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porcupineinajacuzzi · 6 years

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How The MHA Villains Screwed Up a Bakugo Heel Turn

Let me get this out of the way right now before I say anything else: My Hero Academia has been phenomenal this season. Better than anything the series has ever done before, the latest story arc with the UA students getting attacked while on their summer getaway has been an edge of your seat intense thrill ride. Twitter has been abuzz every single week since the story arc began but no one could’ve been prepared for one of the latest twists in the tale.

What made the story even more interesting was the end when Bakugo was kidnapped by the villains. It seems that one of their goals was to capture him and then recruit him onto their side. This is a plot wrinkle that I've been waiting for since season one. I've always thought that Bakugo would make for a much better villain than a hero and so this was the moment that I've been waiting through over 45 episodes for. And then he ruins it by choosing to stay with the heroes. Boo.

Here's the thing though; I don't blame Bakugo for his actions at this moment mostly because the villains were making a pretty sorry argument for their cause. Basically, their big argument was that heroes aren't honorable because they take money for their actions and all they care about is fame and glory. Now, if they had done just a little bit of research they would've known that Bakugo loves heroes and has done so ever since he was a young kid. This was not a very good argument to make to him and so it's really no wonder why they weren't successful in their attempts to lure him over to their side. Plus having him chained up like a dog in their hideout was not a great first impression.

Here's the thing though; had they taken another approach to trying to convince him, I think they would've been successful. Ever since the beginning of the series, Bakugo has had serious attitude problems which stem mostly from an inferiority complex. He takes it out on Deku pretty often in the first season but it's after he meets Todoroki that it gets particularly nasty due to the fact that he’s no longer the clear favorite or best of the lot. He literally goes from big fish in a small pond to the small fish in the middle of the ocean in just a few short episodes.

Now, what if the villains had played this up? What if the villains took a sympathetic approach regarding his perceived shortcomings and tried to use that to convince him to join their side? I’m willing to entertain the thought that if the villains had opened with a softer approach, he would’ve at least started to hear them out rather than tune them out from the beginning.

If that didn't work, what about talking to him about his jealousy issues? What about if they had promised him that he could be one of the most powerful villains ever? Bakugo loves the idea of being the strongest and if he can't be the all-time strongest hero, what about being among the greats in the villain world? I have to believe that this is something that might appeal to the young hero in training.

If all that failed, there's always the ace in the hole which is telling Bakugo that he could blow up whatever he wanted. It was pointed out to me that the heroes of UA tend to limit Bakugo and don't often let him go all out due to the destructive nature of his powers. What if the villains had told him flat out that he could blow up whatever he wanted?

Regardless, it seems that at no point in the near future will we be getting a Bakugo heel turn which makes me sad. Maybe we'll get a chance at this again in the future but shaking my magic eight ball it doesn't seem likely which is a shame because a heel Bakugo would do wonders for an already stellar show.

#anime #my hero academia #bakugo katsuki

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porcupineinajacuzzi · 6 years

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Anime Review: 11 Eyes

Originally published March 30th, 2011

Available via Amazon Available via Right Stuf

After losing his older sister, Kakeru grew up as an orphan alongside his best friend Yuka and, even after leaving the orphanage, remain close even attending the same school. Born with a useless, discolored eye, Kakeru was always the target of scorn from classmates which continued all throughout his life. One day, Kakeru and Yuka begin to see a strange black moon in the sky which eventually breaks into a red night.

After barely escaping with their lives from a swarm of monsters, Kakeru and Yuka meet others at their school who are also forced into the red night to fight for their lives. As they work together, the group encounters a group of mysterious black knights who wish to see them dead. Luckily, they have all been given a new power with which to fight back.

Good and the Bad

This is an average series and to be honest, that’s being generous in some places. And while you may think that that’s all you need to know and can move on, you’d be wrong. What makes this series different is that everyone involved with this series had to have known that it was an average series. Between the staff at Dogakobo and the audience, no one is being fooled into thinking this is going to be of epic proportions. What this does is gives the series a new sense of freedom to do as it wants in its quest to bring the audience in. With this power it can actually strive to be better and after clawing its way through plot twist after plot twist, 11Eyes manages to do the impossible: it gets a little better… but not by much.

