Forum - View topicANNCast - My Pet Maughanster
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Spotlesseden
Posts: 3514 Location: earth |
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on "anime industry today is facing the same issues as the music industry ..."
it's not easy to fix this. People are still stealing even if 80% of the anime are streaming for free. that's why you see FUNimation sues Americans who illegal downloaded One Piece EPs. and all the CR shows have very high illegal download number. |
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HeeroTX
Posts: 2046 Location: Austin, TX |
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If you haven't given it a second shot, try again. Here is why I say that, I ONLY started watching this series because of the discussion on this thread and honestly, if I had watched it cold I would also have stopped after episode one (I stuck with it because of the discussion that it gets great at the end of three, I literally "suffered" through the second half of the first episode). IMO Episode #1 is terribly executed, it is SO generic bordering on awful, and I am someone that LIKES some of the moe shows or the character tropes that Zac decries. But it really does improve. I'm still not sure I totally LIKE the show, but I'll grant that it reaches a critical mass point where it is difficult to stop watching. So, I'll say this, if you're remotely interested in "what's the big deal", watch the first 4, if you have no interest after 4, then stop. And I don't say this in the "you should always give a show several episodes" sense, but this show specifically should be given a few because it is interesting but has a terrible first episode. |
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Veers
 Posts: 1197 Location: Texas |
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It's actually kind of interesting. I've talked a lot of people I know into watching Madoka, some of whom aren't even anime watchers and some of whom consider(ed?) themselves pretty anti-mahou shoujo. Of all these people (about a dozen online and RL friends, mostly guys also but a couple girls), only one of them openly "dislikes" the show, but even then he's still watching it because he agrees the plot is interesting and well executed and wants to know how the story ends, even if he doesn't like the characters. If Madoka can make fans out of (or at least hold the interest of) people who tell me things like "I don't like magical girl anime" or "I saw the character designs and it looks like the crap that made me give up on anime" or or "it's...pink and girly but I can't help but be curious where it's going" or "Okay, the first episode was kind of dull, but if you insist I'll give it until episode three" then it must be doing something right. There are two kinds of recommendations--recommendations with reservations (you know, like those shows where you go "well, I enjoyed it, buuuuut...), and recommendations without reservations, and Madoka is much more on the "without reservations" side of things than most anime is. Still, I guess it does have one "but"--the first episode, complete with the most delicious troll OP ever. Looking at it more objectively, I have to agree its first episode does fail to really grab you until the end, and is indicative of the target audience: people who are fans of, or at least tolerant of, magical girl anime. That said, if the people who I've talked into watching, and enjoying, Madoka are any indication, this is one of those stories that is executed well enough to have appeal outside its target audience. I don't expect everyone to unconditionally love Madoka just because I like it, but I can't help but feeling like some people who dismiss it just because of what it looks like on the surface may be doing themselves a disservice (while the other some people would probably genuinely not like what the show really is once the fulffy pink wrapper is removed). |
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Spotlesseden
Posts: 3514 Location: earth |
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i don't watch it because i don't like magic girl show other than Nanoha. I think i will give this one a try when all the episodes are out and available on stream. |
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DmonHiro
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Yeah... you're in for a long wait because: 1. All the episodes will be out... eventually... a-la Bakemonogatari 2. The license is acutlally going to cost MORE then Bakemonogatari would cost. So basically, TWO giant piles of gold instead of one. If you're going to wait for a legal way to see this, you're probably not going to see it these 2-3 years. To each his own though. |
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sailorsarah
 Posts: 189 Location: Texas |
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Every time I hear Neighborhood Story mentioned, I have to sigh. I sure wish it had been released on DVD like Boys Over Flowers and Marmalade Boy.
