Forum - View topicHey, Answerman! - The Dying Breeds
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rojse
 Posts: 234 |
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To answer Brian's question, animation quality has improved with the introduction of computers - animation is more fluid, models are more accurate and consistent, and it also allows for more expansive and dynamic action scenes. Compare the action scenes in a recent mecha anime series like "Gurren Lagann" or "Code Geass", with that of a series released ten or more years ago, like, say "Neon Genesis Evangelion" or "RahXephon".
But animation quality is only a small portion of what I consider important in an anime - some of my favourite anime, like "Legend of Galactic Heroes", compare quite poorly in regards to animation quality in contrast to what is being produced today. |
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Greed1914
 Posts: 4439 |
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It does amaze me that mangaka are willing to work on the same project for as long as some of them do. I mean, I lover Berserk, but I would think that after 20+ years, Miura would just want to be done with it. Then again, given how he seems to get all the time he wants to work on new material, I suppose he can just take really long breaks if he gets mildly tired of it.
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inuhime
 Posts: 33 Location: Windy City |
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You can get some good cels if you know where to look. I've gotten the majority of my collection from Asylum Anime, and from when they're at a con. That way I can look at the condition of the cel. You can try antique/flea markets as well; although the quality won't be as good. I've gotten a Dejiko cel that way for $5. Or check out cels.org. They have lists of dealers and stores. Just keep looking and you'll find a nice piece of art.
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toyNN
 Posts: 252 Location: Seattle, WA |
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I so feel the same way... but not as irritated at Netflix for having the 3rd disk of Black Lagoon at the top of my Queue since 12/2009! I kid not. "Very Long Wait" indeed.
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Covnam
 Posts: 3666 |
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This might not still be the case for Kishimoto, but I believe I remember reading that Naruto was supposed to be 3 parts, a time skip separating each part. I agree that this major arc is most likely going to end this part, but if that still holds true, then there's still probably a few more years for the 3rd part, unless it ends up being closer to an epilogue. Then again, I thought Kubo was going to end Bleach at the last arc. I definately agree that it feels like this current story was just tacked on to keep the series going. I would have been fine with it ending there, though while I don't mind more Bleach, the current story is really dragging and I think would have been better off finished at this point. On the topic of the weekly question, I definately miss the look of the old cells compared to current digital animation. The colors just seem flat with a lot of sharp lines on the shading. It seems rather mechanical in its production. Older animation just seems more organic or natural to me, for lack of a better word. It doesn't look like someone just used paint to fill in some lines, to put it to an extreme point of view. It's probably hard to compare, but I just remembered that the 3rd Tenchi OVA has some footage from original ova series in the first episode or two, so if anyone has that on hand, it might be a good place to start. |
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YotaruVegeta
 Posts: 1061 Location: New York |
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As a listener of a trillion (give or take a few thousand million) podcasts, and a lover of radio that doesn't suck, here's some advice to would-be podcasters.
1. Just a pet peeve. If you're going to use your screenname in your podcast, and your screenname is jimmyjames65656565, spare your audience the numbers. You can share your screenname on your website or in your show notes. 2. Categorize your podcast right. I know it may seem like a no-brainer, but some podcasts set their podcast up in a category they don't really belong in. 3. Get your listeners to leave reviews! It doesn't hurt to have reviews on places like iTunes 4. Record your contact info so you don't have to repeat yourself. It's optional, but if you love feedback/comments/questions, then record a piece where you give out your e-mail, your website, your Twitter/Facebook name, etc. 5. You may not be a pro, but I don't think that's an excuse to be prepared. It's highly likely that you have never publicly spoken in your life. Save yourself from babbling and do some show prep. At the very least have some notes on your computer typed up with what you want to talk about. Unless you want to edit a messy "uh, um" recording, be prepared! |
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CCSYueh
 Posts: 2707 Location: San Diego, CA |
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Neon Genesis Evangelion (TV)1995-10-04 to 1996-03-27 Transformers (U.S. TV)1984-09-17 to 1987-11-11 Megazone 23 Part III (OAV)1989-09-28 to 1989-12-22 Bubblegum Crisis (OAV) 1987-02-25 to 1991-11-30 Project A-ko 3: Cinderella Rhapsody (OAV) 1988 Gunbuster (OAV) 1988 The Super Dimension Fortress Macross II: Lovers, Again (OAV)1992-05-21 to 1992-11-21 Tekkaman Blade (TV)1992-02-18 to 1993-02-02 Yūsha Tokkyū Might Gaine (TV)1993-01-30 to 1994-01-22 Voltage Fighter Gowcaizer (OAV)1996 Granted I have never seen Evangelion in its entirety, but Obari is a personal fav & I see a pattern to his work one can recognize, particularly once we move from the earlier stuff where he was learning/part of the crew to his directing titles such as Gravion. There is much more in common to me between Gravion & Virus Buster Serge than Eva. The world of mecha did not start with Evangelion. Obari has been doing mech (from Key Animation to Director) for close to 3 decades while EVA was made about 15 yrs ago. Is there some Eva in Gravion? Maybe. But Obari's been kicking around mech for a long time & more likely shares some of the same influences as Anno. As for One Piece, Bleach, whatever, are they REALLY that different from Superman, Spiderman, etc? How long have they been running? The biggest dif is we still deliver our comic book installments in single titles pretty much by chapter while the Japanese deliver them in phone-book sized installments of several stories. (We did that once. I have some old stuff from the '70's & I remember my sister reading Superboy with several stories in it. She really liked Mon-El. I was into Thor & Captain America...I keep remembering a team, but can't recall the details-probably Avengers). In Japan, it's the writers who keep the story running while here the companies own the characters & just keep swapping out the writers & artists to try to keep sales from sagging. We even had black & whites--I have several Eerie & Creepy from the 70's. |
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writerpatrick
 Posts: 672 Location: Canada |
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Even if Bleach, Naruto and One Piece keep going as manga it's hard to say how long the anime will last. But it really does look as if Bleach is reaching a point where it can't really go much further. Naruto works in a way that could allow the story to last for years, but most of the story has been focused on Naruto and Sasuke and once that story has been resolved it could end any time afterwards.
