Forum - View topicANNCast - Otakon Special with Mike & Daryl
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Zin5ki
 Posts: 6680 Location: London, UK |
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A middle ground between giving one's full aesthetic attention to an anime and merely seeing it as a background distraction is quite possible. A cursory glance at each subtitled line, which in the case of easily-identified platitudes can usually be omitted, is enough to keep abreast with many episodes of a gentle pace. This allows for plentiful thumb-twiddling moments as one awaits more arresting on-screen events. |
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Alan45
 Village Elder Posts: 10013 Location: Virginia |
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I find I have to read rather than simply glance at subtitles. Likely attributable to differences in perception (or possibly my age). At any rate, I find that subtitles change fast enough that I can't concentrate on anything else. I've found I can't even read AnimEigo's program notes and keep track of a show at the same time.
What I do find interesting is that when a subtitle line seems to hang on the screen. Apparently sometimes it takes more words to say something in Japanese than in English. On the other hand, a single word, like Hai, can require a full sentence in English. |
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invalidname
 Contributor Posts: 2480 Location: Grand Rapids, MI |
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Otakon guest comments were interesting. I'd long had the impression that Otakon was kind of the #2 con for getting great guests. Like, if everyone is far behind AX for obvious reasons, then Otakon seemed like first among equals. Looking at the Wikipedia page for previous Otakons seems to bear this out (just look at 2013!), although the 2016 entry seems unfinished. Still, maybe the poor turnout last year left them with fewer resources to pursue top guests this year?
Or maybe, as Zac said, AX is just pulling all the air out of the room. Consider that Eir Aoi was the top musical draw last Fall at AWA and this Spring at ACen, and she was like 1/15 the musical lineup for AX this year. It's kind of nuts, and maybe not entirely healthy for the industry? Oh well, let's see if Otakon gets back up on its feet in DC next year, and if other major cons continue to draw some (if not all) top guests. |
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Surrender Artist
 Posts: 3264 Location: Pennsylvania, USA |
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“Passive viewing,” is analogous to, “I don’t really care about this,” for me. I just had that experience an hour ago when I spent most of Psycho-Pass The Movie reading old Answerman columns. I didn’t think that it was bad, just a little obnoxious and not especially engaging.
There wasn’t anything spectacular about the finale year in Baltimore. I felt very sentimental on my own and ever took a ‘one last look’ walk around the Baltimore Convention Center on Sunday afternoon. There was not, however, much sense of anything special from the convention itself. I’m not especially drawn by guests, but I did notice that there were no obvious ‘marquee’ ones. Maybe they should’ve tried to get John Waters to show up. He probably wouldn’t’ve known what was going on, but might have gotten a kick out of it. It was for me, vice any hanging out with friends, less about the actual convention than it had been before. I came this year with the express intention of it being my last Otakon; taking the departure from Baltimore as the right moment for me to likewise move on. My interest in anime has faded over the last year or so, four years tends to exhaust what conventions can offer and I always leave the convention feeling rather unfulfilled, although that’s entirely on me, not it. However, my conviction has wavered and I’ve fished for excuses to darken Washington’s door next year. I mean, Dubs That Time Forgot might return and I sure would like to see Masao Maruyama, who had to cancel his appearance, again. *sigh* Well, I’ll see what I do on Thursday when the hotel block opens. I came to my first Otakon in 2013 with a silly little personal attachment to Baltimore. When I was a child, my parents would take my brother and I there to see the aquarium. Philadelphia was closer, but historical museums would’ve driven my younger brother crazy, but fish seemed to be an acceptable compromise. I took an early train into the City and went to the National Aquarium on Thursday morning. This proved to be a mistake, not because of the exhibits, but because the whole place with awash with loud, obnoxious human larvae. They tended to get in the way of the exhibits and all of that incoherent, over-excited shouting makes me want to shut down. It ended up being one of the more miserable $ 40 that I’ve ever spent. (That price does seem awfully high; I wonder why that is) I also finally visited Piedigrotta. I liked it a lot. I wasn’t especially impressed by the tiramisu, but they made a very good prosciutto and mozzarella sandwich and their sfogliatelle were very excellent. (I’m counting their ‘lobster tails’ as sfogliatelle, even if only the smaller ones that seemed to be filled with a dense sponge cake were sold as such) I’ll miss Otakon being in Baltimore. Besides the association between the two developed over seventeen years, I don’t think that it will ever mean as much to Washington. I understand the decision to move; the Baltimore Convention Center has too many inadequacies. The skybridge between the main convention center and the Hilton has been a nuisance every year. It became nigh sadistic this year when for a while it was restricted to traffic travelling in one way, with anybody going the other required to go outside of the convention center into awful heat. That was borderline irresponsible and I hope that somebody got *achem* talked to in a less than kind manner for that decision. I really would like to know why it ended up so badly designed. My guess is that the elevator that cinches the convention center end is mandated by the American’s