Forum - View topicHey, Answerman! - Rub-a-Dub
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Shichimi
 Posts: 349 |
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That's a great response for Fansub & Crunchy Guy; there have to be some shows that are worth owning and filling up your shelf. The beauty of CR and other sites is that we can now sample stuff before we buy, if we feel that reviews aren't enough to go on. More importantly, because sites like CR cost hardly anything it encourages you to try out shows you wouldn't normally be bothered with. Really, for fans and the industry, it's win-win.
And LMAO at the Flake. Brian, seriously, don't you ever just suspect that people are trolling you in an attempt to get their flake up on your column for posterity? That's at least preferable to the alternative; some people really are that stoopid. |
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Charred Knight
 Posts: 3085 |
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Recently I saw that Amazon was holding a sales for Funimation Blu Ray with Heroic Age being one of them. I was always intrigued by the series so I saw the first few episodes on Funimation's youtube channel, liked what I saw, and found a brand new complete season copy for 26 bucks (total) and I recently watched the entire series.
It's not hard to be a fan, and support Funimation when your an american since Funimation has most of their anime available for streaming. If i really like a series than I buy it. Not only did I just buy Heroic Age, but I also bought FMA: Brotherhood Part 2, and Gurren Lagann. |
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Jen526
 Posts: 124 |
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Crunchyroll guy: I can totally sympathize. I seem to have caught the DVD-collecting bug in recent years, but for the longest time, I'd look at DVD's and just be thinking about how I *already* didn't have enough shelf space for all my books and media, and that I didn't rewatch often enough to be worth it.
Suggestion: Buy a few series on DVD now and then, but don't keep them. Donate them to your local library. Many of them have anime clubs for teens, and would probably appreciate the donation. It's kind of a double win: You're supporting the industry and funneling money towards the shows that made you happy, and also spreading the love for a series that you found particularly worthwhile... which can only be a good thing.
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vega427
 Posts: 80 Location: lansing, MI |
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For some reason the fact that I have no idea who the people are that were refered to in the replies to last weeks Question of the Week, or the person in this weeks, makes me sorta happy. Maybe because I'm not the otaku I thought (feared) I was.
(Disclaimer) Knowing these folk is a not nessessarily bad thing, I'm just saying..... |
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rabrek
 Posts: 188 |
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I'd note that the person who wrote in may simply have an uncluttered style. I've known a (very) few individuals who don't own media. No books, no CDs, no DVDs (or vinyl or VHS, back in the day - I'm old). They'd rent or go to the library or borrow from friends, maybe buy a used book then give it away when they were done. About half of them got by with a minimum of furniture, kitchenware, wardrobe, etc. (OK, one guy had a gazillion plants, but he managed to move house in two trips in his Subaru.) There are hardcore collectors at one end of the spectrum, and minimalists at the other end. In the middle you get a lot of people who have their weaknesses: people who can't understand why anyone would rewatch a movie or reread a book, but have stashes of figures/shoes/CDs/snow globes/refrigerator magnets/novelty mugs. It's a very foreign mindspace on a site with a demographic tilting decidedly toward the collector end of the scale, but Fansub & Crunchy Guy is clearly someone who gets little pleasure out of revisiting a series ("I don't like watching an anime series more than once") and may never buy a DVD. That said... it might be feasible to further support the industry by giving DVDs to interested friends on the usual gifting occasions, or buying someone a subscription to CrunchyRoll. Cultivating new fen boosts the anime economy, plus you have more people who share your anime interest. |
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Gasero
 Posts: 939 Location: USA |
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I can certainly sympathize with Crunchyroll & Fansub emailer.
I collected a couple series on DVD and that was it for me. When I realized that "yeah...there are some good episodes here, but I will probably never rewatch 90% of the episodes of the series." There is no way somebody could get me to even try to collect long form series like Naruto or One Piece. I watch those episodes (or read those chapters), maybe enjoy them for what they are, and wait for the next. There is little desire for me to revisit most of that stuff. The moment the anime industry started offering streams of my most watched shows, I instantly supported those and couldn't be happier. I wouldn't be averse to being offered the chance to download individual episodes though. There are certain episodes that I would like to collect, but serialized DVDs are a no-no for me these days. |
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bj_waters
 Posts: 234 |
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Just to clarify:
Do I think Grave Of The Fireflies is a bad movie? No. Do I think it's excruciatingly difficult to watch? Yes. I understand that it's a great movie because it does a gritty depiction of post-WWII Japan, but I really had a hard time watching it as all I felt was the growing morbid anticipation of the ending (and thus the shudder). It may be an anime classic, but I'll never watch it again. |
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CCSYueh
 Posts: 2707 Location: San Diego, CA |
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I can respect some people are not collectors. There are lots of people who, once they hit adulthood, see maybe 1 movie a year, buy no dvds, & what's on tv is all they need. Others lead a semi-nomadic lifestyle (often college students) so collecting isn't an option. I've known more than a few college kids where everything they have collected if they are collecting types is home with mom & dad.
