Why are we so enamored of the Japanese?

FireNexus · Post by **FireNexus** » 2007-10-24 04:04pm

I respect and fear the japanese as a would any nation wherein the terrorists are college-educated. Moreover a nation for whom sarin gas exposure is no reason to call out of work for the day. Beyond that, I have a thing for asian women. Otherwise, I do not get the whole japan worship thing.

DPDarkPrimus · Post by **DPDarkPrimus** » 2007-10-24 05:14pm

AniThyng wrote: Sure it's frustrating no one talks about Haibane Renmei, or Rescue Wings, or Ouran...

Hey, I recommend Haibane Renmei to people every chance I get!

AniThyng · Post by **AniThyng** » 2007-10-24 05:32pm

Sidewinder wrote:
AniThyng wrote:Ouran Host club will never be a classic because appearently the western male anime geek gives it no respect.
I thought that was a shojo series, i.e., it has lots of pretty boys for female otaku to squeel over?
Over here it's practically a shoe it for anime of the year!
Where do you live, anyways?

Yes, it's a shojo series, thus, it is appearently beneath the notice of the anime fans on this board

I live in Malaysia.

OK, amongst the male demographic it's sure to lose to Haruhi/ Lucky Star, i confess.

Ford Prefect · Post by **Ford Prefect** » 2007-10-24 06:19pm

Sidewinder wrote: I thought that was a shojo series, i.e., it has lots of pretty boys for female otaku to squeel over?

It's actually a fairly clever reversal of the typical harem anime cliche. It's also really funny.

Archaic` · Post by **Archaic`** » 2007-10-24 06:48pm

And it also invited a lot of confusion back when it was showing, owing to its main character also being called Haruhi. At least this gave birth to fanart of each character cosplaying as the other, though.

It's a pity it was so short, all things considered. There was a lot more material for use in the manga. But then, almost all series adapted from manga are like that now.

Davis 51 · Post by **Davis 51** » 2007-10-25 12:58am

Anime fan, like some Japanese flicks, good food, ninjas rule etc.

I would like to visit Japan one day just for the experience of foreign culture, but I certainly don't have an obsession with all things Japanese. They have come up with some really freaky shit.

Azumanga was cute, in the sense that an anime this cute and funny comes out once every 10 years. Ouran was good, but in a different way. Both were side-splitting hilarious.

There's good anime (Bebop, Hikuragi, GitS, FMA, Azumanga, anything Miyazaki, UC Gundam), and there's bad anime (DBZ, most dating sim adaptions, Gundam SEED, too many others to list). The same way there's good live action movies and bad live action movies, and the same way there are good video games and bad video games. Every medium is saturated with crap, but there's always something innovative and good.

Fingolfin_Noldor · Post by **Fingolfin_Noldor** » 2007-10-25 01:41am

Archaic` wrote:And it also invited a lot of confusion back when it was showing, owing to its main character also being called Haruhi. At least this gave birth to fanart of each character cosplaying as the other, though.

It's a pity it was so short, all things considered. There was a lot more material for use in the manga. But then, almost all series adapted from manga are like that now.

They announced a second season.

Art wise, one of the best anime I have seen, and they something of an interesting story, though weird.

Actually, the shorter the anime, the better the storyline for the most part.

General Zod · Post by **General Zod** » 2007-10-25 01:53am

Fingolfin_Noldor wrote: They announced a second season.

Art wise, one of the best anime I have seen, and they something of an interesting story, though weird.

Actually, the shorter the anime, the better the storyline for the most part.

That's only true in the sense that the longer something is running, the more time it has to develop filler and crappy plotlines, which really stands for anything. Not just anime. I've found that 50 eps seems to be the sweet spot for long running series. Anything more than that and you risk dragging it out more to ridiculous lengths.

Fingolfin_Noldor · Post by **Fingolfin_Noldor** » 2007-10-25 02:08am

General Zod wrote: That's only true in the sense that the longer something is running, the more time it has to develop filler and crappy plotlines, which really stands for anything. Not just anime. I've found that 50 eps seems to be the sweet spot for long running series. Anything more than that and you risk dragging it out more to ridiculous lengths.

