Forum - View topicINTEREST: Director of Gundam SEED Thinks Anime Has Too Many Regulations
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Parse Error
 Posts: 592 |
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The only reason other things aren't at the top already is because people are too obsessed with complaining about the shows they don't like for many of them to realize there are other things out there. The way some people talk, one would think at least 90% of anime are fanservice-packed ecchi harem comedies, but those are actually just a tiny fraction of late-night anime alone, and a smaller one still of anime overall. Most seasons the same is true of iyashikei/"moe"/cute-girls-doing-cute-things anime as well. Now, one could look at all the rest and still not find anything they like, but in that case it's not this handful of shows causing the problem. However, some fans insist on heading straight for the most controversial ecchi show of the season and then start bawling their heads off about having nothing else to watch. Meanwhile, there are dozens and dozens of other anime each season, and the vast majority for quite some time now have had nothing more risque than some cleavage and the occasional swimsuit. The fandom seems to have gradually gotten somewhat better about this over the past couple years, but for a long time threads about ecchi and "moe" shows were always on the first page of various forums mostly because of people moaning about them killing the anime industry, while the ones for "good" anime typically languished on the last page with two or three posts each. It becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy because complaining about things one hates instead of looking for and talking about things they like only gives the former the most exposure and makes the latter more obscure to the many people who only check out what seems popular, who then contribute to the cycle themselves. The "trash" can't sink when most people who supposedly want it to are so determined to keep it afloat. Coming back to the censorship and restrictions issue, there's more to it than just steam/black spots/light beams/etcetera in late-night anime. A bigger problem is the kinds of themes and content that are pretty much off-limits for daytime and evening anime nowadays. For the most part, mainstream anime has lost the appeal it once had for older audiences outside of Japan, and they've had to migrate to the otaku space for less family-friendly fare. What I find strange is that somehow otaku are always cast as the scheming villains responsible for this shift, while the mainstream are portrayed as poor innocent victims who had their precious anime stolen from them by otaku and laced with moe to poison any who might try to recover it. Modern Japanese mainstream culture is what caused the problem in the first place. It was because they went all "won't somebody please think of the children" over Evangelion that most contemporary anime made for mainstream timeslots aren't the type of shows many Western fans prefer. The late-night market they were exiled to only has a limited capacity for those series, because most non-otaku don't buy the merchandise required to sustain them, and those who do will not or cannot do so very often. Although some anime are a hit with both audiences, it's not practical to deliberately aim for that with any great frequency, as failing to win over either one is the more likely outcome. Last edited by Parse Error on Wed May 21, 2014 10:51 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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TitanXL
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That's not censorship, that's business. Why adapt some obscure manga when you can adapt a popular one? Content isn't going to stop them. If there's content they cant show in a daytime anime it will be changed no problem. Not going to stop late night anime either. Qwaser, Lotte, Queen's Blade. Good luck topping them. What manga are you referring to exactly? What manga aren't being made into animre because of 'vaguely worded laws'? Censorship has nothing to do with a company gambling on an obscure manga title. |
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Hellwarden
Posts: 321 |
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Man, the censorship of Pupa was just....baffling. spoiler[A guy threatening to stab someone was censored more than an already stabbed baby....just...wut?] |
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enurtsol
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Much of the industry is targeting the same several thousands fans trying to sell enough discs. Commerce diversify their portfolios by using different brands and business plans targeting different markets, kinda like TV having different channels for different market audiences. Imagine if TV channels are dominated by the same target market, TV would be (even more) boring. Anime has to reclaim some of its lost timeslots. It shouldn't let itself be relegated mostly to the corner timeslots; it has to make its greater presence felt all over the big ballroom. As manga has something for any different segment, it's not that it needs to pander to us, just that to pander to more different people, even if it's not us. Still, it has gone a lot better since the Great Recession when pretty much companies played it safe in sales.
