Monthly Archives: January 2012

January 21, 2012

Power Word: Please!

By omo

I’ve been looking at some of the blog posts and online reactions to Ano Natsu de Matteru. The general concensus can be categorized into three bins: 1) those who has seen and enjoyed the Onegai Teacher and Onegai Twins series, 2) those who did not enjoy those two shows, and 3) those who knew nothing about them until recently.

I find the general concept of AnoNatsu intriguing, coming from a reboot perspective. I think this guy kind of points out the problem–or better put, the trick. Does AnoNatsu stand on its own? I think that isn’t a question that those in groups one and two can truly answer, and Chris B. is firmly in that category. Actually, he kind of comes off clueless there, but that’s not the point I want to get at.

The general reaction among the 3 groups are:

Group one typically loves AnoNatsu just purely running on nostalgia alone. To use a sweet analogy, it’s like Peanut M&Ms, but now you have Almond M&Ms. And typically people who like nuts like both. We’re (because that’s who I am) the kind of people who gets excited seeing Ichika wearing something like Mizuho’s negligee or understand the secret behind Remon’s identity (as oppose to merely having knowledge of who she is). We are, I guess, Hayama. Actually, it’s more than just that. Some people get really into it and there’s plenty of Easter eggs in AnoNatsu that you can get tripping with both the new material and the old material and how the old material is in the new material. That’s three-fer-sugar high, to extend the sweet analogy.

Group two are, I hate to say it, made up largely of stereotypical Americans that gets hung up on teenage sex fantasies. Of course there are some legitimate complaints here and the Oneti/Onetwi series is all about adolescent romantic fantasies as a core component of that magic, so invariably some people will have issues with that. It is kind of interesting to see how people react to it now that they’ve been armed with 10 years of fandom vocabulary and development that wasn’t present back when Onetwi was around. I think regardless, AnoNatsu comes off somehow different than the genre tropes people are used to, even for this group, and I’ll get to that in a moment.

Naturally I am most interested in the opinion of people in Group Three. I think what made Oneti and Onetwi fun to watch is present in AnoNatsu so I expect that new viewers to find themselves reacting to it the way we did 10+ years ago. It helps that there’s a good amount of self-selection going on, given AnoNatsu doesn’t beat around the bush and doesn’t distinguish itself beyond that it is the spiritual successor of the Please! franchise. Also I think people prefer that to begin with. For example, like what this ANN reviewer said. I think just like back then, Please Teacher and Twins are romantic comedies for guys that actually walked that really scandalous road where fantasies are fulfilled from the get go, rather than a carrot on a stick form that is way too typical (especially given the constraints of serialized manga publication). From there, the rest of the show is set up to exploit that tension of fantasy being reality, but with a twist. (It slightly deviated from the typical Alien Girlfriend plot generator.)

[Well, If Ah My Goddess can do it, anyone can too. Also if you review anime for $, please do me a favor: Please do not quote from TVTropes unironically.]

I think more importantly it isn’t common to see reboots drag new fans into the fold of old, the original series, in this genre. I mean I can’t remember a single time when people quoted either Oneti or Onetwi in their “must watch” list. But for entertainment, I think they are a good time for everyone. It’s neat to see that some people are really enjoying it today even when they missed out 10 years ago.

PS. There is actually a mysterious fourth group of reactions that I left out: Those people who know about Please Teacher from way back but forgot Please Twins existed. They … are a fun group to watch. A bit of category 1 and 2 in those.

6 comments | posted in Ano Natsu de Matteru, Modern Visual Culture

January 19, 2012

How to Make Redline Better

By omo

My reaction to Redline, in a word: overrated. I think the hype surrounding Redline is largely founded on good faith but it’s like a great down payment but defaulting on the rest of the loan, Redline doesn’t bring home all the goodness promised. And it’s sad because I don’t think the film and marketing material promised much–it’s what all the excessive word on the street is preaching.

However I am going to put that pedal to the metal is to cram as much car and racing puns into this delivery vehicle. You on board with me?

