesse - if there's one classic manga artist that doesn't get the amount of respect they deserve in the west, it's Ishinomori:

I believe the world needs more Kikaider, specifically more OVA's wherein Kikaider meets other Isinomori characters ala Kikaider vs. Inazuman. Kikaider vs. Kamen rider? Of course! Kikaider vs. Cyborg 009? Definitely! Kikaider vs. Skullman? Why not! Kikaider vs. Akumaizer 3? What's that, you don't know what Akumaizer 3 is? You should be ashamed of yourself, Google Akumaizer 3 immediately it's the greatest thing ever! As you can tell from this list I obviously live in an alternate universe/fantasy land where things are much cheaper, because I don't think 100,000 Dollars would cover that in your reality.

Alright folks, that's all for Answerfans this week, so get ready to cram this next question of mine into your brain so you can fart out a response on your keyboards!

Now you've got this week's question, and it's time to get answerin'.

For those of you new to Hey, Answerfans!, I'll explain the concept.

Believe it or not, I'm genuinely curious what you think.

That's right; as much as I love the sound of my own voice, I do love to listen to what other people have to say on a subject. I'm finding that over the last few years, the attitudes, reasoning and logic that today's anime fans use eludes, confuses or astounds me; I have so many questions for you, and I'm dying to hear what you have to say in response.

Welcome to Hey, Answerfans!

Basically, we're turning the tables. Each week I'm going to ask you a question, and I want you to email me your answer. Be as honest as you can. I'm looking for good answers; not answers I agree with or approve of, but good, thoughtful answers. People feel passionately about these subjects and I'd like to see that in the responses I get. I'll post the best answers I get, and maybe some of the crappy ones. Sometimes there may only be one or two good ones; sometimes five or more. It all depends on what I get in my inbox! Got it? Pretty simple, right? Start writing those answers and email them to answerman [at] animenewsnetwork dot com.

We do have a few simple ground rules to start with.

Things To Do:

* Be coherent.
* Be thoughtful.
* Be passionate.
* Write as much or as little as you feel you need to to get your point across in the best possible way.

Things Not To Do:

* Respond when the question doesn't apply to you. For instance, if your email response starts with "Well, I don't do whatever you're asking about in the question... " then I'm going to stop reading right there and hit delete.

* Be unnecessarily rude or use a lot of foul language.
* Go off-topic.

That officially wraps it all up this week, so until we meet again, fellow travelers, don't forget to cram my email inbox (answerman(at)animenewsnetwork.com) chock full of your questions and responses! Now I'm going to drown myself in cough syrup and Mucinex and hope I don't wind up naked in the street, singing Carly Rae Jepsen! Take it easy, everyone!