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Anime

NDK2K: Colorado's Anime Convention 132

Posted by timothy from the no-mention-of-la-blue-girl dept.
Tetsujin28 writes: "TETSUJIN.ORG has a report on Nan Desu Kan 2K, Colorado's anime convention, which took place on October 13 - 15. The anime forecast for the next year? Cars, more cars, and cuteness." Highlights of the gathering included a concert by Mari ("Voice of Lynn Min-Mei") Iijima, appearances by movers and shakers in the manga and anime field, and previews of upcoming films. A cool report -- wouldn't everyone like to dub their own anime? And funny, too: In the costume contest, "[i]t may be more noteworthy that of just over 100 contestants, there were no fewer than nineteen Sailor Scouts."
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NDK2K: Colorado's Anime Convention

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  • Absolutely.
    It's better to not understand than to think you do, and be wrong, though. One friend of mine sees Lain and goes "This is so lame, it's just a basic statement of existentialism, borrowing heavily from Descartes' theories and then repeating itself."
    To which I reply "Good, good, except for the repeating part. You know, you might just catch the rest of it if you watched it instead of complaining and pseudointellectialy posturing the whole time."
    "But why should I watch it, it's just been repeating from the first episode!" he says. Waargh!

    Perfect Blue on the other hand. Wow, I'd have to say that's the first time I've seen a movie that left me profoundly disturbed. That's a REAL horror movie. (CREEPY side note: The guy who can't stand Lain called the ending in the first 10 minutes of the show. I know for a fact he hadn't seen it before. Weird.)
  • If you think that is funny do a search on whitehouse or intern. Personally, I think everyone who works in the whitehouse or is an intern or is japanese must be a porn star or peddler of pornographic material.

  • Why do people assume anime will appeal to people who are technologically sophisticated? I wonder how many readers find this to be relevant news. News for Nerds... hmmm... it isn't news, an it doesn't seem to be "stuff that matters." Anime = mass produced, low-talent artwork with minimal updates per frame = mass produced garbage
  • ...more like the emotional charge of "Linux geek." (Seriously, I can't think of a better example.) I've met normal people from Japan who have otaku friends. (The term they use, too.) It's considered a bit weird, but now that the stigma is gone from the Miyazaki (Tsutomu) killings, it's pretty much equivalent to geek.
  • lol - actually i said Larimer cause i think that would be the only place downtown out-of-staters might possibly have heard of.

    Actually, i think the whole of downtown is sort of a yuppie-mart anymore.


    FluX
    After 16 years, MTV has finally completed its deevolution into the shiny things network

  • Besides, most of the anime that has impossibly large breasts or other anatomical regions (with the exception of noses and eyes ;-) as a central feature isn't worth watching. In most of the good stuff (Macross Plus, Gundam 0080, Captain Harlock, Serial Experiments Lain, Vampire Princess Miyu, and Vision of Escaflowne, to name a few), almost all of the characters are fairly realistically proportioned. Even in the good fantasy or fantasy/comedy anime, things aren't any worse than they are in comprable American art. Except in specific cases... Naga from Slayers comes to mind, but she's (from what I've seen) a take-off of the sterotypical evil sorceress of American fantasy. You just have to take one look at her outfit to see this.

    Lets put it this way: it all depends on what you watch. Just like it does for (gasp!) live action movies/TV. The main reason "girls with big breasts" is associated with anime is because that's what the American media likes to paint it as (at the same time insisting that animation is for kids only), and because that's what they try to limit imports to. I seem to recall someone mentioning to me that if you look back before big American companies got involved in distributing anime, things were a lot different.


    -RickHunter
  • They're SENSHI! They're soldiers, not cookier-sellers! ^_^ (Sorry, I'm one of those SailorMoon freaks, and I despise the dub.)
  • I don't see how anime has anything to do with linux, nerds, open source, or nerds. Waste of my time.
  • Arguably even more successful than Takahashi, we have this all-female team, with such credits to their collective name as X1999, RG Veda, Tokyo Babylon, and so forth.

    Oh, and that one they don't like people mentioning: a little thing called Rayearth. But come on, they can't be totally perfect, now can they?
    ----------
  • three words:

    supply and demand
  • Who needs a modded DVD player? My untampered set-top DVD player is for American discs, and my Creative DVD player in my PC is for Japanese disks (the installer lets you choose what region you are in). Video card outputs into the TV and voila, multiregion DVD watching goodness.
  • Actually, I looked into it a while back. Robotech II: The Sentinels looked pretty cool how it was panning out. They had both the old cast as older captain-types, and new characters to be heroic and all. The new mecha were cool, the Zentradi were on the good guys (with revamped battle pods), and there were tons of freaky aliens. That, and the Invid make much better bad guys then the Zentradi. That, and I like how they mixed the mecha from all 3 series into the fleet (Hovertanks from Southern Cross, Cyclones & Alphas from Invid, and a new SDF, battle pods, and destroids). And its got Praxians. Yesssss, Praxians. Amazon space-babes riding mechanical horses, what more do you want?

    Yes, the OAV sucked, but they really didn't get the plot underway. I mean, it was a wedding and a ship disembarking, wtf would you expect from the first 4 episodes of what was planned to be a very long series.
  • True, in american comics and animation things aren't that much difference. Look at the women in X-men, etc.

    -lx
  • Thanks for your input. I disagree. End of conversation.


    Chas - The one, the only.
    THANK GOD!!!
  • The hot, scantily-clad chicks help out a lot.
  • ...was the headline in the campus newspaper for our own local anime festival. The article [umich.edu] is good for many laughs.
  • I missed it this year...
    Money, the root of all frustration.

