Author Archives: sdshamshel

“Why Spend Money on Entertainment?”

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Let me tell you a guy I know.

This guy makes quite a bit of money. He enjoys fancy cars and spending on expensive jewelry and fine clothing. He’ll take his girlfriend and friends and family out to fine restaurants. He is a big spender, in other words. By the way, he also downloads movies for free. Now, he still buys DVDs sometimes, but he’s just as apt not to, and the decision to purchase or not to purchase a movie seemingly alters at a whim.

You might be thinking, “If he makes so much money, why couldn’t he just go watch the movie in theaters? Why can’t he just buy the DVD?” And the answer is quite simple: he does not value movies as much as he does all of the things he actually does spend money on.

And this is the trickier side in talking about issues such as piracy and illegal downloading. People assign value to their entertainment that is fitting to their lifestyle and priorities in life. The person in my example does not skimp on everything. It’s not like a person who buys a counterfeit designer bag and then buys a bootleg DVD. He is willing to pay for real, good fashion. He is still looking for a bargain, but will not go as far as to buy something that isn’t “real,” again, because he believes in something beyond appearance.

This guy is not an avid pirate and bootlegger, as I’ve pointed out. He is not an anime fan eager to watch as much as possible for as little as possible. He is a casual fan of movies at best. And so if you wanted him to spend money on his entertainment, it would have to somehow fit into his core values about what is worth spending money on and what is not. And he, unlike the anime fan or audiophile or cinema buff, is part of the majority of people who consume entertainment.

How do you solve this problem? Take away his ability to download and pirate, and he’ll just wait for movies to appear on cable and watch them there. He’s still not going to be willing to part with his money over it. It’s easy to say, “Hey let’s just make a movie that he’d be willing to spend money on,” but as long as he de-emphasizes entertainment media in his life, there’s no way it’s going to reach him.

Get Your Galactic War On

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The Improved Character Art of Initial D

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Initial D has always been ridiculed for its poor character artwork, though for a series like Initial D it doesn’t matter too much as long as the races are sweet and intense and there’s Eurobeat playing, real or imaginary.

However, upon actually viewing some of the recent chapters, I’ve noticed that over the course of many years the character artwork in the manga has become much better, though only in specific moments. And I think you know exactly what moments those would be, i.e. those scenes which are considered most important to Initial D.

Here’s Takumi from an early chapter.

Now here’s one from a later chapter where he’s just standing around talking.

Not so bad, right? He’s pretty similar to the one from many, many chapters back, so why would there be anythi-

WHOOOAAAAA! Apparently now when Initial D characters get to a car, their entire designs become 10x more intense. And really, if you look at when they’re NOT in a car, they look like the previous image. It’s only when there’s a race on the line that the character artwork makes this dramatic jump to match the quality of the racing.

It’s the kind of thing that tells you exactly what the artist and the fans care about most.

Who is Goku’s Greatest Mexican Rival?

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“Fajita.”

Pro-Skub/Anti-Skub 7

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Transformers 2: Revenge of the Fallen is a Really Good GI Joe Movie

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Is Transformers Japanese or American? Is it anime or not? The answer to these questions is “yes.” While the toys came from Japan, the original plot of Autobots vs Decepticons came from American writers, so it should come as no surprise that an American director was assigned to helm not one but two movis based on the franchise. Transformers 2: Revenge of the Fallen is the sequel to the previous live-action Transformers movie, and once again directed by Michael Bay.

I enjoyed the first movie overall, but I had my own complaints about it. It was, to no one’s surprise, a flawed movie with a lot of action and a lot of juvenile humor. I was okay with that. My main issue with the movie however, was that so little time was spent on the actual robots themselves that one had to ask if it was really a TRANSFORMERS movie or not. Focusing too much on the kid, Sam Witwicky, was also a problem as I felt that within the Transformers franchise you had perfectly good main characters in the robots themselves, and to have to see it through the lens of High School Kid was pointless. If not Optimus Prime, at least make the main character Bumblebee so you could have a young character who is ALSO a Transformer. But again, I enjoyed it more or less.

