Forum - View topicWhy Wasn't Space Dandy the Next Cowboy Bebop?
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Jose Cruz
 Posts: 1783 Location: South America |
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Spike also wasn't a nerd anyway. So that explanation doesn't work: Dandy was basically a lighter comedic version of Spike to me. Watanabe's characters tend to be similar, just like the ones in his Samurai rapper show whose name I forgot.
Let's get to the point here: Watanabe is not really that talented, he is one ok guy, like hundreds of other animation directors. He is not on the same level as Yuasa or Shinkai much less Miyazaki. His work is mainly decent entertainment. Cowboy Bebop was more hard hitting and also it is popular in Anglo-America because it panders to the particular cultural traits of Anglo-Americans. It's not that special either, I found Girls und Panzer for instance, which is not a very popular title among NA fans, slightly better than it. So it's perfectly normal that people will tend to forget his stuff since it's not special. Also, I don't like this obsession that Americans tend to have in classifying people into categories (like "nerds" the "jocks" used here). As if individual people could be labelled as just being parts of wider categories. It's use doesn't explain anything. Labels like those are just a way for ignorant people to convince themselves that they understand reality by ignoring it and replacing with simplistic categories that do not really exist. Finally, it is not true that anime is genre media: anime is a full medium. For instance, Only Yesterday is anime and it's not a genre movie. The same applies to thousands of other titles. |
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Chiibi
 Posts: 4829 |
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Isn't it because it's too stupid?
I'm no huge Bebop fan but I can admit, at least THAT is a "smart" show that would appeal to many for all its different elements. This is a comedy; comedy is the most subjective genre and it was a comedy I could not stand more than five minutes of. I hate the character design too; absolutely hate it. One glance at Dandy and he's practically screaming "Look at me; I'm annoying!!!" lol |
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Joshua Zarate
Posts: 2062 |
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Okay, how in the world does that work when both of those shows are completely different from each other in nearly every aspect? You’re comparing apples to oranges here and it’s not only unfair, but also impossible to ever work. It’s not even apples to oranges, what you’re trying to do is baseball to soccer.
Since when did you speak for all people? Next time, try saying that that doesn’t sound objective as heck since there are lots and lots of people who really enjoy those works and remember it fondly for good reason. 
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DerekL1963
 Subscriber Posts: 1117 Location: Puget Sound |
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Not to mention... If "nobody" remembered his stuff, how are we five pages into a passionate discussion of his stuff? What a silly thing to say. |
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Top Gun
 Posts: 4650 |
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Anyone saying this has no sense of directorial talent at all. Watanabe is probably the most cinema-minded director in the industry right now. The one thing almost all of his works have in common is that, shot-to-shot, they feel like movies. He has an incredible sense of the "camera" when composing a scene.
Human brains are literally hard-wired to classify and categorize what they observe. You're being completely disingenuous if you're pretending you don't do the same. |
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dharlow
Posts: 22 |
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I really enjoyed Space Dandy and was disappointed that it wasn't a success.
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SheRrIs
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I disagree with the suggestion that Western nerds hate characters which are both mean and stupid. See the abridged version of Code Geass: CodeMENT , which is super-popular on youtube. Lelouch is portrayed as an asshole and an idiot. But then again he is not alone, the supporting cast has been rendered into idiots and meanies as well.
 I feel it all depends on the execution and whether jokes are genuinely funny.
As for Space Dandy, I dropped it after a couple of episodes. I didn't like the MC, the secondary cast had no presence and the content of the show just wasn't funny enough. BTW, I'm a huge Gintama fan and after all these years I still burst out laughing every now and then while watching new episodes. |
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DmonHiro
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I think it's simple: there's almost no rewatchablity for this show. Some episodes are downright boring and pointless and the ones that are good aren't that good on a 2nd watch. They should not have had different directors on this. It was just average.
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Stuart Smith
 Posts: 1298 |
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I think the answer is fairly obvious. Space Dandy wasn't your first exposure to adult anime, nor was Space Dandy the flagship premier to an adult oriented block like Adult Swim. A big part of why Americans love Cowboy Bebop is that it was a cultural milestone, much like Voltron and Robotech in the 80s, or Power Rangers and Pokemon in the 90s. Nothing is going to recapture that bit of nostalgia and media exposure for you. A seasoned fan who has been into anime for decades watching Space Dandy can't compare to a wet behind the ears kid seeing Cowboy Bebopp, and by extension, anime not dumbed down for afternoon kids TV for the first time . It also explains why Americans still worship it to this day, while Japan moved on from it ages ago.
