Forum - View topicHey, Answerman! [2009-06-26]
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polmis
Posts: 3 |
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The amount of self-hate emanating from anime fandom (and "geek" hobbies in general) could fill a book. Many people seem to need someone else to look down on who is supposedly worse than them. They just watch anime, you see. They're not losers. Not like those people. It's all about the hierarchy, you know. Ironically, much of mainstream society looks down on all of us as being about equally nerdy and deviant. Having been the victim of this treatment ourselves, you'd think that we'd learn not to do it to other people. Otaku suffer the greatest abuse from other otaku who are afraid of slipping down to some imagined level of depravity. Everyone draws their Loser Line somewhere, and they always put themselves on the right side of it. But watch out if you aren't there with them, because it's total war. This is why I prefer 4chan. Open hostility has an honesty about it that is refreshing (and saves time.)
I don't think Brian's point was that anime-influenced productions can't be good, just that the ones we've gotten so far have generally been pretty bad. Most of them -- Avatar and Teen Titans being a notable exceptions -- have been utterly superficial and were only made to try and capitalize on a trend. Totally Spies and Kappa Mikey are to anime what Vanilla Ice is to hip-hop. Posers, impostors, fakes designed for mass consumption. They copy a few things about the look of anime without understanding its essence. What really surprises me is the number of artists who simply see anime as a style of drawing, and not an entire genre with a different cultural background and history of its own. I even heard one artist describe anime as nothing more than high-contrast shading (I guess those Oscar nominations mean nothing!) |
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Berserkfury819
 Posts: 229 Location: Detroit Mi. Spider-Man is dead. R.I.P. |
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for the most part I'm not really a fan of anime inspired cartoons. But I do love Avatar, and I'm really looking forward to the movie.
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Gilles Poitras
Posts: 476 Location: Oakland California |
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On 'anime inspired' US cartoons. Teen Titans has several hard core fans listed in the credits so influences are to be expected. With Avatar (hate that one smarmy brat wanna slap him) they did a good job with a single storyline and characters that grow over time. I can only hope this expands in US entertainment.
On the erogame news, Of all the posts I have read of this for the past few weeks no one has mentioned old Atari sex game Custer's Revenge. |
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DuelLadyS
 Posts: 1705 Location: WA state |
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Because it's not anime-related.  (And why bring up Custer, but not the other dirty Atari games?  )
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Veers
 Posts: 1197 Location: Texas |
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neocloud9
 Posts: 1178 Location: Atlanta, GA |
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Avatar was a gorgeously complex show that could quite easily rival some of the recent anime series I've seen. Seriously, it's awesome. [/my two cents]
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sunflower
 Posts: 1080 |
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*laughs* That's brilliant. Well played. |
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Mohawk52
 Posts: 8202 Location: England, UK |
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On the erogro games. I think of it like sewage. As long as I can't see it , or smell it, I don't care if some relish swimming in it.
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Greed1914
 Posts: 4461 |
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Teen Titans had the benefit of being a show that I would have liked regardless given the fact that it's from the DC Universe. The Anime styled visuals and Puffy Ami Yumi were a nice bonus because they seemed like actual efforts from those involved instead of tacked on.
As for the responses to the Answerfans: I have to say that from the descriptions of the big cons I think I'll stick to Anime Iowa or something similar in size. I know that I'd absolutely hate having to work through massive crowds, and I have practically no tolerance for long lines. Plus, the guests that show up are good for me since they're the voices and names that I recognize. The one thing I would like though is the massive dealer room, but I can get by with a smaller one. |
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vashfanatic
 Posts: 3491 Location: Back stateside |
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Which is, to me, what I like the most about anime as opposed to many American cartoons, not super-deformed and all the other stuff that Teen Titans apparently thought made us like anime (didn't like that show). Avatar hasn't been the first to try doing an ongoing storyline, but it was probably the most successful, due in large part to the creators being anime fans. It's a good kids' series over all. I still like Batman better, though. As for eroge... or any controversial video game... people need to learn to distinguish between what is morally reprehensible and what is legally prosecutable. Games where you earn points for rape, or for brutally killing people at close range (think Manhunt) are pretty darn vile and if you've got a scrap of moral decency you should at least think twice about playing them, and do some real soul-searching to figure out why you'd even want to play them (how far do vicarious and cathartic fantasies really go?). And of course there's a big distinction between something where you're trying to "win" girls into having consensual sex versus rape, or between fantasy violence killing monsters and realistic killings of actual people. But I return back to the idea of laws against them. The real issue is, can you right a law that has 1) no loopholes and yet is also 2) specific enough to only include the small set of games that actually are disturbing to people, without sticking us a slippery slope to only having cutesy banal series with no serious content? The answer is, I think, "no," and we don't really need them because we have a ratings system, albeit flawed, and there are reviews all over the place willing to tell you exactly what's in a game, and if something is morally repugnant, you have the total freedom to not buy it - a freedom you should willingly exercise. In the meantime, ladies, if your man is buying rape games, have a real serious talk with him... 
