Forum - View topicHey, Answerman! [2006-06-01]
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Keonyn
 Subscriber Posts: 5567 Location: Coon Rapids, MN |
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I wish I could break in to the breakdancing pro-gamer market, that sounds like quite an exciting field to be involved in.
As for the guy who wants to create an online distribution method, I think he needs to analyze the market more carefully before he even thinks of getting in to such a field that will undoubtedly cost more than he'll earn at the start. Licensing isn't cheap, this isn't something you're going to be able to just go out and do on a single persons salary, not to mention bandwidth and translations. Of course, would this include dubs as well? Judging by his attitude I'd say he's likely in the anti-dub purist crowd, so if dubs were not a part of that then that's a large market share ignored and lost. Business isn't easy and you definitely can't get in to a business revolving around your personal ideals because they may not reflect the market in which case it will inevitably fail. In regards to the drawing and nationality of drawings, I would say that's something I've learned to ignore. It really doesn't seem as though appearance is considered as part of nationality by a lot of anime artists, the characters are simply drawn in a manner that fits their style and the nationality is an afterthought. You could probably take any anime character, give them any nationality or race and it would be accepted by most. I mean, when you have people running around with natural hair colors that are blue, pink and green and so on it's pretty obvious that realism in appearance isn't a major goal of the artists, and that's fine as it's part of the style. Now about the sales numbers (yes, I'm just full of responses today), I don't think it's really a factor. By the time the first DVD is released there's usually already a set release date for the next one before sales numbers are even a factor. If they paid for the licensing I imagine they'll see it through to the end unless the sales are frighteninly low, if anything I'd guess the sales numbers would really only alter their approach to the marketing, not so much cause a cancellation of the future releases. |
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Samurai_Kenshin
 Posts: 24 |
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That is so idealistic it's sickening. I'm not an overly jaded, cynical person, but to say that people should just get stuff handed to them is the exact opposite extreme from "well, even if we work hard, nothing will work out anyways." And neither extreme is a good thing.
Miyazaki isn't a "passionate dreamer" ??? Neither are Yoshitoshi Abe, Shinichiro Watanabe, Hideki Anno...??? Those people are the passionate ones, because they sacrificed for their dreams. The anime industry is unrewarding - long hours, low pay, poor treatment (if you want to know more, check out this post at Riuva: http://www.riuva.com/?p=111 - and for the record, that's not my blog). If you can manage to make it past all that, you finally get the chance to put your own ideas on the screen. I think that the people who have endured all the misery of reality, all the unfairness of life, and still have the capability of putting so much beauty on the screen (Spirited Away, Haibane Renmei, Cowboy Bebop, The Place Promised in our Early Days) are the real "passionate dreamers." The ones you're talking about can be classified as naive and immature, and if I wanted to see the works of naive and immature people I'd just spend more time surfing the internet. |
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Iritscen
 Posts: 793 |
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Well said.
He indicated that he draws, not just comes up with ideas, so what's to prevent him from putting up a doujinshi site? I once saw a doujinshi for Yamcha, of all characters, that was actually interesting and pretty well-drawn. Were I in the American manga industry, I might have given that person a call or investigated further. With no offense to Zac and his informative column, there's nothing to be accomplished by writing Answerman if you want to get noticed in the anime/manga world. But if he can't figure out that putting up a personal site to showcase his work is one way to start, then obviously he's way too young. And yeah, as was said already, he should be taking classes, not daydreaming about people falling at his feet listening to his ideas with bated breath and then getting to work on them. |
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HeeroTX
Posts: 2046 Location: Austin, TX |
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I have a question. Think of your local anime club (if you still go to one), think of the members that are/were in it. Now, while I expect some of them are morons and a few of them are loud, how many of them would you classify as "wild party people"? It's entirely possible that the "anime fan" scene has changed SO drastically in the last 5 years that I could be way off, but I remember "anime fans" as relatively introverted geeks who don't communicate well. (see: the target market of shows like "Love Hina", "Oh My Goddess" and "Video Girl Ai") With the influx of titles like "Sailor Moon" you see more girls in the fandom, many of whom can squeal with the best of them, but few of whom throw (IMO) wild parties. Which begs the question of who ARE throwing these parties? The answer (near as I can tell) are today's teen/tween-age "rave culture" people who are just looking for an excuse to party, period. I can point out several con forums TODAY that include the following comments (paraphrased): -I am a convention attendee and the con isn't catering to my interests, I'm not an anime fan, but I'm at the con too... -Woooo! I'm looking forward to the con this weekend so I can get loaded and hang out with all my crazy peeps, yo! -Hey everybody, come find me at the con, I'll be handing out glowsticks so we can all rave at the con, let's all break out the boombox and see who has the l33t moves before the dance since there won't be anything to do before then! And lots of other crap. For a variety of reasons, many anime cons aren't ABOUT anime any more, and that's just sad. Last edited by HeeroTX on Fri Jun 02, 2006 10:54 am; edited 2 times in total |
