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Toonami Plans Revealed
da3dAlus writes: "Cartoon Network has revealed its plans for Toonami for the end of the year. About.com holds the article that details CN's plan for the next wave of anime to hit U.S. shores beginning in September. This includes more Gundam series, Blue Submarine #6, two Reboot movies, Sailor Moon movies, and even some of their own material. Unfortunately, there will be no uncut Tenchi episodes." Blue Sub #6 is crazy but highly interesting (notable for amazing surround sound effects, and abnormal quantity of CGI, that isn't always perfectly integrated).
The Cartoon Network is spinning of a channel called "Boomerang". The idea is to take all of the old content (ie. Looney Tunes, Tom and Jerry, etc...) and put them on the separate channel so Cartoon Network can focus more on new content, both in-house and licensed.
So, it's not that they are spinning off a Toonami channel, but they are spinning off the old stuff and making the main network mostly Toonami.
Rock on.
You should never take life too seriously - You'll never get out of it alive.
I know I'm going to start a flamewar here.... sorry.
Reboot is by far one of the worst animated CGI Cartoons that I have ever seen. Beastwars, done by the same guys, is bounds and leaps beyond what this cartoon was. In fact, I'd even go to say that the only reason that reboot was ever popular is because it pretty much was the first full CGI cartoon pushed to american audiences.
The characters are blocky, the light is constantly off, the animatronics blow chunks, all the characters 'walk like an egyptian'.. I could go on. The visuals and plot, however, are excellent and unfortunately the lack of work by their animation team somewhat ruined that for me.
I guess I'm anal about animation, personally, if it's not animated at 30 fps or better it's not worth watching. Movies like Akira or Ninja Scroll or just about anything by Disney (despite plot) are grand to admire as an art form. The Gundam series is one of the better animated ones on TV, Tenchi and Ranma shouldn't be excluded from this though.
Also some of the more detailed scenes in DragonBall Z/GT. Unfortunately DragonBall really blows chunks in quality in the episodes where major plot events aren't happening. So sad. And funimation made things even worse by cropping almost half of each episode out for americans.
Personally, overall my favorite anime is 'The Professional', which had a great plot and was a groundbreaker, considering it was using 'decent' CGI in 1985.
Oh yes, and we mustn't forget John K., probably the best american animator working, creator of Ren & Stimpy.For those interested, there is a divx encoded copy of 'Man's Best Friend', floating around on gnutella. It's the episode that got John K. banned from MTV/Nickelodeon, and it's probably one of the best episodes out there. I suggest you take a look at it, it's not the greatest quality but watchable.
Oh yes. For those in the portland, or area, the guy who owns the Clinton St theatre has a vast collection of banned and 'disowned' cartoons, mainly from Warner Bros and a few Joe Fleischman (Popeye) cartoons that make some of the craziest Hentai look like Saturday morning television. He shows them every now and then in a series... Pretty neat stuff, cheap seats.. I guess Warner is trying to sue him for holding the episodes (which are mostly war propoganda and the bing crosby original clip).
Erik
There's just no way that an American cartoon produced today can portray casual smoking to a young audience. It's almost like having a character transform into his secret identity by drinking cleaning fluid and jumping into an abandoned refrigerator. An absurd smoking toothpick is far more justifiable than actual clear-as-day cigarette smoking.
It is a shame, though. Just last night this subject came up and the example was given that it would be practically impossible these days for a show to have even a somewhat sympathetic character smoking, like J. Jonah Jameson puffing on a cigar, unless maybe it's the episode where he gets jaw cancer.
If I recall correctly, there were a few characters in Looney Toones that smoked.
Actually, things went way beyond that in that era.
Strange that you would consider Japanese animated television and film to be eroding Japanese and American culture. What about American television and film? Is it not degrading the way of life for people across the globe, not to mention here in the U.S.?
Also, if you want real (note tongue-in-cheek) Japanese culture turn off your Bach and Miles Davis for a moment and listen to some truly groundbreaking audio experimentation (mistakenly called "noise") by the likes of audio masters Boredoms, Merzbow, Masonna, Melt Banana, KK Null, etc. If you think anime is the decline of culture, you haven't seen or heard anything yet.
