Forum - View topicInterview: Danny Choo
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_V_
 Posts: 619 |
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...the admins were correct to point out that my original post on page 1 was somewhat off-topic, or rather, I'd already expressed it in a previous thread, so this now verged on cross-thread Soapboxing.
I was feeling bad about this (not about what I said regarding Danny, I retract none of that....I only feel bad that I was cluttering up the forum thread which the admins work hard to maintain), so I went back and rewrote my initial post to concisely focus on what I thought was wrong with Danny's statements here: animenewsnetwork.com/bbs/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?p=948211#948211 My feelings are, in short, that I was shocked to read this interview from start to finish, yet find that Danny hasn't even started putting together a *production team*, much less started production. To the Admins: Danny Choo is a controversial figure, and I will refrain from complaining about him in any future threads, I am sorry, but this is a sensitive topic. Notice that I am not the only person complaining about him in this thread. They voiced their concerns more concisely than I can. particularly, I'd point to AWO's well put together criticism of Danny. Quite simply, I feel he is projecting an image to people in America, which does not reflect reality. AWO summarized this as "hey I'm the dancin' stormtrooper in akihabara guy, and you can be too, so buy my products and read my blog". I think he's considered "an expert on Cool Japan" because this is by and large something he invented himself.
Oh, okay, that's not so bad then. I'm upset with AX for making him a guest at all, but that is not within your control.
won't happen again. Thank you for the warning.
I haven't been, but I question why we're all trusting Danny says about Akihabara as *objectively true*. So few of us have been there, that I'm worried that the reportage is biased. If there are a few real good quality stores in Akihabara....keep the faith. I hope they survive, or turn things around.
...really? I've seen them appear on Anime3000, and I've seen other ANN people appear on there, so I assumed they had at least some merit. Honest question out of genuine curiosity...how and why are they becoming something of a joke?
If you must know, all visible objects, man, are but as pasteboard masks. But in each event – in the living act, the undoubted deed – there, some unknown but still reasoning thing puts forth the mouldings of its features from behind the unreasoning mask. If man will strike, strike through the mask! How can the prisoner reach outside except by thrusting through the wall? To me, he is that wall, shoved near to me. Sometimes I think there’s naught beyond. But ‘tis enough. He tasks me; he heaps me; I see in him outrageous strength, with an inscrutable malice sinewing it. That inscrutable thing is chiefly what I hate... Or more succinctly, I'm not so much mad at Danny as at what Danny represents; an entire failure of institutions. Our blind belief and herd-like mentality. Does Man hate the Devil for deceiving him? Or his own fallen nature, for being weak enough to believe the Devil? At no point did Danny here force any of us to believe what he's saying: his whole message about "Otaku Cool" and "oh look I'm the dancin' stormtrooper guy in Tokyo"...nor did he ever force anyone to mail in the photos and artwork to his book which he never paid them for. So in the end, the "Danny Choo" I'm referring to is not the physical man, "Danny". The "Danny Choo" I hate is that little voice in someone's head that keeps saying things like "Heat Guy J is worth as much MSRP as Fullmetal Alchemist", that says "Geneon's policy of continuous expansion is sound business planning", that says "moe is a cool new trend in Japan which everyone should enjoy, and it is considered good storytelling...so you should buy Haruhi Endless Eight as a $60 collector's item". In hating "Danny Choo", I'm hating what he represents (as a paradigm example) -- our own gullibility and naiveity as anime fans. As mindless consumers who believe whatever we're told. I promise not to complain about Danny again in another ANN thread, as per the Admin's instructions.... . |
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Mytopia
Posts: 78 Location: Florida |
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Don't feed the troll; just ban him and be done with it.
