The thoughts, reviews and analysis of Comedy, Romance, Drama and Slice of Life Anime of a College Student
In the past, I covered several topics relating to criticism such as what Anime is good and what is bad. Now, I want to focus more thoughts on criticism of Anime or media in general as I only touch upon how I reviewed things. I understand that people will have different options, thus a well-balanced or objective one can be difficult to achieve for various reasons.
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A long time ago, I have been against fanservice in Anime as myself and some people perceive this as a bad thing for Anime. However, I have seen the light after watching and reviewing a lot of shows. Now, I want to share my reason fanservice and ecchi is not necessarily a bad thing as some people make it out to be.
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While I was lurking around the Internet, a particular post at the Project iM@S forums has caught my attention since it has a close relation to the Anime Fandom besides just Japanese games.
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In the past few years, the Slice of Life genre gained a lot of popularity. Many of these shows while similar have unique stories. As I explained in my editorial about the genre back in 2010, there is really no defined definition of what makes a show a Slice of Life.
In particular, Kyoto Animation has pushed few of the most popular shows of this genre. Lucky Star and K-On has a huge following for cute characters, but both of them have two different premises. The former focuses on the anime subculture and the latter, the true essence of friendship. On the other hand, Nichijou takes a spin of the genre with less emphasis on characters and more on ingenious comedy (Image Source).
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I have always wondered about the themes Ore no Imouto covered since it was a topic that has been done in the past, but not well executed. Nogizaka Haruka no Himitsu covered only the surface of the Otaku subculture but only to throw it out of the window in the second season.
While there are some resemblances of the two shows, they are significantly different. The difference between them is what I want to cover. (Original Image)
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As we all know, the fandom is not all about watching anime, but the related activities that goes along with it. After reading the post, I have commented on what I actually do in the fandom. However, telling every exact detail on what I do in the fandom will just leave it in a style that it would be too long to read. That is why I decided to explore even further and in detail on what I actually do besides watching Anime and it could draw some similarities to the activities you participate in the fandom.
I would also like to note that if you just watch and like Anime and not participate in anything else, you are still a fan of Anime. This was something that I haven’t cleared up previously.
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After reading Yumeka’s blog post on different generations of the US anime fandom, it would be interesting to tell my experiences of Anime when I first started in the nineties in full detail instead in a small paragraph…
From the nineties, things were a lot different compared to what Anime fans have now such as easily accessible fansubs, fast Internet connections, streaming, and cheap boxsets. Anime was hard to obtain and can only be watched from limited sources from television or VHS. Since the topic is relevant, I will show you my experiences on how Anime was like back in the nineties to the present.
Note: Fanart used in this post is made by 米
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In light of the drama, I felt that I needed to write this editorial because things went out of hand. People arguing each other saying that Listless Ink doesn’t deserve this victory and that Random Curiosity should have won. I have discuss this on my sideblog that I won’t go into detail (just read the post on my Sideblog if you are still interested). Still, this argument keeps going and going, which disturbs me. This editorial won’t be about Random Curiosity and Listless Ink, but other things that bother me about the whole situation.
Note: Fanart used in this post is made by 紅雪
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With the last article, I decided to write a response to the author of “The Golden Waste” as he seems to be ranting about people not buying licensed anime for some reasons. Everyone should be buying licensed anime if they like the show and/or want to support the studio, there is no way around with that. However, the money that comes from both the Japanese and licensed Anime sales of DVDs is very small for the Animation Studios. We can argue or rant about dub versus sub-only releases, Crunchyroll and licensing companies as much we want, but it doesn’t change the fact that how much corporate greed comes from the Japanese Anime Industry causing the animation studios be left with peanuts in comparison with the American Music Industry.
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After reading this particular rant, I believe that it haven’t covered the most important area. Sure, Anime have gotten cheaper, but they remain more expensive than a whole season box of a US series like Heroes or Lost which have alot more episodes and I end up spending 40-50 dollars for the whole season. Sure the days of 3 episodes on VHS for $30 or 4 episodes on a DVD is over, but this is not the main focus on this topic, The main focus is the US Anime Industry and Corporate Media.
