The Animation General

[Goat]

Memes right now are jokes whose humor comes from repetition on any given situation. The right timing can make a somewhat old meme (Give or take three to one months) funny at that given time from it's lack of usage.

Do you still see as many people making John Cena jokes, or Rick Rolls? Or better yet "I can has cheeseburger?" jokes?

Meme culture is in a state of hyperevolution when it comes to internet culture, days can feel like they last forever but the days pass so quickly that new trends and jokes come and go like mayflies. Before you know it, you're pulling out a box and thinking you look stupid in your Ninja Turtles costume.

[BlackLuigi7]

Using meme culture in your media does nothing but date it, as memes always have incredibly short lifestyles.

You do have a point with that, but the meme style they were going with seems timeless, it's been around for years and can still be seen as relevant. Of course, I post old memes all day every day, so my views on that might be a little cloudy.

Those text memes haven't died out, but they've turned stale a long time ago. The main reason they're still relevant at all is mainly because of younger teens making them and showing them to friends, in the hopes of being funny. Not because the maymay itself is funny.

[Goat]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SLhejo6uOMs

"None of you other guys are getting a pickup next season"

BAHAHAHAHAHA

[Jeffery Mewtamer]

Is everyone here talking about the same kind of meme? Because there is a notable difference between memes as bits of cultural information and memes as Internet joke fads. Memes of the former can certainly be timeless, memes of the latter kind tend to be very dependent on their original context, almost like an Internet-wide fandom-specific in-joke.

[Rajikaru]

You're on a forum whose main population is made up of anywhere from 8 to 21 year olds, and the main example of these memes used include Borderlands, Rocket Power, and the latest Power Puff Girls incarnation. Which meme do you think it is?

[BlackLuigi7]

Is everyone here talking about the same kind of meme? Because there is a notable difference between memes as bits of cultural information and memes as Internet joke fads. Memes of the former can certainly be timeless, memes of the latter kind tend to be very dependent on their original context, almost like an Internet-wide fandom-specific in-joke.

It's honestly not that hard to tell what we're talking about in context.

And almost everyone knows what "meme" means.


Anyhow, how does everyone feel about a show that us literally just memes? Like, all the memes are characters, and memes are the plot?
Because at this point you know it's gonna happen.

[Pufflehugs]

^ Looking for a garbage show containing nothing but memes? Here ya' go.

[chaoadventures]

I watched about 10 seconds of that.
No. Stop it. You can only have so many memes on the screen at once before everything goes completely downhill. Nothing compares to that monstrosity.

That said, I think he was talking about actual an TVs show that will pass Cartoon Network's weak quality check.

[Rajikaru]

Is everyone here talking about the same kind of meme? Because there is a notable difference between memes as bits of cultural information and memes as Internet joke fads. Memes of the former can certainly be timeless, memes of the latter kind tend to be very dependent on their original context, almost like an Internet-wide fandom-specific in-joke.

It's honestly not that hard to tell what we're talking about in context.

And almost everyone knows what "meme" means.


Anyhow, how does everyone feel about a show that us literally just memes? Like, all the memes are characters, and memes are the plot?
Because at this point you know it's gonna happen.

That pretty much was Rocket Power and is any regular show knock-off (sanjay and craig, pickle and peanut, etc) these days.

Like, Rocket Power wasn't nearly as un-popular as current unpopular shows, and I'm not afraid to admit taht I latched a lot of it back in 2003-2005, but it's the epitome of CEOs "knowing" what the kids like and trying to use that to make profits. Rebellious leader stereotype, only sane girl stereotype, idiot friend that's really good at one thing (camera operation) stereotype, smart guy that gets mocked a lot and is the butt of the cast stereotype, and almost every episode is just about them doing something TO THE EXTREME, and barely any actual conflict other than somebody does something stupid or screws something up, except with dated lingo, random emphasis of said lingo with random flashing giant words, and EXTREME SPORT montages.

[Ivogoji]

Hunter X Hunter is going to join the Toonami lineup tonight. I've never seen it before, so I'm glad I'll get a chance to watch it there.

I was surprised they didn't pick One Punch Man. Seems like the inevitable choice really; it will probably air on Toonami eventually.

Thinking about anime that would be good for Toonami's lineup-

Older anime I'd like to see:
Fairy Tail
Code Geass
Durarara!
Highschool of the Dead
Witchblade (would like to hear the dub version)
Mirai Nikki

More recent anime they could pick:
Overlord (I'm surprised this didn't make it already)
Dragon Ball Super (should have been added a long time ago)
The new Lupin III anime
Boku no Hero Academia
Jojo's Bizarre Adventure
Phantasy Star Online 2 The Animation
Durarara!x2

[Rajikaru]

I'm pretty sure Dragon Ball Super and One Punch Man won't be added until they finish production, they're super hot right now and are probably too costly to dub and put onto Toonami right now, and Dragon Ball Super specifically is going to easily go past 50 episodes at this point, which is a lot for a new series, considering Toonami's limited schedule and anime cycle. I'd consider Osomatsu-san to be much more likely to receive a dub and a timeslot any time soon, but I would be surprised if any of the three shows don't get on Toonami at some point.

