As I am told by some people that I do not read anime blogs enough, I decided to make the effort and read some of them today. The reading makes me realize how much I have been missing, be it from blogs, sites or even the newspaper. Here are a few articles that I have been reading for the past week, with a little bit of commentary from me.
1. Manga Mania
As much as I want to complement WSJ’s usual high standards, the view presented by the article is particularly myopic. In that case, movies made in the United States should never be used as a cultural diplomacy, as we know how much porn is run from the big brother country. Sorry for the crude reference, but to state simply the extreme case of anything is anything but mature from a well respected newspaper in my opinion. One has to accept that there are things that are extreme, and some that are mainstream. You can label anything you want, but the writer sounds a lack of respect for fans.
I do like the article, but it fails to mention that traditional media is often entrenched too much in their traditional ways to switch. If they are still earning huge profits in the old way, is there really any economic push to a completely different path where they are merely another company vying for a pie when they already have a huge pie. I am somewhat glad that he does note the point in which the dynamics have to change with the proliferation of the Internet as a distributor in the future. The very fact that the Internet has given the culture a “free for all” in terms of copyright infringement and the incident of the ODEX fiasco has brought fair use, downloading to the forefront. It’s a pity that I do not have the linguistic skills to detail my thoughts on this as yet. I might pen something in the future on business directions, but I am no Jerry Yang.
3. Are more original anime more creative
I really do like how the blog mentions about this theme, as there is often confusion on whether original are definitely more creative or not. The definition of creative behavior is subjective in itself. Do you mean animation style, story plot, pace or many of the complex factors that is within an animation company’s scope. I really do not think that it is a very important question to be bothered about. To me, creativeness is just a vague time, let’s bother about quality. If there is no quality to talk about, creativeness is nothing. Period.
9 Comments
that picture…
O_o
something is wrong with the SOS-dan…
it has 5 people but…
OH SHI-
yuki seems so…wow…..
if i was ever confined to a hospital, darn, it’ll be a blow if mikuru would be the nurse…
ahhhh… the fictional world…
An article published by the Chinese paper Global Times in June 2006 accused manga of trying to “retell history” to cover up Japan’s war crimes and infect Chinese children with Japanese values.
Japan is actually retelling history. hehehehe. purefly fictional indeed, but take a look on Code Geass for example. if you do bother to connect things, not just watch and astound with the anime itself.
oh yeah forgot, the above excerpt was from an article in WSJ.com provided by Lord Impz.
also,
Despite these drawbacks, at Ani-Com Hong Kong, a comics fair held in late July, it seemed that Sailor Moon, Detective Konan and the other stars of Japanese cartoons have been making friends for Tokyo. Cosplay competitors at the convention said their attraction to manga and anime had developed their interest in Japan. Many had taken up study of the language, and others were saving up to visit manga’s homeland.
If capturing the youth “vote” is the goal, Tokyo may be on to something. At the Hong Kong convention, a group of five 18 year-olds dressed as ninjas from the Japanese video game Tenchu posed for photographers. “Arigato!” they called to their fans, brandishing their fists and samurai swords. “We love Japan!” But will their parents?
Is this article anti Jap? or purely, an article that’s not biased?
Hi, I’m the author of #3
When I was thinking back to my little post, which was written rather hastily to be honest, I did realize that I focused mostly on story (plot, character, etc), and not much on art or visuals or sound when I was talking about the “creative process.” That’s my bias, given my background. And yeah, originality can be useless if it’s not backed up by something else, unless your goal is to be totally avant-garde (and even the “avant-garde” has its own cliches). Though I’d say part of the quality equation should take into account “originality,” which is indeed tricky to define but is usually clear, especially the more experienced a viewer you are.
Thanks for the linkback, ‘preciate it.
crap…yuki nagato in that pic above is so seductive indeed…*woah*
*looks at picture*
One of these things is not like the others, one of these things is not the same…