No game necessary, just use Pictochat. My 4-year-old loves to use Pictochat to doodle and send messages, My 2.5-year old does this to some extent, too. It's pretty nice because it helps them develop their coordination and helps them prepare to write. They seem to like Konami's Lost in Blue, and hunting in the sand for food.
The companies that release the anime in the US are not the same companies that own the license in Japan in most cases. You're not comparing apples to apples. American licensees could produce subs as quickly as the fan community if:
They didn't have to worry about license negotiation and paying fees
They had translators, editors, graphics artists who haven't been allocated to other projects
They didn't have to work from master sources
They didn't have to produce a dubbed version
Some purists may argue that dubbed anime isn't necessary, but the sales numbers consistently show higher sales on dubbed versions. It's especially necessary if you're trying to get the show on television, since network execs aren't going to pick up a show that's only available in subbed format. Ultimately, I think it boils down to the bottom line. If you want to make a profit off of the titles, that means you're working with a limited staff and trying to make sure sales exceed your licensing and marketing costs. We've already seen a few anime licensees go under, so the market is readjusting itself currently. It's all about the economics of the situation.
I agree that you should take your business somewhere else, but that doesn't correct bad behavior. Customers also need to call these companies and be vocal about their complaints. I've talked to tech support and logged official requests with many banking institutions to get rid of their IE/ActiveX dependencies and embrace open standards. Most places have a forum for users to request a feature or address an issue. If someone doesn't tell you that they are logging your request, then ask to speak to a manager until you get someone who will.
Are you discounting the whole "Neither can survive while the other lives..." part of the prophecy laid out in Order of the Phoenix?
Re:the new stuff... not as good as the original
on
40 Years of Ultraman
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· Score: 1
You're right about Gatchaman being the first anime sentai series. I'm having a hard time thinking of some of anime sentai series other than Shinesman, though. And that was only a short OAV series.
Another poster mentioned the bad math here. I thought it they were doing the calc to Chinese Yuan in the post, but that works out to a different number entirely.
If it's newsworthy enough for Slashdot, it should be good enough for the Wikipedia entry, right? It still reads:
"The programme is one of the longest-running science fiction television series in the world and also a significant part of British popular culture.[1]"
3. To stress the point; Make it look like Windows and make sure ALL the apps have consistent UIs that work just like their Windows counterparts.
I suspect there are many legal hurdles to this step of your plan. The MacOS interface is already fairly easy to pick up once you shed yourself of some bad Windows habits. If they made it too similar to Windows, you'd lose what makes Apple Apple.
I can see the benefits of what you're describing, but why can't companies just stay small? I'm a big proponent of the lean & mean structure. With enough planning up-front, a small company can keep producing quality games, but we just haven't seen much of that in the real world.
I, too, didn't really see the connection between the anime and the manga market today which is primarily being driven to new heights by the Shoujo segment of the market. It seems to be a pretty flimsy and misinformed association. Evangelion definitely deserves to be recognized for its significance to the anime market, though. Especially considering it the cost of licensing the show was astronomical at the time, and the title helped catapult AD Vision to the forefront of the anime publisher list.
From the article: "Meanwhile, the Gambit system is, well, probably the most brilliant thing ever to appear in a Japanese role-playing game...." and later "...This is where producer Yasumi Matsuno shines most -- in creating straightforward game concepts that eliminate waste. Matsuno saw a way to get rid of the tedium of role-playing games (heal when low on HP, attack, attack, attack, get hurt, heal again, attack, attack) by implementing a simple AI programming scheme. The dead simplicity of the AI programming scheme, however, rather violently lays bare the fact that RPGs are, generally, predictable and tedious."
Now I'm as much a FF-fanboy as the next otaku, but this little section makes it seem like the AI is a revolutionary new idea. Not so. The enemies in the games have been using a similar AI since the beginning of RPG's. So essentially, all they did was turn the tables and give the protagonists access to these simple routines. It's a stretch calling it "brilliant". I'd say it's been overdue.
I loved FF VII for the Materia Combos. I think that it was the best Battle System that has been seen thus far in the FF series. I'd love to see it adapted into a future series or sequel.
I think ADV's success has a lot to do with their relationship with their fanbase. They've been pretty receptive to suggestions, and the founders are actually fans themselves. The companies that were founded by fans are typically more attentive to details. They make a lot of trips to anime conventions and mingle with their fans. Heck, the co-founder is married to a voice actress. One of their main producers maintains a blog. All three were at a New York anime convention a few years ago and were quite obviously very passionate about their work.
