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<h4>Now announcing Sid Narged's - "Favorite things" AMV Contest with real prizes. Enter today. Deadline November 30, 2008!Check the Fun Page for details!</h4>
<h4>Sid Narged and his assistant Mr. Monkey will be attending the 2008 Otakon and 2008 GenCon Indy. Sid will be signing autographs. Otakon 2008 XV will be at the Baltimore converntion center, August 8th - 10th, 2008, Sid Narged will be in the Vendor area. Gencon Indy will be August 14-17, 2008, and it will be at the Indiana Convention Center. Sid will be in the Authors Alley. Sid will be running 2 panels at Gen Con 2008 "Do you otaku?" and "Anything I ever really needed to know I learned from anime" Stop on by!
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Get Started with anime... NOW! <br><br>
There are some people in the world who are interested in anime, but don’t know how to get started in watching it. How do you tell what's good and bad? How can you tell what you'll like? Because everyone is different, there is no single rule that applies for everyone... but you can use some of these suggestions as guidelines.
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Start with the internet.<br><br>
You can research movies on the internet; the same is true with anime. Read some reviews and plot descriptions, watch some trailers. Maybe even watch some online. This is a good way to get started without having to dump a whole ton of money.
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There are some other internet ideas too, that relate to the way people judge a movie or series. There is an interesting phenomenon, related to anime, called the Anime Music Video or AMV. Think of it like a movie trailer, where the editor puts together their favorite scenes in a music video format... to any music they choose. The best part of this is that it is usually made by fans, not corporations or studios, so this is what people get out of it.
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Find some good AMV's with music you like, and find a few different ones based on the same title. See what it looks like. If you like action, you'll see if it has some. If you like romance, sci-fi, giant robots, pretty girls, or just plain chaos... you'll see that too. Read up on it a little, you don't need to spoil it for yourself though... just get an idea and take a chance.
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Now think of it from this standpoint, if there are a few hundred different people putting up information about a certain anime; it at least has enough appeal to make a few hundred people post information about an anime, they're not getting paid to do. This doesn't mean it's going to appeal to you, but it at least has some merit... it's worth a look if it matches your genre.
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Longer doesn't always mean better... sometimes it's a real bad sign.<br><br>
For the true anime fans, this double-entendre has extra meaning. Longer doesn't mean better when selecting your anime. I've seen great stories told in 30 minutes, and I've seen a show that didn't progress at all in like 112 episodes. I'm not going to name any names here, but uh, believe it.
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It's also a good idea to find out how long it's going to take you to watch this. I understand that most people do not wish to spend a few thousand hours watching something, so this concept might be important to you. There are a lot of different options for that. There are short anime films, short series type, long series, direct to video (called OVA or OAV), full feature length movies, and more. This part of the decision is up to you. I would suggest starting with a feature film or a short series to get your feet wet; this gives you a lot of different options for stories over a short period of time.
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It's better to follow your feelings on this one. It varies by person. I personally don't know of many stories that can't be told in less than 30 episodes... so I tend to stay away from stuff that goes up around 220 episodes. I tried it once. It started out strong for about 5 episodes and went into autopilot for the next 60 or so. After talking with a friend about this he said that I stopped just shy of the episode where stuff starts to happen that relates to the progression of the main story again... Sorry, I wasted enough of my life on that.
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You can't judge an anime by its cover, or title.<br><br>
Just like you can't judge a book by its cover, the same is true with anime. I have purchased far too much crap that looked good at the time when standing in the store. You should probably research anything you are going to buy. The marketing of anime is very complicated, so trying to deduce a genre or plot summary through looking at the cover, title, or paragraph on the back of the video can be difficult.
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Let the battle begin, dubbed or subbed.<br><br>
Remember that anime is a foreign product (unless you’re Japanese.) Just like in foreign movies they have different versions - some with original Japanese soundtracks and dialog, subtitled in different languages, and other versions over-dubbed in other languages. There are different camps involved in the anime world, and everyone has their opinion. The true purists say, "Learn Japanese. Then you don't need subtitles or the butchery of a bad translation with cheesy voice actors." There are others who are sort of pure. They enjoy the original form, but don't quite have the time or capacity to learn Japanese; they usually prefer subtitles. Then there are people who prefer dubbed, they don't want to read the whole thing, but don't know Japanese, so they focus on the story as a whole, hoping that any weird voice acting or cheesy dialog will pan out in the end.
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Then there are people with no preference. Personally, I would love to have the time to learn Japanese so I could have full selection of all the anime ever made. But I would rather be watching it, than learning Japanese... so that's the dilemma. I will read subtitles if that's the only option, or watch it dubbed if it exists. Sometimes I do both, just to see if there's a difference in the translation - and to see how close the character's voices sound in different languages with different voice actors.
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This again is another preference, there are huge debates over which is better. DVD's generally have both the original (with or without subtitles) and dubbed (sometimes in multiple languages). You have more of an opportunity to choose now that you are given the options. Some even come in full screen and wide screen, others in high definition! It used to be that you would buy a VHS and it would say Original Dialog with Subtitles, or English/other language Dialog. That was it.
