That Blogging Panel
Just some critiques. It’s only fair that I’m as hard/soft on my panel as I am on anything else. Many apologies to SDS, Moy, and Super Rats. [imgsrc]
For background information, please do note that for all four of us, this panel was probably one the firsts live panel we had to run. The convention AnimeNext was kind enough to allow us the opportunity, but they also did a last-minute switcharoo on us so our panel had to move to a different room, and up by half an hour. That would be fine (and almost expected) except that I had to personally talk to the con ops folks (the one helpful lady whose name I forget, thank you!) and gotten it straightened out 2 hours before the original panel time. Two hours before! That’s kind of lame. And we wouldn’t have known better until the helpful RT team pointed it out to us when they saw a sign about our panel is being move to a TBA place, the day before. In retrospect if we knew about this earlier we could have gone and got it fixed on Saturday evening, but by the time we were free to wander about, panel ops had already closed for the night.
Oh, that is on top of the problem SDS ran into with his panel application becoming missing.
Funny enough, none of that actually bother me much, probably because I’ve seen this happen to others too often. So I am definitely giving props to the guys that were there in audience–Scott, kransom, Hisui & Narutaki, that anigamers guy, and a few stragglers that came in later. A cosy crowd, it was. It isn’t anything we didn’t expect being one of the last panels at the end of the con.
I was definitely talking way too much during the panel, but that is probably the result of several things–slightly unnerved, did not really practice enough as a group, I wrote too much of the presentation, and probably some other minute factors. That said, we expected everyone to say something worthwhile, and we all did. Also I should have taken some time and talked with SDS to see what he really has to say, since he does have a lot to say and I kept cutting him off! Oops.
The questions and answers portion of the panel is probably why we needed so many people on the panel. In retrospect, I should have just go and interview/poll a bunch of bloggers on these questions and get their answers. Might be a good alternative tack to deal with some of these issues I wanted to present if I ever want to run this solo. Still, I’m glad to see Super Rats and Moy occasionally shut me down, because that’s kind of what I wanted to hear, to have some diversity and opposite points of view on all of this.
The overall presentation is probably too unfocused. I need to re-write a lot of the story aspect of the panel to make it just as funny but more relevant. I had pages of stuff that didn’t really have much to do with anything. If you want to see our presentation you’ll have to bribe a panelist or a co-author, I think. It’s kind of lame and I don’t feel confident enough to leave it on the internets just yet. Not to mention that hippy scheme wouldn’t work anymore!
Maybe I should make some cue cards, so I remember what each slide is suppose to talk about.
I do have a recording of the panel. I think I might just transcribe a large portion of it if there’s demand for that. For this post, though, I’m going to just answer a couple questions asked by the audience at the panel in detail and call it a night.
Q2. What are some subject matter or type of blogs (or sites) that you think are missing for anime/manga/etc?
A2. Several–a Momotato blog; a merchandise site that is like MyAnimeList (like Tsuki-Board?); more sites like Canned Dogs (more than just a news site–an educational site that draws from 2ch-style Japanese news blogs); more industry sites that are not for marketing as primary goal (like this); and more anime sites focused on animation and not just from a film studies perspective (I’m tired of blogs looking at anime from the manga/comic perspective, TBH).
Q4. Anime sites turning out like gamer sites?
A4. I answered the question at the panel on the basis of pro versus not-pro, but it’s more than just that. Far most gamer sites people read today are pro. Even Penny Arcade is a business. However this is not the case for anime sites…yet. We might read sites like ANN or AnimeVice for news, but there are a lot of great, informative stuff out there that are either part of some promotional material (like Matt Alt’s site, or Schoolgirl Milky Crisis blog, etc) or purely out of fan interests (Anipages Daily, Canned Dogs). If I were to guess, there is a rift in the development of writing talent that home-grown English language bloggers (or whatever you call people who writes for sites like Kotaku or IGN) just do not have the full context. Not only it takes a wider variety of writers (and probably just…a lot of writers) to cover all your basis, your contributers have to know that gamut of related curiousities that you can report. Furthermore it has to be tailored to the particular audience you write for (Brazilian, French, Canadian, whatever), because there’s a lot of regional differences. And yeah, where’s all the good cosplay blogs at?
If you were there and have some constructive comments, please share. Or if you weren’t there.
Watching Crap Anime for the Actor
There are a lot of actor fans out there who would watch every film or TV show with their favorite actor in it.
That is basically the same as your average seiyuu-ota types. The difference is that in Japan they’re all into brand management and the like, and for some of these seiyuu types, they make the fans run through all sorts of hoops, thanks to Japan’s developed idol scene.
Of course, it’s not the whole story. Many prolific voice actors, working in the background, do not get all that name recognition if they don’t run their careers in that direction. A minor fan favorite, Satsuki Yukino, is probably a good example of a female voice acting type who has been in a ton of shows as secondary roles, dabbled a bit in doing songs and what not, obtained some recognition, but ultimately lived as a straight-up seiyuu. On the other hand you get people like Kikuko Inoue who is playing it totally like an idol celebrity with everything from fan club events to selling DVDs of her eating lunch. She maintains her popularity to some extent even after starting a family. It’s weird, but that’s what some people want I guess.