However, fansubs are not the answer. Crunchyroll, etc. are probably all there is for non-collectors. If you live in certain areas, there may be theatrical showings of anime & I do recommend that. I saw The Bebop Movie, Escaflowne, & I believe all of the Disney-released Ghibli stuff since Spirited Away in movie theaters & it is a nice experience. I get a bit tired of the "They use the same voice actors in English dubs" whine. Not only is Brian correct on limited resources, but going back a bit, it was a common complaint that not every actor can dub anime. I recall one CPM commentary where the director complained out of a call of 100 actors, they'd consider themselves lucky to find 2 or 3 who could get the hang of matching the mouth flaps. They don't even worry about that in Japan, but here in the US at least thanks to one too many poorly dubbed foreign film making mis-matched lip movement a joke, we really care that it looks as though the character is speaking verbally & not telepathically. I believe it's also the familiarity with the language/not having to read the word/watch the movement, listen to the voice, but it seems a lot of people who make this complaint fail to recognize it's the same fricken issue in Japan & they seem to be happy with the same core of about 30 VA's being in 2-8 titles every season. Yes, they have hundreds of VAs in Japan, just as we have thousands of actors in the US, but we see the same big name actors in 2 or 3 of the films released in any given year because people WANT to see these actors in films just as people in Japan want Jun Fukuyama or Katsuyuki Konishi in this or that anime. One sees comments from the female manga-ka that they hear this or that role spoken by a certain VA. I have some vague memory of an author comment by Hana Kimi's Hisaya Nakajo that Masao Himejima was created with Takehito Koyasu in mind. The male manga-ka, on the other hand, seem more "I got this tape of the actors, some of them sound familiar" so maybe it's more a gal thing, but it is not unusual to see the gals talk about VAs voicing their characters which shows certain actors are standing out enough to be recognized. In fact, I noted a comment in one of the Zetsubo-Sensei lists poking fun at the idea of picking anime based on VA's. I do it so I suppose considering the whole fuss on other threads over things said by manga-ka as being sufficient reason to boycott their manga & consider them scum, but I realize all it means is I have a different method of picking what I like compared to the author. My late husband based the size of the tip for a meal on whether the waitress kept his iced tea filled which sounds stupid on the surface, but it does mean that waitress was keeping an eye on the table. I have always been aware of voices & tones & often got so caught up listening to the sounds of the voices in the Japanese track, I have to back up & read the subtitles. There's a purity for me since I don't speak Japanese that the voices are like listening to instrumental music which I don't get on the English side because I'm converting the words into meaning as I hear them. I like Crispin Freeman, Liam O'Brien & other American VAs, but I focus on the words because I can understand them so I don't get caught up in the tones they use as much. More often than not, on the English side, it's the horrid acting that stands out. |
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Sailor S
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As a collector, I really can't empathize with the non-collector mentality. It just seems too foreign a concept for me, much like the collector mentality is inconceivable to the non-collector. So, I guess if that's not your thing, so be it. But if you're living in North America, there's really very little reason to use fansubs anymore. With the options of services like Crunchyroll, you should be able to use legal streaming methods to watch plenty of shows. I'm not saying every show out there, but that goes back into that entitlement thing that has been brought up plenty of times in the fansub argument. You just gotta enjoy what you get, and I can't believe that there aren't enough shows being streamed to satisfy people. I enjoy things like eroges and VNs, and while I'd love to be able to play titles like the ef games, or Fate/stay night, I'm satisfied with what we do get. In the rare cases that I absolutely must have a game that hasn't been released here, I import it and then use a fan translation patch like I did with Kanon and Clannad. But, it doesn't matter. Once someone starts trying to go with the justification route for their actions, nothing anyone says will get through them.
