I don't believe this to be true for a number of reasons.
Part of this is buying into the media (and Net community, to some degree) idea of geeks. I consider my self very computer literate, I read Tolkien, I love anime - I don't consider myself a geek, as such. I have no problems with my social life.
The American debate on whether Anime is good for Americans is as old as the imports themselves.
"[Anime] being a drawn and subjective perspective on the world.
All fiction, and most "non-fiction" is subjective. The Japanese see Hiroshima and Nagasaki far differently than Americans do, though who is to say either point is completely (in)valid? All fiction is drawn by the creators views on life.
The idea that Anime is dangerous is an old one. How is it more dangerous than usual TV? Because many anime shows show a more realistic view of life, social situations and peoples motives, than American sitcoms? In anycase, how is something removed from reality automatically dangerous?
Anime covers so many different genres, pegging it into one hole is impossible. There is realistic anime, sci-fi, fantasy, porn. Anime is less like a subgenre, than a medium for many different types of entertainment.
Like any entertainment, parents must watch their kids - but denying anime simply because it is anime is foolish.
"We should be careful with it, and only take it in small doses, and not give it to our children."
Smacks of Xenophobia, something us Americans are usually good about, but we sometimes are prone to.
This seems all well and good, but let's not forget Shin Tenchi (Tenchi in Tokyo). That was a sellout, if ever there was one. Who's to say that the new OVA won't be like that?
As for the Bebop movie, there aren't much in the way of rumors...what we know's been confirmed...the title, the continutiy, and the existence of it.
I'm aware of the how Slashdot gets news stories, my point, typing mistakes besides, is that they should have a more discretion in choosing what stories to post.
Slashdot provides a great service to us by gathering together the stories. However, someone needs to be able to what's obviously a bogus story. Sega being bought by Nintendo is the same type of story that "Mircrosoft releases a Linux distrobution" would be. However, the former gets posted whilst the latter is a joke.
Nintendo is NOT buying Sega. How long as this rumor gone along? And how many times has./ posted about it? It's simply not going to happen and it's poor judgement on the part of both the NYT and./ to post idiotic stories like these. Sega won't be bought by any Japanese vg company. The most likely scenarios are a partnership with Microsoft or a most likely is that Sega will stop selling hardware and devolop for one or all of the next-gen consoles.
Nintendo didn't loose devolopers because of content control. They lost them because Nintendo controls the storage media that games are manufactured on and charges large sums (like $30 a cart) for devolopers to buy the carts. With cheap CDs, for most companies, unless they had a sure fire hit, tying up large sums of money in cars made no sense.
Nintendo has become fairly liberal in censorhip in recent years, though that can't seem to get away from the stigma of half ignorant fan boys remembering the Mortal Kombat debacle. Nintendo has bowed to market demand, though no one's seemed to noticed. Take Conker's Bad Fur Day or Perfect Dark as examples.
If./ is going to report on games and anime, they should at least get someone who knows half a whit about what they're talking about. Otherwise it brings down the quality of the entire site.
I don't object to./ covering them - but they should do it like they do their other tech coverage - well.
I'll probably get modded down for this but, what place does slash have to do anime news? Slashdot's anime coverage is always low on info, much too opininonated (and often wrong), and late.
Leave the anime coverage to the Anime News Service and Anime on DVD./. should stick to tech news.
A gaming crash like that of the Atari 2000 doesn't seem likely.
Gaming and gaming culture is a much more accepted and much more prevelant than the Atari days. In addition, gaming companies are in much better shape (with the possible exception of Sega) than Atari was. Nintendo and Sony (and of course, MS) have war chests just in case. The game companies are more powerful than they have ever been.
The markets for gaming machines are also very different. A lot of young adults, in addition to teenagers and children buy games now.