Transformers 2 manages to solve at least one of the major problems with its predecessor, and that is to include the Transformers in the movie from the very beginning. There is no waiting an hour for Optimus to arrive, and that’s the way I like it. Also, they were given more time to talk and show their personalities. Sadly, while this issue was resolved a number of other ones cropped up.

Many characters felt useless or extraneous, and I was left scratching my head and wondering just what purpose these characters served. I’m mainly talking about the twins, who also act as sort of racial stereotypes without actually being any human race. I wouldn’t mind that aspect so much if only these characters actually DID something.

The action was often-times not well-suited for the presence of giant robots, even if the majority of the action involved them. It was often difficult to differentiate the Transformers, especially at a distance. Because so much gray metal was exposed, the defining colors of the Transformers was barely noticeable, and often times it was easy to confuse one robot for another and be unable to tell just who was fighting who. On top of that, it was often difficult to even tell just what was going on in a battle because the camera refused to be located where it actually mattered. This is an action movie first and foremost, and I expect the action to actually be visible. That said, there were actually a few instances where this was not the case and naturally they were the best fight scenes in the movie.

And now, the big complaint.

Transformers 2 has this very overt, unsubtle pro-military, pro-Iraq, America is #1 forever and ever stance that is extremely difficult to ignore. It was present in the first movie to an extent, but here it was so in-your-face that it made me kind of angry.

The most annoying character in the movie was an assistant for President Obama who acted as a strawman so that his intention to withdraw the Autobots from Earth in light of the Decepticon threat would be compared to the intention to withdraw American troops from Iraq. He is the typical guy-in-a-suit who the humble but patriotic military boys get to contrast with to seem that much more American.

Then there were all the scenes designed to glorify the American military, such as planes launching from hangars and soldiers jumping out of planes, and these wouldn’t be so bad if they didn’t look like they were ripped straight from a US Air Force commercial on TV. The quality of the video, the camera angles, everything is set up to glorify the military.

The American soldiers even manage to score some successful hits on the Decepticons. And while I’m not against the idea of humans being actually useful in the face of a giant sentient robot menace, too much time is still spent on the American military dishing out the damage. It sometimes ends up feeling like an idealized war movie which happens to have giant robots in it.

Pro-America ultra militaristic patriotism. Lots of action scenes with soldiers running around coordinating attacks and using cool vehicles to fight an enemy. Hilariously awful racial stereotypes. These are all the ingredients for a fantastic GI Joe movie, but when you’re making a Transformers movie it just ends up being inappropriate. Transformers supports capitalism and American values already by being about the right to freedom and the right to sell millions of action figure toys to kids; it does not need such a divisive and time-specific message tainting it.

So in conclusion, why is Michael Bay NOT the director for the GI Joe movie anyway? I mean seriously, whoever was in charge of adapting Hasbro/Sunbow franchises for film seriously should have thought this over better.

July 8th Vertical Vednesday: Sports Manga

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Vertical Vednesday, courtesy of Vertical Inc and Ed Chavez, is back for another informative around. This time, the topic is a genre of manga that doesn’t achieve much success in America for a a number of reasons, Sports Manga.

Sports Manga has a very long history and some of the most beloved titles in Japan are sports-themed ones, such as Ashita no Joe, Touch, Attack No. 1, Ace o Nerae!!, Kyojin no Hoshi, and even Eyeshield 21. Also, given my previous experiences with Vertical Vednesdays, if you attend you’ll get the chance to chime in on what YOU think are the steps to getting Sports Manga accepted more readily in the US by both regular folks and manga readers.

Like last time, we’ll be meeting up at around 6 to 6:30 at Kinokuniya on 6th Ave between 41st and 40th in Manhattan, and then depending on the size of the group will either stay there or find another location nearby to sit.

