Categories
March 8th, 2019
Article (Video) Commentary - "The Problem With Horror Anime"
Anime Relations: Higurashi no Naku Koro ni, Shiki, Another, Corpse Party: Tortured Souls - Bougyakusareta Tamashii no Jukyou, Gakkougurashi!
Man, it’s been a while since my last Article Commentary post; a whole year! A large reason for this is that blogs on MAL were down for about 4 months, and also because I was largely pre-occupied with my Anime Watching Challenge last year. But somewhat recently an anime video was released on YouTube that I found interesting enough to talk about:
Geoff Thew of Mother’s Basement is my favorite anime-based YouTuber, mostly by default. As I believe he is an actual student of film, I find his very analytical approach to anime commentary to be interesting. I also find him generally amusing and easy to listen to. In this recent video, Geoff talked about the challenges faced by anime when trying to produce horror content that is legitimately scary.
While I’m not a very big fan of horror in general, I still found this analysis to be very interesting. And as I’m usually willing to give nearly any story a shot when it’s in anime form, I’ve actually seen nearly every series that Geoff talked about. So as I give my counter-commentary on the subject, I’ll do it largely based around the different anime that were touched on....
Shiki: I’ll start off with the series that Geoff spent the most time talking about. He mentioned that Shiki was the only horror anime that has actually scared him and that it was largely on a psychological level. While I liked Shiki well enough for it to get a 7 from me, I definitely wasn’t in love with the series and it didn’t scare me on the same level. I think my issue with Shiki was that I never had any characters to latch onto and care about. Also, the ridiculously silly hair was kind of distracting. I remember feeling kind of disturbed during the first major human-against-vampire kill scene, but I also remember that I was starting to mentally check out during that time, too. I think I should probably give it another watch eventually, though.
Another: Geoff mentioned Another as a horror anime that, due to its inability to properly convey believable horror imagery within the limitations of a TV anime budget, ended up just being funny (like a cheesy live action horror movie with bad special effects). These visual limitations are the primary reasoning behind why Geoff thinks horror anime struggles in being truly scary. Animation inherently looks fake, because well duh, it IS fake. When an anime like Another tries to pull off visual gore horror, it mostly ends up just being funny because of this. I thought the gore in Another was mostly okay all things considered and that it actually did rather well when it came to the look of sliced/punctured/stretched skin during deaths, but I’d say the death scenes still looked kind of silly overall. Sadly I couldn’t even enjoy laughing at Another because nearly all of the death scenes were spoiled and meme’d to death ever since some of the later AMV Hell releases. All that was left was me being bored out of my mind while watching Another.
Corpse Party: Geoff mostly brushed off the Corpse Party OVA as being boring and used it as a spring board to talk about the difference between how video games can have an easier time at producing scares within limited art because of their interactive nature. While I definitely understand where he went with the discussion, I feel like he might have brushed off the Corpse Party anime a little too easily, that he might have had a bias against it due to having played the video game already. Personally, I thought that Corpse Party had the most effective gore imagery I’ve ever seen in an anime. The fact that my ex-wife absolutely loved this anime is something that I see as confirming this view as she is a bit of a gore-porn horror fanatic (big fan of the Saw movies). I found the gore in Corpse Party to be extraordinarily disturbing. The only thing that kept the anime from being truly effective horror for me was the lack of character investment. While the imagery made me feel genuinely uneasy, I didn’t really care about what happened to any of the characters because there wasn’t enough development for me to connect with them.
School-Live!: This brings me to what actually has worked for me in the world of horror anime. Geoff mentioned School-Live! and how it used the turning of the moe genre on its head to create some effective horror, but that he wished it had done more and “said” more. But as a huge fan of slice of life shows and character focused stories (and yes, moe bullshit), this is exactly the kind of stuff that I need in order to feel fear in a story: I have to care about the characters; I have to feel something before the scare comes in order for it to be effective. Live action horror can get away with being scary without caring about the characters because the realism alone makes it scary. The viewer can see themselves in that situation and get a sense for how much some of the things can hurt in the case of gore/torture-porn material. But as Geoff mentioned, those tactics don’t work so well in animation. Anime has to work extra hard and use different tactics in order to be scary. For me, that “different tactic” is making sure that I’m able to care about the characters before the bad stuff happens. Going back to Another, while I almost started to feel a connection with the two main characters, I never cared at all of the people who actually got killed or anyone else for that matter. But in School-Live!, the slice of life moe angle really worked for me. I really didn’t want anything bad to happen to these girls and whenever it seemed like something bad might happen, I was really scared for them.
Higurashi no Naku Koro ni: And now for a series that Geoff didn’t mention in his video. Higurashi is not only my favorite horror anime, but my second favorite anime period! Considering that he didn’t mention the series or even show a single clip of it in his video, I’m curious if Geoff has never seen the series (if this truly is Geoff’s MAL profile, he at least hasn’t logged it). Some of the most uneasy feelings I’ve ever had from a piece of entertainment came while watching Higurashi the first time. There were quite a number of disturbing and legitimately scary moments in the series. This again came largely from me growing to actually care about the characters, but I think it also did a great job in conveying horror on a production level. The facial expressions went a long way in showing a sense of insanity in the characters, even if things went a little far at times to hit those kind-of-silly levels (especially in the first season). The voice acting was just great all around, expressing great fun and excitement during the good times of the characters and then complete terror and dread during the bad times.
CONCLUSION: So what are my overall feelings about this issue? I’d say that for the most part I completely agree with Mother’s Basement. The inherent “fakeness” of animation makes it difficult for things to be scary from a visual standpoint. Anime has to work harder to achieve the same effect that even the worst live action horror schlock can. For me, the easiest way to get around these limitations is to make me care about the characters, but I think other techniques can be implemented as well. While Geoff mentioned how some trippy visuals in western animation is able to be legitimately unnerving, I think anime can also produce atmospheric horror well if it really tried, taking notes from one of the creepiest pieces of horror-style animation I’ve ever seen: the “Dark Harvest” episode of Invader Zim.
But those are just my feelings on the matter as a guy who isn’t all that into horror in the first place. I just thought it was an interesting discussion and I’m curious to see what anime producers might do in the future when it comes to this genre. We shall see!!
Geoff Thew of Mother’s Basement is my favorite anime-based YouTuber, mostly by default. As I believe he is an actual student of film, I find his very analytical approach to anime commentary to be interesting. I also find him generally amusing and easy to listen to. In this recent video, Geoff talked about the challenges faced by anime when trying to produce horror content that is legitimately scary.
While I’m not a very big fan of horror in general, I still found this analysis to be very interesting. And as I’m usually willing to give nearly any story a shot when it’s in anime form, I’ve actually seen nearly every series that Geoff talked about. So as I give my counter-commentary on the subject, I’ll do it largely based around the different anime that were touched on....
Shiki: I’ll start off with the series that Geoff spent the most time talking about. He mentioned that Shiki was the only horror anime that has actually scared him and that it was largely on a psychological level. While I liked Shiki well enough for it to get a 7 from me, I definitely wasn’t in love with the series and it didn’t scare me on the same level. I think my issue with Shiki was that I never had any characters to latch onto and care about. Also, the ridiculously silly hair was kind of distracting. I remember feeling kind of disturbed during the first major human-against-vampire kill scene, but I also remember that I was starting to mentally check out during that time, too. I think I should probably give it another watch eventually, though.
Another: Geoff mentioned Another as a horror anime that, due to its inability to properly convey believable horror imagery within the limitations of a TV anime budget, ended up just being funny (like a cheesy live action horror movie with bad special effects). These visual limitations are the primary reasoning behind why Geoff thinks horror anime struggles in being truly scary. Animation inherently looks fake, because well duh, it IS fake. When an anime like Another tries to pull off visual gore horror, it mostly ends up just being funny because of this. I thought the gore in Another was mostly okay all things considered and that it actually did rather well when it came to the look of sliced/punctured/stretched skin during deaths, but I’d say the death scenes still looked kind of silly overall. Sadly I couldn’t even enjoy laughing at Another because nearly all of the death scenes were spoiled and meme’d to death ever since some of the later AMV Hell releases. All that was left was me being bored out of my mind while watching Another.
Corpse Party: Geoff mostly brushed off the Corpse Party OVA as being boring and used it as a spring board to talk about the difference between how video games can have an easier time at producing scares within limited art because of their interactive nature. While I definitely understand where he went with the discussion, I feel like he might have brushed off the Corpse Party anime a little too easily, that he might have had a bias against it due to having played the video game already. Personally, I thought that Corpse Party had the most effective gore imagery I’ve ever seen in an anime. The fact that my ex-wife absolutely loved this anime is something that I see as confirming this view as she is a bit of a gore-porn horror fanatic (big fan of the Saw movies). I found the gore in Corpse Party to be extraordinarily disturbing. The only thing that kept the anime from being truly effective horror for me was the lack of character investment. While the imagery made me feel genuinely uneasy, I didn’t really care about what happened to any of the characters because there wasn’t enough development for me to connect with them.
School-Live!: This brings me to what actually has worked for me in the world of horror anime. Geoff mentioned School-Live! and how it used the turning of the moe genre on its head to create some effective horror, but that he wished it had done more and “said” more. But as a huge fan of slice of life shows and character focused stories (and yes, moe bullshit), this is exactly the kind of stuff that I need in order to feel fear in a story: I have to care about the characters; I have to feel something before the scare comes in order for it to be effective. Live action horror can get away with being scary without caring about the characters because the realism alone makes it scary. The viewer can see themselves in that situation and get a sense for how much some of the things can hurt in the case of gore/torture-porn material. But as Geoff mentioned, those tactics don’t work so well in animation. Anime has to work extra hard and use different tactics in order to be scary. For me, that “different tactic” is making sure that I’m able to care about the characters before the bad stuff happens. Going back to Another, while I almost started to feel a connection with the two main characters, I never cared at all of the people who actually got killed or anyone else for that matter. But in School-Live!, the slice of life moe angle really worked for me. I really didn’t want anything bad to happen to these girls and whenever it seemed like something bad might happen, I was really scared for them.
Higurashi no Naku Koro ni: And now for a series that Geoff didn’t mention in his video. Higurashi is not only my favorite horror anime, but my second favorite anime period! Considering that he didn’t mention the series or even show a single clip of it in his video, I’m curious if Geoff has never seen the series (if this truly is Geoff’s MAL profile, he at least hasn’t logged it). Some of the most uneasy feelings I’ve ever had from a piece of entertainment came while watching Higurashi the first time. There were quite a number of disturbing and legitimately scary moments in the series. This again came largely from me growing to actually care about the characters, but I think it also did a great job in conveying horror on a production level. The facial expressions went a long way in showing a sense of insanity in the characters, even if things went a little far at times to hit those kind-of-silly levels (especially in the first season). The voice acting was just great all around, expressing great fun and excitement during the good times of the characters and then complete terror and dread during the bad times.