    I was crazy enough to take greyhound to it last year,
    24 hours each way.
    The things I liked most about MDK'99 were the
    Japanese culture seminars.
    (Yes, I know this is about MDK'2K, but I can only speak of what I know).

    Last year, I hit two different japanese language classes
    (which convinced me that I could indeed learn it),
    a taiko (drum) demo, cooking seminar (which was a bit interesting at that altitude),
    and I know I missed a lot more because I had my ass camped out in viewing rooms the rest of the time.
    One of the best con's I've hit.

    And not to sound like a mega-troll, but to those who missed it,
    always assume there is an anime con the next weekend,
    check any anime sites you know of (www.anipike.com comes to mind first).
    Be proactive, hunt down the cons, and don't give up until you have their head on a stick. ;)
    Even if it's just a small one you have to drive a day to get to,
    it's a new experience, a chance to meet other otaku,
    and above all, to watch more anime.

  • Get some news going people! (Score:2)

    by Anonymous Coward
    Why not warn us of this? I would have went(I live in denver) but only see reports... Reports are reports. Forwarning is News... idiots...
  • I agree with you 100% People are just being sheep. "what? everyone else on my block likes anime? Well then I guess its cool. I am going to start liking it too!"
    I could see how a 10 year old might like it. I used to like GI Joe, but come on, I haven't watched that since I was 12.
  • I know this is sort of not on topic exactly, but as a HUGE Macross fan, I'm wondering if we'll ever get new RoboTech episodes. Wouldn't that be cool?

    Fawking Trolls! [slashdot.org]
  • I also noticed that anime topics on slashdot always have the least number of posts than any other subject. Just showing you where slashdotter's interests are....
  • Not too sure about new robotech, but there's been like 3 sequels to Macross: Macross II, Macross Plus and Macross 7. Macross II and Macross Plus have both been released in America, 7 can probably be easily found as fansubs.

    Macross Plus is the only one worth watching though.
  • That AC was right man.
  • I've been a fan of Anime/Manga/Japanimation ever since I first watched StarBlazers as a kid. But one thing I've been puzzled about for some time is how Manga and Anime relate, and how the two terms came about.
    Or is it merely a matter of semantics?
  • this post is not intended to be a troll or flaimbait...i am being serious and would like some feedback.

    what does anyone see in anime? personally, only complaints come to my mind while watching it.

    here are a few things i dislike about anime:

    • terrible dialogue - i understand that something must be lost in the translation, but come on...the essential meaning of the words remains. the dialogue in japanese cartoons is abysmal. it is very poorly refined. scenes drag on and on with simple banter and 'jokes' in which only small children could actually find humour. frankly, i think a group of mentally handicapped americans could come up with dialogue of similar quality
    • poor plots - all of the anime i have been unfortunate enough to view has been mind-numbingly basic and/or just plain stupid. how anyone can find it engaging is beyond me. a plot point which would be assumed/glanced over in an american production is explored at length in an anime. ugh...i suppose this is true of most asian cinema.
    • bad animation - a talking character's mouth will usually animate at a few frames per second, in an open-shut-open-shut manner; motion-blur effects suddenly appear behind characters, seemingly for no reason; designs that would never even be considered outside japan...the characters, landscapes and objects are mostly bland, uninspired, ugly and/or simply stupid in appearance
    in all, i cannot find any redeeming qualities. at least disney has high standards for its animation...anime has nothing. someone should introduce the concept of fine theatre to the japanese...have they even heard of shakespeare over there?
  • Smart people inclined to agree WOULDNT BE READING THE DAMN ANIME CRAP!!!

  • Re:Other anime conventions (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward
    If you want to find out about upcoming anime conventions, try EventNation.com [eventnation.com]. They had Nan Desu Kan listed there, and I know they have some others as well.

  • On the other hand, anime (especially manga) has historically been no better than pornography[...]

    Maybe most of the anime/manga you have heard about and seen is pornography. However, that's not representative of the genre as a whole. Hentai makes up a disproportionate amount of the anime and manga exported simply because sex sells. The distributors and exporters of manga are obviously going to ship titles that sell the most units, porn or no porn.

    I agree that some anime and manga portray women as nothing more than sex objects, often in very disgusting ways. But there are also many others that feature female characters with normal breast sizes and roles in which, rather than being subservient to a male, they are the lead or otherwise main character. Find some Serial Experiments Lain, Nadesico (to a certain extent), or even older stuff like Bubblegum Crisis and you'll see what I mean.

  • On the other hand, anime (especially manga) has historically been no better than pornography: it systematically dissects women into their component anatomical parts, except they're just fictionaly women

    Complete rubbish. How much anime/manga have you seen? If that were the case, why would there be so many female manga authors, female manga readers, and female anime convention attendees?
  • Why is this the highest moderated comment I see? It's such a troll it's not funny.

    But I'll bite :)

    Here's a tip: Don't like cartoon chicks with big eyes/tits? Don't watch manga. You know, funnily enough, I'm not a giant axe bastard who can pull mad Kung Fu moves, I can't kill people by frowning at them and shaking, and I've never survived a "full orbital response". But you don't hear me complaining about how unrealistic the portrayal of blokes is.

    If all women felt that porn was degrading, there'd be a whole lotta gay porn and nothing else, but they don't, so why should your views be forced on them? What if I feel that whatever you do for a living degrades people in general- would you quit to keep me happy? Would I ask you to?

    Don't believe in porn? Then don't watch it, don't act in it, and do your best to keep your SO/kids away from it (if that's relevant).

    And don't compare this sort of art to porn, just to troll, or because you don't appreciate it for what it is.

    Basically, if the women didn't have big eyes, little waists and (not really all that often) big jugs, it wouldn't be manga. That's what japanese people as a whole like to watch, so that's what they produce. Nobody in nihon is ramming these cartoons down your throat.

