Tama83
August 24th, 2006, 05:46 AM
(note: this thread applies only to people who actually watch TV. As for those who don't...well, I'm not a name dropper; you know who you are.)
First a little background. "Kappa Mikey" is an American-created show created by an American company (The Animation Collective) for American viewers, hence the reason I'm not posting this in the Anime forum. It concerns "Mikey Simon", an American who lives in Japan and stars in a fictional Japanese anime called "LilyMu". This show focuses primarily on Mikey trying to make a living and his interaction with his cast mates, but also includes short segments of the show they star in. Oh, yeah. All the characters except Mikey are drawn "anime-style".
After reading the Wikipedia article, I personally don't think this show knows what it's talking about. First off, "An actor trying to make a living"? Any live-action show can do that. In fact, The Disney Channel (in its current configuration) used to have a show just like it ("The Famous Jett Jackson"). Secondly, the comedy (besides featuring the usual American sitcom elements) is based primarily around random references to Japan and "anime" (i.e., as seen from an unenlightened, and uninitiated "mainstream" perspective). Third, not all Japanese anime is like that, and while I don't detect the use of any stereotypes of "Japanese people", I still don't think they were portraying the "Japanese" characters fairly (in terms of attitude on set vs. attitude in "real life", etc). In all, this is just another American "sitcom-style" series that doesn't know what it's talking about, that only exists to capitalize on the (mainstream) popularity of "anime". Further, I don't need to watch this series to confirm my feelings toward it. I feel the Wiki article was sufficient.
However, this is just my opinion. What say the rest of you?
FYI: There is a character who parodys "Zarbon" from Dragon Ball Z who is voiced by Sean Schemmel (who voices Goku). This leads me to believe that the role was written specifically with him in mind.
Oh, and BTW, this show was produced with the participation of 4Kids, so that says something about this show (at least I think it does).
First a little background. "Kappa Mikey" is an American-created show created by an American company (The Animation Collective) for American viewers, hence the reason I'm not posting this in the Anime forum. It concerns "Mikey Simon", an American who lives in Japan and stars in a fictional Japanese anime called "LilyMu". This show focuses primarily on Mikey trying to make a living and his interaction with his cast mates, but also includes short segments of the show they star in. Oh, yeah. All the characters except Mikey are drawn "anime-style".
After reading the Wikipedia article, I personally don't think this show knows what it's talking about. First off, "An actor trying to make a living"? Any live-action show can do that. In fact, The Disney Channel (in its current configuration) used to have a show just like it ("The Famous Jett Jackson"). Secondly, the comedy (besides featuring the usual American sitcom elements) is based primarily around random references to Japan and "anime" (i.e., as seen from an unenlightened, and uninitiated "mainstream" perspective). Third, not all Japanese anime is like that, and while I don't detect the use of any stereotypes of "Japanese people", I still don't think they were portraying the "Japanese" characters fairly (in terms of attitude on set vs. attitude in "real life", etc). In all, this is just another American "sitcom-style" series that doesn't know what it's talking about, that only exists to capitalize on the (mainstream) popularity of "anime". Further, I don't need to watch this series to confirm my feelings toward it. I feel the Wiki article was sufficient.
However, this is just my opinion. What say the rest of you?
FYI: There is a character who parodys "Zarbon" from Dragon Ball Z who is voiced by Sean Schemmel (who voices Goku). This leads me to believe that the role was written specifically with him in mind.
Oh, and BTW, this show was produced with the participation of 4Kids, so that says something about this show (at least I think it does).