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AICN Anime - Going Offbeat With Shamo Mazinkaizer and More

tentacle soup by troutpencil	Dec 5th, 2006 08:17:09 PM
I really think you guys overexert yourselves making this thing so long,
Good job Scott by nemesisdarkside	Dec 5th, 2006 08:30:53 PM
Best TBers on AICN reside in these TBs!
just after first by dalbatron	Dec 5th, 2006 08:31:21 PM
Great nation the japs..... small but immensley strong!!!!
great nation by dalbatron	Dec 5th, 2006 08:38:11 PM
You cant trust a nation that kills endagered animals in the vain hope their body fluids will increase cock size... Or a nation that seems to celebrate the image of a school girl as porn!! Mmmmmm good comics though
FIFTH mufuckas by Cruel_Kingdom	Dec 5th, 2006 08:49:15 PM
:)
viva 80's animation! by Acne Scarface	Dec 5th, 2006 08:54:19 PM
great 2 hear about last unicorn. this ain't all that mindblowin', but if u happen to watch disc 2 of the recent gummi bears release, chapter 5, around the 52:22 mark, & view the book sequence frame by frame, there's a brief anime reference. i don't which i should be more embarassed about: that i actually wasted time doing this or admitted to watching gummi bears.
To Heart... by Lain Of The Net	Dec 5th, 2006 09:48:36 PM
It's amazing how much work went into this release. It bothered me to hear just how close it came to not existing at all. http://tinyurl.com/yd7zf2 With this amount of effort I think I am going to have to pick it up just to have a look. I'm looking forward to the final volume of Kamichu! as well as the FLCL box set. So many good things coming out.
RIP Akio... by veritasses	Dec 6th, 2006 09:58:10 AM
Ultraman lives on.
Edumanga by veritasses	Dec 6th, 2006 10:18:04 AM
While manga is still considered part of the “fringe” culture in the West, from what I’ve seen, manga is inseparable from Japanese culture. You’ll see manga and “manga-like” characters in edumanga that teach English, math, science, language, literature. In advertisements and commercials for food, home goods, financial institutions, in supermarkets, train stations, tourist attractions, you name it. All children read manga, many non-otaku adults read manga, everyone seems to be able to doodle/draw manga-ish characters and will draw them on greeting cards, add them in their email (sort of like emoticons) and random notes, manga will be referenced in TV talk shows like how we might reference a pop celebrity etc. We can only hope this phenomena will catch on outside Japan and manga and anime will be as accessible and accepted here as it is over there.
I second that Veritasses by nemesisdarkside	Dec 6th, 2006 05:19:26 PM
Well, I do.
Gotta check out that new Newtype issue... by Johnno	Dec 6th, 2006 07:25:35 PM
Also Afro Samurai is gonna be badass! And Rumbling Hearts is pretty angsty and my first foray into a more soap operaish serious romantic anime, so it left quite an impression on me. Good, I guess, but I haven't seen a lot of shows nor do I watch that sort of thing live action... And speaking of manga and anime popularity, it'd be good if we could reproduce that same phenomena here both with the popularity of Japanese stuff as well as American animation taking some more mature and complex ventures... Graphic novels are already there and good, they just need more exposure...
It would be interesting to see if by veritasses	Dec 6th, 2006 09:02:52 PM
the West were able to adapt more of the comic book culture into the mainstream like in Japan. Though the effort has to start with the comic book publishers and writers to create works that are palatable to the average Joe. Though that’s no easy feat and would likely take a few generations to soak in since they basically need to change the perception that comic characters are just for kids and to get people accustomed to seeing these characters everywhere without it feeling strange. Creating iconic characters isn’t much of a problem (Mickey Mouse, Superman, characters from the Pixar library etc) but putting these characters into a strong, broadly appealing (ie rooted in the world of reality instead of science/fantasy), non-sensationalized, serialized story won’t be easy. They’d also have to push strong in the print medium (or internet) too but that’s going to be a tough marketing/sales sell since this requires people to change their shopping behavior. I think it has to be print because it’s one of the cheapest formats and you can proliferate the medium with several different characters, plus you can serialize stories so people expose themselves to the character every week and they establish an emotional attachment as the character grows and evolves. The Western/American style of comic book also tends to be more about creating pictures for books (lots of thought bubbles and summary panels that explain things to setup a scene, artwork geared more towards painting a picture vs creating a key sequence in a series of frames etc) vs manga is more likened to pulling key frames from a motion picture movie. I don’t think any one art form is necessarily better then the other but I do think the manga approach is easier to digest as a story telling technique for the average person. If any character/story is lucky enough to “catch on” the publishers would also have to feel charitable enough to license their work to businesses and advertisers cheaply. Hmm… now I’m not feeling so optimistic.
Guess we need more people to start reading... by Johnno	Dec 7th, 2006 12:19:18 PM
But true, I do refer the manga method of showing every action and movement over the American picture narrative method. But I wouldn't lose the American narrative to cool image altogether. SOmetimes it can be quite cool, much in the same vein as flashback scenes or to deliver a quick scope of the situation before you focus on the character. It also helps deliver thoughtful interpretations on the situation which can be very insightful and interesting. But for depicting action, the manga method is definately superior... well as long as the creator is good at depicting action sequences... The creator of Battle Angel (Forgot his name) is definately someone who's got it down pat!

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