RuneScape Forum Archive | \^_^/ Anime Discussion \^

Aug

2023

Yaaami

Posts: 1,318 Mithril Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile

Its worth mentioning to all those who watch anime via *illegal* youtube uploads, i reccomend using nico nico douga (japanese vid site more epic than tube) because all anime companies own their indivisual accounts which upload their appropriate animes free of charge for a week after airing.
@Jesse B77
Lol im glad you enjoyed it.
It's scenes are so *beep* that the dvd set's default option actually comes with cencorship in the *beep* scenes

.
Also i heard some parts of the anime wern't aired in certain regions tho Tv tokyo actually aired it without any scene removal (although they placed bright white lights over the appropriate parts).

Thoughts and opinions of a Japanese RuneScape enjoyer c:

03-May-2011 13:30:09 - Last edited on 03-May-2011 13:39:22 by Yaaami

Jesse B77

Posts: 16,070 Opal Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile

lol, i cant imagine that people would buy the DVD's to a show like that if they didn't want to see that sort of thing. I think they aired an even more uncensored version on AT-X (i think its called that), during which i can only recall there being one censor.
The reason most of us dont use nico nico douga is becasue we dont speak japanese. What we watch is usually sub-titled by people who speak both japanese and english so that we can understand whats being said.
The big issue, which has resulted in the piracy that is so commonplace among foreign anime fandom, it that while japan and its media has become increasingly accessible over the years following rise of the internet, the companies that license titles for local distribution haven't kept up with the demand.
Over in the US, which has the highest degree of licensing companies, your looking at maybe 20% of titles becoming available domestically. In other countries such as Australia and the UK, that number is even lower becasue there are less companies licensing them.
So fans took up the initiative themselves to bring unlicensed titles to those outside japan through piracy, which while technically illegal is still tolerable because you arent really denying anyone a sale (you cant reasonably expect people to buy a peice of media they cant understand).
unfortunately, thats created an atmosphere were people beleive that all anime should be free regardless of whether its licensed or not, so that gives a lot of problems over here as well.

03-May-2011 13:39:45 - Last edited on 03-May-2011 14:04:08 by Jesse B77

Aug

2023

Yaaami

Posts: 1,318 Mithril Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile

Jesse B77
That's great so long as your're away watching youtube uploads are illegal (tho i don't really mind). Afterall it takes months of the most talented animators to make a 25 minute episodes x12. Notice the details and hard work put into these anime's compared to the less detailed kids anime like naruto, yugioh etc.
To add, subtitles don't take time to make as many free online japanese translating tools can do it in no time. Not to mention it being extremely inaccurate hence many parts are gramatically and verbally incorrect.

Thoughts and opinions of a Japanese RuneScape enjoyer c:

03-May-2011 13:57:12 - Last edited on 03-May-2011 14:01:34 by Yaaami

Jesse B77

Posts: 16,070 Opal Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile

Online translators are pretty crappy to be honest, i once tried to play a visual novel using this thing called the Anime Games Text ******, which sends the japanese characters to online translators and returns the result automatically, I couldn't make heads or tails of what was going on.
The people who create the English subs dont use those translators, they are actually at least partially fluent in both languages.
Im just gonna put this out there, but ive seen all the pages on 2ch going on about how all foreigners are pirates and whatnot. Dont be fooled by that sort of thing, the situation is a lot different than its made out to be.
Most of us would support the animators were there was an opportunity to do so, but they just dont arise all that often becasue so few titles are available either domestically or out of japan with a proper translation available.
For example, the Lyrical Nanoha movie isn't available over here domestically and probably never will be. However, theres english subtitles on the japanese release, so i was only to happy to fork out the $110 it cost me to import.
Of course, more subs on japanese releases wont exactly fix the issue (although it would help). I know people in the US who complain that $30 is to much for a whole series, you guys are stuck paying that per episode...

03-May-2011 14:08:27 - Last edited on 03-May-2011 14:23:23 by Jesse B77

Aug

2023

Yaaami

Posts: 1,318 Mithril Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile

Reading a few pages back i found it interesting how many have a totally different point of view on anime's compared to us Japanese.
We usually decide wether to watch an anime or not depending on the voice actors and how great the novels were for instance, Kore wa zombie deskua and oniichan no koto nan*a zenzen suki ja nain dakar ne's novels had terrible ratings and somehow managed to become anime. Onii chan wa* anime was overall crap and was created on a pretty low budget but somehow had a handful of veteran voice actors whereas Yumekui Merry's storyline in the novels and manga had an awesome storyline tho it's anime was dissapointly stretched (it's first 6 episodes of the anime made up for only one manga).
@Jesse B77
Like i said we have a tv to watch the appropriate anime realtime or record on a hard-drive and if not then nico nico douga uploads em free of charge for a week.
I never spend my pocket money on such dvd's

Thoughts and opinions of a Japanese RuneScape enjoyer c:

03-May-2011 14:23:53 - Last edited on 03-May-2011 14:33:39 by Yaaami

Jesse B77

Posts: 16,070 Opal Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile

Well, there would be plenty of reasons for that.
Though i assume that the main one would be the fact that we in the rest of the world generally dont have access to what the anime is based on, so we need to make our decision of whether to stick with it or not based on the synopsis of the plot and earlier episodes, as opposed to its forerunning source material.
As for the whole voice actor thing, i know some people do watch an anime based on who's in it, but thats usually a secondary consideration for most. Generally, what determines anime popularity is how good the viewing experience is, dosent really matter who's in it so long as their acting dosent suck.