CONCLUSION: So what are my overall feelings about this issue? I’d say that for the most part I completely agree with Mother’s Basement. The inherent “fakeness” of animation makes it difficult for things to be scary from a visual standpoint. Anime has to work harder to achieve the same effect that even the worst live action horror schlock can. For me, the easiest way to get around these limitations is to make me care about the characters, but I think other techniques can be implemented as well. While Geoff mentioned how some trippy visuals in western animation is able to be legitimately unnerving, I think anime can also produce atmospheric horror well if it really tried, taking notes from one of the creepiest pieces of horror-style animation I’ve ever seen: the “Dark Harvest” episode of Invader Zim.
But those are just my feelings on the matter as a guy who isn’t all that into horror in the first place. I just thought it was an interesting discussion and I’m curious to see what anime producers might do in the future when it comes to this genre. We shall see!!
Posted by pluvia33 | Mar 8, 2019 2:26 PM | 0 comments
March 5th, 2018
Article Commentary - "Technical Quality vs. Enjoyment: A Strange Discrepancy"
So boredom/laziness is getting the best of me again. Today I came across a particular review for KonoSuba and that made me think about this MAL Featured Article that was posted a few days ago:
Technical Quality vs. Enjoyment: A Strange Discrepancy
This is a subject that I have some very particular feelings about. I actually hadn't read through this article until now because in a way I felt that it was a silly thing to do an article about, at least from the angle that the writer took. I mean, it pretty much comes down to, "Well, duh; people have different tastes."
There are some things in the article that just kind of seem odd that I do want to break down a bit:
"Many anime are inherently flawed, yet are fun to watch or vice versa, where there is a definitive discrepancy between what can be considered quality and what can be considered fun."
This initial summary line, again, is a bit of a "well duh" kind of thing. However, there's a key piece of verbiage I want to nitpick here: Fun. The title is about Quality vs. Enjoyment; I reject the assumption that something being "fun" is the only way to "enjoy" entertainment. When I enjoy a really sad story, am I having "fun"? Something can touch you deep down or be otherwise enjoyable without really being "fun". Anyway, that is kind of nitpicking and I guess most people do equate "enjoyment" with "fun"; that is probably the most common form of enjoyment to some degree, so whatever.
Anyway, as the article goes on, three or so examples of Quality vs. Enjoyment are presented and again, pretty much all of it comes down to tastes. So if I'm pretty much brushing off everything that the article said, why am I writing this? Well, it kind of comes back to the KonoSuba Review. When this popped up in my Panel, the review calling KonoSuba a "rather *entertaining* anime" jumped out at me and got me to read the whole review. Then the review also said, "The problem, however, comes in when you start trying to take this thing seriously." My initial gut reaction was, "What? Why the hell would anyone take a comedy anime seriously anyway?"
It was pretty clear that the reviewer was trying to make a review on objective technical merits, similar to what is described in the "Quality vs. Review" article. A lot of times when I find a review that I have strong feelings about, I'll write a (usually too long) counter argument for the article on the user's profile. I thought about doing that here, but I ended up deeming it as not being worth it. I'm talking back-and-forth pretty regularly with two people right now (one via comments and one via PM) and didn't feel like potentially starting another back-and-forth at the moment. Anyway, back to the first sentence of this paragraph, "trying" is the key word here. While he seemed to have been trying to write an objective review, that was a bit of a failure. Again, even contemplating taking KonoSuba "seriously" doesn't seem at all appropriate; he makes multiple assumptions of what should or should not be in a story (such as implying that character development is something that always needs to be in a story); and also just being somewhat uninformed in the subject that he's reviewing. For example, he said that the show has been labeled as "parody", but it does not carry the tag on MAL. That's not to say that KonoSuba isn't parody; in a way, it very much is. It just isn't a direct parody of any particular shows and if he can't see how it very much IS a parody (or satire to put it more accurately) of isekai stories, then he just doesn't "get it". There definitely are "clever in-jokes" in the series, but many of them work off of subversion of expectations which flat out don't work if you don't understand what is being subverted.
Now, I don't really want to spend most of this writing shitting on this guy's review. I mean, with a username like "CorrectOpinion" I might be the one taking something more seriously than I should. Also, if he really has only seen 37 anime, then his review could just be chalked up to a lack of experience. At least he's trying, I guess?
So what the hell is my point with this blog post other than it just being a way to pass time and trying to continue to keep my blog from being 100% dominated by Challenge Update posts?
Well, as I mentioned, the concept of "Technical Quality vs. Enjoyment" is something that I have some pretty strong feelings about. Even if I feel that this article kind of missed the mark, I did want to share my feelings on it.
The angle that I really wish the article would have explored more is why people (such as the KonoSuba reviewer) feel the need to review and rate things based on the "objective" quality of the entertainment. To a point, I understand the urge to do this; you're judging something and trying to present a case for or against a piece of entertainment, but I feel that focusing too much on "objective" quality markers just misses the point of entertainment. The expectation of an objective view is one of the main reasons that I haven't written a single review on MAL. I just don't believe in this stance.
First, don't feel writing a truly objective review of entertainment is even possible, at least not without making the review completely soulless and boring. Trying to review something as objectively as possible just seems like a fool's errand. Why not just be upfront with your opinion and describe in good detail why you subjectively like something? Maybe provide a few counterarguments about it, like saying if you don't really care that much about characters and just want a good plot or something that others may like it, but why try to force that viewpoint on yourself?
Although I haven't written a single review on MAL, I do have a rather particular system for my anime scores on here. I rate anime almost 100% based on my own enjoyment. I do make other considerations at times, but those considerations almost always result in a higher-than-pure-enjoyment score than it would lower. If I enjoyed something at a 8, I would never be like, "Well, it has so many technical flaws that I can't justify rating it that high; I'll give it a 6 instead." No. Just no. I really don't see the point in that. On the technical end, Cipher was pretty bad! However, the absurdity of it all made it pretty damn amusing to me! It was well worth a 7. Now, some of the reasons that I didn't rate it higher than that could be linked to quality, but I feel that those quality marks are directly linked to my enjoyment. Honestly, I'm not sure if I'd ever watch Cipher again unless I'm showing it to someone else for the first time.
Now on the other end of the spectrum, I have rated things a little higher than what my pure enjoyment score would be because I recognize the technical merits of the anime and/or its objective importance as a work of art. My two biggest examples of this are Grave of the Fireflies and Death Note. I didn't really enjoy either of these much and rated them both with a score of 6. Personally, if I were to rate them on pure enjoyment, I'd likely score them a 5 or even lower. However, I recognize the culture importance of Grave of the Fireflies and calling it "Average" or even "Bad" is something that I just can't see myself doing in good conscience. The same goes for Death Note which, although I found nearly all of the characters to be uninteresting and felt that the story had absolutely no replay value, I can't deny that it is a modern classic.
Who knows. Maybe some day I'll go off the deep end and re-evaluate my scores on here and say, "Fuck it! Grave of the Fireflies just sucks!" *change score to a 4* But I don't think that time is any time soon.
But that comes back to why do some people feel like they have to score things strictly based on what they perceive as objective technical quality? Some people feel like the MAL scores are complete shit because so many people rate on enjoyment, but is that really such a bad thing? I mean, I feel that there are multiple issues with MAL's system for average scores, but I feel that the scores people give based on pure enjoyment is the least of its problems. And I'm sorry, but the few people who score based on the "objective quality" of a show are not going to "fix" the MAL average scores. So why bother? Personally, I see the scores on MAL as a social feature. Like, "Oh! This guy also loves Haruhi! Haha! Looks like E8 probably bothered him, though." I find it fun to meet new people on this website and compare my scores to theirs. It's fun to see the inevitable fact that most of my scores (other than Death Note and a few others) will be higher than someone's I came across, and then it's really cool to see when someone actually also scored Death Note at a 6! Especially if they're not a particular hard ass about their scores (meaning they have a relatively generous number of 9s and 10s).
So what is my point here? I'm rambling quite a bit, but in the end I just feel like everyone should just rate based on their own enjoyment! Yes, your perception of technical quality can definitely increase your enjoyment if that's what your into (like if you're a film student or something), but I don't feel like you should ever be forced to conform to some kind of technical benchmark for rating the "quality" of something. This is entertainment! Just enjoy it! ^_^
Technical Quality vs. Enjoyment: A Strange Discrepancy
This is a subject that I have some very particular feelings about. I actually hadn't read through this article until now because in a way I felt that it was a silly thing to do an article about, at least from the angle that the writer took. I mean, it pretty much comes down to, "Well, duh; people have different tastes."
There are some things in the article that just kind of seem odd that I do want to break down a bit:
"Many anime are inherently flawed, yet are fun to watch or vice versa, where there is a definitive discrepancy between what can be considered quality and what can be considered fun."
This initial summary line, again, is a bit of a "well duh" kind of thing. However, there's a key piece of verbiage I want to nitpick here: Fun. The title is about Quality vs. Enjoyment; I reject the assumption that something being "fun" is the only way to "enjoy" entertainment. When I enjoy a really sad story, am I having "fun"? Something can touch you deep down or be otherwise enjoyable without really being "fun". Anyway, that is kind of nitpicking and I guess most people do equate "enjoyment" with "fun"; that is probably the most common form of enjoyment to some degree, so whatever.
Anyway, as the article goes on, three or so examples of Quality vs. Enjoyment are presented and again, pretty much all of it comes down to tastes. So if I'm pretty much brushing off everything that the article said, why am I writing this? Well, it kind of comes back to the KonoSuba Review. When this popped up in my Panel, the review calling KonoSuba a "rather *entertaining* anime" jumped out at me and got me to read the whole review. Then the review also said, "The problem, however, comes in when you start trying to take this thing seriously." My initial gut reaction was, "What? Why the hell would anyone take a comedy anime seriously anyway?"
It was pretty clear that the reviewer was trying to make a review on objective technical merits, similar to what is described in the "Quality vs. Review" article. A lot of times when I find a review that I have strong feelings about, I'll write a (usually too long) counter argument for the article on the user's profile. I thought about doing that here, but I ended up deeming it as not being worth it. I'm talking back-and-forth pretty regularly with two people right now (one via comments and one via PM) and didn't feel like potentially starting another back-and-forth at the moment. Anyway, back to the first sentence of this paragraph, "trying" is the key word here. While he seemed to have been trying to write an objective review, that was a bit of a failure. Again, even contemplating taking KonoSuba "seriously" doesn't seem at all appropriate; he makes multiple assumptions of what should or should not be in a story (such as implying that character development is something that always needs to be in a story); and also just being somewhat uninformed in the subject that he's reviewing. For example, he said that the show has been labeled as "parody", but it does not carry the tag on MAL. That's not to say that KonoSuba isn't parody; in a way, it very much is. It just isn't a direct parody of any particular shows and if he can't see how it very much IS a parody (or satire to put it more accurately) of isekai stories, then he just doesn't "get it". There definitely are "clever in-jokes" in the series, but many of them work off of subversion of expectations which flat out don't work if you don't understand what is being subverted.