Danny Choo does indeed have involvement in the industry; he will co-host a TV show (with Satomi Arai) based on anime culture in Japan called Culture:Japan which will premiere in Japan on Tokyo MX and the rest of Asia, subtitled in English, on Animax-Asia (who co-incidentally featured him on their Imaginenation series of anime insider interviews). I believe they want to broadcast it in other countries as well. It will include insider peeks and interviews with people involved in the anime industry, and you can see the Animax-Asia promo here: http://www.animax-asia.com/videos/110125457001 & http://www.animax-asia.com/videos/110081096001 The fact that his new show will almost simultaneously be aired in English on a major network like Animax-Asia (massive in Asia and the biggest anime network in the world by far) certainly shows how well-respected and well-known he is both amongst anime fans and the anime industry. And obviously, with success will come people that are just plain jealous. |
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dark_hand
Posts: 42 Location: Canada |
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Huh? If you're giving ur work to someone, you better be aware that it might be used to that person advantage. All it takes is just common sense. |
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P€|\||§_|\/|ast@
 Posts: 3498 Location: IN your nightmares |
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_V_, since you took the time for a sincere apology, I want to offer a bit of a commentary on your stance regarding Danny. Just a small thing, it seems since Anime Expo theres been a bit of focus on Danny Choo like his popularity is just coming to light. _V_ obviously you know enough about the guy that you weren't among the many users on this forum who said they never even heard of Danny Choo until recently (yesterday). I myself have been familiar with Danny Choo for about 3 years now. Back then many of my random anime searches dealing mostly with figures wound up on Dannychoo.com. His site stood out like a beacon amongst other blogging sites for the great presentation, hi-res images with multiple angle shots of the same figure, clever, informative and humorous commentary.
I find it hard to believe that unless you possess a range of interests that are entirely outside the subject matter of Dannychoo.com, that you would not have stumbled onto his site and became enamored with it. It is also beyond me, due to recognizing the genuine merits that his work has presented over the years, how he has deserved the criticism of trying to attain international recognition as the ambassador of otaku-ism with as little work as possible on his own part. He has worked VERY hard to get where he is in addition to being extremely intelligent and motivated (traits that 99.9% of otaku unfortunately lack). I must once again point out how his fame has not spoiled him by remaining very humble. As far as he's come, he always realizes and admits he has many things to learn as a producer and the owner of a promotional company. His show Culture:Japan operates on a shoestring budget (lots of aspects of it are done in house rather than outsourced) but is more than adequate in terms of quality and entertainment value. You may call his attempts at getting people to contribute creative work for him exploitation, I call it resourcefulness. Tokyo, Japan isn't exactly the cheapest place in the world to set up a base of operations. If I had artistic talent I would be more than honored if given the opportunity to be part of his revolutionary vision. |
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Shiroi Hane
Encyclopedia Editor
 Posts: 7580 Location: Wales |
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I actually just wrote a post, thought better of it and deleted it and I'm glad since you did it much better. I don't visit his site often, but I likewise stumbled on it years ago. I think I was intrigued about a Brit otaku in Japan.
I distinctly remember him saying in his original rant on the subject in the AX threads that he hadn't heard of him until AX. He went from zero to the expert in Choo "controversy" in nothing flat, seemingly just because he was annoyed that some person he had never heard of was fronting the opening ceremony. |
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P€|\||§_|\/|ast@
Posts: 3498 Location: IN your nightmares |
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I generally don't make an effort to attend opening ceremonies of conventions, but I wish I could have arrived in L.A. in time to see it. I didn't know Danny Choo was frontlining the ceremony. I did attend both of his main panels as well as the Indecent Otaku comedy show. In addition to Mell being there, Danny Choo is one of the main reasons I went to AX.
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Albright
Posts: 14 |
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That's great, but being knowledgable about something and able to discuss it and being able to actually produce it are two different, distinct things. I love music, and can discuss various genres and talents at some length, but hand me a guitar or sit me in front of a piano and I'd be hopeless. Right now Chinka is just an anime fan's wishful thinking; "I wanna make my own anniemay!" What, besides Choo's notoriety (and perhaps his fiscal capability), makes it any more viable than any other weeaboo daydream? Let's see him get to the point where animation starts; then I'll be impressed. And more power to Choo if he can actually get it done.
…ugh, I take it back. This looks awful and the world would be better off without it. :P |
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_V_
Posts: 619 |
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Don't accuse people of being trolls for disagreeing with you, or demand that admins ban people for that. I'm not the only one that is complaining here. Now please stop, you're being confrontational, I've made my complaints and I'm not going to respond again.
... I'm "V". Why have several people in here been calling me "_V_"? Oh the underscores? Screenames on here have to be at least 3 characters long...the idea being that the underscores just blend in with that little line under your name. Curious 
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jenarwen
Posts: 3 |
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I would like to thank Anime World Order for their very constructive post on this topic (BTW OFF TOPIC: huge fan of your guys podcast. KEEP IT UP!)
