Super Official Anime Discussion Thread

[Super_Boom]

pokoko said:

So many battle shounen being so formulaic is a big problem for me.  It's ridiculous.  They're not even trying to hide that they're just changing things around a bit and laying on a new skin.  I once read that with new manga authors, about 50% of the finished product comes from the editors.  With battle shounen, it wouldn't surprise me if that ratio is even higher.  I know I've mentioned this before, but I once read a manga where the author talked about her main character design getting rejected over and over and how she kept making the boobs bigger until it was finally approved.  I imagine the same thing happens with shounen characters until they fit the mold.  "He needs to be dumber.  He needs to want to fight more.  He needs a more punchable face."

Probably a bit of stereotyping here, but I think the problem is that Japanese business culture tends to be a lot more risk averse and conservative than Western culture. Once something catches on, they basically cling to it for all its worth. I suppose publishers know what sells, so they'll push for popular character personalities and body types, even if it conflicts with what the author wants sometimes. 

It's a bit of a sad reality I guess, that manga/anime are a business as well as an artform. It always sucks when I realize a manga I like was cancelled or phased out because the numbers weren't talking. Makes you realize whatever universe you were attached to was really only created at the whim of someone trying to make a profit at the end of the day. I suppose this goes beyond manga/anime though...I'm sure a lot of us have had a game we liked that will never get a sequel for the same reason.

pokoko said: 

I watched a lot of the Fairy Tail anime and, among many other problems, the way it presented each "arc" as the BIG ONE got tiresome.  It's like, okay, this time is for real ... well, okay, actually it turns out this enemy is just a front for something even more sinister that might come into play later on!  Maybe I've been spoiled by the continuity of One Piece but a lack of cohesive storytelling will eventually make me just not care about watching a long running anime series.  One of the reasons I don't watch much western television is the design philosophy of "we don't really know where we're going but we're going to drag it out as long as we can."

You know it's funny, since Kodansha (publisher for Fairy Tail's magazine and rival to Jump's Shueisha) treats Fairy Tail as its own answer to One Piece, when the two manga are basically night and day different outside of certain genre staples. When Hiro wrote his first manga, Rave Master, he admitted that he only planned his story out like one arc ahead at a time, and with Fairy Tail being so much more freeform in comparison, I'm sure it became even worse. Compared to One Piece, where it's clear Oda's had an end goal ever since the first chapter, and plot elements are introduced several hundred chapters before they're relevant to the story, it is easy to get spoiled. The only thing I'd really give Hiro over Oda is that I prefer the former's character designs...mostly because I don't like that exaggerated hourglass body type every female in One Piece has.

I do like Hiro's work ethic though, even now he's finding time to write and draw his new manga, storyboard and write the Fairy Tail sequel, and still post plenty of artwork for fans on Twitter. Even Oda can barely push out 3 chapters a month, and the My Hero author admits it takes him 10 days to write a single chapter (*does mental math*). There's something to be said for how he hasn't gotten burnt out yet, I guess maybe he's found his niche that lets him do whatever he wants without going crazy.

He also has a real knack for character interactions and humor. I've always held that he would be a much better at comedy/SoL instead of writing action shounen all the time.