Comments on: Editor’s Desk: Pearls Before Swine? An opinion on the Gurren affair

By: rocket

rocket — Thu, 10 May 2007 16:33:10 +0000

I had read of the uproar and was prepared for cool artsyness.

Ep4 = teh suck.

My God, if looking like that is high art then Johnny Quest pwns the Louvre and the original Space Ghost can take on all the TMNT’s namesakes.

Gimme a break! A great series gets totally thrown off by some retarded art direction…

GL was supposed to *harken* back to a day when giant robot anime was cheesy, miss-proportioned and done n a shoestring, tap into that raw creative energy, and update it with kick ass modern production values.

Instead we get a pie in the face and a painful reminder that the past does suck.

Boo! Almost makes me stick to Xenoglossia and Gigantic Formula…

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Tue, 01 May 2007 19:22:58 +0000

You think Gainax has a PR department?

By: karasu

karasu — Tue, 01 May 2007 00:41:41 +0000

DrmChrs0: An unfortunate thing is, when your opinion can cost the company you work at millions, you probably shouldn’t go around saying it, with whatever common sense a person has (well, i don’t have common sense, and I’m assume most people do). You want to voice your opinion? Tough luck, not every place is like Heaven, your opinion can get you in deep sh*t.

Though, I have to sympathize with you (I have visited Singapore once…twice, and well ^_^” yeah..)

wow, you don’t like otakus? Other than the fact that they are one of the biggest group of consumers and indirect anti-enviromentalists, I don’t really see them as bad people…more like misguided =\
——–

seems like ep5 looks similiar to the original style. Great..i guess.

By: ikimashou.net - we do otaku » Weekend Rollup - April 28-29 2007

ikimashou.net - we do otaku » Weekend Rollup - April 28-29 2007 — Mon, 30 Apr 2007 17:47:52 +0000

[...] also, he has opined on the whole Gainax issue. READ [...]

By: DrmChsr0

DrmChsr0 — Mon, 30 Apr 2007 14:47:11 +0000

Well, I’m of the camp to raze Akihabara to the ground and dragging out otaku into the streets to kill them in cold blood in front of international television (with a tape specially sent to the UN), so my comment really means nothing.

Shingo, good points all around. But I’ll play Devil’s Advocate and side with Gainax. Sure, they were pretty stupid to not consult their PR department before saying anything that could insult their consumer base (Heck, this ranks with Nintendo being stupid enough to stick to the Cartridge Format for the N64), but we all gotta remember one thing: Everyone has an opinion. Like it or not, it’s their opinion, not yours. Don’t like it? Tough. You can’t make him eat his or her words, inscribed on hot glass or otherwise. Disrespect that basic freedom and you are no better than a fascist.

And I’ve had enough of fucking ‘fascists’ for a lifetime. I’ve living in a fascommie (that’s fascist-communist) country (that’s Singapore, and enough of the LOL FINE or Chewing Gum jokes, I get the picture) and I have to face ‘fascists’ (self-proclaimed ‘otaku’ who are nothing more than people who are assholes who love forcing their will down people’s throats) in the daily course of the current stage of my life, and it’s about time we teach them a lesson.

By: Sydney2K

Sydney2K — Mon, 30 Apr 2007 03:33:24 +0000

Hmmm… sounds like episode four is the “Love and Monsters” of anime.

(Long-term fans of Dr. Who will know exactly what I’m talking about…)

By: omo

omo — Sun, 29 Apr 2007 20:54:16 +0000

I think what was unpredictable was the uproar. Your typical Saturday morning kiddy audience isn’t going to crowd at 2ch (and 2ch really is the “source” of all this bitter outcry). I think it’s perfectly acceptable to sneak in a guest director for a show like this if you know your audience are going to be kids for the most part. They probably didn’t have in mind GL being a show that stole the focus of all this otaku attention.

The unprofessionalism OTOH is something entirely divorced from the episode itself. “Ugly” or whatever, the episode itself wasn’t really poorly done IMO.

But I guess it was just too ugly?

By: Tsubaki

Tsubaki — Sun, 29 Apr 2007 18:09:31 +0000

I agree with you Shingo, and personally I didn’t like the new art style. I don’t hate it, but rather, I prefer the previous one.

By: Agent Wax

Agent Wax — Sun, 29 Apr 2007 08:43:41 +0000

Never having watched an episode of GL before, my 2 cents on this issue boils down to simply:

It is often a bad idea to disproportionately insult the demographic which is primarily responsible for putting food on your table. Especially when they have arguably valid grievances against something you did.

That’s all.

By: tj han

tj han — Sun, 29 Apr 2007 06:08:55 +0000

Perhaps they picked the wrong time slot? I very much welcome GL’s style as an experimental platform. I guess otakus just want their normal anime. And moe. Is that why eroge with the same formula sell well?

By: TheBigN

TheBigN — Sun, 29 Apr 2007 05:38:05 +0000

I think it’s all a matter about people getting used to something, and then having it suddenly change. I personally didn’t mind episode 4, and I can understand why it can piss off others. I don’t really see it as such a bad deal though.

By: Dio

Dio — Sun, 29 Apr 2007 02:07:34 +0000

I’m surprised that people actually enjoyed the art and animation in episode 4. I definitely respect your opinions on the matter but seeing the episode before hearing about this epic shitstorm, I found it to be incredibly disappointing and horrendously done. Is this a case of people making crap and then calling it artistic expression so that others have a harder time saying it sucks? If I just don’t get how incredibly “artistic” it is I really don’t care. The series had a great art direction before this, and I think it would do well to return to it. I guess we’ll see with episode 5, won’t we?

By: Kurushimi

Kurushimi — Sun, 29 Apr 2007 02:05:55 +0000

Considering that storyboards have been done for all episodes up to 18, I wonder if this fiasco will have any impact on them, since there will be other guest directors for upcoming episodes.

On a related note, someone from BONES studio is rumored to be involved in a future episode – this show could become a creative vent for many industry stars, but again, considering the timeslot it’s in, I can’t say it’d be the best of choices…

By: CMWilly

CMWilly — Sun, 29 Apr 2007 01:47:14 +0000

I just recently watched episode 4 and I was shocked on the production value and change in the show. It shows a complete lack of professionalism from a studio in the industry. Sure, people behind the scenes talk trash on our audience but they do it out of fun and appreciation…..what an embarassment for Gainax. When it comes to having another director do an episode, theres no excuse to have characters off model, animation timed horrendously and drawn poorly even if its for “artistic merit”.

I don’t know if this adds anything to the plate but from what I was told, directors are idolized and sometimes become divas which the production hails to. This leads episodes and series to go in directions that trail off to failures and controversy. My guess is this was the case for GL episode 4.

So hows ep. 5 Shingo~!?

By: hashihime

hashihime — Sun, 29 Apr 2007 01:35:36 +0000

Despite the fact I apparently liked the animation in ep4 more than you did, I agree with most of what you write: they should have known what kind of reaction they would get, especially since it’s a “Saturday morning cartoon.” But I still sympathize with someone having to quit because of opinions posted in a place she (wrongly) expected to be private. I wouldn’t doubt that similar things are said face-to-face around the offices of most studios.