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Hey, Answerman! - Japanese & Legalese


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dtm42



Joined: 05 Feb 2008
Posts: 14084
Location: currently stalking my waifu
PostPosted: Fri Nov 16, 2012 4:45 pm Reply with quote
Wish someone would license Joshiraku, even sub-only. The show is steeped in Japanese culture yet I still found it to be really, really entertaining. Good on gg for their sterling job.
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Brand



Joined: 30 Jan 2006
Posts: 1028
PostPosted: Fri Nov 16, 2012 7:54 pm Reply with quote
I'm part of anime club and I've done research what is good to go and what isn't. So, yes if it is in a house you can show whatever you want. But if it is somewhere public (even if no one shows up) then you need to obtain rights. Getting rights to show anime TV shows is actually really easy these days. Generally you just have to email the company a form with the anime and date you want to show it. The only problem comes with some movies like Tokyo Godfathers that is part of the Sony Classics. For that you have to pay a fee to show it in public which was like $100 plus. Which in the long run isn't that expensive but a little to expensive for our club except for an extra special event.
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dtm42



Joined: 05 Feb 2008
Posts: 14084
Location: currently stalking my waifu
PostPosted: Fri Nov 16, 2012 8:05 pm Reply with quote
What am I thankful for? Lots and lots of things, but none stand out more than this:

Chihayafuru is getting a second season. Hallelujah.
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rinmackie



Joined: 05 Aug 2006
Posts: 1040
Location: in a van! down by the river!
PostPosted: Fri Nov 16, 2012 9:13 pm Reply with quote
Quote:
Hey, One Piece is a pretty good example of what I'm talking about: it kind of perfectly encapsulates what I think is important about "appeal" versus "quality." For some reason, One Piece is rather popular and beloved around the world. Why? The concept, the characters, and the story are uniquely Japanese - steeped in generations of Shonen Jump tradition: the spunky, endlessly earnest and energetic, if otherwise dopey, main hero who dreams big and thinks of little else. Alongside an ever-increasing cast of weirdos, freaks, friends and foes. It's also incredibly violent, and yet targeted mostly towards children. And yet, it is one of the top-grossing, most popular and beloved manga and anime franchises across the world. All this, despite a story and characters that are intensely molded and shaped from very Japanese sources. Just because the characters aren't technically Japanese, let's not kid ourselves into thinking that One Piece isn't a very "Japanese" property. It is.


Yes, because as we all know stories of pirates and young boys seeking adventures on the high seas is a unique Japanese thing. Umm.. what? Aside from some quirky characters and violence not normally seen in Western cartoons, which I'll admit is generally unique to anime, I don't see how One Piece is very Japanese. It's apparently very accessable to non-Japanese; if it was as "Japanese" as you make it out to be, I doubt it would be so popular world-wide. The most popular anime in the mainstream are usually the least Japanese; there may be some definitive Japanese aspects in all of them but they are probably not noticeable, except to the more knowledgable and hard-core fans.

As for what I'm thankful for, I'm thankful for the release of the rest of the Hellsing Ultimate anime series. A story created by a Japanese man, and an anime created by Japanese. Which is popular in many places but not Japan. Hmm, I wonder why?* Shocked

*Yes, I know why. I'm being sarcastic.
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stardf29



Joined: 29 Aug 2007
Posts: 171
PostPosted: Fri Nov 16, 2012 9:43 pm Reply with quote
To talk about something I'm thankful for, while also tying things into one of the questions of the article:

I'm thankful that Sentai Filmworks is willing to work with faraway dub studios like Bang Zoom! for works where they had previously been involved with, such as the second season of K-ON!. They by no means have to do this; FUNi has completely re-cast Shakugan no Shana for their 2nd season release, for example, and it's hard to blame them for wanting to reduce costs in this economy; that Sentai feels it was worth it to seek out the same dub cast, even if cost-wise it might not be the best choice, is something to be thankful for.
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configspace



Joined: 16 Aug 2008
Posts: 3717
PostPosted: Fri Nov 16, 2012 10:23 pm Reply with quote
Judging from other matters where city officials have clamped down on people in terms of distinguishing between public or commercial and private events or use of property, I think sending a public invitation to your home for anime viewing, or hosting regular club screenings in your home, may also count as public screening.
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penguintruth



Joined: 08 Dec 2004
Posts: 8458
Location: Penguinopolis
PostPosted: Fri Nov 16, 2012 10:37 pm Reply with quote
What's the point of getting back the cast of a dub that was terrible to begin with? For purely nostalgic reasons?

