Forum - View topicHey, Answerman! [2008-03-14]
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kamidai
 Posts: 83 Location: California |
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I'm very much in favor of the Yoko Kanno; she's amazing, and I find my jaw dropping at each new OP or ED she does. (It's a pity that this question was OP only, because otherwise I'd have to put in a word for Tsuki no Mayu.)
As it is, the Akagi opening, Nantokanare, has recently become one of my favorite OP sequences ever. I liked it enough at first, but the more I hear/see it the more it grows on me. (the Kaiji OP is also fantastic, but I can't stop listening to Nantokanare lately.) ...you know, the more that I think about it, the more I realize that I have far far more favorite ED sequences than OP sequences. |
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Paploo
Posts: 1875 |
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I don't think Zack's in his 30's...... also, a lot of "old school" fans are in their early to mid 20's. I think Zack was saying moreso by "old" fans just fans who've been around in the fandom since before the whole FREEFREEFREE crap started [which includes a lot of people around the same age as all the Leeches.] We're not all old farts people, we might sound like them online, but we aren't. And anyways, old farts are often quite awesome becasuse they know a lot of crap about anime. NOW GO BUY SOME ANIME ALL YOU SLACKERS! IT'S DAMNED CHEAP NOW! BUY ITTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT! Anyhoo, while there are people who fall in between, the most vocal ones tend to be on either end of the stream, with a load of people on the "freefreefree" end. Paying for stuff you love and having 90 poster out of 100 babble about how they got it for free and don't really care about dvds and think paying for anime is stupid can get VERY ANNOYING. |
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Paploo
Posts: 1875 |
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Yeah, but the difference is Star Trek fans still spend lots of money, thus keeping Star Trek going with DVD's [you could buy 4 or 5 anime dvd boxsets for the price of some StarTrek ones 0_o], Novels, Comics, Toys etc, whereas anime fans don't. And it's really hard to keep something going when there's all these Not-Fans taking up space at message boards [where you might normally go to get an idea what fans want] who don't want to spend any money on stuff..... So again, the primary difference is a lot of anime fans DON'T REALLY CARE ABOUT ANIME. They jsut want free crap to enjoy. Any other fandom flocks around dvd's like crazy, wants to spend money on their preferred hobby. A lot of anime fans just aren't actually fans. They're freeloaders [want to fix that? buy dvd's people] |
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Steroid
 Posts: 329 Location: At home, where all good hikikomori should be |
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Just as a point of order, I'd like to point out that compromise is not the same as reason.
Now, granting that my tastes in music are unusual, my top three opening themes: Baby Love from Kyou no Go no Ni, by Kadowaki Mai, Noto Mamiko, and Takahashi Mikako. Euforia from Aria the Natural by Makino Yui Let Me Be With You from Chobits by Round Table (feat. Nino) Those are mostly softer than the more popular themes, but are more musical, I think. (And it was Picard) |
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Xanas
Posts: 2058 |
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Cut portions a bit to get to the core point here. Anime fans are like 99% of fans of any TV. They don't want to buy DVDs and they just want to watch the show and move on. Sure there are exceptions like Star Trek fans, but as a general rule most people don't "care" enough to buy DVDs. The reason is that they don't want to watch a show 5-6 times or discuss it, they just want to see it and go on to the next show. That's not nearly enough value to get them amped up about buying it @ 20-30$ / 4 episodes. It's why for most shows and most people we need a streaming subscription or something like TV. These people are never going to buy DVDs no matter how much you or I would like them to. |
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Veoryn87
 Posts: 808 |
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Good choice of theme songs, Zac.