    Gfunk
  • Eva is indeed a very good (though extremely weird and difficult to understand) anime. But this doesn't stop them from cheating on their animation all over the place. It's not Speed Racer, but Gainax's difficulty with their deadlines and budget is pretty obvious at times (isn't there one scene where nothing moves at all for a minute and a half or so?)
  • Many retailers offer good discounts on titles. For example, my store online offers 25% off the VHS titles and 15% off the DVD (the reason why DVD is higher is most retailers, wholesalers and distributors get less of a break on the price of discs than tapes). It's not functional yet, as the SSL processor's still being fixed, but fax orders are welcome.

    Besides us, Anime Nation [animenation.com] offers 20% off VHS and 15% off DVD, and they carry some merchandise often enough.

    Just don't buy from places like Buy.com and Express.com. Not only have I heard horror stories of long backorders and not getting shipments because one title went on backorder, and not wanting to pay two or three shipping rates to get them (geez, whatever happened to customer service on these?), but buying from such large entities who don't know about anime much or don't focus on it means you're probably only going to be able to get the mainstream titles. Buy from someone like AnimeNation or us (Dragon Magic), and you start getting to see titles which may never be mainstream, but are worthwhile to watch.

    Just for a good laugh, in fact, just view or rent these titles, and if you like them, get them for your library and help spread the word of good quality anime:
    Those Who Hunt Elves (ADV Films)

    Rurouni Kenshin (TV, Media Blasters/AnimeWorks; OAV [Samurai X], ADV Films)
    Jubei-chan (Pioneer)
    I could probably make a very extensive list, but these three should tie anyone over. As well, they're relatively inexpensive (only Rurouni Kenshin TV presently available simultaneously on DVD, but all planned or being released on DVD).

    But really, Anime is not too expensive. It's only pricey in the big retailers who know that it's not a mainstream market, merely a niche one, and realize that discounts aren't worth it. No one else is giving them, right? Plus they don't sell well to begin with in the "50,000 titles of American Films" stores.

    Support Anime (and lower prices) by shopping Anime stores. Simple enough, nee?

    Dragon Magic [dragonmagic.net]
  • Robotech was quite good, despite your anime purist opinions.

    ...And I think otherwise, despite your Americanization-lenient opinions. It didn't have to chopped up like it was, and I voiced my opinions stating as much. That alright?

    It's listed as the #5 best cartoon of all time by Animation Magazine. Several mainstream pubs such as Time and the LA Herald wrote glowing articles about it.

    Yes, and all anime fans should listen to what people (and magazines...can't ignore them magazines!) say is good, rather than form their own opinions.

    Why do kids nowadays think that anime has to be in its original form to be good? Robotech was a very well done epic in its own right.

    Why do people nowadays assume the age of people sitting at another node on the internet based on how much his or her opinion differs from their own? I could be your father, friend. ^_^

    On-topic: Robotech was done in its own right all right, but a well-done epic? That's a matter of opinion...and I won't bother arguing with yours.

    < tofuhead >

  • The rule you're thinking of is that most tv stations won't air a syndicated show if there are less than 65 episodes. That works out to be 13 weeks (a half season) when run on every weekday.

    That's the one. I'd thought differently about the reasons, since back then I'd heard that the same rule applied to Saturday morning (thereby weekly) cartoons too.

    < tofuhead >

  • A fan's view [fansview.com] is a pretty good site for pictures from cons.
  • A problem... how?

    With violence against women (rape, etc) being so widely depicted in Japanese literature/pop culture (well, according to you at least)... then according to Political Correctness there should be a HUGE problem with it in real life. Monkey See, Monkey Do, right?

    Of course the real problem is that last time I checked the US had a much worse problem with that than Japan.

    As usual, the Blameless Society is actually to blame for it's own actions.
  • lol - i wouldn't exactly compare lodo to 5-points. Although i wouldn't exactly compare 5-points to places like east St. Louis or South Chicago.

    people go to larimer, market, and 16th street because they're social creatures. Me? I'm anti-social. i go to larimer to laugh at the guy with the two gigantic mustangs painted poorly on the side of his green GT. i go to laugh at the guys who deliberately mistune their hogs and ducatis so they break every noise ordinance in the fsckin' city when they peel out.

    And like the other guy said. the women in 'fuck me' pants don't hurt either.


    FluX
    After 16 years, MTV has finally completed its deevolution into the shiny things network
  • I saw this on a shirt at Otakon this year...

    Anime: Only slightly more expensive than drugs!

  • If only people were more aware of the intrinsic relationship between art and effects on society as a whole, then we might be a littl slower to choose to make that buck at the expense of our common weal.

    That was such a nicely written troll that it deserves a reply. :-)

    Two points:

    (i) With very few exceptions, anime is fiction, set in fictional worlds or universes, with fictional characters involved in fictional situations, and the characters are very commonly non-human or otherwise exceptional in some way. We sometimes identify with one or more of them to a limited degree within the context of the fiction ("identify" may be too strong a word, maybe "sympathize" or "empathize" are closer to the mark), but it almost never goes beyond that. Moreover, the identification is voluntary and personal. Nobody will identify a third party with a character in a cartoon, it just doesn't work that way, to the best of my knowledge. You are looking for demons where none exist.