As a reader of Danny Choo's blog, an Anime World Order listener and an as an animation student who's done volunteer work on Graduate Films, and currently volunteering on a short one and half minute pilot I feel I should give my point of view. In pertaining to Anime World Orders comment on Otacool it should be pointed out plently of publications (magazines, books,etc) based on hobby based activities such as cosplay, collecting etc do the exact same thing Danny Choo did. They take photos of people with collections or get them to take photos and perhaps do some type of interview and depending on the publication and get photo permission. Quite a lot of the fan community likes sharing these hobbies, and their feeling is "This is my hobby and I want to share it. If I don't make any money so be it, and if someone else makes some money off it that's okay. This is a way I want to share my hobbies with other people." HOWEVER, Asking artists to do work for free on something that isn't a hobby for them is the problem of the industry right now. People online and in real life are making the assumption people will do things for them (particularily anything artistic) for FREE. A lot of these people pretty much say "Well I can't draw. This person makes it look easy. It must be really quick for them to do this". I can't recall how many times me and many of my artist and or designer friends have been asked to create art, or digital CG work BY strangers for NO PAY. Or the lines like "maybe this webpage design you did for this online stupid pet game will SOMEDAY make money and I'll give you SOME of it even though all the artistic work is yours" Now exposure is one thing. Companies do this all the time. They ask people if they are interested to create an art piece or mascot and in return they give them exposure. (I can't count how many companies are doing this now). This may or may not be reasonable considering how difficult it is for any artist to get a job at this point with the economy. However, I really really hope Danny Choo is not serious about this. I read the Chinka article before but I really must have missed this: "You have been involved with Otacool 1 and 2 and I want you to be involved with Chinka too. There will be scenes for you to illustrate or color in and we will feature your name in the credits. You get to have your work featured in an anime which I would say is a great opportunity for those who want to expose their work or get into the industry. More details to come. Hope you are as excited as I am!" I assume this comes from Danny's lack of experience in the animation industry. He seems to have a great deal of experience in terms of anime merchandising due to his collaboration with Good Smile Company, Ami Ami,etc. He would never say "here make these anime figurines for free" but he would ask for cel shading for free? He knows bussiness but CLEARLY he does NOT KNOW animation as a craft or in its working stages. Just even in terms of coloring I'd like to give the following example. (This is an example. I don't have enough information on the actual production to give a more accurate one) Let's say for the sake of arguement that Chinka will have extremely fluid animation (I'm ignoring held cells so bear with me). So lets say that the frame rate will be 24 frames per sec. So thats 24 drawings in one sec of animation. Now well say theres 60 secs in a minute so- 24 frames x 60 secs x 22 minutes x (for the sake of arguement) 12 episodes = 380,160 frames TO BE COLOURED. Keep in mind the fact it's cell shaded (not to a huge extent but for frame of reference lets keep this trailer in mind) [url] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VqjxmFZC-5Y[/url] Notice the fact there is fire, backgrounds, intense special effects, fire trucks, uniforms, etc etc.... Now how many minutes would it take to do one frame in colour? Now many would it take to do 24? Plus how much longer does it take to colour the fire truck, or flames, or water? Let's say you it takes you 25 minutes a frames (a very very low estimate due to cell shading). Then Danny said heres a 3 second scene. So 3 sec x 24 frames = 72 frames x 25 min = 600 minutes/60 minutes (1 hour) = 6 hours. 6 hours of free intensive labour. And if its anything like most Japanese animation companies. It's an episode a week schedule. Usually you get a couple scenes of a couple seconds (depending how many people are working). So say you get 5 scenes. 6 x 5 = 30 hours....Of free work. I think now the issue is fairly clear. I want you to keep in mind these are examples. I have no idea whether this will be 12 episodes, 24 episodes, or an OVA. Photoshop colouring? Paint bucket the line art then cell shade over top? 3d with toon shading? Because me, and everyone else doesn't have full details we can't really make much in the way of assumptions. But I really hope that people see why what Anime World Order is saying is such a big deal. Especially if Danny doesn't pay these people. Theres a difference between minor fan contribution and intensive volunteer work . I'm not sure how much Danny will be asking people to do who contribute on this. Maybe he'll give them the oppurtunity to animation some frames , or colour a few in. But if he's using them as his primary labour force for the series. This is a fairly big issue. I can't say I mind say if Danny let people colour a few frames (maybe a few hours of volunteer work) in the entire series but not based on the intensive production scheduling and not as a primary force of labour. 