Agreed. But that's how it is for the most part. There were exceptions where the fillers were satisfying, like Fullmetal Alchemist with 51 episodes, for which the manga is still continuing and the storyline getting more complex and volumes only come every 5-6 mths (I think). It's taking forever in part because it is published in the Shonen Monthly not the Shonen Jump Weekly.

A good bit of the anime that I consider good had 26 episodes, Claymore, Ghost in the Shell (I think.), Witch Hunter Robin etc. The draggy ones like Bleach and Naruto tend to burn out quickly.

AniThyng · Post by **AniThyng** » 2007-10-25 10:34am

I stand corrected regarding my earlier statements regarding ouran and a lack of popularity on the board

So, next up, Pocky! Exotic otaku food. Not. I can buy it for a dollar at the corner shop.

That's only true in the sense that the longer something is running, the more time it has to develop filler and crappy plotlines, which really stands for anything. Not just anime. I've found that 50 eps seems to be the sweet spot for long running series. Anything more than that and you risk dragging it out more to ridiculous lengths.

QFT. The same was true of the X-Files, it's true (IMO) of nBSG, and it is true of Inuyasha. My god was that last one a total waste of my time after episode 60 or so.

I remember basically the 1st wave of anime..well, second wave - to be given "wide" english language release - Akira, the original GitS, SPriggan, Ninja scroll...sailormoon...and to be honest, of that lot only GitS i'll ever want to watch again. When people talk of anime catering to the aggressive teen male market, I'm pretty sure that's it, because harem anime iirc simply not so visible in the public consciousness.

Uraniun235 · Post by **Uraniun235** » 2007-10-25 10:48am

Well, you can blame syndication for a lot of American shows dragging on longer than they should; studios love to be able to produce enough episodes so that they can market the show for syndication after the original run is over. I think roughly 80 episodes is considered barely sufficient for most shows.

General Zod · Post by **General Zod** » 2007-10-25 11:07am

Uraniun235 wrote:Well, you can blame syndication for a lot of American shows dragging on longer than they should; studios love to be able to produce enough episodes so that they can market the show for syndication after the original run is over. I think roughly 80 episodes is considered barely sufficient for most shows.

Well, there's nothing wrong with syndication even though it's kind of an asinine rule. It's when you have to rely on almost exclusively filler to get there that it becomes stupid. (I'm looking at you Star Trek).

Uraniun235 · Post by **Uraniun235** » 2007-10-26 03:37pm

It's not asinine of the studios to want to fulfill the demand of stations looking for programming. The "blame" probably lies with TV stations and channels which for a long time preferred large blocks of regular programming rather than varied schedules; for example, one of the local TV broadcasters here has been running Perry Mason reruns for over forty years.

What does syndication look like outside of the U.S.? Given how often I see British shows producing perhaps six episodes a year, and how often various Japanese anime shows run for only twenty-six episodes, I can only imagine that the weekday schedules must be far more varied than they are here.

General Zod · Post by **General Zod** » 2007-10-26 03:54pm

Uraniun235 wrote:It's not asinine of the studios to want to fulfill the demand of stations looking for programming. The "blame" probably lies with TV stations and channels which for a long time preferred large blocks of regular programming rather than varied schedules; for example, one of the local TV broadcasters here has been running Perry Mason reruns for over forty years.

Asinine in the sense that it feels mandatory and artificial. I suppose it's easier to run a fixed amount of old crap over and over again rather than putting any effort into creating something new.

Vendetta · Post by **Vendetta** » 2007-10-26 05:31pm

You're hitting a disconnect there. The people who broadcast the shit are different from the people who make the shit.

The people who broadcast the shit keep to the narrow range of shit that their locked in audience wants, and in order to sell their shit the people who make the shit have to provide the shit that the people who broadcast the shit will broacast.

Adrian Laguna · Post by **Adrian Laguna** » 2007-10-26 05:50pm

Uraniun235 wrote:What does syndication look like outside of the U.S.? Given how often I see British shows producing perhaps six episodes a year, and how often various Japanese anime shows run for only twenty-six episodes, I can only imagine that the weekday schedules must be far more varied than they are here.