Topics covered so far in previous Vertical Vednesdays are Seinen, Josei, and Yankii.

The Reverse Thieves’ Otaku Diaries: And Now the Results

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Some of you may recall that back in February I mentioned an interesting project by the Reverse Thieves called the “Otaku Diaries.” The basic premise was that they wanted anime and manga fans to fill out a survey about various aspects of their lives, from age to love life to of course questions about their fandom. As someone who is always interested in information such as this, I participated as well. Well now the Reverse Thieves have finished compiling their data and are ready to discuss the results.

This initial post establishes some statistics and is mainly there to get the ball rolling for future posts about the Otaku Diaries. For the near future, the Reverse Thieves will be devoting the first Monday post every month to discussing the Diaries, and I think there will be a wealth of information to be had.

One thing to point out is something said right in the statistics post: these results are not absolute, and are personal truths instead of absolute ones. Even if the sample size is somewhat small, there’s still a lot that can be learned, and I am eager to see what Hisui and Narutaki have to say about the results.

This is Your Mythology: Psalms of Planets Eureka Seven – Pocketful of Rainbows

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EDIT: I previously labeled this movie as “Pocket Full of Rainbows” only to realize that the title is actually a reference to the Elvis Presley song “Pocketful of Rainbows.” As such, I’ve changed the title and the associated category accordingly.

When the Eureka Seven movie was announced, speculation began as it always does. BONES said they would be retelling the story of Renton and Eureka, and using some of the existing footage from the TV series in the movie. Fans wondered if this meant the movies would be a retelling of the TV series with content edited to make it flow better as a movie, not unlike the First Gundam movies. Preview images and trailers started being released showing Renton and Eureka together as small children, something that never happened in any previous Eureka Seven media. Now that Psalms of Planets Eureka Seven – Pocketful of Rainbows (or as it’s apparently called in English, Psalms of Planets Eureka Seven – good night, sleep tight, young lovers –) is out, we know that the plans for this movie were much more ambitious than most anyone expected.

Once again, Eureka Seven focuses on the boy named Renton and the girl named Eureka, only this time any hint of the previous series beyond a superficial level are thrown out the window. As mentioned before, now Renton and Eureka are childhood friends who are separated and then reunited amidst a war with an inhuman enemy called the Image. Connecting them is a small fairy named Nirvash, whose words only Renton can understand. Front and center in Pocketful of Rainbows are the concepts of mythologies and dreams, as the movie explores the effects their existences have upon the world and what they mean for human beings.

This is a new world with a new history, and familiar faces are anything but. If you’re approaching this movie without ever having seen any of Eureka Seven in its other incarnations, rest assured that they have little to no bearing on the events of the movie. If you’ve ever seen the Vision of Escaflowne TV series and the Escaflowne movie, the level of difference in Pocketful of Rainbows is even more pronounced. In fact, spoiling the events of one will actually NOT spoil the other!

For those of you who are fans already, let me tell you just one little thing that will make you realize how different this movie is compared to the source material: In the world of Eureka Seven: Pocketful of Rainbows, there are no such things as Coralians.

This movie uses existing footage better than any anime I have ever seen. This is not simply reusing stock footage to show flashbacks or for the animators to go, “We already animated this once, why should we do it again?” Just like how the characters may look the same but their insides have changed dramatically, the TV series footage is given new life. Even though the same animation is being used on a number of occasions, the context of each scene is so different from when it was originally used in the TV series that the meaning of these animations change entirely. You almost can’t tell that it wasn’t originally made for the movie. This also has to do with the fact that this animation was already impressive in the first place, and the scenes newly animated for the movie are just as good if not better.

