Hey, Answerman!

Plucked From Obscurity

Hello again! Welcome to the wondrously hyperbolic realm of Answerman!

I'm going to keep this preamble brief, because I imported a copy of Xenoblade Chronicles and even now it's beckoning me to sink another ten hours into its grandiose world of loveable JRPG ridiculousness. Onward!

Hey, Answerman.

I recently revisited an old anime series called Genocyber, and taking a step back and looking at it, it makes no sense. I don't just mean from a writing standpoint- literally nothing about it makes any sense; for one, even though it barely registered in Japan, it was one of the first anime to come over to the English-speaking world, and it mysteriously has a very large fanbase in Brazil of all places. In addition, the US is (to my knowledge) the only place in the world where it even has an official DVD release, since from what I hear Manga Entertainment UK lost the rights to it ages ago.

In addition, it has nearly nothing to do with the single-volume manga it was apparently based on; both have violence in them, they're both cyberpunk, and they share some character names, and that's more or less the extent of it. This makes the fact that the creative aspects of the series go straight into crazytown very quickly even more incomprehensible; the art doesn't have nearly the same kind of "H.R. Giger on hard drugs" feel in the manga that it does in the anime, and the writing in the manga makes much more sense.

So, what I'm asking is... is there any way to easily dig up people who may be relatively obscure in the anime industry, like Genocyber's director Koichi Ohata, and interview them? I think the world might benefit a little from some insight into this mad genius' head.

(Language barrier isn't an issue, I have at least one good friend who is fluent in Japanese although I myself am not.)

One quick correction: H.R. Giger was already on hard drugs. I thought everyone knew that. Anyway.

With that out of the way, if you're truly serious about your Genocyber truth-seeking, it's not impossible. All it takes is a little detective work; something I personally don't have the time to do. Even something like a simple Twitter search might yield a person who can point you in the proper direction. And who knows? You certainly wouldn't be the only person who would be interested in finding out Genocyber's troubled, nihilistic, violent roots.

Lately, I've been getting really excited for the American release of Fairy Tail -- like, REALLY excited. It's begun haunting my dreams. I really want to hear what FUNimation's dub is going to sound like (Todd Haberkorn as Natsu? I gotta hear it!), and I don't know if I can wait another few months for it to come out. At the very least, I'm anticipating a trailer, but so far, I haven't seen one. This was a little confusing to me, seeing as another title that FUNimation acquired earlier in the year, Rosario + Vampire, doesn't have any sort of release date yet (as far as I know), but the trailer is up on the website. I've heard barely anything else over the course of the year about R+V, but the buzz surrounding FT is growing all the time... and STILL not even a trailer.

So, I guess my question is this: what's the process that putting together a dubbed trailer goes through? Is it affected by release dates (or lack thereof) and/or the series' fanbase? Help me, oh wise Answerman!

"Wise" Answerman. I like the sound of that.

Make no mistake though, it has nothing to do with "fanbase" or anything like that. Trailers are simply a marketing project and nothing more; really, why bother going through the trouble of cutting a trailer for fans who've already seen the show? Doubtlessly though, as the November release date for the DVD and Blu Ray get closer, you'll see a dubbed trailer, for sure. Although it's not like they really need to at this point - Fairy Tail has a very healthy built-in audience and it's the sort of adventurous Shonen-eriffic fight-a-thon that sells well regardless, but you'll get your dubbed trailer in good time.

Hey Answerman,

A lot of long animes (Naruto, Bleach, One Piece, Katekyo Hitman Reborn, Conan, etc.) always seem to have the same pattern. The quality of the animation is bad except for a few scenes at final bosses. For example, a lot of the fight scenes in Naruto Shippuden in the later parts (even on canon) have been mediocre compared to the first seasons of Naruto. The only well animated fight scene was Naruto vs. Pain. While the quality One Piece has stagnated at the level of Dragon Ball Z. Compared to a lot of shorter anime (Ga-rei zero, Index, and Angel Beats) the animation of the long series seems - for lack of euphemisms - bad. Why can't animation companies try splitting up the production of long anime (i.e. release episodes for 3/4 of the year, take 1/4 to buy some time and spice up the quality of the animations) to try minimizing filler and maximizing the quality? Especially the fight series which rely on fight scenes a lot more than plot.