I've also covered this phenomenon here:
Hitchcock is often covered in film studies, and he had limitations in technology and what's societal restrictions acceptable in his time; yet he created amazing stuff. |
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FenixFiesta
Posts: 2581 |
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Stan Lee had to spend most of his creative years under the dogma of the Comics Code Authority and has expressed in many different ways that Lee HATED it, artistic regulations are draconian concepts thought up by people that don't understand the simple concept that there kids are going to see or read about some pretty messed up things regardless if it is in the News, the bible, or history books, so what does it matter if there is a taste of graphic violence in a comic book or a popular animated series? |
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residentgrigo
 Posts: 2467 Location: Germany |
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The comic code killed compete genres till the 70s and made Batman go to space(Batman x from the year 3000 is the best so some good thins happened). BUT companies like EC went under ! It was a dark time no sane comic author today would want anything like this again. Why are people in this board defending its return in japan ?
Censorship is for Nazis. My personal favorite censorship is form the Nightcrawler episode from the 90s X-men where they gave the poor german farmers laser guns. The Blade/Punisher scenes and MJ "death" on 90s Spiderman was also a "highlight". I also have seen tons of 70s and 80s anime and the echis back then actually tried a bit to be comedy. Ping Pong Club and Kiss X Sis are night in day in my book but that is another point entirely. I complan about lack of choice not tits. Fukidas only point that i don´t get is his Flay comment. What was so bad about here scenes ? Her characters writing was nonsense and i didn´t "get" her arc but the "sexscene" ran uncensored on american day time tv and they kept her a racist. What am i forgetting ? I think they just censored the violence in America. Why would Tv Tokyo have a problem whith her today ? Last edited by residentgrigo on Thu May 22, 2014 10:27 am; edited 1 time in total |
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residentgrigo
Posts: 2467 Location: Germany |
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The wort case of censorship in anime/manga is actualy this manga Koe no Katachi.
And here a quote from the man who gave us Akira: "I don't think the Japanese anime industry is in a particularly good state now. You have to take last year's earthquake into consideration. The proper budgets needed to bring animation to cinemas just aren't available at the moment. More time needs to pass, or perhaps collaboration with animation houses overseas is the answer. I can't see it happening yet. I think we need some more time." animenewsnetwork.com/news/2012-04-16/akira-otomo-comments-on-state-of-anime-industry And regarding Code Gears chaninging it timeslot and being rewritten: http://gundamnmahq.blogspot.de/2008/08/news-code-geass-r2-not-exactly-as.html Sorry that i couldn´t find a better source but i rember multiple sites writing about this with a good source. Sunrise delayed the ending to season 1 to adjust and reanimate but i can´t confirm this now. And finaly the expose i mentioned early on: animenewsnetwork.com/feature/2012-03-05 |
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FenixFiesta
Posts: 2581 |
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Because if anyone were to try a similar scene today for a new series with the same time slot that Seed had occupied, it simply would get shot down by current regulations. Mel Brooks commented similarly about Blazing Saddles and that such a vision of a "politically incorrect comedy" could not be produced today due to the "PC police" backlash. It is the unwritten regulations that are just as much a nuisance as the ones that are actually scribed and the fear of people "thinking about the children" (even though the material is marketed specifically for a Mature audience) is just as hindering to the process. |
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residentgrigo
Posts: 2467 Location: Germany |
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I wonder what will happen to Zankyō no Terror even at night.
And yes Blazing Saddles would be an "arthouse" production today. But Hannibal(best show on tv in 2014) is TV-14 and had a man eating is own face last week ! Then again the ratings are a nightmare. |
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Parse Error
Posts: 592 |
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I'm not feeling up to doing a year by year comparison right now, but just a brief glance at the current TV schedule makes it clear there are already plenty of anime in day and evening timeslots. What has lost ground are series that were made for younger children in Japan but seemed more appropriate for people in their late teens and beyond elsewhere. |
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lostrune
 Posts: 313 |
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Now imagine what kind of stuff he could have made without censors hounding him  Sadly, we'll never know.
