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Summer 2012 Anime |OT2| Of Suspended Anime Due To Olympics

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Kawahara is god damn rich, and Sword Art Online is crazy popular. To put in perspective how insane the anime boost for it has been, SAO Volume 1, which came out in April 2009, had sold about 210,000 copies as of the week right before the anime began. That means a three year old light novel increased its lifetimes sales in the last five weeks alone by 50%.

More importantly, Biblia Koshodou no Jiken Techou anime when?
 

Dresden

Member
Kawahara is god damn rich, and Sword Art Online is crazy popular.

It'd depend on the kind of royalties he may or may not get . . . I have no idea how light novel publishing works. It's probably not going to be hugely substantial, unless he gets a cut of the merchandise/anime sales, and I somehow doubt these authors do.

firehawk12 said:
It's why I know Conan O'Brien wrote for the early years of The Simpsons even though I can't name anyone on the animation side.
That's because you hate Koreans.
 

firehawk12

Subete no aware
Kawahara is god damn rich, and Sword Art Online is crazy popular. To put in perspective how insane the anime boost for it has been, SAO Volume 1, which came out in April 2009, had sold about 210,000 copies as of the week right before the anime began. That means a three year old light novel increased its lifetimes sales in the last five weeks alone by 50%.
There needs to be some kind of scale that converts Light Novel sales to like... English novel sales. Are those Harry Potter-esque numbers in the Light Novel world?

Actually I think it is, or was last time I checked.
See, I honestly have no idea. But I would be comfortable saying that they wrote or co-wrote every single episode, because interviews and features focus on them as writers and not directors.

Similarly, did they direct Book of Mormon? Off hand, I have no idea. But I sure as hell know that they wrote it. lol
 

Tomat

Wanna hear a good joke? Waste your time helping me! LOL!
Kawahara is god damn rich, and Sword Art Online is crazy popular. To put in perspective how insane the anime boost for it has been, SAO Volume 1, which came out in April 2009, had sold about 210,000 copies as of the week right before the anime began. That means a three year old light novel increased its lifetimes sales in the last five weeks alone by 50%.
Has animeGAF decided whether the show is quality enough for him to earn this amount of money, or are we all watching it regardless?
 

Branduil

Member
I'm thinking mostly TV in this case. I can't name a single Simpsons director and I watched 10 seasons of that shit.
(Except Groenig, I guess? He directed some episodes I'm sure.)

I'm assuming that Parker and Stone direct every episode of South Park, but that's probably not true either.

Either way, Amerime seems to be much more writer focused than animator focused anyway. It's why I know Conan O'Brien wrote for the early years of The Simpsons even though I can't name anyone on the animation side.

I think this is because all of those shows are basically sitcoms. Even in live-action, how many sitcoms have interesting direction? Sitcoms are focused on writing and performance, things are usually staged very simply so that you can focus on what the actors are doing. I'm not saying if this is good or bad, it's just the way western media does comedy.
 

sonicmj1

Member
Revolutionary Girl Utena 32

Things haven't blown up just yet, but the smoke is rising from the volcano. It was nice to see some old fashioned slapping action again.

ibvCzFXn5F9uuv.png

No, not particularly.

Touga also
gets about as sociopathic as possible here. I mean, I already hate Nanami, but Touga has no respect for anyone's feelings.
The bit with
Kanae was also really creepy. I'm not sure how Akio is managing his lobotomy-moe with his incest-moe and his bromance with Touga. His swag is out of control.

Episode preview was a real tease. Gotta watch it now.
 
I'm thinking mostly TV in this case. I can't name a single Simpsons director and I watched 10 seasons of that shit.
(Except Groenig, I guess? He directed some episodes I'm sure.)

I'm assuming that Parker and Stone direct every episode of South Park, but that's probably not true either.

Either way, Amerime seems to be much more writer focused than animator focused anyway. It's why I know Conan O'Brien wrote for the early years of The Simpsons even though I can't name anyone on the animation side.

Right; American TV animation is like American live-action TV in that the writers are the ones who call the shots. Direction is secondary, and no one cares about the animation (no sakuga community for American animation).

I dunno. If hentai is anime, then porn films are real films and things like "Two Girls One Cup" are considered normal. If that's true, I don't want to live in this world. :p

I would certainly say that porn films are "real" films in the sense that, yes, they are utilizing that medium, but I'm not intending to make a value judgement or "normality" judgement with that statement. I do think that in the case of both anime and manga, the industries have had a close enough relationship with pornography that you can't entirely disentangle them.

