Forum - View topicLeSean Thomas Schools New York on 'Consumer' Fans and Uplifting Animators
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Lord Geo
Posts: 2680 Location: North Brunswick, New Jersey |
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I'm sure Thomas was being rhetorical here, but it's simply because most people are extremely hesitant/scared to try something new out. They'd rather want something that reminds them of stuff they're already comfortable with, even if they don't realize it themselves. And, by that same token, production companies tend to hesitate with trying new ideas out, because they're afraid of losing money on it, when doing something that's familiar to people tends to be more reliable, financially.
Fully agreed, 100%. It's why if I really enjoyed an anime then I'll at least search who directed and/or wrote it & look into what else they did, because maybe I'd be interested in seeing more of what I liked about the prior work. It's the same with mangaka, too, which is why it's annoying when English manga publishers sometimes don't bother to license & release other works from creators who are successful & popular over here. Yes, Viz, thanks for continuing to release more JoJo but how about Cool Shock B.T. or a new release for Baoh, or how about Level E & Ten de Showaru Cupid during the constant long waits between new Hunter x Hunter chapters? It's really no wonder why people are fans of "works" instead of "creators", because most publishers here don't really bother to help make more fans of the latter. It's kind of miracle that Viz did just that by bringing over Tista & Blade of the Moon Princess because Spy x Family's a big hit, because I wish that kind of stuff happened more often. |
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SpacemanHardy
Posts: 2511 |
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I'm surprised LeSean has the gall to show his face in public again ever since his Cannon Busters Kickstarter campaign turned out to be a complete sham. The man took over $150k from 2,400 backers, went radio silent for years, and did nothing but give everyone a single bluray disc of the pilot. There were individual backers who spent literally THOUSANDS on rewards, only for them to be completely ghosted.
LeSean Thomas is a fraud and a pariah and he deserves to never work in the industry again. |
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sirdano1
Posts: 304 |
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Well excuse me for wanting good anime... |
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fathomlessblue
 Posts: 385 Location: Manchester, UK |
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That's a bold take considering Champloo was (especially at the time) a pretty unique mashup of classical Edo style and mid-00's hip-hop culture, that has rarely been replicated since. I didn't even take the show & even I recognized that quality. Meanwhile, if Vinland Saga was indeed the same old shit, there would be a lot less insecure manchildren whining about it for not being violent enough. If nothing else, I respect Thomas' drive, even if at best his works rarely seem to live up to the promises & hype he insists upon, & at worse feel boldly disingenuous or lacking self-awareness. Like whining about series being the same old shit but with black characters is a wild take from the dude who gave us Cannon Busters. I just can't tell how much of this is delusion, egoistism or just cynical self-promotion marketing nonsense. |
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garfield15
 Posts: 1535 |
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That was definitely not the right answer as not only are those two shows totally different, but the question was more like why did it become something so out-of-pocket and wild like it was what someone who thinks 'cool anime' is.
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Hopeless Weeb
Posts: 42 |
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I think what he meant was "why should my original show harp on some other show, simply because they're the same genre?", not that SS and VS are similar shows. Like there is a show where Oda Nobunaga is a dirty blond ikemen mecha-pilot who fights Arthurian-inspired magical knights in a interplanetary conflict, and I think Thomas questions why exactly his creation can't be allowed to be even an ounce as "out there" as that. |
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Sakura Shinguji
Posts: 199 |
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Quoting for emphasis. I did read the article, and appreciate Reuben putting in the work to write it. But as far as I'm concerned, LeSean can go take a long walk off a short pier, as the more polite saying goes. |
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Turtleboy76
Posts: 163 |
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Hmm it's almost as if Champloo and Vinland are 10/10 and Yasuke was a 5/10.
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YackDe
 Posts: 170 |
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Maybe he should stop making up imaginary people in his head who asked for Yasuke to be like Samurai Champloo to box with (and also stop committing fraud, that would be good), and focus on making something worthwhile instead.
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chronium
 Posts: 294 Location: Canada |
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The problem with his statement though is that Yasuke ended up harping on far more common types of shows and ended up being a very generic show. When people give examples they're using them to show what they think is quality and want to push the creator to do better and it has nothing to do with what deserves to exist or not. |
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mastix
Posts: 6 |
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"Why not" being the answer to that question isn't shocking at all given that the problem with Yasuke was the "lolrandom" energy of the whole thing. Maybe it's worth it as the director of a creative work to know why you're making certain decisions instead of thinking it's cool to do whatever stray idea comes to mind next. Following that, to respond to critics saying "Well then why don't you try it?" is as banal as it is unproductive. I respect not being on Twitter, but a little willingness to take feedback on board could help a director whose projects have had pretty mixed reviews.
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Yttrbio
 Posts: 3672 |
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SpacemanHardy
Posts: 2511 |
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The funny thing is, while he claims that he's not currently on social media to "keep his blood pressure low," he used to be very active across Twitter and most other social media outlets. It wasn't until he started getting called out over his Kickstarter that he killed most of his social accounts and made his Instagram private. It's not that he wanted to avoid stress in general, he just didn't want to have to be held accountable for his actions. |
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doctordoom85
 Posts: 2094 |
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That’s a pretty bad take on Get Out. There’s no 80’s horror movie that essentially used Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner? as a major element, and particularly having most of the discrimination from some characters be positive discrimination specifically. Us is even more unique, and I would laugh at someone claiming NOPE was derivative of a film of any genre.
Also, maybe he didn’t mean to imply that, but it sounded like he implied the lead being a “well-to-do” black person was an issue. How? It uses that to highlight how racism of any sort can target ANYONE regardless of financial well-being. It just feels like he comes off as bitter that Peele has been met with critical acclaim and general success compared to him. Funny enough, Peele himself is an anime fan (NOPE has a visual reference to a certain iconic anime moment, and he also used a certain anime series to influence the artistic design of……well, I won’t elaborate further as that would enter spoiler territory for the film). |
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flipperpurified
Posts: 11 |
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It seems the creator left socials some time ago (years), joining the growing exodus from the increasingly toxic environment of "X," Facebook, etc. The irony here is glaring—consumer comments here (are there any tv series creators here?) are doing exactly what he predicted: showcasing consumer elitism, entitlement, and misplaced demands because they simply pay for a subscription instead of letting their own professional approach to the craft be the counter-argument to the shit thats out there lmao. These self-proclaimed critics—none of whom are creators themselves—rush to critique, police, and dismantle creative projects, often projecting their own aspirations of being taken seriously as if they themselves are TV series creators. Yet, they lack the talent, resources, or creative autonomy that he currently commands—especially as he’s reportedly up for another Netflix original.
Amidst all this noise, what’s truly astonishing—and frustratingly overlooked—is the prestige and recognition this work has earned. For instance, the Japan Foundation, one of the most esteemed government-funded cultural institutions in Japan, partnered with the Japan Society in NYC, a leading cultural hub of a city and incredibly hard to penetrate, to host a solo-artist creation of a foreigner's series creations coupled with a film curation, free NYC High school, College and public talks, and publish an archival art book on the Yasuke production. This collaboration marks a significant achievement, one rooted in global cultural appreciation rather than the fleeting, binge-watch-driven Hollywood ecosystem. Yet, instead of celebrating these remarkable milestones the way ANN currently is by highlighting and covering this event for a non-japanese foreigner, the discourse remains drowned in shallow consumer opinions, dated grievances, and seems more influenced by chasing visibility than engaging in meaningful discourse. No wonder these comments get shut down by ANN repeatedly lol. Last edited by flipperpurified on Wed Nov 27, 2024 11:25 pm; edited 2 times in total |
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