with Disabilities Act, but there must have been a structural limitation or planning error to produce such a defective skybridge. While I might speculate wistfully about a ‘homecoming’ in eight years, I’m doubtful. It’s uncertain that Baltimore will actually expand or rebuild the convention center. Major capital projects are incredibly hard in the United States under the best conditions because of complicated, fragmented and rule-bound study, design, procurement and permitting processes that require the cooperation of multiple counterparties and can be delayed or derailed at any point by lawsuits. Baltimore doesn’t operate under the best conditions and nobody can really build a case for such a vast, costly project on Otakon alone. They don’t really have a lot of time to act either. I would expect that the convention will need to decide about remaining in Washington several years before any potential change of venue. Whatever shambling coalition is responsible for the convention center would have to at least convincingly demonstrate that a new Baltimore Convention Center will be ready by the time that Otakon might conceivably come back. Even if Baltimore builds the Xanadu (Kublai Khan’s or Charles Foster Caine’s) of convention centers, painstakingly designed to Otakon’s needs, and somehow build the rest of the metro system that it was once planned to have, the convention might not come back. After a few years in Washington, Otakon might well become acclimated to the city and venue, or it might just offer a better deal. *** I really appreciated what Mike Toole and company did with the Discotek panel. His complaints about how dull and routine industry panels are reflects dissatisfaction that I’ve felt with them and why I rarely attended any after the first year or two that I was at the convention. I think in general that the best experiences require that the presenter command the focus and content of the panel. That entails a relatively structured presentation that emphasizes the presenter’s knowledge or perspective. Q&A too often amounts to wasting time on banal or just out-of-place questions. The worst are those who become deluded by having a microphone in front of them into believing that panel is in part about or even belongs to them. Part of Michael Sinterniklaas’ panel was eaten up by two jackasses, the worse of the two in Ash Ketchum cosplay, more interested in getting attention for themselves than the actual guest, much less those in line behind them. That was a shame, because when good questions were asked, Michael Sinterniklaas has enough experience in English dubbing to have a few fairly interesting things to say and stories to tell. The Mobile Suit Gundam Thunderbolt: December Sky English dub premiere was neat. Stephanie Sheh demonstrated that Mike Tool isn’t a newtype while stalling for technical problems, then we watched a pretty good film. I enjoyed the tone, excellent jazz soundtrack and intimate scope immensely, they were well-tuned to my tastes, but something about how it flowed, some of its dramatic devices and a sense of ‘missing parts’ nagged at me. I bet that somebody will submit a panel called, “The Worst Anime of All Time,” to Otakon next year. I was in the audience and I don’t think that the idea of continuing the form, but not the title, was entirely obvious to us, although I would think that any reasonably conscientious person would consider that. Regardless, it’s hard to imagine anybody successfully taking the challenge up. Even if there’s adequate content out there, few will have the uncommon temperament needed to find it or the means to deal with the language issues, but also be entertaining, engaging presenters. I thought about what it would entail when gauntlet was thrown down and was at a loss as to how new content could even be found. (Perhaps there’s a case for an Anime Dumpster Diving feature column) I sure have no desire to sit through, “lol md giest sure dumb,” although this Buried Garbage column suggests that the original cut might have some suitable content. Whatever happens, we’ll always have Charge Man Ken. Especially after Discotek streams it and perhaps releases it on DVD. (Something stupid inside me wants a laughably incompetent, awkward and amateurish English dub to go with it, but I don’t think that’s in the cards or even an actually good idea) Last edited by Surrender Artist on Mon Aug 22, 2016 9:12 am; edited 1 time in total |
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Lord Geo
Posts: 2665 Location: North Brunswick, New Jersey |
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This is exactly what Mike, Daryl, & Zac was bringing up, & it's also what I'd worry about. Many anime fans simply parrot what they hear from others, especially off of the internet, and that results in the strong possibility of someone making a "Worst Anime" panel that's nothing but Garzey's Wing, M.D. Geist, Apocalypse Zero, Violence Jack, Eiken, etc. Now there's nothing wrong with that if someone wants to do it, but it's going to be nothing more than a hollow wannabe that's simply parroting what you can hear from other people online on YouTube. That was kind of the magic that Mike always brought to his Worst Anime panels, which I've attended in prior Otakons & AnimeNexts. It always felt more like he was showing off the worst in animation itself, but not always denigrating the shows themselves. Meanwhile, other people who may try to take up this mantle will be taking the perspective of "These animes are just the absolute worst!", but without the sense of fun that Mike always gives off; instead, these people will be 100% serious about what they're showcasing. Mike never showcased any of his examples with any sense of malice or hatred, or at least he's been good at hiding it, while I'm sure any who try to replace him at Otakon will be echoing the "YouTube Shouty Men" style that they'll be influenced by. |
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Galap
Moderator
 Posts: 2354 |
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I can't personally passively watch anything. I'm in it for the full experience, or I'm doing something else.