Initially, it’s pretty easy to see where the roots of this series lie. Based on an eroge by Lass, 11Eyestries hard to create a dark atmosphere that always leaves the audience guessing. However in the beginning, a story is introduced that just fails to hook the audience in right away. You know how sometimes when you’re playing an RPG, the beginning can be kind of a slog because of all the time you have to spend leveling up? That’s what this series and its hero is. As a lead character, Kakeru is easily one of the more annoying to appear recently with constant whines about how he isn’t strong enough. Believe me Kakeru, we can SEE how weak you are and watching it is ten times worse than what you’re going through.

While the supporting cast helps a little, what 11Eyes is constantly trying to thrive on is its dark intrigue. Unfortunately with a third of the series spent just trying to get one character into fight shape, by the end of the first disc the series is just managing to hit its still very slow stride. Towards the end, things start to take a turn for the better as characters start to show real depth and growth from who they were. Even if this series isn’t particularly amazing, you’ll have to admit that 11Eyes always manages to keep fans guessing. The problem is that no matter what is happening, no matter how horrific the death or how yandere Yuka gets, it’s just hard to care.

Throughout the series, 11Eyes wants badly to be taken seriously as a dark mystery which makes it all the more annoying when those eroge roots decide to show up at the most inconvenient times. Generally taking the form of quick fan service or sex scene, the good point is that when the series does try to go sexual with its story, the general feeling is of eroticism instead of just fan service. The slow motions and dark lighting that surrounds Misuzu as she conducts her naked ritual, for example, or gives herself to another character always aims for erotic but usually misses just barely. Naked rituals and sexually shared powers? Leave it in the eroge.

Music

What I did love about this series however are the absolutely gorgeous piano scores that constantly filled the scenery and gave it life where the writing was giving none. While I could never find who actually composed the music, the score for this series is just filled with wonderful, soft piano themes which are a primary reason for the series having such a heavy feeling. Ranging from organs to harpsichords, the gothic motif of the music played a huge role in 11Eyes never getting too fast paced. Always keeping things calm and heavy, it makes me wonder if this series could have picked up had the score been lightened just a little.

Overall If you’re willing to put in the time to see all of the twists that this series will try to throw at you in a desperate attempt to keep you around, this could be a dark adventure that would be up your alley. When you have to put that much effort into keeping an audience that is rightly already bored, it’s hard to give a series much of a pass. Don’t invest any money into this one, this is a mostly average series that is worth a rental at best.

#anime #review #11 eyes #sentai filmworks

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porcupineinajacuzzi · 6 years

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Interview: ADR Director/Writer Steven Foster

Originally published September 29th, 2014

If you’ve been a fan of dubbed anime at any point over the last sixteen years or so, you’ve no doubt encountered the name Steven Foster. For over a decade, Steven has been working in Texas creating some of the most memorable and sometimes infamous ADR scripts in anime history while also directing dozens of titles.

Recently I had the chance to talk with Steven regarding his career and future. Over the course of our time together Steven talked to me about his start in the industry, what it was like to work in an ever changing market and ultimately what led to his departure from Sentai Filmworks.

Please keep in mind that I did not censor or edit any of the comments made below so if you’re offended by strong language or are in a work environment, you might want to turn away.

Otaku Review: Let’s start at the beginning; how did you get into ADR writing/directing?

Steven Foster: I had a pretty successful run in advertising and was writing scripts. One was getting some heat in LA but I had two little kids and I wasn’t going to leave them so I was staying in Houston for at least 15 years. Then a friend of mine left her job at the post house where I put together my TV spots and she called me.

“There’s this studio in town and they’re doing this… Japanese animation.” And she’s fumbling with the words, the concept, like most of us dumbass gaijin did back then. “Anime. They want to grow and I think you can help us do that.”

That studio was ADV.

Now I missed Robotech and never really got into Speed Racer. The only real knowledge of anime I had was stumbling across Pokemon toys in a funky shop in Seattle. I thought they were cute and I asked the counter guy what they were.

“Duuuuude,” he told me. “Those guys are gonna be huuuuuuge.”

