02.19.10
Posted in Anime, Manga, Ongoing Investigations Tags: Detective Conan, Mobile Suit Gundam ZZ, Rampage, Seitokaichou ni Chuukoku, ランペイジ, 名探偵 コナン, 名探偵コナン 瞳の中の暗殺者, 富野 由悠季, 機動戦士ガンダムΖΖ, 生徒会長に忠告 at 10:00 am by reversethieves
I continued my journey with Detective Conan in watching the 4th Movie, Captured in Her Eyes. This one clearly makes Ran the focus of the movie but by giving her amnesia after she witnesses a police woman being shot in front of her as part of a series of attacks against police officers. So most of the movie is Conan trying to get her to get her memories back so she can remember the shooting while trying to simultaneously to solve the case. I got a better insight into every one’s relationships as they tried to explain to Ran who they were. The story is weaker the the last movie but I still found it enjoyable. The story starts off strong with some action and murder and sort of coasts in the middle. The end gets exciting again and has some great chase sequences with a solid finale. Everyone role in this movie was more organic integrated than the last movie which was nice to see. Not the first Detective Conan movie you should see but definitely not one you should skip over either.
Captured in Her Eyes is strangely able to show Ran at her weakest and show her kicking ass in a properly dramatic scene. At first you may think, Ran sees murders all the time as does anyone involved with Conan! However, this time around she was close to death and what’s more, she has seen the killer’s face. There is a much more personal element in this movie, even in the mystery itself as one of the officers targeted is a recurring character. This movie also showcases a little of Ran and Kudo’s connection, not that it isn’t obvious, but it’s not always central and in this case there is a desperation on Conan’s part. For better or for worse, those are the best parts of movie. The mystery itself is enticing for sure but the figuring of it out isn’t as intriguing. Though this is all saved by some really incredible animation sequences including one of Conan skateboarding down this giant ice slide thing and then almost immediately after a nice boat chase scene! Enjoyable of course, but Capture in Her Eyes is more memorable for the animation than anything else.
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11.27.09
Posted in Anime, Manga, Novels, Ongoing Investigations Tags: Angel Notes, Detective Conan, Haruhi Suzumiya, Kaidan Restaurant, Liar Game, The Sigh of Haruhi Suzumiya, Type-Moon, Yumeiro Patissiere, タイプムーン, チェイサー, ライアーゲーム, 名探偵 コナン, 夢色パティシエール, 怪談レストラン, 涼宮ハルヒの憂鬱, 涼宮ハルヒの溜息 at 8:46 am by reversethieves
Having never seen the second season of Haruhi I have yet to be embittered by the franchise. Therefore I have happily gone and picked up the The Sigh of Haruhi Suzumiya novel. It’s hardly brand spanking new territory for those who watched the TV series but it does go in depth into the creation of the movie that makes up episode 0 of the original TV series. It does shed a good deal of light on events that occur during episode 0 if you were not already aware of them such as why occasionally people are busting out powers during the filming of the movie and why Kyon’s cat talks only in episode 0. Other than that there are no major plot revelations or character development. It tells the story you already mostly know but gives you the behind the scenes details into how that movie was made. It is mostly a fun little romp with Haruhi as the Japanese Ed Wood. I think the novel is a good cure for those who still want to like the Haruhi series but were burnt out by Endless Eight.
The latest Detective Conan Movie, the 13th one to be exact, titled The Raven Chaser was a really enjoyable addition to the Conan library. This one involves a rather clever serial killer who leaves Mahjong tiles at the scenes of his victims and that is only the beginning of the string of clues our boy detective must unravel! This movie did plenty of things right while keeping it just grounded enough. You can follow Conan’s logic even if you can’t figure things out a head of time, which is a plus. Also this story throws in a lot of favorite characters including Heiji and Kazuha, plus the addition of the Black Organization makes the movie a well plotted trip. The final confrontation is a high adrenaline sequence involving Tokyo Tower that isn’t to be missed. Also no surprise but the movie looks great. Highly recommended!
