20/06/2010

Masako Muses...a new pilot show!



A forum post got me thinking - is anime going downhill? Here's my response.

14 comments:

  1. You really do have a good point, and I agree. It's because we're able to see more that we become disenchanted. Like, when I was in middle school, I would play Final Fantasy games all the time. Nowadays, I barely even touch the series because, for one, in my opinion, the series has really sunk ever since X, but also because the themes and settings of that series have gotten old and worn out to me because of my overexposure. So now, I would rather play darker games with more freedom like Dragon Age, Mass Effect, Shin Megami Tensei, Fallout, and the like.

    Also, I've been meaning to do a similar video series, which would also basically be me ranting about multimedia in general. I was planning to do a somewhat similar rant to yours about Television of my childhood versus television of today, and the little glimmers of hope that that kind of TV experience MAY be coming back.

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  2. I completely agree with you on all points.

    As for the show itself, the content was interesting, but you may want to work on lighting. I could see everything fine, but it was just such dull lighting that I was sort of bored by the visuals. I know it is just you in a chair, but still, the lighting was a big detractor for me.

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  3. hey masako. this is kinda like the anime counter-point but without the others. i think it is very similar but i stilli like it ;P

    -will

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  4. Well in my opinion... your right... but your not quite right. Don't get me wrong, KissXSis is definitely an anime I tell all people to avoid, however there are just some great anime that haven't gotten noticed.

    The basic example is One Piece, it's the best Shonen manga and Anime in Japan and is on par with Dragon Ball Z in terms of greatness, what happened when america got wind of it? 4kids botched it, canceled it, and not as great anime/manga like Naruto and Bleach took over. (Again, don't get me wrong. I love Naruto and Bleach is good... until you get to the latest arc.) And yes, I know Funimation is now doing One Piece and as true to the original Japanese dub as they can... but it's still gone unoticed due to the fact it's not on television.

    A more recent example is Gurren Lagann, hailed in Japan as the latest and greatest anime concived. And MANGA entertainment did a fantastic job dubbing it, however only the most hardcore of Otaku or Mecha fans have watched it. Why? Because it appeared on Sci-Fi's "Animondays". And since this wasn't adultswim or some other major anime showing channel it got swept under the rug.

    So in my opinion, for an anime to be truly popular in the US. It needs a slightly above average dub and a good channel to show it for it to be truly popular. Because even Otaku won't know a good anime until it's been dubed and put on adultswim.

    And don't get me started on Gintama. A series most people haven't even heard of.

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  5. Masako,

    You should do another video on Animes that became Games and vise versa.

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  6. for steve the dyslixic haggis

    lol i know your pain as a UK anamie lover how ever im pree inter net down load i only got what was on the sci fi channel.not the full thing but just the abriged movie's "lol i got the word abriged in" fist of the northen star being the one that started it here in the uk and with me. come on heads blowing up kun-fu and women these 3 things get a 12-13 year old boy hocked. 80's anamie not at the livel of cow boy beebop but stell great:)

    as for making anamie great look at your self's you at TFS are amazing righters editor's in new ground's you have a amazing artest.
    fyi you sick your's or LK's name on it and we are off lol

    as for this show a top ten and puppet would not go a miss lol

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  7. I completely agree with you on this. When you have too much of a good thing, it's easy to notice the flaws. I actually stopped liking anime for a few good years because of it...

    But since I've been watching your DBZ Abridged Series, it's made me fall back in love with anime all over again! Seriously, I just spent the last 50 bucks of my paycheck buying two anime-based video games. I guess I'll just have to starve 'til my next payday. I have you, Mr. Simpson, to thank for that, lol!

    Anyway, great review. Please make more!

