Forum - View topicMs. Answerman: Tis the Season
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biliano*
Posts: 0 |
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Another comment on the Laughing Man logo in GITS: The scrolling quote surrounding the icon - "I thought what I'd do was, I'd pretend I was one of those deaf-mutes" - was spoken by the character Holden Caulfield in the J.D. Salinger novel The Catcher in the Rye. Prior to Catcher, Salinger wrote a short story called The Laughing Man, which was about a son of Chinese missionaries who was captured and deformed by pirates, and then became a criminal mastermind that gave most of his wealth to monks. This information can be found in Anime Insider #19 (page 44).
BTW, Rebecca, I like your picture. Happy Holidays 
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abunai
Old Regular
 Posts: 5463 Location: 露命 |
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Okay, it's official: I'm an idiot.
I've actually read Salinger's The Laughing Man. Even so, it never occurred to me, until now, to associate the name with the GiTS:SAC character. Very nice catch, biliano! As for Salinger's short story, the "kidnapped by pirates" storyline was not the whole story itself, but a story-within-a-story. I googled for it, and The Laughing Man can be read online here. - abunai |
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GATSU
Posts: 15581 |
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Last time I asked, Manga told me they were nearly finished on Alpha 2, and that Keith would play Akuma.
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Haiseikoh 1973
 Posts: 1590 Location: Waiting for the Japanese 1000 Gunieas. |
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Almost similar to the one in the show. |
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TiredGamer
 Posts: 246 Location: Florida |
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Re: Laughing Man gear
Ask and ye shall receive. |
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Sir_Brass
 Posts: 476 Location: Prescott, AZ |
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Cute picture of the cat, as well as his response
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Anyway, I couldn't help but notice that you failed to address the last part of the last question: Why, if the increase in anime is increasing, and the number of companies producing anime in the U.S. is rising, are anime DVDs still about $10 to $15 MORE in price NEW than almost all other DVDs? How is it that with a market that's becoming increasingly saturated, are we NOT having price drops in anime? Something about this is making my Teddy Roosevelt complex twitch, and it has the familiar ring of anti-trust laws to it  .
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Tiresias
Posts: 353 Location: Illinois, USA |
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If you think about it, in the case of domestic release movies and blockbusters, they can offer the lower price due to volume of expected sales and the fact that they don't have licensing fees to pay. Look at The Lord of the Rings movies or Spiderman or the Shrek franchise or even the Friends season box sets. In the case of the movies, they can easily expect to sell a million or more copies and in the case of TV shows like Friends at least 100,000 copies if not more.
When you look at anime on the other hand, it is still a very niche market when compared to domestic made releases. Not only do companies like ADV have to pay steep licensing fees and the cost of production/distribution of said titles, but they also have to cover these costs solely through the sale of DVD's, of which they usually don't expect to sell more than a few tens of thousands (10,000-30,000 copies) and in some rare cases closer to 50,000+ copies (Spirited Away can fall in this later group, but if it hadn't won an Oscar probably would have remained relatively unknown outside of anime circles). Basically, companies like ADV have to recoup ALL of their costs through the sale of DVD's (unless they have side deals for merchandise, even then though that has to be done through domestic sales) even though they don't really expect to sell as many DVD's as domestically made movies and series. By the time a movie like Spiderman or a series like Friends comes out on DVD, they have already paid for themselves over and over through advertising, box office receipts, and merchandising. So until we get the entire country to purchase anime in the same bulk as domestic products, we can expect to pay higher prices for our anime. On the other hand though, prices are dropping. You can now get an entire season of Slayers for $50, $26 if you go to Deep Discount DVD. Sure MSRP on domestic products is about $20 while on anime it tends to be $30, but if you go to places like Best Buy their anime is usually only price a couple dollars more than the domestic product. The secret is to know where to shop, thats why I avoid places like Sam Goody and Suncoast like the plague as they always charge MSRP. |
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Death27282
Posts: 1 Location: NH |
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I found Laughing Man stuff under Ghost in the Shell at hlj.com
http://www.hlj.com/scripts/hljlist.cgi?Count=200&Category=AppAppApp&Dis=2 |
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Mohawk52
 Posts: 8202 Location: England, UK |
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On the topic of OMG being ressurected (no pun intended) the manga is still very popular in Japan so that is one reason AIC and Mr. Fujishima decided to do the TV series that will allegedly follow the story arc of the manga from where the OVA left off. Allegedly.
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ANN_Bamboo
ANN Contributor
 Posts: 3904 Location: CO |
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Ha! Same here. I was re-reading Salingers Nine Stories over just recently and thought, "Heh, 'The Laughing Man' reminds me of GitS!" and conversely, "Hey, that's a quote from Catcher in the Rye!" but never put two and two together.  ; Thanks for pointing that out. Salinger is one of my favorite authors, so I'm enthusiastic to see he got a small nod from the series.
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The Spatula
 Posts: 163 |
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I'm not sure if this is true or not, but the guy over at Studio Neko-Hanten mentioned on Dec. 26 here that
Can anyone confirm this? |
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Necros Antiquor
 Posts: 571 Location: Funny in a car crash sort of way |
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Wow, I didn't know that there were more Salinger references in GitS: SAC. I wonder exactly what they mean in the context of the show. Hopefully they'll explain its meaning in later episodes. I'm lucky that part of my summer homework this year for AP English Language and Composition (11th grade) was to read Catcher in the Rye, otherwise I wouldn't have recognized the quote. I'm glad I got to read it anyways, since I love the author's style. |
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cyrax777
 Posts: 1825 Location: the desert |
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HAX
Posts: 8 |
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don't mean to be picky, but if ep 17 is the last episode, and its a 26 episode series, that would leave 9, not 8 episodes remaining
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abunai
Old Regular
Posts: 5463 Location: 露命 |
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Hmm. I went back and looked at GiTS:SAC for more flashes of Salinger - and came across something that I'd forgotten (though I remember thinking of it at the time I first saw the episode). In the 26th and final episode of the series, spoiler[Togusa, in despair over the circumstances following Section 9's dismantling, is plotting to assassinate the villain of the story, Yakushima. As he heads off to do the deed, he carries with him a copy of The Catcher in the Rye, clearly bookmarked in several spots. Now, this is an interesting reference - you see, both John Hinckley Jr., who tried to assassinate Ronald Reagan, and Mark David Chapman, who murdered John Lennon, were carrying copies of the book.
There's also a short flashback passage in ep. 24 where the Laughing Man talks about how he wanted to "be like the original Laughing Man" and fight injustice, and also compares himself to Holden Caulfield.] - abunai |
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