1-3 hours of work for the entire series and your name in the credits for exposure. That I would fine with . But the fact that people now have to use this type of exposure points out major flaws on the industry in general. Danny himself pointed out that DVD and Bluray sales are poor meanwhile production costs are in the millions. Even the latest flick Despicable Me was a "low budget 3d film". Cost? 69 million [url] http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704746804575367312582277380.html[/url] Maybe not on this production but at lot of animators have to deal with the prospect of low pay. animenewsnetwork.com/news/2005-11-02/animator%27s-salaries To top this off companies don't make money off the DVD's so they rely on merchandise. With profits going to keep the company afloat or into the hands of the head honchos and not the artists who worked on the production. Meanwhile, their are more artists than employment. More like the animation companies aren't making much or any profits so they are forced to keep a smaller production team and either make a bunch of lower quality productions or 1 or 2 higher quality ones. The production teams are small and so is the pay and if they hired more people who knows how any of the animators would survive in terms of money even if it lightened their workload. In the animation industry right now their arent really internships oppurtunties out there. Most of the ones that currently exisit are extremely competitive with hundreds to thousands of applicants all fighting over the same position. Now people are often forced to do free work just to get a name out there or a foot in any door. I can't say free work is evil or bad. That would be ridiculous on my part as I'm currently doing the same thing. I've done work on 2 traditionaly drawn digitaly coloured short grad films for free all in the hopes of a)experience and b)exposure. The work I did mostly consisted of cleanup, scanning, cell shading and some background work. I spent quite a few late nights in the studio with me and many of my other friends helping out the grad students (they did most of the animation work. But they never placed us until too tight of a schedule until the final deadline. They mostly worked on a "hey are you free? Can you help on this?" If you said no they weren't angry about it. If you said yes well they loved you obviously. It was hard work. The film I did the most work involved wannabe cops fighting a giant robot. Yay for colouring robots and battle scenes. I got to colour things like a robot crushing a bus. It took a very very long long time. It wasn't paint bucketing ever. Photoshop colouring and sometimes cell shading. I don't regret it but if I got paid that smile on my face in terms of work satisifcation might have been wider. (But it's animation student film...Animators don't have money to pay other animators especially students) Right now I'm in pre-production for about a minute and a half pilot based of a comic which may or may not result in paid work. Which I'm realistic about. We are a team of about 8 people and have divided duties like editing etc between us. However the comic artist we are working with is not putting us on a very tight schedule because a) this is a pilot b) we aren't getting paid. There are deadlines but they are all pretty reasonable and no where near as intense as a full production. The issue of exposure in regards to pay is the fact that many people are treating animators like an expendable commodity. Due to the advent of technology and people making things on the internet for free in their spare time I feel artists have been devalued. I haven't worked in a major animation company or in Japan but I feel I had to give my few point as a student who's worked on small productions. I hope Danny clarifies as the production goes forward and the idea for Chinka about the firefighters if well developed during pre production could be highly interesting. I respect Danny for his information on Japan and figure posts but I hope he pays animators for their work and maybe gives minor volunteer positions for exposure. BTW: In regards to the moe question IMO to quote AWO "MOE IS THE SNIPER." |
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dark_hand
Posts: 42 Location: Canada |
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If you don't want to put that much work for free, then don't. Nobody's forcing you. But there may be people out there who feel differently than you do. For example, some of the artists in DeviantArt seem to have no problem spending countless hours making many pictures just so that people can see their works. Some people just want exposure and they don't care much about money. [Mod Edit: When responding to large posts like that, please don't quote the entire thing. - Keonyn] |
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jenarwen
