Hey, Answerman!
by Zac Bertschy,
Welp, I'm back from Anime Expo and am decompressing in the brief window between AX and San Diego Comic Con. At least Otakon isn't the weekend before SDCC like it was last year - christ that was a brutal schedule.
Also, just as a side note, our administrative system changed so I'm not sure of the exact count but I'm pretty sure based on a rough count that this is either the 350th Answerman column or pretty close to it.
So has anyone licensed the EVA remake yet and when will it be released!?!?
Nobody has officially announced the license yet, but all the rumors I've heard point to big mainstream studios; most of the scuttlebutt going around involves either Sony or Warner Bros., but obviously neither of them have made any sort of real announcement yet. We'll just have to wait and see. Whoever licenses it, I pray for a nice Bluray release.
For a while there everyone assumed the license would wind up with ADV Films, if only because they held the license to the TV series for so long and the show kind of "made" them, but also because the film was distributed by Klock Worx, which is part of the ARM corporation, which ADV was affiliated with until recently (Klock Worx was responsible for production on series like Moonlight Mile and a bunch of other titles formerly licensed by ADV). Obviously that deal fell through and frankly the licensing cost for Rebuild of Evangelion was likely astronomical and put it outside the reach of most R1 anime distributors.
If it does wind up at a place like Sony or Warner, hopefully they'll retain the original dub cast (I say that on behalf of the EVA dub's many fans; I myself have never liked the dub for that show, and found it destroyed a lot of the emotional complexity of the show with unpolished, unsubtle acting) and will load it up with special features.
Speaking of, I found it very strange that AX was showing this film multiple times this year and yet the big main event was the premiere of Batman: Gotham Knight, which to me seems like less of a big deal to anime fans than a new Evangelion movie. I realize the film had been shown in the US once or twice before, but it's not like it was widely accessible to fans in any way, unless you count fansubs, in which case Batman doesn't have much of an edge considering DVD rips had leaked to the internet at least a week before the premiere at AX.
I have been attending conventions for a long time and I am bored of cosplay. I do not even take pics anymore of cosplayers, its all been done or the costumes are boring. Is this normal?
Yep.
Cosplay is one of those things about anime fandom that gets picked up a lot by mainstream press; it's one of the big culture-shock moments, kinda like your first time seeing someone in full-on Klingon armor and head vagina makeup at a Star Trek convention. New fans get all excited about it and it really is its own culture inside anime fandom, so unless you become a hardcore cosplayer, your enthusiasm for seeing someone in a Naruto costume is going to wane as the years roll on.
Personally, I don't really even seem to notice the cosplayers anymore; I've been doing this long enough to where even the most elaborate and ridiculous costumes seem like I've seen them before a hundred times. Guy in a cardboard Optimus Prime costume? Seen it. Guy in a Sailor Moon costume? Seen it. Some girl in a $4,000 gilded leather Final Fantasy outfit? Whatever. I think cosplay is either something you take a serious personal interest in or you stop caring about it and are more annoyed by cosplayers stopping in the middle of crowded convention hallways to have their photo taken than you are impressed with their costume. It has its place, and the Masquerade will probably always be the most popular event at any given convention, but don't feel bad because you didn't have a heart attack upon seeing someone in a really well-done Vash the Stampede costume. It's OK to not care anymore.
As a side note, I've noticed something else about cosplay; I'm not sure if it's simply that anime character design is becoming uniformly generic to the point where most anime characters blend together, but more and more often I'm noticing that a big portion of cosplayers are just guys in suits or military uniforms or some other very simple outfit. Ouran High School Host Club cosplay is popular, but that might have more to do with the fact that the outfit is a wig, a cerulean jacket and some slacks rather than the show being a huge fan favorite. Code Geass cosplay is boring as well. It's a dude in a suit. Who cares?
Whoa there, YOU SAID THE MAGIC WORD!
Seriously though, licenses get dropped and picked up by other companies all the time. Just look at what Funimation did - they basically scooped up 90 percent of the titles floating around the American anime industry in one fell swoop. Stuff that goes out of print gets relicensed by other companies all the time, too, especially if it used to be a hot seller or sold well enough to justify a re-release; Right Stuf just did that with Lost Universe, which also used to be an ADV title. Hell, one of the titles you mentioned - Higurashi - has already been snapped up by Funimation, with the first four volumes scheduled to drop back into stores on September 30th. So your favorite titles always have a chance at getting licensed even if the first company to release them couldn't make it work.
I actually don't have a flake this week. Here's a bunny and a cat snuggling instead.
This is better than someone telling me I'm awful or whatever usually goes in this space.
Here's last week's question:
So here's the question for this week:
Now you've got this week's question, and it's time to get answerin'.
For those of you new to Hey, Answerfans!, I'll explain the concept.
Believe it or not, I'm genuinely curious what you think.
That's right; as much as I love the sound of my own voice, I do love to listen to what other people have to say on a subject. I'm finding that over the last few years, the attitudes, reasoning and logic that today's anime fans use eludes, confuses or astounds me; I hve so many questions for you, and I'm dying to hear what you have to say in response.
Welcome to Hey, Answerfans!
Basically, we're turning the tables. Each week I'm going to ask you a question, and I want you to email me your answer. Be as honest as you can. I'm looking for good answers; not answers I agree with or approve of, but good, thoughtful answers. People feel passionately about these subjects and I'd like to see that in the responses I get. I'll post the best answers I get, and maybe some of the crappy ones. Sometimes there may only be one or two good ones; sometimes five or more. It all depends on what I get in my inbox! Got it? Pretty simple, right? Start writing those answers and email them to answerman [at] animenewsnetwork dot com.
We do have a few simple ground rules to start with.
Things To Do:
* Be coherent.
* Be thoughtful.
* Be passionate.
* Write as much or as little as you feel you need to to get your point across in the best possible way.
Things Not To Do:
* Respond when the question doesn't apply to you. For instance, if your email response starts with "Well, I don't do whatever you're asking about in the question... " then I'm going to stop reading right there and hit delete.
* Be unnecessarily rude or use a lot of foul language.
* Go off-topic.
So check this space next week for your answers to my questions!
See you all next week!
Howl's Moving Castle © Nibariki * GNDDDT
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