Category Archives: Franchises

September 18, 2006

A Cheap Trick Is Cool x Sweet Anyways?

By omo

Tsuyokiss is a crappy show, but I don’t regret watching it one bit. Why?

Twin Tail Is Not DOHC

The actors. Tsuyokiss throws a handful of veterans with a bunch of anime voice acting n00bs. Nana Mizuki takes the lead role and I think she alone carried the show. It all works out well because she is really the main character with the majority of lines. Without spoiling the last episode, let’s just say, she really performs. While I’m not sure where to place Mai Nakahara, but Norio and Takehito Koyasu? They shine when they get the chance to, I suppose?

The theme. Granted as a TEROGE adaptation (or an bad eroge adaptation/bad adaptation of an eroge), Sunao’s schtick is acting, which folds right in with the fact that the best part about this show is the acting! And I think it kind of shines through.

The focus. Considering the man at the helm of this directed some…TERRIBLE? GOOD? I don’t know. Mahoraba? Maburaho? But this is a quick & dirty repeat formula with no originality aside from the shift of focus/theme to double-up on the acting cast. It’s done simply and farcically, and people have fun doing it, it felt. Fun both in “lol I get to cut corner in TEROGE adaptation” and “lol I get to mock TEROGE adaptation.” The show was serious, yes, but it walked through the motion only as much as it was necessary.

The feel. Some got pissed because the OP of the anime wasn’t this. What’s worse, and the pissed people have it right, is that the anime OP is downright awful. I’m sorry but it’s so true. However the last episode gave us a little treat when the SFX team and the voice actors got together and aurally annotated the OP for us. It’s got that “energy” the game OP has, despite the crap animation and crap music. It was fun. I guess he did get a bit less Maburaho and a bit more Mahoraba in the end.

And speaking of which; the end. Both for the series and the ending theme. The ending theme is a nice piece written by KOTOKO, and Kaori Utatsuki delivered it sufficiently to carry the feeling across. Ok, well-illustrated naked chicks in tasteful poses does help, too. As far as the end of the anime goes, I’m just not going to spoil it, even if it’s all too obvious. I think it would suffice to say it ended on that positive note with enough wrap-up to capitalize on the full build-up over the course of 12 episodes.

Yeah, in Air Gear terms, Tsuyokiss was a trick. And it’s a cheap trick. But I guess it’s got less love than the equally cheap trick, Soul Link. Boo-hoo. Alas, I did see it, so I merely lament having few to no one to share.

2 comments | posted in Modern Visual Culture, Seiyuu, Idol, Pop, Tsuyokiss

September 16, 2006

To Rewatch, To Buy Blind: Herald for Kanon

By omo

She Kicks High

Just how often do we rewatch something, and just how much does “not knowing what happens next” drive us to certain consumer (or non-consumer) decisions? The more I think about this topic I realize two interesting notes. At first my answers to these questions merely fill out the presumed value of a bigger economics picture, but it seems that it can help answer some substantive questions as well. Like, what do well-received anime series have in common?

The questions about rewatching and why we watch/buy shows we have not seen are invariably linked, I think, because the same mechanics play in part to answer both questions. One way to look at it is a simple, common-sensical approach that a great show is worth re-watching. In some context this means you simply pull out that copy of Haibane Renmei to feed your melancholy soul on a snowing Saturday afternoon. Another context means I bought Cowboy Bebop to rewatch, partly, but also as something to have in my library so others can watch it too. At least in both instances we are making use of what people buy home videos for.

The reasons that drive us to pursuit new, unviewed material are different, it seems. Perhaps, and for many bloggers, it means to find out what is new, and to discover if this new anime is of any merit. As long as there are new anime coming out, they will naturally find its audience and people will watch new things. For some, they watch new things only because it’s “good” — on par of the old things that are “good.” (“Good” here meaning having one or more desirable attributes.) Many people decide new things to buy based on this standard. Sometimes some of us stumble upon new shows.

But the pattern that is underlined by both is a matrix between quality and sharing. To some, a pursuit for new is a qualitative matter: we hate cliffhangers and unanswered questions. To others, it’s to find more of the same: “good” shows, show with attributes we like. Also, in the process of blogging, or mapping it into the fan scene consensus, or simply talking about a show that interest you, it generates interest for that show. It brings people into awareness of its existence, and in turn, an interest to see it.