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babbo
Posts: 274 |
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Is that why every time there's a fan sub discussion people always mention that quite a few people do fit within this middle ground of watching fansubs and buying dvds and what not? I think you give too little credit to the middle ground here <.< |
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Dante80
 Posts: 218 Location: Athens Greece |
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Nice one. Another very good job from Round Table (feat. Nino again) is "Groovin Magic", the OP in Top wo Narae 2!...^^ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hR8XDrFLIT8 |
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Anime World Order
 Posts: 389 Location: Florida |
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Try "the majority of the ones that interest me." Macross: Do You Remember Love, The Rose of Versailles, Space Adventure Cobra TV, Fist of the North Star (as in, an actual unaltered and complete release), Legend of the Galactic Heroes, Giant Gorg, Brother Dear Brother, Aim for the Ace, Violinist of Hameln TV, the Phoenix OAVs/movies, Ringing Bell, Sea Prince and the Fire Child, Unico, Space Runaway Ideon, Angel's Egg...all are currently unlicensed for US release. And that's just off the top of my head. Actually, that's not even ALL that's off the top of my head because you might be thinking "oh, there he goes again. But that stuff is all OLD anyway!" Fine, here's newer stuff that was made within the last few years which has been subject to either massive delays, canceled releases, or never having been licensed in the first place: Air Master (see comments related to Fist of the North Star), Cyborg 009: The Cyborg Soldier (ditto), the 2003 Astro Boy (same deal), the new Fist of the North Star films+OAVs, Mind Game, Kemonozume, Kotetsushin Jeeg, Shin Getter Robo vs Neo Getter Robo, Mazinkaiser vs Black General, Baccano!, Black Jack TV (and Black Jack 21, and the new Black Jack movie...), Monster...get the picture? If I actually sat down and put more than 5 minutes into this post, I'm sure I could rifle off an absolute litany of titles--ones I actually care about--that have gone years without being licensed. The list is only going to get bigger now that companies are becoming much more selective over what titles they'll release here. They're going to choose the ones that they think stand the best chance at being popular, and my experience has shown that the most popular titles, while usually not "bad," are often not "the best" in my book. Edit to comply with what I assume is the unstated rule of ANN posting ("post must relate to discussion on fansubbing, regardless of stated topic"): the real purpose of fansubbing to me is so I can see titles like the ones listed above. I want to buy them on DVD or BluRay, but I literally have no other choice but to get them fansubbed if I want to see these titles in a language I can understand. Yet many of them either get ignored by fansubbers completely or made a very low priority because of the whole "number of downloads = size of e-penis" matter brought up in tofusensei's interview. Sure, more people will get them, but we don't need fansubs of Naruto Shippuden or One Piece quite as much, y'know? We're guaranteed to see those released in the US anyway! The interview elaborated by stating only small, tiny groups are actually serving this purpose and working on lesser-known titles because they genuinely want to. You ask me, everyone else needs to get their priorities straight because THAT is what fansubbing's all about in my opinion. |
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SalarymanJoe
 Posts: 468 Location: Atlanta, GA, USA |
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Wow, I thought I was going to be the only one to jump on the Trek metaphor. Thnkfully, I'm going to jump in another direction - the instance that Zac brought up about fans not bickering over pricing or purchasing to support the franchise.
Ultimately, I think the comparison is flawed because Paramount owns everything, where as anime fandom gets to see a "competitive" market where multiple companies are buying multiple titles in a medium, occasionally a single title might be brought up by multiple companies. We bicker and argue over industry speculation more than Trekkies or Star Wars fans because there's more of a chance to bicker and argue. Paramount will release what they want at the price they want and fans will either buy it or not. And from what I've seen, few few TNG fans I know were willing to drop the massive amounts of cash on the DVD sets. I know I, a casual fan, considered it but when I saw the price I decided against it. If multiple companies were releasing Star Trek in a similar fashion to how anime as a medium is released in the US, I think the example might hold better, or result in more nerd arguments. Regarding anime as a disposable medium: I'm not sure how to confront this... ultimately, it's entertainment so it is ultimately disposable. On the other hand, I own a lot of anime-related stuff, so I've not only assigned a personal value to it, but I've negotiated with others over a fair price for merchandise. Sure, there's a lot of stuff that I'll simply pass through (like House, which I enjoy a lot) and never buy stuff for but just because I've personally assigned a value on it doesn't really mean it's any less disposable. I really hope this comment doesn't sound like double-speak, because I don't want it to, but I'm just not sure that I am explaining this correctly. Though, getting back to the larger picture of American fandom eating itself alive, I agree a lot with the your sentiments Zac that there is a definite schism between the 'old' and 'new' fans but I think a lot of that is also due to the fact that anime production, topically, has changed drastically over the last thirty years as to what is 1) mainstream