Now, I don't really want to spend most of this writing shitting on this guy's review. I mean, with a username like "CorrectOpinion" I might be the one taking something more seriously than I should. Also, if he really has only seen 37 anime, then his review could just be chalked up to a lack of experience. At least he's trying, I guess?
So what the hell is my point with this blog post other than it just being a way to pass time and trying to continue to keep my blog from being 100% dominated by Challenge Update posts?
Well, as I mentioned, the concept of "Technical Quality vs. Enjoyment" is something that I have some pretty strong feelings about. Even if I feel that this article kind of missed the mark, I did want to share my feelings on it.
The angle that I really wish the article would have explored more is why people (such as the KonoSuba reviewer) feel the need to review and rate things based on the "objective" quality of the entertainment. To a point, I understand the urge to do this; you're judging something and trying to present a case for or against a piece of entertainment, but I feel that focusing too much on "objective" quality markers just misses the point of entertainment. The expectation of an objective view is one of the main reasons that I haven't written a single review on MAL. I just don't believe in this stance.
First, don't feel writing a truly objective review of entertainment is even possible, at least not without making the review completely soulless and boring. Trying to review something as objectively as possible just seems like a fool's errand. Why not just be upfront with your opinion and describe in good detail why you subjectively like something? Maybe provide a few counterarguments about it, like saying if you don't really care that much about characters and just want a good plot or something that others may like it, but why try to force that viewpoint on yourself?
Although I haven't written a single review on MAL, I do have a rather particular system for my anime scores on here. I rate anime almost 100% based on my own enjoyment. I do make other considerations at times, but those considerations almost always result in a higher-than-pure-enjoyment score than it would lower. If I enjoyed something at a 8, I would never be like, "Well, it has so many technical flaws that I can't justify rating it that high; I'll give it a 6 instead." No. Just no. I really don't see the point in that. On the technical end, Cipher was pretty bad! However, the absurdity of it all made it pretty damn amusing to me! It was well worth a 7. Now, some of the reasons that I didn't rate it higher than that could be linked to quality, but I feel that those quality marks are directly linked to my enjoyment. Honestly, I'm not sure if I'd ever watch Cipher again unless I'm showing it to someone else for the first time.
Now on the other end of the spectrum, I have rated things a little higher than what my pure enjoyment score would be because I recognize the technical merits of the anime and/or its objective importance as a work of art. My two biggest examples of this are Grave of the Fireflies and Death Note. I didn't really enjoy either of these much and rated them both with a score of 6. Personally, if I were to rate them on pure enjoyment, I'd likely score them a 5 or even lower. However, I recognize the culture importance of Grave of the Fireflies and calling it "Average" or even "Bad" is something that I just can't see myself doing in good conscience. The same goes for Death Note which, although I found nearly all of the characters to be uninteresting and felt that the story had absolutely no replay value, I can't deny that it is a modern classic.
Who knows. Maybe some day I'll go off the deep end and re-evaluate my scores on here and say, "Fuck it! Grave of the Fireflies just sucks!" *change score to a 4* But I don't think that time is any time soon.
But that comes back to why do some people feel like they have to score things strictly based on what they perceive as objective technical quality? Some people feel like the MAL scores are complete shit because so many people rate on enjoyment, but is that really such a bad thing? I mean, I feel that there are multiple issues with MAL's system for average scores, but I feel that the scores people give based on pure enjoyment is the least of its problems. And I'm sorry, but the few people who score based on the "objective quality" of a show are not going to "fix" the MAL average scores. So why bother? Personally, I see the scores on MAL as a social feature. Like, "Oh! This guy also loves Haruhi! Haha! Looks like E8 probably bothered him, though." I find it fun to meet new people on this website and compare my scores to theirs. It's fun to see the inevitable fact that most of my scores (other than Death Note and a few others) will be higher than someone's I came across, and then it's really cool to see when someone actually also scored Death Note at a 6! Especially if they're not a particular hard ass about their scores (meaning they have a relatively generous number of 9s and 10s).
So what is my point here? I'm rambling quite a bit, but in the end I just feel like everyone should just rate based on their own enjoyment! Yes, your perception of technical quality can definitely increase your enjoyment if that's what your into (like if you're a film student or something), but I don't feel like you should ever be forced to conform to some kind of technical benchmark for rating the "quality" of something. This is entertainment! Just enjoy it! ^_^
Posted by pluvia33 | Mar 5, 2018 1:55 PM | 0 comments
March 1st, 2018
Article Commentary - "Air Gear Artist 'Oh! great' Revealed as Bakemonogatari Manga Artist"
Anime Relations: Bakemonogatari
So I'm kind of bored at work right now and I figured it was about time for me to break up my blog with a post that wasn't an Anime Watching Challenge update. So yeah, time to pass some time with some random writing about an anime/manga article of interest!
Air Gear Artist 'Oh! great' Revealed as Bakemonogatari Manga Artist
So it was officially announced recently that Oh! Great will be doing the Bakemonogatari manga adaptation! My initial reaction was something, "Huh, okay." But the more that I thought about it, the more that it really seemed like a rather good fit and the more that I'm really looking forward to reading this. Between the original novel illustrations by VOFAN to the anime adaptations by SHAFT, I think Oh! Great's style will be "great" for the series. (See what I did there? Yes, I should feel bad, but I don't.)
While I did watch and enjoy the ridiculousness of the Air Gear anime and mostly liked what I saw of Tenjou Tenge, I haven't actually read any of Oh! Great's manga up to this point. However, I have seen pieces of his art here and there, and I do like his style quite a bit.
As I am a major Monogatari Series fanboy, I'm really hoping he does the series well with this manga. I feel like he really does fan service well so I'm looking forward to those aspects of the series coming through in the manga version and hoping for some very elaborate cover art and insert pieces. Oh, and it'd be nice if Vertical licenses the manga for an English release. I don't know how well the Monogatari novels have been doing for them, but hopefully it's been well enough for them to consider the manga once there is enough out for the first volume to be released physically.
Here's to hoping for the best! In the meantime, I've been re-watching the Monogatari Series anime stuff with my roommate and we're about half way through Second Season. I really need to get around to listening to the audio books of the original novels because I personally think Vertical did a great job with those!
Air Gear Artist 'Oh! great' Revealed as Bakemonogatari Manga Artist
So it was officially announced recently that Oh! Great will be doing the Bakemonogatari manga adaptation! My initial reaction was something, "Huh, okay." But the more that I thought about it, the more that it really seemed like a rather good fit and the more that I'm really looking forward to reading this. Between the original novel illustrations by VOFAN to the anime adaptations by SHAFT, I think Oh! Great's style will be "great" for the series. (See what I did there? Yes, I should feel bad, but I don't.)
While I did watch and enjoy the ridiculousness of the Air Gear anime and mostly liked what I saw of Tenjou Tenge, I haven't actually read any of Oh! Great's manga up to this point. However, I have seen pieces of his art here and there, and I do like his style quite a bit.
As I am a major Monogatari Series fanboy, I'm really hoping he does the series well with this manga. I feel like he really does fan service well so I'm looking forward to those aspects of the series coming through in the manga version and hoping for some very elaborate cover art and insert pieces. Oh, and it'd be nice if Vertical licenses the manga for an English release. I don't know how well the Monogatari novels have been doing for them, but hopefully it's been well enough for them to consider the manga once there is enough out for the first volume to be released physically.
Here's to hoping for the best! In the meantime, I've been re-watching the Monogatari Series anime stuff with my roommate and we're about half way through Second Season. I really need to get around to listening to the audio books of the original novels because I personally think Vertical did a great job with those!
Posted by pluvia33 | Mar 1, 2018 1:40 PM | 0 comments
January 5th, 2018
Article Commentary - "Amazon Shuts Down Anime Strike"
Anime Relations: Made in Abyss
So this is one of the biggest coincidences that have ever happened to me. I'm starting to get into the swing of things to start my 2018 Anime Watching Challenge. I finished watching New Game!! (the second season) yesterday and decided that I'd watch Made in Abyss next. Well, knowing that it was an Anime Strike (Amazon) streaming show and since I'd decided that I wasn't going to support their double-pay-wall crap, I began torrenting the episodes last night. This morning I began looking into a few other shows that I'd like to watch for the challenge including Girl's Last Tour and Re:Creators and realized both were also Anime Strike shows. Well, I started to think, if I'm going to watch at least three of their shows this year, maybe I'll go ahead and look into the service and at least get a free trial.
Well, that's when something strange happened. I couldn't really find any way to join Anime Strike on Amazon.com; I found an Anime Strike splash page, but when I clicked on "Learn more" it just redirected me to the basic Amazon Video page. When I looked up the mentioned anime that I'm interested in watching, they were all listed as "Included with Prime".... I proceeded to add them to my watch list and watched the first episode of Made in Abyss on my PS4....
After not being able to find anything about what the hell was going on through Google, I made a post on the ANN forums in an established thread about Amazon Prime's streaming service. By the time I got to work, someone commented back with a link to this article:
Amazon Shuts Down Anime Strike
So yeah, looks like I just happened to be looking into joining Anime Strike on the morning that it died! Very big coincidence!
So what does this mean? Well, in the short term it means that I can freely watch all of Anime Strike's shows with just my Prime membership! Yay! I don't have to deal with torrenting them now or getting an extra subscription!
However, this quote from the article is kind of troublesome in a way and possibly makes this a bit of a bittersweet situation:
"Fans began to suspect something was up when Anime Strike failed to announce a single exclusive offering for the winter 2018 anime season."
This makes it feel like less of a situation of Amazon actually listening to fans who didn't like the double-pay-wall crap and instead gives more of an impressing that Amazon is just giving up on being a major player in the Western anime streaming market period. I'm sure some anime fans are ecstatic about this: "They handled their position in the anime market badly anyway and it was annoying to have to go to multiple services for different shows, especially when the first season was on Crunchyroll!!" However, it feels kind of bittersweet to me because if they truly are giving up on being part of the anime streaming market, that means less competition for licensing rights and less money for the content creators back in Japan, and that kind of sucks.
But hey, I guess we'll see what happens as things develop. Until then, I guess it will be a little easier to watch some of the anime that I was planning to watch this year!
Well, that's when something strange happened. I couldn't really find any way to join Anime Strike on Amazon.com; I found an Anime Strike splash page, but when I clicked on "Learn more" it just redirected me to the basic Amazon Video page. When I looked up the mentioned anime that I'm interested in watching, they were all listed as "Included with Prime".... I proceeded to add them to my watch list and watched the first episode of Made in Abyss on my PS4....
After not being able to find anything about what the hell was going on through Google, I made a post on the ANN forums in an established thread about Amazon Prime's streaming service. By the time I got to work, someone commented back with a link to this article:
Amazon Shuts Down Anime Strike
So yeah, looks like I just happened to be looking into joining Anime Strike on the morning that it died! Very big coincidence!
