Slashdot Mirror
Anime Unleashed on TechTV
da3dAlus writes "Beginning December 30, the first series of a new anime block will start on TechTV's new "Anime Unleashed" program. As billed by TechTV, "Anime Unleashed focuses on the science-fiction elements of anime--titles that imagine what our near or far future will be like, investigate the relationship between humans and machines, dream of what alien civilizations could be like, and more." The block will premiere with single half-hour episodes airing Monday through Thursday at 1am EST, followed by a two-hour block of anime on Friday from 11pm to 2am EST. Some of the series slated to be shown include Crest of the Stars, Serial Experiment Lain, Dual! Parallel Trouble Adventure, Betterman, and Silent Mobius. Additionally, a contest is being held until the first of January 2003 by TechTV to create a new logo for the program."
"Serial Experiment Lain"
One of the strangest series I've ever seen... It doesn't seem like something American audiences would like at ALL (lots of slow, moody scenes, lots of 'wtf is going on') but I'm glad TechTV is brave enough to carry it =)
-Berj
"Anime Unleashed focuses on the science-fiction elements of anime--titles that imagine what our near or far future will be like, investigate the relationship between humans and machines, dream of what alien civilizations could be like, and more."
Doesn't that cover a large majority of all anime out there? =)
-Berj
TechTV keeps getting further and further away from it's roots. "Thunderbirds" and now anime? What's next? A TV movie? What's wrong with being the TV network about computers and technology?
"How perfectly Goddamn delightful it all is, to be sure" Charles Crumb
I'm glad to see we're having an animeated discussion.
and Friday, at 2 AM EST is the Hentai hour. Featuring the best bondage, tenticles and perversion japan has to offer. ...please?
two-hour block of anime on Friday from 11pm to 2am EST
so that's 11pm cst to 2am est?
-- Nate
I bet Tech TV Canada will stick to it's usual shit of running crappy Canadian shows and Screensavers re-runs.
We don't even get Max Headroom up here, which is fucking stupid given I think Max Headroom was ostensibly a Canadian production...
I'm assuming that it's all English dubbed anime, bad, very bad.
it's good they're bringing anime to the masses that want to watch it for the artistic and entertainment vaule.
One thing that really really really gets up my nose is the uneducated trolls (to put it nicely) that whine about how Japanese Anime is nothing more than tentacle rape and hentai with gracious panty shots and fanservice inbetween.
Now for each example you'd be giving me of such things, I could come up with at least 20 or more mainstream anime that contains none of that.
It's better than the unoriginal crap that disney puts out. It's also done for entertainment with a twist on artistic value, not just an excuse to churn out merchandise.
Be you Admins? nay, we are but lusers!
Editor Emeritus and Senior Writer, TeleRead.org
I'm fond of animations, but the amount of anime out there is IMPOSSIBLE to keep track of. A question tho, how does one differentiate between conventional animation and anime? Are all japanese animations anime?? (and i aint talkin abt huntai)
I loved stuff like Robotech, Force Five features , but then I liked stuff like the Transformers too. Stuff like Dragon Ball Z didn't grab my attention. I haven't heard of these animes which TechTV is plannin to screen...
|/________
|\A|ALYS|
Serial Experiment Lain is one of the best productions of any sort that I've seen in a long time. I actually have not seen the entire series yet, but I think it is a fantastic example of cutting edge animation, and so far not a single tentacle rape scene! Tivo has been sporadically grabbing Lain episodes for me for awhile now, I might have to look into getting Tech TV just for that.
I also have come to enjoy Cowby Bebop. It's an odd mixture of sci-fi anime, westerns and late 50's jazz beat. There's a lot more to anime than what I had assumed at first. There's a lot of potential in this artistic medium that is only now surfacing in The States.
broken home syndrome. Has anyone else noticed that EVERY disney movie the central character comes from a broken home? I haven't found one that doesn't. Even the latest offering, Treasure Planet, is another broken home. Family values my ass!
liked japan type animation, except speed racer. oh and Ultra man, but that wasn't really a cartoon. I was a little kid, You are grown men. I think?
Sheesh!
Can I please ask what the big draw of Anime is? I mean the actual animation isn't terribly great (I think the OLD Transformers cartoons were drawn better), and from the little I've watched, the story lines aren't terribly great either. Is it just me that doesn't get it?
