Forum - View topicHey, Answerman! [2008-04-11]
|
Goto page Previous 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 Next Note: this is the discussion thread for this article |
| Author | Message | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
eviltimes
 Posts: 116 Location: Callisto |
|
|||||
|
Now that Blood + is done, I have quit Adult Swim cold turkey.
No withdrawal symptoms. Actually, cold turkey with mayo on whole grain bread sounds delicious. |
||||||
|
||||||
Top Gun
 Posts: 4570 |
|
|||||
Heh, don't get me wrong; I wasn't implying that those first two conditions necessitated the third. It's just that so many of the utter annoyances who espouse the last example are generally spewing their intense desires to achieve the other two examples. It's obvious from your post that you're very much the exception. 
On a completely unrelated note, I find it rather amusing that some people are making claims like "[as] is all about Tim & Eric" when it's by far the most-despised show in the history of their own forums and has probably pulled the lowest ratings of any of their original comedies. Still, it does have its share of dedicated fans, and even though it's as far from my own personal cup of tea as a show is able to be, I'm not going to begrudge them what they like. (And I am rather glad that Zac recognized the bump ribbing for what it actually is, instead of going the "zomg [as] haet animu" route.  )
|
||||||
|
||||||
HitokiriShadow
 Posts: 6251 |
|
|||||
In terms of licensing prospects, I think so. The vast majority of what gets licensed seems to get picked up within a year or two of its finish, maybe three years on occasion. Few titles seem to get picked up after even three years let alone five. |
||||||
|
||||||
posterior_praiser
 Posts: 296 |
|
|||||
|
I find both western and comedy in anime to be funny. I love Gintama, but I also love the Simpsons. The key difference is that I GET the Simpsons more often than Gintama because of the cultural references. If it wasn't in the subs I wouldnt know that scene x in Gintama was from some ancient gundam series, or japanese game show. I tend to find other things about it amusing though
 !
I...dont like family guy or those kinds of comedies though at all though. they kind of make me want to gag. But to each their own I suppose. I find some sitcoms like seinfeld, fraiser and friends pretty funny sometimes too. |
||||||
|
||||||
Ranma824
 Posts: 456 |
|
|||||
Or, your know, just do what most anime fans are doing (or should do); speak with your cable box/your wallet... Never support anime on Adult Swim Just go buy the DVD. It's much more satisfying then sitting through all the "anime is my bunghole" comments they love to do. Sooner or later, hopefully they'll drop anime altogether: Better not at all then slandered all over the place. Which would leave the Sci-fi channel as the only(?) anime outlet on basic cable. And considering their current and past track record, definitely treats anime with more respect. |
||||||
|
||||||
|
Goodpenguin
Posts: 457 Location: Hunt Valley, MD |
|
|||||
|
walw6pK4Alo wrote:
walw6pK4Alo wrote this on the first page, and I'm quoting it because I think in some ways the wider drift of this touches on a lot of points related to the article/thread; culture, burn-out, and general anime acceptance. While I've always been a fan of the very frenetic, visual comedies like Excel Saga, PP Dash, etc., 'slice of life' comedies whether 15 years ago or now, have usually left me cold. The reason is just as walw6pK4Alo alludes to, they tend to lack a breadth of qualities that Western audiences are used to in the writing department, notably material along the more complex, subtle lines (black humor, drier sarcasm, introspective build, etc.) But even beyond comedies, in actuality most all anime actually lacks some of the nuances of Western writing, and that stems from culture. Asian culture historically puts a premium on emotional and visual storytelling, and I think anyone who watches movies/shows from Japan, Hong Kong, or Korea will probably understand that point. That's of course not a blanket statement, and I know from personal experience Japan produces a number of first-class writers with great range, but the truth is, especially as you move down the 'commercial works' ladder, you get more typically looser, culturally aimed efforts (which is completely natural). That 'cultural writing' reality I think plays heavily in both burn-out, and general anime acceptance. Even for anime fans, once a person get's to the point where what once came across as widely original now actually seems