Forum - View topicHey, Answerman! [2008-06-27]
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Crawly
Posts: 204 |
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I don't know why people think it's the rest of Aria. They've already said they have more of it and it's noted that more will be coming on the show's website. Sure, they could just confirm what they've already said and posted about, but I doubt they'd bother hyping it at all. Shawn's got some new stuff he wants to unveil, and he's been teasing us with those little one-liners for months. I'm excited about it, though I think after three back to back titles that had me joygasming like a yaoi fangirl, I'm due for a "meh" announcement. I suspect one will be a Kodakawa deal. No real idea about the second, though I'm still hoping for Nanoha. On the subject of sports anime, I think it's going to depend on the sport. Baseball, football, basketball, and racing probably wouldn't do too badly if given proper releases. Boxing (or fly fishing  ), not so much. I don't think Princess Nine was a best seller, but I do believe it broke even (and it was shoujo at that, which handicapped it even more). Even with a crappy release, that one about car racing from TP did reasonably well. But when you get things like Slam Dunk or Prince of Tennis muddying the waters, people just fall back on "sports anime doesn't sell" rather than blaming the quality of the product or the unreasonable expectations of the company releasing the title.
And that bunny is too cute... |
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Crawly
Posts: 204 |
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I actually find college sports to be a lot more fun than pro sports. I moved from NJ to GA a few years ago, and it's college football and baseball that get the most coverage and fan support down here. I have never been a sports fan (though I had no issues with entertainment based on sports), but we started going to football games on a whim (Troy, AL) and mixed in some baseball this year for fun. I've really enjoyed it, and heck, we even have a rodeo team. 
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HitokiriShadow
 Posts: 6251 |
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Oh, I agree, I don't think its just the rest of Aria either. Kind of silly to hype (however little) something that they implied, if not explicitly stated (I don't remember what exactly they said when they announced it) already. My point was that even if it was just that, its still something. But I'm expecting completely new titles. Geneon may be in an indefinite coma and ADV is in some uncertain times, but Nozomi has been on a roll lately (at least for people who don't mind the lack of dubs). |
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Crawly
Posts: 204 |
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Nozomi has become my company of choice (getting more sales from me than anyone in 2008), followed closely by Media Blasters, which is both wonderful and freakishly odd when I think about it. It's sad to say, but I've barely even noticed ADV's lack of presence. I just need to finish up Kyoshiro and I'll be done with them. Funi has never been much more than a tiny blip on my radar since they don't license the kinds of shows I like. Same with Viz. Bandai is in the middle, and I'm hoping we hear El Cazador from them soon. I'm also hoping the folks at Nozomi can pick up a more mainstream title, just to get them some extra exposure. Though I'm loving the Emma, Maria, and Aria goodness. |
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enurtsol
 Posts: 14761 |
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Unless there are Americans contending like in the golden era of Agassi, Sampras, Courier, and Chang. 
Oh definitely; Georgia has the worst pro sports fans, from the Hawks to the Falcons to the Braves.
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Kaioshin_Sama
Posts: 1215 |
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To me there is no plot in Haruhi. It’s just a bunch of stuff that happens. I can’t even call it SOL because it has too many science fiction and fantasy elements to really be anything close to normal life, which is supposed to be something the franchise doesn’t want to be like anyway. Haruhi is not a plot driven series, but a character driven one through and through. It relies on it’s main character (Kyon) to convey what is happening, and it also relies on it’s characters actions to provide the stimuli.
Unfortunately I do not find the characters particularly deep and rather that they only exhibit one dominant character trait above all else (Haruhi=Extroverted and loud, Kyon=Introverted and sarcastic, Mikuru=Ditzy and Pathetic, Yuki=Quiet and ummmmm Quiet, Itsuki=Smarmy and Cheerful), thus am required to fall back on their outrageous personalities and actions to make the franchise for me. Even when they briefly tried to show "another side" to the characters (happened like once per character in the anime and was never of consequence again inside or outside the novels) it looked like exactly that, like they were actively trying to showcase this supposed other side to make it look like the characters weren't so one note rather then it appearing natural. To me that is not the stuff of masterpieces when the hand of the creator is so visible to me. That is what Haruhi is to me, watching the characters engaging in wacky antics and letting the time go by. Haruhi has always been a far cry from a masterpiece for me. It just lacks the impact I feel is needed to be rightfully called one. It offers more entertainment then though provoking content. It is prettier than it is smart. It is more in your face then it is subtle and an entity unto itself. I would just leave it at overrated. The series was hyped up well beyond what it actually delivered in the long run and I am afraid I cannot agree with people who find it unique, refreshing and all-encompassing. Just airing the episodes out of order is not enough for me to label an anime series unique nor is delivering what I felt amounted to nothing more then wacky antic filled vignettes of somebody's abnormal high school life. It's a good franchise to pass the time with, but not the working of a master by any stretch of the imagination. |
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Hon'ya-chan
 Posts: 973 |
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Thanks to TOKYOPOP, we'd never get proper racing mangas/animes in the near future. And a little know fact; TP released a series of Import Tuner DVD's as well. You'd think a company that had it's hands in that venture would have a little foresight into knowing what to do and not to do with Initial D..... Thank the gods Video Games aren't horribly gutted nowadays. |
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TheVok
Posts: 613 Location: North York, Ontario, Canada |
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You could turn that around, though, and argue that it's really a question of American sports fans not being into anime or manga, more than a question of nerds not being into sports. In Japan, anime and manga cross pretty much all social strata, not just otaku. That is still not really the case in countries like the U.S., where even if manga dominate comic shop shelves, they're still only reaching a certain social niche. |
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Crawly
Posts: 204 |
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Can't tell if that's sarcasm or not, but you're right! During football season it's not the pro teams that are gushed about nor is it pro team paraphernalia that's scattered around everywhere. People don't fly flags, wear t-shirts, or decorate their cars for the pro teams and they don't go tail gate every weekend at the pro games while bragging that they have season tickets. It's all about Georgia, Florida, and Florida State around here (we're about an hour from Tallahassee). Those are the games that are talked about with enthusiasm at the water cooler. The pro games are watched and they're there, but even the local high school games get more talk.