Hm, just looking at what's currently airing for the mainstream children's audience brings up a ton of shows. Gaist Crusher, Fairy Tail, Youkai Watch, Lady Jewelpet, Pretty Rhythm All Star Selection, Tenkai Knights, Matsutarou, Baby Steps, Aikatsu, Danchi Tomoo, Detective Conan, Sazae-san, Doraemon, Chibi Maruko-chan, Shin-chan, Future Card Buddyfight, Cardfight Vanguard, Ace of Diamond, Dragonball Kai, One Piece, Naruto Shippuden, Pocket Monsters XY, Folktales from Japan, Haikyu, Yu-Gi-Oh, Arc V, Hero Bank, Oreca Battle, Majin Bone, KutsuDaru, Gigant Shooter Tsukasa. There are a few more I might have overlooked, but that's over 30 shows currently aimed at the daytime children audience just to give a rough idea of the number. By contrast, 30 is the number of shows we got on television for the entire year back during the 90s  1999 was when the number started picking up towards the 40s and 50s then into the 2000s we're at where we are today pretty much well into the 100s. I think kids got a nice selection of stuff to choose these days
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Parse Error
Posts: 592 |
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Correct, but that was also part of what I said. The other part is that most of those shows no longer have much crossover appeal with older audiences outside Japan.
I think it's discontented anime fans who could benefit most from such an example as the Vocaloid phenomenon has set. Consider the amount of Vocaloid music videos and skits that are out there, and the tools such as MMD that people have created to aid in their production. Next, just think about how many (wo)man-hours have been invested in complaining about how this or that has killed the anime industry. If the malcontents in the anime fandom would get off their bums and generate self-produced content, they'd have even more to enjoy than otaku do. It's not that I disagree with what you're saying or anything, it's just baffling to me why so many people think it's beyond them to fix the perceived problems themselves when modern technology allows them to do so. Last edited by Parse Error on Thu May 22, 2014 1:58 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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lostrune
Posts: 313 |
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Think that's more their problem than the shows You can probably just throw that one up to nostalgia. They grew up watching Sailor Moon, Pokiemon and Digimon so they can go back now as adults and still enjoy those. Stuff that comes out now when they're adults doesn't have the same hold cause they didn't grow up with it. Kids anime today ain't much different than ones in the past, just with prettier graphics now. I'd say Pokemon now is way better than the original series. More plot, better animation, better characters. Definitely sounds like a case of nostalgia.
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residentgrigo
Posts: 2467 Location: Germany |
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What happened to World Masterpiece Theater ? They made good shows for all ages. Folktales from Japan is actually a good idea for an edutainment show. Hope it´s good. Did you guys know that there are 2 Anne Frank animes. The film by madhouse is really good 8/10. That is some crossover appeal right there. Couldn´t be made today though.
I for example watched the first 2 seasons of My little Pony and liked what i saw, i love Wonder Falls and other recent cartoons liek Beware the Batmanon so the west is doing it right. I am only a grow child too. Baby Setps is actually a shonen manga(8,5/10) but the audience of the magazine is not teens anymore according to wikipedia. I wouldn´t consider it a kids show. More like all ages without a "real" target audience. The manga iss kind of like Space Bros. And Naruto is also maybe a bit too violent. That could be the reason they made the surprisingly decent(at least the manga)Rock Lee spinoff. thanks for the list. I also watched a few clips form Victory Gundam to remind myself of days gone by and would like to share this masterpiece to the class: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3yYkxTfeVKs How anyone let this one fly i don´t know but just imagine this show running as a daytime cartoon anywhere else in 91. I love oldschool anime but it was crazy. Last edited by residentgrigo on Thu May 22, 2014 2:36 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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Parse Error
Posts: 592 |
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That is true to a large extent; fans like their shows to grow up with them, while the mainstream prefers them to stay safe for children. Nevertheless, what's considered safe for children has become a lot more limited than it used to be. If expectations changed while daytime anime itself remained the same, the gap between those expectations and reality would be smaller than it is when these are moving in opposite directions as they have been. |
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