acceptable in Japan, 2) what is the otaku niche in Japan and 3) how that carries over here to the US. Thirty years ago, mainstream acceptable anime were Yamato and Galaxy Express (not to say there wasn't diversity, but ...) and as time progressed towards the '80s, Sci-Fi stayed the otaku niche through the 90s, what with the Gundams, Crusher Joes and Macrosses of the time. Likewise in the US, anime fandom as a community grew from not just people discovering these different cartoons like Star Blazers and Robotech but it also took deep roots with the "animation junkies" (millde-aged cartoon fans) and science fiction fans. The community then seemed more rock solid because they all came from some other, similar fandom, and anime was just a new piece of the pie. Now, in Japan, the popular mainstream stuff are shounen action series while the otaku niche is proliferated with cookie-cutter moe-esque love-fests/"romance" series and the American fandom comes from a multitude of various hobbies; hence why we see anime conventions now turning into the "Internet Geek and Meme of Four Years Ago Show". The fanbase is eating itself alive not just because of a schism between old and new fans, but because anime is either the defining hobby or a part of a puzzle and has no unified type of fanbase. On a much lighter note, I honestly cannot answer the five best anime openings. Partially because I'd be debating between series I loved a long time ago versus what I've most recently watched and also through the point that I have songs that will wane in my ability to listen to them (Cruel Angel's Thesis is probably the post child - loved it while watching Evangelion the first time around but after that I'll hear it and either love it or loathe it). I really like the Answerfans question, too. I'll have to be sure to submit something. |
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Labbes
 Posts: 890 |
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I think a big problem is that the "newer" fans are mostly young, have no job and thus no money (or not much). However, to complete a series, you have to pay (In Germany), let's say, 300$ or for a boxset 90$ - few people are willing to spend so much money.
Basically the same is happening with computer games (75$ for one) and music (25$ per album), though the prices are not that high, so people tend to buy more music than Anime or computer games. |
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mike.motaku
 Posts: 160 Location: Indiana |
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1st off: Picard, unless you count non-Enterprise captains, then Janeway. The hair is just mesmerizing.
I still kinda like the One Piece Rap. (ducks) The OPs are pretty spot on, but I think my absolute fave has to be the Tom Waits-esque opener from NieA_7: "Koko Made Oide" by Sion. Anime fandom? It's all such a rich tapestry. Jokers to the left of me. Clowns to the right. Here I am, Zac-baby. Puzzled why none of the legal copyright holders seem interested in calling in the feds. And why sites like Youtube and Crunchyroll seem to think 13-year-old botaku81 from Mudflap, Iowa is the legal owner of the latest anime from Japan AND the latest Hollywood picture still playing in the theaters. But apparently that's just me. |
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RyoShin
 Posts: 83 Location: Michigan |
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...Oh, you have to be kidding me. This is it. Kirk, better than Picard?! That's the last straw, Answerman! I've had it up to here, to here, with your shenanigans! I am canceling my subscription! I am so outright pissed, you son of a b- ...What? I don't have a subscription? This is all free? Oh... Well... Ah... Can't wait for next week's column, then! 
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tygerchickchibi
 Posts: 1448 |
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Well, throw me a bone here, but I'll have to say one of the best OP themes I can add is from .hack//SIGN.
Anyone remember Obsession? *__* yeeeaaaah. Sea of Twilight is awesome too, and Evil Auroa.... Yuki Kaijura/See Saw has amazing talent, and I thought all her songs from that series were great. EDIT - Speaking of Lain, Boa's albums are really awesome, I recommend buying their albums as well. |
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LordPrometheus
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I tend to agree with Zac on the "vocal groups" issue. While I'm not exactly "old guard"(assuming we're defining that as "fansub on VHS guy in the 90s"), I'm certainly not in the "FREEFREEFREE!" lunatic camp. I got introduced to anime as a kid, with stuff like Speed Racer and random crappy anime movies like Puss in Boots, then really got into it with the Pokemon craze. My appreciation for anime and my tastes have evolved quite a bit since then (pun intended
 ), but I've never been one to think it should all be free. I've always done my part to support the R1 anime industry, whether it be with VHS/DVDs or merchandise or even just word of mouth support for a show to my friends.
I think I fall squarely into that ambigous "middle ground", with some leanings toward the old guard's point of view. I just want my R1 dubbed anime for a decent price, and if I like the show enough, some merchandise. Period. The problem with this is that while I believe a vast majority of anime fans fall into this more nebulous category, our voices tend to get drowned out by the loudmouths on either side. The question is, how do we in the middle get our voices heard and affect a positive change without being mistaken for zealots? I don't want the industry to die off because the rabid fans drive off the more casual (and sane) market. Btw Zac, awesome pick with the Pokemon theme. I still listen to that to this day. Brings back a lot of good memories.  And of course the theme from Lain is pure win.
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