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Hey, Answerman! [2009-12-04]


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Mohawk52



Joined: 16 Oct 2003
Posts: 8202
Location: England, UK
PostPosted: Sun Dec 06, 2009 2:07 am Reply with quote
eyeresist wrote:
B.K. wrote:
Some of the worst animation I've seen in an anime was in an episode of Noein. I caught a few episodes of it here and there when it was on Ani-Monday on Sci-Fi channel. I don't know what episode it was, but in one episode, two characters were fighting each other. The animation was so horrible that it literally looked like an animatic. I've actually seen animatics that were better animated than that fight scene was.

I think that was actually a deliberate style choice. In the first couple of episodes, the art has a slightly "experimental" look (with characters looking unusually angular, and moves having a stretchy quality), and after that, this look is limited mostly to the fight scenes.
Also keep in mind that a few titles, Noein being one, were created during the time of the SARS virus out break in Asia and that affected the pool of sketchers and animators available to do the work.
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dtm42



Joined: 05 Feb 2008
Posts: 14084
Location: currently stalking my waifu
PostPosted: Sun Dec 06, 2009 2:37 am Reply with quote
JesuOtaku wrote:
I think the weird compromise between the super-deformed generic anime face and more realistic proportions made it hard for the designs to be as expressive as they should have been sometimes. It was a little off...GREAT animation in RahX, though! Outstanding!


Eh, I thought that RahXephon's characters had excellent facial expressions. Ayato's expression in the car with Haruka, Ayato's look of shock in *that* moment of *that* episode (hint: the episode is spoiler[the eighth prime number]), Haruka's expression after spoiler[kissing Itsuki], Reika's spoiler[smirk in the Room of Rah], Asahina when spoiler[pleading for Ayato to take her with him] . . . the cast as a whole, really. Of course Ayato and Haruka had the most memorable instances, but everyone was done well. Everyone. The eyes deserve special mention; the precise way they were drawn to convey emotion is a technique not often seen in Anime.
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CCSYueh



Joined: 03 Jul 2004
Posts: 2707
Location: San Diego, CA
PostPosted: Sun Dec 06, 2009 4:16 pm Reply with quote
Quote:
Manga companies tend to try their best not to rely too heavily on one singular title to carry their sales, especially companies like Del Rey, who don't have quite the marketing muscle and breadth like a publisher such as Viz.


Hm. I always assumed Del Rey had way more cash than Viz considering I've been reading their sci-fi books for decades (No? I thought they've been around forever)

Quote:
Viz was able to throw around Naruto volumes like confetti because, well, they're Viz, and because Naruto is such a popular series that is still ongoing, so it wasn't like they were simply burning through everything they had left just to give the story to the fans sooner.


My memory of the situation at the time was they were burning thru volumes of Naruto because they had been publishing like a snail because Naruto was in Jump. In the meantime the original in Japan was getting further & further ahead & fans were just reading the scans. So Viz put a rush on it.
It's the same thing they're doing with One Piece. Japan is celebrating Vol 56 & at Viz's rate of publishing Jump titles, we're up to about half that (I guess. I've been waiting until the sets & am just buying them now since I have a subscription)

Quote:
But, these same companies aren't *just* translating and releasing one specific series. They have several, and they're all just trying to give each one a chance to gain a following between their flagship titles.


This is more on target.
If you've been following the game long wnough, you'll remember there was a summer 2 or 3 yrs back where Viz & TP (at least) started releasing certain titles bi-monthly which is fine if your readers are only reading one story. I can't remember how many times in panel kiddies would stand up & ask why can't Fruits Basket or whatever their mostest favoritest title which was probably the only one their sorry little allowances could afford couldn't come out more often. Following 50 different titles as I have at times, that was the LAST thing I wanted & I always assumed after that summer Viz & TP found out EXACTLY why that is the most stupid plan on the planet. Given the choice between picking up Ruroni Kenshin bi-monthly or GetBackers, obviously fans voted with their cash & after that everyone backed off to their original printing schedules or worse (I swear TP's manwha was coming out every 3 months & it started coming out every 4 months). The big titles probably won out & the smaller ones I assume lost because they were the ones which started getting dropped.
So, yeah, it'd be nice not to have to remember what happened 3 months ago, but if you are following more than one title, it is harder to buy that many titles on a bi-monthly schedule.
The other issue is yeah, Naruto, One Piece, YuGiOh-there was enough material they COULD burn thru a lot & still keep pace after. The ugly side is well known to those of us who follow DNAngel, Excel Saga, Hellsing, etc. How many yrs did we wait for an end to Planet Ladder? I felt like I spent a major portion of my life getting to the end of Dragon Knights. At a certain point one risks running out of material to translate on on-going series.