At the end of it all, in order to find something “overrated” it has to have some basis for me to have such a turbocharged expectation. I blame posts like this, selling it like a high school dropout turned used car salesman (because he was too busy watching Ninja Scroll than to study); the mentality drives such reviews, not the actual quality of the thing. It makes me wonder if it does more harm than good by kicking up dust like that. I appreciate the passion to go to town but like every other anime, it is but a small sample in a wide and broad swath of possibilities, among fans of all sizes, where the mileage invariably will vary. It’s like screeching of some dynoqueen Civic for being, well, dynoing like crazy. But when rubber meets the road, you’ve got to wonder.

Personally I find the biggest problem in Redline the lack of that rival component. It’s got nobody to race with. In fact the handling of all the racers besides JP and Sonoshee is pretty half-assed. There are about a dozen concurrent plot lines in the span of 90 minutes, give or take. And all but the main one is…just thrown in there, without a lot of passion. Certainly much less than the eye-dropping animation on display. I mean, the half-assed execution is probably a product of having just too much in too little, givng the audience very little reasons to put money on anything in the movie except the primary pairing. By the time when the film crosses the finish line, you’re left wondering what difficult challenge JP and Sonoshee have overcome. I guess it’s about themselves? Being determined and courageous enough to pick themselves up to cross the finish line, against tremendous odds? Odds expressed as bets? And such bets are actually being gamed, because everyone we care about (namely you, the viewer) knew JP is way better than the odds?

And wait, isn’t JP’s real struggle not even on the course? It all had to do with his friend/mechanic and the mob? Isn’t that exactly the UN-anime/manga thing in regards to what typically passes for a fight/sports setup? Oh wait, this is where people are suppose to say “no” to angsty teenage characters trying to improve their game over their bitter rivals. It’s closer to some HK Blood Opera, except JP is not full of bullet holes (tho not for lack of trying) and bleeding to death because he has terminal cancer, or something ridiculously Jun Maeda-like.

I mean, racing is a sport, right? Where you can “win” at something? Or is it an allegory in Redline? But without defining the challenges, it’s not clear if what JP and Sonoshee accomplished across the finish line is really the proverbial “all that.”

At least, instinctively, when JP and Sonoshee did their best Utena Movie impression at the end, it did not leave me impressed beyond the audio-visual treat that none can deny. What is there for JP to lose? Or Sonoshee? It feels like seeing a bunch of clowns racing down the track, with explosions going on, but you know they’ll be fine because they are, like all the other racers in Redline, clowns trained to survive these high-octane stunts. Plus they’ve got Plot Armor.

The lack of this realism definitely is something part of the visual presentation. Unreal, more like. Fantastic dialed up to eleven. Yeah, maybe in their various flashbacks and tearful rememberences, JP and Sonoshee appeared human. But that is not only just the backdrop to the film, it isn’t even the purpose–I’m here to see some badass racing. I mean, if you go into Redline with any other expectation (and besides to see some gorgeous animation), you will be disappointed. I find that fundamentally two contrasting flavors to this film. On one hand they could ditch all of that and just parade it down the raceway like a pro; but it probably won’t work in the feature-film format.

TL;DR–these are the things Redline can do better:

  • Ditch more of the side plots so it can spend time on the main characters.
  • Spend more time making Sonoshee and JP human by spending less on those in the show that aren’t.
  • Change or lessen the contrast between superhuman feats and motivation based on the lack of by defining the challenge as something JP could not overcome.
  • Have better marketing instead of having semi-fans parade nonsensical claims that distort the quality of the film. (Instead they can have contests in which they will try to cram as many racing and driving metaphors in their reviews.)

In other words, my biggest complaint of the film is the lull in the 30-35 minute gap between when we first see Sonoshee’s tits and when the proper Redline race begin. Most of those things will go to making that segment a lot more engaging. I mean, the whole introduce-to-rest-of-racer thing ought to be important but in the end that whole sideshow doesn’t add anything to the main story. It felt contrived in that they had to explain those elements as they play pivotal roles in the final race, but it was not possible to elevate those elements beyond one-dimensional props. I mean who cares about the motivation of the SuperBoins? Or the crybaby cop? And those two are way more outstanding than the other half-dozen miscreants that line up at the starting gate. I think this audience is better served if they spent more time studying the superlaser satellite thing or driving around in circles at the river bed.

