Archive for the 'Editorials' Category

Otaku Insanity - Stigma attached to Anime

Published by
FDimension
at July 26, 2007 in Editorials and Japanese Culture. 0 Comments

Here is a hot topic: Moe. 萌え for you who can read Japanese. Moe is, to be simply is a fetish for something related to anime. It’s hard to explain, but let’s say someone who has a bandage moe is all ga-ga over any anime character wearing bandages. Well, now there are is a growing number of people who claim their actual sexual alignment is towards the moe or 2-d.

Now, I’m sure I’m going to get some details wrong, but the major point is that there is a growing number of mostly males who say that they can only love something digital… something in anime. (more after the jump)

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Fansubbers, is a week too long?

Published by
FDimension
at January 29, 2007 in Editorials and Fansubs. 0 Comments

Free anime, or fansubs, have been around for a lengthy period of time. Even before the Internet there was college students utilizing their time to sub over VHS tapes with their broken Japanese to English translations. With the invent of the Internet, subs became more and more popular and anime was released quicker and quicker. Oh sure, maybe it took a month for an episode to get down after its release in Japan, but it was getting closer and closer as time came on.

Now, sub groups like dattebayo are able to get their anime out within 24 hours of release. That is translated, TIMED, quality checked, and released. Generally speaking, it’s normal for your average fansub group to get anime out within 3 days after its release in Japan.

Really though, should we expect this of all fansubbers? If you look at the process in which anime fansubing takes, you first have to obtain a high quality RAW from someone in Japan (usually someone who works for the group and lives in Japan). Then, they have to get someone to sit down and translate word for word what is going on. This process can be sped up with more translators.

Then comes the timing, after the entire process of translation (which in itself requires some quality checking). Someone has to time the translation to the screen and have the words come up long enough to be read but also go along with whats happening on the screen. Again, more people assigned to this the faster it goes.

Next comes the encoding. I don’t know much about this other then it involves a guy using some kind of computer to mux together the subs and the video and compress it without losing quality. THEN comes quality check (people watching it over and over for errors). After that, comes release.

Considering a lot of this sounds like horrible grueling work, I personally don’t think we should expect instant turn around on subs. Although I do feel that there is a certain amount of responsibility for sub groups to get things out in a timely manner. Apparently there is some kind of “FANSUB CODE OF HONOR” in which one fansub group can only sub one anime at a time and if another shows up on the scene they have to start from the beginning of the series. So, if you’re they are going to be slow, there better be a damn good reason.

I think, all in all, I have yet to feel angered with any fansub group. The fast subbers always pickup the popular series, although there are times where I could shake my fist into the air that Code Geass isn’t coming out fast enough.

Pizza Hut brain washing has taken effect.

Can special attack names be too short or too long?

Published by
FDimension
at January 18, 2007 in Editorials. 0 Comments

Here is some food for thought, can any anime attack be too long or too short? I’ve recently been thinking this over as I watch a class Shounen Jump anime known as Yu Yu Hakusho. In regards to attack names I would like to present a few attacks:

The Kamehameha

I may have spelled that wrong although the spellcheker isn’t flipping out. It is basically one of the longer attacks having the caster shout for upwards to a minute the phase then unleashing a ball of their own spirit energy (from DBZ). This attack’s long name really helps continue the suspense of the moment as you wait to see if the ball hits or not.

The Spirit Gun

The Spirit Gun is Yusuke’s weapon in Yu Yu Hakusho. He shouts “SPIRIT GUN” or for the Japanese version it’s “REI-GUN”. This attack, his most powerful, is very short and by the time he is done saying the name the blast is off. No suspense is built.

The Shining Finger

G Gundam’s famous Shining Finger involves a long winded burning passion filled threat the enemy followed by an incredibly hot hand usually melting parts off the other Gundam. As the attack winds up you feel yourself in suspense as you know he’s about to unleash his major attack.

Gomu Gomu no

In One Piece, Luffy often uses his “Gomu Gomu no ” after time he does on of his stretching moves. Generally he has two forms the quick “GOMU GOMU NO GATTLING GUN” for instance and the long “GOOOMMUUU GOOOMUUU NO PIIIIIIIISSSSSSTTTTTTTTOOOOOOOOLLLLLLLLL”. The short one is hardly noticed as he does it in quick attacks, but the long one builds up the suspense as you hope it works to damage the enemy.

