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Dreamworks Delves Into Anime
peter_gzowski writes "Dreamworks has acquired the license for the worldwide distribution of Satoshi Kon's latest picture, Millennium Actress. Satoshi Kon is best known for directing the anime classic Perfect Blue, but has also worked on Patlabor 2 and Roujin Z (the latter two from the director of Ghost in the Shell & Akira, respectively). Read about it from Yahoo! Movies or Anime News Network, whichever you prefer. I guess Dreamworks was feeling left out after Miramax (with Princess Mononoke) and Columbia Tri-Star (with Final Fantasy and Metropolis) got into the anime distribution business. Maybe Spielberg and company will fare better trying to convince North American audiences to watch serious animated films."
Don't get me wrong, I'm a big fan of Anime, but why should I care about some companies making money with it or not? Sure it would be a cool, if I could see my favourite Anime on the big screen, but I'm perfectly fine with fansubs! I think groups like Soldats are doing a great job atm.
I do like anime myself, and I own a few DVDs (and japanese LDs). I did buy Mononoke Hime (twice;) LD/DVD) and I think it is interesting that American movie companies are getting their eyes up for anime.
But it will not be easy, most of the target audience will not show up for an anime in theaters in the states. I just couldn't stand the horrible dub work for Mononoke myself, and the US audiences is not known for "reading" movies like some of us Europeans. The fact that it is !Disney and that it is animated will turn off a lot of people, making them go "I can watch cartoons on Cartoon Network, ok? I want to see ".
One of the biggest reasons is that anime is not family movies in the states (like most of the Studio Ghibli movies are in Japan for example) and thus won't draw the important child+partent audience. And it is not "serious" enough for an older audience. Not because anime can't be good childrens movies or can not deal with very serious themes. Just because this is the view of it in the states.
One very successful anime on the other hand is ghost in the shell, which is loaded with action and fits in well with the fairly young target audience. This is also an anime with a very good dub (I could watch the whole movie without wincing when actors sounded completely out of character the whole time). When (if?) they get around to do it, GITS2 could be a hit in the west as well.
If anime wants to succeed it needs a few "flagships". Movies people remember and like, a TV series or two that they remember was good. My suggestion for this is to _not_ buy a movie/tvseries after it has premiered in Japan and is old.
Dreamworks (etc) need to be a full partner and produce it together with the Japanese production team. Grab the American voice actors (for those seiyuu that can't speak English well enough) and send them to work side by side with the Japanese ones. Make the sequences that would be too culturally hard to understand into two sequences, one for US, one for JP (and use multi angles for something else than pr0n;)).
For example, the new GITS TV series. Do what I suggest above and send it on prime time television and promote it. This would open up for anime and give subsequent TV series a better chance.
(I would also like to see Dreamworks buy the rights for Studio Ghiblis movies, send them to THX for remastering, make real quality dubs, and put them out in out big blacing box. I would buy that for $250 on the day of the launch without a second thought (Except JIPPIE!). But I think that will remain a personal dream of mine since it is very unlikely that Disney will do anything good at all with them right now, since they own the rights in the west. I think that Miyazaki is unhappy about the situation, which is a shame because he is a very nice person and him and his team has made some of the most incredible movies of all times).
Speaking of Crumb, there's the Fritz the Cat movies (I didn't know there was more than one) on there too. I haven't seen them, but I know Crumb's work, and there's always that counterculture air. Again, not serious like Ghost in the Shell or Akira, but with some serious things going on. Also animated, but not anime.
There's also the Hobbit cartoon and the unfinished Lord of the Rings animated movie. Similar category.
You forgot Akira, which is my personal gold standard for best anime feature film. Others will probably point to Mononoke or Ghost in the Shell, but Akira remains my personal favorite.
The thing about anime though, is that the highest quality work is not in feature films, but in the series made for TV. Neon Genesis Evangelion, Trigun, and Cowboy Bebop all have US versions available, and all are outstanding. I've heard excellent things about Serial Experiments: Lain as well. The feature films based off of Cowboy Bebop and Evangelion are also must-sees for fans of the series, but they aren't particularly good if you haven't watched the TV versions.
The new series Vandread is excellent as well, in a quirky and funny sort of way. Not as mature as the others, but still good. Ranma 1/2 also has its fans, although I haven't seen it myself.
Some people are pretty obsessed with Dragonball Z as well, although I personally couldn't get in to it, as it never seems to end. The other series clock in at one season apice, which means you can actually watch them to completion over a relatively short period of time. Not so with DBZ.
Basically, most of the best anime will come out in the TV series. Take it upon yourself to start renting the Evangelion DVD's, or download the episodes online to try before you buy. Eva is incredibly deep and moving and very complex, and is generally considered to be the best "difficult" anime series around, so it may be best to start you there. I've neglected to list many above, mainly due to ignorance, but those should get you started. There's a lot out there. Good luck!
"I may not have morals, but I have standards."