I definitely want to check out Madoka Magica. I love magical girl shows. I'm sure it's because I'm a girl, but I love sci-fi with relationship stuff it it, so I enjoy Whedon, especially Buffy. This was a good podcast. I like when they just randomly discuss things. |
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Kaioshin_Sama
Posts: 1215 |
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Hey so what exactly is that whole "healing anime" comment I see popping up lately, usually referring to the "cute girls doing cute things" subgenre of anime? I'm not entirely sure how that is supposed to be a source of "healing" or "comfort" for people or what exactly they need to be healed from or how that specific kind of show is supposed to provide a form of psychological comfort or "healing" that can't be found anywhere else. I'm honestly not trying to be a dick or anything, but I really don't understand that whole trend I see on the internet as of late and I think that if I felt I needed a cutesy show like K-On or whatever to "heal me" after a hard days work or whatever that I should probably be seeking counseling by a licensed psychological therapist instead because something is really wrong with my outlook on life. I'm dead serious though, I wouldn't mind seeing a topic on this "healing anime" concept some time in the future. Even if it's just one of the five minute discussions that precede the big discussion in ANNcasts. |
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DavidShallcross
 Posts: 1008 |
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The "healing anime" concept seems to come from Japan. At least, in the creator interviews accompanying the Aria anime release, they were throwing the phrase around a lot in the subtitles. I didn't notice what the Japanese words were, however.
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_V_
 Posts: 619 |
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No, neither the original series, nor Rebuild (up to now at least), ever implied or intended that they were literally fighting "God"
the "giant space monsters" they're fighting just happen to be code-named "Angels", but at any point do you see them in a Judeo-Christian Angel sense? The Shinigami of Death Note were clearly established to be supernatural, the Angels of Eva were not. They explain it really, really fast in End of Eva, its all just a rip-off of 2001 a Space Odyssey, they're aliens. Tim sums it up; he *assumed* it was about "actually fighting God"....then got disappointed when it wasn't. And that's perfectly fine....but you have to acknowledge that the show was not, indeed, actually about that. These are Western biases being applied to it. As for Zac's blanket statement that "the people saying that the religious symbols are in it less this time? That's BS!" well....yes, they still call them "Evangelions" and "Angels", yes, they use a lot of cross-shaped explosions, Eva-03 is transported in a crucifixion pose..... ....but at any point did this present a coherent mythos within the storyverse? Or is it just that the Japanese think the visual symbols of Christianity look cool? As for the American politics of Eva-03....yes Zac you are entirely correct, yes this was almost exactly how it happened in the original series. I don't know if I'd support the interpretation that by turning on the autopilot, Gendo is "turning off Shinji's submissive Japaneseness", but yes, I took the whole thing as making fun of how boar-ish and demanding America is to Japan, and "made in the USA" now means "violently defective" Consider that of the two American-built Evas, one blew up, so now they're DEMANDING that the other one be removed from their soil and dumped in Japan, because "it could explode!"....so you want to put this walking bomb in Japan? But yes, there's political subtext in the show about Japan and America. However, there's nothing to really support the idea that this is about literally fighting "God", the bearded old guy in the clouds. Even in the original continuity, around End of Eva but also in the corresponding episode 19 (when the razor-arm angel fight takes place) they keep insisting that Eva-01 has essentially become a living god. And they do play it up a bit more in the movie, what with the angelic choirs and all, but largely this hasn't really diverged yet. (specifically what makes Eva-01 a Living God now? Angels have the (metaphorical) Fruit of Life, humans have the Fruit of Knowledge; Angels have superpowers, but they're not sentient. Humans are the opposite. Further, Evas are just copies of the Angels, they've got that 5 minute power limit thing. By ingesting the razor-armed Angel's power-organ, Eva-01 essentiallly...."completes" itself. Now of course the other Mass Production Evas have artificial power organs in End of Eva, but the difference is that Eva-01 *isn't* a clone of Adam (the progenitor of all the Angels), like the other Evas are clones of Adam. Eva01 is a clone of Lilith, the progenitor-alien that gave rise to humans......so its essentially a big human, particularly because its got the soul of Shinji's mother inside. This is more clear if you get into it, but my points are: 1 - fundamentally this isn't that different from the main story arcs in the original series. I think its odd that you make these sweeping assumptions while at the same time saying you haven't rewatched the original series in 5-10 years. If you want to compare Rebuild to the original series....wouldn't it make sense to rewatch the corresponding section of the original series? 2 - the original series never dealt with literally fighting against God. Yikes, how many assumptions were made based on the simple fact that they code-name them "Angels"? They should have stuck with Apostolos, the original nickname they came up with in the rought drafts. Rebuild doesn't really contain "more" religious imagery, it not about that either. Though if you have to ask "well why keep the religious imagery in at all?"....the simple answer is that Hideaki Anno doesn't like America, or particularly care that American fans are horribly mis-interpreting it; he made it for a Japanese audience is is probably privately chuckling at how wrong we get it. Why would he make it more accessible *to Americans?* |
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hissatsu01
 Posts: 963 Location: NYC |
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Haven't watched those interviews, but it was probably 癒し系 (iyashikei), which does mean healing or soothing type shows. Personally I'm finding most shows of the type more and more insufferable as time goes on. I'm really not looking for "healing" from popular entertainment. |
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Kaioshin_Sama
Posts: 1215 |
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So did Justin ever end up posting a link to that court decision for the Konami v. Upper Deck case he was talking about?