On the issue of hearing the same voices over and over again, I don't see the issue with that. I mean, if you're a fan of dubs you must have gotten to like the voice actors, so what's wrong with hearing them in a lot of roles? I've taken a chance on many series that I knew nothing about just because my favorite seiyuu is in them, and often have been pleasantly surprised to find a good show to boot. I like hearing a familiar voice, and even better when the voice is slightly familiar, but still different enough to differentiate from their previous roles. |
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Megiddo
 Posts: 8360 Location: IL |
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Oh man, nobody wrote in about Yasuhiro Yoshiura. Now I really regret not taking the time to finish what I had written and send it in. More people need to know about what he can do with a very modest independent studio budget, but still make brilliant pieces of animation, even if they all take place in a cafe so far.
As far as DVD collecting goes... I don't understand the whole "I don't have shelf space" argument. Do you know where my DVD collection is? It's in my closet. 5 big cardboard boxes filled with artboxes, thinpaks, singles, etc. I don't have any shelf space (I don't even have a bookshelf in my tiny little efficiency), but I still want to support what I love. So when people say "I don't have any shelf space" I want to ask them "But do you have closet space?" |
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The King of Harts
 Posts: 6712 Location: Mount Crawford, Virginia |
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I'm an inside audience member and I'll say that. I'm one of, like, 5 people who wishes dubs would be more liberal. If something doesn't work, or it can be worked to be better, by all means change it. I would've cried if Funimation left in the Chivalry = Mermaids pun-thing from My Bride is a Mermaid or if ADV would've left in the "boku/watashi" joke from Kanon. I'm also a huge fan of Eric Johnson's add-ons that he did for Desert Punk where he basically made the show even funnier. I'm also not offended by complete rewrites like Ghost Stories since it can actually make me interested in a show that's sound otherwise dull from the synopsis. Of course, that's just me, someone who doesn't believe original=perfect and untouchable.
That's just one of several options. You can also do what many others do and thinpak your collection, which makes it significantly smaller (ask PetrifiedJello...when he's not banned). You can also put your stuff in a DVD notebook which takes up a whopping 1 sqare foot. Or, if you like style, you can grab one of these babies. So, basically, non-collectors saying they don't have "shelf space" is a lame reason/excuse to not buy DVDs. Sure, there are people that showcase their stuff, but they're collectors and that's what they do. Buying DVDs =/= space consuming hobby. |
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scullen
Posts: 9 |
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Lately, I have really been enjoying AnimeNewsNetworks online videos. While it can get a little tiresome watching the same 60 second commercial spot multiple times during an episode and sometimes the commercials break in awkward places (during opening credits, the middle of scenes, etc.), it still a nice way to see shows I might not have the dough to buy the DVD and still support the artists/producers. I hope this model catches on, as I have been watching more programs on my computer lately than on our tv set.
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Quark
 Posts: 710 Location: British Columbia, Canada |
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I remember one of the Shelf Life features, this one guy said that when he bought DVDs, he threw the packaging away, and put the disk into a CD binder. The thought of throwing away the packaging made me want to cry a little, since pretty DVD cases are one of my big loves. But it worked for him, and he had a huge collection, which took up very little space. If a person didn't want to throw away the DVD case, but was wanting to cut down on space, there's also the option of getting deep bookshelves. The Billy shelves from Ikea can hold two rows of DVDs per shelf, if you so choose. If you stack the cases on top of each other instead of lining them up in rows, and then double them up, you can fit roughly 132 singles per shelf. The actual case itself holds about 6 rows of shelving, so you could stash 792 cases on one bookcase. That's for singles, mind you. If you're buying thinpacks or getting the whole series in one single case, that's a lot of anime you can cram on one shelf. Edit: Mohawk52, if you're wanting to archive the stuff you've downloaded, why not buy a portable harddrive? They can hold a lot of stuff, and that way you've got all your downloads all together in one small space. Last edited by Quark on Fri Aug 27, 2010 1:37 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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Mohawk52
 Posts: 8202 Location: England, UK |
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I'm still a collector, and I want to continue to be a collector, but for a long time now there has been very little that I would want to purchase and put on my shelf.
As for downloading I wouldn't mind as long as it's legal to do so, but where I live my broadband speed is pathetic at 4.3mbps and that's when everyone else is away on their hols, and the quality is complete shyte anyway, so it isn't worth my bother. Also if I did download a movie, or series I would want to record it on to a disc for archiving, but DRM gets in the way even when I've paid for it, so until they can give me faster speed, and allow me to private archive to a disc, it's only DVD's and rentals for me. |
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Sailor S
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I'm pretty certain that all I can get is somewhere around 2 mb/s. The US has some pretty pathetic broadband speeds compared to Europe from what I understand, so if you thought you had it bad, try it over here
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