And I think "accentuated" is an understatement. lol

Dezaki engaged in some rather experimental visuals, going by what I've seen in Oniisama e and the screenshots Jexhius has posted of the Space Adventure Cobra and Golgo 13: The Professional movies. It's not as aggressively quirky as Shinbo/Shaft, but the inspiration is clear.
 

firehawk12

Subete no aware
I think this is because all of those shows are basically sitcoms. Even in live-action, how many sitcoms have interesting direction? Sitcoms are focused on writing and performance, things are usually staged very simply so that you can focus on what the actors are doing. I'm not saying if this is good or bad, it's just the way western media does comedy.

Well, the dramas too. The only TV directors I can name right now are JJ, Paul Feig, and Jonathan Frakes. And that's because they're famous for doing other things.

Just look at this imdb page for James Burrows: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0123273/
He co-created Cheers and is probably one of the most influential TV directors living today. But I only heard about him by name a few weeks ago.

(I also feel bad that I know Joss Whedon wrote on Roseanne or that George Clooney was a guest star, but I can't name a single Roseanne director).

Right; American TV animation is like American live-action TV in that the writers are the ones who call the shots.
Seems like it. I'm just thinking about how many times I've watched M*A*S*H and the fact that I never paid attention to who directed the episodes. I'm pretty much re-evaluating myself as a "fan" of television right now. lol

I would certainly say that porn films are "real" films in the sense that, yes, they are utilizing that medium, but I'm not intending to make a value judgement or "normality" judgement with that statement. I do think that in the case of both anime and manga, the industries have had a close enough relationship with pornography that you can't entirely disentangle them.
Well, when I say that anime pretty much neglects faux-BL/yaoi in favour of faux-yuri, I'm talking about "mainstream" (whatever that means for a medium where success is measured by the thousands) releases and not porn releases or doujin books or whatever. I guess I'm making a value judgement and de-legitimizing that stuff, but they are different in a social context.

Dezaki engaged in some rather experimental visuals, going by what I've seen in Oniisama e and the screenshots Jexhius has posted of the Space Adventure Cobra and Golgo 13: The Professional movies. It's not as aggressively quirky as Shinbo/Shaft, but the inspiration is clear.
It's been ages since I watched Oniisama e and Eisuuuu is the only Dezaki that I have in my head, so I'll take your word for it. I just don't remember any random non-sequiturs in either. lol
 

sleepykyo

Member
Has animeGAF decided whether the show is quality enough for him to earn this amount of money, or are we all watching it regardless?

Sure. Not sure how I'm supposed to judge the quality of the source material from the anime other than it isn't as dull as Tsukihime and Fate/Stay. ie. Kawahara > Nasu.
 
I think this is because all of those shows are basically sitcoms. Even in live-action, how many sitcoms have interesting direction? Sitcoms are focused on writing and performance, things are usually staged very simply so that you can focus on what the actors are doing. I'm not saying if this is good or bad, it's just the way western media does comedy.

Even the more dramatic cartoon Avatar: The Last Airbender relied on the strength of its writing, as opposed to its rather pedestrian direction.

Bet you it gets a live action movie instead, if it gets an anime it will air in the same season as Zaregoto lol. (never)

Well, hopefully someone someday will translate the novels into English so I can find out if they're any good beyond the intriguing premise.
 

Branduil

Member
Even the more dramatic cartoon Avatar: The Last Airbender relied on the strength of its writing, as opposed to its rather pedestrian direction.

I also wonder if another factor contributing to pedestrian direction in TV cartoons is that all the good directors would rather work on animated films. The animated film industry is a much bigger business in the west than in Japan.
 

firehawk12

Subete no aware
Just looking at James Burrows on wiki:
Burrows' style is best known for his comic timing, complex blocking for actors, and incorporating more sophisticated lighting in television studio shoots. He is also credited for expanding the typical multi-camera television shoot from three to four cameras.
Jeez. I really feel bad for not knowing who he is until now. He's the father of the modern multi-cam sitcom set up! lol
 

madp

The Light of El Cantare
I... haven't seen them either, but they both seem pretty well-respected and historically significant works. (I still have a long way to go before I can call myself "well-read" when it comes to anime.) I don't know if he's stylistically interesting or anything, but at least he's a mainstream director instead of some porn guy. (His most recent work is the Inazuma Eleven series, actually.)