And yeah, you have them on TV, we dont lol. Cant use NND either becasue we wouldnt have a clue what the heck was going on...

03-May-2011 14:33:39 - Last edited on 03-May-2011 14:37:56 by Jesse B77

Aug

2023

Yaaami

Posts: 1,318 Mithril Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile

@Jesse B77
that's what im saying^^, you guys have an interesting point of view on anime's.
As for some of us who choose anime depending on voice actors wouldn't really be an issue with viewers of your country as ya'll wouldn't know from which ones are the notable ones or not. Although i usually predict wether an anime would be epic or not depending on it's voice actors, it's original novel storyline and the budget. In a way it's almost like a guideline to determine if it is worth watching or not in most situations but ofcourse that's probably a bad habit of us japanese anime lovers.
In a way non-Japanese anime viewers always gain their first impression of said anime from watching it without any pre-knowledge so arn't blinded by mere facts, in a way you guys end up being the pure "anime otaku"

For example toaru majutsu no index's novel is a bestseller in Japan and is highly credited for Kamachi Kazuma (its writers) devotion as he releases the books at an incredible pace (one every 2 months or more!). It's anime was just as great but may be pretty difficult for those who havent read it to understand it fully.
tis 11pm and im sleepy so ill be back tomorrow

Thoughts and opinions of a Japanese RuneScape enjoyer c:

03-May-2011 14:46:41 - Last edited on 03-May-2011 14:59:50 by Yaaami

Jesse B77

Posts: 16,070 Opal Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile

I spose thats how it goes isn't it. I know in my own experience i started out watching anime and then got into the other aspects of japanese media which i wouldnt have known to exist without that initial exposure. I suppose its probably the complete reverse of the way it goes in japan

.
To use your example, generally the Index novel series would have gone unheard of until the anime series was announced. Only then would we get a translated version available for us to pursue.
But as for knowing voice actors and whatnot, you would find we are a lot more organized in that department than you might think. Certain voice actors and production companies do have reputations over here based on their past performances.
But yep, talk to you again tomorrow, this has been a rather enlightening conversation.

03-May-2011 14:57:09 - Last edited on 03-May-2011 15:09:07 by Jesse B77

Apr

2013

TechEngineer

Forum Moderator Posts: 13,998 Opal Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile

I always find it very interesting to see a view on this from someone from Japan.
You see, the reason that many people turn to illegal streaming websites is that anime here is not as easy to get as in Japan.
I live in Europe and the only anime we get on tv are shows like Pokémon and Yu-Gi-Oh! Because of that people here think anime is for little kids and they don't understand it when you tell them there are anime for older audiences too.
In my country there is only one import company that imports anime and manga from the UK and the US. Only the very popular shows are licenced here. Plus because there is only one company their prices are ridiculously high. I'm starting to import stuff myself, even with the currently high import costs it's still a lot cheaper.
There is no market for visual novels and light novels here, so the only way to really get to know what an anime is about is by downloading the first episode. When I really like a show I'll buy it, but it can take years for something to be licenced in the US or the UK. I can't speak Japanese so I won't import anime or manga from Japan.
This might sound really stupid, but because I don't know what the voice actors are saying, I can't tell them apart. For example we don't hear things like differences in pronunciation. Sometimes there is an unique voice that I'll recall in another show but most times it doesn't matter who voices a character. So to us there isn't something like a bad or an excellent va, they're all good.

I do prefer the original voice actors over an English dub, because Japanese va's usually put more emotion in their voice. Because English and Japanese are both foreign languages to me I also find it easier to read English subs than to listen to an English dub because I don't hear much English in daily life other than in tv shows and movies.
P.S. we were discussing Madoka Magica a few pages back and I think everyone on this thread that watched it loved it. It was a great show.

03-May-2011 15:51:36 - Last edited on 03-May-2011 15:53:09 by TechEngineer

Apr

2013

TechEngineer

Forum Moderator Posts: 13,998 Opal Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile

Character limit reached.

I'll continue here.
Let me tell you how I decide what shows to watch. The only information we get before it airs is *one* tiny picture and a 3-line synopsis. With that you cannot decide if it's going to be good or bad.
Let me give you an example. Would you watch an anime based on the following synopsis? I removed the names so that you don't immediately see what anime this is.
"Beloved family, good friends, laughter and tears - these things make up the ordinary life of [name], a second year student of [name] Middle School. One night, [name] dreams of a mysterious dark haired girl struggling against a terrible evil; the next morning she discovers that the girl has transferred into her class. This encounter will lead to an incident which will alter her fate forever."
Well when I read that and saw the picture of 4 very young girls and a white squirrel next to it I thought it was going to be one of those moe shows. I definately wasn't interested at all. But when I read a few positive reviews about the first episode of Madoka Magica, I decided to give it a try. So yeah, that was definately the biggest surprise last season to most anime fans here.
I think the current season has more than 40 anime? Well you understand that I cannot possibly watch all first episodes, so to decide what to watch I skip the synopsis and just read reviews and let others decide whether a show is worthy to be watched. It could be that I'm missing out on some great anime just because the reviewers have a different opinion than me.

It would not be the first time that a show which is considered average by many reviewers ends up in my top 10 anime. Angel Beats for example, I loved that show. The downside is that the only thing available to us from that show is merchandise. No visual novels, no DVDs or BDs. Fortunately word got out in March that it was licenced in the US and I now have a region free BD player, so I'm patiently awaiting the release.

03-May-2011 16:16:21 - Last edited on 03-May-2011 16:31:59 by TechEngineer

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