To that end, a “good” show that gets talked about all the time is de facto the show that will get watched the most. Evangelion comes to mind. A show that no one talks about, and is crap, will not get watched. I can probably name some names but that would do the really obscure and crappy show no justice.

That much is probably common sense, too. But what’s interesting now is how we could tweak the parameters of “Interest” (to denote what makes sharing likely) and “Quality” to explain some other things one sees. Like the popularity of Naruto or DBZ. Like why Kirameki Project is obscure. Like the importance of the first episode. Like the importance of sending out the “right” “vibe.” Like how to market your show to the right audience.

To me, after all this analysis, it seems to describe my anime watching habits pretty completely. The reason why I watch a lot of new TV fansubs is because “new” is a qualitative trait I look for in shows–being kept up as to what’s happening in the scene, what are the new developments. It’s also a preference towards art style, as I don’t particularly like certain styles of retro-looking animation.

What’s interesting is that shows themselves can create “Quality” elements. Watching the 16 episodes of Simoun, for example, creates a (very, very strong) desire to find out what the hell happens next. For some, the first 2 episodes of Fushigi Yuugi would have done the same, at a lesser degree. Or the first 2 episodes of Initial D. The “pilot” effect is strong when coupled with this sort of hook. Some people look for this kind of quality as a “good” thing, too. There are other responses which a work can solicit from us, that people desire. A very funny show naturally is qualified by its humor or jokes. It could even be a tongue-in-cheek sort of humor, but as a rule of thumb there aren’t too many people who can appreciate it to the extent as other more obvious traits.

There are also places where “Quality” and “Interest” overlaps. These elements, both qualitative and external to a show, are where the most excellent shows and franchises do well in. I suspect why Suzumiya Haruhi’s “perfect storm” rationale behind its massive popularity is a combination of hitting people with the right kind of qualitative traits (high production quality, good acting, suspension of belief, the right genre) and some not-so qualitative traits: such as capturing a very important, vocal segment of the fanbase; a wide approach instead of a narrow, element-based appeal; and having the right amount and right type of marketing (during a market lull to a degree).

On the “Interest” side of thing that tend to be external, we have obviously, the right kind of marketing. Samuel L. Jackson, for instance; or the name GAINAX. Shoujo is a good tag word in the North American market, as another example. Even having the right OP/ED song by the right kind of people makes a huge difference, but that might also be qualitative.

A strong fan interest kindles more fan interest. Hype begets hype. Suiseiseki is not a lonely doll but the banner of an army. VIPPERs. Dancing VIPPERs. SaiMoe. Animesuki forums. Anime conventions. Comiket. 2ch. And many others. All these are factors, “Interests” which leverage people into buying, watching, rewatching, or finding out about shows. It may be simple word-of-mouth. It could be hype. It could be just that a person sees for the first time images from a new show, and is interested.

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5 comments | posted in Kanon, Kirameki Project, Modern Visual Culture, Popular Culture, Suzumiya Haruhi no Uuutsu

September 13, 2006

Tsuyokiss Aria REVOLUTION: Genre Kings x Delineation

By omo

This Picture Is Protected by OFP! ZOMG

You all have your own opinions on this, so I’ll be brief about laying the foundation and get into the meaty theoretical crap. The premise is simple: as genre is refined and redefined, people start to take cue as to what’s the best way to pitch within a familiar context, and evoking the same feel to reach out to the same demographic. The parallel is drawn from the “genre innovation” model that describes the video gaming industry and Nintendo, so if you’re familiar with that, you should have a good foundation.

From a cynical perspective, it all resulted from some successes like Love Hina or Ranma 1/2, where these genre-breaking/creating masterpieces started a trend. Just like telling your friends that “Trinity Blood is kind of like Trigun” will automatically get some of them to check it out, even if it isn’t really like Trigun… When a show resembles a certain something popular it gives the creators the incentive to mimic.

And there’s nothing wrong with mimicry. But when a genre is so well-defined (enough for a wiki article but not enough for bright line rules) because of the excessive mimicking, that if you toss all the divisible elements of what makes a harem anime into a randomizer and when the result of this mad-lib returns as a familiar premise of a real show, something is wrong. It’s not just because it’s absurd, but it’s so absurd that the work stands not on a creative bedrock recognizable by law. (Or is it?)

