Thursday, December 4th, 2008...11:31 pm
(Not enough) Quality anime and the industry
[This article is my reply to Alex's excellent 'For the anime fan in 2008, is it essential to watch online anime?']
I came across this recent news article at ANN, ‘Dennou Coil Wins Award from Japanese Sci-Fi Writers‘ and more than anything else, it annoyed me. Here’s why.
‘Dennou Coil‘ was amongst the most acclaimed anime TV series of 2007, a beautifully animated, whimsical science fiction story with broad appeal and notable production values, often likened to the adventurous mainstream story-telling of ‘Studio Ghibli’. Naturally, it wasn’t a particularly big hit with the hardcore anime fans, or at least, not on the same level as something like ‘Haruhi’, but it is capable of capturing of the imagination of someone (or some kid) not usually swept away by the conventional tropes of Japanese animation.
Time to introduce ‘Studio Madhouse’. In terms of popular recognition, their credits include animating the recent TV adaptation of ‘Death Note’, every Satoshi Kon-directed anime and the acclaimed flick ‘The Girl Who Leapt Through Time’. Yet, so much of their most exciting, genre-busting anime has still yet to see the light of day in the US and/or the UK, including (but not limited to) ‘Akagi’, ‘Kaiba‘, ‘Kaiji’, ‘Kemonozume‘ and ‘Oh! Edo Rocket’. They also worked on ‘Dennou Coil’, while their adaptation of ‘Monster‘ was apparently licensed by Viz, but more than four years on from its Japanese TV debut, still nothing has been released.
It’s not like I don’t understand their business logic, after all, why should Funimation try to sell something like ‘Kaiba’ to anime fans when, quite clearly, they don’t want it. ‘Kaiba’ is unique, thought-provoking and evocative, everything ‘Daphne in the Brilliant Blue’ isn’t, but that’s being released in the UK right now. How sad. In the harsh world of anime business, apparently a DVD only sells as well as the amount of scantily-clad females an artist can squeeze on to the cover. Whether or not said anime series is actually worth buying couldn’t be any less relevant. Money talks.
Well, may be that’s an exaggeration, but you get my point, right? I mean, good anime is still being licensed, but I don’t understand how the Western industry expects to grow when it’s merely contented with pandering to an existing audience. ‘Mushishi‘ is one of the finest anime TV series of the decade, it is beautiful, refined, quality and I’m convinced people (as in, regular non-anime fans) would fall in love with it, if they could just get a chance to see it on TV or something. The same applies to ‘Monster’, ‘Kaiba’ and ‘Dennou Coil’, they all have so much potential to bring in new fans.
So, going back to Alex’s question, for the anime fan in 2008, is it essential to watch online anime? For me, it is. When so much excellent anime continues to be ignored (or terminally delayed) in favor of poor quality, superficial disappointments, the internet is, quite simply, our only option.
11 Comments
December 5th, 2008 at 1:55 am
You know, I didn’t even realize explicitly that that was why I’ve turned almost exclusively to online sources for my anime. That’s a pretty damn interesting observation.
But with the advent of more and more legit online sources, I think most people are looking online for their anime anyway, even if they’re just looking for Haruhi or Naruto. If it becomes easy and cost-effective enough for companies to bring littler-known, but groundbreaking series like Mushishi and Dennou Coil onto places like Crunchyroll, then it may be a moot point.
December 5th, 2008 at 2:57 am
Since you don’t have e-mail, here’s a correction comment: you obviously meant “couldn’t be any less relevant.”
December 5th, 2008 at 11:09 am
@Kiri: The general problem with online streaming is that there’s very little chance of stumbling over something by mistake, because we go to websites like Crunchyroll knowing exactly what we want from the site, and tend to overlook everything else, but with DVD and TV, there’s much more of a chance for a casual observer stumbling over something by mistake and being taken in by some interesting art.
@Author: I’ll reply to your Ani-Nouto post here, but thanks for pointing out the (annoying) spelling error; I always get mixed up (especially after a hard shift) by these ‘double negatives’ in the English language.
It’s easy to take something out of context and complain about it, but in the very next paragraph, I dampen my own vitriol. I agree that this is a situation coloured with many shades of grey, but my thinking was to illustrate a fairly obvious point; why is ‘Daphne in the Brilliant Blue’ being released in the UK/US and why isn’t ‘Dennou Coil’? I don’t see the industry as being progressive when it’s still content to force feed us tripe?
I think it’s fair to assume you haven’t actually seen ‘Kaiba’? Let’s not forget we live in a world where Code Geass is pushed to 5AM on Cartoon Network and anime is (generally) falling off the air waves. I can see something like Kaiba catching a new audience, not necessarily the ‘hoi polloi’, but a subset of new people, none the less. For example, have you noticed how Satoshi Kon is such a big name outside of the anime community? I wonder how many anime fans are aware of Masaaki Yuasa and his renown in indie circles?
