×
  • remind me tomorrow
  • remind me next week
  • never remind me
Subscribe to the ANN Newsletter • Wake up every Sunday to a curated list of ANN's most interesting posts of the week. read more

Forum - View topic
The Mike Toole Show - The Spirit of '81


Goto page Previous  1, 2, 3  Next

Note: this is the discussion thread for this article

Anime News Network Forum Index -> Site-related -> Talkback
View previous topic :: View next topic  
Author Message
Errinundra
Moderator


Joined: 14 Jun 2008
Posts: 6509
Location: Melbourne, Oz
PostPosted: Mon May 09, 2011 5:24 am Reply with quote
@Melanchthon,

Why use AniDB ratings when there are perfectly good ones here? Just curious.

And you didn't even include the Time of Eve movie, which on AniDB scored 9.09 (718), better than all but one of your mentions. (Yeah, I know it's a compilation of the series but it did premiere in cinemas in 2010.)
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message Send e-mail Visit poster's website My Anime My Manga
kgw



Joined: 22 Jul 2004
Posts: 1043
Location: Spain, EU
PostPosted: Mon May 09, 2011 5:49 am Reply with quote
Quote:
Second, we got a Baldios feature film. Yeah, remember how Baldios ended really badly and abruptly in January? Apparently, enraged fans of Baldios flooded the streets and demanded a proper ending, and they would receive one just in time for the new year. After that point, Baldios would sink without a trace, only getting new attention with the Heika meme emerged. It's interesting to contrast that with Gundam, which faced a similarly ignominious end on TV but would be resurrected in a much more dramatic way for the big screen.

Actually, I watched Baldios, it is (was?) one my favourite mecha anime movies, but it was quite difficult to continue the story, since in the movie...
spoiler[... Almost nobody survives, the Earth becomes a radioactive wasteland. Oh, but the main couple get together, bowing to start over again.]
... I can't see how could have they made a Z Baldios after that...
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
notrogersmith



Joined: 06 Jun 2010
Posts: 192
PostPosted: Mon May 09, 2011 6:10 am Reply with quote
vashfanatic wrote:
I'm going to go out on a limb here, having read some Hiroki Azuma, and say that next to nothing made today will be a "classic" because anime today isn't made to be classic, or to generate a long-lasting franchise.

Classics generally don't happen because someone aspires to make a classic. Usually, a show just happens to be good enough, groundbreaking enough, or just has so much infectious fun that it catches on, and that process can easily take the creators of the show by surprise.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message My Anime My Manga
Princess_Irene
ANN Reviewer


Joined: 16 Dec 2008
Posts: 2597
Location: The castle beyond the Goblin City
PostPosted: Mon May 09, 2011 7:12 am Reply with quote
Oh my god, Unico scared the crap out of me. My sisters and I had nightmares. I think it had something to do with people turning into blocky monster things? And to think that was my first anime experience as a small child...

What year was The Mysterious Cities of Gold? 1983?
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
writerpatrick



Joined: 29 Mar 2006
Posts: 667
Location: Canada
PostPosted: Mon May 09, 2011 8:02 am Reply with quote
coral422 wrote:
Fractale would be regarded as a classic in the next 30 years if watching Fractale was the only thing we can do on a Saturday morning.

But I do want to say that most anime nowadays will never go past the test of time, simply because it does not have the innovation that anime had back in '81. Reinventing the wheel is just that hard.


US TV exposure has made many shows classics, at least in the US. Or at least brought them much more attention then they would have otherwise received. Had Fractale been aired on CN or such people would be talking about it and it would be considered a classic in a few years.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message Visit poster's website
_V_



Joined: 13 Apr 2009
Posts: 619
PostPosted: Mon May 09, 2011 9:19 am Reply with quote
I always think these stories about the old days are really interesting; because I and a lot of younger fans weren't there, and unless we tell these stories in another 20 years they might be lost forever (if that sounds silly, keep in mind that we lost both Carl Macek and Peter Fernandez in the past year)

I view it in the same context as a documentary explaining how the comic book industry started up in the late 1930's and what it was like in the Golden Age of Comics.

I'd be most interested if in future columns you might discuss what you know about how the English-language organized fandom got started; that is, how the first scattered Robotech and Space Battleship Yamato conventions grew out of the general scifi cons....

