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Firefly an Outlaw Star Ripoff?


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SuperSkylineGTR



Joined: 20 Aug 2002
Posts: 471
Location: Chicago, IL
PostPosted: Thu Sep 12, 2002 12:07 pm Reply with quote
Hey has anyone seen any previews for the new Fox show "Firefly"? It kind of looks like an outlaw star ripoff from the previews.

Oh and a note: I am not one of those anime fans who think everything the Americans do suck or that they copy off some anime. Just wanted to clarify.
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Hotaru



Joined: 02 Aug 2002
Posts: 481
Location: NY
PostPosted: Thu Sep 12, 2002 12:24 pm Reply with quote
YES! Totally! The first time we saw it (especially the part with the girl in the box, total melfina) we were like "this is a rip off of outlaw star!" but it probably won't last for long. Hopefully.
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Cassandra



Joined: 13 May 2002
Posts: 1356
Location: Birdsboro, PA
PostPosted: Thu Sep 12, 2002 1:37 pm Reply with quote
I dunno about a ripoff. I'm actually looking forward to seeing the show. Joss did good on Buffy and Angel, so I'd like to see what he does with this.

And I still think people are reading way too much into a commercial Confused
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Tenchi



Joined: 03 Jan 2002
Posts: 4462
Location: Ottawa... now I'm an ex-Anglo Montrealer.
PostPosted: Thu Sep 12, 2002 2:01 pm Reply with quote
Over at the AnimeNation.net forum, this is the thread that never ends, it just goes on and on my friends... I suggest reading the entire thread, especially Maikeru's comments.

The thing about the girl in the box is that she's nothing like Melfina. From reading a thorough plot summary of the first episode, the girl in the box on Firefly is not an android associated with the control system of the ship, she's a psychic on the run who was smuggled aboard the Firefly for some reason. (Not a spoiler, just basic premise IMHO.)


Last edited by Tenchi on Thu Sep 12, 2002 3:37 pm; edited 1 time in total
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SuperSkylineGTR



Joined: 20 Aug 2002
Posts: 471
Location: Chicago, IL
PostPosted: Thu Sep 12, 2002 2:13 pm Reply with quote
Cassandra, Yeah Buffy was cool... but the last two seasons were mediocre. Anyway, I never watched Angel, but one of my friends said it was cool. (BTW, Angel was really cool on Buffy when he became "evil Angel" for an episode).

Tenchi So the chick in the box is a phsycic? It still looks a tad retarded (just like that lame-ass Fast Lane). Oh well, at least trhe new season of 24 will start soon... Hopefully it will not be lame and boing in the middle like the first season.
Well, enough about Fox's programming.

By the way Tenchi, where did you get that quote from? Was it "you're under arrest"? That was a cool manga BTW (did not care much for the anime.

And finally... a good honda engine is a V-TECH engine... especially the one thrown in the S2000!
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Craeyst Raygal



Joined: 30 Apr 2002
Posts: 1383
Location: In the garage, beneath a 1970 MGB GT.
PostPosted: Thu Sep 12, 2002 2:52 pm Reply with quote
I think it's a rip-off combo of BOTH of Hajime Yadate's great space-faring works; Outlaw Star and Cowboy Bebop. I mean, come on. The "interstellar prostitute" is so blatantly Faye she might as well be wearing a yellow quarter shirt and suspenders. And the girl in the box is even in the same bleedin' position Melfna was found in. I will avoid this show like the plague. It seems destined to become another "Homeboys in Outer Space".

I just hope that, if it sucks as much as the preview commercials have shown it to, they don't give Yadate "inspirational credit". That would be such an insult.
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Tenchi



Joined: 03 Jan 2002
Posts: 4462
Location: Ottawa... now I'm an ex-Anglo Montrealer.
PostPosted: Thu Sep 12, 2002 3:45 pm Reply with quote
SuperSkylineGTR wrote:

By the way Tenchi, where did you get that quote from? Was it "you're under arrest"? That was a cool manga BTW (did not care much for the anime.


Nop, it's just a parody I though up of the Honda commercials with Jacques Villeneuve ("Inside every Honda car... there's a Honda engine!") they showed in Canada up until about the Canadian Grand Prix this year. I think they stopped showing them since it's pretty obvious that Jacques likely won't stay with Honda beyond this season. The Natusmi and Miyuki reference is regarding You're Under Arrest (since they drive a souped up Honda Today subcompact in the manga and anime, though I'm not too sure that Asahi TV's upcoming live action You're Under Arrest "dorama" series will have them driving one, since a car that small equipped with nitro would be quite the deathtrap for police officers in accidents in real life. I'd imagine that Natsumi probably won't stop the car with her feet, either.), but it's not a direct quote from You're Under Arrest.
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Tenchi



Joined: 03 Jan 2002
Posts: 4462
Location: Ottawa... now I'm an ex-Anglo Montrealer.
PostPosted: Thu Sep 12, 2002 4:02 pm Reply with quote
Here's the complete summary of the first episode of Firefly I referred to earlier. Obviously, if it's a complete summary, it mentions absolutely everything that happens, so use your common sense before clicking.