Seriously, after such an high octane opening, it feels really tedious having to wait like, 40 minutes, just to get to the next race, with a plain-Jane Vanilla buildup. It’s like going from 0 to 60 in 4 seconds and it takes half an hour to do a quarter-mile. Give me a break.

I’ve said it before: Redline is more like the final crow call of an era bygone than something that saves something else. Get over it guys, the market has already long spoken as to what kind of businesses and what kind of franchises sell. I think I’m with you in that the world may be a better place if more productions like Redline existed, but it isn’t going to happen if they would have the flaws Redline has. The market just cannot sustain that volume of arthouse projects as a mainstream sort of thing, even if said arthouse project is Redline. You are better off standing in line with all the other otaku with their niche entertainment. I mean that’s where everybody is going to be soon enough.

10 comments | posted in Modern Visual Culture, Redline

January 18, 2012

On SOPA, Funi vs. Zombie ADV

By omo

Law & Business Post!

There are a million better explanations than this one as to why SOPA and PIPA are bad. But to someone like me copyright enforcement is really just about money. The sad thing is, things like integrity and the notion of “theft” about music and movies in the context of internet piracy are all artificially grafted into the mainstream consciousness, to serve money. It’s not a natural concept to apply it to mass media. I think maybe when it was print publishing’s earlier days, it made sense. But now? It’s like bottling air and selling it to people. It’s unfortunate you have so many people using these emotional and irrational notions to argue their cases. (What was the thing Socrates said about persuasion? Oh hey they do that in American law schools don’t they.)

But that goes both ways–there’s nothing wrong about bottling air and selling it to people. Or water, for that matter. Fresh water is one of the hardest thing to get, and we cannot live without it. Or at least live without dysentery. It is very much about putting money where it counts, but at the same time doing it in a way that respects the nature of the thing. If we want to inject any kind of morality into this situation anyways. And I still fail to see why we should, besides as an alternative to more elaborate, truthful, and rational reasons why we might want to support laws that protect IP creators. They tend to be subpar alternatives, I’m inclined to think. These are alternatives that can be used to manipulate a body of lawmakers to pass laws primarily motivated to profit one party’s bottom line over another, at the cost of a legitimate and potentially greater good to society.

The truth is, the copyright code is not written with the common man in mind. It is written for companies and businesses and libraries and guilds and schools and such. It doesn’t even care about software publishers. Just look at who were in those legislative caucuses for the 1986 copyright code, the foundation of today’s US copyright law. In the 90s when the US Copyright Code was amended to take care of the internet, well, it was written in the 90s. The internet is profoundly a different thing since the 90s. But in regards to the Copyright Code, people were asking the same questions back then as they do now. It made as much sense as it did as it does today. Which is to say, it doesn’t even make sense to most lawyers! [Free book on this, great read.]

That is also why I don’t think we should care (much about) how SOPA can be used to censor legitimate speech, or kill anime blogging, or whatever. Those are simply unconstitutionally broad provisions that deserve to die, and even if passed would not come to. I think it distracts from the core discussions on issues behind SOPA, and generally internet & copyright and other systemic problems that lead us down this road in the first place.

SOPA/PIPA are pretty much the same kind of patchwork as what we have today. Except there are no lobbyists for the American people. Even organizations like the EFF kind of lets you down, because it can’t override the system: in the end our legislative system bases itself on the individual voters as the core voice for their elected officials. Is that tin-can-on-a-string sort of communication-representation working? It does when you call or write or whatever your congressperson. And it only does when you do that. It doesn’t do it when you “vote with your wallet.” No number of copies of Fate/Zero preorders will change this. Or for that matter, the only thing worse is when you boycott. Seriously, don’t boycott anime. Boycott, I don’t know, BP or something actually meaningful. Or at least boycott someone like GoDaddy, guh, I don’t know why people sign with them at all ever in the first place.