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I enjoyed the work I did but, I also enjoy being able to pay the bills. Your making it seem like all artists who want to be paid care about if money. If we cared about money we would have probably choose a hirer paying career. You also need to remember a lot of people on deviant art post their work as a hobby. It's something they do in their free time. They aren't pursuing it as a career. They draw some pictures on weekends and some professional artists use deviant art as a portfolio space to get new jobs. The issue I'm talking about is that many people going through art and technical schooling get out of school to find no jobs and people want them to work from 9-8 to for FREE on the hopes something MIGHT make some money. Artists like any other worker have bills to pay and many have debt from the training they under went. The people who often are okay with doing free work need exposure to build their careers during student life or are doing it in their spare time. But still at the end of the day we are in a cash paid society. Artists have bills to pay and the issue at hand is over working animators and artists for little to no pay. People seem to expect them to be slaves and do grunt work for some exposure. Plus lets be honest how many people OFTEN read the credits? Or read that "exposure"? This is what I'm taking issue with. You're right many people I know have done free work but that's because they didn't know any better as first timers in the and many have regretted it later as someone could have paid them. They could have paid some bills or maybe worked some other job during that time. Often afterwards they felt like they were used for slave labour. Or they were promised money and they person never paid them. |
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configspace
Posts: 3717 |
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It may be rendered at 24fps (or 30 fps) but I seriously doubt the animation (of unique cells) will even approach 24fps or whatever the video frame rate is most of the time. I'd guess 6 most of the time, 12+ when needed. It's still a lot of work but nowhere near as much as having every cell move at a constant 24/30 fps. As far as coloring goes, that's what animation software is there for. Even pencil tests and onion skinning is made much more efficient by software. That said, that blurb about getting fans involved in return for credits is in the 3/30 post and seemed like part of the initially intended April Fools joke. So far I don't see any mention of such "crowd sourcing" afterward, although I guess it could still be possible. But given what he said here, I doubt that will be the case:
If the planned team members already consists of industry professionals who may work on this independently or part time, the idea about asking for amateur artist help (broadcasting to the same otakool fanbase) purely in return for credits makes even less sense |
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mrsu
Posts: 13 |
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I guess the problem the critics (like myself) see in the way Choo works, is that he doesn't ask for help, he dangles the carrot of the possibility of working in Japanese animation in front of his readers and this is, frankly speaking, a lie. The chances of a person, who sent Danny their work, to work in the Japanese manga- / anime- / game-industry are so low, you could say, they're nil. Just take a look at sites like pixiv or other parts of the Japanese interwebs that are overflowing with excellent work, done by Japanese persons done for their private pleasure. Or take a look at Comiket and the whole Doujin-subculture. Here, again, the mass of talented people seems endless. Now, if you were in a leading position in a Japanese animation company, who would you hire? A highly skilled Japanese or a person from abroad, which might have the same artistic skill, but barely speaks the language the whole staff uses to communicate - let's face it, most of the Danny Choo fan club are weeaboos that have no idea about the real Japan and barely know more japanese than 'baka' - and first has to move to the country the studio is located in? See? It's really simple. He makes false promises to get people to work for him for free. Another thing that bugs me is that he CLAIMS to be an otaku, but he only endorses the companies he's affiliated with, which, in my humble opinion, is a contradiction to that I think is the otaku-spirit: A full dedication to a hobby, appreciation of quality work, even if it's not done by GSC. What he's doing is viral advertising. btw, iPad = revolutionary? Yeah, right... |
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TokyoGetter
 Posts: 416 Location: CA. You can tell by the low moral standards. |
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Attacking Galbraith for writing a fairly even-handed taxonomy after years of research and then conflating him with being a corporate stooge shilling for "the man" is strikingly hilarious. That guy runs an Akihabara tour company by himself and has spent years introducing people to the area and noting the fluctuations and changes in it, as well as noting the shifting modalities of the businesses there. This blog isn't doin' it right: it's just impugning somebody. |
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grooven
Posts: 1426 Location: Canada |
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I just wanted to say what the hell is with the name he came up with? Chinka is VERY close to sounding like racial slur. You know just remove the last letter. If he is trying to have it for the market here too he REALLY should have chosen a better name. It obviously makes sense in Japanese but would the market here get it?
As well it makes me roll my eyes to see something this generic come out. Seriously it looks and sounds generic. I can't see this getting too serious in the least with the actual context of firefighting. It actually make it successful would have taken a better step at art direction and plot. |
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