Quote:
Originally Posted by 4Tran
I don't see this being true of science fiction. One huge barrier is language - because English dominates the science fiction world so much, there is very little movement from non-English sources. From what I can tell, Japanese science fiction has had very different concerns and approaches, and I can't see all that much cross-pollination. I admit that I'm not too familiar with Japanese written science fiction - perhaps you can enlighten me on this.
|
Japanese post war sci-fi has been heavily influenced by the classics like Asimov, Dick, Doc Smith, Heinlein and Clarke through SF-magazines translating their works. It's true that the language barrier in turn prevented much Japanese literature going the opposite way. I can only mention Komatsu and Murakami for certain.
However both Japanese and French New Wave cinema were highly influential in the art house scene so some adaptations found their way. Magazines were very important here as well. Heavy Metal magazine and Moebius helped introduce European sci-fi to American visual artists. Manga off course has been a major influence since the 80s, especially in France. Then off course there is Japanese pulp with things like Godzilla and Ultraman.
Quote:
Originally Posted by relentlessflame
One side point that I wanted to mention about mecha (though I'm starting to wonder if this tangent should really be moved to a separate thread dealing with this topic specifically), is that there has really been a declining interest in plamo over the last decade or so. I mean, Bandai is really a toy company, and creating anime was really an avenue to sell toys (as it still basically is today). So it used to be that mecha shows marketed primarily based on the design of the cool-looking mechs that you'd want to buy toys/models of. But now, the focus has shifted instead to marketing based on the characters. The amount of people collecting mecha toys may have declined, but the amount of people collecting character goods is going up. Something like Vivid Red Operation takes that to the nth degree; the traditional-looking mecha in the show are all enemies and rather unimportant, but the female characters and their various combinations are the "cool factor". This is no doubt the prelude to a deluge of figures and character goods to follow. You might also consider Accel World another example of this, among others.
I think marketing anime based on the female characters has always been a "thing" (for obvious reasons), but I suppose that's the main things that's changed over the last decade or so. It's just chasing the market based on the toys they think they can sell.
|
Don't forget that late night anime are not aimed at children. The number of late night/OVA mecha titles has been few and mostly aimed at small older collectors audience.
Bandai and Takara-Tomy still have massive mecha based toy properties like Transformers, Gundam and Zoids. So other than declining toy sales for demographic reasons I don't see any changes to plamo and such like.
Mecha anime is traditionally weekend morning, early evening fare. It's not competing with character centric late night anime (imo the mecha vs moe debate makes no sense at all) but with live-action shows which are cheaper to produce. Same reason why Disney has replaced most of it's cartoons with Hannah Montana shows and their ilk.