I always like to be able to draw on influences from other works when I'm watching something, but yeah, watching one or more series just in case there are any noticeable directorial similarities with a short OVA is unfeasible. I'm also aware of the good reputation of both Bubblegum Crisis and El-Hazard, so that's enough to give me confidence that Ai no Kusabi might be legitimately good as well.

Only selecting bishounen/shounen ai series that have staff associated with works outside of the genre sounds like a wise course of action if my intent is to seek out legitimately good works anyway.

Tsk, tsk. Oniisama e proves that elite private schools for the wealthy can be some of the best settings around.

Oniisama e is excellent! I credit that with Dezaki's penchant for backbiting and melodrama being able to flourish to its fullest in that kind of setting, though. Without his particular kind of flair, I would have easily been put off by stuffy rich people doing stuffy rich things.

Even though I've been watching anime for about a decade now (first became interested in the field around the release of Spirited Away), I'm a relative latecomer to following currently-airing shows. Durarara was the first one I watched close to its original airing.

After beginning to follow weekly Japanese releases, I was actually much more selective than I am now due to having so much less free time in college. Much like the days when I could only afford a few video games a year, I kind of miss being able to savor the experience more.

I suppose I'll post my personal anime fandom timeline and other people can follow with theirs:

~1990: unnkowingly watched dubbed versions of 70s children's programming as a toddler, notably Fushigi na Koala Blinky (The Noozles) and Mitsubachi Maya no Bouken (Maya the Bee)

- 1998: watched the original English-language run of Pokemon, parents warn me about the corrupting influence of "Japanimation"

~ 2001: watch other anime that air on KidsWB, including Yu-Gi-Oh!, Cardcaptors, and Sailor Moon (until my parents barred me from watching Sailor Moon for fear it would turn me gay)

~ 2003: watched the first wave of anime to premiere on FoxBox, including Kinnikuman Nisei (Ultimate Muscle: The Kinnikuman Legacy), Kakutou Ryouri Densetsu Bistro Recipe (Fighting Foodons), and the infamous 4kids-butchered One Piece.

- 2004: cable company finally adds Cartoon Network to the lineup, and I experience Toonami for the first time. This was my first exposure to anime for teenagers such as Rurouni Kenshin, Mobile Suit Gundam SEED, and some other stuff.

- 2004: begin sneaking in viewings of [adult swim], where I'm exposed to scattered episodes of Wolf's Rain, Inuyasha, and Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex. Anime with blood where they say damn and hell and ass? AWESOME.

- 2004: catch an airing of Spirited Away on the Disney Channel. Mind is blown, discover Miyazaki on the internet, immediately get Princess Mononoke, Castle in the Sky, My Neighbor Totoro, Nausicaa and the Valley of the Wind from the public library.

- 2005: begin watching [adult swim] in earnest. I watch Fullmetal Alchemist as it airs in the US for the first time alongside repeats of Cowboy Bebop, Trigun, Big O, Evangelion, and new series like Paranoia Agent, Scryed, Samurai Champloo, and Eureka Seven.

- 2006: enter full-on "I wish I was Japanese" weeaboo phase, wardrobe is half anime shirts, I get into Naruto for a while, start buying DVDs (they all end up being bootleg though. Fuck you ebay!), purchase terrible quality figurines made specifically for the US market and sold at Hot Topic, obnoxious poser otakuism consumes my life for a while.

- 2006: watch anime not broadcast on US television for the first time, beginning with Gankutsuou. Last Exile and Chobits become the first two anime I drop due to not enjoying, the former because I hated the ugly CG. I've had a vendetta against this shit from way back!

2006: Death Note becomes the first anime that I watch weekly alongside its Japanese release. I guess it's tied Le Chevalier d'Eon as that was from the same season, but I dropped that after a few episodes.
 

firehawk12

Subete no aware
I suppose I'll post my personal anime fandom timeline and other people can follow with theirs:

I went from Chinese dubs of shows I can't remember (but really wish I could find) to HK-tv dubs of Sailor Moon and Dragon Ball, to the English releases of those shows, to Pokemon and then I stopped watching it until four years ago or so.

So I guess that's... early-mid 90s, then nearly a decade or so of not watching it.
 