So when I did the script test for ADV to see if I liked it I had no idea really about anything in the anime world. And the show was horrible, Galaxy Fraulein Yuna. It had like 30 girls all talking over each other and it almost killed me. People have no idea what a bitch it is to write an ADR script. I almost didn’t take the gig. But the characters really appealed to me. Not the characters in the anime, but the ones at ADV. We used to joke that the real show was everything except the anime. That was so true. From the start! Here was John Ledford, in all his Red Bull go-go-go, and Matt Greenfield was all fanboy and geek mystery. The two together? John was cocaine and Matt was lithium. Genius. It was a Chuck Lorre show before there was a Chuck Lorre. A living yin and yang in every sense of the concept. And they were very good for each other. When I came on, it was the beginning of that fusion that, like comics, began happening everywhere. The fringe and mainstream began to meld in the corporate arena, for better or worse. Both in most cases.

OR: When you started anime was still growing in the US, what was it like to work in that era of anime history as compared to now post bubble burst?

SF: Looking back I think so few of us knew what was going to happen, how big the business would get. I know I didn’t. I did know I could help ADV grow, though. And that’s why they hired me and that’s why I signed on. It was time for them to leave the garage and get out in the street. Unfortunately, Main and Easy are just one wrong turn away from Skid Row. So’s Dead End.

But before the big bottom falling out? Oh my god. It was crazy. The industry went from a foot-wide rack at Best Buy to a practical 30-foot alley of anime titles. And ADV shows were running on G4, Cartoon Network, Showtime. Shows became much more polished, nuanced, the content was so much stronger. We had so many shows in production I was combing the streets looking for actors. Plus we had to train them all and as any actor will tell you, it’s not an easy gig. I remember hearing one woman in a bar and she had such a little girl helium voice. Couple days later she’s in the booth. And the fans, even the ones that hated me, appreciated that. It seemed so low rent to have five titles in one month come out and three had the same lead actress I actually felt bad when it happened. So I worked like a madman to find and cultivate a legion of actors to populate all these shows. And I didn’t talk to the press very much and I never went to conventions so no one really knew what I was doing behind the scenes.

And the actors were amazing. I always had their back. And they were so generous with us, just showing up gratis for everything—photo shoots, videos, interviews, commentaries, even scripted content. Matt, curmudgeon he could be, jumped on that bandwagon with a sock puppet theater gag which was hilarious. Soon everything around the industry grew too. Cons got bigger, distribution channels increased in size and number. So did we.

There was a second studio in Austin, offices in London and Tokyo. There was a magazine, a cable network, a toy line, it was nuts. You wanted to pinch yourself. Is this a dream? But when you were in it you didn’t have time to question, you just moved. One day I was in Cannes for the market where shows are sold for international licensing. I wasn’t in sales! What the hell was I doing there? But, sure enough, I share a cab with this guy, we talk. I tell him about this little T&A show I worked on, moments later he shows up at the ADV booth, checkbook in hand. He’s the head of programming for Skyy TV which was, at that time, the largest broadcaster in the UK. Twilight Zone moments like that happened all. The. Time. It’s unbelievable.

We began to license non-anime titles. At the stupid end of the spectrum: wrestling videos and cop/arrest shows. On the platinum side: Sci-Fi’s biggest hit ever. Suddenly I’m holed up at the Chateau Marmont staying up all night to watch Farscape so I can meet with the Henson company in the morning. It was wild. Couple months later, I’m recording commentaries in New York with Claudia [Black] and Ben [Browder]. It was my very first time in New York.

September 11, 2001.

Boom. Pinch. Not a dream. All of the stories were pretty unreal. But that doesn’t mean all of them were happy ones.

But to be honest, most were. So when ADV and I parted ways, you know, you look back on things. And when I looked back I had to admit it was a wild ride. Crazy. And funny. Very funny. Not always flattering, of course. But when you look at your life, you have to look at the good and the bad. My ego fought with it. I mean, most of the stories show what a dumbass I am. Why tell the jokes if the butt of every joke is yours, right? But then the story wins out over the sense of self.

For example, no one wants to tell a story about being punched by a black man for dancing with his wife. But when it’s a gay man being punched and he’s dancing with the black guy’s wife at a company christmas party being held on a yacht? Dude. You have to tell that story. It’d be a crime not to.

And Fosterizing? My god. I still can’t deal with that. Unfathomable. Do I love the “actual” definition? Of course not and it’s wrong. Being the namesake of the word, I feel I can validate or refute it’s correctness. But do I secretly like that there’s now a word that I inadvertently created in the lexicon? I’m an urban dic? Please.

That’s when I decided to write a book about my very “animated” life.