The real way to ROW ROW FIGHT THE POWAH is to replace it. Go to NYC or San Jose or something, start a company. If Hollywood and the recording industry really suck, then you can make money in the vacuum that they are overlooking. A Steve Jobs sure did. And someone like him contributes to society way more than any RIAA goon or random Internet Quarterback has ever did, and Jobs isn’t even a nice guy, for example. Or, hey, if those SOPA hearing makes you want to run for Congress, well, politics can make for an exciting career!

This is why I prop companies like Crunchyroll. Because they are a force of change for the better. They see a business that they can capitalize on and exploit, and they did. That changes things. It brings simulcast out from the ghetto and into, well, 21st century standards. And as it should be, right?

Let companies like Funimation and Section23 pick over the half-dead body of the home video market. It’s their jobs. It’s not to say home video will die–it won’t. In fact it’ll remain profitable (and it will continue to have my money for sure). It just won’t grow and develop into the Pocket Monster Master that anime used to be 10 years ago. It won’t bring change, at least not any foreseeable sort of change that hasn’t already happened 15 years ago. It will not increase the freedom of a society, or bring new ways for fans to interact with content creators and with each other (as these things have already been accomplished to the extent home video is capable of doing). All it’s going to do is to look at the same spreadsheets and balances and market data and pray that by doing the same business they’ve done for over a decade, that they will still be able to put food on the table.

I suppose that’s fine and all, but if I had a choice to reward those who seek to improve the current situation versus those who are just keeping the status quo, I think the choice is obvious. It’s about what you do with the money, not who has it.

Because, to someone like me, when Funi sued ADV, it’s also just about money, too. Funi had an obligation to realize the value that their Japanese overlord had as creditor. It was bound to happen. The question was  just how it mattered and how can Funi soften the blow that it will invariably have against themselves and the defendant. Commercial litigation is just a protracted negotiation since something like 90% of them settle. It costs money to play the game, no matter who you are. And there are risks for both sides. Both companies have my best wishes that they can wrap up what they need to get done, and soon.

1 comment | posted in English Language Modern Visual Fandom

January 16, 2012

Details in Space, Details from Space

By omo

There is just one comment I want to make:

How do you deal with an audience who is going to point out that those girls are working in zero-gravity with skirts? In a show where they’ve tried to, well, avoid showing anything underneath skirts? Tried to, because it seems that they did in Mouretsu Pirates anyway.

How do you deal with an audience who is going to ask themselves “Wait, how do you get cellular reception underwater?”

I guess this is where I grin and nod to your typical Tatsuo Sato anime.

I think that is one of the continuing challenges to make content for an increasingly fanatic and jaded crowd; like a sea of Simpson’s Comic Book Guys. But some people just have the touch.

Two girls, one cup.

The forbidden uniform. The forbidden line. What is next?!

Wait… Disney will never license this show, right? Just like Ocean Waves, right? LOL.

20 comments | posted in Ano Natsu de Matteru, Franchises, Modern Visual Culture, Mouretsu Pirates, Rinne no Lagrange

January 13, 2012

Leaving It On the Table: Why Funimation Is No Better than Bandai at This

By omo

Okay, so people might have a point about the retreat into the niche market when it comes to releases for shows that, by the Iyadomi interview, Bandai Visual Japan and Aniplex pricing.

But it’s times like this we need to remember why we don’t have a Tatami Galaxy release yet. Funimation’s release model doesn’t work for everything under the sun. If we are to agree that anime is just a style/medium sort of thing, like TV shows and films, then we have to agree that some films will sell to a mainstream audience and some will not. How do we bring commercial viability to the widest array of ideas in anime? Are there any limits? If we treat “freedom of animation” as a goal then I can’t help but to think that there are few, if any, drawbacks to Bandai’s retreat from the US market. Rather, we gain the benefit of either having other players picking up titles at a lower cost, or having Japanese releases for the titles that wouldn’t sell under a Funi-style or S23-style model. It opens things up.