Ah, yes. Why does the animation quality suffer so?

These longer shows are essentially produced on an assembly line, and as such, they often lack the careful touch of a watchful, single artist. Shorter series have that luxury of being able to manage that - they have a clearly defined episode count, they typically have a larger budget-per-episode, and they don't have to outsource the work as much. I do wish as much as you that they would cut back on the absurd episode counts and focus more on quality, but hey, Bleach makes a ton of money doing what it does, airing once a week every week in perpetuity, so what do I know. Until they stop making money, or somebody high up on the Japanese corporate ladder tells everyone "Hey, we're done with this, let's stop," that's the way it's gonna be.

Oh me oh my, it's time once again to hear the opinions of people OTHER than myself! So here it is, everyone - Answerfans. Speaking of long-running shows, I wanted to know what you thought of things when you suddenly thought very differently about them:

To begin, Ahren fulfills the nerd quotient with a Hitchhiker's Guide reference:

Okay this is going to be a complicated answer. You see I have always been a big fan of Clamp. I would love to see a rerelease of Cardcaptor Sakura with a good dub (even though I know its never happening). However another series by Clamp called Tsubasa Resevoir Chronicle was one series that I gave up on eventually. I really liked that series in the beginning. I was very fond of the characters and could understand their emotions pretty well in the series. But later in the series things turned into a huge complicated mess!

I don't want anyone to hate me for giving away any spoilers so I will explain the situation via a mathematical problem:

"A1" is revealed to be not the real A1 but is actually "A2", a copy of A1. Well.. I think I could have accepted that but then "B1" is revealed to be "B2" a copy of B1. And then of all things... The paradox of paradoxes: A2 + B2 = A1?!!!! How can this be? I don't understand! Am I even me? Are you even you? And why am I suddenly getting hungry for steak? And also C is equal to A1!! I don't get it!!!

Well after all that I found myself unable to truly care about the series or the characters. I would have been happy if the series had continued its adventure as it had from the start but this whole math problem thing has left me rather apathetic towards the series. The answer is 42, I SWEAR!!! IT HAS TO BE!!!!

Black Mokona makes me interested in Princess Resurrection:

I've had my patience tried and expectations defied over the years with a few manga series. The difference is that anime are mostly planned out first in its conception, and therefore mostly avoid major degrades in quality. Mostly.

I used to like a lot of manga. Naruto, for example, and Case Closed, and Bakuman, and other stupid things that depend on character development for plot. One point at which I draw the line is when they break out the friendship speech. There can be many variations: twice in one volume, from out of no where, corniest dialogues I'd had the misfortune to read, misguided attempts at emotion, etc. Another deal breaker is the page count, because after 50 volumes you plainly run out of ideas, and after 50 volumes I can't be bothered to care anymore anyways. But it's mainly the repetitive thing. Hey Naruto, Didn't I see this trick back in volume 36 already? And why didn't you mention in Ninja 101 that smoke bombs were ready made solutions to most things? And Takagi, can't you form any other opinions than non-mainstream mainstream, because that was worn out 5 volumes ago. And plz lose the 'best thing', it has lost its magic and don't you have other real life problems to care about? You know, so as to resemble real slice-of-life and not just pointless, overblown gesturing. I apologize because I've spoiled the next 5 volumes.

On the other hand, I'd been treated to plenty of pleasant surprises of upgrades, most often art wise. I was just about to drop Tenjo Tenge but Oh Great became so detailed but clean and ooh shiny! and his characters were gorgeous and suddenly I found myself worshipping the series. Then there's Princess Resurrection, which was your average not-scary-horror but it took a slight turn left and refocused on mystery, where the mangaka should have went all along, and he writes his arcs longer and longer, mysteries layered upon one another, his twists more and more intriguing and outside-the-box and got me thinking what a great live action drama it would make. It hasn't ended yet but I'm choosing to be optimistic.

(By the way, One Piece doesn't get better, the villains get more ridiculous and the cast gets bigger and that's it. Don't believe anyone saying otherwise; if you don't like it you're never gonna like it. Great friendship speeches though.)