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  8. this was a video good first video. id like to see more of this type of thing, just so long as you could give a heads by putting up a small video with a link on your youtube page. thanks

    id like to ask you, could you please do a review of the video games Mass Effect and Mass Effect 2? i know i love it, but i want to know what you think of it. e.g. is it really as good as everyone says it is?

    thanks masako. DFTBA

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  9. Ya its true, they usually over kill the main points in anime. You should do what lanipator does and add footage and pics while u rant to prove ur point, but not copy persa.

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  10. no one has an original idea that is way everything sucks now adays.

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  11. I wholeheartedly agree Masa, the overexposure shows us the best of the best, and definitely the worse of the worse.

    I like the series, keep it up! Don't get me wrong, the content is great, but it is a little bland to see 1 still shot of you in your chair for a few minutes. I also agree with what Lionluver and Roddy, splicing in footage and pics would make it seem more lively, the still shot in your chair isn't the most exciting visuals. But keep it up, I'd like to see more.

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  12. We aren't forced to watch anything and we can still watch all the animes from the past! Evangelion has it's revamps and so on. Yeah there are bad anime but you can't shove all anime into a "Anime" catagory. It's like saying everything animated is going down hill. There are bad animes and there are good animes. It's just finding them! ^^

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  13. This was certainly an interesting and eye-opening blog. I actually can't say I agree or disagree since there's more anime that I'm totally unaware of than those I have an actual opinion of. That said, I do see your point, a sort of everything in moderation look at anime. I hope you do more of these

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  14. I disagree completely.

    An increased access to something doesn't make it go downhill. Your perception of it might, because you're realizing that the anime industry does have a lot of stuff that doesn't appeal to you, but that doesn't mean that the industry itself is going downhill. As you say, in the 90's and early 00's, people outside of Japan didn't really have access to all of the crap. It was still there, though, so to say that the indsutry has gone downhill because now you can see it is tantamount to saying that your room is suddenly dirty because someone pulled the blanket off of your pile of dirty laundry and trash. Just because you couldn't see it doesn't mean it wasn't there.

    And then, of course, there's the personal opinion side to this. You mention that you hate seeing the school girl and school boy love stories and are getting sick of "slice of life" shows. Well, guess what? Anime is as vast and diverse as all television and movies. For every Lucky Star, there will be a Read or Die. For every Bleach, there will be an Air. The fact that you've gotten sick of seeing a certain genre is called genre fatigue. Move onto watching something else. As you state in the video, you have much wider access to more anime than ever, so use that access to find something you enjoy watching. Or don't, but then don't go around claiming that the industry has gone downhill.

    You're entirely correct towards the end of your video. It's down to you to choose to watch stuff that you like. I much, much prefer this better ability to choose what to watch, rather than being forcefed what the licensing and dubbing companies want to give us. Especially considering how horribly butchered some animes, such as Cardcaptor Sakura, get when they're brought to the States and elsewhere, it's simply astounding to me that you think being given greater choice makes the industry worse.

    Oh, and another point, you mention that we'd only get the best of the best in the 90's and 00's, but then you go on to mention some of the worst tripe out there. Dragonball Z and Naruto could have been good, if not for the fact that their plots were lame enough as it was, but then they were further ruined by literally becoming the definition of deus ex machina every episode and by being dragged out far longer than needed to be. For every great anime that's ever been brought over, such as Cowboy Bebop or Trigun, we've also been drug through the mud with stuff like Bleach and Inu Yasha.

    Now, whether or not the industry is currently producing anything relevant to your interests currently is totally subjective. Perhaps you don't like some of the newer stuff coming out nowadays, or maybe you just don't know about what appeals to you, but whatever the case, claiming that anime has gone downhill because of your personal taste is absurd. There will always be older anime that will suit your tastes better, you just have to go and find them. Like you said, it's up to us, the consumers, to find stuff that appeals to us, just as it always has, except now we have a greater choice in the matter.

    On the topic of your new video segment, I quite enjoy it. Sparking discussion like this is always a good thing, and you seem to quite good at expressing your opinion in a clear and concise manner.

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