Mushishi is a good example of world-class anime that should be on TV but isn’t. I used it because I’m looking at this problem from the perspective of trying to attract new fans to anime. What’s the typical ‘gate way’ drug of most anime fans? Pokemon, Naruto, DBZ. Fair enough, but from a constructive point of view, may be the industry should be looking at new ways of attracting people who aren’t into that kind of thing?
December 5th, 2008 at 11:14 am
I liked the response to Alex’s article and I would totally agree with some of the sentiments expressed in there. There is clearly not enough good anime coming through on the DVD format and it’s a real shame and it has certainly affected what I buy from places like HMV etc.
December 5th, 2008 at 4:55 pm
Couldint agree more, we really need more unique anime coming over and being pushed, the same stuff is being released in slightly different forms, and the thing is, its selling.
Im proud to say I own the likes of Mushishi, Planetes, Paprika, Tekkon, Lain, Tokyo Godfathers etc on DVD, shows that show what anime is all about, what its able to achieve not just as anime, but as animation, as a medium of entertainment.
Anime really does have a reputation for just being “dirty cartoons” amongst too many people, and its because of the endless smutty stuff that comes out on the crest of the wave, listen I aint comdemning anyone here, people can watch what they want, heck theres nothing wrong with adult content, its just that when it defines an entire medium for so many people, it becomes a problem for people like me who have a passion for animatin and what it can achieve.
December 5th, 2008 at 9:36 pm
The problem with anime is that there’s too much rubbish in comparison to quality material. For every excellent series out there, there are 10 that offer nothing aside from the same old, fan service and/or boredom. And even most of the highly rated anime out there tends to be over-rated, the visual masterpiece that has nothing underneath known as Paprika being a good example of this.
Rather than see the high quality shows of 2008 released, it’d be best if more old classises made it to our shores. However, they won’t because the likes of ‘Now and Then, Here and There’ won’t sell to a dramatic UK public that can’t handle uncomfortable subjects, preferring simplistic fan service shows. If nothing else, I’d like to see Nadia, a wondeful 20 year old adventure series, released in the UK, but that won’t happen when no-one is going to release a show with visuals from all that time ago. I believe even Berserk only managed to get a UK release 1-2 years ago…
December 6th, 2008 at 12:35 am
Anime is a niche industry as it is, so I suppose these more offbeat titles are like a niche within a niche: hence why they’re so hard to market. I don’t blame the Western companies so much for this as the viewers. Brilliance aside, titles like Monster just won’t sell the same way that something like Death Note or Naruto will - and it’s a staggering shame.
I hope that when some of these lesser known titles are released, anime fans make the effort to buy them and prove the distributor’s wrong.
@Aion: Paprika has nothing underneath? You sure we watched the same movie?
December 6th, 2008 at 2:00 am
What I watched was a flashy film with lots of dream sequences and a random attempted tentacle rape scene near the end. It looked good and failed at everything else.
I gave it a rather kind 7/10 (it did look nice!) and was left feeling annoyed that I’d spent money on the DVD based on Mr. Kon fanatics. The only Kon effort I’ve given higher than 8/10 is M. Actress.
December 6th, 2008 at 2:23 am
@Aion: Fair enough, though I’d hardly call myself a Kon fanatic, Paranoia Agent left me cold - and some would argue that’s a masterpiece. Most Kon’s work seems to have a polarising effect.
December 6th, 2008 at 12:39 pm
@Aion and Wildcard.
I actually love Paranoia Agent, I thought it was possibly the best anime Ive seen, Paprika was excellent, I didint think it was his best work, but certainly has more than just looks in my opinion.
I hope Kons works dont produce a “hate Kon just because hes popular” bandwagon, that kind of thing annoys me(in no way aiming that last comment at either of you, just a general worry)
December 6th, 2008 at 7:54 pm
It’s a shame, but the fact that ‘money talks’ is as true in the anime industry as it is everywhere else, and is probably even more profit-driven and reluctant to take artistic and financial risks with the current economic climate. That I think is why there are so many fan-pandering shows being produced (I can put up with moe and fan service up to a point but when that’s the main selling-point I find it to be a turn-off).
I’ve now found myself trying to be one of the fans who vocally makes a fuss over the diamonds in the rough - there’s still a minority of good quality stuff amongst the commercialised chaff, such as Denno Coil (which is crying out for a DVD release and a weekend morning timeslot on a freeview TV channel) and Mushishi (whose episodic nature would be perfect for casual channel-hoppers on Ch4 or similar).
The state of the industry is making the Western companies wary too, so we’re more likely to see the usual suspects hit DVD when the likes of Kaiji and Monster remain elusive. It’s not all bad though - The Girl Who Leapt Through Time will be out in time for Christmas and Mushishi is getting a DVD release, albeit a slowly scheduled one.
Perhaps awareness among fans might come through non-DVD means, like Eve no Jikan (ONA) and Xam’d (American PS3) are. Both series are fantastic, and will hopefully garner enough of a cult following to be more widely popular.
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