For some other things I can do two things at the same time, but they must be in completely different brain channels, like visual and audio. For example I usually animate while I am listening to this podcast, and I can do that because paying attention to the podcast uses only the verbal part of my brain, and animating uses only the visual part, so in that case I can really pay full attention to both. But with film, it really takes my all, becuase there are visuals, dialogue, music, and interpretation , speculation, and critical thought that must be applied to all of those as well. |
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invalidname
Contributor Posts: 2480 Location: Grand Rapids, MI |
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Made it to the end of the episode on my ride this morning, so a few more thoughts:
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zrnzle500
 Posts: 3768 |
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On your first point, I think what Mike was getting at was that their successor looking at more recent stuff would end up giving into the temptation to go with stuff that is merely bad or viewed as overhyped, stuff he dimisses out of hand at the beginning of the presentation as insufficiently bad to be the worst ever. You could probably find some stuff amongst the unlicensed shows but the production values on the worst of those is probably better than the ovas that they dig up from the 80's and 90's. You could probably do it but you'd have to be disciplined, and even then you may not quite get stuff as bad as you could find in the 80's and 90's which would sort of defeat the purpose. |
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Zin5ki
Posts: 6680 Location: London, UK |
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Going by those statistics alone, that is denser than a great deal of university lectures! Attendees must have been taking rapid notes in order to keep up, assuming there was a need to do so.
Distractions such as that will only endanger you, surely! Had you much traffic to worry about? |
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zrnzle500
Posts: 3768 |
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^I don't know they explicitly said it, but using ride as opposed to drive implied that they weren't the driver of the vehicle so such distractions are both unproblematic and likely desirable.
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invalidname
Contributor Posts: 2480 Location: Grand Rapids, MI |
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Fair enough, and there's often a recency bias in anime list-making too (all those YouTube videos titled "Top X anime of all time" and almost nothing's more than 5 years old). But point being that as much as Mike & Daryl are experts on digging up stuff from the 80s and 90s, someone now focusing on the worst of the streaming era might pull up some truly awful stuff.
Heh, the slide count is just so high because of several long stretches of narration-by-screenshot, where I'm burning through one screenshot slide every 5-10 seconds. Still, point just being that there's a lot of prep time to do a presentation that way. |
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zrnzle500
Posts: 3768 |
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It's definitely possible, and as long as they frame it as you have, there is no problem with doing so. |
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relyat08
 Posts: 4125 Location: Northern Virginia |
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A little late to the party this week, but I didn't have time to listen to the episode until now. :/
I'm not a fan of passive watchers at all. I find it very hard to engage with them as fans, just in general. It's hard to have a discussion with someone about a particular show if they were paying so little attention that they didn't pick up on major details in a story, themes, or whatever. I find the number of people who are more than willing to do that, and then critique a show, alarmingly high though. Passive watching is already a little annoying, but if you passively watch something and then try to complain about it, it's hard for me to associate with you... I'll just never be a passive watcher. Like Zac said, if something is on the screen, I focus entirely on it. I have never been good at multi-tasking, and I don't really care to learn how. As to Otakon next year, I have lived in the area for a while, so if I can give you some helpful advice, the two museums you should really check out are the Natural History Museum and the National Gallery of Art. You won't be disappointed. Also, if you really want to do a White House tour, you'll definitely want to set that up at least a month in advance. |
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GVman
 Posts: 730 |
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I've never been much of a passive watcher. I used to think I was weird because I've considered myself a massive anime fan since I was 14, yet, in these ten years, I haven't seen as many shows as some of these folks whove only been into it for half the time I have. However, if people are not even watching these shows, I have to question why they're watching them in the first place. Whenever I try to passively watch something, I spend more time rewinding back and forth through the episode because I miss something that happened earlier that explains what's going on, and I put off whatever task I'm working on as a result. If people wanna watch something, they need to actually watch it. Anime isn't entirely dependent on the audio like a podcast; you can't just sit there and play your favorite game while you listen to the animation being all animate and whatnot.
I mean, hell, G-Reco had such a negative initial reception. Were people just not paying attention because they were too busy playing Dota 2? As for Quess in Char's Counterattack, I don't particularly find her character sexist, just teenagery. I could see myself possibly making the same decisions if I was in her shoes. (I sure as hell don't care for my dad, though, that is because he ran off when I was born). Admittedly, though, sometimes I feel like I have some sort of Newtype connection with Tomino, as he's the director I cut my teeth on. I absolutely love Brain Powerd, for crying out loud. |
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relyat08
Posts: 4125 Location: Northern Virginia |
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I laughed at this. But in all seriousness, I know more than one person that literally does that. They farm in whatever MMO they are into at the time while they have the anime on in the background. And then they complain that the anime was boring, or didn't make sense... |
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