Forum - View topicHey, Answerman! [2007-04-13]
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Mephistophilus
 Posts: 200 Location: Fresno, CA, United States |
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It was rather obviously in jest, but I do think this one was... In poor taste, to say the least. I really don't think a statement like:
Is quite appropriate, even when it's a joke. I dunno, I could just be being a little stiff about the manner. Enjoyed the article this week... I think the astro-turfing issue is becoming increasingly relevant lately, especially with that whole Haruhi escapade. I respect their need to get the word out, but the viral marketing shtick is getting a bit tiresome. It's fine to promote your product, but flooding forums with useless junk that at times even turns fans away is not a good idea, and is quite annoying otherwise. Viral marketing is fine, I suppose, but it has to be kept constructive, and it should probably be kept to certain channels on the internet. I think the rant goes along with astroturfing, as I am kind of seeing a trend of companies not *quite* getting it even despite efforts. It should be obvious now that it takes more than being injected forcefully into the fanbase to actually appease the fans themselves. I understand that companies have to reach out to other markets as well, but completely disregarding the wishes of the fans you do have is somewhat ridiculous. People can be picky about things they want, sure, but I think we can all agree that adding in random names that even have to be changed later to get around a cultural barrier is a bit ridiculous. It wouldn't be that difficult to have some sort of translation note accessible in the presence of honorifics and such, and you don't have to assume your fans and new markets are stupid. People can read, so it's not like you're depriving them of anything by leaving "untranslatables" alone with the exception of a translation note. It's definitely possible to listen to the fans and still maintain a strategy towards expansion of markets. On the politics issue... If you haven't picked it up, I'm mostly socially liberal (VERY accepting of almost anything), but I'm rather fiscally conservative. Reagan and his con-spawn irk me to no end, and I detest neo-conservatism. Still, I try to objectively evaluate decisions, and I am inclined to let things slide based on the modifications of hindsight in history and the knowledge of how difficult such a job can be (Though, some things just can't really be justified in any way-Star Wars was ridiculous). Politics really shouldn't belong on anime forums, though, unless being used in context of the thread (i.e. Relationship between our geopolitical condition and x anime's). Arguments of politics do tend to deteriorate quickly. |
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Ai no Kareshi
 Posts: 561 Location: South Africa |
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The really fun thing is when you actually *can* read Japanese and don't have to worry about this type of thing one way or the other. 
Just for the record, there is a difference between hating people and not approving of their lifestyle. |
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Zac
ANN Executive Editor
 Posts: 7912 Location: Anime News Network Technodrome |
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I think the difference is minimal and the reasoning behind either is weak, ill-informed and bigoted. And that's all I'll say on that. |
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Ai no Kareshi
Posts: 561 Location: South Africa |
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Fair enough. |
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PantsGoblin
 SubscriberEncyclopedia Editor  Posts: 2969 Location: L.A. |
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No, I wouldn't have even put it that frank, as I would see it in bad taste too... Her comment in the "quote" thread was also a bit... distasteful... which is why I wanted to drop it... Will have to talk to her about that... |
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darkhunter
 Posts: 2992 Location: Los Angelas |
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The rant is okay, I'm not feeling it as much because it's so typical now a days for manga fans to bash TP and Viz and praise Del Rey because they have a lot of popular titles. Tokyopop had a good run back in their haydays and that's because they had a good relationship with Kodansha, one of the three big major publisher in Japan. They got clamp series, they got Ken Akatmatsu series, they got a lot of the popular manga titles like GTO and Initial D that ANIME fans are already familiar with. All these title are Kodansha owned and have huge fan base. Now that Del Rey has a good relationship with Kodansha and they're licensing all the Kodansha titles including recent Clamp title, it just mean Dey Rey became the new (or old) Tokyopop in term of popular series/fanbase. Del Rey is not free from the 'edit bug" though as seen on Air Gear V2. Tokyopop still got some great title like BECK and Dragon Head though that need fan support.
Also no mention of Dark Horse in the rant who has been releasing manga for over a decade. 
Last edited by darkhunter on Fri Apr 13, 2007 2:58 am; edited 2 times in total |
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DemonEyesLeo
 Posts: 844 Location: Japan |
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This reminded me of an old saying that goes something like: "If you are not a liberal when you're young, you have no heart. But if you're not conservative when you're old you have no head." Yay for Snow Leopards. Thank you for not putting up with Dub vs Sub, Loli, and fansub rants. The horses have been beaten enough. |
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Anath_19
 Posts: 87 |
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It's from Inukami!, I believe. |
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Ichigo77
 Posts: 389 Location: California |
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Wow and here I was thinking I was the only conservative anime fan here lol. I also thought I was the only person to think most anime fans were liberals. To be honoest I use to have a prejudice against anime fans because I took them all for liberals. I would never talk to them, join clubs, or go into stores like Hot Topic but then I realized I needed to stop since that wasn't really fair. Politics and anime are two different things so I should give these other people a chance. So I joined my colleges anime club and started talking to more fans. I feel better now that I did that too and Zac where are all these conservative anime fans you have met and why haven't you told me? lol
As for the rant the ranter has a point. I mean 4 months for the next Ai Yori Aoshi? Its bad enough One Piece and Naruto volumes come out every 4 months but atleast we get 2 chapters a month. I don't mind how Viz puts the SFX in english and the only things I wish Viz would change are putting 4 chapters in shonen jump so those tankobans could come out every 2 months and for their titles that are way ahead in Japan such as Case Closed and Inuyasha they should make them monthly until they catch up to the Japanese realese. Del Rey is doing everything great. I don't like waiting for 3 months but its better then 4 months. |
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Mohawk52
 Posts: 8202 Location: England, UK |
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Dark horse will be glad to see that they are doing such a good job to not be listed in that rant. |
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daedelus
 Posts: 743 Location: Texas City, TX (ajd: 6/11/05) |
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Yes, I'm really looking forward to the new Rants/Essays/Raves etc. section.