...and ultimately, how AnimeCon '91 happened, and the Con Wars of 91-97 (lest we forget).

I mean that old, "pioneer spirit" of how FUNimation or ADV started up out as just anime viewing clubs and grew from there.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
bj_waters



Joined: 18 Apr 2006
Posts: 234
PostPosted: Mon May 09, 2011 10:01 am Reply with quote
Great article, Mike! I'm always fascinated by the history of anime and I really like how you went through the year chronologically. It's one thing to hear about how awesome an older series is, but it's another to see where it stands in context with other titles coming out at the same time. I also like how you give light to other lesser known series that ran next to the giants. I'd certainly look forward to more stuff like this. (Then again, I've always enjoyed your articles and videos. You haven't disappointed me yet.)
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message Visit poster's website
Spastic Minnow
Bargain Hunter
Exempt from Grammar Rules


Joined: 02 May 2006
Posts: 4590
Location: Gainesville, FL
PostPosted: Mon May 09, 2011 10:38 am Reply with quote
Very good article, and timely for me. I participate in a weekly Asian film series and the host, a guy with an already humongous collection of thousands of Asian films, tends to play one or two anime movies a year, usually films of a historical and/or interesting thematic interest (This week he's playing the Fist of the North Star movie). However, he is also one of those guys that believes one period of anime is better than all others and there is no competition, especially with current stuff, which he considers too derivative . For him that period is roughly '79-'85. (interestingly, he's a dozen years younger than either of us).

So I'm quite happy to see a year presented right in the middle of his golden period. I can see how much real quality there was and also, what he always seems to discount, that it follows its own derivative trends, We're talking about 25% giant robot shows, and while I'm sure they're good and very interesting those literary adaptations and interpretations are definitely its own popular trend looking for a hit.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message Visit poster's website My Anime My Manga
littlegreenwolf



Joined: 10 Aug 2002
Posts: 4796
Location: Seattle, WA
PostPosted: Mon May 09, 2011 11:42 am Reply with quote
It was because of that Swiss Family Robinson that I was ever so confused when I grew older and read the book. I always was wondering why there was no little girl.

That said I can easily see how the fact that there was a little girl was a drive for me to watch the show at a young age anyway.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message Send e-mail My Anime My Manga
belvadeer





PostPosted: Mon May 09, 2011 11:43 am Reply with quote
Only old show on this list I want to watch is Tiger Mask, but the DVDs are hard as hell to find, and I'm sure the English subs will probably be poor on them.
Back to top
khaos1019



Joined: 28 Nov 2007
Posts: 93
PostPosted: Mon May 09, 2011 11:59 am Reply with quote
Urusei Yatsura will always be my favorite series. Takahashi's best work, in my opinion. And the things Oshii and Yamazaki and the rest of the crew did to make the anime stand on it's own against the manga are amazing. I'm so glad I bought all of the DVDs over the last few years. It's sad that AnimEigo is discontinuing them.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
vashfanatic



Joined: 16 Jun 2005
Posts: 3489
Location: Back stateside
PostPosted: Mon May 09, 2011 1:35 pm Reply with quote
notrogersmith wrote:
Classics generally don't happen because someone aspires to make a classic. Usually, a show just happens to be good enough, groundbreaking enough, or just has so much infectious fun that it catches on, and that process can easily take the creators of the show by surprise.

I think you're missing the point that I make in the rest of my post. It's not so much that older shows were always trying to be "classic" but rather that the design of modern shows tends to be against making shows to be abiding and long-lasting, which means they have less of a chance than shows in the past. It's catering to a different mode of consumption, so there is less of an incentive to be groundbreaking or infectious than there was in the past -- at least among the nerdier types of series that nowadays air after midnight (another big change from the 80s). The "classics" are more likely to air in the more viewable (earlier slots). Think Fullmetal Alchemist. That will be a "classic" 30 years from now.

It starts to become an issue of apples-to-oranges; the industry has changed a lot over the last 30 years. Does it make a show inferior if it only has a short run and doesn't get a million fans? Not necessarily. Nostalgia goggles account for a lot of "classic" status shows.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message My Anime My Manga
Spastic Minnow
Bargain Hunter
Exempt from Grammar Rules


Joined: 02 May 2006
Posts: 4590
Location: Gainesville, FL
PostPosted: Mon May 09, 2011 2:50 pm Reply with quote
Some of it is a prejudice against the type of shows that are coming out now.

