Topic: I like anime, do you like anime? (Read 3121544 times)

Reelya · « **Reply #21810 on:** March 29, 2015, 06:48:53 pm »

It's interesting to look at the nytimes manga best sellers vs the Japanese best sellers lists. About half the top 10 on nytimes have some form of harem going, whereas those ones are nowhere near the top on the Japanese lists: those top spots are taken by real-world sports series and drama mangas in Japan, the type that are seen as niche in the USA.

For the same week:

Best selling manga in America:
http://myanimelist.net/forum/?topicid=1366602

Top 10 sellers in USA that week include No Game No Life, Nisekoi, Monster Musume, Akame ga Kill! So that's at least 4 out of the top 10 are heavily fanservicy series, and all of those have some form of harem thing going on.

Best selling manga in Japan:
http://myanimelist.net/forum/?topicid=1365946

Top 10 sellers in Japan that week includes Fairy Tail as the only fanservicy series, so only 1/top 10 is a fanservicy series, and there are zero harem mangas in the top 10.

By that, you could say that heavily fanservicy harem mangas seem to be far more popular in the USA than in Japan itself. It might be a self-selection issue where the "clean" stuff from Japan doesn't get a foot in the door. Lot's of non-violent / non-sexy stuff is HUGE in Japan, yet many western fans wouldn't view that as "proper" anime/manga. I think it's questionable whether this is the fault of Japanese producers, or it's a ghetto that the American industry and consumers have painted themselves into: that all anime/manga stuff needs to have sex or violence to be considered 'cool'.

Flying Dice · « **Reply #21811 on:** March 29, 2015, 08:30:11 pm »

Mm, more the latter, if I had to guess. Though at this point I don't think it's conscious; the smutty violent crap with terrible plotting and two-dimensional characterization is popular with a fairly large (and very vocal) subset of the Western anime audience. It gets high ratings on television, sells DVDs and merch, and has a lot of positive word-of-mouth spread among less discerning communities. Just look at any mainstream social media conversation about SAO, AoT, NGNL, &c.; all of them will have people flooding the place with gushing comments.

The bottom line is the bottom line: vapid underaged harem fanservice and 2edgy4u gore is what sells well and has a strong response-hell, AoT broke through into pure mainstream culture to the point where people whose peers a decade ago wouldn't even know what anime is were talking about it.

Granted, if we're talking about long-term staying power, only the least terrible of the smut-and-violent dretch will be remembered for more than a year or two. Twenty years down the line nobody will know or care about all of the crap we're complaining about now.

Urist McScoopbeard · « **Reply #21812 on:** March 29, 2015, 09:12:06 pm »

If anything, i'm pretty sure western audiences are more tuned in to anime than ever thanks to Miyazaki and other big anime movies like Ghost in the Shell and the western-anime tv shows.

Andres · « **Reply #21813 on:** March 31, 2015, 06:58:42 am »

Quote from: Urist McScoopbeard on March 29, 2015, 09:12:06 pm

If anything, i'm pretty sure western audiences are more tuned in to anime than ever thanks to Miyazaki and other big anime movies like Ghost in the Shell and the western-anime tv shows.

Western anime tv shows? You mean cartoons?

Spoiler: Fate/Zero spoilers (click to show/hide)

Zangi · « **Reply #21814 on:** March 31, 2015, 07:30:36 am »

Quote from: Urist McScoopbeard on March 29, 2015, 09:12:06 pm

If anything, i'm pretty sure western audiences are more tuned in to anime than ever thanks to Miyazaki and other big anime movies like Ghost in the Shell and the western-anime tv shows.

I havn't watched much western animations lately, but my maybe outdated metric is that western stuff tends to be generally self-contained episodic pieces that meanders about with a seasonal finale from out of left field. EDIT:Continuity is optional/cherry picked.

Reelya · « **Reply #21815 on:** March 31, 2015, 01:03:27 pm »

It's not just animation, American TV historically tended towards episodic. Other than the daytime soapies (with their "plots" you could still follow if you missed 6 months of episodes), you had sitcoms, police procedural shows, sci-fi adventure etc, which were all very episodic, but might have some character plot threads weaving through. There was a mid 90's crime show called "Murder One" which would followed a single case for many episodes. This was so far outside American expectations that the show, whilst getting rave reviews for great acting, great writing and stories, failed to get enough viewers to keep it going. So, you had a number of earlier American shows that attempted to have more of an ongoing plot, and doing it excellently, but failing to get viewers.

It was about when Arrested Development came out that things started to change. That was very unusual at the time both for the ongoing plotlines and the lack of a laugh-track. Back then the laugh track was a strict genre signifier: no laughter robots = drama, laughter robots = comedy. It was so universal, that even though I've seen a huge proportion of the US comedy shows dating back to the 50's and 60's, Arrested Development freaked me out because it didn't have a laugh track. This just wasn't done at all before it since the dawn of television. You had to have the laugh track (and episodic plots). Arrested Development changed all of that, so it's only really been 10 years since this sort of comedy has been acceptable on American TV.