Vongola GX wants Oda to think new exaggerated cartoonish reactions, and I agree:

The main reasons my view of anime takes a 180 is if it either has some bad plot twist towards the end or if the story weakens.

The best example I can think of the first is Akaneiro ni Somaru Saka. I enjoyed the series (with all it's flaws), but the sudden change towards another heroine at the last episode for little reason really made me hate the series as a result. The second reason usually refers to long series, i.e. the big 3 Shounen Jump series (Naruto, Bleach, and One Piece). Naruto was the first anime I actively watched and considered that and Bleach as one of my favorite anime. However, when Naruto had the infamous 100 episode filler arcs, there seemed to be a serious quality drop in the general form of the series that was painful to watch. I couldn't stand the drop in consistent animation quality that I switched to the manga (and even then, the manga's dragging on).

Bleach, I can only say one thing: Random Filler Inserts. I can get anniversary episodes and shifts to some of the extra characters as filler, but interrupting the middle of the Hueco Mundo arc to have an entire season on something about the 3rd squad captain was too much. Even Naruto, One Piece, and Dragonball time fillers between arcs. And the manga should have ended after the final Aizen confrontation. I never got into One Piece anime (quality reasons) and enjoyed the manga, but the length and the fact that the author can drag the story on FOREVER because of the vague premise has made it weak. Also, I feel sorry for the extras in One Piece because their eyes and jaws must HURT from all the eyepops and jawdrops I've seen.

I wonder if Taoist priests feel the same way about Outlaw Star the way Widya feels:

Toaru Majutsu no Index. There are two completed seasons and a spinoff season. I was really enjoying this mix of magic versus science; the characters were sympathetic, the action fun, and the stories interesting. The anime is based on a set of novels, and it concerns this teenager, Touma, who finds this young girl, Index, and becomes her guardian. For various reasons, since Index came into his life Touma gets entangled in many different plots, mostly spinning around Index.

I had started watching the second season, the first arc of that season featured the Roman Catholic Church as the bad guys (in this world, organized religions are magical cabals, using items as magical weapons.) After a short break Catholics featured as bad guys again, and then at the start of the next arc another group of people from the Roman Catholic Church were the villains again.

Now I happen to be Catholic, and certainly I could see that the church portrayed in the series is definitely not a reflection of the church in real life. But once, I could shrug my shoulders, twice I started to have my doubts, and the start of the third trepidation. So I did a Google of the series and found a wiki, which confirmed my doubts - Roman Catholics are, by in large, the villains.

Now usually you do just shrug your shoulders and think it's just a story, it's all fiction (the same way I deal with atheists, they're entitled to their opinion, just as much as I am.) But I knew that if I kept watching, the more I would be frustrated and disappointed, and the more I would feel my beliefs were being picked on and bullied.

So half way through the second season I stopped watching. I stopped watching something that I really liked, something I was looking forward to seeing, with characters I liked.

Now, I don't think Toaru Majutsu no Index is a bad anime- far from it, I really enjoyed it. But coming with that enjoyment was the acknowledgement that in good conscience I could not watch something that was only going to depress me further.

It's the Phantom Menace syndrome. Remember how excited you felt when a new Star Wars film was coming out, and how disappointed you were after watching it? And I *enjoyed* The Phantom Menace.

tl;dr I dropped an anime I really liked because it started to go in a direction I just didn't agree with. And I got depressed in deciding to drop it. (And no, I haven't read Dan Brown.) I have yet to find a series which I haven't liked and instantly liked later on. Usually I drop the series before it gets that far.

Actually Mitchell you're the only one to write in about School Days, so congrats:

There are some good examples I can think of when I drastically change my opinion of an anime or manga. The prime example would be the ending to School Days, but no doubt you will already get a ton of replies about this one. I'll sum up some other ones for variety's sake.

Soul Eater is the most recent one I can think of. Seeing as it only had just over 50 episodes and the series is still ongoing, the studio had to either leave an open ending or create one themselves. They chose the latter. Now, I don't mind having an alternate ending to an anime (FMA comes to mind), but this one just was awful. The characters have to fight the greatest demon ever lived. He is defeated by a normal punch in the face, followed by an awful piece of pseudo-philosophical monologue. Not a good way to end a show.