The PC is not a threat to standard consoles. PC gaming and console gaming are two different beasts. Final Fantasy VII and VIII were great console games, but horrible PC games, because of the Save game system. The PC is better for sims, FPS, and the ilk, while consoles have the platformers, RPGs, etc. Notable exceptions good probably be given, but it's a pretty good general rule. Also, consoles are truly plug and play, while some level of technical know-how is needed to run PC games.
I disagree - take Final Fantasy or Chrono Cross. Even, to a lesser extent games like Resident Evil (though that has major movie influences). With the possible exception of Wing Commander none of the games mentioned have a plot to speak of - but that's not to say "Games don't have enough literary depth to carry over into film."
I wonder if I'll get flamed for even breathing this, but didn't MS do a lot of good? I don't mean creating standards or making PCs more usable, but for the Linux/Open Source movement. Isn't Microsoft a major impetus for the work of many in the community? Weren't they the rebels fighting the Empire? How would this be affected by a crippled MS?
As a American-born Bangladeshi I think I can say this: What is this, Kipling's "White Man's Burden"? Do you have to civilize the backwards desi by teaching them English? That's pure and utter nonsense. If an Indian (esp. one who can afford a computer)wants to learn English he or she can. It doesn't need to be forced on them
Not to be rude but dubs have their place. When I try to get people into Anime, I usually use a good dub rather than a sub, because it is easier for the uninitiated to get into. And with American TV as it is, we're looking at dubs or no anime at all.
Basically, without dubs, it would be very hard to bring people into fandom. You may say that's a good thing, but it isn't. To keep anime in america (subbed or dubbed) there has to be cash lining pockets.
As for co-opting culture, America is not the only one. Check out the any number of anime with English names. All of Asia co-ops Western culture, Japan especially. In Japan, Western is chic, it's used for style, even if some of it doesn't make sense to native English speakers.
Add to that the difficulty of Japanese. I'm studying it now. It's fun, but it's no walk in the park.
As someone who has watched anime for years (and loves just about every genre) I have a few suggestions.
For actiona and comedy you can't go wrong with Cowboy Bebop and Trigun. Both are space meets the wild west themed (Trigun especially. Bebop has a Bruce Lee flavor in it as well). I haven't seen Roushin Kenshin, but I hear it is absoutely spectacular.
For Romantic comedy Aa Megami-Sama is great (the OVAs), as is Tenchi Muyo! and Ranma 1/2.
More serious work includes Vampire Hunter D (a bit hard to watch after 25 years, but the modd is still there), a gothic, bizarre work with charater design by Yoshitaka Amano (he did design for Final Fantasy). Also, Mononoke Hime (Princess Mononoke) is widely acclaimed and is absoultely stunning, both in plot nuance and visually. Serial Experiments Lain is among the best techno anime avaliable - it invovles a young girl getting lost, losing herself, on the Net. Of course there is also the seminal sci-fi hit, Akira.
Fantasy anime is best exemplified by the Record of Lodoss War OVAs and Slayers.
Mecha anime is very popular and Gundam Wing, Macross, and Evangalion are among its best representatives.
For kids Cardcaptor Sakura (in Japanese - the American WB version is horrible), Kiki's Delivery Service, and My Neighbor Toroto are good (though I enjoy them too!)
From what I understand, there is easily enough Dragon Ball Z and GT to last CN until 2002 (and that is assuming they don't show the orginal Dragon Ball). With any luck, Funimation will give up the dub and some other party will take it up (i.e., Cartoon Network or the orginal Canadian dubbers).
The chances of CN showing Kenshin or Cowboy Bebop are slim, seeing the violent nature of these shows and their relative "newness". (Then again Shin Tenchi came out in 1997 - but it came with a package with Muyo and Univerese).
We'll probably end up seeing more DB (the Trunks and Bardock TV specials seem likely) and even some Tenchi movies in the near future.
I believe we have the best chance of seeing shows like Ranma 1/2 (which would easily provided months of programming with the series, OVAs, and movies). The brief nudity in the show could be easily edited.