So what does this mean? Well, in the short term it means that I can freely watch all of Anime Strike's shows with just my Prime membership! Yay! I don't have to deal with torrenting them now or getting an extra subscription!
However, this quote from the article is kind of troublesome in a way and possibly makes this a bit of a bittersweet situation:
"Fans began to suspect something was up when Anime Strike failed to announce a single exclusive offering for the winter 2018 anime season."
This makes it feel like less of a situation of Amazon actually listening to fans who didn't like the double-pay-wall crap and instead gives more of an impressing that Amazon is just giving up on being a major player in the Western anime streaming market period. I'm sure some anime fans are ecstatic about this: "They handled their position in the anime market badly anyway and it was annoying to have to go to multiple services for different shows, especially when the first season was on Crunchyroll!!" However, it feels kind of bittersweet to me because if they truly are giving up on being part of the anime streaming market, that means less competition for licensing rights and less money for the content creators back in Japan, and that kind of sucks.
But hey, I guess we'll see what happens as things develop. Until then, I guess it will be a little easier to watch some of the anime that I was planning to watch this year!
Posted by pluvia33 | Jan 5, 2018 7:55 AM | 0 comments
November 4th, 2017
Article (Video) Commentary - "You SHOULD Pirate Anime."
Anime Relations: Love Live! School Idol Project
So earlier this week, I had 20 minutes to spare until I needed to leave for work. Since that wasn't enough time to watch an episode of Love Live (the most recent anime I finished for my Anime Watching Challenge), I put on the PS4 YouTube app to kill time instead. The second video recommendation to me on the home screen was a few minutes shy of 20 and the title made me raise my eyebrow, so I thought, what the hell:
The video's general point is that if you are not happy with the legit anime streaming sites (with the YouTuber having clear feelings that he doesn't particularly love Crunchyroll), then you should not feel obligated to subscribe to them and that you should totally pirate instead so their subscription numbers go down and they are forced to innovate to actually earn your subscription. While there are sort of some halfway decent points to this video, I mostly disagree on some level with just about everything that the YouTuber said....
Crunchyroll is Not a Charity: Since this is in the text of this video's thumbnail, I'll go ahead and go over this point first. This video rails against the idea that anime fans should feel obligated to subscribe to legit anime streaming sites to "support the industry", claiming that it's a bit of an asshole argument. Why should you be guilted into buying something even if you might not be happy with the service? I can partially agree with this line of thinking. Hell, I refuse to buy into Amazon's Anime Strike because I don't like how they're handling the service (double pay-wall and all) and don't think they have enough anime in their catalog yet to make it worth while for me. So, I don't subscribe and I torrent whatever exclusives they have that I'm interested in watching. However, I fully disagree with his reasoning of, "these big corporations (Crunchyroll, Amazon, and Netflix) aren't charity cases." Now, I subscribe to Crunchyroll because I actually like the service. Although there might be a few things that can improve it, I mostly like the PS3/PS4 app interface and it's how I've been watching most of my anime lately. Now, I do buy legit stuff (including my Crunchyroll subscription) in part as a way to "support the industry." However, I do not do it to blindly support Crunchyroll and other North American corporations; I do it to support the actual anime industry back in Japan. The international market for anime is becoming increasingly important to Japan and the licensing fees that legit streaming sites bring in are a very large part of that. Without Crunchyroll and now the competing licensing bids from Amazon and Netflix, the anime industry in Japan would be in deeper shit than it already is. So yeah, a little part of me will continue to do my best to support the industry so we can still have new anime made.
Demanding an End to Exclusive Licensing: HAHAHAHA!!! And this bullshit. Really, excursive licenses is how pretty much all entertainment works. He basically wants there to be a legit version of KissAnime where all anime can be watched for one fee. I'm sorry, but this is utter lunacy. Would you expect to be able to watch Game of Thrones anywhere other than HBO? Why do you think anime should be any different? And do people who demand this crap actually realize how much fucking work this would be? It took so much work for Japan to get on board with streaming services in the first place. Now you're wanting Japan to except a proposal to up-end their entire entertainment structure? Fuck you. You're either insanely ignorant or you're using this as an excuse to never support legit platforms.
Recommending KissAnime as a Piracy Source: This is probably the most irritating thing about this video for me. He says that you SHOULD pirate, but his source for piracy? Fucking KissAnime. Fucking fuck that fucking website. Just watch this video:
The people who run KissAnime are bound to make CRAZY amounts of money. When you watch your anime from that website, you are NOT pirating; you are supporting bootleggers. If you're going to pirate, torrent your anime like a fucking adult. I don't give a shit if KissAnime is "easy" or "convenient" for you. Piracy isn't meant to be that fucking easy. Put a little fucking effort into your piracy. Quit giving these pieces of shit your traffic and data. Just because you're not paying any money doesn't mean that the service is truly "free" or that the people behind it aren't making money off of you. Just STOP!! Sure, maybe some interface shit with KissAnime is objectively better than Crunchyroll (as long as you have a solid ad-blocker and anti-virus software), but they have the unfair advantage of NOT NEEDING TO WORRY ABOUT ANYTHING ELSE!!!! They aren't paying for licenses, translations, press teams, or even video hosting since they use 3rd party hosting for their shit! Blah!!
....
Now, I would like to note that my remarks are largely targeted to anime fans in the US and Canada (another thing that I kind of would have hoped the YouTuber made a distinction of). Those are some of the only people that get full use of services like Crunchyroll. If you live in a country that doesn't get access to most or any of Crunchyroll's catalog, then you get a bit of a pass. I'd still prefer it if you'd use torrents for your pirating, but if you have no good legit alternative, then I can't really blame you for going to KissAnime. However, the stats for KissAnime do show that a rather large majority of their traffic comes from North America, so that really sucks.
Anyway, this mostly just amounts to the annoyed ramblings of an aging anime fan who is starting to feel like newer fans are complaining more than they really should. I mean, back in my day.... =P But whatever! If you're going to pirate, just say that. Don't start making some kind of excuse to justify your actions. Yeah, just enjoy your anime, I guess. Laters!
The video's general point is that if you are not happy with the legit anime streaming sites (with the YouTuber having clear feelings that he doesn't particularly love Crunchyroll), then you should not feel obligated to subscribe to them and that you should totally pirate instead so their subscription numbers go down and they are forced to innovate to actually earn your subscription. While there are sort of some halfway decent points to this video, I mostly disagree on some level with just about everything that the YouTuber said....
Crunchyroll is Not a Charity: Since this is in the text of this video's thumbnail, I'll go ahead and go over this point first. This video rails against the idea that anime fans should feel obligated to subscribe to legit anime streaming sites to "support the industry", claiming that it's a bit of an asshole argument. Why should you be guilted into buying something even if you might not be happy with the service? I can partially agree with this line of thinking. Hell, I refuse to buy into Amazon's Anime Strike because I don't like how they're handling the service (double pay-wall and all) and don't think they have enough anime in their catalog yet to make it worth while for me. So, I don't subscribe and I torrent whatever exclusives they have that I'm interested in watching. However, I fully disagree with his reasoning of, "these big corporations (Crunchyroll, Amazon, and Netflix) aren't charity cases." Now, I subscribe to Crunchyroll because I actually like the service. Although there might be a few things that can improve it, I mostly like the PS3/PS4 app interface and it's how I've been watching most of my anime lately. Now, I do buy legit stuff (including my Crunchyroll subscription) in part as a way to "support the industry." However, I do not do it to blindly support Crunchyroll and other North American corporations; I do it to support the actual anime industry back in Japan. The international market for anime is becoming increasingly important to Japan and the licensing fees that legit streaming sites bring in are a very large part of that. Without Crunchyroll and now the competing licensing bids from Amazon and Netflix, the anime industry in Japan would be in deeper shit than it already is. So yeah, a little part of me will continue to do my best to support the industry so we can still have new anime made.
Demanding an End to Exclusive Licensing: HAHAHAHA!!! And this bullshit. Really, excursive licenses is how pretty much all entertainment works. He basically wants there to be a legit version of KissAnime where all anime can be watched for one fee. I'm sorry, but this is utter lunacy. Would you expect to be able to watch Game of Thrones anywhere other than HBO? Why do you think anime should be any different? And do people who demand this crap actually realize how much fucking work this would be? It took so much work for Japan to get on board with streaming services in the first place. Now you're wanting Japan to except a proposal to up-end their entire entertainment structure? Fuck you. You're either insanely ignorant or you're using this as an excuse to never support legit platforms.
Recommending KissAnime as a Piracy Source: This is probably the most irritating thing about this video for me. He says that you SHOULD pirate, but his source for piracy? Fucking KissAnime. Fucking fuck that fucking website. Just watch this video:
The people who run KissAnime are bound to make CRAZY amounts of money. When you watch your anime from that website, you are NOT pirating; you are supporting bootleggers. If you're going to pirate, torrent your anime like a fucking adult. I don't give a shit if KissAnime is "easy" or "convenient" for you. Piracy isn't meant to be that fucking easy. Put a little fucking effort into your piracy. Quit giving these pieces of shit your traffic and data. Just because you're not paying any money doesn't mean that the service is truly "free" or that the people behind it aren't making money off of you. Just STOP!! Sure, maybe some interface shit with KissAnime is objectively better than Crunchyroll (as long as you have a solid ad-blocker and anti-virus software), but they have the unfair advantage of NOT NEEDING TO WORRY ABOUT ANYTHING ELSE!!!! They aren't paying for licenses, translations, press teams, or even video hosting since they use 3rd party hosting for their shit! Blah!!
....
Now, I would like to note that my remarks are largely targeted to anime fans in the US and Canada (another thing that I kind of would have hoped the YouTuber made a distinction of). Those are some of the only people that get full use of services like Crunchyroll. If you live in a country that doesn't get access to most or any of Crunchyroll's catalog, then you get a bit of a pass. I'd still prefer it if you'd use torrents for your pirating, but if you have no good legit alternative, then I can't really blame you for going to KissAnime. However, the stats for KissAnime do show that a rather large majority of their traffic comes from North America, so that really sucks.
Anyway, this mostly just amounts to the annoyed ramblings of an aging anime fan who is starting to feel like newer fans are complaining more than they really should. I mean, back in my day.... =P But whatever! If you're going to pirate, just say that. Don't start making some kind of excuse to justify your actions. Yeah, just enjoy your anime, I guess. Laters!
Posted by pluvia33 | Nov 4, 2017 4:36 PM | 0 comments
January 6th, 2017
Article Commentary - "Top 20 Best Anime of 2016"
Anime Relations: Shouwa Genroku Rakugo Shinjuu, Boku dake ga Inai Machi, Re:Zero kara Hajimeru Isekai Seikatsu
So I haven't been writing very regularly lately, but Happy New Year! Although 2016 has been a crazy year (both in the overall world and on a personal level), I am rather optimistic about 2017, at least in my personal life. A big part of that is my wife and I both starting new jobs soon which both pay significantly more than our current jobs and will hopefully be much less stressful as well. Yay!
