Fractale is really good. Airships and a high-tech yet seemingly low-tech-looking world. The political ideals behind the actual Fractale network are interesting as well: you never need to work, or do anything, and you will still get paid. That’s not even socialism… I don’t know what it is.
Obviously, it’s a means of control! I just really liked the sense of loneliness expressed in the first episode.
Also made it through the first couple Gosicks. So it’s Sherlock Holmes as a little girl. Did not expect that, but then, I go into most of these shows completely blind.
Grr, loved this episode 1 on Funimation’s site, then this:
http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2011-01-19/fractale-production-committee-halts-n-american-simulcast
That is kind of weird. Seems like doing something like that would just push people even more so to other sources.
That sucks. I was literally just on Funimation’s site looking for the new ep. It’s not like Funimation has a lot of control over fansub groups who get raw video from the Japanese broadcast and translate and integrate subtitles themselves to distribute the show via bittorrent. Taking away the one legitimate way for anime fans to watch the show online just ensures the fansubbers have a market for their unauthorized translations.
Shrug. I torrent the fansub rips anyway. The only downside is now I’ll have to wait longer for an episode because the sub groups will have to translate it themselves.
Lynxara
2667
To me it comes off like another example of Japanese companies not really understanding how the foreign market works. I suspect Fractale’s production committee honestly thought that FUNi would take measures to prevent all piracy of the show as part of the deal. A lot of the Japanese producers don’t seem to understand how completely under-funded and under-manned the R1 companies really are after the market busted in 2006.
I don’t get the reasoning behind that move. Is it supposed to be motivation for funimation to get them to work harder, punishment? They’re not going to be able to stop the torrents.
The real irony is that funimation has always seemed to be one of the most aggressive anti fan subber companies. It is generally harder to find stuff they broadcast elsewhere due to this, in my experience at least.
Funimation just isn’t enough to curtail fan subbing. The increased official availability of anime as they air is a start though. The main problem is there is a demand but no supply. Many series are never officially subbed in other languages or if they are, it is significantly later. This drives people to look for them in other places and if they are already there downloading the latest episode of My Little sister Can’t Fanbsub Anime, they might as well also download Mobile Suit God Slayers: The Time Warp Samurai while they are there.
Then of course it is just easier and faster to download fansubbed anime of the same quality, or even higher, for the most. There are even programs that keep track of what you are watching, your progress in them (auto updating), notify you of when new episodes past your current are fan subbed with a download link and let you download the .torrent file direct. Everything is basically handled automatically so all you need to do is set what you’re watching and watch it (you can play the next episode from within them, which they find automatically on your hdd).
on a positive note; I’m really enjoying Mahou Shoujo Madoka★Magica (among other things). I can’t say i’ve watched much in the way of magical girl anime, but it is probably my favorite this season. I like how it seems really dark and serious instead of the cute happiness most of this genre tend to glow with.
Yup, I’m enjoying Magica this season as well. One thing I can’t help but notice is how rich the main girl’s family is…I’m waiting for some kind of message about this in the series.
I’m “on a diet”, so I’m only following these: Magica, Level E, Gosick, Freezing, Star Driver, and Super Robot Taisen OG The Inspector. I was gonna drop Level E, but the last 2 minutes of eps 2 was so much better that I decided to keep watching.
SRTOG is so good that it made me hunt around for fansites with more info, and dig out the 2 GBA carts, of which I only played part 1 Ryusei route 3/8ths of the way (stage 14). I’m depressed! I need a lot of time to play through them! And I realized that I really need to see the giant robots in action IN GAME…the chibi versions in the GBA games doesn’t really do it for me.
And…SRTOG has better politics and backstabbing and too many factions doing their own things in 1 episode than all of Legends of Legendary Heroes.
Miramon
2671
I’m perfectly happy to buy DVDs if they’re actually for sale. I don’t understand what the delay is for most series and movies. It seems like it should be extremely cheap and easy to subtitle and localize.
There can’t be such an incredible scarcity of local translators considering they have this huge english-speaking-english-teacher import program. You’d think all those random low-paid teachers would jump at the opportunity to earn a little extra cash subtitling anime stories. Not to mention the actual fansub people would presumably be pleased to actually be paid for their work. The quality of the translation in most anime is so low that they certainly aren’t worried on that score.
And how hard or expensive can it be? I know video always takes twice as much time as you think it will to produce, but come on, adding subtitles is the simplest of all postproduction activities, and the software is pretty much universally available.
I admit that dubbing is harder, you need actual voice actors. But then, I almost never watch the dubbed version anyway, so what the hell; the American voice talent is usually grossly inferior. That’s not always true, and there are a few standout talents in the lot – for example the ubiquitous Crispin Freeman – but I’d certainly be satisfied to buy disks with only subtitles and no dubbing.
Lynxara
2673
I typically like magical girl stuff but Madoka Magica leaves me cold. The background animation is interesting, but the character animation strikes me as quite poor. Not in the sense that I dislike the art style, more in the sense that the movements are stiff and unconvincing to me.
The delay for most series and movies is price point, as I understand it, not production time. Japan doesn’t want international releases to exist that would undercut the Japanese release in price, as it would lead to Japanese consumers importing rather than buying domestic.