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HeeroTX
Posts: 2046 Location: Austin, TX |
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Am I the only one that thought Steroid was being sarcastic? I mean, I think he/she honestly believes that it's sad that the dreamers can't do more in today's society, but really, I find it hard to believe that anyone would push for giving those people millions of dollars, gratis, or even MORE wild, basically "giving" them a staff of talented people to fulfill their dreams. Talented people who had to spend YEARS refining their craft to have the skill necessary to create when I'm sure they ALSO would have loved to just have time to dream and see their dreams blossom. I think it's especially blatant that someone would push for talented people to be compelled to fulfill the dreamers wishes as their "SOLE FUNCTION IN LIFE". 
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saishokushugisha
Editor, Anime Insider
 Posts: 101 Location: USA |
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I think askjohn writes most of his own questions. They certainly read that way. |
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minakichan
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That middle school teacher should check out "Face of the Other" http://www.matt-thorn.com/mangagaku/faceoftheother.html; it's a pretty good read.
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Samurai_Kenshin
Posts: 24 |
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I was addressing the fact that the idea was sickening (sarcastic or not) - my comment had nothing to do with Steroid (attacking internet pseudonyms isn't big on my hobby list). |
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The Xenos
 Posts: 1519 Location: Boston |
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I too found many of the con goers at Anime Boston immature. They rather brought out the negative definition of Otaku, immature fans who refuse to leave their own little world and be social to other people.
Hell, I'm gonna say it. The yaoi fangirldom is getting ridiculous. Even mention the idea and they start screaming. The bit of tge masqurade I saw was terrible. It almost seems to degraded to trying to tell the lamest gay joke one can. (Though the Yu Gi Oh gay necrophila joke was kinda so wrong and out there it was pretty good. Heh. Licking corpses on a kids show.) Of course, I've also heard from friends on staff and other friends that the audience keeps skewing yonger and you have tons of younger kids with parents attending. Of course, then you got kids running off or parents and guardians who think the con or at least video game room is a giant day care center. In particular, I heard one kid became infamous for ditching his guardian. Seems if you mention "Waaaah! I wanna make a plushie!!!" to some stuffers, they will draw back in some sort of war flashback. |
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DriftRoot
 Posts: 222 Location: NH |
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Maybe the face of the stereotypical anime fan is changing...? I'd say yes, but it doesn't explain all this behavior. Your point is essentially the subtext of my rant, that when AB first started up, it was the appreciative anime fans who attended and made it a really great convention. The years have gone by, it's gotten a heck of a lot bigger, and somehow I don't think all these thousands of anime "fans" coming out of the woodwork are the same type as those who came before them. It's pretty obvious, actually, but hey, not much you can do about being so successful, right? Prove your otakuness? ha! *wonders if PatrickD is going to chime in suddenly* p.s. There was discussion awhile ago about the proportions of cosplayers/noncosplayers at conventions, which someone clung to as about 1/4 of the people being in costume. For some odd reason, I'd say there were nearly as many people in costume at AB this year as were not. Weird! It's kind of sad, actually, because it's hard to stand out in a crowd if you're surrounded by hundreds of other people also dressed in weird outfits. Glomp-potential also seems to take a serious drop - so many glompees to choose from! *schmiffles* On the other hand, not being in costume tends to attract notice when you're in a crowd like that. Nothing like having people look at you and not have to quickly look away because they're seeing something they'd rather not. 
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Hunter Sopko
 Posts: 259 |
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I don't know. I'm going to go into the inevitable camp on this one. I didn't stay in the con hotel, so I wouldn't know exactly what happened, but after spending my college years watching schools like West Point and Yale almost get kicked out of their hotels for THEIR room parties and drinking during certain conferences, it doesn't exactly surprise me. What kind of conference you ask? Model UN. Yep. If you're in college now, sign up. Model UN rocks. Especially if you go to the Harvard conference.
