HTF Anime Discussion Part VII - Page 17

ChristopherDAC · 04-26-2004, 03:22 PM

My thought on digital techniques is just that more shows can be produced in less time at less expense, making it easier to put stuff into the market.
A prominent anime director, whose name I will get for you as soon as I can, stated [in the introduction to an American book on anime some years back] that there is a strain of gynephobia among today's Japanese boys and young men. To this he attributed the increase, among other things, of pornography and of titles in which the "hero" has difficulty relating to women, or has a girl dumped in his lap, or whatever. An odd thought, but perhaps the smaller family contributes to this phenomenon, and perhaps he's just full of it.

DaveGTP · 04-26-2004, 03:51 PM

Well, we got back from our Toronto/Ann Arbor/Detroit trip this weekend. At all places we wished we had a bit more time (well, except for Detroit!), but we ended up with a lot of stuff from Toronto.

Since Stacey concentrated on hotels, directions, etc, I spent a quick few hours researching and found some cool places to go in Toronto.

After a quick stop for some bubble tea, we stopped by a shop in Chinatown called AnimeXtreme. A hole in the wall compared to our normal stop at Wizzywig's in Ann Arbor, but they had some interesting stuff. I found a Cowboy Bebop Ein figure in the corner by Fewture I had never seen. It was shoved into the corner, propping up some Robotech DVDs for rent. I found a picture of it @

http://www.animecastle.com/AC-60114.html

I paid $25 Canadian for it + their horrific tax

. It looks like I could have gotten it on the internet, but with shipping, it would have been about the same.

We then went to the Pacific Mall (well out of Tourist-zone, about 15 miles north). A recommended stop if anyone ever goes to Toronto. We got some pictures maybe I'll upload to my university webspace if anyone is interested. We were the minority! It was crazy! Everyone was speaking Chinese, or Korean, or Japanese, or something. Stacey said more than once, it felt a little like stepping into Lost in Translation. We looked very out of place. It was fun!

We stopped at some of the stores with anime stuff. Most of it was, ahem, gray market stuff. A place called Japan Anime was nothing but bootleg anime box sets. Stacey considered picking up Chrno Crusade since she's seen a few fansubs (ditto for me and Full Metal Alchemist), since they aren't out yet, but we were good and didn't support the bootleg industry. Other stores were openly selling boots of american series like X-files and Alias for $30.

We did pick up a bunch of cheap anime posters for $1.98 a pop Canadian (I think about 30 total between us!), and some anime playing cards.

Overall, that "Anime - crack is cheaper!" comment definitely comes to mind.

It was very fun seeing the Japanese style Arcade! Lots of 2D fighting games (along with some 3D), DDR machines, all the crazy games that you actually get exercise playing, and a game someone was playing with a naked woman stretched out on it?!?. Quite a cultural jump for us (we don't even have an arcade in our mall anymore).

Anyway, it felt almost like stepping into another country, except the shopkeepers spoke OK English for the most part, and Canadian money is fairly familiar to us Michigan folks.

Eric F · 04-26-2004, 04:12 PM

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Whiny, angst-filled middle schoolers save the world (Neon Genesis Evangelion);

Gatekeepers falls into this category as well. I just finished it and thought it was pretty good.

JohnAD · 04-26-2004, 04:23 PM

Dave:

I've been to the Pacific Mall, and 'grey market' is giving it too much credit. I pretty much assume that everything anime/DVD-related from there is a boot.

Christopher:

Yeah, I can see where he's coming from, although I think it has deeper roots in that women's roles are changeing, just like over here.

John.

ChristopherDAC · 04-26-2004, 04:41 PM

Toronto is a lovely city. I enjoyed the convenience of access to various localities provided by the public transportation and the general arrangement of things. I would not, however, advise taking the Greyhound for 36 hours from Lawrence Kansas to get there. I particularly liked the Royal Ontario Museum; I didn't get to look much for anime, though I did some, because I was with the family and we had set up to do other things. I suspect I could have found anime LDs, but I sure didn't look in the right places.

JohnAD · 04-26-2004, 05:05 PM

Christopher:

My wife is from TO (as the locals call it), and it is nice in the summer, although I advise against visiting in the winter right before a major snow storm hits

. IMHO, it doesn't have enough topography

. The ROM is great, and I totally agree that the public transportation system is far superior to what we have here in Seattle.

John.

DaveGTP · 04-26-2004, 05:30 PM

Hey, some interesting news tidbits from animeondvd I didn't hear mentioned:

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New stuff from ADV Toys for Excel Saga & Noir by end of summer/fall.

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Sturdy Excel box to be available separately

Whoo hoo! Excel goodies! Good news on the box for those of us that have already bought the discs.

We watched the first episode of Puni Puni Poemy last night. Still not sure on this one. More over the top than Excel. Somehow, having watched Excel helps. Parts were really funny and parts were like "What?"

Oh yeah, and we also picked up the Yuki-as-rat Fruits Basket plushie @ Wizzywig's for $8. And I picked up a giant Dragon Warrior/Quest yellow slime plushie for $27.
Perhaps a Menchi plushie is next on the list???

JohnAD · 04-26-2004, 05:47 PM

Dave:

A Menchi cookbook would be more appropriate

.

John.

Alanna · 04-26-2004, 06:34 PM

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Oh yeah, and we also picked up the Yuki-as-rat Fruits Basket plushie @ Wizzywig's for $8.

OMG I would SO kill for one of those! WOoohoo that's awesome.

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It was very fun seeing the Japanese style Arcade! Lots of 2D fighting games (along with some 3D), DDR machines, all the crazy games that you actually get exercise playing, and a game someone was playing with a naked woman stretched out on it?!?. Quite a cultural jump for us (we don't even have an arcade in our mall anymore).

This would have been... WOW, what arcade did you go to? It might be worth a trip if they had enough Bemani type games. I am SO totally addicted to those and its really difficult tracking down machines that are in decent condition in the CT area. There used to be a mall that had a superb DDR machine but when they "renovated" it, they took it out. Forced me to buy metal pads so I could recreate the experience at home. LOL There are so many Jap games that I've been dying to play that I can't locate, like the higher mixes of Guitar Freaks, Pop N Music, Beatmania, Para Para Paradise, etc. I'd also love to see a Dance Maniax 2nd Mix J-Append machine. I personally have a Dance Maniax 2nd Mix in my kitchen but its not the J-Append version. I did find a Guitar Freaks machine in Danbury but it was DISGUSTING and so run down. Only one guitar controller worked and it was taped up and of course was a first mix, and absolutely horrible. One of the buttons didn't work either (on the fretboard) making it pretty much unplayable *sigh*. Oops enough of that.