I've been podcasting for roughly four years now and I've never had fancy equipment. I started with a $2 mic, although the quality was so poor it took a lot of work to get anything decent out of it. But you don't need fancy equipment to podcast, however the type of equipment you have will affect the type of podcast you do. I'm not setup to do interviews or conversations, but that's not the sort of podcasts I do. For anyone who does want to podcast I would suggest scripting out the first three shows first before recording anything. That will give you an idea as to whether you even have enough material to last you more than a dozen episodes. My first podcast fizzled out around seven episodes, but the next one lasted for more than 50 (over 100 including all the bonus and extra episodes.) So if the topic you pick doesn't work out don't be afraid to change it. The majority of podcasters never get beyond ten episodes. Many want to pretend they're a radio host and get their voice out to others, but once you've done that a few times the novelty wears off. You need to have something to actually talk about or say. That's why I recommend scripting the first few shows to tell whether you want to podcast because you have something to say or just because you want to hear yourself on the Internet. And not all podcasts have to be talk podcasts. About 99% of podcasts out there are talk. Aside from DJ-type shows and podiobooks, there's a shortage of entertainment podcasts. And blogs tend to get more attention, so if you want to say something you might be better off blogging it than podcasting it. You also have to realize that you're probably not going to get more than 100 listeners per show for the first year, and even at that it might take a year to reach that number. The podcasting field is highly saturated and it's unlikely you'll get the sort of numbers that other podcasters have seen in the past. Those that have their own websites like ANN or TV shows like Leo Laporte tend to have an advantage because they can promote them on those outlets. You're also going to have to promote your podcast and find new outlets for it. iTunes has over a million podcasts on it and unless you spend some serious money on your podcast or you've been around a while you probably won't merit any notice so you can't rely upon it's listings to bring you listeners. But you still need to be listed on iTunes because it's so highly used. I was fortunate enough to jump into torrentcasting back when Mininova was still popular, although torrentcasting has never really taken off. My Podcasts: Podcast Ping: http://podcastping.blogspot.com Blue Hot Gossip: http://bluehotgossip.blogspot.com My Mininova feed: http://www. mininova. org/user/PodcastPing (filter lists it as a bootleg site, although it's now fully legal) |
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doctordoom85
 Posts: 2093 |
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Kishi has actually directly said there will not be another timeskip, so if we do see Naruto and co. any older than they are now, it will be an epilogue to this arc. CCSYueh: the key difference between long-runners in Japan and the US is that in Japan it's virtually always the same author. So for most plot series, there WILL eventually be an ending (even if it takes several decades to get there) and I pretty much never have to worry about something as cosmically stupid as "One More Day" occurring. For as much as criticize Bleach after the SS arc, even it hasn't stooped as low as certain comic book story arcs. |
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reanimator
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I disagree with what you've said. Computers may have eased certain labor, but it did not made their labor process better. As matter of fact, it made some of their jobs worse. It just made their jobs more difficult without improvement in their quality of life. Just scour through Japanese sites and you'll know what I'm talking about. It's the decades of animation and drawing experience of the animation professionals that made their animation better. Animation got smoother motion because they have two to three times more people than 80's and 90's. Current animation looks prettier than previous decade, but the budget dividend has not improved at all. |
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Cutiebunny
 Posts: 1748 |
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I would also like to add that it is still a good time to be collecting anime production artwork. There are still a lot of quality items be sold on Mandarake, Yahoo Japan and Rakuten. And, depending on the title, the prices are still very reasonable.
In my experience, prices for quality cels from certain anime have increased, though. When I first started collecting Sailor Moon cels in 2003, there were weekly auctions for really nice items, and that helped keep prices low. Now, primo cels are much harder to find, and couple that with the lousy dollar/yen exchange rate, and a cel that might have fetched $500 on a good day will now sell for three times that. The problem of buying counterfeit cels isn't as large of a problem as you make it seem. It is a larger problem with shikishi, though, but that's a different aspect of collecting entirely. Unless it's from a Ghibli production, it's generally not worth the time and effort for someone to counterfeit a cel. If you want to use Yahoo Japan, you'll need a deputy service to do so. There are several available, all with different fees. It's important to do your research on them. But if you have any questions, heading to a forum where there are lots of cel collectors, such as Rubberslug, would be advisable. |
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Covnam
Posts: 3666 |
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Oh? Well, hopefully he will do an epilogue that takes place some years later, with so many characters, just putting a "The End" at the end of this arc would be a bit dissappointing. |
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sailorsarah
 Posts: 189 Location: Texas |
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I completely agree with you. I prefer the look of older anime. I especially miss the intricate backgrounds. |
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YotaruVegeta
Posts: 1061 Location: New York |
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Good anime works still pay good attention to detail. Even though something like Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex uses CGI, their backgrounds and scenes are very beautiful.
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rojse
Posts: 234 |
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I did not say that the animation is easier or less laborious at all - I have no knowledge to make such claims, and would defer to your expertise on this matter. I am saying that the animation quality of anime released today looks nicer than the solely hand-animated product released in the last decade. |
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