kind of routine, anime struggles to provide solid 'writing meat' to hold folks in, especially fans creeping over college age. Animation as an art is an ageless draw, and I still love screwball comedy and action, where the draw is much more visual/kinetic oriented. Drama based material (which is a huge dose of the current marker) simply doesn't hold as well, and even supposedly 'serious' efforts like a 'Ghost in the Shell' in all honestly seem pretty painfully adolescent when you get away from the visuals. For general audiences, I believe the cultural writing style of anime (and keeping in mind, contra certain fan mantras, the vast majority of anime is clearly tween/teen aimed)) which often comes across to Westerners as over-emotional, stilted, and schizophrenic in build, is a big hurdle. |
||||||
|
||||||
OnanRulz
 Posts: 132 Location: The MPLS |
|
|||||
I would be remissed not to point out that if the [as] message boards reflected the actual viewing public, there wouldn't be this discussion about a lack of anime because the viewership would have actually been in place. I also don't have access to ratings figures, but unless you can back up that statement with a Nielson or Arbitron report, I would say that's wild speculation. |
||||||
|
||||||
Chrno2
 Posts: 6171 Location: USA |
|
|||||
|
Great column for this week.
Funny that I just happen to read this because while I was out of town last weekend a 2 friends of mine started talking about the whole little mess with 'Adult Swim'. Now reading other folks comments it pretty much confirms the company's attitude as well as the network. There goal is to kill anime off the channel. That's the game they're playing. It's one of the oldest tricks in the book. I really don't watch 'Adult Swim' [especially, dubbed or edited anime] or 'CN' for that matter. Everything that was good about the channel is pretty much moot. It's still 'CN' for the most part. But the damn channel has gone through so many changes you don't know if they are trying to do it any good or destroy it. I'll take the latter. The guys running it don't care. Personally running anime shows on that channel is kind of pointless now. I could be wrong. But seeing anime shows alongside 'Family Guy'? It needs it's own channel. Wasn't that what the 'Animenetwork' was for? And what's the point of airing 'Family Guy' on several channels? You got 'Fox', 'TBS', and 'Adult Swim'? I do like the series but like 'South Park', it just keeps on going trying to match the height of the 'Simpsons'. Even I can't keep up with those shows that much anymore. Because after awhile it's the same **** over and over again. Which brings me to the next segment about being "burned out from anime". I've felt like that lately. But then again my tastes vary depending on my interests and mood. Plus, working a 9-5 job every day I just don't feel up to turning my computer on to watch a show I downloaded or pull out a DVD. Last time I watched a series was when I was home sick. I finally broke out 'Key the Metal Idol' and 'Figure 17'. I watched them back to back over a 2 day period. Never do that again. I've purchased a lot of shows that I've watched when there were NO fansubs but were released here. They're still sitting on my shelves shrink wrapped. I have a bit of catching up to do. I'm also crossing my fingers for titles that I've become interested in to be licensed (ie. - 'School Days', 'Denno Coil', 'Re: Cutie Honey', etc..). Some I've watched fansubbed some I haven't even finished. But at the rate I'm going I eventually end up owning it before I finish watching it. Not necessarily a bad thing as I end up buying more often than not. Then there's the whole matter of the anime industry in need of healing, slow licenses, sub-only releases and lack of interest in newer shows while trying to make time for myself. I've felt like... I'm missing something. Things just seem quiet. Is it me or is it what's going on around me? I haven't abandoned it I just don't have the time to sit and watch. And when I do I have to do something else. Cook, clean, run all the way from NJ to NY to help my mother, then come all the way back and prepare for work. If I didn't' take time out to visit friends and watch shows I'd probaby fizzle out. Yes, folks real life is a bummer, but it's life. But again I've never been the type of anime fan where I have to watch everything that comes out. I've never been that way even when I started back in the mid 80's. |
||||||
|
||||||
|
Cowpunk
Posts: 168 Location: Oakland - near the Newtype Lab |
|
|||||
|
Michelle Cantwell thanks for mentioning the Anime Companion books.