Also the fact that you didn't include Osomatsu-san on the list of potential current animes they could pick is actually pretty misinformed. Osomatsu-san is insanely hot in Japan, it'll probably be the top anime of the year over there, and its humour fits Adult Swim's target audience perfectly.

[Ivogoji]

^It's not "misinformed". I listed anime I wanted to see.

[Rajikaru]

Oh. In that case it's bad.

[Jeffery Mewtamer]

How far along is Toonami's airing of Kai? Because I suspect they'll finish that before airing Super. Besides, while it's a no brainer that Super will get dubbed
, to my knowledge, there has been no confirmation that Funimation or anyone else has licensed Super for dubbing.

I also think it worth noting that being popular in Japan or among scanlation/fansubbing circles is no guarantee a licensing company will deem a show worth dubbing. Afterall, it's a lot more involved to make a dub than to make a sub, and even though most of the dubbing companies that had no respect for the source material have long since gone the way of the dodo, many anime fans don't really appreciate the effort and would rather watch subs anyways.

Anyways, regarding Toonami, while I've given up on listening to TV a while back and going blind has destroyed my ability to stay up late on a regular basis so I'd be struggling to stay awake through Toonami if I made an effort to listen to it, One recent anime I think needs to be on Toonami that hasn't been mentioned is Sailormoon Crystal. Hell, if Toonami ever got a part of Adult-Swim's weeknight line-up, I wouldn't mind Toonami airing Viz's redub of the original Sailormoon anime. Toonami airing the Animax dub of Cardcaptor Sakura would also be a nice nod to oldschool Toonami, though that would be a harder sell to Adult Swim's target demographic. Nanoha and Madoka might be better fits on the New Toonami since Nanoha seems more action oriented than most Mahou Shoujo and Madoka is targetted at an older audience than is typical for the genre. Also, in the pipedream category, some uncut Precure would be nice.

My love of Magical Girls and my nostalgia for their presence on Classic Toonami aside, I recently listened to the first season of My sister is Among them and I've been marathoning Digimon Adventure. On the latter, I'm currently up to the early 30s(Gatomon's met Hikari and Myotismon's started preying on Human women, but Gatomon hasn't yet had her heel face turn and Hikari isn't yet confirmed as the eighth child). Despite knowing that Saban was one of those dubbers with little respect for the source material, I haven't come accross anything cringe worthy in the dub thus far despite it being roughly 15 years since I saw the dub on Fox Kids. Damn, realizing just how old the show is and knowing I was already on the upper end of it's target demographic when I saw its original US broadcast makes me feel old. Also, now that I think about it, I think Digimon might have been the first animated series I got into with a strong enough plot that you need to see all the episodes in order to truly understand. Sure, it had the monster of the week battles as a staple, but nearly every episode has either a character defining moment or advances the main plot, something I don't recall from the rest of my early exposure to anime.

[BlackLuigi7]

I also think it worth noting that being popular in Japan or among scanlation/fansubbing circles is no guarantee a licensing company will deem a show worth dubbing.

Dude, we're talking about Dragon Ball and OPM.
They're literally the most popular anime right now. I'd say OPM is actually more popular than SAO, and SAO is/was everywhere. Is crazy.

[Rajikaru]

I'm pretty sure he's talking about me mentioning Osomatsu-san, but when I say it's popular, I mean it's really god damn popular over there. Legitimately more popular than SAO, OPM, and Dragon Ball. Not to mention it ended, which is even more insane.

[Ivogoji]

How far along is Toonami's airing of Kai?

Imperfect Cell's story arc just started. Since they'll surely air the Buu saga as well.... This could take awhile.

Anyway, I've thought about watching Sailor Moon Crystal, given that I've heard several folks recommend it, though I'm watching a bunch of other shows that I should finish up first.

I'm probably going to start Diebuster later this week.

[Jeffery Mewtamer]

That's the problem with Toonami only being once a week. Long runners take forever to run their course. Not too bad if it's something new enough that Toonami is first place to see the show dubbed, but Kai's dub, at least through the end of Cell Saga, has been available on DVD/Blu-Ray for years and has previously seen broadcast on other networks(Granted, Toonami is probably the only place airing it uncut), and it isn't new material for anyone who watched DBZ on Classic Toonami. Part of why I'd only want the redub of Sailormoon Classic to air on Toonami if Adult Swim gave them a weeknight block is that at 200 episodes, it would take 4 years to air and there wouldn't be any new to Toonami content until they get to Stars.

