-Z- wrote:
> admit enjoying MADOX-01 as I was watching it. But as soon as
Some things in life are rightly called "guilty pleasures"...
There are anime that I watch only for the passing fun and others that I revisit
again and again because they speak to me on some level and make me
Sure there's a difference between average joe at the mall and the food
columnist for New Yorker. Real people don't dine at 4-star resturants
everyday. I recognize that.
But these film critics (on the Matrix DVD's) made a point that I will
try to extrapolate... These action scenes, what I call fan service,
what you call guilty pleasure, would work better as games than as
films/OVA/TV series. If the consumers wants mecha-action, then let
them PLAY AS the pilot/field commander/general instead of watch the
pilot/field commander/general. So when the director/writer has a
point to make, has a message to propagate, then make a film. If the
purpose is to provide entertainment or passtime, then give them a
chance to participate and interact.
An example is the fantasy genre. JRR Tolkien had a great core story
to tell, and so a competent director can take it and made a great film
series. When other film makers try to make fantasy films from scratch
they end up with trolls, elves and dragons but no substance. At worst
you get Dungeons & Dragons, at best you get Dragonheart. Fan service,
just like squirting whip cream in your mouth and pretend it's a proper
desert.
[it would make a fun little side discussion why the same director can
make LOTR work but can't make a splash with King Kong]
The suitable medium for fantasy is games: like Magic The Gathering and
World of Warcraft. If there isn't a strong character and good story
to start with, and you only have a world setting with elves and
dragons, let the consumers BE the heroes and create their own stories.
As games get more and more advanced, there will be less room for
films to profit from the "guilty pleasure" consumers. The studios try
to blame China and Bit Torrent for falling movie attendance but the
reality is that they've been outdone by $50 video games.
I think that's where the mecha genre is heading: the most exciting
bits of animations are 1-5 minutes vignettes like Green Diver and
Gundam Evolve that's created purely to promote something else:
amusement park, video game or plastic kits.
One of the reasons I liked what I saw of "For the Barrel" so much was its
implied promise to revisit and perhaps even explore more deeply what
One of the reasons I like Gundam: The Origin, beyond the fact that Yaz
Those Matrix critics also made an interesting point regarding comics
(manga): with paper and ink you can't make visual spectacles an end to
itself. People don't buy comics to see Dendrobrium takes on 1000
enemy MS. So comic writers have to fall back to the basics: story
telling and scene compositions (e.g. Sin City).
to be seen but I liked what I've seen to date. It's certainly more worthy of
animation as a "modernized" Gundam remake than anything else I've heard
proposed.
But what's the chance the Origin will get animated? I'm afraid the
mecha genre and the old guards like Yaz and Tomino have parted ways a
long time ago. And I think the fans are to blame as much as the
animation studios. Wonder what go thru Yaz's mind when he sees that
Advance of Zeta creates as much excitement and impact as Gundam the
Origin.
--
Dr. Core
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