-Stuart Smith |
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Top Gun
Posts: 4650 |
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Funny, because I'm finding it extremely rewatchable myself. Most of the episodes have a whole ton going on in them visually, and there's all sorts of little fun details I know I missed the first time around. |
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Jose Cruz
Posts: 1783 Location: South America |
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It is super standard in manga and anime to have a "cinematic style". Watanabe is just following the standard which has been the standard for decades before he started directing. His style is nothing spectacularly different from the others. And he is not very famous in Japan, his works never won a Japanese Media Arts Festival prize for instance: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japan_Media_Arts_Festival Watanabe includes rap and jazz soundtracks in his works and the writing style of his works is heavily inspired by american serials. Hence, he is popular among North American anime fans because his style is very americanized and so appeals to the american tastes. However I personally don't see nothing really impressive about his work. He is not remotely on the same level as the masters of the medium such as Miyazazki, Anno, Yuasa, Oshii or Takahata. His work lacks the emotional power, intellectual sophistication and aesthetic creativity that characterizes true masters of the medium. Although he is a good director I don't rank him among the best and the same applies for the Japanese critics.
It is true that people tend to be stereotype. That is normal but it is also morally wrong. However, if you are aware of stereotyping then you can prevent yourself from doing that. It is easy: never try to describe an individual by the group he is from. The same applies to describing works, for instance, the habit many people have of stereotyping anime is also a problem. For instance, one should never describe "anime fans" as being a "type" of people. There are about 3 million people following Crunchyroll on facebook right now, looking at the profiles of those people you can notice there are many different types of people. That is not hard to understand.
Oh, did you read the article? It is about the fact that Space Dandy is just completely forgotten by the NA fandom while Cowboy Bebop is 20 years old and still popular in NA. Last edited by Jose Cruz on Sun Mar 11, 2018 11:55 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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DerekL1963
Subscriber Posts: 1117 Location: Puget Sound |
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Oh, speaking of not reading, did you not read what I wrote? ("Discussion" not "article". There's a difference.) Not to mention, ROTFLMAO at nonsense like "read the article". The article proves you wrong as well - because (again) if "nobody" remembered his work then the comparison couldn't exist because Bebop wouldn't be remembered. |
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Jose Cruz
Posts: 1783 Location: South America |
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I don't think you understood what I meant. My point was simple: the article was wondering why the NA fans forgot Space Dandy. I explained that they forgot it because it was the work of a mediocre director and it's normal that people forget about the works of a mediocre director. I never claimed that everything he did was forgotten by the NA fandom and I even included an explanation why Cowboy Bebop is still remembered despite being the work of the same mediocre director. But apparently some people are easily triggered by personal opinions. You should learn the fact that that art is subjective and hence the fact you love something doest mean everyone else should love it. Cheers, J.C. |
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DerekL1963
Subscriber Posts: 1117 Location: Puget Sound |
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That may have been what you meant but that isn't what you wrote. It's not even close to what you wrote. If you expect people to react to what you meant, then you need to write what you meant.
No, I'm triggered by people who don't read what I wrote - even after their failure of comprehension has been pointed out to them. |
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Jayhosh
 Posts: 972 Location: Millmont, Pennsylvania |
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WRONG. Space Dandy is a masterpiece that we don't deserve. Maybe someday people will finally start appreciating it more. Here I thought we'd finally gotten past people mis-labeling it as just a shallow comedy. No, it's not "the next Cowboy Bebop." That's probably because Watanabe was only the chief director, a curator of talent, and very rarely he storyboarded and wrote an episode. It was a Shingo Natsume and crew series more than anything. And also it was NEVER advertised as being such. Sorry you built up unreasonable expectations for a show that never promised them. Adding "from the whatever of popular thing" isn't a marketing tactic that just happened with Space Dandy. It's all just white noise. I feel like the only people who accuse it of just appealing to horny nerds with fanservice or being a shallow comedy are mostly those who haven't actually seen past the first few episodes to realize that it has so much more to offer. A lot of the comments here are just really ignorant and don't accurately portray the show. Giving off the impression that most of those people never saw the World Without Sadness or road trip or finale episodes. Dandy is FAR from just a weightless or shallow comedy. In fact it disguised itself as such a deceptively simple show that that only made it's eventual deeper explorations all the more impressive. It's one of the most tonally and emotionally varied anime out there, which is why I adore it. Oh, and "wahh the main character is MEANNN." Please. Dandy's got a Dandy soul beneath all his ego, and QT is a total cutie. Last edited by Jayhosh on Mon Mar 12, 2018 6:14 pm; edited 2 times in total |
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