Everyone seems so fine with the concept that GoLion/Voltron is a "classic," but that's not classic by terms of being a masterpiece of story-telling and innovation but because it was a very good example of the poppiest of the popular- marketable and fun.

Face it people, K-ON! will be a "classic."

"Nostalgia glasses" count for something.


And yes, some of those phrases used in the article to praise these shows can be slightly altered to apply to shows of the past year.

Instead of noting the odd animation interesting takes on the literary adaptations of Call of the Wild and Swiss Family Robinson, talk about the Historical interpretations of House of Five Leaves and Hyouge Mono.

"a crazy little movie from Sanrio called Unico," becomes
"a crazy little movie from Madhouse called Redline",

"the first of three Gundam feature films. This move put Gundam back on the map for good" could possibly translate to
"the first of ??? Trigun (or Harlock Revival) feature films. Results unknown."

"April was pretty important, too. Isao Takahata directed the enjoyably quirky Chie the Brat,"
"April was pretty important, too. Tatsuya Ishihara directed the enjoyably quirky NIchijou,"


I could probably go on. especially if you replace "Giant robot shows" with "school comedies filled with girls." it's simply just a different disposable audience!
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message Visit poster's website My Anime My Manga
ArthurFrDent



Joined: 05 Aug 2008
Posts: 466
PostPosted: Mon May 09, 2011 3:36 pm Reply with quote
we're throwing that word "classic" around a lot, but what does it mean?

I'd think a true classic would appeal to a vast audience... Bugs Bunny level classic. Most younger generation doesn't know it, but if you show them, they laugh their bums off like you did. Once those kids are old enough to have their own kids? Probably only acedemics will know or care what was classic.

Same with these types of shows. What is or was classic is in the eye of the beholder very much, and this is more true now than ever for one important reason. Niche marketing. Who makes a general story anymore? Or are they all just a bit too deep in their own territory for others to go there?

I read on streams that are about to expire, and think; "oh, I was going to watch that..." who knows how many I will never see or know about.

I'd consider Kind of Blue by Miles Davis to be classic, but I know that most people now have never heard of it, and never care to.

what was classic in '81? My 1959 Nash Rambler with big fins was. Even at 16 I knew that it was from a lost bygone time, that would never come again.

There are many meanings to the word classic, and even if we are to agree to one, I doubt it would satisfy that many people.

What will be classic in 30 years? Hopefully this time WON'T be. Hopefully it won't be the end of a lost golden age where various stories and moving pictures were made year in and year out to a large audience... giving way to playing to an ever more fractured audience, with short attention spans and ever smaller definitions of show they like... Till stories are generated generically for each individual, and the story teller isn't important in themselves, just a random association of ideas that the watcher wants to see.

It's OK to like what we like, the guilty pleasures are fun because this is entertainment, it's supposed to be fun. But it's also important to pay homage to shows that are just good in general, even if they aren't quite our cup of tea... IMHO, naturally

\wandering off\
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
bemused Bohemian



Joined: 09 Jun 2009
Posts: 404
Location: central Mizzou (Moral Oralville)
PostPosted: Tue May 10, 2011 1:59 am Reply with quote
I recall 1981 as a time that while the US was starting to wind down from double-digit inflation Japan was still enjoying its industrial zenith during that era (as mentioned by an earlier post).

Bill Gates aka Microsoft had yet to become a household name though many of us around then were already willing to pay anyone any amount of money to avail computer software we wouldn't have to program ourselves. The main game I saw people play on those screens, primitive by today's standard, was Pong and 64k was considered a lot of storage.

Looking back one of the consistencies over each decade, or decades times 3, is the lackluster quality of programming. Infrequently a production gem would rise up from the ashes. Possibly the probability of cool productions may rise in the future thanks to all these new electronic applications out there. But if history is any predictor you'll likely be as disappointed 30 years hence as you are now.

In 30 years with luck I'll either be gone or stricken with Alzeheimer's as I have no desire to live to be 93 and be stuck with disappointing anime of that era.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message Send e-mail
Display posts from previous:   
Reply to topic    Anime News Network Forum Index -> Site-related -> Talkback All times are GMT - 5 Hours
Goto page Previous  1, 2, 3  Next
Page 2 of 3

 


Powered by phpBB © 2001, 2005 phpBB Group