And believe me, I buy licensed anime on shows I want to watch and my sister owns a pile of licensed DVD releases.
The editorial fails to mention about licensed anime outside the US.How about Europe? Some series will probably never get to be licensed in other countries, which leave people who want to watch the series having to import, which cost more and requires another DVD player due to region coding. DVD region coding is another problem caused by corporate media.
With corporate media, you think you own the media, but you don’t. The anime you have on your DVDs are licensed to you, not owned. This holds true with streaming media in one particular postkimaguresan posted:
Ownership: This is the elephant in the room. When you watch a streaming show, you see it, and then it’s gone.
There is no freedom with corporate media. Their interest is to license the show, distribute it and make a profit, and while you at it, restrict your fair use rights with crap like digital rights managements, region coding, streaming, and other things. There is no freedom in this model, ever. Another point with big media is that the content creator gets shafted and get a very small cut of the profits sold from these licensed DVDs. Big media companies like Funnimation and Sentai Filmworks take most of the cut from the sale of Anime DVDs which leaves the Animation studios like Shaft, Kyoto Animation and the rest with so little profits. This is the same with music labels where the music labels like EMI, Warner and others get a big cut from album and digital music sales guess what the artist or even the composer get? A very small cut from it. The problem here is corporate greed and less profits from the content creators. On top of that, the greed comes in form of high prices on price gouging on Blurays (on lesser extent, DVDs) and DRMed media. On top of that, removing DRM from your media such as DVD ripping is illegal according to the DMCA (Digital Millennium Copyright Act) because using such programs circumvent Digital Rights Management. Stuff like DMCA further take away our fair use rights away. What happens if our media gets scratched up and become unreadable, do we have to buy another copy of the media? I think this is wrong because anyone should be able to back up their DVDs because we own the media already, why can’t we since “fair use” allows us to make a personal backup copy. (Note, it’s technically illegal to rip DVDs in this Real Network ruling.)
The end of the day, no matter if we own the media, we are slaves to corporate media and with streaming, our freedoms are basically gone with this and the content creator don’t benefit from this at all. The only way you can surely support the series you like is buying related merchandise such as figurines, artbooks, albums, games, etc. The merchandise they sell usually generate more money than licensed DVD releases and remains a great way to support the series you like while still buying R1 releases.
Note: I do not advocate not buying the Licensed DVDs or resorting to illegal means to obtaining “licensed” DVD releases because of some of these reasons… You should still buy R1 Licensed DVDs despite this and expressing my opinion won’t change that, I will still buy anime that is licensed.
Further Reading
kimaguresan on Crunchy and Big MediaOne License to Rule Them All
As smartphones are getting more popular, more people are using them to browse the internet including Anime Blogs. Except from Ganbatte Forever and the blog you are currently reading (and yes, Anime Nano have a iPhone version of the website), I see a lack of easy readability on mobile devices like the popular iPhone, iPod Touch, Blackberries, Google’s Android and the Palm Pre. Often, most anime blogs do not have a separate theme for mobile users. Unless you have a simple blog layout like Baka-Raptor’s, most cases, you have to zoom into the page in order to be able to read the content on the blog which can be frustrating (unless you have good eyes)… Not to mention, if you want to want to comment, it gets even harder just to type a comment since you have to scroll back and forth just to comment on a post… and most of the time, full pages will load slower if you are not connected to a Wireless Network with your Smartphone.
Some examples how most Anime blogs load on a iPhone:
Unless you have good eyes, you may need to zoom in just to read the content without straining your eyes.
However, there is a solution to this problem. The WPTouch plugin which work with most WordPress blogs adds a iPhone friendly theme to your blog which will load when your blog is viewed on a iPhone/iPod Touch/Android/etc. However, this theme does not replace the current theme you are using and is completely independent. You don’t need to mess around with any coding or such and the mobile theme can be turn on/off on the bottom of the page if the visitor wishes to view the full layout.
WPTouch plugin is a highly recommended plugin for most anime bloggers and most should take advantage of it to give a better viewing experience for mobile users and it’s free!
