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NEWS: NTUSA Re-Writes Challenged by Columnist

Most perioical or news writers know that editors don't have the luxury of sending all of the revisions back.

Unfortunately this kind of practice is relatively common. Common enough that some staff at ANN questioned why we bothered reporting on it, "Everyone knows that the major magazines often dilute reviews, why bother writing about it, its not news" is a rough paraphrase of what I was told.

Personally, I felt it was worth reporting because this is the first time someone in the anime industry has spoken out about it. Generally writers keep their mouths shut or complain amongst themselves in private, because a public complaint pretty much spells the end of their career. [...]
-t

This is all true. My impression is that even the fans on AOD showed little understanding or interest in what Corey Henson wrote -- and he is not exactly a nobody. The AOD post got a few responses of the "why'd they do that?" variety, and then it was locked by a forum moderator who explained that there was already another thread open for discussing the contents of that issue of NTUSA. But that thread never picked up on it. Henson's post has sunk into obscurity almost immediately -- a small reward for "ending his career," I think....

Unfortunately this kind of practice is relatively common.

Perhaps Newtype USA "asked" AoD to either remove the offending matter or lock such threads due to reasons unknown. AoD response is to lock it, and refer any further matter to another thread.

Haiseikoh 1973 wrote:

Perhaps Newtype USA "asked" AoD to either remove the offending matter or lock such threads due to reasons unknown. AoD response is to lock it, and refer any further matter to another thread.

Looking at the post the mod made when the thread was locked, it seemed normal moderating to me. I mean sure, this was a specific issue with a review, but it was in the Jan issue of NTUSA, which they already had a thread for. Would I have locked the thread? No. You could probably find other mods on AoD that wouldn't have locked it either, just like you could find more that would. In any case, it's not like the thread was deleted, which if NTUSA would have had anything to do with it, I'm sure that is what they would have wanted. In the end, it just means that instead of posting in that thread, now you have to post in another one, big deal.

I just want to add to my previous comments that I didn't post my comments out of spite towards ADV. I still have friends on Newtype's staff. I merely wanted to protect what little reputation I may have as a comics reviewer--I would hate to think that anyone would buy Karas based on what was printed in Newtype, and never trust my review skills (such as they are) again.

I do purchase NTUSA, but for the same reason I buy the Japanese version...to look at all the pretty pictures.

zaph:

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The original said that the comic "fails miserably." The rewrite said that it "works just OK." "Fails miserably," to me, says that this comic was a veritable train wreck. "Works just OK" tells me that it's hit or miss, but it's not terrible.

Actually, he said "fails considerably", which means that it's not a total loss, thus validating the argument that it's at least satisfactory if not excellent.

Quote:

The original says that the creators try to cram too much story into too little space. It's neutral on the story itself, but says that they don't give themselves enough time to fully develop it. The rewrite says that they have a "tremendous story to cram into a small space." Tremendous, although it can mean simply "huge," usually carries a positive connotation.

Tremendous can also imply bloated and slow.

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Then the addition tacked onto the end of the final sentence in the rewrite directly contradicts what he said in his original version.

Not necessarily, since the writer still seems ambivalent enough about the content that he chooses not to knock it out of the park. If he hates it, then why doesn't he be more consistent in his opinion, instead of leaving room for the possibility that it could be positive later?

Quote:

The original says that the creators try to cram too much story into too little space. It's neutral on the story itself, but says that they don't give themselves enough time to fully develop it. The rewrite says that they have a "tremendous story to cram into a small space." Tremendous, although it can mean simply "huge," usually carries a positive connotation. It means not only that there's a lot of story to tell, but that it's a generally good story.

Nice analysis dude, but is the other way around.