The drawbacks, as far as I can tell, are mostly in how markets adjust for prices. For one, some anime might be more expensive to purchase in the future. I think expensive anime is inherently a bad thing in that proliferation of idea require a low cost of entry. Expensive and hard-to-obtain anime invariably means fewer people will be able to see it. This is partly remedied by legal streaming and fansubbing, except the latter doesn’t promote things as it brings no dough home to the creators, at least by itself. It’s kind of a wash anyway, if we prize the proliferation of ideas–people will be able to watch what they want, the means to do so is sufficiently liberated that even people in third-world countries can do media piracy with increasing ease. And it really is not related to Bandai Entertainment’s retreat anyway, since North America has no 3rd world nations…and Bandai’s business doesn’t really have much of an impact on piracy to begin with.

The other drawback has to do with someone stranding a bunch of titles. This is a legitimate issue. I mean I suppose Bandai will still take care of its Gundam titles in some way, at least to make it purchasable with enough localized content slapped on it. I’m not so sure if same can be said about bigger titles like, say, Haruhi (if there’s ever any more new Haruhi), or their newly-stranded shows like Nichijou. Let alone their more niche shows. But Iyadomi at least said the rights will revert and Kadokawa can go shop around once again, for the new stuff. I’m not sure how that is going to play out, but it seems at least some care was taken to it so that stuff doesn’t get “stranded” too badly. And given it’s just one show, I don’t see too much of a harm, at least compared to the potential sequels that will get their heads segmented by different companies releasing parts of it.

[And of course, there are the manga orphanages, but I’m going to focus on anime on this post.]

I think given those pitfalls, if we look at what Funi is doing with certain properties, it really isn’t so different. I think it still comes down to that somebody out there has to be at least doing the work of localizing the stuff, making it available, and selling it at the right price. Funi and what used to be Bandai Entertainment did this. It is still a loss that we now have one less company doing that, so I wish nothing less than more of what Funi does basically. But it’s not just Funi, but every other company doing it–including Bandai Visual over there, or Aniplex. Or those blokes picking up titles I want to import in the UK or Australia.

I think it is better to categorize Funimation’s licensing strategy as piecemeal as they start to work with new media and expand their revenue stream. I also think they’ve made some big mistakes, along with which their gravest is their poor agility in the online space and inability to rectify it. I mean if this was 2008 maybe starting your own social ecosystem may make sense, but not in 2011. It is worth noting that Crunchyroll has dropped that even before wasted attempts like Funi’s beta site (and things like, lol, Mikubook) even saw the light of day. They are trying to do all the right thing, just 2-3 years too late. Its chain of partners seems like a smarter move, but I think it exasperates the piecemeal problem.

By piecemeal I mean the same copyright issue that international media distribution has. And in anime’s case it happens all the time. Especially when you are trying to identify and establish branding–anime IP is so poorly marketed that it makes more sense for local distros to focus on lines and brands and squeeze titles under it, essentially have these titles work in a team to lift everything in the line. And it works well when you have marquee titles (Funi has a few to say the least). But when your shows is everywhere, and some shows are in site X and others in app Y, it paints a confusing picture that benefits more so for the sites that hosts them and give little long-term benefit for the company that actually owns the right. Of course, unless those people are already following what the company is doing–in other words, not really the mainstream.

On the bright side, nobody else doing physical distro is even close to what Funi has done. So uh, yeah.

I suppose that just can’t be helped. I mean I don’t know how Funi is run, but it sounds like a fun place to work. It also clearly doesn’t run like a start-up, at least from the top-down. So how can it compete in the new media space? I’m not sure it has the resources to do so, even if it is relatively inexpensive.

Inexpensive enough that Nicovideo is charging us $0.25 for some anime, and you get a lot of NASA programming for free! Weeee.

I think more relevantly, it’s inexpensive in that Japan can pony up and front it. They still will need help but it would be way better than, say, Toei’s failed attempts.

When we talk about, in a broad sense, what a market adjustment looks like, I think we’re just seeing it playing out in this marketplace. Sometimes it’s all internal, like what has happened to Media Blaster recently and its continuing rounds of HR issues. Sometimes it’s not. So I say let’s just keep our course and look at what will happen next.

6 comments | posted in Modern Visual Culture