For anime that are simultaneous worldwide releases, like Unicorn Gundam, you’re looking at $49.99 per volume for about 50 minutes of footage. Japanese consumers are used to paying these prices for anime on DVD or Blu-Ray but that price is absolutely fucking insane by US standards.
So basically for the R1 companies to be able to sell these shows at a price point that any US buyer would actually spend on, they have to delay the release such that the US edition is coming out well after the Japanese releases.
A lot of material actually comes out sub-only these days, because the market has contracted to the point where it’s only worth dubbing sure-fire hits or things you want to try and sell to a TV channel. For niche material, producing a dub is a great way to lose money.
Madoka Magica: The art style bothers me a bit, mainly due to the squarish faces of all the girls. The animation seems OK to me (compared to low budget crap like Bleach/Naruto LOL), but now I’ll pay attention to it! The thing I like about this so is the maturity of the dialog and the character…especially Mami in episode 3. It’s so refreshing. Cleans away my harem overdose…
JoshV
2675
Yeah, I think the problem here is more the dubbing than the subtitles. Subtitles don’t have to be in sync with the spoken dialog. The character on screen can say a one syllable word, and the subtitle can be “That giant bug man is right behind you!” or whatever. So its obviously more work, but it’s likely to get them more sales. I know some anime fans who only watch dubs. (I think they’re crazy, as most dubs are awful) And getting a non-anime fan to watch something that is subtitled is definitely an uphill battle.
Honestly, I wish they’d just do subtitles and get over it, dubbing seems pretty uncommon nowadays when it comes to other foreign movies. And it would mean I could just buy a series/ stream it from a legitimate source instead of trawl the depths of the web to find an episode with possibly a shitty translation and horrible spelling.
Lynxara
2676
It’s an art style with a bad case of sameface, but it’s wildly superior to, say, Dragon Crisis’s art style. It would look pretty interesting if the show could afford to move its characters properly. Dragon Crisis’s designs could be animated on a Disney budget and that would only make them look worse.
Maybe i am just strange, but i kind of like the art style in Madoka. Although they do mostly look pretty similar i guess.
Most of the time I can live with sameface, because at least I can still use hair colours or styles or clothing to tell people apart. But the girls’ faces in Magica, they look like…oh god…had to look it up…Quagmire! ick ick ick
I’ll still watch it. The backgrounds are really neat, overly modern super-upper-class urban setting.
Bonus: Found another example of sameface: Happy Lesson!
Isn’t SHAFT - and director Shinbo in particular - somewhat infamous for, ummm, not-so-great animation due to budget constraints or rushed production schedules or whatever?
I have the opposite reaction: I find the character designs in, say, Dragon Crisis or Infinite Stratos to be boring but tolerable; whereas Madoka Magica’s characters are just really off-putting, in a “unless you are the grizzled `ho-loving monologuing anti-protagonist in a Frank Miller comic, your jawline should not look like that!” sense. The sameface just makes it worse, like looking at a bunch of angular clones in different wigs.
As for the show itself, I’m rather ambivalent. Apart from the icky faces, I like the background art & design work: especially the buildings, just a really nifty alternate take on modern Japanese life (what was the last anime to bother making a cool-looking bathroom?); and the magical realm (or whatever it’s called), it’s really trippy and unique. I also enjoy the soundtrack - been a fan of Yuki Kajiura since “Noir” - and some of the fight scenes are cool. OTOH, so far it’s mostly “just” a magical girls show, which falls flat for me; in particular, I don’t like most of the cast and I’m really tired of the “whiny passive thoroughly average” female archetype (just as stale, worn out & annoying as her male counterpart in harem comedies). Although -
[WARNING EP 3 SPOILERS]
- it takes an abrupt turn into darker territory by killing off the one character I found tolerable near the end of episode 3. So on the one hand it suggests this series will be more brutal & evil than the norm for the genre and might have more going on than it initially seemed. OTOH, I’ve become squeamish about stories where bad things happen to children (yes, even the ones I can’t stand); and it’s already gotten rid of my favorite (well, least insufferable) character so far.
[/SPOILERS]
Sooo, yeah - not sure how long I’ll stick with Madoka Magica, but at least I made it past the first couple of episodes.
Lynxara
2680
I wouldn’t know. I haven’t heard that, but looking over both the director’s credit list and SHAFT’s credit list, they’ve been involved with precious little that I’ve given a damn about on any level. (It’s interesting to know that Shinbo did work on Nanoha-- but only the first season, before the property really took off.)
To be honest, I felt the first episode telegraphed that this would be a “dark” take on magical girls. The idea that the girl’s contract with the cute thing is actually terrible is not a new one, though I’m not sure it’s been fully animated before. It’s a familiar manga trope, though. Similar “dark” takes on kiddie genres consistently find an audience, Narutaru and Bokurano in particular, and Madoka Magica feels very much like an imitation of that style.
My problem with the show was similar to yours-- I just didn’t like these characters and knew I wouldn’t give a fuck when they started to die or sell their souls or whatever. The bad character animation really damaged my suspension of disbelief, especially since most shows will only look worse between the first episode and the grand finale.
