Sony acquires Funimation

[Zontar]

Guess physical sales are down and being displaced by streaming of which CrunchyRoll is No.1.

The runner-up merging with 3rd place to survive ... Why is everyone so shocked?

Because physical sales brings in significantly more money then streaming does and on that front Funimation is still the top dog.

Edit: Also god help them if NetFlix and Amazon decide to enter the game. There is zero way they can compete. With combined with Sony they might be able to hold their own somewhat.

Netflix and Amazon have done just that already, to the universal hatred of the community because both are run by morons who know about as much about how our community works as YouTube knows how its own does. Netflix doesn't understand that it's either simulcast or people who would watch it will do so on illegal sites instead of waiting, and Amazon things that a double paywall with a horrendous UI and constant delays in broadcasting are a good idea.

Both seem to operate under Google's "we want to make money but also want to loose money even more" way of operating where you can't believe any claims of there being a competent management in charge. Given how Netflix is 4 billion in debt, projects that it'll run a 2 billion loss this year and won't brake even for years I completely believe they're pulling off a Producers.

Amazon on the other hand is just run by idiots. People are not paying through a double paywall to use a shitty system when it's literally faster and easier to just use fansubs. The entire reason Funimation and especially Crunchyroll had their streaming services rise to what they are is because they actually understood that, and I completely suspect that Sentai's own streaming service will be used to watch anime more then Netflix or Amazon are despite both trying to monopolise the big titles of the past two seasons.

 

[Zontar]

Anime isn't a genre, it's just an art style

It's neither, it's a medium.

No, anime is a TV show (a medium) or a movie (a medium).

Well it certainly isn't an art style.

 

[Phoenixmgs_v1legacy]

Anime isn't a genre, it's just an art style

It's neither, it's a medium.

No, anime is a TV show (a medium) or a movie (a medium).

Well it certainly isn't an art style.

Anime is an art/visual style for an animated TV show or movie. I can't believe you claimed it to be a medium. Such far-reaching claims are common in the community so it's not really surprising.
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/anime

 

[PapaGreg096]

What are you talking about, that's what makes it great and keeps the normies out. Normies being pandered to has never ever turned things better then they where before.

Nobody should be pandered too. Even Miyazaki pointed out the problem with anime.

Miyazaki's an old disconnected man who pretends things where better "back in my day" and forgets that his own work, like all, pandered to specific groups too. He just doesn't like who anime panders to now.

Better anime be wierd as it is now then if it where to pander to normie scum, or worst, the progressives who never even support the things that pander to them.

Yeah because when I think of "crazy" I think of 20 series where an otaku goes to a fantasy world or an emotionless gary stu who has his own harem

Almost nobody pays for anime anyway. Almost nobody who is deeply into anime prefers dubs. I couldn't care less either. I stopped watching new anime. I'm pretty sure when people say anime is getting better, they're lying. I am looking forward to Yuasa's new movie, though. It's crazy that he hasn't directed one since Mind Game.

You should check out Ping Pong the animation.

 

[Zontar]

Snip

https://animeseptember.files.wordpress.com/2013/04/plj_qb_rw.jpg[img]
[img]http://nya.sh/i/161c08a58c3772f874e9fcb8e6ab8a0c.png

Yup, it's all just one art style, can't tell them apart at all.

 

[hermes]

Anime isn't a genre, it's just an art style

It's neither, it's a medium.

No, anime is a TV show (a medium) or a movie (a medium).

Well it certainly isn't an art style.

It is neither of those things. Anime is an art movement, or a set of several art movements if you want to get specific and divide it into different time periods.

 

[Zontar]

Anime isn't a genre, it's just an art style

It's neither, it's a medium.

No, anime is a TV show (a medium) or a movie (a medium).

Well it certainly isn't an art style.

It is neither of those things. Anime is an art movement, or a set of several art movements if you want to get specific and divide it into different time periods.

Thinking about it, so long as you keep it exclusively Japanese (because of the critical part Japanese culture plays into it that has kept a clear line between anime and anime influenced animation) then yeah that line of thought to explain it does make sense.

But Avatar/Kora are not anime.

 

[hermes]

Anime isn't a genre, it's just an art style

It's neither, it's a medium.

No, anime is a TV show (a medium) or a movie (a medium).

Well it certainly isn't an art style.

It is neither of those things. Anime is an art movement, or a set of several art movements if you want to get specific and divide it into different time periods.

Thinking about it, so long as you keep it exclusively Japanese (because of the critical part Japanese culture plays into it that has kept a clear line between anime and anime influenced animation) then yeah that line of thought to explain it does make sense.

But Avatar/Kora are not anime.

That is where we divert. If it shares the characteristics of anime, then it is anime. Call it "american anime" if you want to distinguish it; but Avatar is a lot closer to Shonen anime than to The Flintstones. If it only needs to be Japanese and animation, then Retsuko, Sazae-San and Anpanman are anime; if it only needs to be produced by Japanese people, Afro Samurai and Voltron are not anime; it doesn't even has to be aired in Japan first, as that would disqualify Space Dandy. In fact, if we are taking the idea that being animated in Asia is important to being an anime, The Simpsons is as close to an anime as it can get.

I am being facetious here, but the point is: You can't restrict an artistic movement to a place, even if it originated in that place or the classic examples come from there. There are a lot of western animation heavily influenced by anime that are closer than many of the asian animation influenced by western culture. I would consider Stray Dog by Kurosawa and Le Samoura? by Melville to be true noir films, even when they are not American. The British has some of the best rock bands in its history, even when the movement started in the US. By that token, I think Avatar is a lot "more anime" than Hello Kitty.