However, first and foremost this is a blog that's primarily meant for my ramblings about anime. To inspire discussion in today's post for the end of 2016, I'll be doing Article Commentary on this:
Top 20 Best Anime of 2016
Now, before I begin, I do want to mention that I'm a little unprepared for this topic as I'd only watched about 15 things from this year and of those only 7 are TV anime that I've actually finished watching to date. Yeah, it's been a bit of a rough year for scheduling anime viewing time (damn adulting). But whatever, I'll still talk about this article and the year as a whole.
So these types of articles are relatively simple, usually boiling down to doing a search of a specific type of anime (2016 TV anime in this case), sorting them by Score, and talking about them. There's not really much to say about the format and writing in general; it's fine and serves the purpose of this type of article.
However, the most striking thing about this list is something that's a bit of a general "problem" with average scores on MAL: Franchise Bias. Basically, if a show is a second season/prequel/spin-off of an established franchise, a large percentage of the people who are likely to watch it already love the previous work(s) and those who hated previous entries in the franchise are likely to skip it all together, causing slightly inflated scores for items from established franchises (assuming the new entry mostly stays on par with its predecessor).
This Top 20 list includes 12 entries which are sequels or prequels of previous shows. Such shows also make up the entire top 4 series. With this in mind, I'd like to cut out all of the franchise entries and show the top 20 NEW anime of 2016:
20. Orange
19. Ajin
18. Poco's Udon World
17. New Game!
16. Grimgar of Fantasy and Ash
15. Flip Flappers
14. 91 Days
13. Alderamin on the Sky
12. March comes in like a lion
11. KonoSuba: God's Blessing on This Wonderful World!
10. Drifters
9. Tanaka-kun is Always Listless
8. ReLIFE
7. My Hero Academia
6. Mob Psycho 100
5. Saiki Kusuo no Ψ-nan
4. Yuri!!! On ICE
3. Shouwa Genroku Rakugo Shinjuu
2. Re:ZERO
1. ERASED
Personally, I see this as a much more interesting list. Also, I consider it to be much more useful as a "what should I watch?" tool. For one, it doesn't have the Franchise Bias factor which can inflate scores, and two, if you had already seen the old seasons (such as me already being a Durarara!! fan and currently being about half way through the first season Assassination Classroom) you already have an idea of if you would want to watch the next entries in the franchise. It's also interesting to note that this shows more evidence for the existence of the Franchise Bias as the first seasons of both Ajin and Bungou Stray Dogs also aired in 2016. The first season of Ajin barely made it on the "New Anime" list at 19 while the second season was right behind ReLIFE on the article's list. And the first season of Bungou Stray Dogs would have been #21 if I went that far on the New list while the second season beat out My Hero Academia. Also, the second seasons of both shows have less than half as many non-PTW members attached to them, showing the drop-off from season one to season two.
As far as my personal year in anime, as I already said, I haven't watched as much as I should have. I have watched a bit from previous years, such as getting mostly caught up on the Monogatari Series, chronologically by release date making it all the way through Owarimonogatari after starting the year not even half way through Nisemonogatari. Yay progress! I still have a lot to work though with over 100 items between my Watching and On-Hold lists, especially when I want to also watch new stuff at the same time. Too much anime, too little time.
I've also been trying to get back into reading more manga this year, as mentioned in my first blog post of 2016. From that list, I've now finished:
-Anne Freaks
-Negima
-Kabu no Isaki
-Soul Eater
With Berserk, I'm fully caught up and the series is currently on hiatus. -_-
With Kimi ni Todoke, I recently bought the 24th and 25th English volumes and have read them both, so I'm fully caught up with the official English release. Japan has two more volumes in print right now, the 26th of which will be out in English in March. Again, I really, really hope it ends soon so it doesn't drag on too long, but it still has me interested as my favorite shoujo series!
I am currently reading Nodame Cantabile, having recently finished volume 20. Just five more to go!
I haven't touched any of the other series since my post, but I'll probably be picking one of them to start back up after I finish Nodame. I've gotten into a few other things over the year, but in the interest of not dragging this on for too crazy long, I'll stop there. I'll just say that I'm glad to at least be reading manga pretty regularly during my lunch breaks if nothing else. Hopefully I'll get much more read this year!
The last thing I'll talk about for 2016 is that I've recently been getting into watching YouTube people more. On the anime side of things, I've taken a liking to a relatively new channel called Mother's Basement which will be active for two years this May. His main shtick is doing in-depth analysis videos on anime openings. I wasn't really interested by this at first, but they're actually pretty interesting and I like his style of speech. He also does other videos like anime season/year reviews which are nice to get a good grip of anything you might have missed. I really enjoy watching his stuff and look forward to watching more. Although, since he talks about stuff in great detail, it does make me want to watch more recent anime before I watch videos he's done about their openings and such. I guess that's kind of a good thing, but I do still have my backlog to tackle.
Well, this is probably a bit of a disjointed entry, but it's been a while and I had a lot to talk about, with a lot of things that I'd wanted to talk about not even getting mentioned. Oh well. I wanted to at least get a new entry out there. Hopefully I'll start writing more regularly again from now on. Until then, laters!
However, first and foremost this is a blog that's primarily meant for my ramblings about anime. To inspire discussion in today's post for the end of 2016, I'll be doing Article Commentary on this:
Top 20 Best Anime of 2016
Now, before I begin, I do want to mention that I'm a little unprepared for this topic as I'd only watched about 15 things from this year and of those only 7 are TV anime that I've actually finished watching to date. Yeah, it's been a bit of a rough year for scheduling anime viewing time (damn adulting). But whatever, I'll still talk about this article and the year as a whole.
So these types of articles are relatively simple, usually boiling down to doing a search of a specific type of anime (2016 TV anime in this case), sorting them by Score, and talking about them. There's not really much to say about the format and writing in general; it's fine and serves the purpose of this type of article.
However, the most striking thing about this list is something that's a bit of a general "problem" with average scores on MAL: Franchise Bias. Basically, if a show is a second season/prequel/spin-off of an established franchise, a large percentage of the people who are likely to watch it already love the previous work(s) and those who hated previous entries in the franchise are likely to skip it all together, causing slightly inflated scores for items from established franchises (assuming the new entry mostly stays on par with its predecessor).
This Top 20 list includes 12 entries which are sequels or prequels of previous shows. Such shows also make up the entire top 4 series. With this in mind, I'd like to cut out all of the franchise entries and show the top 20 NEW anime of 2016:
20. Orange
19. Ajin
18. Poco's Udon World
17. New Game!
16. Grimgar of Fantasy and Ash
15. Flip Flappers
14. 91 Days
13. Alderamin on the Sky
12. March comes in like a lion
11. KonoSuba: God's Blessing on This Wonderful World!
10. Drifters
9. Tanaka-kun is Always Listless
8. ReLIFE
7. My Hero Academia
6. Mob Psycho 100
5. Saiki Kusuo no Ψ-nan
4. Yuri!!! On ICE
3. Shouwa Genroku Rakugo Shinjuu
2. Re:ZERO
1. ERASED
Personally, I see this as a much more interesting list. Also, I consider it to be much more useful as a "what should I watch?" tool. For one, it doesn't have the Franchise Bias factor which can inflate scores, and two, if you had already seen the old seasons (such as me already being a Durarara!! fan and currently being about half way through the first season Assassination Classroom) you already have an idea of if you would want to watch the next entries in the franchise. It's also interesting to note that this shows more evidence for the existence of the Franchise Bias as the first seasons of both Ajin and Bungou Stray Dogs also aired in 2016. The first season of Ajin barely made it on the "New Anime" list at 19 while the second season was right behind ReLIFE on the article's list. And the first season of Bungou Stray Dogs would have been #21 if I went that far on the New list while the second season beat out My Hero Academia. Also, the second seasons of both shows have less than half as many non-PTW members attached to them, showing the drop-off from season one to season two.
As far as my personal year in anime, as I already said, I haven't watched as much as I should have. I have watched a bit from previous years, such as getting mostly caught up on the Monogatari Series, chronologically by release date making it all the way through Owarimonogatari after starting the year not even half way through Nisemonogatari. Yay progress! I still have a lot to work though with over 100 items between my Watching and On-Hold lists, especially when I want to also watch new stuff at the same time. Too much anime, too little time.
I've also been trying to get back into reading more manga this year, as mentioned in my first blog post of 2016. From that list, I've now finished:
-Anne Freaks
-Negima
-Kabu no Isaki
-Soul Eater
With Berserk, I'm fully caught up and the series is currently on hiatus. -_-
With Kimi ni Todoke, I recently bought the 24th and 25th English volumes and have read them both, so I'm fully caught up with the official English release. Japan has two more volumes in print right now, the 26th of which will be out in English in March. Again, I really, really hope it ends soon so it doesn't drag on too long, but it still has me interested as my favorite shoujo series!
I am currently reading Nodame Cantabile, having recently finished volume 20. Just five more to go!
I haven't touched any of the other series since my post, but I'll probably be picking one of them to start back up after I finish Nodame. I've gotten into a few other things over the year, but in the interest of not dragging this on for too crazy long, I'll stop there. I'll just say that I'm glad to at least be reading manga pretty regularly during my lunch breaks if nothing else. Hopefully I'll get much more read this year!
The last thing I'll talk about for 2016 is that I've recently been getting into watching YouTube people more. On the anime side of things, I've taken a liking to a relatively new channel called Mother's Basement which will be active for two years this May. His main shtick is doing in-depth analysis videos on anime openings. I wasn't really interested by this at first, but they're actually pretty interesting and I like his style of speech. He also does other videos like anime season/year reviews which are nice to get a good grip of anything you might have missed. I really enjoy watching his stuff and look forward to watching more. Although, since he talks about stuff in great detail, it does make me want to watch more recent anime before I watch videos he's done about their openings and such. I guess that's kind of a good thing, but I do still have my backlog to tackle.
Well, this is probably a bit of a disjointed entry, but it's been a while and I had a lot to talk about, with a lot of things that I'd wanted to talk about not even getting mentioned. Oh well. I wanted to at least get a new entry out there. Hopefully I'll start writing more regularly again from now on. Until then, laters!
Posted by pluvia33 | Jan 6, 2017 11:14 AM | 0 comments
August 11th, 2016
Article Commentary - "Why Did People Hate the Second Half of Kabaneri of the Iron Fortress?"
Anime Relations: Koutetsujou no Kabaneri
***Spoiler Warning***
So this will probably be a relatively short "Article Commentary" post. So I saw this pop up on my Panel's Featured Articles feed today:
Why Did People Hate the Second Half of Kabaneri of the Iron Fortress?
First, I'd like to say that I have actually never watched a single episode of Attack on Titan and at this point I don't know if I ever will. The art style and the concept doesn't appeal to me and it seems like it is heavier on military themes than I typically prefer. Also, at this point I've missed the initial buzz of the series, so it doesn't really matter so much anymore that I can't relate to it when friends talk about the show since the hype has calmed down.
