Category: Editorials

Zero Day Warez!

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If you haven’t seen this news…where have you been? This is very big deal and could have many interesting results. This is all speculation at the moment.

Apparently Gonzo has decided to use YouTube, Crunchyroll, and BOST to show their two latest series here in America. We will be able to see subtitled episodes of The Tower of Druaga: the Aegis of Uruk and Blassreiter through streaming video. The reason this such a big deal is because you will be able watch these episodes at the same time you would be able to watch them in Japan, for free or for a minimal price. The dream has finally come true. We are getting legitimate simultaneous releases. You will also be able to buy higher quality versions of the episodes for download. This might be the thing that changes how anime is released in the U.S. forever.

Each service is charging a different price for their episodes. Apparently BOST has a point system where you pay for points and then use them to buy episodes to watch and download. You can watch the first two episodes of each show for free but have to pay for the rest afterwards. Crunchyroll has a system where you can pay as much as you feel is warranted for each episode. Radiohead and Nine Inches Nails have tried similar experiments with their latest albums. I don’t know what sort of payment system if any You Tube is trying.

We are looking at something that a fan-subber can’t beat; at least in terms of quick availability. It is free and it is easy to get. It is what people have been asking for all along. Although I do have my concerns about that issue. Maybe I am not that trusting, but what fans say they want and what they really want can sometimes be two different things.

This is all too true. People often say they want one thing but when it is presented to them they want nothing to do with it. Will people use a quicker legitimate service if they have to pay a minimal fee or have to watch advertisements? If there is a suggested donation price how many of them will pay? How many will pay even if they love it? If they hate it or even merely like it? How many will stick by a fan-subbers because they are “real” fans.

Yeah, I am in awe of the idea that we can “pay what you feel is enough.” That just seems to spell disaster. Maybe it is just me. Just makes me wonder with what sales are, is anyone willing to pay enough? But they do have the new-ness factor on their side. No one has seen these shows before.

One of the main problems I see with this plan is that neither program they are experimenting with seems to be a blockbuster hit. Tower of Druaga is based on an old Namco game with at most what can be considered nostalgia factor in the U.S. Blassreiter seems like the type of show that American audiences would like but I had never heard of the show before it was being announced as one of the two titles to be streamed in this plan. As far as I know, that has been little to no buzz about these shows in the states.

I agree to a point but I think in many recent season some of the shows that become best loved are new and no one is really aware of them. I think most fans that are into fan-subs give new shows a chance and can easily glom on to them. And Blassreiter seems to be right up that alley, atleast from what little I’ve read and seen.

Now if this plan had been based around the Devil May Cry anime or the Death Note anime I think the results would have been a guaranteed success. Either show would have been a killer app. I am worried that if these shows don’t do well enough, Japan will assume that nothing will sell this way and scrap the idea entirely. I don’t think either of the shows are guaranteed to do poorly but I don’t think either program is guaranteed to be a success either. I think it’s a good way of distributing shows but they have to give it a chance to grow and get a hit show that will make people sit up and take notice of this distribution method. I hope Japan does not expect this to be an instant success or have unreasonable expectations of how much profit it is going to make them.

My big question is, what does Japan expect to get from this? How much are do they think they will gain? Clearly, that will be a big factor in how long this will continue. I just wonder what the numbers they are projecting are. We aren’t talking about DVD sales here. We are talking about a country that has only recently considered us a viable market. I am really intrigued by the Japanese essentially cutting out the middle man in this. However, that is a must since the shows haven’t proved themselves a success yet and why would anyone license them without it? But at the same time, that brings up a number of concerns.

I found that most of the U.S. anime companies are made up of friendly people. A majority of whom at least pretend to have an active interest in anime. I would be upset if this led to the downfall of the majority of the American anime companies. I hope that either U.S. anime companies will be able to do their business along side this distribution method or will be able to partner with the Japanese to help distribute shows in the states. Then again if this works out well enough then we just might see the end of the U.S. middle man.

Well, we have seen what happened to Japanese companies trying to sell anime on DVD here in the U.S. That alone may keep a few choice businesses around to do the majority of DVD distribution. But then again, if the plan to move ahead with just downloading everything goes, where does that leave DVDs? My biggest worry is for the quality of the translation into English. I am not saying it has to be perfect, but it should be pretty damned good. They at least have the advantage of translating far in advance, as opposed to on the fly as the show comes out. But without a good translation, I fear people will use it as an excuse to continue to look to fan-subs.

