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Answerman - Japanese School Kids In Cars Getting Coffee


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EricJ2



Joined: 01 Feb 2014
Posts: 4016
PostPosted: Fri Mar 06, 2015 12:03 pm Reply with quote
As for the Crackle question, I'd heard Sony wanted to release Nodame Cantabile with the Animax dub but right (music, I'm guessing? Rolling Eyes ) interfered at the last minute.
The same with the Valkyria Chronicles anime, which they wanted to cross-promote with the Sega PS3 game, but that turned out to be interfered with as well.

Those seem to be the only two MIA casualties of Sony's attempts to get into non-feature anime, but with them being so rooted in Sony's rights, there doesn't seem to be any rescue possible.
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Paiprince



Joined: 21 Dec 2013
Posts: 593
PostPosted: Fri Mar 06, 2015 12:29 pm Reply with quote
I guess the closest American kids can get to that style of independence is through living in a boarding school. Well, there's outright emancipation but you gotta go through a lot of bureaucracy to gain the privilege.

A few European children also carry the self sufficiency their Japanese counterpart s enjoy. I know Dutch and Germans already living in studio apartments as early as 15.
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Greed1914



Joined: 28 Oct 2007
Posts: 4404
PostPosted: Fri Mar 06, 2015 12:49 pm Reply with quote
One thing that I'm still wondering about in regards to the question about independent youngsters is how much of what anime portrays is accurate in relation to orphans/abandoned kids? Justin's answer explains why high school kids have quite a bit of independence, but those same kids also have parental support at the same time. As in, they might have their own apartment and have to buy groceries, but they still get money from their parents to help pay for those things. The questioner brought up Orihime from Bleach as an example, and it seems odd that a teenager would be left completely alone, even if they had an inheritance. Or a situation commonly seen in anime where the teenager is left to fend for themselves as well as younger siblings. I'd be curious to know how accurate any of that is since it seems like it would cause a lot of problems if you left minors to completely fend for themselves (and possibly others).
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Saffire



Joined: 25 Nov 2007
Posts: 1255
Location: Iowa, USA
PostPosted: Fri Mar 06, 2015 1:26 pm Reply with quote
Greed1914 wrote:
One thing that I'm still wondering about in regards to the question about independent youngsters is how much of what anime portrays is accurate in relation to orphans/abandoned kids? Justin's answer explains why high school kids have quite a bit of independence, but those same kids also have parental support at the same time. As in, they might have their own apartment and have to buy groceries, but they still get money from their parents to help pay for those things. The questioner brought up Orihime from Bleach as an example, and it seems odd that a teenager would be left completely alone, even if they had an inheritance. Or a situation commonly seen in anime where the teenager is left to fend for themselves as well as younger siblings. I'd be curious to know how accurate any of that is since it seems like it would cause a lot of problems if you left minors to completely fend for themselves (and possibly others).
Usually in the case where someone is living completely by themselves, it's mentioned in passing that there is a guardian living in the area who checks in on them and supports them financially. Orihime's guardian is her aunt, for example. I can't imagine smaller children being left in the care of a sibling like that though.
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GVman



Joined: 14 Jul 2010
Posts: 729
PostPosted: Fri Mar 06, 2015 1:45 pm Reply with quote
On the subject of Toei's ass-tastic audio for some of their older shows*, I know there's some fan efforts happening to try and get the original broadcast audio (which was on a better format and, consequently, is of higher quality) from VHS recordings. I believe they've been pretty successful with Dragon Ball and DBZ, so I'd recommend looking into that.

*I still find it hilarious that DBZ, a show from 1989, has worse audio for its home video release than Mazinger Z, a show from 1972.
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Wrial Huden



Joined: 23 Jan 2009
Posts: 149
Location: McKinney, TX
PostPosted: Fri Mar 06, 2015 1:57 pm Reply with quote
Geoffrey asks:
Quote:
Yet other shows, like Sailor Moon and Dragon Ball GT have their original audio fully intact and sounding clear on most releases.


I don't know about that, especially in regards to the Sailor Moon Season 1 box set ADV released about 10 years ago. The Japanese audio was horribly muffled. Someone (don't remember who) at ADV at the time mentioned that there was nothing they could do about it. I ended up selling it on eBay a year or so later.

