Forum - View topicINTEREST: Ender's Game Author Praises Cowboy Bebop
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Echo_City
Posts: 1236 |
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Someone with a grasp of the basic tenets of grammar. (See underlined text) Where Orson Scott Card, or any person with fame levies their unsubstantiated opinions does not matter. The principle of him making such sweeping statements that have a great risk of doing harm to other franchises is what I take issue with. He could post it on his blog, and I'd have the same issue. Though his blog probably has more viewers than this paper, so I'd be more upset with it. As to your text I made bold, more political stereotyping is not what this thread needs. |
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GATSU
Posts: 15470 |
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Daryl: In the defense of those attendees, Mardock Scramble hasn't gotten much buzz, even in Japan. And the title sounds like it's tailor-made for hard sci-fi geeks, and not general fans. So I do think there's still a market for SF here, or people wouldn't be buying Makoto Shinkai's stuff and/or TTGL.
Echo:
You seem to forget the war back-story in Bebop.
Um, he's won Hugo and Nebula Awards.
Yes, that's why one of our shuttles was on the show. |
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Chunx
Posts: 75 Location: Lion City High Command |
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I guess I'll withhold my full thoughts until i see Firefly and Planetes myself, but get this: if Civil War influence is that heavy as you mention in the show, then the target audience is clear. They resonate with it. I'm afraid I may not be since I'm from a tiny island on the other side of the Pacific. Perhaps that where the difference lies, what you see as great because it anchors itself with history may not have the same effect elsewhere. Bebop doesn't and I love it for that. Until I see Firefly and judge, I'll defend Bebop to the last.
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Matriel
Posts: 87 |
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source: http://www.answers.com/topic/orson-scott-card Yeah...he just lost a huge amount of respect from me as well. Thanks, xBTAx, for sharing that or else I would have been completely ignorant of his activism. |
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unready
Posts: 405 Location: Illinois, USA |
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First a reminder: Firefly was an American live-action television show by Joss Whedon, they guy who brought us Buffy the Vampire Slayer, among other things. It's an interesting comparison, especially considering Tim Maughan recently stated (last week's ANNcast) his dislike for Joss Whedon and J.J. Abrams creations as soap operas. FWIW, I'd agree about Buffy, Angel, and Lost, but I thought Firefly was pretty good and avoided that trap. Serenity was stupid, but for different reasons Firefly was episodic SF, very much, I think, in the spirit of the original Star Trek. Cowboy Bebop was the same in that regard. So the comparison is interesting, although I think Firefly and Bebop have little in common with each other, other than their series structures. I am a bit surprised that this thread isn't filled with a typical Firefly-was-great vs. Firefly-was-crap spam war, but maybe this is the wrong web site for anyone to even remember it. |
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unready
Posts: 405 Location: Illinois, USA |
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Basically he's a really religious Mormon. You'd never know that from reading his fiction. I don't particularly agree with his personal politics, but that hardly detracts from his work or his views on, frankly, things that have nothing whatsoever to do with his politics, like, oh, Cowboy Bebop. |
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SgtMustang
Posts: 158 |
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CB is def a great anime, and prob the most accessible to western audiences, especially if your a fan of scifi.
I wouldn't be surprised if Joss Whedon had watched a bunch of Cowboy Bebop and Trigun on Adult Swim back in the day when he came up with Firefly. |
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Echo_City
Posts: 1236 |
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How is "anime snob" defined? Anyone who likes anime and talks about it,or does it refer to an elitist anime fan? Considering how Card polarizes issues, I'm not sure. Shoot, considering how much of a rabid pro-Union history buff he is, I'm surprised he can even watch Firefly. He holds the Union to the same standards that anime purists hold Japan--they can do no wrong. Orson Scott Card watching Firefly should thus be like a sub purist watching a "Fosterized" ADV dub. Also, we remember what happened the last time a famous writer got into an animated show due to his daughter, right? We got the Last Airbender movie! If nothing else, that precedent is cause for alarm.
I don't see it as great because it anchors itself with history--instead I see a show which is great, that embodies history. If you enjoyed Ender's Game and are not a history fan, you could enjoy Firefly despite lack of interest in history, as Ender's Game heavily samples history. The best works generally do. If you've seen Excel Saga, it's the same thing as seeing a hilarious bit in the show but not knowing what inspired it. If you've seen Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers or other like sentai, the Municipal Force Daitenzen in Excel Saga means more to you, but it's still hilariously awesome even without having seen those shows.