The subtitles don’t have to be the best in the world but they have to be intelligible. If Gonzo rushes out a subtitle job that makes you long for the Hong Kong bootleg with a translator who seems not to be fluent in Japanese or English then this experiment might not work either. Toei Animation is famous for creating some of the least U.S. fan friendly subtitles when they tried to release their own DVDs here.

I also have a feeling that people might take issue with the quality. The streaming quality will certainly be lower than a downloadable, DVD version. Because as one of my friend’s said regarding Crunchyroll, “What they think is high-quality is not even close to high-quality to me.” But we really won’t know the quality of the stream till it is seen.

I have never really understood this obsession with video quality but that is just me. I watched most of One Piece off of You Tube so I obviously don’t care. I assume that if anyone is so darn picky about their video quality then they wont mind paying the money for a DVD or high quality digital download. But as we discussed before what people say they want and what they actually want can often be too different things.

I assume there will be advertising attached to the releases, maybe commercials before the show starts? And what does this mean for a DVD release? Will we see one here in the United States?

It’s odd. Some people like to be able to have a physical version of anything they buy. I know people will often get online comics for free like Sluggy Freelance and Penny Arcade and then go right out and buy the book version of the same comic they read for free. The flash animated story Broken Saints is also available to watch free online but seems to do good business in selling the DVDs of the series. Some people do it to support the author and others just want to own something tangible. So even if people get the product for free, it does not mean there would be no demand for the DVD. In fact, sometimes in also increases the demand. I admit you give some things away for free and people won’t even take it then so nothing here is guaranteed. No one is going to pay for a DVD for a show they hated (well most people anyway).

I have high hopes and an very excited about this. I can’t wait to watch and I would love to see these become the norm. Clearly not every show will end up doing this, I just don’t think it would be cost effective but I would to see most major shows get a release like this. So while I think this could replace fan-subs for some things, I think they will still have their place for niche series and possibly long running things like Bleach and One Piece.

Now that you mention it, I think that shows like Bleach and One Piece could theoretically be prefect for this. Long running shows make most of their profits off of merchandise. You hook the audience on the free or low priced episodes of the show and break even on the distribution through advertising or subscription fees. Then make your mad money off the toys, games, shirts and various of merchandise. It sounds just crazy enough to work.

Narutaki Currently!
Watching Hayate no Gotoku
Reading Penguin Revolution
Listening to X Japan

Hisui (Brainwasher Detective) Currently:
Watching Higurashi No Naku Koro Ni
Reading Fujoshi Rumi
Listening to Sakura Kiss in English

Top 5 unlicensed shows I would want to see downloadable
1. Hayate The Combat Butler
2. Gundam 00 Season 2 aka Gundam 00 Z Destiny++ Final
3. Kekkaishi
4. Saiunkoku Monogatari
5. Blade of the Immortal

Bat-Bishonen

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The new Batman movie is getting a lot of buzz for both good reasons (like it’s awesome trailer) and bad (like the death of Heath Ledger). Well, we are on the Bat-train too. I love the caped crusader, as many do, so when any new media is coming out involving him my ears perk up. An article was in Wizard not too long ago about a new series of animated Batman shorts. They are going to supplement the new movie Batman: The Dark Knight that is coming out in the summer. That is not too far away!

Well my dad is a huge Batman fan so by extension I have a rather healthy familiarity and fondness for the Caped Crusader. I really liked Batman Begins for a variety of reasons. First of all, most people felt the series needed a reboot after the last few horrible Batman movies. You need to start fresh after hearing, “Holy rusted metal Batman!” and Arnold Schwarzenegger saying, “Chill Out.” The Batsuit with nipples did not either. That and I have to say that Ra’s al Ghul is one of my favorite Batman villains. I feel he is the only Batman villain that is Batman’s equal. Any movie with him is just sure to be good. That being said I have decently high if somewhat guarded expectation going into the new Batman movie.

It is being done ala Animatrix-style so all the pieces are wrapped together in one long movie. Six different writers with six different takes on Batman. The stories are by American writers and the studios animating them are: Josh Olson, David Goyer, Brian Azzarello, Greg Rucka, Jordan Goldberg, and Alan Burnett with the help of Studio 4°C, Production I.G, and Madhouse. And the best part is Bruce Timm is directing! Each short is using distinct, and at times abstract, art direction to give different tones and flavors to the stories.