Zac, I really liked your answer to the "Flake" question. Is it just me? Or did your answer incorporate a subtle request to all of us to not send in fake "Flake" letters? That's the impression I got. If that is the case, BRAVO! 
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teh*darkness
 Posts: 901 |
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Hmmm... couple points. For starters, I'm also conservative. Not quite sure how much, I'm registered as a republican, but I have enough sense to listen to everything and base my decisions on information, not bias.
Also, thank you for the reasonable response to the rant, which I wrote after reading the complaints about the horrible rants last time. As for Dark Horse, I don't read anything that they put out, so I felt it best not to comment on them, since I have no experience with them. And yes, I realize that Del-Rey is getting a lot of the big series from Kodansha now (hence the logo on the back of the tanks), but still, they did take the effort to listen to what fans want, and translate accordingly. As for not giving love to certain series, again, I only write about what I read. I don't read Nodame Cantabile (sp?), as I'm more into action/shounen series, and romance/comedies along the line of Akamatsu's work. Plus, not a huge fan of classical music, so nothing about that series really interests me. As for CMX, like I said, if they can continue with the relative lack of gross edits, they could get really good. I hope they do. I still need to check out Sword of the Dark Ones. Also, about Viz, I also dislike waiting 4-5 months for releases of Naruto, Shaman King, and YuYu Hakusho. Simply, I don't read the magazine. They use the tank pages, then blow them up to magazine size, which ends up distorting the artwork. If they used the original 8 1/2 x 11 art from the japanese Jump, it'd be fine. But they release enough other series bi-monthly (Bleach, Zatch Bell, HunterxHunter) that I can wait for the others. It's just annoying. And I just have to speak up on the debate over loli-con. Is anything drawn loli bad? Because I'm watching this awesome series called Manabi Straight, that's about a bunch of highschool girls (16-17 years old) that look like they are 12. Now, I believe Azumanga Daioh was also about highschool girls, they just weren't drawn loli. What's so wrong about loli? Is it when the perceived age is too young, or is it just the art-style? |
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R_Amythest
Posts: 32 |
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I work as the proofer for a scanlation group (and this is the equivalent of a localizer sort of person -- making things grammatically correct and generally making phrases more familiar to an English speaker) and while things like nii-san are often left in, depending on the situation, rampant honorifics aren't. I've never exactly seen the big deal about honorifics, unless the series revolves around how utterly rude someone is or something like that. A good localizer can just work at the style of speech to make it quite apparent that someone's rude or polite.
A good difference between scanlation groups and actual companies, however, is that the scanlation groups can be confident that fairly serious anime fans are going to be getting stuff, and thus can be expected to know lingo. Actual companies would like to pick up an audience that's borderline, or convert new fans. Overwhelm them with too much Japanese that's difficult to pick up all at once, and they're out. (Ever tried to read a fanfic with Japanese phrases everywhere? Even in the case of the few good ones that do that, it gets a lot more bothersome to remember what they mean instead of just seeing it in English.) ... And to be honest, I also really don't want to see another excuse to hear honorifics from people in everyday life. |
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Abarenbo Shogun
 Posts: 1573 |
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Pre-emptive strike: Steve, shut it. Different from my obssesive hatred of Cowboy Bebop.
60 Minutes a while back showcased such marketing tactics. Surprisingly, they featured Cowboy Bebop: the Movie and their "army" of pre-teens spamming boards trying to generate hype about the movie. The search isn't working right for me, but I believe the ANN guys actually kicked out a couple of guys because of this. Which to me is kinda sad in a sense. Out of all the marketing tactics a Studio could utilize, they have to use kids zerg rushing forums? Don't we have child labor laws that rpevent this sorta thing? |
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Asako
 Posts: 751 Location: Hawaii |
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It is pretty lame that companies would try to do that. Maybe they believe it to be some sort of guerrilla tactic? Still, those things are risky, just like those situations with the Aqua Teen Hunger Force advertisements. It can be successful or it can bring a stain upon the reputation of a company. I would think that companies would stay away from such measures but if the costs on advertising are too steep for them, perhaps they would. |
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