There are some older sci-fi shows that almost qualify, but almost all of those follow a Monster of the Week format, or at the best you get 2-part stories so that they can throw a cliffhanger in. Dr Who, which would usually have 4 part stories ... there really wasn't anything comparable from America, so it's not "The West", it's specifically American TV. So, American cartoons being so episodic, is really just an extension of how TV has traditionally been done in the USA.

Spehss _ · « **Reply #21816 on:** March 31, 2015, 02:20:13 pm »

Interesting. Reading that made me realize that Panty and Stocking's episodic format was part of what made the series feel so western-y. The animation and crude humour were obvious factors, but I never thought of how more episodic the plot is compared to...say, Gurren Lagann's plot. P&S has monsters of the week with every episode.

ToonyMan · « **Reply #21817 on:** March 31, 2015, 03:02:21 pm »

Quote from: Andres on March 31, 2015, 06:58:42 am

Spoiler: Fate/Zero spoilers (click to show/hide)
So I finished watching Fate/Zero about a month ago and it's a great series but I'm still really freaking sad that Iskandar died. He comes back later on in the Fate series, right? Please someone tell me he comes back.

Only one way to find out.

*starts up FSN

Spehss _ · « **Reply #21818 on:** March 31, 2015, 03:26:14 pm »

I heard a vocaloid song in a mix the other day and the chorus was stuck in my head. Not being able to speak Japanese, I just remembered the music and general tone and pitch of the vocals.

Today I found that the song is about panties. I'd been humming about panties. Awkward.

Reelya · « **Reply #21819 on:** March 31, 2015, 03:42:33 pm »

Well she does repeatedly shout "pantsu" in the chorus. That's not really Japanese.

i2amroy · « **Reply #21820 on:** March 31, 2015, 03:48:02 pm »

Quote from: Andres on March 31, 2015, 06:58:42 am

Spoiler: Fate/Zero spoilers (click to show/hide)
So I finished watching Fate/Zero about a month ago and it's a great series but I'm still really freaking sad that Iskandar died. He comes back later on in the Fate series, right? Please someone tell me he comes back.

Spoiler: Sort of General FS series spoilers (click to show/hide)

Spehss _ · « **Reply #21821 on:** March 31, 2015, 03:50:23 pm »

Quote from: Reelya on March 31, 2015, 03:42:33 pm

Well she does repeatedly shout "pantsu" in the chorus. That's not really Japanese.

I thought it was "bounce-u" or something. Or just, y'know, a nonsense sing-songy sound.

Furtuka · « **Reply #21822 on:** March 31, 2015, 04:02:43 pm »

Quote from: i2amroy on March 31, 2015, 03:48:02 pm

Quote from: Andres on March 31, 2015, 06:58:42 am
Spoiler: Fate/Zero spoilers (click to show/hide)
So I finished watching Fate/Zero about a month ago and it's a great series but I'm still really freaking sad that Iskandar died. He comes back later on in the Fate series, right? Please someone tell me he comes back.
Spoiler: Sort of General FS series spoilers (click to show/hide)
With the exception of Saber herself (who is basically a main character), Gilgamesh (since he kinda cheats), and Assassin (since there's only one true assassin); all of the rest of the Servants (and the vast majority of the Masters) are one-shot only characters. So no, other than maybe a "noncannon funny story with our characters" type of story, he's not coming back.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Reelya · « **Reply #21823 on:** March 31, 2015, 04:05:06 pm »

Anime 'Noragami' getting a second season. I thought it was one of the better shows of 2014 so it's nice to see it continuing. Closest thing I can compare it to is Hatarake Maou Sama. Also, it had a killer OP.

i2amroy · « **Reply #21824 on:** March 31, 2015, 04:07:17 pm »

Quote from: Furtuka on March 31, 2015, 04:02:43 pm

Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Actually there are 19 True Assassins, they just all have the same name and similar appearances. Each one has a different power though.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

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Author Topic: I like anime, do you like anime? (Read 3121544 times)

Reelya

Re: I like anime, do you like anime?

Flying Dice

Re: I like anime, do you like anime?

Urist McScoopbeard

Re: I like anime, do you like anime?

Andres

Re: I like anime, do you like anime?

Zangi

Re: I like anime, do you like anime?

Reelya

Re: I like anime, do you like anime?

Spehss _

Re: I like anime, do you like anime?

ToonyMan

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Spehss _

Re: I like anime, do you like anime?

Reelya

Re: I like anime, do you like anime?

i2amroy

Re: I like anime, do you like anime?

Spehss _

Re: I like anime, do you like anime?

Furtuka

Re: I like anime, do you like anime?

Reelya

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i2amroy

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