I would not be at all surprised in the success of the Animatrix is what made this collection of movies happen in the first place. There is a whole big push now for everything to have multiple layers of interactivity and spin-off products. You have to have the interactive web page with added back story, the game that ties into the movie, the novels with side stories, and the animated prequel. I’m not saying I don’t like it. Done right it can give a movie added layers of depth and strength. Heck, some of my favorite series do it and do it well. When Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith came out they had those Clone Wars cartoons that were far better then the actual movies they bridged.

And with a franchise like Batman, it is not nearly as hard to come up with tie-in products.

The fact that they got together such a good mix of anime studios and American comic writers gives me hope for this project as well. I know most people I know who are into general animation have a distinctly soft place in their hearts of Batman: The Animated Series. Like most anthologies, I expect some stories to be far more pleasing to my tastes than others. I guess that is the greatest strength and weakness of groupings of works.

I like how dark they are taking Batman with this, I mean he was always dark but I think they have really been raising the bar as of late. Gotham looks move like hell on earth in the clips. And although we do get a very pretty Bruce in at least one short, the overall tone seem to be darkness and violence.

I would disagree in the fact that I feel the dark hardcore Batman comes and goes as the times change. The original Batman was very dark and pulp detective character. I mean the Dark Knight Returns and the The Killing Joke graphic novels famous for getting Batman on a version track. Even Batman: The Animated Series had to often fight with senors of what could and could not be cartoon. There were two different versions made of the Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker. Batman has also had his share of silly incarnations in including the old Adam West series and anything even remotely to do with Bat-Mite. Batman has played the range from dark as midnight to pratfalling silly and everywhere in between. That being said I too prefer a dark and gritty Batman. If we are going to get any animated Batman that gets a twisted Gotham like in the Killing Joke it’s going to be Batman: Gotham Knight.

I didn’t say Batman was never dark. Any comic book reader knows Batman has always had that edge to him. But I think it sometimes gets lost when tying him to mainstream media. Because everyone is always looking for the largest appeal possible, some things about his character are glossed over. I loved the animated series because it was dark in both design and story but a lot of it was subtle. I don’t see this up and coming animated feature being subtle in the same ways. I think it’s screaming.

I assume this is sort of supposed to be like, “what the hey was Batman doing between Batman Beings and the new movie?” Although, as I was writing that I remembered that one of the villains is Scarecrow. And he dealt with him in the first film so it’ll be interesting to see how it all ties together.

Well at the end of Batman Begins Commissioner Gordon mentions that the Scarecrow is still on the loose so he is definitely someone who should be doing something in between the first and second movies. I found the whole section about Deadshot rather interesting. I did not remember him as a Batman villain but I also don’t remember villains like the Penny Plunderer, Maxie Zeus, and Calendar Man (who sound like a rejected Megaman villain) but maybe for good reasons. It seems they are taking a rather minor character and rebuilding him in an interesting way.

I loved the Batman animated series, it was well directed and held the spirit of Batman. So I am really looking forward to this body of work and seeing Timm’s work in action again. A collaborative work like this is always exciting because you are never quite sure how it’s going to turn out. I have a positive outlook.

I’m mostly curious how much of the series will feel like Batman: The Anime and how much will it be a Batman cartoon with Japanese animators. I would like either one but they are two different products. I felt like the people talking on the trailer has a very odd or narrow image of what anime was. This might be a Batman cartoon with Japanese animators despite all the talk of how they would be incorporating anime’s strengths and fell into the project. I suppose it also comedown to individual pieces as well. O|ne part might be extremely anime influenced where as another might only have the lightest stokes of anime influence. Either way I look froward to what the result is.

But no matter what it can never be as funny as this.

Narutaki Currently!
Watching Ouran High School Host Club
Reading Nagatachou Strawberry
Listening to T.M.Revolution

Hisui (Brainwasher Detective) Currently:
Watching Hayate no Gotoku
Reading Rose Hip Zero
Listening to Seventh Moon by Fire Bomber featuring Basara Nekki

Boys’ love is a funny thing.