There are Japanese anime shows that run for only twelve or thirteen episodes. If you get into OVAs (means it was released directly to video) things can be as short as 4-6 episodes. FLCL, for example, is only six episodes of pure insanity.

Santiago · Post by **Santiago** » 2007-10-26 10:18pm

I like Japan because their language is different and cool looking and sounding. The characters in my sig are Harukiya which is a location in the movie and graphic novel Akira. Now that I have ordered it and going to be getting it in about a week expect me to fanboy over it. Ninja () arn't all that cool to me for some reason. Maybe its the Naruto fans LOL;)

Shroom Man 777 · Post by **Shroom Man 777** » 2007-10-27 02:09am

Fuck Naruto. Long and hard. Up the ass.

lance · Post by **lance** » 2007-10-27 05:17pm

Adrian Laguna wrote:
Uraniun235 wrote:What does syndication look like outside of the U.S.? Given how often I see British shows producing perhaps six episodes a year, and how often various Japanese anime shows run for only twenty-six episodes, I can only imagine that the weekday schedules must be far more varied than they are here.
There are Japanese anime shows that run for only twelve or thirteen episodes. If you get into OVAs (means it was released directly to video) things can be as short as 4-6 episodes. FLCL, for example, is only six episodes of pure insanity.

The better shows seem to be 6-26 episodes long. Probly due to less filler.

Post by **Simplicius** » 2007-10-27 08:13pm

Going back to Broomstick's point on page 1 (so I'm late; sue me), the years of postwar contact between the US and Japan seems to have made the latter one of the more accessible "alien" cultures out there. Even though the place is recognizably foreign from across an ocean, there's a superficial familiarity because of western influence in the past few decades' worth of cultural product. If Japan looked too weird to someone sitting thousands of miles away, it would be hard to work up much enthusiasm - I don't expect buzkashi to catch on the States, for instance. But as it stands now, Japanese cultural exports are different enough to be interesting without being weird enough to be completely alienating.

Archaic` · Post by **Archaic`** » 2007-10-27 08:24pm

Shroom Man 777 wrote:Fuck Naruto. Long and hard. Up the ass.

There's nothing all that wrong with Naruto, for what it is at least, especially if you cut out most of the filler they used to pass the time between arcs, while waiting for more of the manga to be written. What is wrong are the idiotic Narutard fans who just ruin it for everyone else.

lance · Post by **lance** » 2007-10-27 11:09pm

Archaic` wrote:
Shroom Man 777 wrote:Fuck Naruto. Long and hard. Up the ass.
There's nothing all that wrong with Naruto, for what it is at least, especially if you cut out most of the filler they used to pass the time between arcs, while waiting for more of the manga to be written. What is wrong are the idiotic Narutard fans who just ruin it for everyone else.

I have no experience with these people, whats wrong with them?

Darth Raptor · Post by **Darth Raptor** » 2007-10-27 11:20pm

lance wrote:I have no experience with these people, whats wrong with them?

A crippling inability to talk or think about any other subject and an overarching presumption that everyone else in the world shares in their obsession.

I can't say that Narutards are worse than DBZ fanwhores, but by the gods, they're close.

DPDarkPrimus · Post by **DPDarkPrimus** » 2007-10-27 11:35pm

I'm going to just out and say it: There is nothing actually wrong with Naruto. It's simply a mainstream title that has mass appeal.

It's not especially different from previous shounen mainstream titles, so I suppose you can complain about that, but "it's got a similar storyline to this other popular series" is what's everyone complains about when looking at mainstream entertainment, is it not?

Santiago · Post by **Santiago** » 2007-10-27 11:43pm

DPDarkPrimus wrote:I'm going to just out and say it: There is nothing actually wrong with Naruto. It's simply a mainstream title that has mass appeal.

It's not especially different from previous shounen mainstream titles, so I suppose you can complain about that, but "it's got a similar storyline to this other popular series" is what's everyone complains about when looking at mainstream entertainment, is it not?

You are fighting an uphill battle with this and the reason is simple. When people see somthing that brings to mind an association, they think it's the same as what they are familiar with. In other words they think all anime and all shonen anime in particular is shitty like DBZ or like Pokemon. You can show them quality anime and they will still go along the same knee jerkism.