Quote:
Besides, I don't know if I could withstand more than two volumes of Tsubasa at a time. All the melodrama, confusing exposition, random background characters dying and falling in love, and weirdo CLAMP psychedelic crap crammed in each volume of that thing would probably detonate my brain.


If you can't keep up with Clamp, I've lost any respect I might have had for you as Zac's replacement. I'm not saying you have to like them, but still, they aren't that different from other artists.

But then, I stopped paying attention to critics yrs ago. I know what I like. I actually am pretty good at picking stuff I like & not feeling as though I've wasted my money. Granted, part of that is probably low expectations. If I buy Ragnarok because Koyasu's in it & he gives me the performance I know he will, I'm happy. One Piece is One Piece. If the dub is horrid, I still have the Japanese side to fall back on & I only buy series with no fav VA's if I've read the manga or am in some other way under the belief it will satisfy my tastes in the dollar amount spent (yaoi). That faith in my ability to choose has resulted in a collection of over 2300 anime dvds so I must be pretty good at understanding what I want.

I've actually abandoned more manga titles because I had hope of something great but then the title settles for workable. I finished Crescent Moon, but I really had higher hopes for the plot. (Shojo disappoints more often. Shonen is shonen so maybe I don't expect as much, but shojo often holds up a fascinating premise, then settles for cute or workable rather than amazing or awesome). ANd there's always the titles one can tell the author wrapped up or dragged out. GTO stretched thin at 25 volumes, but overall, it was great enough, I didn't regret it.
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care2care



Joined: 13 May 2009
Posts: 36
PostPosted: Sun Dec 06, 2009 6:44 pm Reply with quote
Thanks both Answerman and CCSYueh for clearing that up.

I'm very new to the manga "world," as with the anime world, as well. I started reading and buying manga in July and now I'm up to at least 90 volumes of x many series on my shelf. and I always wondered why they didn't release manga faster even though they've proven that they could.

I always thought it was a marketing strategy, and the company was relying heavily on the "dedicated" readers who buy the copy instead of reading online scans. I think it's been proven that a certain amount of build-up can cause more profit than otherwise putting it out earlier. It certainly works with the movies and TV shows. But I guess I was wrong *shrugs* At least I know what the deal is now Smile
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ShadrachAnki



Joined: 14 Mar 2005
Posts: 180
Location: New England
PostPosted: Tue Dec 08, 2009 5:56 pm Reply with quote
CCSYueh wrote:
Quote:
Manga companies tend to try their best not to rely too heavily on one singular title to carry their sales, especially companies like Del Rey, who don't have quite the marketing muscle and breadth like a publisher such as Viz.


Hm. I always assumed Del Rey had way more cash than Viz considering I've been reading their sci-fi books for decades (No? I thought they've been around forever)

It's entirely possible that Del Rey has more available money for licensing than Viz does. However...Viz is owned by Shueisha Inc., Shogakukan Inc., and Shogakukan-Shueisha Productions, Co., Ltd., which is going to change the licensing dynamic for them. So you can't entirely rule out the question of capital.


As for volume release schedules...yeah, it's largely a marketing thing. Not only do you have the consumers voting with their dollar as CCSYueh pointed out, you have the purchasers for major booksellers (Borders and Barnes & Noble) playing a part as well.

