ANIME EXPLOSION: It's... Profitmón!

Fortune Magazine ^ | Dec, 2005 | Daniel Roth

[JAWs]

          The phrase, 'coddling fans' is especially telling. The lamestream media entertainment industry goes out of its way to insult thier audience. They seek to destroy the file swappers, instead of co-opting them, which is what they should do.
          Of course ADV has a few advantages over the mainstrea: pre-existing word of mouth and they don't bear the costs of creation, nor the initial risks the animators overseas need worry about.

[z3n]

I didn't read the article, but I wanted to respond to your comment about how they operate. Specifically, how they embrace file-sharers. This is the basic difference in philosophy between artists and entertainers. (I know the comparisons to capitalism / communism are tempting, but lets avoid that). Artists want to share first, and profit second. Entertainers want to package something that sells. Modern entertainment industry exploits intellectual property rights that go way beyond protecting artists, and instead, attempt to control access to increase profits.

[TOWER]

Now, if they could just get Adult Swim to air 24/7...

[atomicpossum]

True, it's a rather, shall we say, "elite" subset of fans who'll dress up in public as the miniskirted title character from Sailor Moon,

[JAWs]

Now, if they could just get Adult Swim to air 24/7...

Now if we can just get Adult Swim to drop 'The Boondocks,' "Tom Goes to the Mayor' and '12 Oz. Mouse!'

[DTogo]

Japanese anime making inroads in America, already very popular for years in my house.

Japan * ping * (kono risuto ni hairitai ka detai wo shirasete kudasai let me know if you want on or off this list)

[JAWs]

What is interesting is how things have changed since my childhood. My older brothers watched 'Speed Racer.' I loved ''Battle of the Planets' 'Force Five' and 'Starblazers,' all of which were edited, rewritten and retitled for American audiences, erasing all traces of their Japanese orgins. Now, with most shows, there is far less westernization. Especially with the names.

[Joe Brower]

Ping.

[Eepsy]

I'm already indoctrinating the next generation. My daughter can't get enough of Panda Go Panda and Totoro. My son loves God Mars, Robotech, and the old Gigantor. Everything on his Christmas list this year was a variation on the giant robot theme.

As for my husband and I, we got hooked on fansubbed downloads of Samurai 7, and are now in the process of going through the DVDs that are now being released since its licencing. We highly reccommend it:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0009I7NFI/qid=1133450912/sr=1-2/ref=sr_1_2/104-4035660-6059141?s=dvd&v=glance&n=130

[Joe Brower]

Eva Unit 1 from Evangelion. While anime like this looks (and is) very appealing to boys from about 3rd grade on up (not to mention some grownups!), some of the subject matter is definitely not for kids.

[DTogo]

I was pretty run-of-the-mill with standard Saturday morning fare of the '70s, but enjoyed Star Trek, UFO, and Space 1999 in the evening; nothing Japanese until the early '80s. Now popular shows in my house are Full Metal Alchemist, GIS: Stand Alone Complex, Samurai Champloo, S-CRYED, Pokemon, Miyazaki films, and Bo-bo-bo-bo Bo Bo-bo-bo (for laughs).

[Oztrich Boy]

some of the subject matter is definitely not for kids.

The Japanese view manga/anime as just another medium to tell a story, not "kid-stuff".

So Hideaki could take 15 hours of Evangelion to work out his "issues", creating a involved (OK confusing) story. (But Shingi is still an annoying wuss)

Yet back in the day when Miyazaki was still a Marxist Greenie, he manage to create the hardest working little Princess Ever

[JAWs]

Shinji is not annoying. ASUKA is annoying!

[JenB]

Shinji is the most annoying character ever created. If it hadn't been for Shinji NGE might have been a great show.

[Oztrich Boy]

See above. I LIKE redheads with brass ovaries.

[TC Rider]

Now if we can just get Adult Swim to drop 'The Boondocks,' "Tom Goes to the Mayor' and '12 Oz. Mouse!'

I have incredible mixed emotions over two of these. I can live the rest of my life without 12 oz mouse.

Boondocks - Hate Gruder and his politics, love the style and detail of the animation. Actually enjoy the show when he stays away from politics. Grandpa fighting the blind man was classic.

Tom goes to the Mayor - sometimes mind-numbingly bad, other times it's LOL funny. The vets restaurant and "Rats off to you" both really worked for me.

My first DVR arrives on Tuesday, so I'll now have the chance to sample a lot more of Adult Swim, without losing sleep.

My current favs are ATHF, Robot Chicken, luke warm on Birdman and Stroker and Hoop, though both have their moments.

[Joe Brower]

"Shinji is not annoying. ASUKA is annoying!"

I thought the whole bunch of them were annoying to varying degrees, and for various reasons, Rei least of all. And she turned out to be a clone! Shinji's compensation mechanism was simply to scream hysterically loud and often.

Let's face it, though, if you were a fifteen year-old kid charged with saving humanity by driving a hundred-foot-tall biomechanical, half-alien-derived, anthropomorphic war-machine in one life-and-death battle after another, you'd have issues too! $;-)

I thought the series overall was rather thought-provoking, though. The whole Roman-Catholic bit that was heavily overlaid on the entire story lent it a unique mystique, right down the quotes from John Milton's "Paradise Lost". I read somewhere that even the name "Evangelion" is taken from the old word "evangel", meaning "Gospel"; literally "creatures of the Gospel", or somesuch. Interesting what happens to Christianity when the Japanese get ahold of it!

It was a confusing story, though. Still is!

[Joe Brower]

Nausicaa was great. My seven year-old boy had no problem absorbing it, with my occasional explanation of some bits.

We have watched several other examples of Miyazaki's work, including "Spirited Away", "Castles in the Sky", Princess Mononoke", and "Kiki's Delivery Service" (which is hysterical and very heart-warming). They're all examples of what anime can achieve when done right (all Disney-dubbed releases, to boot).

[Itzlzha]

I've been a fan for waaaaay longer than the average "Fan Boy"...and I recommend

...to anyone interested in trying it out for the first time...NOTE: NOT FOR KIDS!!!

[LouD]

I love Initial D - I wish they'd release them all in U.S. versions...