I'm not a prophet or a stone-age man,
I'm just a mortal with potential of a super man.
I may not be *the* most avid Anime-fan out there (but I do live in Japan so maybe that should raise the credibility somewhat?), but it really does not seem to me that anime discusses much about aliens / civilizations and our relationships with them.
I mean, I think the genre can be categorized into a few (rough) parts, but non of them are really the "explore new land meet new people" sort of (startrek like, I suppose) way.
I mean, the only ones I can think of on top of my head that goes near the subject is:
1) Robotech (actually a soap opera and you know it)
2) Nadesico (which is anime talking about anime - but the aliens turned out to be human (oops did I spoil this?) who are all anime freaks)
3) pokemon / and the like (but that's no alien civilization now, right?)
4) sex-starved monsters (won't get into this)
What I am trying to say is that anime to me, at least, seem to use "aliens and their civilizations" more often as a background story than as a focus. Besides most of the "alien (read: forign / non-human biological)" stuff is usually mystical (magical powers, etc) rather than factual.
but there are a lot of human's relationship with technology / machines. Ghost in the Shell, Zoujin-Z, Lain, just to name a few "on the mark" ones.
just my 2 yen.
My life in the land of the rising sun.
Once again, a great idea goes bad by giving it a terrible timeslot.
Some of us actually DO have to sleep.
"Before humanity, the stars shone throughout the heavens. After humanity [has gone], the stars will continue to shine"
Seeing as SciFi has decided to become the "schlock horror flick of the week" channel, someone has to pick up the slack. It's good to see TechTV doing something other than running the same half hour show (e.g. Extended Play) 3-4 times per day.
Besides, how many techs are into anime? How many "regular" people are into anime? So TechTV is catering to a significant segment of their audience, while other stations would be catering to the fringes to try the same thing.
I do not fail; I succeed at finding out what does not work.
Have you tuned it in lately? An awful lot of crime fiction there now.
The market for such specialized channels simply doesn't exist, even on cable, in a manner that allows them to keep the bills payed. Sad, but true.
I'd rather they tried to save their collective butts by showing cartoons than 4 hour commercials for the Thighmaster.
KFG
The head of Sasami or Pretty Sammy I believe. The 500 some odd year old little girl in Tenchi Muyo. She is Aeka's little sister and is friends with that cabbit. I can't remember how to spell the name and thousands of anime fans will feed me to the tentacle demons if I misspell it.
Any sufficiently advanced influence is indistinguishable from control.
MTV used to show music? It got so bad that they had to launch M2 (now called MTV2) in order to show music again.
VH1's tagline was always "Music First",pretty soon they're going to have to launch VH2...
The truth doesn't care what I think.
...in many stores! What sells? SEX! Especially when it's pimply-faced otaku who can't buy real porn... one day at Tower Records I saw a kid getting the Legend of the Overfiend laserdisc box set, being purchased by his mom, who had absolutely no clue what it was (other than being a "cartoon"!)
Retailers stock tentacle rape and panty shots because real anime doesn't sell to the masses, unfortuantely.
Where's the Ghibli library? Oh yeah, Disney is sitting on that cause their own stuff sucks and they don't want everyone else realizing that.
If you think Pop up windows on the internet are bad now, watch a bit of the Martian Successor Nadesko. It features pop up video windows for communication that can pop up any where. In the future advertisers could use them to advertise.
Concidering the lastest lows the advertisers have stepped to (kick throughs), Pop up ads 'in your face' any where could come true if they stoop low enough in the future.
Nero-burning ROM for Linux!
I figure the extra $25 dollars they want for it is worth me buying DVD's instead.
-- dieman - Scott Dier
Now if they'd pick up .hack...that would rock. Plenty of room for the kind of synergies they love there, especially when you consider that Sony is putting out a translated .hack MMRPG this coming year. Extended Play, anyone? .hack on The Screensavers' LAN Party (powered by NVidia)? It would be a suit's dream.
I'd also like to see Excel Saga there, but I doubt it would fit the TechTV format. Actually I can't think of a cable channel off-hand where it would fit. Comedy Central? Too wild for them. Sundance? IFC? Maybe there, but I've never seen Anime on either. Oh well.