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Anyone who was ever dated can easily attest to the fact that men and women have very different ideas on romance, courtship, and love. Fiction written for men and women and fiction by men and women is therefore distinctly different as well. Almost universally you will see that shonen and seinen manga treat love and romance completely differently than shojo and josei manga. I would daresay that the magazine a manga is published in is more important to how romance in handled in manga than the sex of the author. Score another point for the power of the editor in manga. We are very clearly going to be talking about generalizations. I’m sure there are a dozen examples to counter each claim we make below. Especially since most manga magazines want crossover appeal they tend to try to add elements from magazines for the opposite gender in at least one manga in their anthologies. Most of the times the manga that break the rules we set below are the exceptions that prove the rule.

I think it is funny because as many difference as you can find, you can find almost as many parallels that are just dressed up a little differently. I can think of examples of shonen series that treat love in a very natural and organic manner, certianly, but that sure isn’t the norm. Love seems like this cast-off that is thrown in when need but never really becomes a solid or believable part of the story. Most characters personalities just aren’t suited to it so you can feel when it is being forced.

As Short Round said in Indian Jones and the Temple of Doom, “Hey, Dr. Jones, no time for love.” Most shonen fighting and tournament manga seems to have a similar philosophy. There are definite examinations of relationships and romance in these titles but it almost always happens in the background. Most fighting manga tends to focus on themes of friendship and teamwork. Girls will express romantic feelings most of the time and sometimes male side characters will express their love for someone but the protagonist will usually only have platonic feelings for the women around him in the beginning. This leads to love having two main proposes in fighting manga. Powering up the protagonist in his darkest hour and to create comedy in between the action.

Girls are known much more for being emotional and able to express their feelings better than males. So it is no surprise that this is often the way it is portrayed in shonen series. The girl might not be direct but she will express her feelings to a side character or make it extremely obvious through her actions. I think the age of most shonen protagonists is an age where guys are thinking about the physical side of woman rather than the emotional. So a girl has to worm her way into a boys heart because they really aren’t looking for it, it might not even occur to them.

The protagonist tends not to show much in the way of romantic feelings for girls. Ichigo Kurosaki is a prime example of this. You would assume that he was an asexual plant most of the time except for a few occasions and they seem done for comical effect. He often goes out of his way to protect Orihime and Rukia but he seems to do so in the same way that he would protect any of his friends. We clearly see that Orihime has romantic feelings for Ichigo and is is often hinted that Rukia has feelings for him as well. The only male side characters that seem to show any interest in women in general are Mizuiro Kojima, Keigo Asano, Kisuke Urahara, and Shunsui Kyoraku.

I wonder if it just doesn’t come up because the target audience is around 10-12. Although this doesn’t stop it in literature. Perhaps because for young boys love doesn’t seem very manly so if it comes up in stints it is more tolerable. I really don’t think it has a negative effect personally. I mean series like Kenshin were quite popular! It adds a layer of depth but it can be hard to balance it correctly in a fighting series. I think that is the big problem knowing when to throw it in and when to pull back.

Most of the time when the hero realizes that he has feelings it isn’t until some critically point in the story. Usually he discovers his love either after the girl is kidnapped, threatened, or killed. Sometimes they also realize their love when it looks like they can’t win but then the girl shouts out their name. Also if the girl has been corrupted by evil the hero often realizes his love for his heroine which helps break her free of the controlling influence. No matter what the scenario it is this realization of love that lets the hero either spring back with renewed energy or a new found power. It seems Samurai Deeper Kyo can’t go for three books without Yuya having to shout out someone’s name to bring them back up to full fighting form. You think she was a monk using Chakra in Final Fantasy Tactics. Also Damon and Rain are able to overcome the Devil Gundam’s influence and power up when they realize they love each other. I bet you dollars to donuts Ichigo is only going to realize he has feelings for Rukia during a battle if it ever comes up at all.

Thank goodness we don’t have to wait for those moments in real life! But it does make for some great dramatic moments! Fighting series are soap operas for men, really! Always friends becoming enemies, romance, deception, mystery, and someone always ends up being an old acquaintance or relative or some such. And even though a lot of times you can predict wants going to happen, it doesn’t stop you from sitting on the edge of your seat for it. The added romance is no different. It has to be this huge culmination of many situations and then it must burst forth for ultimate dramatic effect! However, I am always thankful for situations that aren’t solved using the power of love.