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12.20.07
Posted in Anime, Fandom, Manga Tags: Captain Tsubasa, Detective Conan, Doraemon, Kochikame, Kochira Katsushika-ku Kameari Kōen Mae Hashutsujo, Sazae-san, sports anime, Touch, TV series, こちら葛飾区亀有公園前派出所, こち亀, キャプテン翼, サザエさん, タッチ, ドラえもん, 名探偵 コナン at 2:29 pm by reversethieves
If you are a veteran world travel, like I am not, then you will know that the menu items on your favorite menus and toppings on some of your favorite foods are quite different in foreign countries. In Europe, people love to dip their french fries in mayo and/or vinegar instead of ketchup. Any international fast food franchise will have a significantly different menu in another country. There will be some menu items that are notably absent in some countries and others that are unique to one country. Heck, in different parts of the same country you will have variations in eating tastes and menu items.
Now, I’m hungry.
What does this all have to do with anime and manga? Well, it just shows that like people consume different foods in different regions they also consume different entertainment as well. There are some anime that are insanely popular in Japan that will never come to the U.S. or horribly bomb in the U.S. because Americans just don’t care for them. There are also some shows that the Japanese don’t care for but are brought over to America and sell like gangbusters. Even though there are anime fans on both sides of the Pacific the tastes in the anime that anime fans have can be wildly different.
As we know, dozens upon dozens of series get brought to the U.S. every year but there are thousands to be picked from. And there is good reason for that in many cases (and in some cases not). A lot of anime/manga are very Japanese, more Japanese than anything we have seen, and it just wouldn’t be appealing for most fans. A lot of these include comedies, which can sometimes turn out to be totally not funny if you aren’t from Japan.
There are a slew of long running anime/manga that have never even come over despite their enormous popularity in Japan. In general, Japan likes long running episodic family shows and Americans want nothing to do with them. Japan also loves sports shows but Americans ignore them completely.
Sports show are huge in Japan! Giant! The only one that seems to have any U.S. following is Prince of Tennis. But then who wouldn’t love a show where you can defeat dinosaurs by using tennis? The Touch series was especially big, it is about baseball, by Mitsuru Adachi. He did a short story series called Short Program which was released in the U.S., quite good. Anyway, Touch was decently long, had 3 movies, T.V. specials, live-action adaptations, you name it! This was an 80’s show so that may account for some of the lack of interest. Captain Tsubasa is another that comes to mind, it is about soccer. This series started in the early 80’s and still has incarnations of it running today! Manga, anime, video games, movies, the works! They can’t seem to get enough. Although this could be attributed to Americans notoriously not caring about soccer, too. Because Captain Tsubasa was translated into many languages in the Middle East and Europe. Some of both these series have been fan-subbed though.
I also remember that Captain Tsubasa has a huge fan following in South America and Mexico. America loves baseball and football but you don’t see Star of the Giants and Eyeshield 21 merchandise all over the place because of the huge TV deals they got to put those shows on Cartoon Network. I’m sure if the U.S. loved soccer we would still not see Captain Tsubasa in the U.S.
Sazae-San is clear the most famous of the huge hits in Japan that has absolutely no following in the U.S. Sazae-san is often the highest rated anime on Japanese TV. I remember that Josh in Japan said that when he lived in Japan the only anime he regularly watched was Sazae-san with his family. Sazae-san started in 1946 in a local newspaper and revolves aroun a housewife named Sazae Fuguta and her family. Much like many American newspaper comics the characters will change with the times but do not age much, like the Simpsons. Even though the manga has ended, and the original manga artist has died, the characters have proven themselves so popular that the Sazae-san anime is still has new episodes on TV today.