By the way, as for what was the main source of inspiration for Firefly, Laughing Hyena, in the AnimeNation.net forum, points us to this article at ScoopMe.com which itself refers to this interview at SciFi.com with Joss Whedon by Kathie Huddleston in which he discusses his main inspirations:

Joss Whedon, as interviewed by Kathie Huddleston wrote:

What was the inspiration for Firefly?
Whedon: It was The Killer Angels. It's a book. I think it won the Pulitzer. It's a very detailed account of the Battle of Gettysburg that I read in London when I was on one of my vacations where I didn't write anything, but I did come up with Firefly and a couple other shows. I read The Killer Angels. The minutia of the Battle of Gettysburg and the lives of the people in it really made Firefly just pop out of my head. I want to get into people's lives this intimately. I want to do it in the future and show that the future is the past. So I built the structure of the world and the look of the show on the Reconstruction Era.


He also mentions Stagecoach as an inspiration. I think it's important to note that one of Gene Roddenberry's main inspirations for Star Trek was Wagon Train, so "space westerns" is hardly an anime-only concept.
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Magister_L



Joined: 20 Aug 2002
Posts: 200
Location: California
PostPosted: Thu Sep 12, 2002 6:06 pm Reply with quote
Joss Whedon, as interviewed by Kathie Huddleston wrote:

What was the inspiration for Firefly?
Whedon: It was The Killer Angels. It's a book. I think it won the Pulitzer. It's a very detailed account of the Battle of Gettysburg that I read in London when I was on one of my vacations where I didn't write anything, but I did come up with Firefly and a couple other shows. I read The Killer Angels. The minutia of the Battle of Gettysburg and the lives of the people in it really made Firefly just pop out of my head. I want to get into people's lives this intimately. I want to do it in the future and show that the future is the past. So I built the structure of the world and the look of the show on the Reconstruction Era.


what in the world would the book Killer Angels have to do with the freaken show??? Either this guy has a horrible excuse or he is seriously fucked up
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Tenchi



Joined: 03 Jan 2002
Posts: 4462
Location: Ottawa... now I'm an ex-Anglo Montrealer.
PostPosted: Thu Sep 12, 2002 6:27 pm Reply with quote
Well, he discusses it a little more in the interview, but I wasn't going to cut-and-paste the entire interview. And the AnimeNation.net thread discusses other influences, or possible influences, like E.E. Smith's Lensman and Captain Future books, Flash Gordon, and pulp sci-fi mags from teh 1930s through the 50s in general. Plus, a read of the complete synopsis of the first episode which I gave a link to earlier reveals very few similarities to Outlaw Star other than the vague "people with shady backgrounds in space" premise.
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Cassandra



Joined: 13 May 2002
Posts: 1356
Location: Birdsboro, PA
PostPosted: Thu Sep 12, 2002 6:28 pm Reply with quote
And to quote teh rules for Magister_L:
4) Swearing, insults, racial slurs and unrully behaviour are not permitted. This means no flaming, and no personal attacks upon another forum user. If you wish to express disagreement with a person's opinion, or correct their facts, do so without calling them a *&^*&#@%%%!!!!
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JETBLACK87



Joined: 14 Apr 2002
Posts: 1073
PostPosted: Thu Sep 12, 2002 7:05 pm Reply with quote
does that include insulting Faye? Craeyst Raygal where do you get the idea that faye is an "interstellar prostitute" besides the way she dresses?
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Cassandra



Joined: 13 May 2002
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Location: Birdsboro, PA
PostPosted: Thu Sep 12, 2002 7:23 pm Reply with quote
JETBLACK87 wrote:

does that include insulting Faye? Craeyst Raygal where do you get the idea that faye is an "interstellar prostitute" besides the way she dresses?


Well....because I happen to like Faye...yes *giggle*

I don't think she's a prostitute....then again, I don't think Joss took any ideas from any anime for the show.
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JETBLACK87



Joined: 14 Apr 2002
Posts: 1073
PostPosted: Thu Sep 12, 2002 7:33 pm Reply with quote
I think that its a posibilty that he saw outlaw star or something liked it and then got other stuff like those books and put stuff from them in it.


and even the way Faye does dress, look at how people dress now, how do you think "normal" clothes woll be in the future. and plus its anime.
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Tenchi



Joined: 03 Jan 2002
Posts: 4462
Location: Ottawa... now I'm an ex-Anglo Montrealer.
PostPosted: Thu Sep 12, 2002 7:52 pm Reply with quote
I think it's a greater possibility that Whedon is probably telling the truth, that his primary inspiration was The Killer Angels and he was also influenced by the same E.E. Smith pulp sci-fi that most "space operas", including Outlaw Star, are rooted in, either directly or indirectly. I haven't yet seen any reason to doubt him.

But with a lot of anime fans it is "rip-off" until proven otherwise (and then a few of those guys still think it's a rip-off regardless).
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