Thankfully, there are many ways out of this trap, and I think the anime industry has long since started to climb out of. When people like myself with no prophetic powers can see that, it means others are probably annoyed as well. Tsuyokiss is one example: the harem narrative reversed on its head; a typical bishoujo game adaptation has been spun around by the anime’s core team to draw a familiar story. But even then, such an “obvious” trick doesn’t distinguish the trite attempts at entertaining in TonaGura, for example, with Tsuyokiss. When the dumb shtick slapstick becomes the defining characteristic of your show, you’re not going to go anywhere.

But I suppose what these two shows told me, more specifically, is that people are ready. Sure, shows like Shuffle and DearS may prey on the weak still, but when I see Higurashi or even Negima, the vibe is just slightly different. In as much as in a post-Love-Hina reality we no longer can do a shounen romance show without the harem taint, people are tired of that. People are looking for the same, patently haremic elements elsewhere (looking at the new round of SaiMoe for some clues)–Aria, Rozen Maiden, School Rumble, and Mai-Otome, just to name a few. We want the relationships, the characters, the lightheartedness, outside of the traditional harem context. For some it is the desexualization of the context (Rozen Maiden); or it’s the focus on mood without drama (Aria); or inversely just the drama (Mai-Otome); or even pure comedy with little anything else (School Rumble). These shows all contain, for practical purposes, “harems.” However they do not carry themselves structurally as so typically.

Here is where we’re at a loss. This MMORPG dude says where things are going for them. Where are we going?

4 comments | posted in Aria, Modern Visual Culture, Rozen Maiden, Tsuyokiss

September 10, 2006

Saiunkoku Summer Ale – Less Filling, More Taste, Equally Patriotic

By omo

Hayate Yagami Salutes! (Has nothing to do with Saiunkoku Anything)

If one were to liken story-driven anime series to beer, Saiunkoku Monogatari would make a nice drink under the tepid breeze of summer. To me, however, that’s sort of besides the point. It is either delicious or disgusting. It either goes well with what I am eating and doing, or it doesn’t. It’s either affordable or overpriced.

In as much as I compare anime with beer at all, something like Windy Tales or Mushishi is by all means much more interesting; and dare I say, superior than beer, so the imagery wouldn’t work so well. To cop a line from Bokura ga Ita, those kinds of shows are like either like drinking hot cocoa after spending a turgid December day outdoors, or hearing your favorite song play on the radio on your drive home from work.

But I got nothing against beers. It’s just that since it’s such a prevalently consumed beverage in North America I figured a rather stock-genre show like Saiunkoku Monogotari would fit better as a comparison. When people praise this show for its deep intrigue and complex character relationships and expositions, to me it means simply that the original writer got its job done. It speaks little to the merit of the animated adaptation. That’s what these kinds of show are suppose to do, folks. It’s like NOT able to find an attractive girl in all of Negima: they went out of their way to avoid that problem. An added thing is just that this faux-Chinese historical thing just doesn’t do me any favors. I’ve had enough of it from just the live action stuff my relatives watch alone. Check the wiki, for crying out loud.

So only names like Kunihiko Ryo (my latest favorite anime soundtrack composer), Houko Kuwashima in a very demanding lead female role (I’m sort of torn regarding her performance though), and plus a generally un-hate-able assembly of big guns…NHK knows its conspiracy. It knows production value (for the most part).

And it goes down like a nice cold one. Take it as a warning and a suggestion at the same time. It’s slotted for 39 episodes, so it’s not a light commitment (though the first 7 episodes are self-contained). I’m knee-deep in this crap already, and it only took a day. We’ll see how this pans out.

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2 comments | posted in Modern Visual Culture, Popular Culture, Saiunkoku Monogatari

August 30, 2006

The Role of Fansubs in Today’s World: Food & Fuel for Fans

By omo

Canned Peaches

Aside from fansubbing for freedom, just why do people fansub? Who would commit copyright infringement of derivative work in producing a translated version of their favorite show, and do it again when they reproduce and distribute them?