But the bionic production schedule off the past decade is so ingrained in me I knew I was never going to be physically able to wait the 9-18 months to write and publish the book, whether I did it on my own or Hachette did. So I started scanning and digitizing… everything, learned a little web design and realized I could create an enhanced online reading experience which is kinda badass. It’s not quite the New York Times’ “Snow Fall” piece but it has aspirations. There will be premium content, a lot of interactive features. I might forum if the kids can play nice. And it’ll deviate from the bio form of the usual blog quite a bit, just to keep things fresh for me and that way it’s not just some abject history lesson. The past is just a scrapbook unless you apply it to your future.

Christ. Look at me. Can you tell I’ve been locked in a studio for 16 years? I’m like Jodie Foster in Nell. Shut up, Nell.

OR: You were around back in the days of ADV and you’ve managed to stick around in the Sentai Filmworks era. What was it like during the transition? Was there any fear that things weren’t going to be around in a couple of years?

SF: And I did stick around as long as I could. But it’s a different place now. And the time when the old was being ripped apart, it was awful. Soul sucking, physically exhausting, and emotionally damaging. When I started, ADV had one ADR studio, one director, I made two, and a handful of artists, sales, and support people. Maybe 20, if that. In the heyday, it was close to 200. And then every shitty card got played and each lousy card was dealt our way. The company overextended itself, the industry saturated the market, then the internet came along and, hey look free anime! Then there was that whole deal where the national economy slid off a cliff. It’s a miracle anyone survived. ADV was a ghost town.

You’d come to work and one day there would be 3 people gone. Next day, 20. Eventually something like 120 people — talented people — all gone. And in a supreme example of masochism the building wasn’t downsized commensurately. So every day you had to walk past all these offices and studios that were dark with just little dusty mementos everywhere and neon colored show posters on the wall. It was like The Leftovers.

OR: So why did you leave Sentai Filmworks?

SF: Ha-ha. I’d love to say follow my passion but it was more like a survival tactic. More than anything though it was time to go. Maybe one day I’ll talk in more detail about it. But it’s pretty personal and a little raw. And I’m about to bare enough of my soul with this new venture. I was never a Tweeter or Instagrammer. I’m not a big public speaker. Well, looks like I’m about to be. All of that and more. And you know what? That’s okay. This is my path. ADV/Seraphim have theirs. Am I happy they phoenixed? Of course. I just didn’t care much for the bird that emerged from the fire.

OR: Getting into the technical side of things, how do you decide how much of a script to change when you’re handling the ADR scripts?

SF: It was on a show by show basis. Something like Pani Poni Dash you can juice it a little bit. Chevalier not so much. Then again, Chev didn’t need a tweak it was a near perfect show. But a lot of anime? I’m no heretic by pointing out that a lot of anime, narratively speaking, just goes off the rails. Even Miyazaki, who’s a genius, can get a little shaky in Act Three with the storytelling. I’m not talking about that. I’m talking about Horizon in The Middle of Nowhere. That show just made no fucking sense. And then toward the end of my run at ADV or Seraphim — I swear to god I still have no idea what company does what and who’s running which company — there was a real drive to stay faithful, which was fine. The blush was off the rose by that point.

OR: How do you balance the demands/requests from Japanese production committees with your own creative vision for a series?

SF: There wasn’t any balancing act. I swear. Some hardcore otakus in house would make a snide comment every once in awhile but that’s their opinion, that’s fine. And most otakus dug my the work. Like YouTube comments were always usually “if more anime were like this, I’d be all over it”. The more anime-centered sites, which you can’t call as mainstream as YouTube, the numbers of course skewed differently. The only time I heard anything spoken from a negative Japanese perspective was toward the end of my run and someone just threw it in my face during an argument.

“You know, one Japanese studio doesn’t want you to touch their shows!”

That pissed me off. Who? I wanted to know. I mean, if I fucked up or I pissed someone off I wanna know. I have no problem apologizing. If I’m wrong, I’m wrong. Nobody’s perfect. But I kept asking. Who? What studio?

“I can’t say.”

Really?

I’ve got an inbox of raves with names on every comment. And I’m supposed to listen to some unnamed studio you claim say doesn’t like me? Move along, man.

OR: More than any other director, you seem to be put under a microscope by fans. Is it difficult to do your job when there is that much pressure from the audience?