Manga, like all books, takes up shelf space, and shelf space is at a premium in bookstores. It isn't a limitless resource by any stretch of the imagination. So as a bookseller you need to decide (well in advance of publication dates, I might add) which new titles you are going to devote your shelf space to in any given month. If you see that in a six month span of time you have six new volumes of Super Popular Series A coming out from one publisher, four new volumes of Super Popular Series B coming out from another publisher, six volumes of SPS C also coming out from publisher number two, plus twenty first and second volumes of other titles between the publishers....most of your purchasing is going to go toward the titles with a known track record. You might pick up one or two of the other titles, but not in any real quantity.

The result? The first month those books come out consumers will see several copies of the newest volume of each of the super popular series (plus earlier volumes of those series since they are known sellers), but there might only be one copy of a first volume in the new series. If it hasn't already been sold, if it made it to the shelves, if it's where it's supposed to be....you get the idea. Popular series become more popular, new series is less likely to catch on.

By spreading out and staggering volume release dates, publishers are more likely to get shelf space for their mid-list titles, and those mid-list titles will have a better chance of getting noticed by consumers and gaining a following.

~Shadrach Anki
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CCSYueh



Joined: 03 Jul 2004
Posts: 2707
Location: San Diego, CA
PostPosted: Thu Dec 10, 2009 12:18 am Reply with quote
[quote="ShadrachAnki"]
CCSYueh wrote:
Quote:
Manga companies tend to try their best not to rely too heavily on one singular title to carry their sales, especially companies like Del Rey, who don't have quite the marketing muscle and breadth like a publisher such as Viz.


Hm. I always assumed Del Rey had way more cash than Viz considering I've been reading their sci-fi books for decades (No? I thought they've been around forever)

It's entirely possible that Del Rey has more available money for licensing than Viz does. However...Viz is owned by Shueisha Inc., Shogakukan Inc., and Shogakukan-Shueisha Productions, Co., Ltd., which is going to change the licensing dynamic for them. So you can't entirely rule out the question of capital.

ShadrachAnki wrote:

As for volume release schedules...yeah, it's largely a marketing thing. Not only do you have the consumers voting with their dollar as CCSYueh pointed out, you have the purchasers for major booksellers (Borders and Barnes & Noble) playing a part as well.


Between Manga Cows & the frustration of not always finding what I wanted, I've turned to buying pretty much all of my manga online so I've pretty much forgotten this one.
You're right.
I experienced this with Waldenbooks. At first, they carried pretty much everything, but conventional bookstores are ill-prepared for the serial nature of manga. It's nothing to keep a volume or 3 of each of the Harry Potter or Series of Unfortunate events on the store shelf, but 25 volumes of Dragonball Z or 15 volumes of Kare Kano? Barnes & Noble just isn't really cut out for that.
After about a year of shopping brick & mortar stores, I'd show up the weekend after the street date & the latest volume was nowhere to be found. After a time or 2 the clerk said they had lots in back, just ask & she'd look, but they didn't have room. How many others came in at a busy time, didn't see the book, & left? Traditional comic shops also are set up for traditional American comics. Those bins fill up fast when it's 200 page novels as opposed to 32 page comic books.
Online, where one can click on the picture & then someone fills it from a warehouse shelf really works better, but it eliminates the ability to brouse that bookstores offer. In Japan, it's been in a magazine with a bunch of other stories so one might buy Zero-Sum for Saiyuki, but then they start running 07 Ghost, so one can read a few chapters before enough are released in the graphic novel size. We don't get the magazines here because there aren't enough manga readers who would subscribe to make it feasible.

The positive side is yeah, scans are free off the net, but it's not paying the author for their story. I always figured if you like something enough to call oneself a fan of the movie/show/book, one should show one's appreciation by paying the creator for being talented ebough to make the item for us so maybe the author will continue doing so. In particular I note the yaoi companies license in spurts. First off the pike (after Gravitation & Fake) we got several Lily Hoshino, lately I notice DMP's brought us several Momoko Tenzen. So if you like the author, buy the book & maybe the American licensee will pick up more stories by that author. Plus the authors seem pretty jazzed to see their books released in other countries.
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