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Hey, Answerman! [2006-11-24]

Okay, I've read the comments and replies people have mentioned about my rant. I like to clarify couple of things..

First of all, yes I did make a mistake in the Nelvana spelling. It was a typo...so cut me a bit slack on that.

Second, what I meant to say was Shounen anime, which is a mistake in my part (I still mention about mainstream anime so it doesn't necessary have to involve fighting).

Third, I wrote this months ago...way before shows like Bleach and Eureka 7 aired on Adult Swim. For some reason, ANN decided to just slap this rant on now after all these months (I think I sent it just when NANA started airing, which was about 6 months ago). I do apologize about FLCL...I missed on that.

What does this have to do with getting more genres represented in American/Canadian TV anime? ---> To answer this question, certain genres can be offensive in terms of violence or just the issue itself..I mean can you really say that YTV or Adult Swim will air animes like Koi Kaze, Strawberry Panic, or I My Me Strawberry Eggs?

What are you talking about? Have you forgotten Crayon Shin-chan, Lupin III, Case Closed, Paranoia Agent, FLCL, and Milk-chan, all series with absolutely no fighting or very little fighting, unless for comical reasons? ----> This is regarding my Witch Hunter Robin defense. I should have explained it more clearly. Robin is more well accepted than the other animes listed here (Except for FLCL...which is extremely popular).

Lastly, Please learn to read. I NEVER EVER said animes like Kenshin, FMA, Trigun, EVA, or Samurai Champloo are bad animes.

I did not write this rant to offend people or criticize animes. It was never my intention. I do admit I made some errors in terms of organization. However, this being said, I still stand by my opinion.

Is it because of censorship, FCC and CRTC (For Canada)? For those of you who don't know, Nevanna completely ruined Card Captor Sakura with revised script writing and horrible editing (revised it because they believe that Shaoran and Sakura's relationship seemed highly inappropriate).

Once again, I said that ANN just posted my rant that I wrote 6 months ago. So it can't be helped. Apparently, ANN is trying to make me look like the bad guy.....lol. A lot can change in 6 months...because I agree with you. I watch Heroes and DEXTER myself.

It's always been to my understanding that a "comic book" was a single issue about 30 pages long and a "graphic novel" was either a long one-shot atleast 70-100 pages long or a collection of a bunch of single issues of a comic book.

9 times out of 10 manga is in "graphic novel" format.

Unholy_Nny wrote:

It's always been to my understanding that a "comic book" was a single issue about 30 pages long and a "graphic novel" was either a long one-shot atleast 70-100 pages long or a collection of a bunch of single issues of a comic book. 9 times out of 10 manga is in "graphic novel" format.

And then, of course, you have to throw in things like Vampire Hunter D, which is usually termed a graphic novel because it contains some illustrations, but is definately NOT manga. Sin City also is termed a graphic novel, but it's not manga, and I can think of a few other books out there with illustrations that would never, ever be called graphic novels (no matter what side of the Pacific you're on).

A novel with illustrations is a novel, with illustrations. It is not a graphic novel.

Sandman vol. 1 is a graphic novel. Ultimates vol. 1 is a graphic novel.

Harry Potter books have illustrations. They are not graphic novels.

Regarding "comic books" vs. "graphic novels":

I've always been under the impression that "graphic novel" is the term to refer to the collected 'books' and "comic books" tend to refer to the smaller 30 or so page issues.

I'm one of those "Really, they're all 'Comic Books'." people myself. I regularly use the term "graphic novel", but I use it more as a term for the physical medium in which a comic is published, when it's bound instead of just stapled.

That being said, I do far prefer the term "graphic novel" to "sequential art", the über-pretentious term favoured by Scott McCloud groupies.

Nunka wrote:

and novels with illustrations are graphic novels.

That's an illustrated novel, not a graphic novel.The idea behind the term "graphic novel" is to say that you have a novel that is expressed graphically.

One point that I think Zac missed out on is usage, "graphic novel" often refers to bound, collected comics. You'd rarely hear someone refer to to a 128 page, stapled comic-book comic book as a graphic novel. But this is a semantic, since, while rare, people do use the term that way.

"Sequential Art" has a legitimate use, but I dislike it when overly pretentious comic book fans/creators try to use it to make comic books sound "better." "Sequential Art" refers quite simply to the art sequence panel to panel and page to page. When an editor says "We're looking for people who are able to draw good sequential art, not just single panels and poses," that's a legitimate use of the term. When someone says "It isn't a comic-book, it's sequential art," thats total bullcrap (and no, they aren't synonyms).

-t

I'll throw in a comment too on the Adult Swim Anime.

We forgot to mention Eureka seveN. It has very little action. In the past 10 episodes(episodes 20-30), maybe 4 of them had action, and only 2 actually involve mechs. In the late teens, there was 3 or 4 episode story arc of no fighting at all, just relaxing in a cave, dealing with feelings and drama. It's very slow-paced, but in a good way. It doesn't have 15 episodes in a row of action after action. No filler either.

It probably throws people off because it looks at first to be a typical shounen mecha anime. But it isn't. It's by Studio BONES, who did Fullmetal Alchemist and Wolf's Rain. It's their first original, not based on an existing manga, so they got to be original with it. But it doesn't fall as easily into the cliches of "fighting anime" like DBZ and Bleach(which isn't a fighter either).

(Yes I know I totally went on a generic rant on how good E7 is to me.)

Take a look at any one of Miyazaki's films; if there's a message in there, by god you will know what it is by the end, because odds are he'll spend 2 and a half hours telling you in the most obvious way possible. Don't get me wrong - obviously he is a master storyteller, but watch Princess Mononoke and tell me he isn't being at least a little heavy-handed with his message. Hell, his colleague at Ghibli, Isao Takahata, directed probably the most ridiculously over-the-top eco-movie ever, Pom Poko Tanuki. That movie is like 8 hours long and every second of it are designed to tell you that the ENVIRONMENT IS IMPORTANT, WEEP FOR THE TANUKI!

I'll admit that these can be tough lessons to stomach in concentrated form. Still, I thoroughly enjoyed both films nonetheless.

I like 'sequential art' as a term for the whole field. I really dug Scott McCloud's first book, understanding comics. Plus it was actually Will Eisner, a founding father of American comics and quite comparable to Tezuka in the east, who coined the term.

Taishi wrote:

Once again, I said that ANN just posted my rant that I wrote 6 months ago. So it can't be helped. Apparently, ANN is trying to make me look like the bad guy.....lol. A lot can change in 6 months...because I agree with you. I watch Heroes and DEXTER myself.

Ohhhh no you don't. I published what you wrote verbatim. Everything you said is your own fault. Don't try and make it sound like somehow this is my fault for publishing what you said. You specifically wrote that to be reprinted in the column; if you're upset with how it came out, next time be more careful with what you write and make sure you're coming across clearly.

We're under no obligation to publish what you submit, nor do we have to publish it within a certain time period; if you submit something, I can publish it the following week or a year later. Your outlook on the issue may have changed since you sent this in, but it's up to you to clarify that in the forums.

Yeesh.

I agree with what you said about those free DVD's. It must be murder to put something up when it sucks.

So- do people get mad when you give things bad reviews? Do the freebies stop coming? I would suspect there is a bit of journalistic integrity at play here, you can't really say something doesn't suck when it does, but is it sometimes better to say nothing at all? I get the impression from the column that that's not an option, that something has to be done with the sample. I bet there are some good stories here that we'll never hear.