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Zac
ANN Executive Editor
 Posts: 7912 Location: Anime News Network Technodrome |
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I didn't say it was, I said "wouldn't that be neat?" and said I felt like they *could* *might* *maybe* be going that way but it was probably just my particular beer goggles at seeing the story truncated down so much. It's a feeling based on scant evidence, sure. I know you're V guy and all and have no tolerance for any sort of discussion that does not involve your hardline interpretation, so I'll go back to the season preview salt mines now. |
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_V_
Posts: 619 |
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I'm sorry if it sounded like I was really yelling:
I like the way Tim stressed the caveat that he *thought*, originally, that Eva was about "literally fighting God"....but then felt let down that it wasn't. Still, he acknowledges that it really wasn't about that. Which is cool; other shows are out there like that, and he can like them more than Eva. I'm sorry if that set me off but its quite a hot-button thing amongst the Eva fans; there's always a few fans so set in their assumptions, unwilling to acknowledge any evidence, that they feel Eva is whatever they want it to be. -->by which I mean there's always a crowd who think that simply because they're called "Angels" that the show was *literally* that plotline. Both Tim and yourself admit that it later was revealed to not be about that.....but... ...its quite an experience, to live and in person at convention panels, have the one or two people come up at the end adamantly insisting "but they're called Angels!".....no higher references, not even the stuff Carl Horn presented when he was on ANNcast a while back, just a basic "they're called Angels!" and nothing else. To actually be standing there live and in person, and be pointing out basic plot mechanics....I've run into people who thought that "the Lance of Longinus" was not merely *named after* the Lance that pierced Hesus' side, but that it was *literally* that very same Lance. and I try to tell them, like, "how can it be the same thing? its 40 meters long!"....and they just don't want to acknowledge this on any level. Just the shock of staring someone in the eyes, live and in person, telling them "yeah they're called 'Angels' but remember all those other plot points? And when did they mention 'God" at some point"? And they just stare back, blankly, and restate, "they're called Angels" (shudder). Don't get me wrong I understand (well now that you've elaborated) that you think it would be kind of cool to go that way. Though personally I think the struggle is about the characters overcoming their internal flaws, so struggling against divine forces would seem to be a distraction from that core theme. Otherwise I'm as surprised as you are that you didn't notice the Eva-03 political commentary, though I'm happy you got it on the second go-round. (an example of me not being a hardline absolutist here is...) I'm not sure if I'd go so far as to say that activating Eva-01 to kill the American-made Eva-03 was commentary on "turning off Japanese weakness", but yeah, I fully agree, I always saw it as making fun of the short-sighted and destructive American government in the story (the instant one Eva blows up they shove off the other on Japan). |
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penguintruth
 Posts: 8461 Location: Penguinopolis |
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To me Evangelion is more about communication between human beings, and the extent at which we will go to avoid being hurt by each other.
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