The oldest anime that I gave second opinion was Ranma 1/2. That show is just way too freaking long and it goes nowhere. You could basically swap seasons and no one would notice. Relationships don't advance, characters don't grow, and the episodes are pretty much the same but with a new Character and Fighting Style of the Day. I gave up watching in season 3.

Some made me change my opinion for the better. Bakuman is one of them. I started reading it thinking it would be awful. It consists mostly of dialogue and the character really don't do that much throughout the series. But as I went on reading, it started to grow on me. The (male) characters are great to read and it gives you a view on manga you did not have before, at least in my case. I only have 6 volumes on my shelf at the moment, but I certainly will buy more when it comes out.

Robert has a great new name for this phenomenon - "Mid-Series Crisis":

I'm a knee-jerk kind of guy when it comes to the kind of shows that I watch. If a show isn't wowing me on the first episode, I usually am quick to hit the eject button and high-tail it out of there. Coupled with the large amounts of anime I have watched in the past couple years, this quickly exhausted the amount of shows that I deem worthy enough to even give a proper look at, much less actually finishing them. Naturally, in order to get the same amount of fix I have in the past, I've began to pick up on shows that I wouldn't even dare try.

How does this relate to the question, one might ask? Well, a seemingly mediocre anime is the perfect show to radically change one's opinion. As I delve deeper into the basement of what I once considered beneath me, I have begun to discover the unrequited joy of being rewarded for my patience. My most recent find? Aria the Scarlet Ammo. On the outside, it's an awful combination of action movie antics and school anime cliches that is almost borderline offensive to all senses involved. On the inside... well, it doesn't get much better. By the time I had hit around 5 episodes however, it dawned on me that I had actually begun to enjoy it. Before I knew it, it was almost midnight and I had burned through all twelve episodes already. It's hard to describe in that situation what truly had changed that made me feel that way, but when I pick up a series I'll think twice about dumping it after the first episode (but only twice).

On the opposite end of the spectrum, I've had mid-series crises where a new development had sometimes made me almost immediately drop some shows. Nowhere was this more apparent than Umineko no Naku Koro ni. At first it starts off as a traditional murder mystery, which is a very well trodden subject, but much like it's counterpart, Higurashi no Naku Koro ni, it had a supernatural element that had spiced the whole thing up. I was excited going into the show because Higurashi had made such a good impression, so imagine my dismay when the show introduced an actual witch. The vague supernatural threat that had made Higurashi so good was completely thrown out the window and I was left waiting a few more episodes only to watch in horror as the show became more and more absurd. I think I stopped at around episode 13, god I don't know how I lasted that long.

I dunno, "Mopey Final Fantasy Island" is a great way to describe .hack//Sign, Daniel:

My strongest switch of love to hate for an anime has to be for Record of Lodoss War: Chronicles of the Heroic Knight. I had seen the original Lodoss War series and it was okay. But out of curiosity I checked out this sequel. (Literally check out--it was at my local library.)

The first 90 seconds blew me away! And by that, I mean the opening song and credits. The animation is stellar--hair, capes, blossom petals--all swishing in the wind. Riveting! That opening alone is the anime equivalent of Peter Jackson's cinematic Lord of the Rings. (If anyone hasn't seen it, Youtube it.)

But then the actual show started. Gone are the lush hues and music. In its place are uninspired characters, design, soundtrack, and story. Oh well. I think it's the opening number that got me to slog through all 27 episodes.

To balance out the emotional spectrum, I'll do my best of a hate-to-love, or at least, meh-to-love. I first learned about the original .hack//Sign anime series it through its Cartoon Network broadcast. I would catch an episode here or there, but didn't really care for it. Seemed like a lot of mopey characters sitting around in a Final Fantasy island. But then I started actually listening to the dialogue and found the premise pretty interesting. A lot of good mystery, character drama, and a prophetic study of gamers living more in an online community than a real one.