And there are many more Satsuki-sans than Kikuko-sans in the industry (to pick on some ex-Animazement guests). A glimpse at far most male voice actors beyond the age of 40 will reveal to you how many that toiled, even in great roles, are just getting by like a normal person. Basically, even if these folks have fans (and they do), it’s very difficult to watch every single show your favorite actor is in, just because voice acting is that kind of a profession versus stage or film or TV acting. Plus, sometimes you’re just an extra or a 1-liner. In other words, unless you’re like Nana Mizuki or her ilk, only your very true fans will bother with a show that otherwise stunk, with a notable number that makes a difference.
So what happens when you take a bunch of voice actors that have steady following and stick them in a crap show, hoping people will watch it? Does it work? I don’t know. The Japanese did it for Dragonaut. Funimation will too. Or at least try. It would be interesting to see how much “brand” power these American dub actors have. All that convention touring must do something for them as individuals! Do they sell DVDs, or do DVDs sell them? It is a mystery.
AnimeNext 2009 Dead Blogging
I figured it’s not live blogging, and it’s not quite semi-live blogging, so for the want of a better word I went with that.
It was definitely a con where I met with a bunch of people that I should have met face to face more often or much earlier. That’s the #1 draw. Good times.
I mean this is the first con, ever, that I took the time out and got Rita’s. It really helped to counter the muggy Jersey breeze. The rain was a downer, but it didn’t stop most of the cosplays and people looked quite fabulous.
I need to look even more fabulous while on Happy Dance Collection. OTL.
Let’s see, I went to see a well-run panel, and a “popular” panel, and a professional panel. Friday I was in a kind of bad panel. So that’s the gamut. And you can even include a panel rehearsal in that too.
Funimation (Adam Sheehan) actually announced some obscure new bits of news in the form of the Dragonaut dub cast list, but the quick and dirty can be found at the usual place (I was actually sitting next to him…). I asked two questions:
- CPM license rescues - yes, they are active in that process. Adam hinted at a few, as you’d expect. He actually gave a very appropriate answer but I didn’t remember/able to process it fast enough. Something to do with some popular titles (Patlabor, Utena, and something else IIRC), but he didn’t say anything that specific.
- Why was there only 10 US screening and 60 Canadian screening planned for Eva 1.0 theatrical run? He doesn’t know, probably got the news just before he left for NJ.
Time for bed.
Oh, before I totally forget, read Moy’s take for today. And note that OUR PANEL MAY BE MOVING tomorrow. Same 2pm time though.
Con Season 2009
Despite my best efforts, con season gets the best of me yet again.
What’s special this year is that I’ll be more broke than ever, gone to more places than ever, and probably have the least amount of time blogging than ever. It is fun and frustrating, but hopefully it will also add to some good times at the end of the day. Here are some of the stuff I’m looking forward to.
First there is our blogging panel at AnimeNext, hopefully. I am done just putting the ppt together today and we’ll polish it off over the weekend when the panelists convene. Those of you who saw JP & Hinano’s panel at NYAF last year might find it both familiar and disorienting. Also make sure you catch Brad as he stares down the NEET precipice while covering grounds for Jtor. He’s a good man and I hope what little I can do to help him actually helps him :3
There is one surprise brewing this summer and it’s at the point where the whole thing feels magically unreal that if I speak of it, I fear it would turn into fairy dust and disappear like firework sparkles. So I won’t until it’s a done deal. At least not here.
And there is always Otakon. Otakon’s got Becca, Naomi Tamura and Kanon Wakashima. It’s also got a Japanese director coming, in all likelihood. It’s supposedly someone who has made some huge splash recently. From the Jim Vowles clues I gather it is likely someone who’s relatively new, with established works. That means this person has been doing it for a while and was just promoted to the position in the past few years.
Otakon this year is at least wheeling and dealing despite H1N1 and all that nasty buggerness. Also in the books is a possible seiyuu pick, and the fourth Japanese musical act is going to get announced most likely next week.
Lastly, we go round to September for NYAF 2009. I don’t really want to think about that. Not yet anyways.
The Terai-Dobashi Reversal, Or the Ayumi Axiom
Hatsukoi Limited is like a suite of thought experiments. Let’s look at Dobashi’s one-shot. [img src]
I picked this one out of the mixes of relationships from Hatsukoi Limited because of the contrast between the manga and the anime rendition. At this point, it might be safe to say that the anime adaptation of Hatsukoi Limited is very true to the manga (someone is doing a good job posting the chapter matches on Wikipedia). Still, when it comes to Terai and Dobashi, the anime actually changes things around for the better in subtle ways. Is it better? Why?
Boiling it down, Hatsukoi Limited is a play on stereotypes of first love stories. The Terai and Dobashi story is the gender reversal of the “athletic” sports stereotype–the girl is the athletic one, and the guy looks up to her for that reason (but also for others once they got to know each other better). It even has the “oh they’re just respecting me for my game, but deep down they don’t really care about me except for you <3 <3 <3″ plot thread, however thin. It’s a straight-up gender reversal.
The manga actually gets a little further than the anime in hammering home what made the Terai x Dobashi story works, and I think it’s a very important thing to remember when we talk about Hatsukoi Limited. Actually, that’s exactly the theme that threads all the love stories in Hatsukoi Limited. And I quote Ayumi (lol, soramimi subs):