Being a movie, Pocketful of Rainbows does not have the luxury of developing the relationship between Renton and Eureka as thoroughly as the original TV series, but it still manages to get a sufficient amount of characterization into them and others. Even though you aren’t given all of the information, the way the characters act around each other will make few of the revelations about character relationships seem jarring or negatively unexpected. BONES knew that this was a 2-hour endeavor instead of a 50-episode series and worked accordingly. It really shows, as I do not feel that this movie was rushed unnecessarily.

Overall, this was a fun and thought-provoking movie as an Eureka Seven fan. Expect future posts about it as I explore some of the concepts presented in Pocketful of Rainbows, as the movie has gives you a lot to mill over.

For those of you want to see the movie for real inside of an actual theater, you should know that Bandai Entertainment has plans to do exactly that, albeit dubbed. Tickets go on sale August 21st for a September 29th showing in select theaters across the United States.

A Base Twist: Psalms of Planets Eureka Seven (Manga)

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Before I start talking about the Eureka Seven manga adaptation, I’d like to explain what Eureka Seven is as a franchise. Eureka Seven was designed by Studio BONES and Bandai to be a sort of multimedia franchise that reaches out and expands beyond the normal frame of any single anime or manga series. You have the flagship anime, video games which retell the story of the anime, video games which act as prequels to the anime (which I’ve never played, but if I do get my hands on them some day I may review them too), a manga that is a prequel to the prequel video games, as well as a recent movie which is an alternate setting using the same characters. The Eureka Seven manga I’m about to review is somewhat similar to the movie in that it takes the characters and settings of the anime and adds a few twists to them here and there, but unlike the movie it sticks a little more closely to the plot of the TV series.

Unlike a lot of anime or manga, the Eureka Seven manga was not really made to be an “adaptation” of some source material that already exists in public entertainment, despite me using the word adaptation numerous times. Instead, the manga and anime were released almost simultaneously, so one does not rely on the other to be an initial source. Instead, the “source” for both of them is the director, Sato Dai. The result then is that as a manga, Eureka Seven is something quite unique, both relative to other manga in general, as well as to the anime TV series.

Premise-wise, the manga is pretty much the same as the anime. You have an impetuous youth named Renton Thurston, an enigmatic girl named Eureka, an anti-government group called Gekkostate, and there’s sky surfing and trappar and all sorts of familiar sights. Many of the plot points between the anime and manga are similar, too. However, many plot points are also quite different, and these changes to the story also change the basic feel of Eureka Seven.

The Eureka Seven manga is a little more action-based, a little more violent than the TV series. There’s not superfluous amounts of blood flying about, but people get hurt in the manga pretty badly. In other words, it reads less like the crescendo that is the anime and more like a sforzando. Now, if you’re like me and only knew the word crescendo (gradual buildup), and had to look for another musical term to continue the analogy, sforzando basically means “sudden changes.” The manga comes at you fast and hard, and at times it can leave you asking, “Wait, when did that happen?” Not that it’s necessarily a bad thing, of course.

There’s also more fanservice in the manga, such as panty flashes. And by panty flashes, I mean a character literally lifting Eureka’s skirt in Renton’s presence in order to get a rise out of him, both emotional and physical. Anemone in particular is given some choice sitations, as well as an ever-so-slightly different personality, where her cheerful side and her not-so-cheerful side are just a bit more extreme on either end.

I personally feel that the manga is not nearly as good as the anime, lacking much of the subtlety and grandeur of the anime, but that doesn’t mean I think the manga is bad or mediocre. I know some people prefer the manga because it doesn’t dawdle as much, and it really does get to the point more often, although it tends to be at the expense of building up the characters more. Still, I think it’s worth reading whether you’re an Eureka Seven fan or not. In fact, you don’t even need to have seen the anime in order to enjoy the manga, and it’s even possible you might enjoy the manga more if you don’t have the anime for a comparison.

The creators of the Eureka Seven manga, Kataoka Jinsei and Kondou Kazuma, are currently working on their own original manga called Deadman Wonderland. Check it out if you want to see them working in a setting that isn’t tied to a greater franchise beast.