Monday, October 20, 2003
News news news...
Foreign Sales Reshaping Anime Industry: More evidence of the popularity of anime in the US. ICv2 has this article talking about how overseas sales are helping to fund animation studios in Japan and even particular series like Big O Season 2, which never would have been made otherwise.
I'm of two minds on this. On the one hand, it is good that we can be of help while the Japanese economy is in so much trouble. As is implied in the article, this can also sometimes free up the companies to be able to make stuff that they otherwise couldn't have done. My only worry is that after a while the companies may get a bit too concerned about making the shows appeal to western audiences to begin, taking away some of the cultural appeal that makes a lot of this stuff so popular to begin with. But hopefully with shows like FLCL and Excel Saga being popular (both examples of shows firmly set in Japanese and anime culture), they will realize that they don't have to change what they're doing...
Magical Doremi comes to 4Kids: A actual cutesy girl show from Japan being aired on TV? It'll be interesting to see how this pans out. Hopefully they won't feel the need massacre it like Cardcaptor Sakura.
In defense of Esperanto: A poster named Floro did a post about a constructed language named Mondlango out of nowhere, and so I couldn't help but come to the defense of Esperanto, with some links. Sure it isn't perfect, but it is far from dead, especially lately. Someone else posted that Klingon has more speakers than Esperanto, but after doing some searching, this seems like an urban legend. Solid numbers are hard to come by, but in my second post, I point out how unlikely that claim seems.
Esperanto may not change the entire world any time soon, but on a personal basis, I found it well worth learning. It has already brought me into contact with some great people and broadened my horizons a bit. If you have some spare time and think you can't learn a new language, why not give it a shot some time?
CrossGen Cutting: Ok, everyone is posting everywhere about CrossGen cutting 8 titles. Dirk has more info. among just about everyone else whose blogging. What do I think? Well, I am sad to see it happen, especially with titles like Meridian getting axed. I felt a bit like it was an dumbed down version of Nausicaa (probably not intentionally), but it was a good title to see, and seemed to have a lot of potentional. The move overall does seem smart, and will perhaps get them back on their feet.
My main worry at this point is the chilling effect it can have on the rest of the industry. With CrossGen having all these problems, and Jemas getting axed (with rumors of titles like Sential about to be canceled), I can see a lot of people deciding to stop any kind attempts at innovation, using this as an example. I do think CrossGen made some mistakes, and Paul O'Brian summed it up well all the way back in 2001. I just hope people take the right lessons out of this experience...
Bookstores on TV? Hmmm... a TV show portraying comics in a bookstore.. Who'd of guessed? (said with some light sarcasm)...
Eurocomics list: Andy points out in this thread that he has created a website devoted to english translations of European comics. Good job Andy! This is exactly what we need, especially with so many of these seemingly going under the radar of people..
Cameras on animals: I saw a really cool spot on Tech Live a couple of days ago about a filmmaker who straps little cameras onto the heads of animals. This CNN article seems to be about the same person. It really was fascinating to see even the brief footage shown on air from the animals' perspective, and it is something that I'd like to see a lot more of done. Maybe most people would be bored by this sort of thing, but I think it'd be pretty cool to watch an hour or two of a frog going through daily life from his own perspective...
I'm of two minds on this. On the one hand, it is good that we can be of help while the Japanese economy is in so much trouble. As is implied in the article, this can also sometimes free up the companies to be able to make stuff that they otherwise couldn't have done. My only worry is that after a while the companies may get a bit too concerned about making the shows appeal to western audiences to begin, taking away some of the cultural appeal that makes a lot of this stuff so popular to begin with. But hopefully with shows like FLCL and Excel Saga being popular (both examples of shows firmly set in Japanese and anime culture), they will realize that they don't have to change what they're doing...
Magical Doremi comes to 4Kids: A actual cutesy girl show from Japan being aired on TV? It'll be interesting to see how this pans out. Hopefully they won't feel the need massacre it like Cardcaptor Sakura.
In defense of Esperanto: A poster named Floro did a post about a constructed language named Mondlango out of nowhere, and so I couldn't help but come to the defense of Esperanto, with some links. Sure it isn't perfect, but it is far from dead, especially lately. Someone else posted that Klingon has more speakers than Esperanto, but after doing some searching, this seems like an urban legend. Solid numbers are hard to come by, but in my second post, I point out how unlikely that claim seems.
Esperanto may not change the entire world any time soon, but on a personal basis, I found it well worth learning. It has already brought me into contact with some great people and broadened my horizons a bit. If you have some spare time and think you can't learn a new language, why not give it a shot some time?
CrossGen Cutting: Ok, everyone is posting everywhere about CrossGen cutting 8 titles. Dirk has more info. among just about everyone else whose blogging. What do I think? Well, I am sad to see it happen, especially with titles like Meridian getting axed. I felt a bit like it was an dumbed down version of Nausicaa (probably not intentionally), but it was a good title to see, and seemed to have a lot of potentional. The move overall does seem smart, and will perhaps get them back on their feet.
My main worry at this point is the chilling effect it can have on the rest of the industry. With CrossGen having all these problems, and Jemas getting axed (with rumors of titles like Sential about to be canceled), I can see a lot of people deciding to stop any kind attempts at innovation, using this as an example. I do think CrossGen made some mistakes, and Paul O'Brian summed it up well all the way back in 2001. I just hope people take the right lessons out of this experience...
Bookstores on TV? Hmmm... a TV show portraying comics in a bookstore.. Who'd of guessed? (said with some light sarcasm)...
Eurocomics list: Andy points out in this thread that he has created a website devoted to english translations of European comics. Good job Andy! This is exactly what we need, especially with so many of these seemingly going under the radar of people..
Cameras on animals: I saw a really cool spot on Tech Live a couple of days ago about a filmmaker who straps little cameras onto the heads of animals. This CNN article seems to be about the same person. It really was fascinating to see even the brief footage shown on air from the animals' perspective, and it is something that I'd like to see a lot more of done. Maybe most people would be bored by this sort of thing, but I think it'd be pretty cool to watch an hour or two of a frog going through daily life from his own perspective...