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Nei
Posts: 24 |
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Man. One bunny couldn't possibly hold that much cuteness. I vote for doctored photo too ... or mutant bunny experiments....
Long ramble coming.... The sports question reminded me of Princess Nine. I do not like baseball, but the story is less about the sport and more about how the girls come together and grow to achieve something special (which can be said for all competition tales). For that show, I was on my the edge of my set for every out and homerun. Now, I'm back to not liking baseball. But PN is one of my all-time fave animes and ADV, if it still has the liscense, has been remiss in not re-releasing it imo. In a similar vein, for years romance publishers here wouldn't touch a sports-based novel to save their souls. They believed women wouldn't read about sports. It hardly dominates the genre now, but publishers finally figured out women do like sports (duh) and are more willing to give the stories a chance. In fact, Harlequin now has a NASCAR series that's quite popular. So maybe it is in that vein, like AM said. The biggest hurdle may be getting US anime producers to give more sports-related titles a shot. As for Murakami's art, it can be shocking, but that is the point. To add to the discussion, the following quoted material is from the catalog from the 1999 exhibition, The Meaning of the Nonsense of Meaning, held at Bard College in NY. In reference to Hiropon and The Lonesome Cowboy: "His two most notorious works ... raise all the complicated gender issues of manga and anime specifically, and of contemporary Japanese culture in general." After describing the statue, which is modeled on the convention of a young, girlish-looking character with overtly womanly attributes, the essay charges that "Hiropon is every otaku's dream girl." In specifically describing the Japanese subculture, "the stereotypical otaku is a computer geek who lives for obscure anime trivia. These otaku satisfy their (mostly sexual) fantasies through manga and anime characters ... By exaggerating Hiropon's freakishness, Murakami exposes the monstrosity of the fantasy. It is an indictment and an embrace of otaku obsessions." The essay goes on to say about My Lonesome Cowboy, "[Murakami] modeled the face after a character in the popular Sega game Final Fantasy, so that it would be familar to viewers. The idea for the cowboy character originated in a novel of the same name by Yoshio Kataoka about a truck driver traveling in the United States. In an interview with Paul McCarthy, Murakami insists that, unlike Hiropon, My Lonesome Cowboy is unrelated to otaku culture, but is rather 'my twisted US image. Thus [it] is my reality about America'." The essay, however, ties in the imagery My Lonesome Cowboy exaggerates with that found in the erotic manga of Henmaru Machino, which Murakami also used as inspiration for Hiropon. Nei |
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Nei
Posts: 24 |
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As you say, it depends on what you like. FUNi has every CLAMP and One Piece fan bowing to it at this point, and I'm looking forward to Romeo x Juliet and Claymore. Viz has Naruto, Bleach and Death Note and I can't imagine it isn't trying for the Vampire Knight anime license shoujo though it may be. ADV is releasing The Wallflower, but, yeah, it has slowed down of late. I agree that Nozomi/RightStuf, AnimeWorks and Bandai are carving out a niche market for themselves with "artsier" and smaller market titles (BL and shoujo-ai for example). Smart move for the first two companies compared to competing with "the big boys" for other titles, and offering titles they won't normally touch. Bandai has the luxury of both worlds. Has big titles (Code Geass) but has imprints for smaller market items. Nei |
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enurtsol
Posts: 14761 |
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Those teams have trouble attracting fans even when they're winning. Georgia just doesn't support its pro teams; that's why it's not titletown (or is that circular logic?).
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Shadowrun20XX
 Posts: 1935 Location: Vegas |
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 I don't know if it was you,or the quote from the essay but Videogame history collapsed from that very statement.
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prime_pm
 Posts: 2336 Location: Your Mother's Bedroom |
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So, anyone gonna write an Answerfan anyway just to piss off Zac?
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Zac
ANN Executive Editor
 Posts: 7912 Location: Anime News Network Technodrome |
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There are plenty of people already sending me lame-ass "clever" responses to the non-question this week. |
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