As for the show itself, I was more interested in the players' real life stories--the glimpses of their jobs, families, regrets, hopes they merely mention while interacting as fantasy heroes. The seldom seen "real world" action is mostly black-and-white and silent--a stark contrast with the vivid digital universe. Episode 10--"Compensation"--is perhaps the episode that got me hooked. In it, we hear about Bear's dysfunctional family and his guilt for not being the dad he should be. Shucks. All of sudden, I'm having flashbacks of Field of Dreams. Bring on the Kleenex.

For anybody who--like me--once thought .hack//Sign is a slow, naval-gazing anime, I recommend they go back and give it a try. You don't have to watch any of other sequels or play any of the video games. I haven't, and I don't feel like I missed anything.

Susan's opinion on Nana is spot-on in my book, and by the way SPOILER ALERT:

Nana... I don't think I have ever had such a complete turn around on my opinion of an anime (also manga...albeit I was reading it at a slower pace). I was crazy about it when I first started.... I think I was actually somewhat vicariously living through the Nanas since it had always been a dream of mine to move from the suburbs and into the big city. Two girls, living in the city and their odd couple slice of life adventures... I was all about it.

My first inkling that things were going south was when Hachi Nana started dating the band member she'd idolized, because it seemed like something from the realm of fan fiction. Then she got pregnant, and pretty much over night I went from loving it to absolutely hating it. For one, I won't say I hate babies, but I absolutely and in no way ever want one of my own. I have no particular interest in reading about babies or pregnancy because I flat out don't ever want to experience it. Because of that, I just didn't identify with the character anymore. Lastly, the quasi feminist in me was really upset that a character who, up till that point, was really growing and maturing as a character was suddenly knocked down again for, what to me seemed like at least, just a way to make her weak and vulnerable again.

Max is sort of kind with his Haruhi hate:

One series that I really changed my mind on was the Haruhi Suzumiya light novels. I used to be very interested with the idea, and got myself hyped up when I saw the seriously-toned trailer for the film adaptation of the Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya. Then I read that Disappearance was soon going to be available in its original light novel format. Reading Disappearance was probably the turning point. Everywhere I went, a city of hype was being build around this one novel and its then-upcoming film adaptation. So I read it. Much like the series' Yuki Nagato, (Which Disappearance just so happens to focus on.) I felt devoid of emotion in place of what would have been amazement to another reader. I was disappointed that this title, which had been so hyped up, came across to me as a very predictable and artificial story. I stopped at the fifth novel, finally discovering that the Haruhi Suzumiya series had no progress, no arcs, no character development, no STORY. To me, it felt like Azumanga Daioh crossed with convoluted quantum physics that are involved to make the reader feel smart about themselves. The characters and writing were unappealing to me, but I'd at least give the series some credit for an interesting premise.

And lastly, Isabek wins for stopping the hate-train on Twelve Kingdoms:

There probably have been few times that such a change of opinion happened to me, but one that jumps out right away is when I stopped hating Jūni Kokuki aka The Twelve Kingdoms.

I first saw the title of this anime on some forum, when I was looking for some good, serious show. I checked out some reviews and they seemed strong, so I started watching the series. First few episodes started of as a "magical girl in a magical world", not my favorite genre. I did not think I will watch the rest of the show. I read few more reviews from different websites, and they made me give the show a second chance. I watched couple more episodes. I watched the girl cry, whine, cry and whine again and again. But one thing that has changed is her face!

She went through a magical transformation and became much more attractive! That made me stick around and watch couple more episodes, and slowly her personality started going through a beautiful transformation as well. After first 7- 8 long, boring/annoying episodes the series finally started paying off. Throughout the show I watched the protagonist evolve from a spoiled, whiny little girl into a strong, beautiful woman worthy of a throne. That amazing and complex metamorphosis was the main reason in the change of my opinion, and now it is one of my favorite anime of all time. I'm not married yet, but I know that when I have children I'm gonna have them watch this series for sure!

So, now we know which shows you hated then loved and loved then hated; what about shows YOU love that other people don't even damn know about? Here's next week's opinion-starter:

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 have 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.

Alright gang, I am out of here to kill monsters and grab loot while listening to bizarre British dubbing. Don't forget of course to email me questions and answers over at answerman(at)animenewsnetwork.com! Adios!