    (ii) Diversity is good. OK, that's just my moral standpoint and I don't have anything to back it up, except possibly the widely acknowledged benefits of genetic diversity. Be that as it may, if we accept your worries for the sake of argument, all you are doing is trying to impose your own particular set of values on others. There is no future in that. Universal morality always was a flawed concept in any case, but it seemed to prevail in the past simply because it drove alternative viewpoints underground and hence marginalized them. That's no longer possible: as a result of universal connectivity, alternative viewpoints blossom even out of sight of the majority and despite being ignored by the mass media. Diversity wins. You can still live in your own little world of fixed values, but I'm afraid that your wish to coerce others to those views no longer has much likelihood of success. There is no longer a single common weal. It has been replaced by an exploding constellation of different ones, each defining their own rights and wrongs.

    [By the way, it was obviously a troll because anyone that can write as clearly as Anne Marie can also think clearly enough to analyse the situation for herself rather than just repeat mass propaganda and support a single-group viewpoint.]
  • Anime is the Japanese short way of saying 'animation', which is an English word. Manga is a Japanese word meaning comics.

    In other words, those 2 words represent cartoons in motion form and in still paper form. You can get the said cartoons aimed at audiences ranging from children to adults.

    You sound like that woman that tried to sue South Park because her 10 yr old kid was named Kenny and had trouble with cartoon characters killing him every episode.

    Just because Japanese pornographic cartoons are available doesn't mean the whole genre is a big conspiracy to degrade women all over the world. You may also like to know that there are manga targeted at teen girls which depict the male body too.

    Historically, anime and manga draw lots of inspiration from Disney. Note the large eyes and giant heads (in proportion to the rest of the body) are all drawn from early Disney cartoons.

    So in conclusion, it would be good if you looked at all that is available, instead of a small portion you don't like and tagging the whole genre as evil.


    ---

  • "Manga" is a comic book or art book, and "anime" is an animated film/TV show/whatever. I believe "manga" is a word that originated in Japan, but "anime" was a word imported fron a foreign language (at least, on a postcard I received from Japan, the word "anime" was written in katakana, which is more or less a Japanese phonetic alphabet for foreign words).

    I think that's all correct, but if it's not then please correct me. It's one thirty in the morning here; I might not be thinking straight.

  • Oh God! That was probably a spoof called "Voltron: Hellbent for Leather"! We watched that at one of me HS's anime fairs last year. F'in hilarious!
  • to put it roughly, manga is the term for comics in japanese. all manga is printed. anime is short for animation, and thus only refers to animated material.

    the two are incorrectly interchanged due to their inherently close relationship; when osamu tezuka (father of anime) created astroboy he began what is known as the field of anime - but he was an established manga artist when he did so.

    go here [rightstuf.com] for a great introduction to anime.
  • DON'T BUY FROM SUNCOAST They charge full MSRP, which for most anime is $30/disc. 90% of anime released in the US is dubbed/subbed, dvd mastered, and mass produced here in the States, it's just that the market isn't really that big, so prices are high. Either buy online from some small retailers (www.animenation.com), maybe buy.com, or even (horror of horrors) amazon.com (this is why i hate one-click. makes it too easy to buy anime/manga!) They're all at least $5-$10 cheaper.
  • The best part of anime, to my mind, is the fact that they can draw things which cannot be done with special effects. Also, have you ever seen Disney(tm) do anything that might offend the thousands of soccer moms and kids who simply MUST buy that next Little Mermaid(tm) 4: Ariel(tm)'s Next Adventure. 1. The dialogue make essentially no sense in English, as much of it is culturally assumed. For example, if you say "superbowl" in the US, everyone knows what you mean. Things like that are what you don't get. 2. You must have seen some pretty poor anime then. Their plot is much better, considered as a group, than the US movie market. I admit there are some stinkers, but then have you ever seen late night tv movies here in the US? 3. The animation is just different. You may be of the opinion that it is worse, but in most cases, I would take anime above any disney crapola. They just want it to look awesome, since it is an art form. In addition, the Japanese have had fine theater since BC, so I don't imagine you have any idea what you are talking about in that last little paragraph there... Try reading up a bit. I love flamebait...

  • Heck, even in "mainstream" American movies, there's sometimes a lot more violence/blood and nudity/sex than American media likes to claim there is in anime. For some generally interesting articles about anime, This Page [mit.edu] is a good place to start. The author's views differ from mine in a few places, but its still mostly well-written.


    -RickHunter
  • I am not too sure on this but I thought there was an anounncement (sp?) a little while ago by one of the big anime comapnies which stated there is going to be another series in the Macross storyline. Something like Macross 3000 or something. I am not sure but you might want to check out some of the anime news sites like www.animenewsservice.com or www.animenewsnetwork.com. They will have alot of current info.
  • Dude anime sucks, You have no taste what so ever and your a total loser
  • This probably sounds odd coming from a relativly new anime fan (circa 1997), I totally understand the point you're coming from. While I'm hardly old hat, I have dealt with many hobbies of mine growing from small communities to large unwieldy groups.

    I personally enjoy Fanime and A-kon, they are a little smaller and seem a little more 'fan friendly', without the feedbag treatment of some of the larger conventions.
    Fan-run cons are much better to attend IMHO, because although they may not have the big name people coming, those running it are REALLY passionate about their hobby, and do everything to make sure everyone has a blast.

  • Yes, pretty much. See details at The Un-Official #WASHU# Page [capcorphq.com].
  • Sorry, I'm just not up on this anime trend. Can someone tell me the correct pronounciation?
  • you know. in retrospect. i think i'm just afraid that those lusers will have more people at their funeral than i will.

    thought for the day: when you die, your friends won't miss you. they'll miss who they were when they were with you.


    FluX
    After 16 years, MTV has finally completed its deevolution into the shiny things network
  • Suncoast may charge full MSRP, but they do have one advantage: they actually have stuff in stock. Many people ordering from those discount e-tailers have had to wait a whole month after a DVD is released before their order comes in!

