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Cowboy Bebop Movie comes to the States
birdman666 writes "According to the movie site the movie of the popular anime Cowboy Bebop has finally been set to release in the states in a handful of cities including LA, NY, SF, Seattle and others on April 4. It features all the same voice actors as the Cartoon Network series and is big news for all those Bebop fans out there. As a note the Japanese title of the film was 'Cowboy Bebop: Knockin On Heaven's Door', but has been changed simply to 'Cowboy Bebop: The Movie' for the states." We had a note about the American premiere last summer, but now it's finally open for general admission.
Like with everything else, 90% of anime is horrible.
The strength of anime is that it allows the creative force complete control over the visual environment, without concern for if its possible to do in terms of special effects or in terms of real life freedom. Thus, the storyteller gets the ultimate freedom to express his or her ideas. That is what makes Anime unique in contrast to other mediums.
But, its important to remember that it is still a medium, just like other mediums. As such it has its limitations.
Entertainment?
The same thing you see in every other media.
Anime is just a medium, like TV or commercials or infomercials or live action movies or print or comic.
Each medium has their own history and culture, so it would stand to reason that anime too has its own subculture. It is this subculture that most fans are attracted to, the expectations built up from watching previous anime is carried over when watching new anime.
Same as any other genre: American music, Marvel comics, Car commercials.
And of course, anime itself can be divided into smaller genres, just like American Music, Marvel Comics, or Car commercials.
GPL Deconstructed
I for one simply see anime as another medium of creative expression. Many people who don't "get anime" (not you obviously) see it as nothing but a cartoon. That's just ignorant. That's like seeing Saving Private Ryan as "just another shoot-'em-up action movie".
I think one reason anime has such dedicated fans are two-fold.
1. Animation can show things real life cannot either due to technological, financial or time constraints. For example, Cowboy Bebop. If you've seen the series, imagine trying to translate that into a show or movie. You know how much money that would cost? I'd guess upwards of $20 million an episode on average (CG ain't cheap, especially when every second has some).
2. The culture in anime is unique. It's the same reason Star Wars has a cult following. Because anime is it's own little isolated universe. There are things otaku (anime fans to the nth degree) can say/do that another otaku will understand, but a casual observer would say "What the Hell is that?"
I personally think those are huge factors in the fandom of anime, the unique culture it presents and the fact anything they can think up can be done.
I've lived in the Minneapolis area almost my entire life, and while I love it here, if there's one thing I can't stand it's the huge inferiority complex that some Twin City people seem to have about wanting to be considered an important city. Yes, we have an orchestra that's almost as good as Philly's. Yes, the U of M is has a great medical program. Sure, we have four major league sports teams (for now). Yea, we have the tallest tower between Chicago and California. Blah blah blah. We are not all that important. Half the kids in NYC schools probably can't find us on a map. Foreign visitors think we are a suburb of Los Angelis or something. Get over it already.
There's nothing wrong with simply being from a nice city with only a few million people in it. Are you listening, Denver?
As to anybody else whining about the very limited release of the Cowboy Bebop movie. Hey, small movies always start with a limited release. If you live in any city big enough to have an "arthouse" movie theater or two, it will probably come to you within a couple months. Chill.
Information wants to be anthropomorphized.
Well having spent a good part of my live in my homeland the(US) and a good part on the road in other countries I can answer you in this way.
Mad Max was called Mad MAx here. I even saw in the US as Mad Max. The second movie was called Mad Max 2, the Road Warrior. And Road Warrior sounds a Helluva lot better than Mad Max 2.
And Gibson was born in New York, pop shipped the whole family back to Aussie Land cause that was where mom was from and to avoid his sons possible conscription into the service into Vietnam.
And we do acknowledge philossopy. But alchemy? Hmmm.
Movie name changes are made all over the world. They do it so that wherever they are showing the flick can get a general idea of what the original title is about. Somethings cannot be transalates.
Knocking on Heavens door is one of the most famous songs in the US, and in English, so I would venture they did it to avoid confusion. And it is actually quite a beautiful tune.
So you know what? Cool your jets, wherever your are from. People are people. Including this yank with one grampaw from Madrid and the other Cajun French(which is better than regular Frog any ol' day") we is all just people.
Puto
The Revolution Will Not Be Televised
1. Animation can show things real life cannot either due to technological, financial or time constraints. For example, Cowboy Bebop. If you've seen the series, imagine trying to translate that into a show or movie. You know how much money that would cost? I'd guess upwards of $20 million an episode on average (CG ain't cheap, especially when every second has some).
As was just proven this year with Firefly, a live-action TV show that reminded some people more than a little bit of Cowboy Bebop. At $2 Million an episode, it was simply too expensive to stay on the air with as limited of a following as it had. It was cancelled just as it was getting really good.
In addition to the cost savings and subculture appeal, there's one more reason for anime being loved so much by some people in the US. Only the most appealing stuff ever gets exported. Then, once they went through the trouble of translating and exporting it, they carefully market it to the right audience (Cartoon Network's "Adult Swim" vs. after-school syndication).
Information wants to be anthropomorphized.
I'm not so aware of the wording inflection issue from a Japanese language point of view, but I have encountered it with some Indian work-mates who, while they do speak pretty good english, have a tendancy for changing the meaning of their words through tone, meter and inflection of their speech.
I find that hearing the tones in the speech helps bring clearer meaning to what is going on - you can often understand exactly what is happening in some of the scenes through simply hearing the words and the tone, even before you have read the subtitle. But that's just me: I know my flattie refuses to watch anything subtitled - he claims that needing to read while watching detracts from the action. I personally disagree with that, but hey, that's his opinion =)
L8r!
-Trav
I should really get around to creating a sig.... Nah - too lazy =)
You can still use the tone, emotional cues don't change that much. Also, the subtitles are a closer-to-direct translation while the dub script is designed to get the gist across while fitting into the timing of the Japanese lines. Personally, I just had too many bad experiences with crappy English voice acting and got used to dealing with subtitles. Shinji should not scream like Homer Simpson. Ug.
Don't forget His and Her Circumstances. I recently borrowed this off a friend, and it's extremely good! There are some absolutely classic scenes in this series. Highly recommended.
DeeK
I can only assume so, since the Cartoon Network version is all in English. Not that I find that particularly distasteful -- in fact, it's probably one of the best dubbing jobs I've seen to date -- but I also find the Japanese voices more appropriate and in tune with each persons characters (Edward always cracks me up).