Forum - View topicWho Answers The Answerman?
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Zalis116
Moderator
 Posts: 6867 Location: Kazune City |
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My world did revolve around the Nickelodeon schedule when I was a kid, but I never had Lunchables. I feel so deprived
 But that was when Nick actually had good stuff on, or so my nostalgia-tinted perspective would like to think.
But I'll agree, the Gundam franchise is very overwhelming, especially to a completionist like me who wants to see everything in a franchise if I see one thing out of it. But I have seen 08th Team and 0080, and both are enjoyable series that don't require too much background info, aside from "It's the future, there are space colonies, and the Federation and Zeon are at war." I'm definitely planning on seeing more, including 0083, 0079, Wing, and Seed. I wonder if one of Bandai's mis-steps was expecting all Gundam series to catch on equally, when it's clear that some have broader appeal (Wing, G, Seed) and others (mainly the older ones) appeal more to the older, hardcore base. I also think NGE's a good show that's very worth watching, even now. After all, how many other anime from 1995 still generate the amount of discussion and controversy that Eva does? It's become the "in thing" to hate on Eva, since disliking something extremely popular and respected automatically means you have a "greater understanding" than all the fans and critics that came before  It's not perfect, but it deserves its "must-watch" status for all it did for the giant robot genre and for anime in general. Starting with Ruri Hoshino in Martian Successor Nadesico, just how many other stoic, silent, Rei Ayanami clones have graced the screen since Eva's time? And yes, idolization of the Eva girls has always been big business. However, I say "who cares?" about Rei and Asuka...Misato's hard-drinking older-woman charm is difficult to resist 
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Kenotic
 Posts: 167 |
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EVA Hate, I'm guessing, also has to do with a fair amount of overboard fandom and product. I think they're good characters, but I do not get the obsession over Rei and Asuka as sex objects (apparently neither did Anno, according to the EoE movie) or the idea that Rei is some sort of otaku dream-girl. Interesting at times, certainly, but not that worthy.
Also, it's easy to hate on something wildly popular - and even more so something wildly popular that still has some pretty noticeable flaws. (I think the series is excellent but Shinji gets to me, and some of the ending does seem to be obvious in its thriftiness) Then there's the first movie, the second movie, the re-release, the re-release with extra content, umpteen covers of "Fly Me To the Moon," Rei pillows, Kaworu/Shinji slash, new movies, new airings on TV, new fans who hash out the same debates the old fans had 10 years ago .... something like this is going to backlash. All of this can easily obscure the fact that it was a good series.
Yeah, 29 is getting up there... 
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Livre
 Posts: 16 Location: Ottawa |
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For OEL, I'd also recommend Mark of the Succubus. The art is beautiful, the story line is quite good as well. It's one of the relatively low key series in the Tokyopop OEL lineup but I find it's far mroe superior in art and storytelling then most of the line itself.
I also like The Dreaming as I'm a sucker for horror, but the slow built up suspense is wonderful. |
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marie-antoinette
 Posts: 4136 Location: Ottawa, Canada |
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Also, Random House Japan is half owned by Kodansha, which means Del Rey has an added advantage to getting titles from them. I'd put Viz up there before CMX though (mainly because I don't own a single volume of CMX manga so whatever they are selling doesn't appeal to me), since they do pretty much have all the biggest selling titles. Also, Elves, I totally understand your frustration. |
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sunflower
 Posts: 1080 |
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Concerning Gravitation, I think you have to look at it from an historical perspective. For a while, that's about all BL lovers had access to in English, and because of that it developed a devoted following. It's kind of like Fushigi Yuugi - it's crap but when that's all there is you're less particular.
I actually enjoyed the Gravitation anime because of the talents of the seiyuu involved. The manga I liked quite a bit less. |
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Cowboy Cadenza
Posts: 243 Location: Poughkeepsie, NY |
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Yeah, I was gonna say...what about Viz? The only have some of the most wildly popular titles in their arsenal...what does CMX have that competes on any level with Naruto, Bleach or One Piece? Edit - Note, this is a real question. I'm not sure what their best selling manga titles are. |
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The Human Spider
Posts: 334 |
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I self-identify myself as a hardcore Gunpla fan who happens to watch the Gundam franchise and a bunch of other anime shows on the side. Speaking as an extreme Gunpla partisan, I'd have to say that it's the sheer awesomeness of Gunpla that is behind the show's popularity.
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The Ramblin' Wreck
 Posts: 924 Location: Teaching Robot Women How To Love |
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All the manga series listed probably qualify, I'm a guy and I got the first few volumes of The Wallflower expecting a sort of Gothic Pygmalion. Boy, was I mistaken.