This episode that aired today was susposed to be the end all of Endless Eight and Kyon susposed to do his HOMEWORK for once with the crew, but it didn’t materialize… instead, Episode 7 have shown us what the last 5 episodes have shown… “WHAT WERE THEY THINKING?!” Is Kadokawa’s evil scheme is to damage the reputation of Kyoto Animation for their masterpieces they made in the past… Surely, the likes of Clannad, a masterpiece that cannot compare to the epic fail of Suzumiya Haruhi Second Season.
But, it’s not Kyoto Animation that is getting the bulk of the blame this time (since they are controlled and paid by Kadokawa to animate the series), but now, I’m seeing the blame going towards Kadokawa who is milking the cash cow (Suzumiya Haruhi Franchise) and not wanting to bother releasing Disappearance or the other interesting sections of the light novel. If it was Kyoto Animation’s idea of making it six episodes long, Kadokawa have a eviler scheme and will try to make it eight or even the whole season if they wanted… Remember, Kadokawa is in control of everything, although Kyoto Animation have some say, Kadokawa will always come supreme…
What about the fan reactions?
Friends at Cartoon Leap expected it to end, but got more frustrated than ever.
CCY (the author of Mega Megane Moé) on Twitter have mentioned that the rating for Haruhi have tanked .75 after two weeks and .05 points right after Episode 7 have aired and still tanking.
Another blogger who is frustrated with Endless Eight created 4koma on the reaction of Endless Eight with Kyon picking up the phone.
Even I have raged, expecting Kyon and Company to do their homework at the end… to my surprise… it’s the same thing over again.
At AnimeSuki, the ratings tanked on the later episodes of Endless Eight:
Akiko’s Jamu or Endless Eight?
In a poll made a week ago, I asked readers what they would do. The vast majority of them perfer eating the toast with Akiko’s Jamu instead of watching 6, maybe 8 episode of Endless Eight straight through… I can’t blame them though… The Jamu looks alot more appealing now, even if it doesn’t taste good.
What’s wrong with the picture? Have Haruhi “Jumped the Shark?”
Ever since Endless Eight started, we have thought that it would end on the second episode… Instead, the Endless Eight arc have dragged on for so long that people started to blame someone (Kyoani and/or Kadokawa) on the handling of the Haruhi S2 anime… Believe me, Endless Eight is what made the Haruhi series jumped the shark… It will never be the same ever again since expectations have lowered across the board… so, good luck on selling those DVDs, Kadokawa….
In conclusion, This is the worst stunt for Kadokawa to play… while hurting Kyoani’s reputation with it, but they will recover someday, but for Kadokawa… not so much.
With the Japanese recent ban on eroge games as a result of the Rapelay fisaco, it caused outrage in the anime/otaku community and yes… I have to agree that these Feminism/Activist groups have crossed the line since it’s a violation of freedom of speech….
Again, not every eroge game have content like Rapelay and some companies release all-ages version without any naughty content like Key for example… but in today’s society… Westerners think that anything that contains you-know-what is equal unhumane because other hollywood movies contain these kind of scenes as well and I never hear outrage because of it. The problem today is that these feminist and activists groups are overreacting and controlling what content he/she can watch or enjoy… While I don’t like these scenes and try my best to ignore them… (Also, I don’t play bishoujo games very often (only if I’m curious/interested, which is rarely) and I perfer not having naughty content) I’m strongly against any form of censorship and banning of content because regardless… it’s still freedom of speech and people should enjoy whatever content they want….
As long westerners remain prejudiced to this kind of content… it’s not likely to change… but you can try writing a letter to the Japanese Government (if you know Japanese, of course.)[poll id=”7″]
You might be wondering, why are you copying some websites who replaced their whole website with a SOS-dan logo? If I didn’t, Michiru would butt taunt me. Seriously…
Maybe not for that reason, but I wanted to commemorate that Kadokawa didn’t troll us again and the first episode of Haruhi Season 2 have finally aired as promise… Does that mean I will drop all the series I’m currently watching… Absolutely not… but I will be covering Haruhi Season 2, but no long synopsis since other bigger anime blogs are doing that already..