I'm kind of confused by your comment, since I argued that a Tivo would work as a Kiosk out of the box. It's the video scheduling that it doesn't do... I've done a bit of searching for playback scheduling on Tivo, but have come up empty. Pointers would be welcome.
The Tivo can duplicate the Video Kiosk functionality they used in the Video Keg project, but no the scheduling functionality. When you run video rooms at anime conventions, you operate like a TV broadcaster, and need to schedule programs and have filler material for the unused airtime. This project is an intersting way to do this, and I'll have to take a look at it. If it does what it says, it could be a boon to video room organizers.
Tokyopop is one of the companies that started the whole manga boom. They weren't the first, but they definitely contributed to the market. They started out being called Mixx, and originally published the Sailor Moon manga in english. They started releasing other Shoujo manga (manga for girls) and did well initially.
Eventually, they saturated the market with a lot of titles and started seeing diminishing returns on their profits. Naturally, they looked at other markets to expand into. One of the things they did was to run a regular "Rising Stars of Manga" contest where they encouraged artists to submit material to them in the manga style, with the winner being offered a publishing deal.
I've been told that terms of the contract heavily favor the company, and that they own the rights to all the material that gets published. They've been calling this product OEL manga, or "original english language manga" and are trying to differentiate it from the so-called "ameri-manga" that is published in the comics industry.
There's really no difference between OEL manga and Amerimanga, and it's basically a marketing tactic. Make no mistake, this is OEL manga, not the stuff published in Japan. But like manga, it's very free in it's layout of the various panels. Moving to the standard 4-panel (or 4-koma in Japan, which is published vertically as opposed to horizontally) format will be difficult. It'll be interesting to see how they accomplish this.
Even though they refer to it as manga, Japanese people make a distinction between the stuff published domestically and abroad. American Comics are usually referred to as AmeComi, and OEL manga probably falls under that umbrella. So while it's nice for the marketing folks to say that manga is being published in newspapers now, it really shouldn't be considered manga.
Actually, the Japanese have a word for American Comics: AmeComi. I'm not sure what their word for comics in America drawn in the manga style would be but I would suspect it would also be AmeComi instead of Manga.
Outlanders was actually one of the first dubbed available in America back in 1986. Here's the cast list from that first dub. There are some interesting names to anime fans in that list.
Slashdot Mirror
No game necessary, just use Pictochat. My 4-year-old loves to use Pictochat to doodle and send messages, My 2.5-year old does this to some extent, too. It's pretty nice because it helps them develop their coordination and helps them prepare to write. They seem to like Konami's Lost in Blue, and hunting in the sand for food.
The companies that release the anime in the US are not the same companies that own the license in Japan in most cases. You're not comparing apples to apples. American licensees could produce subs as quickly as the fan community if:
Some purists may argue that dubbed anime isn't necessary, but the sales numbers consistently show higher sales on dubbed versions. It's especially necessary if you're trying to get the show on television, since network execs aren't going to pick up a show that's only available in subbed format. Ultimately, I think it boils down to the bottom line. If you want to make a profit off of the titles, that means you're working with a limited staff and trying to make sure sales exceed your licensing and marketing costs. We've already seen a few anime licensees go under, so the market is readjusting itself currently. It's all about the economics of the situation.
I agree that you should take your business somewhere else, but that doesn't correct bad behavior. Customers also need to call these companies and be vocal about their complaints. I've talked to tech support and logged official requests with many banking institutions to get rid of their IE/ActiveX dependencies and embrace open standards. Most places have a forum for users to request a feature or address an issue. If someone doesn't tell you that they are logging your request, then ask to speak to a manager until you get someone who will.
Are you discounting the whole "Neither can survive while the other lives..." part of the prophecy laid out in Order of the Phoenix?
You're right about Gatchaman being the first anime sentai series. I'm having a hard time thinking of some of anime sentai series other than Shinesman, though. And that was only a short OAV series.
Another poster mentioned the bad math here. I thought it they were doing the calc to Chinese Yuan in the post, but that works out to a different number entirely.
Materia had the advantage, I think, because you could create materia combos. I long for a return of a system that allowed for such stacking.