    If only Best Buy had the kind of stock levels in anime that Suncoast did, but that's Economics 101 for you: supply and demand. At Best Buy's prices, they can't keep most anime on the shelves (not that they try, beyond ordering Ghost in the Shell a dozen at a time). But I have never seen a copy of Trigun in stock at Best Buy. :(

  • In the costume contest, "[i]t may be more noteworthy that of just over 100 contestants, there were no fewer than nineteen Sailor Scouts."

    How many of them were overweight? How many of them were (choke, gag) male? How many of them (whimper) tried to sing?

  • [By the way, it was obviously a troll because anyone that can write as clearly as Anne Marie can also think clearly enough to analyse the situation for herself rather than just repeat mass propaganda and support a single-group viewpoint.]

    I don't think you're being sensitive to just how pervasive the "mass propaganda" stereotype of anime is. To call someone a troll just because the "mass propaganda" is their only exposure to something isn't a fair way to judge them.

    It's all the fault of the "mall otakus" (the male ones, at least) who watch too much Drag-on-ball Z, Ninja Scroll, Akira, and Urotsukidoji. They've played every fighting game there is, and all they want is to see people beat each other up, a picture splattered with blood, and women getting raped.

    It's time we spread the word that Japanese animation is about more than just blood and sex, it's also about


  • Wow, geez. What was the last anime you watched, Speed Racer?

    I think my situation is the reverse of yours; I have been lucky enough to have watched some high-quality anime. Neon Genesis Evangelion and Serial Experiments Lain refute nearly all of the points you made above (I'll give you the one about uninspired backgrounds; I haven't seen too many nice ones). While these two series are serious in nature, there are plenty of comedic ones that don't fit your view of anime. I like Slayers personally, but I've heard that a lot of people hate it so take that recommendation with a grain of salt.

    As for Shakespeare, fine art, and all that, try reading up on Kabuki theatre. [fix.co.jp] This style of Japanese dramatic theatre first started in the 1600's, but from what I understand it's kinda gone out of favor today, unfortunately.



  • Oh? Do tell. I'd love to get my hands on this spoof, if at all possible.
  • Manga == "Frivolous Drawings" literally Anime == loanword for animation Manga are to Japan what comics are to us, only in Japan, a good manga will become an anime, whereas here it's turned into an OK movie. Most anime in Japan is based on a manga, such as Battle Angel, Ranma 1/2, GitS, all of Dragonball and DBZ, and even Evangelion. Unfortunately, the anime often ends up highly compressed (GitS), butchers the story (Battle Angel), or ends up REALLY long (DB/DBZ). Others take it and make it beautiful, such as Evangelion. I prefer the manga over the Anime at times (such as with Battle Angel), but take your pick, both are great.
  • Uh, why don't you just exclude the "Anime" thing in your slash thingee? It'd be easier...
  • It's impossible to explain this to someone who has already loaded the question. But I will try. As an anime fan I can only justify my fondness by saying "It's differnt." I grew up on old Disney cartoons, classic Tex Avery shorts and Chuck Jones shorts. But American animation has gone anemic, although it still looks good, Disney has left Walt's dream of producing animated features that appeal to all, with musicals.

    In Japanese animation (anime) there is a wide varitey of plots. From shows about girls who save the world (Sailor Moon, Magical Girl Pretty Sammy) to action (Ghost in the Shell, Akira), to downright silly comedy (Ranma 1/2, Jubei Chan). I can't speak for others, but my reason is that I have more choices with the types of series I can view animated than I do with american animation. Now if you don't like anime, that's fine. Just don't pick on other people's hobbies.

    Also the Japanese probably wonder what people see in Shakespeare (sometimes I know I do, but Othello is a great play) just as much as you wonder about anime. Think about it. It's all about perceptions and personal taste. That's the best I can do. Sorry I couldn't give a better answer
  • Depends on what you watch. GitS wasn't, Perfect Blue wasn't. Nor was Lain. Evangelion wasn't targeted towards kids either, even though they probably watched it for the mechas. But then, why can't you shut the fuck up and let people enjoy what they want to? Oh yeah, cause you're an asshole who wants to make everyone think like he does. Ah, 'scuse me, thank you. I always like wiping my ass with a troll. Makes me feel so much cleaner.

  • Re:Prices... (Score:3)

    by Chas ( 5144 ) on Sunday October 22, 2000 @09:42PM (#684435) Homepage Journal

    I saw this somewhere once. Don't remember where.

    Anime: Drugs would be cheaper



    Chas - The one, the only.
    THANK GOD!!!
  • First, your history is wrong: Samurai were already replaced by Salarymen in the Meiji restauration, which happened in the later 19th century. Second, the theory about "outlet" is not wrong, but to say that all manga is about dark conflicts and sexual explicitness is bullshit; manga is merely a medium, and in Japan it's simply employed to a much wider range of topics than everywhere else. Many manga depict everyday life; basically, everyhing that is done in literature is also done in manga: silly comedies, exciting adventures, complex dramas, character studies, porn, whatever.
  • My, you do display quite the narrow view of an incredibly diverse art form. That's much like saying all videos or magazines are historically nothing more than pornography. Juse because you live in a country that refuses to acknowledge or import the wide selection of the anime and manga products that Japan offers to it's local markets, you jump to assumption that the small smattering of titles you see there represent the whole of the industry. Talk about stereotyping or disecting something into anotomical parts... I would suggest doing a bit of research on a topic before jumping to conclusions. Anime and Manga are heavlily intermixed in Japan and often redundant. Japan has a HUGE selection of manga marketed directly at/for young women, can the US claim such a market for cartoons and comics? Manga also has huge markets in young and old men with sports titles/themes that have less sexual content than sesame street let alone sports illustrated. That's not even touching on the titles for working women, housewives, cooking or general entertainment. Anime and manga touch on much more than you would allow people (and possibly yourself) to think. There is no doubt that there is a pornographic market as well, but that's more like 3% of the marketplace. Now if you want to count showing a womans breasts in an onsen (Japanese hot springs), you might want to consider some of the less puritanical societies that exist in the world.
  • Right, and what is in there is that you either watched a truly wild ride with no more than 5 minutes of the 10 hours were from the same source, or that your current sources suck. I mean sure, the more you've seen, the fewer truly new conceps will occur, but really, the same is true for literature and moviemaking. "All the good stories have already been told" and such...
  • Actually, as used in Japan, it describes any animated film, including Disney stuff.
  • Ha! You think people will fall for such a crass tactic as putting goatse.cx in a "Read the rest of this comment..." link? Tsk tsk.