Doraemon is one of those perennial TV shows that so many other anime have referenced. Heck, I remember GTO and XXXholic making Doraemon jokes. The cartoon Puri Gorota in Nodame Cantabile is also an obvious parody of Doraemon. Doraemon is a robot cat from the future who was sent back in time to help out his original owners descendant named Nobita. It turns out that since Nobita is such a sad dork he runs up a huge amount of debt for his descendants in the future so they send him Doraemon in hoped that he grows up to be a better man and save the family from finical ruin. Since Doraemon is from the future, he can pull out a large array of hyper-technological gadgets from a pouch in his belly. The gadgets are supposed to help Nobita but they often get stolen by his friends or cause more trouble they they solve. Nobita usually learns a lesson from his adventures making it firmly a children’s cartoon. In many ways, Doraemon is wish fulfillment mixed with a moral lesson.
Doraemon is a cute enough show. It also doesn’t have an engrossing appeal to ever need to be watched over again, which is fine. But that doesn’t exactly mean it should be wrapped up and brought to the U.S. It also isn’t hysterically funny either. It is kind of slow and has a lot of word-play. It is something you watch with your kids and maybe you laugh, too. Also Japan loves cute mascot characters so Doraemon takes the cake.
Detective Conan is another well loved long running anime and manga in Japan. Jimmy Kudo is a 17-year old prodigy and often helps to police solve cases much like Encylopedia Brown. After helping solve one murder case he is attacked by an employee of the mysterious Black Organization and injected with an experimental poison. The poison was supposed to kill him but instead it regresses him back into a ten year old. Since the Black Organization thinks Jimmy is dead he takes the name Conan Edogawa and enrolls in elementary school. He helps his friend’s father, Richard Moore who is a detective, help solve cases while he tries to track down the leaders of the Black Organization and find a cure for his condition. Most of the episodes are Conan solving some mystery that either Richard Moore has become involved with or some problem that his friends have gotten involved with. Every few episodes Conan finds some lead with the organization but usually he ends up just as in the dark as he did at the beginning of the case.
Yay, Detective Conan! I have seen very little of this series but detectives always attract me, it’s like bat radar. I would really like to see this series released as brick sets, it is the only way it seems worth getting such an insanely long series. I would watch like the Japanese do, sort of, by watching a few episodes now and again. The problem with shows like that is you seem to lose the U.S. audience because you have to purchase it and you don’t just get to tune in randomly to it.
The main problem with Conan is it’s a kid show so it is sort of hard for people to wank on about how super deep it is(not that it stops them from doing it with other shows) but it can be rather bloody and violent which make it unsuitable for children according to U.S. standards. The paradox sort of keeps it from getting any mainstream appeal in America.
Kochira Katsushika-ku Kameari Koen-mae Hashutsujo (Kochikame) is the longest continually running manga in Japan and the longest running Shonen Jump manga. I know: A Shonen Jump property that is popular in Japan that has not be brought over here. It sounds like a lie but it’s true. Kankichi Ryotsu is a lazy, money grubbing otaku police officer who spends almost as much time coming up with silly plans as he does doing actual police work. I have heard that some people consider Ryotsu the Japanese Homer Simpson. There is also a large cast of Ryotsu’s fellow police officers who either help with his plans or try to foil them. There are two reasons why we won’t be seeing this in American anytime soon. The first problem, the art has been somewhat modernized but still has an unshakable old school style that most American fans don’t care for. Second, many of the plots revolve around Ryotsu trying to get rich by taking advantage of the latest fad in Japan. I assume a lot of the time even if you don’t fully understand the fad the jokes are still funny but it’s still a big hurdle for a lot of people.
Let’s not forget those few shows that slip through Japan without much interest and then get a huge reception here in the U.S. The biggest examples I can think of are Trigun, Berserk, and Big O, which then got a second season because of U.S. desire. While I like all of these shows, I have to wonder if they were really noticed because they were marketed well (Trigun especially had lots of merchandise) and also because they just had fewer shows to compete with in the states. I mean with a hundred new shows going on each year in Japan you can be lost in the shuffle. I also think that the success of these shows domestically, made a lot of people take a second look in Japan. Shows seem to stay in the minds of American fans longer.