The Princess Tutu manga was a real letdown after the surprising awesomeness of the anime. |
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CloverKuroba
 Posts: 506 |
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I'm late to the EVA party as well (in fact I finished the series this month), but I really enjoyed it. I loved the psychological aspects of it, maybe even more than the EVA battles...and for the record, I liked Shinji. ^^; I haven't encountered any super fanboys...maybe I'm not looking hard enough.
As for worst manga...I hated The Wallflower too to be honest. And I got Reborn as a Christmas gift, and I didn't like that at all. *hides from fangirls* |
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bonbonsrus
 Posts: 1537 Location: Michigan, USA |
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People don't use "wankery" enough in conversations... I think that should change.
The last few weeks pics of the cats are some of the most adorable I have seen in awhile...when I read "cats enjoy warmth" I laughed because I just spent time looking at a heated cat bed the other night in a catalog, thinking what a good thing it was. I didn't realize there were more Eva haters around now than fans. I must have not been paying attention. That is a show I still like to watch every year or two myself and still find enjoyable. I will agree with the Gravi sucks as well, I read the whole thing as my comic shop guy continues to get me the whole series as it comes out unless I tell him to stop, and I somehow got too lazy to tell him stop on that one and ended up buying it all. It gets worse and worse through the entire series and is not something I would recommend to even a rabid BL fan. |
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Veoryn87
 Posts: 808 |
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While I'm no Eva hater (I think it's quite entertaining) I completely agree with you. I felt that the storyline was more solid and had more likable characters (except Mokoto, he's intentionally very hatable, but still a sympathetic character). Also the fact that I saw Rahxephon first and didn't hear tons of hype on it before seeing it probably helps. Eva still has its charm. |
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feytaline
Posts: 38 |
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OEL manga.
Return of the Labyrinth was the most disgusting use of a popular franchise to sell absolute garbage that I've ever seen. Sorry, kids, but if Jim Henson was alive, I think he'd probably have a complete mental breakdown at seeing his coming of age movie turned into a bad yaoi-hinted comic with horrible art (cleverly disguised with a lovely cover by a completely different artist) and all of the movie's characters shoved off to the side for bad fanfic types or, worse, turned into shallow 'this is how I THINK they should be!' Mary-Sue-isms. Dramacon? Not so bad, except for the "let's just ignore sexual assault and ride home with our pouting would-be rapist, since he's our ex-boyfriend now it's ok!" scene. Sure, let's encourage people to pretend that rape is okay and we should just ignore it when someone attacks us. Of course there's no lasting mental trauma from that kind of event! No, it's quickly forgotten about because, you know, serious stuff like that isn't a REAL issue, it's just DRAMA. And zomg no one wants to start DRAMA. And rape is just DRAMA. Cute. Maybe I'm taking it a little personally since I know people who have been put in situations like that at cons, but people really need to start drawing the line between drama "zomg girl's wearin same cosplay as me she goin down!" and serious real life issues. It's not funny or cute or amusing. /soapbox The Dreaming is EXCELLENT. The art is iffy, but it gets better, and the story is very well done. I hate the irregular release schedule, that's a huge turn off for OEL. It's not Tokyopop, but I'm also growing fond of some of the things Seven Seas is publishing. What's really a turn off for me is the artwork, but if the story is good, I'll read it--though not necessarily buy it, I like friends and libraries... It's just like any other book. 90% of anything is crap. We have to remember, though, that we are extremely lucky in that we have nice filters so we don't get a lot of the crap manga from Japan--most of the stuff we get is already a proven bestseller in Japan, whereas the OEL manga we're getting is being published for the first time, so it's hit or miss. So thar ya have it, kids... |
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britannicamoore
 Posts: 2618 Location: Out. |
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Art issues aside please tell me you know the difference between what people do in ficitional situations and real life ones? Its funny because its not real, if this happened at a real con with real life people....well. It wouldn't be. There are plenty of manga out there that do those same things, (playing on issues that aren't funny n real life) and i'm wondering if you're only harping on it because its is OEL. I'm no where near and OEL fan myself, but it just seems a bit like those comments are....misplaced. If a car flipped over with people inside it wouldn't be funny, but in Excel Saga its hiliarious. |
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ZeroRyoko1974
Posts: 258 |
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I think someone just needs to tell him to FUKURU OFFU. Wow 20,000 copies of OEL. I can't believe there are that many that would buy that koolaid that Tokyoslop is servin |
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Zac
ANN Executive Editor
 Posts: 7912 Location: Anime News Network Technodrome |
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You know, the "it's never okay to personally object to any themes or content you find in manga because it's not real and therefore you can't ever have a problem with it" thing is getting kinda old. |
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