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Hey, Answerman! [2009-03-06]

Frankly, I think people are a little delusional about what it takes for something to be a big mainstream hit. The only thing on the horizon that has a shot at all is Soul Eater and I think it will be at most a mild success. I'm sure it will do okay what with all the usual shounen stuff. However, it strikes me as hitting a bad medium. It's not really faux-dark or pretend-deep enough for kids to think it's all edgy like Death Note. I think it may be just a little too out there and lose a bit of it's more standard mainstream appeal.

I agree though, if there is one thing American animation does well and anime doesn't it's comedy. I'm sure some people will disagree but as far as I'm concerned, Japanese humor isn't funny. It's far too much generic repetitive jokes and slapstick. I'll take the likes of Spongebob, the Simpsons, Southpark, Futurama, the Boondocks, Clone High, Harvey Birdman, the Venture Bros, Sealab 2021 or even Family Guy over any anime comedy.

I'm not looking for anything serious when I watch yugioh, and I don't expect more than what it delivers.

xia83 wrote:

What is Zac doing nowadays anyway?

I still work here. I just don't write Answerman anymore.

ikillchicken wrote:

I agree though, if there is one thing American animation does well and anime doesn't it's comedy. I'm sure some people will disagree but as far as I'm concerned, Japanese humor isn't funny. It's far too much generic repetitive jokes and slapstick. I'll take the likes of Spongebob, the Simpsons, Southpark, Futurama, the Boondocks, Clone High, Harvey Birdman, the Venture Bros, Sealab 2021 or even Family Guy over any anime comedy.

I like a lot of anime humor, particularly the dark stuff. Not that any animated humor title can touch the really good live stuff. I find Spongebob too grating for words. Simpsons is probably the best you named, though it is getting rather long in the tooth. There's too much "miss" to get to the "hits" in South Park. Futurama can't touch the sci-fi spoofs that came before.
But bottom line is if you don't get Japanese humor, you don't get it. Nothing bad. British humor is hit & miss for me. When it's hit, it's incredible, but the miss is just plain stupid.

You should try and give Spongebob a chance though. Admittedly it's a bit high energy at times but beneath that it's actually often quite clever.

Vampire Knight ain't that great, and the only ones who like it are fangirls, it's the same with Twilight, it may seem popular, but only among the fangirls who want a guy like Edward.

Practically everyone I've met at college hate Twilight, and if people are gonna write about vampires, they need to do research. Vampires don't sparkle in the sunlight!

CCSYueh wrote:

ikillchicken wrote: I agree though, if there is one thing American animation does well and anime doesn't it's comedy. I'm sure some people will disagree but as far as I'm concerned, Japanese humor isn't funny. It's far too much generic repetitive jokes and slapstick. I'll take the likes of Spongebob, the Simpsons, Southpark, Futurama, the Boondocks, Clone High, Harvey Birdman, the Venture Bros, Sealab 2021 or even Family Guy over any anime comedy. I like a lot of anime humor, particularly the dark stuff. Not that any animated humor title can touch the really good live stuff. I find Spongebob too grating for words. Simpsons is probably the best you named, though it is getting rather long in the tooth. There's too much "miss" to get to the "hits" in South Park. Futurama can't touch the sci-fi spoofs that came before. But bottom line is if you don't get Japanese humor, you don't get it. Nothing bad. British humor is hit & miss for me. When it's hit, it's incredible, but the miss is just plain stupid.

I don't know about that. In my experience there just doesn't seem to be much to get. That's the problem. There are a handful of very simple running jokes and they are repeated over and over with next to no variation. Character says something stupid, other character hits him with something. Character says something strange, other characters fall over with their legs in the air. Character falls, inexplicably lands amongst other character's massive breasts. I know American comedy has it's own share of repetitive jokes (Homer does/says something stupid) but at least there is some variation there. There's room for it to happen in a creative or especially funny way. These Japanese slapstick gags are so simplistic and interchangeable though that it's just the exact same thing every time. I agree with you 100% on the Simpsons. It's one of the most consistently funny shows of all times. It's begun to slump in the last little while though. You should try and give Spongebob a chance though. Admittedly it's a bit high energy at times but beneath that it's actually often quite clever.

posterior_praiser wrote:

I'm not looking for anything serious when I watch yugioh, and I don't expect more than what it delivers.

It's kind of disappointing that ever since that "Abridged Series" no one seems to enjoy Yuugiou for anything other than to laugh at it. It's not really any different from any other Shonen Jump series like Naruto or Yuu Yuu Hakusho. It's basically just a fighting manga where the fights aren't fought with the characters fists; they're fought with games as a battle of wits.

I don't like reading Yuugiou because I like card games; I like it because it has cool characters and a genuinely gripping story (the stakes just keep rising, like Death Note).

I like a lot of anime humor, particularly the dark stuff. Not that any animated humor title can touch the really good live stuff. I find Spongebob too grating for words. Simpsons is probably the best you named, though it is getting rather long in the tooth. There's too much "miss" to get to the "hits" in South Park. Futurama can't touch the sci-fi spoofs that came before.

Animation is the professional term, just like sequential art is. I'm an art student, illustration major actually, and I can only recall every hearing the term sequential art when it is used in an educational setting, like with my classes/major. We don't call the classes "comic book class" or "graphic novel class", it's a sequential art class, focusing on the use of images in a sequence, and it's not JUST to do with comics.

I always thought of "graphic novel" as the term used to present a volume of comics, or a direct to novel comic, in book form to make it more accessible to those who would otherwise frown on the comic name. In my opinion it's all a marketing ploy to sell it to people who otherwise wouldn't consider comics reading material. Putting novel with it gives more value to it to some people in a literary sense.

Character falls, inexplicably lands amongst other character's massive breasts. I know American comedy has it's own share of repetitive jokes (Homer does/says something stupid) but at least there is some variation there. There's room for it to happen in a creative or especially funny way. These Japanese slapstick gags are so simplistic and interchangeable though that it's just the exact same thing every time. I agree with you 100% on the Simpsons. It's one of the most consistently funny shows of all times. It's begun to slump in the last little while though. You should try and give Spongebob a chance though. Admittedly it's a bit high energy at times but beneath that it's actually often quite clever.

Wow, see, I haven't watched the Simpsons in years, ever since it started getting "preachy"...

Humor is a very culturally-bound phenomenon. What's funny in one culture won't always be funny in another. I think you're massively overgeneralizing with Japanese comedy, of course, focusing primarily on the humor of heavily shounen shows. (Having watched the pathetic attempts at humor in "Shikabane-hime," I know what you're coming from...) And as for American animated comedy always being superior...for every original show, there's a ton of crap too, much like anime. And I gave up on the Simpsons when it started being preachy several seasons back.

Anime comedies (as in, ones with no real drama) I've liked?
1) Hare+Guu and Hare+Guu Deluxe (not Final... wow that was unfunny)
2) Full Metal Panic? Fumoffu
3) Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei
I prefer my shows to actually have a mix of comedy and drama. And in America the best examples of that are generally live action.

Anime Comedies I've Liked:
Cromartie High School
Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei
Azumanga Daioh
Patalliro

Nail on the head there, Littlegreen. I work in academia, and it's all about making your area of study sound intellectual. My dissertation on magical girls was billed (not by me) as "the transformative power of the pre-adolescent/adolescent girl as a subversive sub-genre of Japanese children's literature to counteract the patriarchical tendencies of that culture." (I wish I was making that up!)