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[Cruxador]

I know the comparison isn't perfect.

Arguing that "it doesn't mean that because it doesn't mean that" just feels recursive to me

Yeah but that's ultimately how language works, at least from a descriptivist perspective. The prescriptive perspective would say "the word anime is a Japanese version of the word animation, so the correct English is just animation".

[heydude6]

Problem is, the japanese can produce things that are anime, but not anime-esque. If we decided to count avatar as anime because of its art style and emphasis on plot, then we would have to exclude panty and stocking because it resembles american powerpuff girls rather than the usual stuff japan produces.

Also, Avatar is more like an idealized version of anime rather than anime itself. If avatar was an anime it would be in the shonen battle genre, but if you compare avatar to something like dragonball Z or even hunterXhunter, you wouldn't really be getting a similar experience. The only anime that comes close to being like avatar in style and tone would be fullmetal alchemist. Calling avatar anime would mislead a lot of people into thinking all anime is like avatar when that isn't really the case at all.

[Max™]

Ergo Proxy was mentioned again so I'm just gonna say again that it is probably the best looking anime ever made and if that became the absolute definition of anime I would totes be okay with that.

Hmmm, looks like a religious ghost in the shell, it's nice looking enough but best looking ever? Like full time or sakuga included?

I'm sure most of us have seen the Matcha Green fight, Rolling Girls has lots of these spikes and overall is a really pretty show, but not quite best ever: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MeThslHxW6A

Weirdly I can't think of one which is actually more... I dunno, enchanting, fascinating, something like that, than this next one... but you're going to hate it if you watch the whole thing to the ending... despite which Katanagatari is still goddamn gorgeous: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bs4VBfpIaes

I would be totally fine if there were more shows that had that visually crisp and interesting sort of style.

Oh, Grimgar with those fucking watercolor backgrounds has to be mentioned: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QsO2cOM5TeY

[Cruxador]

Problem is, the japanese can produce things that are anime, but not anime-esque. If we decided to count avatar as anime because of its art style and emphasis on plot, then we would have to exclude panty and stocking because it resembles american powerpuff girls rather than the usual stuff japan produces.

There does seem to be a de facto exclusion of Japanese cartoons aimed at children, in any case. Even people who would say it's anime might call it "technically anime", since people use the term most for stuff aimed at teens and young adults (to my knowledge there's no Japanese animation for older adults) and especially shows that air during the night.

[Tack]

I’m here for the “original dub” option. If someone makes it in Japanese, it’s an anime. Even if that’s western people being artsy.

Castlevania is not an anime, though hey I actually like it.

[Reelya]

(to my knowledge there's no Japanese animation for older adults) and especially shows that air during the night.

I would disagree. Ristarante Paradiso or Bartender for example. Not really stuff aimed at young people. Lots of the characters in those shows are in their 40s or older. I'd say Rakugo, Mushishi and similar shows also have a much older core audience than the typical anime that are popular in the West. I think you can tell by the type of art palette they use for the promo shots. Stuff for older audiences has much more subdued use of color.

here's the cover for Ristarante Paradiso as an example:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

There was also one called Hataraki Man, which is an anime adaptation of a manga about a single career woman around 30 years old. The (female) author was 37 when she wrote that, and i'd guess the core audience is women or salarymen around their mid-30s who can related to that stuff. The fact that this stuff even gets made into anime shows that in Japan they do at least take the older demographic more seriously when licensing stuff. Something like that would never get made in America.

[Arx]

Bartender

Wait, they made an anime of Bartender? I might have to look at that, I really enjoyed the manga.

[Cruxador]

I mean mid 30s is still pretty young. But yeah, I somewhat expected that there actually is some anime for older than what we'd normally think of. The fact that I was unaware of any specific title (and being real, I'm pretty sure I know more anime, at least to the extent of having heard of it, than the average anime consumer, even if not enough to be the arch-nerd of threads like this) does indicate that it doesn't hold a key place in the western perception of what anime is.

[Folly]

I watched the Yugioh movie, Dark Side of Dimensions, a while ago and have been wondering about the ending ever since. Spoilers of course...

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

So, early in the movie Kaiba gives a big speech about transhumanism, and how he intends to use his technology to merge the physical and digital worlds, thus creating a paradise where people live forever and anything they imagine can become reality.
Then of course a new Big-Bad appears, and our heroes have to challenge him to cards, because that's how conflict gets resolved in these things.
After the dust settles, there's a brief time skip. Then we see Kaiba get inside a pod, with his little brother at the controls, the pod shoots up into space, passes into hyperspeed, and emerges in Egyptian heaven. Kaiba finds the Pharaoh and challenges him to yet another duel.
So, are we really expected to believe that Kaiba used technology to break into Egyptian heaven? Or has he just used his transhumanism technology to create a convincing simulation, so that he can pretend he's dueling the Pharaoh?
Or, most disturbing of all, has Kaiba grown despondent at his inability to challenge the real Pharaoh, and decided to just kill himself(with his little brother's help)? Is the pod actually a suicide pod, and the imagery of Egyption heaven just a hallucination created by his dying brain?

What do you think really happened?

[Furtuka]

WAT

[Frumple]

That is a remarkably unilluminating trailer for a deeply dubious concept. The reactions on twitter seem to kinda' sum things up otherwise...

E: For those unwilling to follow a link with no description or whatev'. That's a link to an announcement for a live action Cowboy Bebop. It's basically fifteen seconds of nothing.

[heydude6]

Every single time Netflix funds a live-action anime adaptation, it’s a disaster. Why do they keep doing it?

[Reelya]

Every single time Netflix funds a live-action anime adaptation, it’s a disaster. Why do they keep doing it?

I can think of a few reasons. One reason is that if money is spent, even on stupid projects, that money is going into the pockets of someone, just not the shareholders of Netflix. Follow the money trail: "wasted" money is in fact lining somebody's pockets. So, they might know that live action anime adaptations are going to waste money, but the people who are greenlighting it are friends with the people making dosh from the shows.

[Egan_BW]

Honest question, is there data to support the idea that these live action adaptations are "disasters" money-wise? I assume that the fact they keep making them means that somebody is watching it. The presence of reddit memes about how crap something is does not necessarily indicate that the thing is actually unpopular.

[Reelya]

With a subscription-based service they're sort of insulated from the financial aspects of any one show. They can then take a scatter-shot approach and fund all sorts of weird projects to pad out their line-up. I mean, the ideal situation for Netflix is in fact that everyone is a subscriber, but nobody watches any shows. That would in fact maximize revenue while minimizing costs. So, they want lots of content so that everyone signs up, but they don't necessarily want a lot of great content so that you're using the service all the time. I think the main reason they want a lot of Netflix Originals is because they don't have to pay license fees for those, but it's still more profitable for the company if you just sign up but don't in fact watch many shows.