Can you do me a favor?
My karma has gotten too high. I need to drop it by about 20 points. Please go into my user info and start moderating down my previous comments. Don't worry about the moral implications, I'm clearly abusing the +2 bonus and deserve what I get.
--Shoeboy
You'll notice that anime now has its own category. If you don't want it, filter it out. Thats what the filters are there for.
-[Blaine]- "'Oh dear,' says God, 'I hadn't thought of that,' and promptly vanishes in a puff of logic."
Depending on the system of conversion to Romanji, Washu is fine. In fact, it is the accepted version of the spelling of her name. The one that they botched horribly was "Aeka" which they spelled "Ayeka" for no good reason. Look up the FAQ for the various spellings.
(BTW, I maintain the FAQ, and I don't think I have ever seen anyone spell it with two uu's. If you are going to spell it differently, it is usuall wasyu with a yu (which sounds closer to how she pronunces her name).
I was actually refereing to the character design and the lack of hair that resembles modern art. Blame that on sailor moon. Tenchi, of course, takes that to the ultimate extreme.
There are plenty of series that fit into what you are trying to see. While some anime quality has gone downhill (observe the sheer number of wacky ideas in Urusai Yatsura vs. Ranma 1/2) much of it is still awesome. Here are some I particullarly like.
1) Ghibili's work... I can hear the see, as well as the more traditional "Nauscaa, Mononoke, Laputa etc". These are great stories with fairly good animation. The character designs are not real extravagent, but in the post-sailor moon days that's probibly a good thing. They all tell a story (most of which I disagree with) but are excelent. This tends to be the man vs. nature themese that were so prevelant early on in the century.
2) Cowboy Bebop
Is a effort to tell stories about the greys. There arn't any hero's per se, but the story is a bit more day in the life. The artwork is excellent.
3) Gundam Wing.
(Don't scoff). Wing takes a long hard look at pacifism and war. It examines everything from the commonly held belief that war is needed to "refresh" civilization (Jefferson and Hitler both though this) to the idea that violence is never sanctioned.
4) Lain
Umm... good... evil? Not in this series. Not that there arn't absolutes, but rather that the story is about the melding of life with electronics. How people act, see the world, and commuincate are all very affected.
5) Rurouni Kenshin (Samurai X)
See the OVA's. From what you have written This may be the closest. It follows the Meiji Restoration (civil war) and also goes over themes like what I have mentioned above.
The total otaku who insist doggedly that their favorite masterpieces be completely unsullied are, IMO, full of it. Translation is *never* enough; literal translations are dry and lifeless. Localizations are what are required; one must smooth the differences in the two languages/cultures involved, especially when they are as different as Japanese and English/American culture. It burns me even more when I hear rants on how "Americans are not worthy of this art" - well, a country that invented the concept of virtual dating games, Pokemon, and the schoolgirl fetish has more than a few things to answer for itself. We're all fscked up equally; the difference is HOW.
That said, I hate the Serena/Usagi thing. "Bunny" is a perfectly good English name. Makes the character sound like a ditz, but... well... duh.
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These are *MY* opinions.
These are *MY* opinions.
They will not be *YOUR* opinions until the Orbital Mind Control Lasers are operati
The majority of other programmers and "nerds" I know like anime. Some like it more than others, and so I see no problem with the topic on Slashdot. If you don't like anime, you can IGNORE anime topic posts, just like you would a Katz article. Not everyone likes anime. Not everyone likes Star Wars either, but it still has its own topic and nobody seems to complain.
While Anime has a high geek quotient (in that many in geekdom are nutso for anime), I don't think the same holds true for Katz. Jon is to geekdom as Hitler was to his victims - Both talk about them a lot, but neither respects them and both are given to overexaggeration of their abilities and importance or lack thereof.
Why not a Poll - Anime vs Katz - I expect you'd get a 4:1 ratio even with Jon trying to get the trolls to stuff the ballot box for him.
Will in Seattle
Courtesy of Stile and the Stile Project.
Wah!