So, to the point, the fact that many of the same people from the Attack on Titan production team also created the original Kabaneri of the Iron Fortress anime had no influence on my enjoyment or disappointment in the series. Actually, this fact made me a little hesitant to watch the series at all since AoT has been such a turnoff for me. But alas, I ended up checking it out, mainly because it was the only new anime on Amazon Prime and just about the only anime on there I could find at all which seemed decent and I hadn't already seen. So yeah, I was mainly just trying to get some use out of my Prime subscription since I haven't been able to buy much from Amazon lately.
So, more to the point, the article talks about why people seemed to hate the second half of Kabaneri and I have to mostly agree with the writer here. The first half was a pretty fun, stylish twist on the zombie genre, with some relatively interesting characters. However, when Biba entered the picture, things really went downhill fast. Now, he's not my most hated character in anime history (that would probably go to Light from Death Note), but he is pretty stupid and annoying.
But really, for me, it wasn't so much the very end that really bothered me; it was around the middle point when Biba and the rest of the cast started traveling together. That part really started to drag and really annoyed me. It was kind of rough to push through, but I wasn't really watching much else at the time, so whatever. I actually thought the final climax of the series was pretty entertaining. I mean, yeah, the way they got to that point where the rescue needed to happen was kind of dumb and it was a pretty generic "damsel in distress" situation, but I still felt that the last couple episodes brought back some of the excitement of earlier episodes.
In the end, I ended up giving the anime an 8 score. Now that's not an absolutely fantastic score from me, like, OMG MUST BUY!!, but it's better than just "pretty good" as well. I felt that it did well riding its style and the good characters in the series, while they still had some good character to them. Really, the only major problem I had with the very end of the series was when they tried to redeem Biba as some kind of tragic villain figure in conjunction with the cop-out saving of the main character. It seemed really forced and Biba didn't deserve to be any kind of savior. If they wanted to make sure Ikoma lived in the end, I really wish they would have found another way. But I guess it's like the article says: "The show was so clearly in love with [Biba] that you grew to resent his presence."
The writer of the article also mentions the suspicion that a second season may be coming. I have to agree in saying that I'd be very interested in watching it, hoping that they don't pull another Biba.
Posted by pluvia33 | Aug 11, 2016 7:05 AM | 0 comments
July 28th, 2016
Article Commentary - "Achievement Unlocked: Greatest Personal Anime Achievements"
Since I've started paying attention to articles on MAL, I've found articles that annoyed me and I've found articles that were really interesting. There are also a bunch of articles that fall somewhere in between. Some are just 'meh' while others are actually pretty amusing 'dumb fun'. This article falls closer into the 'good dumb fun' category:
Achievement Unlocked: Greatest Personal Anime Achievements
So I'm a bit of a Trophy whore on PS3/PS4, so the concept of "Achievements" is something kind of close to my heart. While many of these Achievements were amusing, most of them kind of seemed a little dumb to me. In ways, some were really subjective while some directly contradicted others which isn't really in the proper spirit of an Achievement list (if you can't get 100%, what's the point?!). But anyway, again, they were mostly amusing and this is an article I've categorized as 'dumb fun' so I'll try not to take them too seriously (but no promises!)....
No Drop Policy: Oh dear god!! I'm sorry, but no no no nonono!! On my list, I currently have 199 anime dropped (and also 112 manga if we lump that in these Achievements, too). There is no friggin' way I'm going to go back and watch all that stuff that I didn't feel was worth my time, ESPECIALLY when there are things like Naruto: Shippuden which I'd have over 400 episodes to catch up on, and oh god! Over 1,700 episodes of Doraemon?! NOPE!! Not happening!
Perfect 10 Only: So this one is kind of twisted and a direct contradiction to the previous Achievement. Now, I've seen people who rate everything as a 10, but I think they just do it because, "Someone worked hard on it! They deserve a 10 no matter what!" not really because they actually truly feel every entry on their list is a perfect masterpiece in their eyes. The actual concept behind this entry is that you only watch things that you think are truly great and drop everything else! Eh, don't really seem all that realistic. I mean, what if they're watching a movie or one-shot OVA or something? Do they just stop it half way and be like, "Nope! This isn't perfect!!" Just kind of weird, but whatever. =P
Going in Blind: This one is extremely un-measurable for an Achievement. The concept is that you don't pay attention to reviews and recommendations and trailers and descriptions and stuff and just dive into shows as blindly as possible. Not only is this Achievement near impossible to measure other than from your own perspective, it is also rather irresponsible if you're trying to be a Perfect 10 Only person and would make some of the other "Achievements" extremely difficult as well. Meh!
Nostalgia Addict: Hey! An Achievement that I can get behind and one that is very measurable! Watch your favorite anime three or more. Yep! I've watched the original 2006 episodes of Haruhi 6 times, apparently! ^_^
Up to Date: Welp, I don't typically watch extremely long-running shows (I'm really glad that they seem to be getting away from that practice with more recent shounen anime). However, I was actually current and watching Bleach week-to-week when the anime ended! So yeah, that'd count for something, right? I suppose this is a decent Achievement, but do you only "have" it while you are up-to-date? Can you "lose" it if you fall behind or if the show ends?
For Love of the Plot: EXTREMELY subjective Achievement here; seems kind of more like a joke than anything else. You can SAY you watch any anime for the plot, but that isn't really something that can be judged objectively by others in any way other than taking your word for it.
Genre Addict: This one can be a decent Achievement if it had more specific stipulations. Maybe something like "80% of the entries on your list share a single genre." Although that can be kind of easy with some genres since MAL tends to be kind of liberal with some genre labels. It's also kind of rewarding close-mindedness. I'd definitely never fit into this category.
Recommendation Guru: This is closer to a category that I can fit into, but this is also one that'd be really hard to measure for an Achievement. Although I'm not crazy active in the forums, I have chimed in a few times to recommend things to people looking for something specific. I also have a number of things that tend to be go-to recommendations, the most common being: Do you like Hollywood action movies? BLACK LAGOON!!!
Expert Binger: I can totally binge an anime when I like it; even when I don't like it sometimes! My most notable binge has to be watching all of School Days on Valentine's Day 2010. Yeah, it's only 12 episodes, but man was that rough.
Karaoke Master: When I used to watch most of my stuff on DVD, I'd normally skip the OP and ED sequence most of the time unless it was a song I REALLY liked. These days, watching most of my anime via Crunchyroll or downloaded copies, I usually don't bother skipping them anymore unless I'm watching multiple episodes of something with other people and don't want to bore them. Besides, sometimes shows these days actually have important things after the ending credits! I used to also listen to a lot of anime music back in the day, but I don't find as many songs that I absolutely love anymore.
Seiyuu Recognition: I can get really good at this. As mentioned in the article, I was getting pretty good at recognizing Yui Horie, and Yuu Asakawa was an old favorite of mine that I could always pick out. These days, Rie Kugimiya and Tomokazu Sugita are pretty much unmistakable to me, though it helps that they voiced my two most favorite anime characters. But again, kind of hard to measure this as an "Achievement" other than in your own head.
Well-versed in the Classics: Like the "Genre Addict" entry, this one is kind of close minded and it'd also be extremely difficult to maintain if you are still an active anime fan. Sure, you can have a TON of older anime on your list, but to have the MAJORITY of it made up of pre-2000 anime when there is so so much anime being produced these days? You'd have to ignore a lot of stuff to pull that off. Also, the statement of, "Before all anime became fan service in one way or another, there were good anime," kind of rubs me the wrong way. Really? Do you know how common sex was in older anime? Almost everything had a shower scene at some point or another. Even the screenshot for this entry is Ghost in the Shell which included a decent amount of gratuitous nudity. Most of the OVA stuff in the 1980s and 1990s was pointless action/gore porn that seemed required to have boobs in there at some time or another. Now, I'm not saying that everything from that time period was crap or that even when there was nudity that something couldn't also be a great piece of art. What I'm saying is that ALL ANIME EVER MADE was "fan service in one way or another." I mean, what the hell kind of statement is that anyway? Yes, every piece of art and entertainment in general is service to fans in one way or another, even if the only person it is serving is the person who created it or commissioned its creation. Ahhh, sorry to get hung up on that. It just really bothered me, even though the statement was likely mostly being sarcastic. Anyway, rant over. =P
Endless Patience: Haha! Yep, I have this one. Although, I actually checked and my list tells me that I've only rewatched the 2009 Haruhi episodes once. I could have sworn I've watched them at least three times. I really need to watch the series again, and yes, including all 8 Endless Eight episodes. ^_^
One List to Rule Them All: This one is almost as bad as the "No Drop Policy" entry, but not really. There are half as many on my "Plan to Watch" list as I have on my "Dropped" list, and this is all stuff that I'd actually want to watch some day. Also, I have tried to restrain myself from adding too many things to my "Plan to Watch" list these days. Maybe someday I'll get through it. ^_^
No Anime No Life: Ahhh, current status: 680/1,000.... Not too far off. If I finish everything in my "Watching" and "On Hold" sections, I'd only be about 200 away. Someday! And hey! A completely measureable Achievement!! Way to end the article strong!!
So there you have it. While there were some rough spots in the article, I was mostly amused and it was a nice little diversion. Until next time!
Achievement Unlocked: Greatest Personal Anime Achievements
So I'm a bit of a Trophy whore on PS3/PS4, so the concept of "Achievements" is something kind of close to my heart. While many of these Achievements were amusing, most of them kind of seemed a little dumb to me. In ways, some were really subjective while some directly contradicted others which isn't really in the proper spirit of an Achievement list (if you can't get 100%, what's the point?!). But anyway, again, they were mostly amusing and this is an article I've categorized as 'dumb fun' so I'll try not to take them too seriously (but no promises!)....
No Drop Policy: Oh dear god!! I'm sorry, but no no no nonono!! On my list, I currently have 199 anime dropped (and also 112 manga if we lump that in these Achievements, too). There is no friggin' way I'm going to go back and watch all that stuff that I didn't feel was worth my time, ESPECIALLY when there are things like Naruto: Shippuden which I'd have over 400 episodes to catch up on, and oh god! Over 1,700 episodes of Doraemon?! NOPE!! Not happening!
Perfect 10 Only: So this one is kind of twisted and a direct contradiction to the previous Achievement. Now, I've seen people who rate everything as a 10, but I think they just do it because, "Someone worked hard on it! They deserve a 10 no matter what!" not really because they actually truly feel every entry on their list is a perfect masterpiece in their eyes. The actual concept behind this entry is that you only watch things that you think are truly great and drop everything else! Eh, don't really seem all that realistic. I mean, what if they're watching a movie or one-shot OVA or something? Do they just stop it half way and be like, "Nope! This isn't perfect!!" Just kind of weird, but whatever. =P
Going in Blind: This one is extremely un-measurable for an Achievement. The concept is that you don't pay attention to reviews and recommendations and trailers and descriptions and stuff and just dive into shows as blindly as possible. Not only is this Achievement near impossible to measure other than from your own perspective, it is also rather irresponsible if you're trying to be a Perfect 10 Only person and would make some of the other "Achievements" extremely difficult as well. Meh!