Probably a pipedream, but how awesome would it be if AS gave Toonami an hour-and-a-half every weeknight, with them airing Kai, Sailormoon Classic, and One Piece from the point they're currently airing Monday-Friday, and then on Saturdays, in the same timeslots, they gave us Super, Crystal, and One Piece from the beginning of the most recent arc in the Anime? Or any combination of a shorter weeknight block for airing backlogs of long runners while a longer Saturday night block is dedicated to airing new to America episodes of long runners and short series.

As for Popularity in Japan and among the fansubbing community not necessarily leading to a US dub, I'll admit I can't think of any examples off top of my head that I know for a fact have seen no Official US release despite relatively mainstream popularity elsewhere.

I can name a few series, that despite enjoying mainstream or near-mainstream popularity in Japan and two of them enjoying International popularity, only have partial English dubs:
Ojamajo Doremi: Third longest running Mahou Shoujo franchise by episode count(beaten only by Sailormoon(which only surpased OD when Crystal got a second season) and Precure(which has a new cast and story every year)). Has been dubbed into, among other things, Chinese, Korean, German, French, Italian, both Brazilian and European Portuguese both European and Latin American Spanish, with most of those dubs being complete at least through the end of the show's original broadcast run. I've heard there's a Singaporean English dub, but have never found proof that such exists. Only the first season was ever dubbed for US broadcast, and even then, only the first half of the first season was ever aired on TV and while the second half was streamed on the dubber's website, one episode was omitted for mysterious reasons.
Tokyo Mew Mew: Popular enough that the Manga has two official US releases and has been dubbed into many languages. Only the first half of the anime has seen English dub, and while most countries whose dubs were based on the English dub eventually got the second half, no one has picked up the slack for the US market.
Precure: The longest running Mahou Shoujo franchise ever with an episode count greater than the second and third longest combined, and might be the longest running Shoujo anime of any genre. Only the first and ninth seasons have been dubbed.

I can also think of a few series whose Manga was localized and was popular enough to get an anime that got fansubbed, but haven't, to my knowledge, been dubbed.

That said, given that Dragonball has long-established international marketability, I don't think anything short of the US Anime Industry collapsing will stop Super from getting dubbed, and if the US Anime Industry were to collapse, lack of Super dub would probably be the least of our worries as I doubt such a collapse would leave the rest of the economy in-tact.

[Ivogoji]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kmIfsZruqLs

[Tsui]

These may seem like silly questions, but I'm curious:

Do you guys prefer animation with or without shading on characters?

Also, do you prefer animation with realistically proportioned or more stylized characters?

[Goat]

These may seem like silly questions, but I'm curious:

Do you guys prefer animation with or without shading on characters?

Also, do you prefer animation with realistically proportioned or more stylized characters?

Never felt too picky about the style of animation really, all I ever wanted was something to love and maybe even show my kid down the line too if I ever have one

[Rajikaru]

These may seem like silly questions, but I'm curious:

Do you guys prefer animation with or without shading on characters?

Also, do you prefer animation with realistically proportioned or more stylized characters?

I'll always prefer stylized characters, but what every artist needs to keep in mind is there's a difference between stylized work and unfinished/poor work. If the character looks off, even in the artistic "style" of the creator, then it's going to be incredibly jarring for just about everybody. I can't think of any examples off the top of my head, but just imagine a frame of animation or a comic panel where the character who the focus is on has legs that are longer than the rest of their body - that's, in essence, not part of the artstyle, but rather just amateurish work on the artist's part.

Shading is completely style-dependent, but it also isn't really something that could take away from the art. Pillow shading is gross though. Never pillow shade.

[Pufflehugs]

THIS.

[chaoadventures]

^Hey guys. I heard the Hype Train started selling tickets again. Because that was amazing. I'd legitimately put it up there with the Sonic Unleashed intro.

These may seem like silly questions, but I'm curious:

Do you guys prefer animation with or without shading on characters?

Also, do you prefer animation with realistically proportioned or more stylized characters?

Shading is excellent. I think more people should do it. As for style, it depends. I despise the way shows like Adventure Time look, but I'm perfectly fine with Ed, Edd n Eddy and even Steven Universe.
As long as they have some form of heed to anatomy, I'm fine with it.

[Jeffery Mewtamer]

It's kind of moot what with the whole going blind thing, but I can't say I have a strong preference for one art style over another.

To illustrate, here's a relatively short list of shows I think had nice visuals:
Dexter's Lab
Powerpuff Girls(though I remember thinking the pilot looked wonky the last time I saw it)
Samurai Jack
Any show in the DCAU
TMNT2k3
Reboot
Code Lyoko
Qin's Moon/Legend of Qin from season 2 onwards with season 3 being notably improved over season 2(Never got the chance to watch Seasons 4+ and season 1 didn't have enough polygons to do the artstyle justice).
Green Lantern: The Animated Series.
Code Geass
Digimon
Dragonball/Z/GT
Ojamajo Doremi
Cardcaptor Sakura
Powerpuff Girls Z
SatAM
Sonic X

That should do a decent job of illustrating the variety of artstyles I've enjoyed.