Okay, I think I will stop. While taking a small sampling out of various Shounen series we have discovered the longer the attack name the cooler it becomes. Why? The suspense and drama associated with the attacks.

As two people draw back to unleash their attacks, the longer they spend “powering up” as it were the more excited you become about the actual attacks. For instance in G Gundam, when the speech starts you know something awesome is about to happen and get glued to your seats. While in Yu Yu Hakusho he quickly shouts Spirit Gun and it’s unleashed. While I’m not trying to discredit Yu Yu Hakusho from being a bad anime, I am trying to create a point in relation to the length of the attack names vs. the enjoyment of it.

That said, I think you can have too long of an attack. The Spirit Bomb unleashed by Goku took way too long, although it was REALLY dramatic when it went off against Freiza. It was really hard to debate as it took several episodes to power up and when it was unleashed you knew that it was going to be epic.

So, in summary, I believe the longer the attack the better. Anything over say 3 minutes is too much and anything less then 20 isn’t enough. I think within 3 minutes you can get an entire speech out and launch the attack and anything under 20 seconds is just them quickly screaming out the attack name and launching themselves forward.

Justice as a Theme in Anime

Published by
FDimension
at January 17, 2007 in Burning Justice and Editorials. 0 Comments

Justice is a common theme in the majority of your Shounen anime. Although, at times, it can be confusing for us of NA to understand exactly what justice is. For a better look at what Justice, as we define it is we take a look at some form of dictionary definition:

The quality of being just; fairness.
1. The principle of moral rightness; equity.
2. Conformity to moral rightness in action or attitude; righteousness
1. The upholding of what is just, especially fair treatment and due reward in accordance with honor, standards, or law.
2. Law. The administration and procedure of law.

Normally, when we think of justice, we think of the majority of these based on our own opinions of what is honor, standards, law, and fairness. However, in anime it’s slightly different.

In anime, each side good and bad have their on view of what fairness is. For instance, in One Piece the Marines believe that anyone who does any kind of evil is without a doubt a very bad person requiring punishment. That is their absolute justice. However, on the other side Luffy belives in what you would think to be a more common sense of morals and fairness. That is his justice.

That is a kind of a bad example, so I’ll use some super robot examples. Say some bad guys are fighting against the good guys. From the good guys point of view, the “bad guys” are without a doubt evil and deserve their punishment. This is their justice. The evil guys however, aren’t exactly as evil as we think. See, in their eyes the good guys are evil and deserve THEIR punishment. This is their justice. So you see battle reflects around both sides definition of what their justice is.

The point I am getting at here, using simplistic examples to not make a fool of myself, is that I think a lot of people don’t look at how awesome and deep some mecha and to a certain extent shounen (jump) anime series are. On the outside it may look as if two fighters are fighting each other and that fighting is cool, but there is just so much going on between the two that it makes the fighting extremely emotional. All of this for shows targeted at children between 13 and 18. Amazing, really.

Anime Seasons

Published by
FDimension
at January 9, 2007 in Editorials and General Anime Info. 0 Comments

Have you ever wondered why anime only comes out in 13, 26, or 52 give or take a few episodes? Well the answer is simple, a season in Japan (at least as far as anime is concerned) is 12 weeks, or 3 months, or one regular season!

Anime runs in blocks and will either go for 13, 26, or 52 episodes. A season is, of course, 13 weeks or exactly 1/4th of a year. Unlike American T.V., Anime doesn’t stop after one season but continues until it’s finished. There are some expections to this, but on average even if they have to create filler they will be showing an anime from start to finish in one block.

Anything going past about 55 episodes is generally a Shounen anime, something so popular that it’ll be going for a very long time. Examples would be Dragonball Z, One Piece, Bleach, and Naruto.

Anime generally has a major plot change half way through on anything that is 2 seasons longer or more. This generally means on your 12th or 24th episode you will have something major happen to the characters, such as the story being completely solved but something new has begun.

When an anime ends, it’s spot is generally taken up by another anime. Rarely will you find reruns happening… those are reserved for DVDs. Reruns do run sometimes on seperate time slots or after an anime is finished showing.