Nostalgia Addict: Hey! An Achievement that I can get behind and one that is very measurable! Watch your favorite anime three or more. Yep! I've watched the original 2006 episodes of Haruhi 6 times, apparently! ^_^
Up to Date: Welp, I don't typically watch extremely long-running shows (I'm really glad that they seem to be getting away from that practice with more recent shounen anime). However, I was actually current and watching Bleach week-to-week when the anime ended! So yeah, that'd count for something, right? I suppose this is a decent Achievement, but do you only "have" it while you are up-to-date? Can you "lose" it if you fall behind or if the show ends?
For Love of the Plot: EXTREMELY subjective Achievement here; seems kind of more like a joke than anything else. You can SAY you watch any anime for the plot, but that isn't really something that can be judged objectively by others in any way other than taking your word for it.
Genre Addict: This one can be a decent Achievement if it had more specific stipulations. Maybe something like "80% of the entries on your list share a single genre." Although that can be kind of easy with some genres since MAL tends to be kind of liberal with some genre labels. It's also kind of rewarding close-mindedness. I'd definitely never fit into this category.
Recommendation Guru: This is closer to a category that I can fit into, but this is also one that'd be really hard to measure for an Achievement. Although I'm not crazy active in the forums, I have chimed in a few times to recommend things to people looking for something specific. I also have a number of things that tend to be go-to recommendations, the most common being: Do you like Hollywood action movies? BLACK LAGOON!!!
Expert Binger: I can totally binge an anime when I like it; even when I don't like it sometimes! My most notable binge has to be watching all of School Days on Valentine's Day 2010. Yeah, it's only 12 episodes, but man was that rough.
Karaoke Master: When I used to watch most of my stuff on DVD, I'd normally skip the OP and ED sequence most of the time unless it was a song I REALLY liked. These days, watching most of my anime via Crunchyroll or downloaded copies, I usually don't bother skipping them anymore unless I'm watching multiple episodes of something with other people and don't want to bore them. Besides, sometimes shows these days actually have important things after the ending credits! I used to also listen to a lot of anime music back in the day, but I don't find as many songs that I absolutely love anymore.
Seiyuu Recognition: I can get really good at this. As mentioned in the article, I was getting pretty good at recognizing Yui Horie, and Yuu Asakawa was an old favorite of mine that I could always pick out. These days, Rie Kugimiya and Tomokazu Sugita are pretty much unmistakable to me, though it helps that they voiced my two most favorite anime characters. But again, kind of hard to measure this as an "Achievement" other than in your own head.
Well-versed in the Classics: Like the "Genre Addict" entry, this one is kind of close minded and it'd also be extremely difficult to maintain if you are still an active anime fan. Sure, you can have a TON of older anime on your list, but to have the MAJORITY of it made up of pre-2000 anime when there is so so much anime being produced these days? You'd have to ignore a lot of stuff to pull that off. Also, the statement of, "Before all anime became fan service in one way or another, there were good anime," kind of rubs me the wrong way. Really? Do you know how common sex was in older anime? Almost everything had a shower scene at some point or another. Even the screenshot for this entry is Ghost in the Shell which included a decent amount of gratuitous nudity. Most of the OVA stuff in the 1980s and 1990s was pointless action/gore porn that seemed required to have boobs in there at some time or another. Now, I'm not saying that everything from that time period was crap or that even when there was nudity that something couldn't also be a great piece of art. What I'm saying is that ALL ANIME EVER MADE was "fan service in one way or another." I mean, what the hell kind of statement is that anyway? Yes, every piece of art and entertainment in general is service to fans in one way or another, even if the only person it is serving is the person who created it or commissioned its creation. Ahhh, sorry to get hung up on that. It just really bothered me, even though the statement was likely mostly being sarcastic. Anyway, rant over. =P
Endless Patience: Haha! Yep, I have this one. Although, I actually checked and my list tells me that I've only rewatched the 2009 Haruhi episodes once. I could have sworn I've watched them at least three times. I really need to watch the series again, and yes, including all 8 Endless Eight episodes. ^_^
One List to Rule Them All: This one is almost as bad as the "No Drop Policy" entry, but not really. There are half as many on my "Plan to Watch" list as I have on my "Dropped" list, and this is all stuff that I'd actually want to watch some day. Also, I have tried to restrain myself from adding too many things to my "Plan to Watch" list these days. Maybe someday I'll get through it. ^_^
No Anime No Life: Ahhh, current status: 680/1,000.... Not too far off. If I finish everything in my "Watching" and "On Hold" sections, I'd only be about 200 away. Someday! And hey! A completely measureable Achievement!! Way to end the article strong!!
So there you have it. While there were some rough spots in the article, I was mostly amused and it was a nice little diversion. Until next time!
Posted by pluvia33 | Jul 28, 2016 8:52 AM | 0 comments
July 11th, 2016
Article Commentary - "Subs vs. Dubs: Is Anime In English Really That Bad?"
Anime Relations: Love Hina, Boogiepop wa Warawanai, Howl no Ugoku Shiro, Black Lagoon, Toradora!, Panty & Stocking with Garterbelt, Mahou Shoujo Madoka★Magica
In this entry I'll be talking about an article which was just posted today:
Subs vs. Dubs: Is Anime In English Really That Bad?
Yes, the old Sub vs. Dub debate. People still love talking about it. Now I do touch on the subject of my personal preference in the "My Anime History" section of my MAL profile page, but I've never really elaborated on it. With this article coming out, I figured it'd be a good time to do so. For ease of reading, this is all that I mention about the subject on my profile:
I used to primarily watch anime dubbed and only watch things subbed on occasion. Boogiepop Phantom was the first series that I loved much more with subtitles. Then after watching the Love Hina anime I hated the dub so much that I became a total sub-only anime fan.
Now that's a bit of an oversimplification when it comes to my full opinion on English-dubbed anime, while it also doesn't really share my complete thoughts on the subject. Yes, I have become a bit of a purist when it comes to language not only in anime, but in pretty much any foreign entertainment. If I'm watching something, I'd prefer it to be in the original intended language, be it Japanese anime, a K-drama, kung fu movies, French films, etc. However, my preference when it comes to anime is particularly strong since I consume it more than any other foreign entertainment and because I'm more familiar with Japanese than any other non-English language. Although I'm not anywhere near fluent in the language, I took two years of Japanese courses in college and have gained a familiarity with it from watching tons of subbed anime over the last 15 years.
Before I go any further, I do want to emphasize one very small yet very important word in what I've been saying and what I will continue to say: I. Although I may have had some elitist feelings in the past when it comes to the Sub vs. Dub debate, I just don't really care much about how other people watch their anime anymore. My opinions are just that: Mine. This is all a personal preference and if people like watching English dubs, then that's just their preference. The only thing that really worries me about dub fans is that poor English voice acting can make them think a series is worse than it should be, like if someone has only experienced Toradora! or Madoka Magica in English. But in the end, I've just come to terms with the fact that dub-only/dub-preferred fans are just experiencing a different form of entertainment when they watch stuff in English.
Anyway, since this is supposedly an "Article Commentary" post, I should probably talk more about the points that the article made, huh? Well, I'd say I pretty much agree with all of the points brought up by the article:
Late to the Party: With the primary form of delivery for anime now being subtitled streaming on sites like Crunchyroll, many people are actually being introduced to anime in subbed format. This is vastly different from the old days when the majority of people consumed their anime on TV or home video which was almost always dubbed; my generation was exposed to English dubs more and were therefore accustomed to how it sounded. These days even if new fans first caught a glimpse of anime dubbed on TV, as they get deeper into the hobby it's only a matter of time before most of what they watch is subbed online. In recent years Funimation has been making an effort to make English dubs more relevant again. With their streaming service they have begun doing broadcast dubs of more than half of the shows they put online at the same time the subtitled version is released. Since they dub nearly everything that they put out on home video anyway and since they have the means, they are able to make this work. I'm not sure if this is enough to make more English dub fans, but I'm sure it goes a long way to keep dub fans happy.
Lost in Translation: Now, the article that was linked in this section is primarily composed of rather old anime. Even though I'm not a fan of English dubbed anime, I do acknowledge that most dubs released in recent years are vast improvements over those released in the early 2000s or earlier. However, the essential thoughts behind the mention of "moe" is basically why I'm primarily a sub-only anime fan. While the article specifically calls out moe, I'd personally expand this to all attempts to emulate Japanese-style speech. Personally, if any series is "too Japanese" (mainly meaning it primarily takes place in present day or past Japan), the possibility of me even considering the English dub for my own personal consumption is a resounding "Hell No!"
Past and Present: Give Dubs a Chance: So the last sentence of the previous section implies that I am willing to give an English dub a chance under the right circumstance. And yeah, that's kind of true. While I'd almost never choose to watch an anime dubbed for my first viewing when left to my own devices, I am okay with watching some things dubbed if watching them with other people who are not used to subbed anime. And again, as implied above, the main criteria to make this determination is if the series is not "too Japanese". What I mean by this is if a series primarily takes place in a non-Japanese setting or it takes place in a fantasy or sci-fi world, an English dub is much less likely to bother me. For example, I watched the first few episodes of Black Lagoon in English with a group of people and that was rather well done and appropriate since most of the characters are actually speaking in English most of the time as far as the story is concerned. I've also watched a number of Miyazaki movies in English and the dub for Howl's Moving Castle (a non-Japanese fantasy story) was actually rather good! Then there's Panty & Stocking with Garterbelt which was mentioned in the article. I watched the first two episodes of this subbed around when it first came out and had to drop it. The dialog was so fast that it was hard to follow (at least for me) and the humor didn't really seem to translate well; it just came off as dumb and boring. If there was ever an English dub that I may actually try watching by myself, this would probably be it. The dub has been praised not only in this article and by other anime writers online, but it was also highly recommended by a close friend of mine.
It's still kind of hard for me to get into the mindset of watching anime in English, but again, it is just a personal preference. I may have my own personal bias, but if someone likes English dubs, good for them. Whichever way you like your anime, it makes you no more or less of an anime fan. Just know that whenever I am talking about an anime, assume that I'm referring to the original Japanese audio with English subtitles.
Subs vs. Dubs: Is Anime In English Really That Bad?
Yes, the old Sub vs. Dub debate. People still love talking about it. Now I do touch on the subject of my personal preference in the "My Anime History" section of my MAL profile page, but I've never really elaborated on it. With this article coming out, I figured it'd be a good time to do so. For ease of reading, this is all that I mention about the subject on my profile:
I used to primarily watch anime dubbed and only watch things subbed on occasion. Boogiepop Phantom was the first series that I loved much more with subtitles. Then after watching the Love Hina anime I hated the dub so much that I became a total sub-only anime fan.