Dresden

Member
natsuyuki rendezvous - 07

Honestly this can get too sappy for its own good at times, but I'm a sucker for it.

Fond of the intro, where the slow pan down Shimao's face as he fidgets with the hat seemed representative of the kind of deliberate direction that Matsuo's capable of. Some great imagery all around, although a few are just a bit too overt for me.

Disappointed that we've had no song-and-dance number yet.


Natsuyuki is still some good shit, but I'm getting to the point where I'm kinda ready for it to be over. Not that it's been stale or bogged down, but there's only so much you can reap out of the earthly attachment stuff.
 

Dresden

Member
Dragon Ball (in korean) was like my gateway drug back when I was a young boy. The public library near where I lived carried Korean comics too so I was addicted to that stuff. Also had the advantage of being far ahead plot-wise when I began befriending American nakamas.

As for anime in general I think ogFMA was what got me really going again, one of the reasons why I'm still so fond of it.
 

Branduil

Member
I was a Toonami Kid, though I guess I was "primed" by video games and Power Rangers(for Japanese entertainment), and Batman TAS(for more serious cartoons).
 

Uchip

Banned
Japanese tv animation is often based on content (manga, vn) that is questionable for the intended age group
Western seem to be built from the ground up for whatever audience, and come off as a more professional, less risque production
 

Tomat

Wanna hear a good joke? Waste your time helping me! LOL!
Also,

Digimon>Pokemon

I remember staying the night at a friends house in elementary school once and forcing my friend to wake up at 7AM or something so I could watch Digimon.

He was pissed. Still brings it up today.
 

sonicmj1

Member
Revolutionary Girl Utena 33

Well, that was a different way to do the old intro voiceover. So why are we here?

odyssey-banana.jpg

I'm not entirely sure I'm comfortable with this.

Ah, I get it. It's a recap episode. That makes sense. But these interludes... something doesn't fit.

Wait...

iDvxxdGejpQCa.jpg

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

WHY WOULD YOU DO THAT TO ME IKUHARA
 

Thoraxes

Member
E7 AO - 16

The wait was worth it! A whole ton of awesome shit is going down, and
a lot of new questions were brought up concerning the quartz, Ao's retcon history-erasing gun, the secrets, and what the hell is going on. Why does only he know the truth? Can this be closer to what Truth was talking about.

Also, that scene where Eureka's skin melted off to be Naru is fucking nightmare fuel at its finest.

The action was beautiful as fuck in this episode, and really well animated.

IT'S BAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAACCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCKKKKKKKKKKKKKKK YYYYYYYYYYYYYYYEEEEEEEEEEEEESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS
 

kayos90

Tragic victim of fan death
E7 AO - 16

The wait was worth it! A whole ton of awesome shit is going down, and
a lot of new questions were brought up concerning the quartz, Ao's retcon history-erasing gun, the secrets, and what the hell is going on. Why does only he know the truth? Can this be closer to what Truth was talking about.

Also, that scene where Eureka's skin melted off to be Naru is fucking nightmare fuel at its finest.

The action was beautiful as fuck in this episode, and really well animated.

IT'S BAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAACCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCKKKKKKKKKKKKKKK YYYYYYYYYYYYYYYEEEEEEEEEEEEESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS

I disagree. Not worth it. Ugh...

Episode 16

Dat rainbow.
 

Tomat

Wanna hear a good joke? Waste your time helping me! LOL!
Binbougami ga! 6

This is the first episode where the sappiness worked for me, so that was nice. Still can't stand Keita, though.

And it's really unfair that Ichiko gets to be god-tier moe in child form on top of being god-tier boner fuel in tittymonster form. A single character should not possess such power.

Truth.
It's dat fortune.
 

Risette

A Good Citizen
To the second part, get used to people calling anything with directorial flourishes "Dezaki-inspired" whether it's true or isn't. I think you could make a case here, but it wouldn't be by tracing a straight line of influence from A -> B.
Well, in the case of Shinbo, even Shinbo acknowledges his influence from Dezaki. He was heavily featured in a Dezaki tribute book (I think that's what it was) following his death, iirc. He talked about how the head-tilt SHAFT is known for was inspired by a shot in the last episode of Takarajima, even. Ikuhara talked about Dezaki in an interview following his death as well, I'm pretty sure.

Besides, how many people in the anime industry get tribute pieces where people talk about how much they were influenced by them after they die? Something to think about...