 

[Zontar]

You can't restrict an artistic movement to a place

You can when the backbone of that movement is based on the culture of a single country, and that all attempts to replicate that movement in other nations has only created new movements that are heavily influenced by it but still clearly separate. You can't take the Japanese out of anime anymore then one could take the Polish out of Witcher, it is a fundamental part of what makes it what it is that cannot be replicated elsewhere, and attempts to do just that have shown this.

Anime inspired cartoons are still distinctly American/Canadian/French and recognisably different on sight by fans.

 

[Phoenixmgs_v1legacy]

Yup, it's all just one art style, can't tell them apart at all.

There's quite the level of similarities present. Style =/= exactly the same, style means sharing similarities.

You would actually argue that the following are totally different styles?

 

[Zontar]

You would actually argue that the following are totally different styles?

YES

 

[Phoenixmgs_v1legacy]

You would actually argue that the following are totally different styles?

YES

Just wow...

 

[hermes]

You can't restrict an artistic movement to a place

You can when the backbone of that movement is based on the culture of a single country, and that all attempts to replicate that movement in other nations has only created new movements that are heavily influenced by it but still clearly separate. You can't take the Japanese out of anime anymore then one could take the Polish out of Witcher, it is a fundamental part of what makes it what it is that cannot be replicated elsewhere, and attempts to do just that have shown this.

Anime inspired cartoons are still distinctly American/Canadian/French and recognisably different on sight by fans.

Then it is not a movement. Artistic movements can't be locked to a single place. They inspire people from other places, and in turn are inspired by them. Renaissance was not exclusively Italian, and Gothic was not exclusively French.

For example, take "magical realism". As a movement, its more prominent in Latin america, because it started there and many of its more emblematic authors lived there: Borges, Garcia Marquez, Neruda and Allende (among others). Those pieces of work share some particular "flavor", but they are not the only authors whose work was associated with the movement: British Rushdie, American Toni Morrison or Norwegian Rune Salvesen, among others. Is a south american novel distinctly and recognizably different to a north american novel? Of course it is, culture informs sensibilities. But that doesn't mean they don't share characteristics that make them exemplary of the movement. It is not even restricted to novels, as painters Frida Kahlo and Ricco are considered part of the "magic realism" movement.

If you have to restrict "anime" so weirdly that only Japanese animation (even so widely different examples as "Hello Kitty", "Panty & Stocking", "FFVII: Advent Children" and "Mononoke Hime") are all on the same bag, while at the same time excluding others like Korean and Chinese animation that in many cases is indistinguishable (like "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" or "To Be Hero"), or works that anime directors do in other countries (like Shiei, Juzo Tokoro or Tommy Ohtsuka); then anime as a word loses a lot of its meaning beyond the literal translation of "animation", and should be considered a "denomination of origin" exported product, something mostly associated with food, like Tequila, Champagne and Roquefort.

 

[EternallyBored]

You would actually argue that the following are totally different styles?

YES

Just wow...

I think you two are arguing past each other, Zontar seems to be talking about styles within anime, i.e. you can tell the difference between Studio Ghibli's style and a-1 pictures style with a passing familiarity with anime in general, much like an art lover can tell the difference between a Rembrandt and a Caravaggio despite both still being Baroque artists.

Whereas you are talking about anime itself as a style within the sphere of art as a whole, like how you wouldn't generally confuse anime with American comics style. Studios have their own style within anime, but both are still part of the anime style itself.

I think Zontar is misunderstanding that you are talking about cohesive styles within art as a whole and is pointing out that each studio does have a distinctive style within the genre itself, while missing that you are talking about both falling under the artistic style or genre that we call anime.

 

[Fox12]

Fucking hell, anime is any animated work originating from Japan. It's not a "style." And it's not difficult to understand.

OT: Maybe we'll get lucky and enjoy better service from Sony now.

 

[Casual Shinji]

What are you talking about, that's what makes it great and keeps the normies out. Normies being pandered to has never ever turned things better then they where before.

The "normies" are being pandered to. All those people buying figurines and body pillows are the norm in anime. All those high school settings, waifu's, tsundere's, and whatever other thoroughly milked tropes are the norm. A norm current anime has an extreme reluctance deviating from.

Satoshi Kon was weird in anime. Katsuhiro Otomo was weird, and yes, even Hayao Miyazaki was weird. They were weird for not adhering to tropes and making anime whose sole purpose wasn't simply to sell merchandise.

 

[Zontar]

Weird, you are thr last person that I thoughtnwould have a funimation subscription on this site due to the "quality" of the dubs that they put forward.

I have dyslexia, I only watch subs if there's no alternative.

 

[runic knight]

Well this does not seem like a good idea. Granted funimation has been going downhill again a bit lately anyways with localizing, but I doubt sony stepping in will make it better. They are, after all, the people who pushed ghostbusters and the emoji movie out as good ideas, and which seems to be involved in a lot of data breaches. I doubt this department being headed by sony will be better off for it. I'd hope it helps kill it faster, but that would mean essentially trapping all the property localization rights funimation has now as sony isn't likely to give them back.

Looks like a bad situation for anime fans coming up.


A final question for the current argument. If the emoji movie was done by Korean animators, would that still be considered anime?

 

[Zontar]

If the emoji movie was done by Korean animators, would that still be considered anime?

No, it's only anime if it's from Japan (with only the inbetweens being done elsewhere), or if you're a normie then anything that uses the "anime aesthetic"

 

[Metalix Knightmare]

CAGE! CARTMAN! Sum it all up for those at home!