In general, U.S. audiences like darker, action shows which generally only have otaku appeal in Japan. Hard seinen with very mature plots and little or no fantasy seems equally unpopular. Gritty or fantastic shonen seems the most popular genre of anime in America. Trigun, Berserk, and the Big O are all prime examples of that. Shows that are darker than most shonen but not as ponderous as some more mature seinen. In Japan, they tend to like either light-hearted shonen or very hard seinen depending on the age of the viewer.
I sometimes wonder how episodic shows would do if they were only released on DVD in Japan. They might fall to the same place as the U.S. but luckily for them that is not the case. Like was said earlier a lot of the shows have so many Japanese-isms that it could be difficult to translate and also might not translate into anything coherent. I think anime fans are interested in Japanese culture but not to the extent of many of these shows. Someone made the example using Seinfeld, a very American show, while some of the humor translates many of it just comes from the things we know as Americans and can’t really be duplicated. So while it was a huge success here in the states, it wouldn’t translate into big ratings in Japan.
Top 5 shows I love but the average anime fan does not care about
1. Master Keaton
2. Kekkaishi
3. Urusei Yatsura
4. Galaxy Angel
5. I’m Gonna Be An Angel!
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11.16.07
Posted in Anime Tags: Crayon Shin-chan, D.Gray Man, Detective Conan, Doraemon, Evangelion, Magic Knight Rayearth, One Piece, OVA, preferences, Ranma 1/2, Revolutionary Girl Utena, Sazae-san, TV series, らんま½, クレヨンしんちゃん, サザエさん, ディー・グレイマン, ドラえもん, ワンピース, 名探偵 コナン, 少女革命ウテナ, 新世紀エヴァンゲリオン, 魔法騎士 (マジックナイト) レイアース at 7:42 am by reversethieves
I think we have all experienced a show that made us say, “That took too long to do what it needed to do.” Most clearly evident in shows that have filler, like many Shonen Jump titles. And on the flip-side I’m sure we have all wished a certain series was longer (because 7 seasons was just not enough of Ranma for you!).
Well how many times have you also felt that, “Boy that ending sure was rushed.” I think pacing is a form of art that is not always supremely executed by the Japanese. I’m sure the rather harsh time restraints and budgeting of anime (or TV in general) leads to some unevenness in story and plotting, but I don’t think the blame lies solely there. I have seen OAVs and movies which theoretically have unlimited time constraints and they have had major pacing issues.
I have to think that with such a large repertoire of shows they can’t get it right all the time. Quite a few OVAs are used to wet the appetite so you will buy the manga. Or there have been those few instances where OVAs were basically made for existing fans of the manga, as a little bonus, such as the Angel Sanctuary OVA, the Tokyo Babylon OVAs, and the Here is Greenwood OVAs.
BTW – I felt that some of the better Ranma stories like the Musk Dynasty, Konatsu, and Saffron never got put in the anime.
Of course, there are many reasons for it. Especially with shows that are running closely along side a manga. While most longer running series, I think, would benefit from taking a break between season, marketing doesn’t see it that way. They are afraid of being forgotten or out done by a new show in the coming season. So instead you can end up with filler, that many times is pointless, boring, or worse, just plain bad. I shake my fist at you D.Gray Man and your last 20 episodes!
It seems like all in all filler does not necessarily have to be bad. I mean, if you like the characters and their adventures, some more of their tales should be just as good. It just turns out most of the time filler is useless, annoying, and takes time and budget from the better written main plot line. I did like the G8 filler arc from One Piece. Many people consider the Black Rose Arc from Utena as filler and that was awesome. But I have seen countless other filler arcs and they have mostly been weak sauce. For some reason, when other writers take another person’s creation it just always seems like they are missing some vital point that brings the other person’s creation to life. I’m not sure there is some tangible element to it but it just seems off.