I could do without either Spike Spencer or Tiffany Grant in the Rebuild of Evangelion dubs. Fortunately, they're at least tolerable most of the time now.
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TitanXL



Joined: 08 Jun 2010
Posts: 4036
PostPosted: Fri Nov 16, 2012 10:48 pm Reply with quote
rinmackie wrote:
Yes, because as we all know stories of pirates and young boys seeking adventures on the high seas is a unique Japanese thing. Umm.. what? Aside from some quirky characters and violence not normally seen in Western cartoons, which I'll admit is generally unique to anime, I don't see how One Piece is very Japanese. '


Being Japanese is more than just a setting; it's also writing, characters, dialog, and execution. Just watch the original Ring movie and then the American remake and compare Japanese writing style with American writing style, you can clearly see the difference approach they have to the subject matter. American and Japanese cinema/animation writing are very different. One Piece still has all the writings, characters, and etcetera of an anime, specifically one based on a long-running action shounen manga.

Quote:
It's apparently very accessable to non-Japanese; if it was as "Japanese" as you make it out to be, I doubt it would be so popular world-wide. The most popular anime in the mainstream are usually the least Japanese; there may be some definitive Japanese aspects in all of them but they are probably not noticeable, except to the more knowledgable and hard-core fans.


Explain why both Naruto and Bleach are more popular in the western world than One Piece is, then. One Piece isn't anywhere near as popular as those 'traditional Japanese setting' series in the west. There's also Dragonball, Sailor Moon, Pocket Monsters... I can't think of any real 'mainstream' anime in the US that isn't overtly Japanese in it's writing style, setting, or anything. Even with heavily Americanized/white-washed dubs, they still exude Japanese writing mechanics and sensibilities. It's probably what drew us all to anime in the first place. It was all written and presented in a way we were not used to seeing.

penguintruth wrote:
What's the point of getting back the cast of a dub that was terrible to begin with? For purely nostalgic reasons?


Pretty much. Same reason people got upset when they recast Chie in the new Persona 4 anime/game. People don't care if a dub is bad, they just want it to be like how they remember.
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maaya



Joined: 14 Oct 2007
Posts: 976
PostPosted: Fri Nov 16, 2012 10:57 pm Reply with quote
TitanXL wrote:
Being Japanese is more than just a setting; it's also writing, characters, dialog, and execution.


Rather than just "generally japanese" I think these things are much more defined by the individual effort of a certain writer and to a degree the team surrounding that particular series.
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FrameFreeze100



Joined: 02 Dec 2011
Posts: 203
PostPosted: Fri Nov 16, 2012 11:07 pm Reply with quote
I don't really mind the same English VAs being used a lot as long as they're good.

Unfortunately there are many VAs I don't care for or I don't think are deserving of some of the roles they get... Confused

It's very rare that the VAs I really like are cast in lead roles for the dubs of shows I actually care about. Evil or Very Mad
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dizzon



Joined: 22 Sep 2008
Posts: 338
PostPosted: Sat Nov 17, 2012 12:16 am Reply with quote
configspace wrote:
Judging from other matters where city officials have clamped down on people in terms of distinguishing between public or commercial and private events or use of property, I think sending a public invitation to your home for anime viewing, or hosting regular club screenings in your home, may also count as public screening.


Unless they can prove your private residence is somehow a public venue you can't get in trouble for violating public performance law by inviting people to your house or apartment to watch legally purchased media.

I mean, you seriously have to be pushing your luck in a huge blatant way in order to get nailed on that one.
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rinmackie



Joined: 05 Aug 2006
Posts: 1040
Location: in a van! down by the river!
PostPosted: Sat Nov 17, 2012 12:24 am Reply with quote
Bleach, Naruto, and Dragon Ball have one thing that is universally appealing: fighting! That's why they are popular, not because they're Japanese.And yes, they do have some good storytelling but i don't think that's distinctively Japanese. I have a degree in Asian Studies and have actually been to Japan, so I can spot the "Japaneseness" in anime. But husband does not have this kind of education but he likes Bleach, whereas I initially didn't care too much for it. I'm sure such is the case for many fans of popular anime; it's not so much the Japanese aspects of anime, but the fact that the shows have something that appeals to them that everyone can comprehend. Anyway, the amount of "Japanese" in an anime is not what makes it good or appealing.
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faintsmile1992