I haven't bought the Viz release yet. Anyone here done so yet, and how is the audio?
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PurpleWarrior13



Joined: 05 Sep 2009
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PostPosted: Fri Mar 06, 2015 2:15 pm Reply with quote
^ That was actually my question, and yes I do own the Viz set, and from what I can tell, Sailor Moon's Japanese audio sounded as clear as it possibly could. ADV was definitely given bad masters, but they weren't the best available. The Region 2 DVDs from 2002 had the same audio that's on Viz's DVDs/Blu-rays. ADV was given DiC's masters, which had aged horribly by that point.
Apparently Sailor Moon was being released to LaserDisc and VHS at the time it was being broadcast, that's probably why it's master tapes were all kept. That wasn't the case with Dragon Ball or Dragon Ball Z.

My DBGT sets also sound fine, and I did read on a Kazenshuu message board that DBGT's audio masters still survive, as do the DB and DBZ movies.

According to this article, DB and DBZ's audio masters are confirmed to be gone (sorry, you'll have to Google Translate it): http://www.stereosound.co.jp/review/article/2014/09/17/32395.html

Apparently the original DB broadcast audio survives through off-air recordings from the time. It sounds MUCH better than any home video release with the Japanese audio. Here's a comparison: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UL0HDXyJCkA

The Kansenshuu discussion is here, with lots of examples: http://www.kanzenshuu.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=18506


Last edited by PurpleWarrior13 on Fri Mar 06, 2015 2:31 pm; edited 2 times in total
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GVman



Joined: 14 Jul 2010
Posts: 729
PostPosted: Fri Mar 06, 2015 2:22 pm Reply with quote
PurpleWarrior13 wrote:

According to this article, DB and DBZ's audio masters are confirmed to be gone (sorry, you'll have to Google Translate it): http://www.stereosound.co.jp/review/article/2014/09/17/32395.html


Ah. Thanks for linking this.

Quote:
Apparently the original DBZ broadcast audio survives through off-air recordings from the time. It sounds MUCH better than any home video release with the Japanese audio. Here's a comparison: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UL0HDXyJCkA


It's like night and day, man. It feels almost weird hearing that without the muffle.
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mdo7



Joined: 23 May 2007
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Location: Katy, Texas, USA
PostPosted: Fri Mar 06, 2015 2:47 pm Reply with quote
I found this week Answerman to be interesting. I want to add something into this:

Regarding Geoffrey question:

I'm not really surprised by this. I've heard allegation of Japanese filmmakers (going to have to apply to anime too) not taking film preservation seriously, that was the case for King Kong vs Godzilla.

Justin, you wrote:
A number of older shows, specifically ones from Toei Animation, do have really terrible, muffled audio. I never did figure out why that is, but it's easy to guess: the Japanese entertainment business is rife with guys who cling onto older, outdated technology, and the recording studio Toei used probably had one of these guys in charge of mixing. Some of these old shows have had their audio remastered, but many haven't -- and probably won't for the foreseeable future. Maybe the master tapes are lost or unusable. Maybe they'll magically resurface one day, or some amazing new audio filtering software will be able to restore the tracks we have now. But for now we're stuck with what we've got.


So basically lack of film preservation and not updating their technology to give anime an HD re-master is a big issue from what you describe.

About Julian's question:

That's pretty interesting despite there was cases of murderers that target children like this guy for example and this one, and just recently this murder of a 13 year old by three older Japanese teens. But yeah how Japanese children do it just blow my mind. Just hope we don't see more cases of Japanese children getting hurt while being alone and out of parent supervision.

Rudy's question hit me really hard on this one and I'll add why:

Rudy's question was the subject of this NHK World Radio Japan Focus broadcast I listen to yesterday. There's more issue then that to get anime selling well in the US:

  • Anime BDs/DVDs being expensive (I'm looking at you Aniplex USA and Pony Canyon USA). Funimation, NIS America don't overpriced their DVDs and put 3-4 episode in each disc unlike their Japanese counterpart.
  • I read it from another article that Japan is very bad at marketing.
  • Also too much moe, and fanservice with mediocre to no plot coming out of Japan (I got really tired of those, that's why I haven't watch much anime lately. Yona of the dawn kept me entertain because I found it to be refreshing).


Also Rudy is correct about the focusing on international market because the tax hikes is really hurting Japan's domestic profit, it put Japan into recession:



Japan just got out of their recession recently, but their GDP are really sluggish according to what I read on economic/business news. I've read an article from NYTimes that Japan's household spending and retail sales decline last month (and I have to assume sales of anime/manga could be included). So yes in my opinion, Japan's anime industry really need to take the international marketing seriously if they want to survive because the next tax hike that is coming to Japan in 2017, the anime industry is going to be hit really hard by that.