Well, I also think that how many filler episodes you get in a row can really determine whether or not you are okay with it. Like one here and again, is fine and can be fun or funny. But when you are looking at 10 or 15 in a row, it starts to get painful. The ideal would be, if you have to have filler, to intersperce it within episodes that have plot. Cutting back and forth between filler and plot. Lots of American television series do this to build suspense and it seems to work a little better.
If certain long running anime could take season breaks, it might definitely help them. There would be less need for horrible filler. Each season the original would manage to have time to build more of the story. It works well enough in the U.S. with TV shows. I’m sure that some people will tune back into One Piece or Detective Conan if there were some repeats for two or three months. It might also lead to less recap episodes in certain series. I won’t be too harsh towards Japanese TV executives because sometimes a certain tactic that works in one country, may utterly fail in another. Maybe they have tried similar strategies in the past only to find that people flee a show on hiatus like rats leaving a sinking ship.
Then there are shows like Detective Conan that are very episodic in design. Maybe a few overlapping episodes, but for the most part you can tune in every week, or once a month, and still know what is going on. These are clearly the ideal for television.
Well all the mega major shows that have been on TV forever tend to be like that. Crayon Shin-chan, Sazae-san, and Doraemon are all the same way. They are always shows that have family appeal because there are the only shows that are going to get the ratings to survive that long. Otaku shows can’t usually sustain an audience as well. Or at least that is the conventional thinking.
And obviously ratings have a big factor after the series has started. Although, this doesn’t seem to be as much of a problem unless you are in a super good slot. Like all the otaku shows that air later at night seem to keep plugging away regardless.
Many times a you see a series drag because it has to be a certain amount of episodes. I remember figuring this out while watching the first season of Magic Knight Rayearth. The last five episodes, roughly, are the same episode over and over again. Talk about frustrating! And you commonly see a deterioration of animation right along with it. Of course, that is a budget issue.
Well the last episodes of Evangelion are famous for people talking with their hands over their mouths to cut down animation costs. There are also a bunch of shows that have spectacular openings and good to spectacular endings but shoestring budget middles.
My preferred length is right around the 13 episode, half season mark. It is long enough to tell a small story, develop attachments if there aren’t too many characters, and wrap it up without feeling like it went too fast. I also feel that it is just a nice manageable number. And for me it usually can be watched very quickly. That is not to say I don’t enjoy a longer series. Because for the most part, I feel studios have a handle on how long a series should be.
I think that I feel 26 episodes is the best amount of time it’s just really easy to mess up 26 episodes. I feel 13 episodes is greater for smaller stories. There have been plenty of 26 episode shows that should have been shrank down to 13 episodes shows to cut down on some of the fluff. But I think a well done 26 episode show is ideal. It has enough time to stretch its legs and really tell a meaty story but not enough time to wear out its welcome. I feel 13 episode shows are best for shorter or simpler stories. I think the Giant Robo OAVs clearly show that some giant robot anime might be more accessible if it were a little shorter.
I think the most important things is for a show to do the most it can with the time it’s given. I will stick with a series if it goes on 200+ episodes like One Piece and I won’t complain about a two episode OAV if they entertain me. All too often short OAVs seem rushed or frantic while longer series seem to have unnecessary filler that makes a series drag when it should be getting to the meat of the story. The ideal length is always just enough episodes to tell the story that needs to be told. No more and no less.
Narutaki Currently!
Watching Hayate no Gotoku!
Reading Dragon Eye
Listening to Pocket single by Ai Otsuka
Hisu (Brainwasher Detective) Currently:
Watching Gaint Robo
Reading Tista
Listening to Asterisk by ORANGE RANGE
Top 5 Favorite OAVs
1. Gaint Robo
2. Rurouni Kenshin
3. Record of Lodoss War
4. Bubblegum Crisis
5. ROD: Read Or Die
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