Question:
A couple of posts ago while announcing the second season of Phi Brain, you mentioned your misgivings about watching a second season of a series that “wasn’t that good”. My own opinions about the show aside, if you do not like the show, why do you keep watching? Are there specific animes you commit you’re self to watching no matter what?
Question:
I was wondering are there anyother monster collecting anime that hasn’t been brought over to America?
Question:
If you owned a television network and had carte blanche to put any anime on you wanted to at anytime you wanted which ones would you choose?
Question:
Does buying out of print anime from defunct or dormant companies (like CPM or Animego) benefit the anime industry? I’d like to know if buying old OOP helps the Western market for anime in any way even though it may be a company that’s not around anymore. Especially since now it’s easy to just download nearly anything, is only brand new releases from vital companies the way to help the market for anime stay alive?
Question:
The world’s most expensive comic book was Action Comics #1, the first appearance of Superman. It fetched a record 2.16 million. Several other top comics have fetched several hundred thousand dollars, and the first appearance of Spider-Man has netted over a million.
This price is because of the ongoing cultural popularity of many characters and the rarity of the comic books. (Most people didn’t keep their old comic collections, basic supply and demand.) I’m curious but does the world of Japanese manga have any similar rare collectibles which have collected extraordinary prices? And which one was the most expensive of them all that Japanese otaku dreaming of finding hidden away in their houses or at a garage sale?
Question:
Heard the news that Funimation is taking ADV, and its successors to court, acting as a debt collection agent for a Japanese entity.
Why on earth would Funimation want to do something like that? It is going to cost them, perhaps, millions of dollars in legal fees, just to recoup an estimated 8 million dollars for a group in Japan. This case doesn’t appear to be a slam dunk for Funimation, so the question appears to be why, and what do they get out of it. Is Funimation doing so good, that they can afford this legal wrangling for an outside party? What ever the case, this can’t be good for us.
Question:
I grew up in the Middle East watching a lot of classic anime on TV & VHS, stuff like Grendizer, Igano Kabamaru, Tiger Mask II, Future Boy Conan, etc. I know that I’m privileged in this regard but why can’t today’s anime fans go back & watch these classics, it’s like if a movie fan restricted himself to movies from the past two decades. I really feel bad to know how much awesome stuff they are missing out on.
Question:
For a while now you’ve been posting interesting and unique opening animation sequences which tend to have good animation coupled with solid music. However, there are certainly some very obnoxious opening themes which sound like nails on a chalk board (Denpa Denpa Onna to Seishun Otoko, blargh), or the visuals are blander than those found in the show (Bakuman opening 1. Lame). So, which openings do you think are either disastrous, or utterly mediocre and do the show zero justice?
Question:
I just finished watching the entire Neon Genesis Evangelion series and movies, and it moved me deeply. I love the philosophical, existential and psychoanalytical perspectives depicted, especially how the main weakness of each character is exposed, challenged and picked apart in the last episodes. The psychology of this felt very real and relatible. What other anime series are this well made from a psychological point of view?
Question:
News of Bandai Entertainment ceasing to license or release new anime and manga products has left me really worried about the US anime industry. While I don’t know exactly how or why this happened, it’s left me worried about other companies like Funimation, Viz, Sentai, and Media Blasters. How can these companies avoid the same fate that happened to ADV, Geneon, and now Bandai?
Question:
What have been John’s best and worst anime picks for 2011, and what is he most looking forward to watching in 2012?
Question:
I just got finished watching Mawaru Penguindrum, and I don’t know what to even think about it. On one hand it has some incredibly good visuals and the characters are adequately fleshed out. However, the ending left so many unanswered questions (the penguin hat? The three penguins? The survival strategy magical girl scenes), and the symbolism was slathered on so thick that I’m struggling to understand the meaning of this series; let alone whether I truly enjoyed or not either. So, what is your take/opinion of it?
Question:
Why is it that the majority of anime are adapted from a manga (or light novel, visual novel, etc.)? Why are there so few original stories? I don’t mind an anime adapted from something else if the story is complete, but all too often the anime ends before the manga is finished and we are left with an incomplete story in the anime. It’s very frustrating.
Question:
While any anime could serve as an introduction into the manga it’s based, including long running series that basically tell the manga’s story in an animated format (i.e. Bleach, Naruto, One Piece). But there seem to be anime, that to me, basically serve as an introduction to the manga. Two examples I can think of are Kekkaishi and History’s Strongest Disciple Kenichi. While 50-52 episodes seem to long to act as an introduction, both anime only cover one major arc aside from the introduction arc. Both end on cliffhangers rather than having their own original endings with unresolved issues. They in a way are saying to get the rest of the story read the manga. As these examples of anime that are used to introduce the manga or are their better examples.
Question:
Why has there been a lack of interest on the part of R1 companies to rescue Satoshi Kon’s Perfect Blue and Paranoia Agent? Considering all the posthumous exposure he’s gotten since being associated with certain nameless filmmakers, it should be a no-brainer. Do you think the situation is like Cameron and Battle Angel, in that the deal which allowed Perfect Blue to be remade by Darren Aronofsky prevents anyone from seeing it until the contract expires? Or do you feel Madhouse/VAP might be asking for more money for the rights than they would have if Kon was more niche? Meanwhile, on a recent ANNcast, FUNimation expressed no interest in bringing back Paranoia Agent, even though it’s gotten a recent Blu-Ray version in Japan.