As this /. article pointed out a while back, the first few episodes are available online. If you don't want to click the link, they are at starblazers.com... of course Ranma would be really nice to see... but then it would be edited heavily... Well Eva would be nice too.... ah well, i can dream.
The majority of other programmers and "nerds" I know like anime. Some like it more than others, and so I see no problem with the topic on Slashdot. If you don't like anime, you can IGNORE anime topic posts, just like you would a Katz article. Not everyone likes anime. Not everyone likes Star Wars either, but it still has its own topic and nobody seems to complain.
Slashdot is supposed to be news for all types of nerds. Not just "your" type of nerd, so your always going to see things you don't like. Live with it.
"You spoony bard!" -Tellah
Shine on, you crazy diamond.
Get off your high horse. Speaking as someone who's had plenty of experience living in both Asian and Western culture, I say you're putting traditional Asian culture on a much higher pedestel than it deserves. Just because it's so oddly different from Western culture doesn't automatically make it any better (or worse). Difference is merely difference, it has no innate correspondence to worth or specialness.
"The writings of the great authors are wine, my writing is water. Everybody drinks water."
-Mark Twain (paraphrased)
"Image is nothing. Thirst is everything. Obey your thirst."
-wise words from a crass commercial
And anyway, "low culture" entertainment eventually becomes "high culture," given enough time. Great writers such as Mark Twain, Shakespeare, and Salinger were all reviled as uncouth hacks in their time. If everyone merely followed in the footsteps of "the great ones", then culture would stagnate and die. I'd rather have a chaotic morass of crudeness and commercialism, because such humble, rude fodder is _needed_ to keep the soil of creativity fertile and rich, so that something stronger than the old can grow. I'm not willing to sacrifice growth just so one I can maintain a useless image of refinement and feel oh-so-superior. Like living creatures, when a culture feeds and grows, when times change, it's always _ugly_. It's impossible to be otherwise, simply because it's changing to something different from old standards of beauty.
"May you live in interesting times."
-ancient Chinese curse
'Sides, if you're really looking for artsy anime titles, then the paltry few you mentioned sure as hell aren't going to cut it. Try out Mononoke Hime, Patlabor Movie #2, Gasaraki, Grave of the Fireflies, or Tale of Genji (yes, there's an anime adaptation). You won't find most of these right off the rental rack at Blockbuster, but if that's all the effort you're willing to expend in your search, then you certainly don't deserve the highfalutin', pseudo-scolarly studious attitude you're displaying, especially when it comes to anime. Can you say in all seriousness and honesty that you've watched a thousand different anime titles? Then you're in no position to judge it, no more than anyone who hasn't read a thousand different books is for judging literature.
I think I need to lie down and relax now. Where are my encyclopaedias?
ReBoot, for those of you who may not know, is a CGI cartoon by a Canadian company called Mainframe Entertainment. It was supposedly about the "sprites" inside of a computer. I know, it sounds bad.
But it's not. Especially the second and third seasons of the show. It features fairly adult-targeted references and plots, such as the plot where the main character questions his own methods in hunting down his nemesis, or references to Army of Darkness or Bond movies. (completely with a bond-style intro).
Regardless, check it out if you get a chance. The second and third seasons have some incredible episodes in them. My personal favorite is an episode that is influenced by two rather different sources: Star Wars: A New Hope, and spaghetti westerns. It's definitely worth a look.
I agree with your choices, but I do have a comment or two on the above. It should be noted that nature is very much idealized by urban Japanese, and a connection to nature is considered by Japanese to be a big part of their character, regardless of whether they practice it or not. So the Ghibli stories, concentrating on the natural world and nostalgic themes (as in the wonderful "Only Yesterday") touch on a powerful societal chord.
Also, I don't think you meant it as such, but it does look like you're defining the Ghibli work as "post-sailor moon", which we know isn't the case. Much of Miyazaki's work comes from before the magical girl genre.
And don't be too quick to discount the value of shows like Sailor Moon. Those who have seen the original version know that there's a hell of a lot more depth to the story and characters that never made it to these shores. Blind SM-bashing for the sake of protecting machismo or some such is one thing, but let's be fair here.