SF: (pause) Sometimes it was. But you just cannot listen to every voice. And that’s the thing is that I was adapting other people’s work. That’s always a slick slope. But in the latter years, the haters just got nuts. I saw something just a year ago where people would comment on my work and then when other fans would push them turns out they’d never even seen my work. They just “heard something.” Well listen to this, dude: Shut the fuck up. Your inactivity, your lack of knowledge means you don’t get the talking stick. You wanna play, fine, put some skin in the game. If not, you’re just some shitty parent yelling at the kids or the umpire at their soccer game who is pissed off over their unfulfilled dreams. But more often than not, an unnerving amount of them are “critics” who seem to have some undisclosed artistic background that gives them a wealth of experience to pronounce credible judgment on casting, directing, or script adaptation. I’m not saying you have to know everything about film theory or the Stanislavki method to have an opinion. But is what I’ve done really what makes them so enraged? My work is that provoking? Hard to believe but great. Thank you. At least I wasn’t boring. And sometimes things need to be shaken up. But is that really what they’re angry about? that’s not what they’re angry about. Or are they just seething because they’re not in my chair? I think it just galls some of them because I’m where they want to be, or where they feel they should be. Well you know what? The chair is vacant. You can have it. And you can stop trying to live your failed fantasy through my skin.

And what’s sad to me is those people always seem to have the loudest voice. And that drowns out all the other music. Because the fan world is rich and diverse and fun and accepting and gloriously nuts. I’ve always respected them but mostly for one reason. The one reason I could really relate to: They are passionate. Deeply, madly passionate about this art form. Do you know how many people go through this life and don’t find a passion? Or worse, don’t live their passion? That’s no way to live your life.

OR: You’ve worked on some very big name titles including Clannad and Kids on the Slope, is there a title that was particularly difficult to work on either as a writer or as a director?

SF: Yeesh. I was afraid you’d bring up those two. But they’re not a big deal to me. If you get the book when it comes out or read the blog you’ll see. Neither of those are the show that haunt me. And there is one that does. I don’t know if they’ll have me at the cons now, I’m old news, but if they ever do, that’s item #1 is to talk about. The show I feel really bad about. But that’s a discussion that happens directly to the family in person. Seriously, dude. To me, it’s that bad.

But I just did not get Clannad. That’s why I cast it with ADV all stars. I knew they could perform those parts that, frankly, I just didn’t understand. Clannad. Who are these people? I could relate more to an Osmond Family tele novella or a gang of serial killers more than the Clannadclan. But it was so beloved I could have cast Shailene Woodley and Michael Cera and they’d still say “Foster ruined Clannad.”

OR: You’ve been fortunate enough to work on dozens of titles throughout your career, are there any titles out there that you wish you could’ve worked on but didn’t get the chance?

SF: That’s a great question. I would have killed to do Bubblegum Crisis Tokyo 2040. But I really can’t grieve too much because I think it’s some of Matt’s best work. And certainly the girls’. But Jason Douglas and Chris Patton really shine as well. I just loved the whole of that show. All of it. Done.

OR: Is there anything you’re working on right now, anime related or not, that you can talk about and are particularly excited about?

SF: Let’s see… I’ve been doing a lot of painting, mixed media, combines, installations. So much that my house is turning into a kind of evolving gallery. Kitchen, for instance, has — swear to God — a river of fruit moving along the ceiling toward a duet of triptychs of New York City. It’s a metaphor on the low hanging fruit. Don’t just reach out and pick the easy stuff. Jump, stretch, go for the high branches. It’s sweeter there. Sounds bizarre but it’s totally badass.

Oh shit! I never told you the name of the blog. Did I? I can pimp anything by anybody else but I’m the lousiest self promoter. Which is why know I’m totally whoring myself on Twitter, Instagram, Vine, Pinterest, etc. And until you called me I wasn’t going to tell anyone anyone about the blog. I was just gonna let it just appear and see what fireflies came round.

It’s going live four minutes and fourteen seconds after ten in the morning on October 4, 2014. I wanted it to be more seven-centric because of this long-term thing I’m working on but I was never gonna be ready On July 7. But this worked out so cool. See? Charmed life.

Here we go: 10 + 4 = 14 14/2 = 7 So that gives you seven. Add a T to seven, get steven. Coincidence that the month and the day combine and you get the year? Yeah. But what are the odds that’s also my birthday. Right?

Web address is Kawaii Me dot net.

The site is

Kawaii Me How the most hated man in anime became the happiest guy in the world.