Personally though, next time I go to a con, I'd rather just go without finding out I've lost my job. |
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jsevakis
Former ANN Editor in Chief
 Posts: 1684 Location: Los Angeles, CA |
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My experience was much the same, at least initially. I was lucky in that CPM is a relatively fan-friendly company, increasingly so towards the end my run there, and so fanboys with good ideas, a sense of respect and professionalism DO get heard. Ridiculed sometimes, but hey -- sometimes the fan agenda and the business agenda don't exactly match. As Trish Ledoux has said, it is very hard to be both a professional and a fan. Once you HAVE to work on the content day in and day out (and it's often stuff that's not to your individual tastes), it becomes harder and harder to go home at the end of the day and watch more anime for enjoyment. You just get burned out. Besides, the realities of the biz are often not the way fans think they are, and that can be a bitter pill to swallow. That said, there is nothing stopping a dedicated, open-minded and respectful fan from getting into the industry. Most of the people I know are still at least moderate fans. If someone told me they absolutely HAVE to work in the industry, my advice would be to learn EVERYTHING you can about it, find your niche, and work hard to make your abilities unique and appealing in that category. That'll get you hired. THEN, be prepared to start from utter humility because unless you're there, chances are you really don't know what you're doing. Start from where the COMPANY's position is, because chances are there's a very good reason things are the way they are. As someone once said, nothing worth doing is ever easy. And keep in mind, this is still a cottage industry in this country, so it's highly unlikely you will ever make more than a livable wage. It can be a fantastic stepping stone to something else, though; working at CPM taught me more than all of my college years put together. |
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shadowspawn
Posts: 1 |
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Could we be seeing the end of Anime Boston developing? I hope not, but this sure is eerily reminiscent of something that happened almost exactly 20 years ago.
Boskone, the Science Fiction Convention of the New England Science Fiction Association, had many similarities to Anime Boston. It was a happy place, a convention run by fans, for fans. And in the early - mid 1980's, it was growing like crazy. The programming was very similar in style and content to Anime Boston. It was a great convention. But storm clouds were gathering... If my memory is right, we were in the Boston Park Plaza in 1984. Unfortunately, the growth of the convention had begun to attract people who were there for the weekend party experience as much (more more) than they were there for Science Fiction. There was trouble -- loud parties, damage to furniture. Boskone was banned from the Park Plaza after the 1984 convention. In 1985, Boskone moved to the Marriot. There was more trouble. Loud parties. Elevator damage. Silly String all over furniture. After 1985, Boskone was banned from all Marriot hotels. In 1986, Boskone move the the Boston Sheraton. More trouble. For some reason, the Sheraton let us come back. Boskone 1987. MORE growth. MORE trouble. Parties. Vandalism. Fire Alarms being pulled all night, spilling people into the streets. After 1987, Boskone was banned from all Boston Hotels. There was nowhere left to go. The convention was moved to Springfield, MA. It has hung on since then, as a small wispy shadow of it's former greatness. This happened because as the convention grew, it achieved a notariety that attracted the "wrong sorts" of people -- locals, mostly, who were not real fans, but enjoyed a lot of convention programming anyway (especially the video rooms), and wanted to use the hotel as their facility for a weekend of destructive partying, leaving the convention organizers holding the bag. Is this starting to replay at Anime Boston? I hope not.... |
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HeeroTX
Posts: 2046 Location: Austin, TX |
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From what I've seen, this is becoming the standard at MOST anime conventions, except for the part about "enjoyed a lot of convention programming", many of todays attendees will even loudly COMPLAIN about convention programming, and how they don't see anything "worthwhile" on the schedule. (I won't even get into the lack of respect or appreciation for various guests and such) |
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Joe Mello
 Posts: 2267 Location: Online Terminal |
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Yes they can, but some people don't care about that. They care more about the social aspect and another excuse to get drunk. Also, I'm not saying we should just "throw up" our hands. I'm saying that no matter how hard we try to curb the problem, there will always be one person or group of people who wants to party, and it only takes one person to ruin a con's reputation. It doesn't even have to be a con attendee. And if you want people to rant, I'll rant. I just need to pick one of my multitude of topics. |
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