Well, to answer my own question, I guess that the Cartoon Network replays the same daytime anime late at night because they've already bought the rights to it. But it would be nice if they could something different, aimed towrads "adults", like Ranma 1/2, Slayers, Fushigi Yugi and so on. Of course, these things would appeal to more people than simply adults, but Cartoon Network seems to be thinking "kids" when it does it's programming: Dragon Ball (blech!), Sailor Moon (blech!).
If Cartoon Network is thinking long-term, they should try to increase the appeal of cartoons to adults, and one of the best ways to do that would be with Anime that has some appeal towards adults. I'd think that they'd also find that kids out there have more mature of a taste than the marketroids are giving them credit for.
Suppose you were an idiot. And suppose that you were a member of Congress. But I repeat myself.
Give a man a fire, and he'll be warm for a day, but set him on fire, and he'll be warm for the rest of his life.
I never thought of it as anime...
;)
Maybe because I like reboot, and I don't (generally) like anime.
Reboot has some very awesome graphics for a tv cartoon (these are the same guys that make Transformers beast wars/beasties) and you can even see an improvement from season to season (as they got more bucks for bigger iron...)
If you ever get a chance - go on the Reboot ride film... it's pretty cool - went on it at the Playdium outside of Toronto last year... and it rocks.
My favourite Reboot episode - the one where Big Enzo and Megabyte fight... the best part is when Enzo is down, and MB is running down the dome towards him... your first hint that he's coming is that Enzo's ear-ring starts to jangle... shortly before virbrations start shaking the entire building... It's a great fight scene all around.
BlackNova Traders
I'm sure a lot of you would agree that they need to spin off a Toonami channel !
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Wooden armaments to battle your imaginary foes!
About Tenchi: They have gotten only a few calls about the 'sexiness' of Tenchi.
Oh great, what next!? PokePorn?
thinks to self: no wait, that CAN'T be new, I saw it last night
AboutPCs.com
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Tonight on Fox: Deadliest Executions Part XVII
Don't you understand, though, that different anime have completely different styles? Saying that "Gundam Wing is good and Sailor Moon is bad" is the same as saying "Seinfeld is good and Barney is bad". Just because I don't like rap music doesn't mean that it loses all credibility as a viable art form.
And face the facts.. society is changing. No matter how much anyone wants to keep their deathgrip hold on the good old days, culture is changing all around us. And before you say it, that isn't a bad thing. We're not going to forget the past, we're not going to burn all the copies of Picasso's work, for instance... but if we tried to make all the new art follow the same form as the old art, society would stagnate. In a hundred years or two, music history classes will have essays on the deep emotional stress that instigated Eminem's work. (Ok, so maybe that's a little far-fetched.)
Another major point that comes up is the subject of anime editing. Face it, our society here in America is different than Japanese society. Many of the anime series that go on Toonami, for instance, are meant to be children's shows. Now, in Japan, families are not worried about exposing their children to nudity, violence, or the more shocking aspects of society. However, Americans as a whole have more conservative taste.. and to keep the intent of the anime alive, edits have to be made. Just as someone who translates a book into another language must keep the author's thoughts intact, not just translate every idiom word-for-word, when a company translates an anime show for the US, if the target audience is children, then it must be edited to suit them. It's a fact of life. And no one is stopping you from watching the original episodes, if you really must see the uncut anime. I'm not saying that I like cut anime.. I can't stand watching it, in general. But does that mean I bitch and moan about it? No, that means I take it upon myself to find the uncut originals. Demanding that commercial translators give you your uncut anime just isn't going to work, because the market for it is anime otaku, which isn't that big. Businesses work for the market... and in this case the market is American children, because most American adults aren't into cartoons of any kind.
My point, though, is that trying to pass off your personal opinions as fact is just foolish, because we all have different opinions. Personally, I like different things depending on the mood I'm in. If I've had a long day and I want to unwind with some non-thought-provoking stuff, I might pop in a tape of Sailor Moon, grab a Coke, and lie down on the sofa. It all depends on the mood, and more importantly on the tastes of the person that's watching. There's no such thing as a bad anime.. just one that you don't like.