There is also a web supplement that has three new entries added each week. http://www.koyagi.com/ACPages/ACmain.html |
||||||
|
||||||
mokuhazushi
 Posts: 95 Location: Atlanta |
|
|||||
The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya has some somewhat juvenile physical humor, but the dialog and especially the main character's narration can be incredibly witty. I agree such shows are kind of thin on the ground in the anime world, but I have a rough sense of humor and can enjoy the slapstick parts too.
|
||||||
|
||||||
|
niku²
Posts: 4 |
|
|||||
|
On the subject of humour in anime, I wonder how many people are in the same boat as me. I really enjoy watching anime comedies despite sometimes not "getting" all the cultural stuff. I'm also a huge fan of American shows like Family Guy, The Simpsons, Futurama, and sometimes South Park.
Here's my problem: I have absolutely zero desire to rewatch a funny anime after the first time even if I loved the series, but have no problems rewatching American cartoons over and over and over again. Is this because Japanese jokes aren't funny after the first time? Or is it just some sort of mental block on my part? And is anyone else like this? |
||||||
|
||||||
Zin5ki
 Posts: 6680 Location: London, UK |
|
|||||
It's a little frustrating to know that the Japanese cultural export which I enjoy the most doesn't realistically depict life in the country. As a general rule of thumb, if I've never visited a given country my preconceptions of it will be limited to the elements of its culture that are available to me. That is unless I was to watch a lot of documentaries, but I lack a television. |
||||||
|
||||||
|
Top Gun
Posts: 4570 |
|
|||||
I don't have the time at the moment to track down the specific sources, but there have been a few times in the past when [as] has posted ratings numbers for the entire Saturday/Sunday lineup, in addition to their weekly top 3 ratings-grabbers. On those occasions, the numbers I've seen for Tim & Eric have been about a tenth of the numbers that something like Family Guy draws and have been significantly less than just about anything else on those particular nights. And yes, I fully realize that the [as] message boards are in no way indicative of the general fandom, but I think it says something when even most solely-comedy fans over there utterly loathe the show, and when just about any reference I've seen about it anywhere else on the Internet has been bitingly negative.
So...you feel that [as] should drop anime. Thus depriving American anime fans of one of the two legal, basic-cable means of watching teen/adult-targeted anime series. And we should all buy $30-per-volume anime series sight-unseen. And the only cable network that should broadcast anime is one that only has access to its parent company's catalog and has already scraped the bottom of the barrel of said catalog. Yeeeah...I'mma say no way in hell.
Oh, definitely. CN and [as] want to completely drop anime. Which is why [as] is beginning a premiere run of Code Geass in two weeks. Or why CN just started airing Blue Dragon on Toonami. Or why they recently showed Howl's Moving Castle. Or why they obtained full rights to Bakugan. Or why Seirei no Morobito will be airing somewhere on the channel come fall. |
||||||
|
||||||
|
~Brain.Wav~
Posts: 22 |
|
|||||
|
Zac, you don't know the glory that is King Gainer's opening? For shame!
Here's a link |
||||||
|
||||||
|
bayoab
Posts: 831 |
|
|||||
Maybe they keep getting stuff because anime gets higher ratings than what they would have to replace anime with? [as] seriously tries their best to find the greatest lower bound* on the ratings for anime. When they added comedy to Saturday a month or so ago, the ratings were down for everything and they still kept it. This is clearly not a network which cares about its ratings unless it is their own programming. There was a time long ago when it seemed they were actually trying to maximize the ratings of their block including anime. *They attempt to find the spot which gets them the lowest ratings, but the highest among those lower ratings. |
||||||
|
||||||
 |
All times are GMT - 5 Hours |
|
|
|
Powered by phpBB © 2001, 2005 phpBB Group