There is no definative quality of anime. anime is a medium not a catagory. there are good anime's and there are crap ones.
does that dreamworks link own your mozilla? :\
i get instafreeze on 1.0
- about me
Neon
Genesis
Evangelion
Do NOT watch the dubbed version. I'm not a sub purist, but in this case the dub really is terrible. Young and inexperienced characters have mature voices, gasps become goofy gufaws, and the screams of torment and anguish sound like someone yelling "Fore!" before swinging their damn golf club. And I listened in every language on that damn DVD. Every other language sounds as poor.
Do NOT browse websites for information on it. Wait until you've watched it through.
And if you decide to watch it, WATCH IT ALL. Do NOT quit halfway. I don't mean in one sitting necessarily, but if you only watch the first half of the episodes, you're going to think it's just like every other anime, or worse. Big robot mechs, teenage heros, cute girls, save the world, blah blah blah.
Mech pilots taking dance lessons to perform a ballet sequence in combat to defeat the latest enemy? Tracked to silly music? Spare me, NGE. This is mind blowing? Pft.
Or was that episode something different?
Why are the mechs in NGE so tall, thin, and dexterous when compared to the mechs in other anime series? It's because toy manufacturers have an easier time building short, heavyset mech models. Early mech designs of Gundam Wing (the most popular mech anime in Japan at the time of NGE's release) were modified to make those stupid little toys stand up better. The NGE crew didn't care about the commercial possibilities of their work, and the ballet episode was just a vehicle for that point. NGE is something more.
After you've watched it all, then you can go online for the analysis. Have fun looking things up in the Apocrypha and Pseudopygraphia (sp?). Note that the symbolism is both blatant (big crucifixes in places) and subtle (character motivations, personalities, and relationships).
You'll either love it and be blown away, or you'll hate it. I've not met anyone between.
The problem is that anime is less a genre (like comedy or drama) and more a medium (like movies or novels).
Just as there are comedy movies, political movies, and historical movies, there are comedy anime, political anime, and historical anime. Imagine if a person walked up to you and said "I don't understand this whole 'movie' thing. Can you give me the BEST movie EVER?"
Imagine trying to pick ONE MOVIE that has gripping drama, laugh-out-loud comedy, strong political overtones, a harsh message from the upcoming generation, excellent camera work, cutting-edge computer graphics, and suitable material for all ages. Tough job, right?
Whenever someone asks me to recommend anime, I ask them what movie genres they like the most. Then I go from there.
(BTW, the plural of "anime" is "anime", just like "series". This is because the Japanese language doesn't use plurals like we do; "animes" does not exist over there or over here.)
For proof, check out this awesome poster for Spirited Away, Buena Vista's (ie Disney's) first foray into the world of Japenese animation on a wide-release scale since Princess Mononoke. The film has broken all kinds of records in Japan and I hope it does the same here as well. The poster looks great, I've heard nothing but fantastic stuff about it, and this should easily top Millenium Actress if the marketing push works.
:)
Here's to hoping it does.
ps - and I hope they don't screw up the DVD and force an uproar like Princess Mononoke did
Anime--because it is done on generally much-tighter budgets than American animation--has a look that can be an acquired taste to people used to the fluidity of motion of American animation. That's why it takes about US$800,000 and six months of work just to do one The Simpsons episode.
:-) This is where the Pioneer uncut DVD comes in real handy. =)
But the Japanese compensate by flat-out great storytelling and well-developed characters.
For anime available in subtitled form I recommend you see these titles to prove my point of view:
1. Akira. Now available in a newly-remastered DVD, it's a movie that has breathtaking visuals and really makes you think, to say the least.
2. Royal Space Force: The Wings of Honneamise. Flat-out GREAT storytelling, and has an excellent musical score by former Yellow Magic Orchestra member Ryuichi Sakamoto.
3. The three Slayers TV series. Really nice storylines, and it's just so cute and fun to listen to voice actress Megumi Hayashibara lose her temper in almost every episode. =) Slayers Try, the third season, is probably the best of the three.
4. The Vision of Escaflowne TV series. Nice storytelling, and amazingly good animation.
5. Neon Genesis Evangelion TV series. If you can watch the whole series straight through, you know why it was simultaneously loved AND reviled at the same time.
6. Sailor Moon S TV series. Easily the best of the five seasons of that TV series, with great storytelling in almost every episode.
7. Excel Saga TV series. The first episodes are just out on DVD, and if you want something just as wacky and zany as what the late Chuck Jones did during his zenith at Warner Brothers in the 1950's, this is probably it.
There are many more I could mention, but it's a good starting point.
Before you start whinging about us being morons, you might want to do some fact checking yourself. Most of the US anime importers are not MPAA members, and have no connection to it. Most of the voice actors aren't even SAG members. There are exceptions, now that some big companies are getting into the picture (Disney, Columbia/TriStar), but the main anime companies like ADV have nothing at all to do with your complaint.
And all the Studio Ghibli movies (the ones Disney has licensed) can be purchased from Japan, since they've basically all got english subs on the R2.