"But you've already got a DVD. It lasts forever....In the digital world, we don't need back-ups..."
-- Jack Valenti
I see alot of whys ... why not? .. sorry to say but japan IS a leader in technology ... why not have something interesting and has a story line? ... Anime is a not just a bunch of perverted scenes in fact I know of many series that do not have any of these sort of things
It's a good thing someone is finally getting their act together and doing that, it needs to be done. What I worry about is them not getting the story right, or in cases like Serial Experiment Lain and Ghost in a Shell, where the answers are meant to be decyphered and interprited by the audience, they might put their own ideas and just ruin it.
Does anybody actually know what Serial Experiments Lain is about? Including the creators of the anime?
Evangelion gives fanservice? More like a donkey punch followed by a boot to the head. Sure, there's implied nudity (like when we meet Asuka), but it's always followed by something depressing or violent. Not a lot of fun.
Now, if you want anime without excessive, or even any fan-service, it does exist:
and if you think they don't churn out the merchandise, you'd be wise to check out sites that do japanese imports.
Sturgeons law: 90% of anything is crap. Yes, there's a great big pile of stuff that's utter garbage. There's also a smaller pile of stuff (like Seraphim Call) that's got a marginal audience. There's also a lot of really good stuff. About half of the stuff I like comes from Gainax.
"We returned the General to El Salvador, or maybe Guatemala, it's difficult to tell from 10,000 feet"
11pm-2am? Isn't that three hours?
No TiVo and no caffeine make me something something...
"cute anthropomorphic animals"
"ninjas vs. vampires"
"chicks with guns" (my personal fave)
A whole season of The Simpsons (22 episodes) is $40. The complete Cowboy Bebop (26 episodes) is $100. Escaflowne (or the first season of Farscape for that matter) is $150. Okay, you win--I won't watch your goddamn show.
Obviously, any anime/sci-fi fan is freakishly addicted and will buy a DVD at any cost. No need to price our shows low enough to be attractive to the casual buyer. We have no faith in our product. Suck them dry, dammit!
c-hack.com |
I think maybe I'll wait for "Learn Anime in 21 Days".
For all intensive purposes, "whom" is no longer a word. That begs the question, "who cares"?
I was kind of put off by the way Lain was drawn in the first few episodes, but I kind of grew to like it. It wasn't an anime like Noir where the art jumps out at you and shouts PRETTY! but then I didn't think it was ugly, either. There's something about the way the characters are drawn that just feels a little off if you aren't expecting it, perhaps. What was it about the art that you didn't like?
The other thing about Lain, as one of my friends put it, is that "it tends to do something to people's brains that rhymes with sucks but starts with an F." Lain really plays with your mind... and it's entirely legal, too. =^_^=
Nobody's going to see this probably because they posted their little article while I was away from my computer, but I submitted this story and had it rejected on 11-20 (to news) and 12-1 (to anime) and got it rejected both times, so I posted it to my journal
True enough. But what I was doing was exaggerating for the sake of making a joke. Since, to someone who doesn't know very much about anime, all you'd have to do would be to add "that have many naked boobs and many heads exploding in showers of gore" to that statement to encompass everything he thinks anime is...
Editor Emeritus and Senior Writer, TeleRead.org
"I got into an elevator at work and this man followed in after me... I
pushed '1' and he just stood there... I said 'Hi, where you going?' He
said, 'Phoenix.' So I pushed Phoenix. A few seconds later the doors
opened, two tumbleweeds blew in... we were in downtown Phoenix. I looked
at him and said 'You know, you're the kind of guy I want to hang around
with.' We got into his car and drove out to his shack in the desert.
Then the phone rang. He said 'You get it.' I picked it up and said
'Hello?'... the other side said 'Is this Steven Wright?'... I said 'Yes...'
The guy said 'Hi, I'm Mr. Jones, the student loan director from your bank...
It seems you have missed your last 17 payments, and the university you
attended said that they received none of the $17,000 we loaned you... we
would just like to know what happened to the money?' I said, 'Mr. Jones,
I'll give it to you straight. I gave all of the money to my friend Slick,
and with it he built a nuclear weapon... and I would appreciate it if you never
called me again."
-- Steven Wright
- this post brought to you by the Automated Last Post Generator...