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CCSYueh
 Posts: 2707 Location: San Diego, CA |
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It exists in each & every yaoi fangirl & is thus impossible to pinpoint.
My work cubicle is covered in bright anime posters & calendars. Saint Seiya, Saiyuki, Getbackers, Weiss Kruez, KYo Kara Maoh, Code Geass, Tsubasa Resevoir Chronicles, Bleach, Princess Princess, Hero Heel, & Samurai Deeper Kyo to be specific. People come into my cubicle ALL THE TIME & say "YuGiOh? I watch it also" or Pokemon. But about a quarter of the time I get "I watch Avatar all the time" or "I like Teen Titans". They really do not seem to understand there's a difference. And yeah, there's also the few guys who come in & are put off by Ban wrapped around Ginji because it's THAT poster. "Is that 2 guys?" Got a problem with it? Point is a lot of Americans cannot tell the dif between YuGiOh & Avatar as far as style goes. I see it as simply specializing. One cannot collect everything in the world. It's easier to go with a specific style. I get way more people who freak out that I've abandoned American stuff. I get way more "you like this stuff, but don't watch Batman?" (Never liked Batman comics. I was a Marvel gal). |
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Ranma824
 Posts: 456 |
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But... she LIKES IT when I'm completely dominating
Um, isn't that kind of missing the point then? I mean, don't people watch anime because it's Japanese, with stories built around different cultural values then your own? Not that I'm bashing American made shows, I've never watched any of them so I can't say either way if they're good or bad. |
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Quark
 Posts: 710 Location: British Columbia, Canada |
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I do agree with you that games that feature rape and killing as the predominant factor are pretty vile, but what if they factor into the story of the game? I've played an eroge where a female character gets raped, and to be sure, it made me very uncomfortable (I stopped playing the game shortly after) but at the same time, I felt that the scene was there for a reason - the game was about this man losing his sanity, as well as his humanity, and the rape scene only added to the deteroriation of his humanity. It was nauseating, but there for a reason other than giving some players a quick thrill. Honestly, I disagree with the ban of rape in eroge, because there are obviously people who indulge in fantasies about rape, and if these games can satisfy those fantasies, without directly harming any real women, then it may be a good thing. However, if the companies decided to stop making these games because they no longer wanted to, instead of being forced to, I'd feel much better about that. Them having to stop because they're being forced leaves a bad taste in my mouth. However, if they stopped making rape games because they realize that they're glorifying the victimization of women, and feel that it's morally wrong, that to me would be a good situation. I'm very much on the fence about this, because I believe in free speech, and do feel that these games don't harm real women. But speaking as a woman, the thought of endless games being produced that focus primarily on degrading and violating women just churn my stomach. |
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vashfanatic
Posts: 3491 Location: Back stateside |
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Which is really hard to judge, so again, a blanket law isn't going to be able to figure that out, only the player.
Which is exactly why people need to think for themselves about why they're playing them. DO they have aggressive tendencies and this is the only way to get it out? Then that might not be bad. But maybe there are other options out there. If you find yourself fantasizing about raping women, then rather than immediately turning to video games, you might want to talk to a therapist. o_O But I think we're mostly in agreement. The law getting involved is like using a hatchet to do surgery (yes, I stole this metaphor from the American presidential elections). Consumers and game-makers need to be the ones to take responsibility, and to take the responsibility seriously. |
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KrisEllieOphi
 Posts: 111 Location: Texas |
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Erm, I meant to send in something about big vs. small cons.
I've been to A-Kon in Dallas as a volunteer, guest, and regular attendee. I've noticed, based on what I've seen and what I've heard from others, that it seems to be kind of falling apart. It's not very well organized, several of the panels are a joke, and a lot of the people running this thing just don't seem to know what they're doing. For example, I've noticed they know next to nothing about things on the Internet, like web comics and such. And they need to as they're also a big part of the culture there. This year, especially, it was kind of disastrous. Panels were lacking, official guests were lacking, the main floor was a mess. Though I suspect this also had much to do with the economy and the flu. Still, you can only blame those things so much.... Personally I think it's just getting too big for these guys to run. I'd also like to point out that my favorite voice actors (Sean Teague, Johnny Young Bosch (more as a person than his work, though), Steve Blum and Beau Billingslea) were all in attendance at the smaller Dallas con, Anime Fest. A con which was much nicer than the over crowded, scattered and not as well handled A-Kon. I'd also like it if they just mailed out pre-order badges, instead of those ticket things that still force you to have to stand in line for a ridiculously long amount of time. |
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