I’m not sure how many people watch mainland Chinese-produced TV shows, but being able to watch some of the CCTV’s programming at my grandmother’s place via satellite, my impression was that they’re actually passibly ok. Granted sometimes it’s so obvious which segment is produced “with an agenda” and a lot of the TV stations there struggle to put content on the table, it’s not to say there are no interesting shows to watch.

But a Chinese fansub of Lost? Yeah, nothing like that. Definitely butchered Desperate Housewives just won’t fly with Chinese people in its purported ported form.

In retrospect this was almost like the case how anime took off in the US. We’ve had some anime on TV already for the longest time. Granted I wouldn’t call anime then really anything special, and anime as a form and as an industry has evolved in Japan over these decades, yet we had them in their rare dosage. Fast-forward to 2006; you can get relatively fresh anime on satellite/cable or even off the air with some regularity. Top hits like Cowboy Bebop and Naruto? Even family shows like Shin-chan? Crazy and unimaginable 10 years ago. HD anime? ZOMG.

But has anime as I know it landed on Plymouth Rock? In a lot of ways it has. Like Avatar? OEL manga? Otakon and AX? Manga sales in big-box bookstores? It has exploded, in some sense, in the mainstream of US. It’s even more pronounced in some other countries like France, where manga folds into the large print industry there like an adopted child from Asia.

Yet, in some ways it has not landed; in other words, how anime is in Japan (and indirectly so, the frame of mind behind the production thereof) has remained mostly a Japan-only situation. Partly, that’s what drives me to the internet in the first place–you could talk Pokemon and Digimon with people in real life, but not Magic Knight Rayearth. Some people knew about Evangelion, but most people didn’t really want to talk about it for the most part (lol). Best Buy may carry some of my favorite titles locally, but no one ever ask me to talk about them save once, when I worked there.

I suppose all I am doing is to suggest a new framework to examine the purpose of fansubbing. As an anime fan for a while and blogger for a short while, it struck me that while my preference is in the meta, anime fans still cannot exist without anime. That’s half of the reason why this blog exists. As such, fansubs are the fuel for fandom.

Fansub is food for thought; the carbohydrate culture where you cultivate fanboy germs.

It’s extraordinarily clear when it comes to Simoun. It’s just a huge pain in the ass to try to talk about this show: 1) It’s full of spoilers, so I can only really talk about it with people who has kept up as I did. 2) It needs subs, as the show itself is full of expository material, and hard to understand for me, and many others. 3) It needs a lot of subs, as the first bunch of episodes doesn’t really get into the show much, but rather more like an extended, no-apology extended introduction. Besides, all the juicy stuff happens later on.

Another example is FLAG. It’s a shorter series unlike Simoun, and it is very visual and visceral. However even if I can follow it raw, people just don’t pay attention to it out of lack of subs being available. At any rate, there’s a gap, imaginary or otherwise, between untranslated works and translated work. I think it’s fair to say, right now, FLAG is a show that has fallen through the fan network crack out of its poor fansub availability.

The idea that fansubs fuel fandom is predicated on a very obvious idea, I hope. If no one talks about the show, there cannot be any hype. The fan community thrives on words of mouths. People want to “take part” in the bandwagoning; the adoring and talking-it-up of a certain franchise. It’s half the reason why people hear about Fate Stay Night and Tsukihime, or even like it for some. We know hype, well, sells. But more importantly hype generates MORE hype, in the case of something genuinely interesting (and I mean that both in good and bad ways). It’s what drives fans, both people who flock to that and people who gets pissed off from hype. It’s why people bother talking about that stupid Bandai PR thing regarding Solid State Society.

But I did say Fate Stay Night, so I’ll be clear about it: yes, hype can exist in a vacuum without fansubs and anything like that. That is exactly why hype generates more hype–Fate is hyped already, and other fans feeds on top of it. Nonetheless you need something to start it off, and fansubs are one of those things. Again, look at Suzumiya Haruhi. (Inversely, hype also drives fansubbing.) And of course, the major argument today about needlessness of fansubs resides that the marketing machine is already in full swing as far as penetrating the fanbase online and the massive crowd of normal fan through more traditional outlets (TV, magazines, cons, store displays, websites that gives you the first ep for free, etc). Still, fansubs are a fairly unique way to market in which the substitutes just don’t go nearly as far. I think even today it is an important method to generate hype, if not the primary method to generate hype for titles that I am interested in.

