Required Reading: Post-SDCC Edition
You may have noticed that it took me a couple of days to recover from Comic-Con this year. I’m blaming it entirely on the fact that after leaving a giant mass of over a hundred thousand comic/movie/game/anime nerds…only to head to Texas to spend time with a small, huddled mass of them instead. Talk about poor planning!
But never fear, there’s plenty for you to read while I continue to catch up with my e-mails, google alerts, RSS feeds, and– oh yes –my sleep.
1. Gurren Lagann Love - ANN has a spiffy interview with TTGL producer Yasuhiro Takeda, my personal favorite Gainax employee/co-founder Hiroyuki Yamaga, mech designer/animation director Yoh Yoshinari, and character assistant director Masahiko Otsuka. They didn’t really ask any fun questions– it’s more about story structure and the like –but it’s always fun to read the Gainax guys going on about stuff. So check that out here.
2. For The Nerd With LOTS Of Time To Spare - Boston University law student Joshua M. Daniels wrote a 36-page paper on the extensive alteration of shows like One Piece by companies like 4Kids, which he suggests violates the “moral rights” of the original creator (which you may recall from that whole TOKYOPOP pact thing). He moves on to argue that fans have an interest as strong or perhaps even stronger than the original creator’s in maintaining the integrity of the work, and that fansubbing may be a justifiable form of market correction.
Now, obviously in the case of One Piece the FUNimation version is available, uncut and whatnot, and as for everything else, well, most anime isn’t heavily altered when released in the US anymore, even if it appears on TV. So, it’s not really an argument that would be valid for most anime– if it’s valid to begin with. Still, it’s definitely an interesting read for anyone interested in the (very) in-depth legality of some current issues– from the point of view of someone with some actual legal training.
3. I Wasn’t The Only One Getting Free Stuff At Comic-Con - NPR has an article about librarians scoring free manga for their libraries at Comic-Con, as well as other comic books. The article includes some words from Eva Volin, a comics fan and librarian who was also one of the judges for this year’s Eisner awards.
4. Your Series Rec Of The Week - Animanachronism has a nice article up about Hoi-Hoi-san, an OVA and manga franchise about an otaku toy who becomes a cockroach-slaughtering robot at night. It’s a really cute show and a nice write-up– read it, then watch the OVA.
5. Required YouTubing - JapanProbe’s got a video about life in a Tokyo shantytown that’s a great watch, especially if you want to know some of the truth behind the occasionally romanticized shantytowns that appear in anime.
Keep busy, kids!
Tags: fansubs, FUNimation, gainax, Gurren-Lagann, hoihoi-san, one-piece, piracy, Required Reading
July 31st, 2008 at 7:02 pm
I dare someone to start pirating the re-edited version of Star Wars Episode IV on the basis that it “butchered” the original. Do it! :roll:
July 31st, 2008 at 9:44 pm
I read most of the paper (about 2/3rds to 3/4ths). First thing, footnotes at the end of each page great for increasing page count and for making it seem like you read more than you actually did.
Secondly, I couldn’t really buy into the guy’s argument. Aside from 4kids, heavy editing is increasingly rare in today’s anime, at least without an uncut counterpart. Viz does it with Naruto. If he thinks the dub itself is a form of editing, I can’t remember the last non-4kids series that was released dub-only since the Mobile Suit Gundam tv series.
Any edits that are made get approved by the Japanese producers. So what if you think the changes are just made because they fear or don’t understand the US market and want to get stuff on tv. It’s their choice.
And that argument about depriving the community of their art, it’s not our art. If anything, it’s Japan’s art. It’s more an aspect of their community and culture than it is ours.
Now I’m no Greg Ayers. I still use and enjoy fansubs, but this guy’s argument to promote fansubs just seems so asinine to me. At least he could have gone the tried saying of fansubs introducing people to titles they would not have known of otherwise and promoting series in the states.
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The shantytown video was interesting. The whole not showing the person or hearing him shows that it really could be anyone. Well done for such a short video.
August 1st, 2008 at 6:39 am
I liked the Funimation dub, it is really good (for English from Japanese). But I’ll give 4kids ONE thing: The voices for captain Buggy and Kuro were very good. (Buggy had a voice that matched his moniker and Kuro had this svelt thing going that was almost a purr. It worked really well.)
August 2nd, 2008 at 3:47 pm
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August 4th, 2008 at 8:24 am
Sure… I think it is commendable that Librarians are getting free books… libraries are moving toward including graphic novels at their libraries as it is a trend of reading for YA and publishing companies look for the purchases from libraries a lot.