If it's newsworthy enough for Slashdot, it should be good enough for the Wikipedia entry, right? It still reads: "The programme is one of the longest-running science fiction television series in the world and also a significant part of British popular culture.[1]"
3. To stress the point; Make it look like Windows and make sure ALL the apps have consistent UIs that work just like their Windows counterparts.
I suspect there are many legal hurdles to this step of your plan. The MacOS interface is already fairly easy to pick up once you shed yourself of some bad Windows habits. If they made it too similar to Windows, you'd lose what makes Apple Apple.
I can see the benefits of what you're describing, but why can't companies just stay small? I'm a big proponent of the lean & mean structure. With enough planning up-front, a small company can keep producing quality games, but we just haven't seen much of that in the real world.
I agree with you on this point. I can't believe some of the things that get the green light for TV these days. There can never be enough Sci-fi.
I didn't think 8 seconds was possible. That's pretty cool.
Let's not forget the Mangajin also did this in printed magazine format long before scanlation groups existed.
Someone should axe the actors that. Or maybe it's info we can find at the liberry?
I, too, didn't really see the connection between the anime and the manga market today which is primarily being driven to new heights by the Shoujo segment of the market. It seems to be a pretty flimsy and misinformed association. Evangelion definitely deserves to be recognized for its significance to the anime market, though. Especially considering it the cost of licensing the show was astronomical at the time, and the title helped catapult AD Vision to the forefront of the anime publisher list.
I'm a fan of the series too. It looks gorgeous on the DS and the new brighter SP by the way.
Is Futurama using cel-animation or CG? It might make a difference on the ability to do HD.
I loved FF VII for the Materia Combos. I think that it was the best Battle System that has been seen thus far in the FF series. I'd love to see it adapted into a future series or sequel.
I think ADV's success has a lot to do with their relationship with their fanbase. They've been pretty receptive to suggestions, and the founders are actually fans themselves. The companies that were founded by fans are typically more attentive to details. They make a lot of trips to anime conventions and mingle with their fans. Heck, the co-founder is married to a voice actress. One of their main producers maintains a blog. All three were at a New York anime convention a few years ago and were quite obviously very passionate about their work.
I'm kind of confused by your comment, since I argued that a Tivo would work as a Kiosk out of the box. It's the video scheduling that it doesn't do... I've done a bit of searching for playback scheduling on Tivo, but have come up empty. Pointers would be welcome.
The Tivo can duplicate the Video Kiosk functionality they used in the Video Keg project, but no the scheduling functionality. When you run video rooms at anime conventions, you operate like a TV broadcaster, and need to schedule programs and have filler material for the unused airtime. This project is an intersting way to do this, and I'll have to take a look at it. If it does what it says, it could be a boon to video room organizers.
Tokyopop is one of the companies that started the whole manga boom. They weren't the first, but they definitely contributed to the market. They started out being called Mixx, and originally published the Sailor Moon manga in english. They started releasing other Shoujo manga (manga for girls) and did well initially.
Eventually, they saturated the market with a lot of titles and started seeing diminishing returns on their profits. Naturally, they looked at other markets to expand into. One of the things they did was to run a regular "Rising Stars of Manga" contest where they encouraged artists to submit material to them in the manga style, with the winner being offered a publishing deal.
I've been told that terms of the contract heavily favor the company, and that they own the rights to all the material that gets published. They've been calling this product OEL manga, or "original english language manga" and are trying to differentiate it from the so-called "ameri-manga" that is published in the comics industry.
There's really no difference between OEL manga and Amerimanga, and it's basically a marketing tactic. Make no mistake, this is OEL manga, not the stuff published in Japan. But like manga, it's very free in it's layout of the various panels. Moving to the standard 4-panel (or 4-koma in Japan, which is published vertically as opposed to horizontally) format will be difficult. It'll be interesting to see how they accomplish this.
Even though they refer to it as manga, Japanese people make a distinction between the stuff published domestically and abroad. American Comics are usually referred to as AmeComi, and OEL manga probably falls under that umbrella. So while it's nice for the marketing folks to say that manga is being published in newspapers now, it really shouldn't be considered manga.
Actually, the Japanese have a word for American Comics: AmeComi. I'm not sure what their word for comics in America drawn in the manga style would be but I would suspect it would also be AmeComi instead of Manga.
Outlanders was actually one of the first dubbed available in America back in 1986. Here's the cast list from that first dub. There are some interesting names to anime fans in that list.