If I had to say why, it would be because the historic nature of development of the anime fan scene has evolved in a way that is dependent on fansubs. Think of it as bonsai. See the next section for an alternative take on the effects of fansubbing on anime fandom.

While it isn’t conclusive or a solid indicator, you can get a feel as to popularity of currently-ongoing shows by just how widely available as fansubs that they are. Take Aria the Natural for instance (one slacking in being subbed), and compare it with Zero no Tsukaima (one that is right on top).

From another perspective, this role fansubs take on is just an extension of what they originally were for: to promote awareness of something wholly unavailable in one isolated demographic. However, that fansubbing is still alive and well today goes to show that the mission is not complete from some perspectives. Anime has yet to fully land on Plymouth Rock. The commercial infrastructure may be available, but it just hasn’t happened yet. Alternatively, what are fans to do when faced with this artificial chasm between the Japan scene and their local scene? News travel just as fast as these copyrightable “food for fans” and not even taking money into account, a fan will do what a fan has to do.

As fuel, fansubs sustain the internet fan infrastructure, and fans wear this badge in honor of the internet’s nature as a massive, unstoppable copyright infringement machine.

In essence, this is a description of fansubbing’s role in the meta. Just like the natural ecosystem which arranges the organisms in a food chain, the entire enterprise of fansubbing–from raw hunting to production to distribution to consumption to even talking about fansubs–affects the way how some fans perceive anime. In fact, given how anime companies outside of Japan are often run by people who at one point are a fan of the works because of fansubs or what have you, fansubbing historically may have left some mark in the way people look at anime as a business.

The reality is, though, that fansubbing is hard work. People do it because they like the material, because they like the process, and/or because they like the result. The flow of content from providers to consumers generates an imbalance. There is little apperciation for the fans (as they bitch about fansubs and don’t buy the local release) and little accountability for fansubbers (as they do things fansubbers shouldn’t to do).

And that’s not all. The amount of time fans spent talking and arguing about fansubs as if it is important alone is shocking :-) The legally-grey nature of fansubs only makes it all that much more the fuel for the fire. Fans treasure what feeds them, after all, so we would feel defensive about it naturally. It’s a bit of a paradigm shift especially from a fan’s way of thinking, stepping in the shoes of the corporate?

The historical basis is undeniable. Just like how we have workshops on fansubbing at cons and the now-defunct elaborate fansub trading networks of the 80s and early 90s, it was what it meant to be a fan for many back then. It’s the actual stuff you do besides talking about it with your friends or on Usenet. That shaped how fansubbing has lodged itself squarely in the heart of fandom, even if fans and fansubbers today are a different breed than how they were 10 years ago.

More seriously, I suppose what I am trying to get at is that unless you subscribe to some hardcore variant of the free culture idea, fansubbing and English-language anime fandom relate mostly on a historic basis. It is not going to go away until the gap between domestic commerical services of anime catches up with Japan’s level of service to the extent that it becomes easier for people like me to rely on the domestic labor (and pay them appropriately) to feed the inner fanboy.

One caveat I should raise is that while my premises are based on a generality, in reality no one owns a license to distribute anime in the US or any other country. Rather, they have a bunch of licenses to distribute specific shows in very specific capacities. So while one person can fairly proclaim that fansubs are unneeded/needed today, it’s only true for titles on his radar. Odds are there are still shows out there that could use the magical powers fansubs have demonstrated to have in the earlier days of English-language anime fandom. That said, it’s a whole different question as if the magic still works for those titles off our radars.

On the same basis, one should realize that fansubbing is a divisive topic and even the different R1 distributors have different opinions on the matter if you dig deep enough. It’s ultimately a decision that individual copyright holders and licensees have to decide individually in order to pursuit whatever course of action they think is best. I’m not going to speculate what that may be, but please do realize that these courses of action can be different.

Lastly I thank DarkMirage‘s little blurp slamming people bitching about Bandai’s threatening PR; and doubly thanks for calagie for the NYT article link.

14 comments | posted in English Language Modern Visual Fandom, FLAG, Modern Visual Culture, Popular Culture, Simoun, Suzumiya Haruhi no Uuutsu