  • Wow. & Info for next years. Hayashi's new series. (Score:3)

    by tenchiken ( 22661 ) on Monday October 23, 2000 @06:21AM (#684441)
    As a staff member at NDK this year, I have to say "thanks" for the mention. The con was a blast this year (although I am still exhausted from the weekend)and many many thanks go out to our "other" guests as well.

    Hiroki Hayashi of AIC [anime-int.com]. Co-creator of Tenchi, creator of El-Hazard and more directing credits.

    Tanaka-san of AIC [anime-int.com]. Sound director for Rurouni Kenshin, Hand Maid May, etc.

    Aro-sensei, manga-ka.....

    ADV's announcement that they had taken the rights to Sailor Moon away from DIC was well-recieved.

    Below are more details about Maho Yugi, Hayashi's new series.

    First of all, for those of you who don't
    want to bother to read the rest, here
    are the highlights..

    1) El Hazard is _done_. To quote Mr. Hayashi
    (creator of El-Hazard). "Makoto goes back.....
    that's it...they live happily ever after."

    2) AIC is planning on a new Tenchi OVA,
    (This probibly means that they are in the investor
    stage right now) early next year. Hayashi-san
    will not be involved with it, but he thought that
    the other creator (Mr. Kajishima) might be.

    3) Mr. Hayashi is working on a new Anime
    entitled "Mahou Yugi" (Magical Play or Magical
    Games). This anime loooks really really cool.
    Partially this is because the entire Anime is
    100% redered, and then CG-shaded. They can
    do some pretty impresive shots that were never
    possible w/ Cells (or at least, not very fesable.
    Hayashi thought that they were about 6-9
    months away from finishing it (not
    neccessarily releasing it.)

    Ok More details:

    Mr. Hayashi and Mr. Kazuya Tanaka were invited
    to NDK in colorado this year. I had the pleasure
    of working with them for about 5 days for the con.
    For the record, Both of them are just a blast to have
    around. Mr. Hayashi is really laid back, a lot of fun
    and very approachable. Mr. Tanaka is also a blast
    to have around, and is very energetic ^.^

    Hayashi-san directed Sol Bianca, Tenchi, El-Hazard,
    Daiundokai, BGC2040 (as well as some of the original)
    and more series then I can count. He also created some
    of these series (Tenchi and El-Hazard in particular).

    Tanaka-san did sound direction on anime's like the
    new Sol Bianca, Rurouni Kenshin etc.

    Hayashi-san speaks fairly good english.

    Maho Yugi has to be seen (in motion) to believe.
    Some of the animation stuff they can do is amazing,
    and they come up with some shots that you never
    think about when you are doing anime. The animation
    is incredibly fluid, and while your mind knows that it
    is CG, none of the usual problems (anti-aliasing,
    "blurryness", etc) show up in the animation.

    There was a AIC promo tape that had a high number
    of series and remakes that I have never heard of before.
    AIC has definitly returned to their original genre (Girls
    w/ Guns) and there were two different new series that
    just smaked of BGC.

    ADV announced that they now had the rights to Sailor
    Moon, and Sailor Moon R, not DIC.

    Cowboy Bebop 25/26 aired at the con...... aiyaaaaaa.
    ...................i.c.a.n.t.s.a.y.a.n.y.t.h.i.n .g.m.o.r.e.o.r
    ...................i.w.o.u.l.d.s.p.o.i.l.y.o.u.

    Mari Ijima was there, but I never had enough time to hit
    her concerts...

    I think that above does it.

    Next year is going to be a blast. Find out more Here [www.ndk.cc]. Pre-registration forms are up.

    Here is a bit more from my write up on the TenchiML (A fan group for the Series Tenchi Muyo

  • Actually, I was on staff. If I remember correctly:

    There were 45 cos-players with a SMOON outfit. Only one was male.

    I don't know the stats, but it would not surprise me in the least if there were more women there then men!!!!!!!!!!!
  • Never ask a troll for it's point. It never has one. It has only one rationale. Arrogance.
  • Sounds good to me

    Capt. Ron

  • Clarification: My last post was geared to the profane post about anime being for Japanese children.
  • Well, from what I can see even those prices are pretty good. Don't know if a lot of US anime fans realize, but collecting anime is _expensive_. More so if you like original Japanese releases. The fact is, anime sold in Japan is actually more expensive than what you get in other countries.

    An average new release DVD here is around US$40-50. Even second hand ones don't go for much less than US$30 or so.

    Of course, the nice thing about all the DVD releases is that LDs are really cheap here now - I go prowling for second hand LDs a lot, and often get them for 1500yen or less...
  • But I may go to one, in any event.


    Also, why is it that when an anime-topic gets posted, normally sane slashdot posters all of a sudden turn TROLL? They go off on a tangent criticizing it, asking why it's here, saying it sucks probably never having seen ANYTHING of worth (you know robotech/speed racer are old now, don't you?).