Another good thing to notice is that Cable networks are showing Anime on US TV in the first place. That's the first step in getting your uncensored anime. If anime becomes popular enough, it will only be a matter of time before you can watch Tenchi uncut, or perhaps even subtitled on US TV (I would love that). You can't expect American culture to change overnight, and I think this is a step in the right direction.
I would hope that in the future, some shows might even be released at the same time in the US as in Japan, no need to wait a few years to get "old" anime.
I'm going to volunteer my knowledge of the japanese language here, so grab some japanese fonts for your browser then come back... ok, here it is:
:)
"Washu"(hH) written in kana is: íã Litterally, this is romanized as wa-sh+u-u, or Washuu. You can also romanize the 2nd and 3rd characters as syu... if you think of it as si+yu, but the 4th character means this is a long "u", so you can either do a double "uu" or do a u with a line over it.
For the heck of it, here are the rest: "Ryoko"(éOEÄ) is èå± in kana, and 'Ryouko' in romaji. This isn't disputable, it's in clear furigana on the 1st OVA ep title screen. Go watch the DVD set if you want confirmation.
"Ayeka" is ¦© in kana and "Aeka"... We agree on this point, but for reference, it's in the furigana in the title of ep 2.
"Ryo-Ohki"(écS) is èå in kana and "Ryou-ou-ki" in romaji. In the furigana for ep 3's title.
"Tenchi", "Sasami", "Nobuyuki", "Mihoshi", "Kiyone", and "Katsuhito" are all correct.
The names I haven't mentioned I've forgotten exactly or aren't really in any dispute
BTW, I've never seen your FAQ, but you might want to add this info to it. Also... The names I referenced with("ayeka" etc) are the official "english" names of the characters.. and you will see them in japanese books on the show... but.. if you want the japanese names, refer to the above
Speaking of which, if the Cartoon Network episodes of Tenchi Muyo! are going to horribly hacked up (hell, I bet they're spelling Washuu's name as "Washu" or something equally stupid), then I don't see any reason that we, the anime community, should view, promote, or even acknowledge the existence of this travesty. Until companies learn that anime is not to be hacked up to suit network TV, then they have no right to try to take over beloved series like Tenchi Muyo! or Pocket Monsters.
Maybe it's better they don't release it on TV; then it doesn't get hacked. Nadesico and Eva certianly wouldn't survive the process. Anime's much more widespread than four years ago. Hopefully the process will continue and some cable network will see the light. More preferably, hopefully some cool developer or cofounder will put those options to good use and start an all-anime cable channel, altering only to add 3 (not 4) commercials per episode.
/., and the results would definitely be visually pleasaing (which is kinda the point, ne?).
I know someone took great time and care drawing the new anime topic icon; but, uhm, am I the only one that finds it unrepresentatively un-kawaii? There are so many cute or cool characters out there; Ruri, Mill-chan, Ed, Miyu, Van, Lain, etc. So they probably can't be used, but fan art sites, like fredart.com have artists who would love to have their fine work represented every four days or so on the cover of
Instead, they're actually spending the time and money (and it takes a lot of time and money) to go back and overlay swimsuits on all the frames of Tenchi in order to bring it to U.S. standards. Granted, I think there's nothing wrong with nudity, but somewhere between the Greeks and now, nudity became taboo, and we must appease the majority of conservative america.
Even being a fairly hardcore anime fan I would say we ought to really applaud what C.N. is doing. Even with Escaflowne, all that's changed are the opening and closing, so I'd say anime is gaining more respect in its original art form. (music and the opening is more action oriented)
(well, except for Cardcaptors, (C.C.S.) but lets not go there.)
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And lastly, a blatant plug- for those of you living in the Houston area, come visit the Rice University Anime club. Drop me an e-mail (kashent@rice.edu) or drop by the webpage
http://www.rice.edu/anime
for info. We'll officially start back up again this year first week of September. And there is a big library of all of this fan subtitled anime that everyone keeps mentioning for free to all members.