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ANNCast Holiday Special Part II

If I may, could I request that Zac and Justin do a yearly podcast about the movies of that year? I know this is ANN, but I love hearing you guys talk about movies.

If picking on random scapegoats would make it any more likely for LOGH to be released I'd happily join in 24/7, no question, but something tells me that is an absolutely futile gesture. Might as well lash out against global politics or whatever else pops up.

I guess it's my turn to suffer now, though, because I have to sit through the "That's a terrible show to license, it's too niche", "Moe is killing the industry" and my favorite "This show should be dubbed or I won't buy it---This show shouldn't be dubbed because I have all the numbers in front of me and this won't sell squat" arguments that show up in every talkback thread. Yeesh . I'm going to love hating the talkback threads after Funimations licensing bonanza next week. Hearing people constantly talk about how anime is going to fall off the face of the Earth tomorrow gets sort of tiresome.

The one thing I was thinking about no one seemed to mention (in this thread?) had to do with Zac's recollection of Answerman. It made me wonder what would happen if (when?) Zac and/or Justin got tired of doing the ANN Cast? Surely no one else would be able to fill the void or their shoes. Would anyone want to try? Would people still want to listen to anyone else? Short of someone like Mike Toole or the face-smashing Daryl Surat, who could possibly have enough knowledge, clout or personality to keep the podcast going?

Charred Knight wrote:

I am utterly shocked that Zac and Justin love Haruhi. The so called satire is them just pointing out the tropes, and the flaws of the series. Mikuru isn't a satire of moe, she just a big breasted moron whose sole purpose is to have Haruhi grope her.

Haruhi is absolutely satirical. Well, more like parody. Satire really calls on societal problems.

The light novels are a sarcastic commentary on the classic school ensemble tale that you see in most light novels and anime, complete with a maniacal moe fangirl, with a sci-fi twist (and sarcasm about that, too).

The anime, however, is a completely visual experience, so the tropes end up being played straight sometimes. It is KyoAni, after all. But I've never felt that the fanservice interfered with the story.

On the other hand, Slumdog Millionaire fully deserved that win. I was very happy. It played like a modern very dark fairytale and was gorgeous in just about every aspect of production, from the cinematography and art direction (love the scene where he's filling the tub with money) to that lovely, lovely soundtrack.

Yuki isn't a parody of characters who ripoff Rei Ayanami, she's just a ripoff of Rei Ayanami. Mikuru isn't a parody of characters whose main purpose is fanservice, she's just a character whose main purpose is fanservice, Haruhi isn't a parody of tsundere, she's just an obnoxious not-so-nice-person whose antics I am supposed to find funny like Peter Griffin, and Homer Simpson.

When I hear "one of the greatest animes of all times" I want to see a series with a ton of depth, a rich variety of characters, excellent animation, and it does everything right.

Gurren Lagann did that, the characters felt like characters, you can see everyone's point of view, even though their where a ton of factions over a period of only 26 episodes. They didn't force people into leadership roles, Simon isn't the type of person who could run a city, and so we see that in the series.

Haruhi didn't have any of that, all it had was a bunch of tired cliches, and a bunch of characters with no character development in 26 episodes.