Now that's a bit of an oversimplification when it comes to my full opinion on English-dubbed anime, while it also doesn't really share my complete thoughts on the subject. Yes, I have become a bit of a purist when it comes to language not only in anime, but in pretty much any foreign entertainment. If I'm watching something, I'd prefer it to be in the original intended language, be it Japanese anime, a K-drama, kung fu movies, French films, etc. However, my preference when it comes to anime is particularly strong since I consume it more than any other foreign entertainment and because I'm more familiar with Japanese than any other non-English language. Although I'm not anywhere near fluent in the language, I took two years of Japanese courses in college and have gained a familiarity with it from watching tons of subbed anime over the last 15 years.
Before I go any further, I do want to emphasize one very small yet very important word in what I've been saying and what I will continue to say: I. Although I may have had some elitist feelings in the past when it comes to the Sub vs. Dub debate, I just don't really care much about how other people watch their anime anymore. My opinions are just that: Mine. This is all a personal preference and if people like watching English dubs, then that's just their preference. The only thing that really worries me about dub fans is that poor English voice acting can make them think a series is worse than it should be, like if someone has only experienced Toradora! or Madoka Magica in English. But in the end, I've just come to terms with the fact that dub-only/dub-preferred fans are just experiencing a different form of entertainment when they watch stuff in English.
Anyway, since this is supposedly an "Article Commentary" post, I should probably talk more about the points that the article made, huh? Well, I'd say I pretty much agree with all of the points brought up by the article:
Late to the Party: With the primary form of delivery for anime now being subtitled streaming on sites like Crunchyroll, many people are actually being introduced to anime in subbed format. This is vastly different from the old days when the majority of people consumed their anime on TV or home video which was almost always dubbed; my generation was exposed to English dubs more and were therefore accustomed to how it sounded. These days even if new fans first caught a glimpse of anime dubbed on TV, as they get deeper into the hobby it's only a matter of time before most of what they watch is subbed online. In recent years Funimation has been making an effort to make English dubs more relevant again. With their streaming service they have begun doing broadcast dubs of more than half of the shows they put online at the same time the subtitled version is released. Since they dub nearly everything that they put out on home video anyway and since they have the means, they are able to make this work. I'm not sure if this is enough to make more English dub fans, but I'm sure it goes a long way to keep dub fans happy.
Lost in Translation: Now, the article that was linked in this section is primarily composed of rather old anime. Even though I'm not a fan of English dubbed anime, I do acknowledge that most dubs released in recent years are vast improvements over those released in the early 2000s or earlier. However, the essential thoughts behind the mention of "moe" is basically why I'm primarily a sub-only anime fan. While the article specifically calls out moe, I'd personally expand this to all attempts to emulate Japanese-style speech. Personally, if any series is "too Japanese" (mainly meaning it primarily takes place in present day or past Japan), the possibility of me even considering the English dub for my own personal consumption is a resounding "Hell No!"
Past and Present: Give Dubs a Chance: So the last sentence of the previous section implies that I am willing to give an English dub a chance under the right circumstance. And yeah, that's kind of true. While I'd almost never choose to watch an anime dubbed for my first viewing when left to my own devices, I am okay with watching some things dubbed if watching them with other people who are not used to subbed anime. And again, as implied above, the main criteria to make this determination is if the series is not "too Japanese". What I mean by this is if a series primarily takes place in a non-Japanese setting or it takes place in a fantasy or sci-fi world, an English dub is much less likely to bother me. For example, I watched the first few episodes of Black Lagoon in English with a group of people and that was rather well done and appropriate since most of the characters are actually speaking in English most of the time as far as the story is concerned. I've also watched a number of Miyazaki movies in English and the dub for Howl's Moving Castle (a non-Japanese fantasy story) was actually rather good! Then there's Panty & Stocking with Garterbelt which was mentioned in the article. I watched the first two episodes of this subbed around when it first came out and had to drop it. The dialog was so fast that it was hard to follow (at least for me) and the humor didn't really seem to translate well; it just came off as dumb and boring. If there was ever an English dub that I may actually try watching by myself, this would probably be it. The dub has been praised not only in this article and by other anime writers online, but it was also highly recommended by a close friend of mine.
It's still kind of hard for me to get into the mindset of watching anime in English, but again, it is just a personal preference. I may have my own personal bias, but if someone likes English dubs, good for them. Whichever way you like your anime, it makes you no more or less of an anime fan. Just know that whenever I am talking about an anime, assume that I'm referring to the original Japanese audio with English subtitles.
Posted by pluvia33 | Jul 11, 2016 11:58 AM | 0 comments
June 27th, 2016
Article Commentary - "Anime vs Cartoons: A Comparative Analysis"
Anime Relations: Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon
A little over a month ago, I wrote a blog post criticizing an article here on MAL which supposedly listed the Top 20 Best Slice of Life Anime of All Time. Now, I don't know if I was a little blind and didn't notice it before or if it was added later, but that article actually has a disclaimer stating: Based on the MAL Slice of Life page in order of the amount of members as of the date of publication. Continuations or related anime are listed as honorable mentions. Even with it being upfront about how the list was made, I still think it's a pretty un-thoughtful way to put together an article, especially with how liberally the Slice of Life genre tag is used for shows.
However, since I spent an entire blog post criticizing an article, I feel that I should also talk about articles on MAL that I actually like. So yeah, "Article Commentary" posts might become a thing!
So, today I came across this article:
Anime vs Cartoons: A Comparative Analysis
The article talks about a subject that is rather close to my heart. I grew up watching American cartoons. Almost everyone in my family had an official favorite Looney Tunes character (mine was Marvin the Martian). I loved TMNT, X-MEN, Mighty Max, Conan the Adventurer, Spider-Man, etc., etc.... As I grew to love Japanese anime, I never began to look down on American animation. Yes, there is a lot of crappy stuff out there and a bunch of shows that are offensively aimed at a very young audience with no attempt made to make them tolerable to anyone over the age of 10; however, if you look close enough at Japanese animation, you'll find the same kind of stuff. As I went through my teen and early adult years, I could always find a few pieces of American animation that I could love. As I began to obsessively collect DVDs, I alphabetized everything and divided everything into one of two categories: Animation or Live-Action. I would never separate Japanese and American animation. So I would have things like Samurai Jack right next to Sailor Moon or Powerpuff Girls right next to Paranoia Agent. I enjoyed "offending" other anime fans by calling Japanese animation "cartoons" and calling American animation "anime" just for fun (anime is really just short for animation after all) when I would show them my collection. Really, they never had anything to say back because my collection was always bigger than theirs.
So anyway, I really liked this article. A lot of thought was put into it and it looked like a good deal of research was done as well. Now, I've heard about how early anime producers were heavily inspired by Disney and other early American cartoons (such as Betty Boop), but I haven't really heard that much about how Japanese anime evolved past that. Why did American animation become primarily a for-kids/comedy affair while anime branched off into nearly every conceivable genre in Japan? I've always assumed that it had a connection with how diverse a medium manga is compared to American comics, but then why had American comics been so predominantly a single-genre medium?
This article gave a very simple and logically appropriate answer to this questions: The Comics Code Authority. Leave it to unfounded fears of corrupting children to impede the growth of an art form in America. Yes, there are many other contributing factors to why animation and comics have been treated the way they have over the last half-century or so in America compared to Japan, but this does seem like a very key factor and one that I find to be the most interesting. If the majority of comics are forced to be kid-friendly then it's no wonder why comics and animation have got the reputation of being kid's stuff.
These days, things are definitely looking up in the world of American animation. Over the years, Disney, Pixar and other studios have made the enjoyment of animated movies a little more acceptable for adults that don't have kids. The Simpsons and South Park have pushed for the acceptance of mature animated comedies. And in more recent years more animated shows have been able to come out with continues and smart plotlines. It is also a good sign that after being adjusted for a few decades in the 1980s and 1990s, The Comics Code Authority was abandoned in the early 2000s.
As the world continues to get smaller and different cultures keep influencing each other, it is a very interesting time to be a fan of animation. I look forward to the coming decades.
However, since I spent an entire blog post criticizing an article, I feel that I should also talk about articles on MAL that I actually like. So yeah, "Article Commentary" posts might become a thing!
So, today I came across this article:
Anime vs Cartoons: A Comparative Analysis
The article talks about a subject that is rather close to my heart. I grew up watching American cartoons. Almost everyone in my family had an official favorite Looney Tunes character (mine was Marvin the Martian). I loved TMNT, X-MEN, Mighty Max, Conan the Adventurer, Spider-Man, etc., etc.... As I grew to love Japanese anime, I never began to look down on American animation. Yes, there is a lot of crappy stuff out there and a bunch of shows that are offensively aimed at a very young audience with no attempt made to make them tolerable to anyone over the age of 10; however, if you look close enough at Japanese animation, you'll find the same kind of stuff. As I went through my teen and early adult years, I could always find a few pieces of American animation that I could love. As I began to obsessively collect DVDs, I alphabetized everything and divided everything into one of two categories: Animation or Live-Action. I would never separate Japanese and American animation. So I would have things like Samurai Jack right next to Sailor Moon or Powerpuff Girls right next to Paranoia Agent. I enjoyed "offending" other anime fans by calling Japanese animation "cartoons" and calling American animation "anime" just for fun (anime is really just short for animation after all) when I would show them my collection. Really, they never had anything to say back because my collection was always bigger than theirs.
So anyway, I really liked this article. A lot of thought was put into it and it looked like a good deal of research was done as well. Now, I've heard about how early anime producers were heavily inspired by Disney and other early American cartoons (such as Betty Boop), but I haven't really heard that much about how Japanese anime evolved past that. Why did American animation become primarily a for-kids/comedy affair while anime branched off into nearly every conceivable genre in Japan? I've always assumed that it had a connection with how diverse a medium manga is compared to American comics, but then why had American comics been so predominantly a single-genre medium?
This article gave a very simple and logically appropriate answer to this questions: The Comics Code Authority. Leave it to unfounded fears of corrupting children to impede the growth of an art form in America. Yes, there are many other contributing factors to why animation and comics have been treated the way they have over the last half-century or so in America compared to Japan, but this does seem like a very key factor and one that I find to be the most interesting. If the majority of comics are forced to be kid-friendly then it's no wonder why comics and animation have got the reputation of being kid's stuff.
These days, things are definitely looking up in the world of American animation. Over the years, Disney, Pixar and other studios have made the enjoyment of animated movies a little more acceptable for adults that don't have kids. The Simpsons and South Park have pushed for the acceptance of mature animated comedies. And in more recent years more animated shows have been able to come out with continues and smart plotlines. It is also a good sign that after being adjusted for a few decades in the 1980s and 1990s, The Comics Code Authority was abandoned in the early 2000s.
As the world continues to get smaller and different cultures keep influencing each other, it is a very interesting time to be a fan of animation. I look forward to the coming decades.
Posted by pluvia33 | Jun 27, 2016 1:32 PM | 0 comments