At this point I'm just hoping, but Toonami could easily be spun off into its own station. The network could show subbed and dubbed anime, movies, etc. The only issue would be the black hole it leaves in Cartoon Network's schedule.
Slashdot Mirror
Let's not forget that this is a rerelease of Akira, so chances are good there will be a lot of extras on the disc (omake).
"diable armeggadon"
Times 10.
It's waiting to happen when you mix cash and games.
Part of this is buying into the media (and Net community, to some degree) idea of geeks. I consider my self very computer literate, I read Tolkien, I love anime - I don't consider myself a geek, as such. I have no problems with my social life.
The American debate on whether Anime is good for Americans is as old as the imports themselves.
"[Anime] being a drawn and subjective perspective on the world.
All fiction, and most "non-fiction" is subjective. The Japanese see Hiroshima and Nagasaki far differently than Americans do, though who is to say either point is completely (in)valid? All fiction is drawn by the creators views on life.
The idea that Anime is dangerous is an old one. How is it more dangerous than usual TV? Because many anime shows show a more realistic view of life, social situations and peoples motives, than American sitcoms? In anycase, how is something removed from reality automatically dangerous?
Anime covers so many different genres, pegging it into one hole is impossible. There is realistic anime, sci-fi, fantasy, porn. Anime is less like a subgenre, than a medium for many different types of entertainment.
Like any entertainment, parents must watch their kids - but denying anime simply because it is anime is foolish.
"We should be careful with it, and only take it in small doses, and not give it to our children."
Smacks of Xenophobia, something us Americans are usually good about, but we sometimes are prone to.
As for the Bebop movie, there aren't much in the way of rumors...what we know's been confirmed...the title, the continutiy, and the existence of it.
Slashdot provides a great service to us by gathering together the stories. However, someone needs to be able to what's obviously a bogus story. Sega being bought by Nintendo is the same type of story that "Mircrosoft releases a Linux distrobution" would be. However, the former gets posted whilst the latter is a joke.
Nintendo is NOT buying Sega. How long as this rumor gone along? And how many times has ./ posted about it? It's simply not going to happen and it's poor judgement on the part of both the NYT and ./ to post idiotic stories like these. Sega won't be bought by any Japanese vg company. The most likely scenarios are a partnership with Microsoft or a most likely is that Sega will stop selling hardware and devolop for one or all of the next-gen consoles.
Nintendo didn't loose devolopers because of content control. They lost them because Nintendo controls the storage media that games are manufactured on and charges large sums (like $30 a cart) for devolopers to buy the carts. With cheap CDs, for most companies, unless they had a sure fire hit, tying up large sums of money in cars made no sense.
Nintendo has become fairly liberal in censorhip in recent years, though that can't seem to get away from the stigma of half ignorant fan boys remembering the Mortal Kombat debacle. Nintendo has bowed to market demand, though no one's seemed to noticed. Take Conker's Bad Fur Day or Perfect Dark as examples.
If ./ is going to report on games and anime, they should at least get someone who knows half a whit about what they're talking about. Otherwise it brings down the quality of the entire site.
I don't object to ./ covering them - but they should do it like they do their other tech coverage - well.
I'll probably get modded down for this but, what place does slash have to do anime news? Slashdot's anime coverage is always low on info, much too opininonated (and often wrong), and late. /. should stick to tech news.
Leave the anime coverage to the Anime News Service and Anime on DVD.
A gaming crash like that of the Atari 2000 doesn't seem likely. Gaming and gaming culture is a much more accepted and much more prevelant than the Atari days. In addition, gaming companies are in much better shape (with the possible exception of Sega) than Atari was. Nintendo and Sony (and of course, MS) have war chests just in case. The game companies are more powerful than they have ever been. The markets for gaming machines are also very different. A lot of young adults, in addition to teenagers and children buy games now. The PC is not a threat to standard consoles. PC gaming and console gaming are two different beasts. Final Fantasy VII and VIII were great console games, but horrible PC games, because of the Save game system. The PC is better for sims, FPS, and the ilk, while consoles have the platformers, RPGs, etc. Notable exceptions good probably be given, but it's a pretty good general rule. Also, consoles are truly plug and play, while some level of technical know-how is needed to run PC games.