To each his own. Though on a note, Planetes is completely different from CB. It's the closest I've seen anime come to hard science fiction. It's a 26 episode long narrative, with character development and continuity. You won't find a series of vaguely linked stand-alone action episodes, as you would with Bebop. Just so you know, before you dive in with false expectations. (IMO Stephen Foster is amazing as a director. I tried Gawl in Japanese. I tried Ghost Stories in Japanese. I ended up watching in English and enjoying an otherwise bland show.) EDIT: There's a modicum of merit in comparing CB to Firefly, but Trigun? That's bogus. Trigun was an inferior show to both CB & Firefly, and Outlaw Star. Furthermore, Trigun has nothing to do with Firefly at all. Next you'll be saying that Whedon's Titan AE was obviously influenced by Trigun or Bebop simply because they're all animated. |
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SgtMustang
Posts: 158 |
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The future western setting, clothing, and weaponry are pretty similar. So um yeah I have no idea where your coming from. |
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Melanchthon
Posts: 550 Location: Northwest from Here |
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Never really liked Cowboy Bebop. Just wanted to get that out there. I think there are some fair criticisms of it, the plot is too loose, the character development is weak, and there is too much repetition in it.
Card, on the other hand, I love a lot of his early work. Ender's Game is classic sci-fi, and the Worthing Saga is a really nice religious commentary. I have to say that his latter works really suck. The problem is two-fold: One, Card is not a good sci-fi author. He is great when dealing human emotions and interactions, but when it comes to science, well, I've seen Star Trek episodes with a better grasp on science than him. Secondly, instead of coming up with new ideas, he constantly returns to the same old shtick, rehashing and retelling the same stories over and over again. /Also, it's hard to take Mormons seriously after you learn they wear magic underpants. //Also, wouldn't an 'anime snob' dislike popular shows like Cowboy Bebop and instead prefer obscure titles like Akazukin Chacha and Daughter of 20 Faces and Shion no Ou and...Oh God, I'm an anime snob! I've become a monster! |
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enurtsol
Posts: 14872 |
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Hahahahahaha................. that's so like anime fans! |
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daedelus
Posts: 743 Location: Texas City, TX (ajd: 6/11/05) |
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I'm curious to know what the handful of shows are that he considers better than CB. It would be interesting to see if I agreed with him or not.
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edzieba
Posts: 704 |
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With the "$400 new" quip, I'd guess "anime snob" equates to "buys the R2J discs because they have better audio and picture quality".
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The World We Know
Posts: 35 Location: Austin, TX |
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It's awesome to see an icon of science fiction praise Cowboy Bebop so adoringly. It's almost at the level of Spielberg praising Miyazaki's work, and maybe even more significant, since Miyazaki is established here in the U.S.
Cowboy Bebop is brilliant, and almost 10 years after I first watched it, I can say that nothing I've seen in anime has surpassed it. How perfectly it wove together music, action and nods to many, many genres, while combining fantastic and moving character development episodes with fun and unique "episodic" episodes! It's masterful storytelling that excels in so many ways. |
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Shay Guy
Posts: 2252 |
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Something I've wondered about for a while: Take any anime series that's been released in the US. Divide the amount of revenue it's gotten from the US by the amount it's gotten from Japan. What anime would result in the highest number? Bebop, for sure. The Big O. FLCL. GoLion and Dairugger XV, if taken together. Kyatto Ninden Teyandee, maybe? I have no idea how you'd come at a figure for Macross/Southern Cross/Mospeada. Speed Racer? Ghost in the Shell?
I got into anime as a thing in 2006. Since then, I have watched and thoroughly enjoyed Gunbuster, Evangelion, Escaflowne, The Irresponsible Captain Tylor, Serial Experiments Lain, Tenchi Muyo! Ryo-Ohki, about half each of Bebop and Nadesico (I'll rent the rest of the DVDs and/or check them out from the library eventually), Macross Plus, Giant Robo, Perfect Blue, the Ghost in the Shell movies, the first Project A-ko movie, Nausicaa, Castle in the Sky, Kiki's Delivery Service, Porco Rosso, Princess Mononoke, Akira, Royal Space Force, the unedited SDF Macross series, SDF Macross: Do You Remember Love?, and what I believe to be the oldest anime I've ever seen, the Gundam 0079 movie trilogy. Don't worry. There are still those among us who respect the classics. |
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