Well, from what I have seen, anime does place a much higher emphasis on storyboards, and in particular on having the framing and basic layout of shots already planned out in them. Again, I have to wonder if this is the manga influence of Tezuka showing.
Right, whereas Western animation storyboards are just brainstorming pictures really. Japanese storyboards are essentially the movie/episode's foundation. Japanese animation has the equivalent of a Western storyboard, but it's called something else. I'll defer to Ben's anime production line writeup:
イメージボード Imeeji Boodo = Image Board

Image boards are another type of pre-production drawing, but unlike settei, image boards are basically concept art not intended for actual use in the production. They are drawings made to flesh out production, to come up with ideas, to establish the direction for the production's visuals and atmosphere. Hayao Miyazaki famously draws lots of rough watercolor image boards before each film to flesh out where he wants to go with the film.

絵コンテ Ekonte = Storyboard

After a script has been written, the storyboard is drawn. Ekonte literally means picture continuity. It is the blueprint of every anime. You can see a small example of a storyboard panel by Yoshiyuki Tomino here. Basically, it consists of a summary of what happens in each shot: a drawing showing the visuals, the length of the shot, the dialogue, sound effects, and camera instructions. Satoshi Kon once said that the storyboard is like another script; it should tell its own story.

Some storyboards like Tomino's are rougher and others more detailed. Satoshi Kon's were very detailed and could almost double as layouts. Most anime ekonte are in the same format. Each storyboarder has his or her own style. Some directors who can't draw get a talented animator to draw their storyboards based on the director's instructions. The storyboard for Isao Takahata's Only Yesterday was drawn by Yoshiyuki Momose, the one for his Gauche the Cellist by Toshitsugu Saida.

Different storyboarders have different standards for the amount of information they provide about what is supposed to happen in a shot. For a particularly important sequence, a storyboarder might devote several pages to visually depicting a single long shot that requires a particular succession of character movements, essentially creating a spare rough genga. Other storyboarders might leave it up to the animator to give them more freedom to have fun with the animation.

Knowledge of your animation staff's capabilities can affect the way a film or TV episode is storyboarded. You don't storyboard scenes requiring tricky, nuanced character acting if you know you don't have staff capable of bringing that sort of thing to life. Instead, you wind up storyboarding things in a 'safe' way that winds up being proportionately less communicative in terms of the directing. Conversely, storyboarders who know how to storyboard in a way that will involve the animation in the directing and who know they will be able to rely on good staff can produce more ambitious work. Satoshi Kon was only able to storyboard Tokyo Godfathers with all those long static shots of character acting because he knew he had staff like Hideki Hamasu and Shinji Otsuka who would be up to the task of animating his challenging shots.

Storyboards can be drawn by the same person who will go on to process the episode or movie (the enshutsu or technical director) or by a different person. Toei Animation is famous for not crediting storyboarders, only episode directors, because their episode directors are all expected to draw their own storyboards. (Not only this, Toei's episode directors are also supposed to take care of the voice recording sessions, something usually handled by the audio director, which perhaps helps account for why so many Toei directors developed into such auteurs.)

Normally the sequence in the storyboard is the final say, although I've run across some rare instances where storyboard shots were slightly altered by an ambitious key animator and kept in the final product. This happened in two instances I know of - in Soul Eater and Xam'd - and in both instances it was obvious why it was kept as is (because the animation was awesome), so although uncommon, it does happen occasionally if the animator really does something good with it. Usually I doubt this will be tolerated, and most animators would not do this.

Usually in Japanese animation, the storyboard for a movie or TV episode will all be done by the same person. On occasion, storyboards are done by several people. For example, in Bones' Tenpo Ibun Ayakashi, Akitoshi Yokoyama was given the credit of sento sekkei 戦闘設計 or battle design, a roundabout way of saying that he drew the storyboards for the battle sequences throughout the show. (In other words, one person would draw the storyboard for the episode, but just the battle portion would be storyboarded by Yokoyama.) He was given this unusual task due to his uncommon skill at conceptualizing action sequence in a way that makes exciting use of three-dimensional space. Norio Matsumoto storyboarded his action sequence in the third Naruto movie, as did Yutaka Nakamura in the Fullmetal Alchemist: Conqueror of Shambala movie.
http://www.pelleas.net/aniTOP/index.php/the-anime-production-line
 
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