I disagree - take Final Fantasy or Chrono Cross. Even, to a lesser extent games like Resident Evil (though that has major movie influences). With the possible exception of Wing Commander none of the games mentioned have a plot to speak of - but that's not to say "Games don't have enough literary depth to carry over into film."
It doesn't count. =D
Well duh.
The difference in this is that it puts people at risk, whereas MS and DeCSS are simply novelties with no real consquence either way,
I wonder if I'll get flamed for even breathing this, but didn't MS do a lot of good? I don't mean creating standards or making PCs more usable, but for the Linux/Open Source movement. Isn't Microsoft a major impetus for the work of many in the community? Weren't they the rebels fighting the Empire? How would this be affected by a crippled MS?
As a American-born Bangladeshi I think I can say this: What is this, Kipling's "White Man's Burden"? Do you have to civilize the backwards desi by teaching them English? That's pure and utter nonsense. If an Indian (esp. one who can afford a computer)wants to learn English he or she can. It doesn't need to be forced on them
I'd be happiest with some decent PSX, Gameboy, NES, and SNES emulators.
Basically, without dubs, it would be very hard to bring people into fandom. You may say that's a good thing, but it isn't. To keep anime in america (subbed or dubbed) there has to be cash lining pockets.
As for co-opting culture, America is not the only one. Check out the any number of anime with English names. All of Asia co-ops Western culture, Japan especially. In Japan, Western is chic, it's used for style, even if some of it doesn't make sense to native English speakers.
Add to that the difficulty of Japanese. I'm studying it now. It's fun, but it's no walk in the park.
For actiona and comedy you can't go wrong with Cowboy Bebop and Trigun. Both are space meets the wild west themed (Trigun especially. Bebop has a Bruce Lee flavor in it as well). I haven't seen Roushin Kenshin, but I hear it is absoutely spectacular.
For Romantic comedy Aa Megami-Sama is great (the OVAs), as is Tenchi Muyo! and Ranma 1/2.
More serious work includes Vampire Hunter D (a bit hard to watch after 25 years, but the modd is still there), a gothic, bizarre work with charater design by Yoshitaka Amano (he did design for Final Fantasy). Also, Mononoke Hime (Princess Mononoke) is widely acclaimed and is absoultely stunning, both in plot nuance and visually. Serial Experiments Lain is among the best techno anime avaliable - it invovles a young girl getting lost, losing herself, on the Net. Of course there is also the seminal sci-fi hit, Akira.
Fantasy anime is best exemplified by the Record of Lodoss War OVAs and Slayers.
Mecha anime is very popular and Gundam Wing, Macross, and Evangalion are among its best representatives.
For kids Cardcaptor Sakura (in Japanese - the American WB version is horrible), Kiki's Delivery Service, and My Neighbor Toroto are good (though I enjoy them too!)
Hope that helped (and it wasn't too much! =))
The chances of CN showing Kenshin or Cowboy Bebop are slim, seeing the violent nature of these shows and their relative "newness". (Then again Shin Tenchi came out in 1997 - but it came with a package with Muyo and Univerese).
We'll probably end up seeing more DB (the Trunks and Bardock TV specials seem likely) and even some Tenchi movies in the near future.
I believe we have the best chance of seeing shows like Ranma 1/2 (which would easily provided months of programming with the series, OVAs, and movies). The brief nudity in the show could be easily edited.
At this point I'm just hoping, but Toonami could easily be spun off into its own station. The network could show subbed and dubbed anime, movies, etc. The only issue would be the black hole it leaves in Cartoon Network's schedule.