    I would ask all trolls to please go away.

    *sacrificing my karma, for the sake of curiosity*
  • I think perhaps that watching all 4 hours of Urotsukidoji, this wonderful coming of age anime, will assuage your fears about the delightful sub-genre known as "Hentai". Many fans find it's philosophical plot too heavy for the "lite" aspect that is so prevalent of much anime, but I think that for you it is "just right".
  • At the risk of being picky, Evangelion was not originally manga - it was anime 'made for TV' so to speak. Evangelion manga was actually written _after_ the TV series came out.

    It would be difficult to say if 'most' anime these days comes from manga - there is a huge volume of manga available, a lot of it mass market crap, and there is also a lot of made-for-TV mass market anime, much of which is also crap (IMHO anyway...) Usually only the really popular manga (or ones with good marketing potential) make it to anime. On the other hand, there's a fair bit of anime made for TV which is purely a money-making machine to sell toys to kids..

  • Re:Adapting anime for a new feminist millennium (Score:3)

    by Lx ( 12170 ) on Sunday October 22, 2000 @08:54PM (#684451)
    I assume by "new crop of feminists" you mean people like Susie Bright, Camille Paglia and the fine folks at Good Vibrations. Perhaps you more enjoy the old school feminists like everyone's favorite rabid anti-porn activist, Andrea Dworkin? There's nothing inherently wrong with the medium, and there's also nothing inherently wrong with women in the medium having impossibly large breasts. If you look at traditional japanese art, all the way back to wood prints, anatomy was greatly exaggerated for both men and women, and is in anime as well.

    Look at ancient japanese art and you'll see that men were depicted as having such huge members that most would have a hard time keeping their balance. In most modern pornographic or semi-adult anime, the same is true - however, most men don't run around with inferiority complexes about it, complaining that they feel objectified or sub-par because they don't have 20 penises and a 9-inch tongue like the fellows in the movies. Art does not affect society as strongly as you're suggesting.

    It's a very old debate whether art reflects or influences society, but I think it comes down to the fact that you're responsible for your own beliefs and actions. Fact is that no one's forcing you to be degraded, and you're not being oppressed. To roughly quote Eleanor Roosevelt, "No one can make you feel inferior without your consent."

    -lx
  • If you don't like it, don't watch it, then.

    If there's something that I've liked about anime, is that it is much more free, than western artforms, in that it doesn't consciously try to teach a moral (or at least the same morals). The best part of it, is that it is pretty far away from political correctness.

    Just face it, Political Correct Anime, would just be the same plain boring stuff that you see on american tv.

    Also I find it very ironic that you mention women being oppressed in America. Real facts prove, that it is men that are being oppressed, and that your behavior is just driving this oppression, with real consequences such as an alarmingly high suicide rate among american males. For the real facts, about oppression, see here, and [ourfamily.com] here [vix.com].

  • oops. My mistake. I actually did'nt mean to suggest that the samurai were still around in, say , 1940, or that Japan was primarily an agricultural economy at this time. Merely that the militaristic element was the most influential power structure prior to '45, as opposed to the economic or beurocratic.I know that Japanese history is a lot more complex than I've made out, I have so grossly simplified it that there are bound to be disagreements.

    As to the manga, I bow to your superior knowledge. But then, the post immediately prior to mine does seem to bear me out ;)

  • I was in HK last week. found a couple of really cool shops. Small, but a good selection of stuff.

    I got a Neon Genesis Evangelion in a 3 DVD set comprising all episodes from Genesis1 to End for HK$220.00 (about fourty-eight cents in US money!). The death and rebirth ones were available on another DVD for HK$80.00.

    The prices will bring tears to the eyes of those of you complaining about US prices!

    Catch the MTR (Mass Transit Rail) to Kwun Tong station (green line). On one side of the station there is an elevated walkway approx 100m long from approx the _middle_ of the station (don't take the one off the end of the station) over to a small shopping centre. In that centre, there are two DVD/VCD shops devoted to anime, and a whole stack of others with DVD/VCD movies and even a bit of dodgy porn. No sign of any copied stuff though - all legit. A spot well worth a visit if you're in HK.

  • I'm also in Japan right now, and you apparently ride the wrong trains (to Roppongi maybe? :). Hentai/pornography is definitely less than 10% of what I see, both on trains and in bookstores.

  • Personally, I've been into the Anime since...sheesh, I've been watching it so long that I've forgotten exactly when I initially began watching.

    I think that it was Gatchaman (Battle of the Planets). Not the double-utchered Toonami version, but the original import to the US where the littlest member of the group spoke in "bleeps"and "tootles".

    After that, I got into TranzorZ, and a couple other imports to american TV (usually on a couple of the barely-established UHF channels in the Chicagoland area at the time).

    Then I saw Robotech. Purists say what you will about what Carl Macek did to the three series and "combining" it into Robotech. It remains, for most people, their initial introduction into the world of Japanese Animation (c'mon, if you don't like transformable mecha, you're dead or a vegetable).

    About that time, I began delving into imports and received a nasty shock (the prices and the scarcity of importers). It was WAY more than my parents were willing to invest, just to have me vegetate in front of the boob-tube. I was encouraged to get a better (read cheaper) hobby.

    I got reintroduced to it while I was in the Army. I saw so much bootleg Anime in Korea (due to extremely stringent laws on japanese imports to South Korea) that I was hooked. Once I got back to the states, my collection began growing at a dangerous pace. Mostly the stock stuff, since I didn't have a lot of exposure to the medium outside of the stuff I actually watched.

    Then came my first Anime convention a couple years ago. AnimeCentral [acen.org].