Joined: 18 Mar 2011
Posts: 295
Location: England
PostPosted: Sat Nov 17, 2012 4:46 am Reply with quote
For Japanese audiences, anime is a form of escapism from a world where everythings covered in concrete. The view people have of IRL Japan as exciting or somehow picturesque and traditional is a myth, there's a reason anime so often carries themes of abjection and cultural nostalgia (for example the use of traditional inns in series such as Love Hina and Elfen Lied, and sometimes transplanted to foreign settings such as the Europe-like world of Spice and Wolf which is really about the conflict between a wolf-worshipping Shinto vs an intrusive western culture). The nostalgia is really the desire of now-rootless people for a sense of place they've been denied, and the abjected outcast and misfit characters as well as the apocalyptic themes of many anime appeal to discontented resentful kids, like me. (Just think of how popular Light Yagami and Lelouch Lamperouge are.)

Real Japan is somewhere between Durarara!! and FLCL without the exciting bits. No wonder the Japanese kids escape into anime cause that's how come I watch it too., I can relate to someone like Lelouch, Light Yagami, Claymores, Dicloniuses etc... but I don't find western teen media appealing at all. I don't like British shows like Skins or Inbetweeners, it has nothing to do with my life, and I can't stand the imported US shit like Gossip Girl...

Oh yea... Cowboy Bebop is really exoticism on the Japanese side, like their version of when Tarantino inserted the anime sequence into Kill Bill. The most famous example of exoticism in anime is probably Afro Samurai, which borrows influences of style from western media but remains at heart a chamboro, a Japanese product not a fusionof content... and thats how it should be. Like Clements said, "If I wanted Caucasian I could get that at home". The Roland Kelts book touches on westerners asking Japanese studios to make anime with more westernised themes to appeal to Americans... which is when I'll stop watching.

So there, that's what makes anime Japanese, its about the tropes they use and how they use them. They Japanese use tropes westerners don't use, like giant mecha, and when its the same theme they cover it so much differently.


Last edited by faintsmile1992 on Sat Nov 17, 2012 5:15 am; edited 1 time in total
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Vata Raven



Joined: 21 May 2007
Posts: 710
Location: TN
PostPosted: Sat Nov 17, 2012 4:46 am Reply with quote
stardf29 wrote:
I'm thankful that Sentai Filmworks is willing to work with faraway dub studios like Bang Zoom! for works where they had previously been involved with, such as the second season of K-ON!

Just because the show was dubbed in LA or NY, doesn't make it a union. I can already tell K-ON wasn't a union project, just by knowing Laura Baily was in the cast and her real name wasn't shown in the casting list (that's a way union actors can get away with being in non-union) and she still does roles for Funimation. PMMM was also a non-union project just by judging on the main cast, they're a bunch a newbie actors, newbies aren't going to be union.

Bleach, is also non-union, you honestly expected Viz to pay union for such a log show? JYB can in fact work no-union projects, he's done so with Funimation. Freeman is one of the few union actors. Fact is, people can't keep using "LA is union" crap, when in fact only like 20% of the US workers are union. Hell, even Steven Blum has done non-union anime projects, he voiced in Black God, he changed his name in the credits. Few animes are union, it depends on if the studio wants to make it union or not. Tiger & Bunny is a union project, just by looking at the actors and Viz was willing to spend the money because the show is a huge hit.
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Cutiebunny



Joined: 18 Apr 2010
Posts: 1746
PostPosted: Sat Nov 17, 2012 9:43 am Reply with quote
Several school districts will not permit their teachers to show anything Disney because they have received letters from Disney stating that any showing of their products to an audience of 10 persons or greater constitutes as a public showing.

(And before anyone asks "Why are teachers showing Disney stuff when they should be teaching?!", a lot of teachers try to tie in books that the class has just finished reading with the Disney version of the same story. It's done as a reward for the kids - they get to sit back and watch a movie for an hour or so.)

So, apparently, if you have a lot of relatives over for the holidays and want to show them something, Disney will try to sue you if over 10 of these relatives watch their product.

Stupid Rolling Eyes
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