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This is up to you. If you already know Japanese, you win... if not, I guess it depends on how well you can read. ?
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Beware the super deformed (a.k.a. What the chibi?)<br><br>
An interesting artistic expression used in a lot of anime, especially in humorous situations, is the use of a style referred to as super deformed, or lovingly referred to as chibi. Chibi means little person or small child. Anime can have some very amazing artwork, but then almost randomly, the character changes form... into a sort of big-headed midget version if itself with giant eyes. There are actually a great many different stages of this.
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You can have anything from a full detail, almost realistic portrayal of a character down to a gelatinous blob with dots for eyes. This is most likely done for a couple of reasons. Artistic license, which means they do what they want for whatever effect they were looking for... or more likely cost.
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There are a lot of ways to save money in animation. Remove a few lines, or details, or colors, from a few thousand frames of animation and you save a whole lot of time and money. This is part of the charm of some anime titles. But you need to be expecting it. If you start watching it and you didn't know that the same character could have 6 different forms in one scene, it may get difficult to follow.
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This can be anything from amusing to annoying, depending on how it's done, and how often. Be prepared for it, in case it happens, but don't be concerned, it's not a bad trip or anything.
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Some titles do not use this at all, and generally they are the full length, big budget features. This is not always the case though; Just a general guideline.
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Some anime is not for kids... as some isn't for adults, and some is perfect for your perverted little teenager.<br><br>
There are many different types and genres of anime, just like regular movies and TV shows. Some are for adults because of sex and violence, some are ok for teens with some bad language and some risqué scenes (maybe some nudity) and some are just action scenes for the younger ones. There are some really weird things out there in anime land and I'm going to cover some for you now.
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It's hard to tell which titles are 100% appropriate without viewing but here's some stuff to look for, or look out for.
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Hentai is pornography in the simple explanation. It can range anywhere from provocative clothing and situations, to aliens with giant tentacles raping and destroying, performing bondage with animals while pooping on them. There are very few pure hentai films which have anything other than a faint simple plot, but such is the same with regular pornography I guess.
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Ecchi is a sub category of hentai. It's not raw pornography; it's more like movies that would be considered rated R or NC-17, like the old Porky's movies or the first Revenge of the Nerds. Sexual scenes and nudity can occur but are not the objective. This is generally the arena where we hear the term "fan service." This term refers to anything done solely to keep the fans happy. Lot's of jiggling, partial nudity, showers, baths, beach trips, panty shots, locker rooms and more. Fan service also covers putting little bits of information only the true fans would know, like having the director or creator as a character, paying homage to an influence or something like that; but ecchi basically means it's a little lewd and dirty. This may be acceptable (depending on your parenting style) for kids under 18 if you watch it first and see if it's something they can probably handle. With all the sexually explicit and suggestive behavior in TV and movies today, many of these are charming, innocent, and prude by comparison.
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Violence varies in anime. You can have Tom and Jerry style violence, where it looks bad but there's not a lot of blood and no one really gets hurt, or you can have graphic butchery and death with blood everywhere. There's a lot of variety in here for that. Some of these are great for everyone, some are definitely not. It's hard to tell sometimes, many of us kids just had parents that thought all cartoons were for kids so they didn't worry about it. I guess I lucked out on that, but I also didn't have the internet to look it up on when I was 8 - trying to spend my allowance on another anime.
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Kid’s anime is still around, but if you're reading this, you are probably not going to want most of it. Some of it is pretty trippy stuff, but most of it just isn't that good anymore. Personally, I like the older classic kid’s anime that was around when I was growing up. Sure the animation wasn't all that great in some of them, but the stories were a little better I think. Also, I think many of the older kids would like some of that stuff too.
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Rent many, buy often and take a chance.<br><br>
There's a lot of anime out there, but you will see a lot of similar storylines if you stick to a single genre. Just like if you watched all romantic comedies, or horror movies, you would see a lot of similar stories done a different way. The way to deal with this problem, at least for me, is to take a chance. Rent a lot of different stuff, and see what happens. If you take this approach, you may find a direction to go in. Then after you rent the first DVD of a series, you may go buy the boxed set... or just give up on it altogether. Renting is a good way to try before you buy... but if you like it, I would suggest buying it. If it's not profitable to release a whole bunch of different titles because no one's buying them... then they won't.
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Friends don't let friends live without anime.<br><br>
After you get into it, pass it on. You'll find that sharing this is an interesting ice breaker. You may run into people who have never seen an anime before, and you can run into people like me who have seen more than they care to try to count. Find some good anime and start them out as you got started... if you know them fairly well, you can judge what they might like.
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Maybe even get them a copy of this book to help them get started as well!
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Then you'll end up as an otaku, dressing up for cosplay in no time! Baka! Baka! Baka! Baka! Baka! (I told myself I wouldn’t do that!)
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Thanks Again!<br><br>
Sid Narged - Author<br>
Goin Down & Anything I ever really needed to know I learned from ANIME!
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