    Unfortunately, I don't exactly make SCADS of money, and my time off is limited. But I try to make it to Acen every year now. Anime's an excellent medium, and much better than 99.9% of the crap shoveled down our throats by the networks today.


    Chas - The one, the only.
    THANK GOD!!!

  • Umm...I think you're overestimating(or under?) the exchange rate..HK$220 would be more like about US$30 I think..

    Not intending to be offensive, but how are you sure the DVDs you got aren't pirated? I used to live in HK, and did a fair bit of DVD/VCD shopping - there is a lot of good quality pirated material still available there, which is probably hard to judge as being pirated.
  • Sailor Moon and her cohorts
    any and all Pokemon

    wait a minute, they said cute, let me reconsider my entries



    does pissy and annoying count?
    --
  • thing is alot of anime isn't region coded

  • I just think that now that networks are starting to pick up anime that hopefully it will reach a larger audience. I just hope the genre does not get pigeonholed in the US the way the regular animation market has. If it does, there will always be the fansubs.

  • OK, I know I'm going to hear a lot of crap about import laws, transport cost, the weight of an unladen north american swalow and all that, but why is anime so F**kin expansive compared to regular movies? in our local market, say, Suncoast Video, anime on DVD is usualy about $10 more per than any other DVD's. If it's transport cost, couldent they just ship ONE copy over and mas-copy them here? Price fixing? Or is the anime market in this crapy midwest town just so thin that they have to jack the prices?

  • *&^$%@#!!!#$(%_@ ass munches...this is like 10 mins from me and you didn't say crap til after it was over...Now I'm ticked!
  • Was RG Veda ever finished? All I could ever find was the first two parts.

    --
  • This is possibly the worst thing that could happen to anime. Look what American culture does to anything foreign. British TV, Mexican and Chinese food, ugh! I'd prefer to pay more money, but keep the quality anime as it is now.

    Hear hear! we don't need more Robotechs, "Warriors of the Wind", and total improv like the Slayers movie. It's just... painful to see shows so butchered.

    If you want anime that hasn't been subbed here? Learn Japanese. That's what I'm doing.
    Same here. Progress is slow, but it's very useful to know.
  • It's sad really, people used to see my anime and think "eww, cartoon porn!" even if it was something totally normal like Tenchi.

    The awful thing is that after that, I'd be wearing a Ranma shirt or something and people would go "cool, it's Sailor Moon!" I almost fell flat on my face the fist time I heard that.

    ...why can't they just think I'm some weird porn fiend; it's so much less insulting!
  • I would have to say that Suncoast just probably wants to spank you for all you've got. Buy off the web.
  • The above 'supply and demand' answer is correct. The anime market in north america while growing, is still quite small when you consider most other dvd releases are backed by major companies with advertising involved to help subsidise the price. Something coming from Warner Brothers has a much higher demand than most anime titles, same goes for Disney and other studios. When they're selling hundreds of thousands of copies instead of a few thousand copies it makes a big difference in the pricing of the product.
  • I just think that now that networks are starting to pick up anime that hopefully it will reach a larger audience. I just hope the genre does not get pigeonholed in the US the way the regular animation market has. If it does, there will always be the fansubs.

    This is possibly the worst thing that could happen to anime. Look what American culture does to anything foreign. British TV, Mexican and Chinese food, ugh! I'd prefer to pay more money, but keep the quality anime as it is now.

    If you want anime that hasn't been subbed here? Learn Japanese. That's what I'm doing.

  • As a old hand Otaku (the obsession began in 1988) I both love and hate the way Anime and Manga are treated in North America. When we (my Otaku group) used to get together we would talk about how cool it would be if anime was well known and appreciated for what it was, a great art form. And we would discuss about how neat it would be if we could turn on our T.V's and see our favourite shows, or go to a convention that had more than 30 people. Well, those days are gone. We are living the dream so to speak, and it ain't all peaches and cream. Why do I instantly sound bitter? The "Otaku Community" has lost sense of itself. The other community members made you feel like you were part of something, a community. A group of people that would share info on the latest stuff, or talk about the latest fan-sub, joke about happenings and the like. Now (it seems to me) like you are just another consumer that needs to be fitted with a feed bag. The last convention I went to (Animethon [Edmonton, Alberta], which I have supported since day one) was tremendously overcrowded (try getting a seat, for any show!) and most people were generally treated like numbers. I guess what I'm trying to say is that I pine for the olden days when it was just a small group of people drawn towards something they love.


    God, I sound like an old man sometimes

    Capt. Ron

  • umm.... (Score:5)

    by fluxrad ( 125130 ) on Sunday October 22, 2000 @07:22PM (#684484)
    thanks slashdot. now i get to sit on my ass drinkin' a beer on Larimer thinkin' "Why the fuck didn't they tell me about this thing a month ago?!?!?"

    news it's so timely, you won't be able to experience it for another fsckin' year!!


    FluX
    After 16 years, MTV has finally completed its deevolution into the shiny things network
  • Anime was next to impossible to find (I'm talking 1990 ok). The only way you could get it was through a chain of friends and even then you would be getting a dub of a dub of a dub. Or you could pay the literally astronomical prices of import companies or fun-sub groups for a copy of your favourite stuff. I recall a guy who paid over $100 USC for an Urusei Yatsura OVA. Sure, prices have always traditionally sucked in North America, but it is getting better. Also, always check places like eBay, you never know what might turn up ;-)

    Capt. Ron

  • Re:Man bites dog... (Score:3)

    by Count Spatula ( 103735 ) <f_springer&hotmail,com> on Sunday October 22, 2000 @07:29PM (#684499)
    And in other news, an anime convention drew a whole 1477 people.

    I suppose it would have been cooler if it had drawn 1337 people, right?

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