There is also the whole section of manga known as shonen romance manga. This category is most often mistaken for shojo manga by casual readers. The general assumption is shojo manga are all about romance and love so any manga about romance and love is a shojo manga. It usually involves a milquetoast protagonist that through some series of events gets some girl he would normally consider out of his league to spend time with him an eventually fall in love with him. There are usually alternate suitors for both the boy and the girl who try and woo them away.

I remember that horrible woman…what was her name? Oh, yes! Jessica Chobot who had a list of the “best shojo manga” or some such thing. And smack dab in the middle of the list was Love Hina. NO! NOT SHOJO! NOT EVEN CLOSE.

The most popular variation is one we have discussed before. The harem manga. In a harem manga there are usually almost no guys of significant importance other than the protagonist except a possible mentor figure or rival. The only thing that is required is that almost every attractive female is slowly drawn to the hero as the series goes on. Anything by Ken Akamatsu follows this formula to a tee.

I think I would say “hero” lightly. I mean most of the time it is super wish-fulfillment because the guy does absolutely nothing to warrant people falling for him left and right. At least if he was a hero, as in did something heroic, there would be a reason!

Well, most shonen romance is wish fulfillment pure and simple. Who would not want someone beautiful and caring will come and just fall in love them them? Considering that most otaku are not the most suave people on the planet. The concept of being able to find love just they way they are has an undeniable appeal to someone like that.

Everyone wants that, it is true. A good portion of shojo is the same way. You are dealing with a main character who is average (if that in shonen) and all of a sudden the hottest people on the planet want their bodies! Although, the person always has some wonderful quality deep down inside. This is basically how everyone feels and all they need is someone who can recognize their greatness.

Romance in seinen is much less prevalent. There is a whole lot more sex but not much love. I feel that shonen manga is usually about a young man’s journey to become the best. Seinen manga is all about the guy who is already the best and he just has to take care of all the punks that get in his way. The same thing relationship exists between shonen and seinen manga when dealing with love. In shonen manga the hero slowly learns about love and wins that love. In seinen the hero is the man. He has mastered the game of love. He does not need to court women. Women come to him.

Seinen involves everyone wanting your booty, even thought you may not want theirs! Or it is about how love gets in the way of your manly quest. As I have said before…everyone girl/woman from the age of 4 to 400 wants Guts! Even if they don’t know they want him, they do, you can see it. But funnily enough he doesn’t get too much action. I guess he has that whole saving the woman he loves and weird fetus creature sightings to deal with. I don’t read too much seinen to see patterns but I feel that there is never that definite lovely ending to it. There is so much drama, blood shed, and whatnot that that type of ending would seem out of place. I expect a massacre at the end of Blade of the Immortal and not much else.

There is some actual romance in manga aimed at men but it is harder to find. I feel that Rumiko Takahashi’s Maison Ikkoku is a good example of a legitimate romance manga from a seinen anthology. Maison Ikkoku has several interconnected love triangles and several women are interested in Godai; but, it is mainly how Godai and Kyoko fall in love over the years. I also feel that Hachirota “Hachimaki” Hoshino and Ai Tanabe slowly develop a natural and organic relationship in Planetes.

I think any series involving “real” love can easily attract a female audience. Heck, lots of shonen has the crossover appeal that shojo will never, ever see. I think most things that are straight up romance fall into the wish-fulfillment category, on both sides. Everyone has their own ideal qualities in a significant other so it is hard to say when things really ring true. This is one of the reasons why doujinish are so prevalent, even of characters that have little romantic interaction. For me, stories that involve a larger plot that one romance have a fuller feel to me. And this is how it is handled in shonen for the most part.

Narutaki Currently!
Watching Cat’s Eye
Reading Gakuen Alice
Listening to Hajimari no Kaze (Saiunkoku opening)

Hisui (Brainwasher Detective) Currently:
Watching Sayonara Zetsubo Sensei
Reading Blade of the Immortal
Listening to “AFRO Gunsou” by DANCE MAN

Top 5 canon couples
1. Kyoko Otonashi and Yusaku Godai (Maison Ikkoku)
2. Kanji Sasahara and Chika Ogiue (Genshiken)
3. Jinto and Lafiel (Banner of the Stars)
4. Anemone and Dominic Sorel (Eureka Seven)
5. Kazuya Hasukawa and Igarashi Miya (Here is Greenwood)