Off topic: Rudy's question kinda reminds me of my question from another Answerman thread.
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mgosdin



Joined: 17 Jul 2011
Posts: 1302
Location: Kissimmee, Florida, USA
PostPosted: Fri Mar 06, 2015 2:56 pm Reply with quote
Quote:
Unmixed audio, including separated music and effects tracks, were all created and stored on reel-to-reel tapes.


There's a whole other hobby dedicated to reviving damaged or sick Reel-to-Reel tapes ( He says while looking at his TEAC Reel-to-Reel sitting to his left. ) where fungus ( from those humid summers in whatever country you are in ) and something called Sticky Shed Syndrome are rife.

Much work has been done to salvage irreplaceable recordings and the knowledge to potentially salvage older Anime master tapes does exist. Now if they can just find the tapes. Rolling Eyes

Mark Gosdin
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Zin5ki



Joined: 06 Jan 2008
Posts: 6680
Location: London, UK
PostPosted: Fri Mar 06, 2015 3:29 pm Reply with quote
Quote:
And those studio apartments are tiny enough that you really can't do much there besides sleep and study.

It is strange that so limited a space would be sufficient for studying. The matters that really demand cogitation call for space to ambulate, or at least shuffle, around one's desk on sporadic occasions. To be forced to sit would be quite stifling. Perhaps I am unusual in this respect.
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DragonirTheSage



Joined: 05 Mar 2015
Posts: 23
PostPosted: Fri Mar 06, 2015 3:37 pm Reply with quote
mdo7 wrote:
Also too much moe, and fanservice with mediocre to no plot coming out of Japan (I got really tired of those, that's why I haven't watch much anime lately. Yona of the dawn kept me entertain because I found it to be refreshing).


What about shows like Naruto and One Piece. Shonens and Seinens usually have good plot.


Last edited by DragonirTheSage on Fri Mar 06, 2015 3:38 pm; edited 1 time in total
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Hameyadea



Joined: 23 Jun 2014
Posts: 3679
PostPosted: Fri Mar 06, 2015 3:37 pm Reply with quote
The anime industry, being the cut-throat, understaffed, always-under-pressure, tight-with-the-budget industry that it is, will (and is) place creating new content and pushing it to the fans as fast as possible higher on the priority and urgency scales than preserving the old materials (especially is said show has bombed hard in revenue or got abysmal ratings & reviews).

Also, while I don't hang around with people who are especially knowledgeable on the subject of film reels (so their point-of-view is leaned towards more to that of the layman), in most conversations I had with people, they think that the reels are safe-guarded by the enclosing metal cases - which they aren't, those are meant of protect the reel during its travels to the cinemas.

With the weather elements playing a big part, along with the film reels' location and storage environment, the film in the reels usually either begin to disintegrate or melt due to the chemical reactions with the particles in the air (especially with Oxygen), with the end result being like this:


Films at this point, or beyond (with some being covered in mold and other things), are pretty much unsalvageable anymore (not to mention that they can even be considered as a minor bio-hazard due to the mold and chemicals)



And that's assuming the reel was even found. As Justin wrote in the column, due to the multitude of rights holders, sponsors, production companies and others, finding which company has which film in its possession, and where (assuming said company is even aware that the film is in their possession), is a big task to take-on, and more often than not the companies lack the motivation to do the internal search or allocate enough manpower to the internal "rescue mission".

Not exactly anime-related per se, but Kotaku ran an article in the spirit of finding and sorting the rights holders of old material (in this case, the old PC game No One Lives Forever) which gives a better look on the matter.
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mdo7



Joined: 23 May 2007
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Location: Katy, Texas, USA
PostPosted: Fri Mar 06, 2015 3:40 pm Reply with quote
DragonirTheSage wrote:


What about shows like Naruto and One Piece. Shonens and Seinens usually have good plot.


they may not be moe or full of over the top fanservice. But I don't watch those, they don't really appeal to me.
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ChibiKangaroo



Joined: 01 Feb 2010
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PostPosted: Fri Mar 06, 2015 3:42 pm Reply with quote
I did a homestay in Japan, and my Japanese family had a 5 year old son who was allowed to walk around quite freely without supervision. I went to the mall one time with his mother and him and at one point, he wanted to go to the toy store so she and I sat in the mall's plaza while he ran off to the toy store in a different section of the mall by himself. I was terrified at that thought but his mother said there was nothing to worry about.
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