Cuz I am, LB. I really am.

#anime #interview #steven foster #adv films #sentai filmworks

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porcupineinajacuzzi · 6 years

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An Introduction to Pied Piper Inc.

Originally published February 16th, 2016

Earlier today, fans all over North America let out a collective squee of delight as it was revealed that Pied Piper Inc. has licensed the anime series Skip Beat! for DVD and Blu-ray. Who is this new magical, wish granting company though? Well, allow me to fill you in as earlier this week I had the chance to sit down with the president of the company, Ann Yamamoto, and ask her some questions about Pied Piper Inc. and their plans for the future.

- Pied Piper seemed to come out of nowhere. Earlier this decade the company ran a very successful Kickstarter and distributed the Time of Eve movie but now you’ve decided to venture into licensing anime yourselves. What was the decision making process behind this new direction?

The decision making process was very organic. When I launched the Time of EVE Kickstarter, I saw it as a small experiment. Never in my wildest dreams did I think it would be a 2-year journey involving music licensing, book publishing, and collaboration with fans around the world.

I came out with three crystal clear realizations.

First, the Kickstarter was the single most challenging and satisfying experience in my professional life. I knew with absolute certitude that I wanted to do anime crowdfunding again.

And, as the final rewards were shipping, I was over-the-top delighted to get messages from backers asking me to do another campaign.

Finally, I didn’t make a single cent. OK, I’ll just go out and say it. I lost money. Toward the end, I was paying my accountant, bookkeeper and outside vendors, but not myself. But, I also realized that the project had been my greatest teacher. Sure, a lot of these lessons were kind of jack-of-all-trades skills, like uploading 1,300 addresses into Amazon’s shipping interface or packaging ceramics for shipment to Russia. However, there were other more meta lessons. For example, being able to think through the full ramifications of a spec change, or knowing how to approach licensing for music, books, bonus videos and merchandise.

So, I decided to think of the financial loss as business school tuition. I decided, you know what, I’d be a fool not to use that knowledge toward something that I love to do, and toward solving problems that matter to anime fans.

- With so many companies in the United States already competing against each other, what makes your company stand out against the rest? Is there a particular niche that you’re aiming to fill?

Honestly, I don’t see myself in competition with other distributors/localization companies. First of all, I am a tiny operation! I don’t see myself going head-to-head for licenses. I find the gems that somehow have fallen through the cracks.

And, I think what I do is a little bit different from other distributors, with the exception of Robert Woodhead at AnimEigo. It is true that I’m after the same bundle of rights (merch, videogram). But, I am not primarily in the business of selling products. Other companies do that much better than I could ever do. My focus is offering the opportunity to join something like a barn raising. To me, the reward tiers are like tickets to an experience, and the goody bag at the end is the fruition of our collective effort. My dream is that fans come away from the experience somehow changed – such as having a greater appreciation of the title, or of anime as a whole.

Like other distributors, my roles are gaining the trust of the rightsholder and taking on the risk of getting the license. But then, after that, my role is to bring the backers into the localization process as much as possible. This might be quality checking of subtitles or voting on packaging designs, or sharing very detailed and transparent “behind-the-scenes” updates about the localization process.

I am not wedded to crowdfunding per say. Technology is creating new ways for people to collaborate, and I think ecommerce is playing catch up. I think we will see more models and platforms emerge in the next few years, and I want to be part of that.

- Over the last few years, anime fans have been turning to streaming sites more and more in order to get their fix. Does Pied Piper have any plans to join the streaming/simulcast market or will you be sticking to home video releases?

At this point, I don’t see how I can bring more value to streaming/simulcast.

In fact, streaming creates a new set of problems, namely backlog and overwhelming choice. I see myself as counter-programming, if that makes sense.

- Another thing fans have seen over the last few years is the market split sharply behind the high-end “boutique” distributors and the mass-market providers. Where does Pied Piper see itself fitting in the current landscape?

I am all about boutique, bespoke!

- In an ideal situation, how active would Pied Piper like to be this year? To put it another way, can fans potentially look forward to many license announcements over the next twelve months or is the company more interested in a slow and steady approach to potential licenses?

The biggest challenge to my business model is that it isn’t really scalable. I love the process of negotiating with backers and the Japan-side creators, and I’m not interested in handing that off. So we’ll see. Last year I wrote up a business plan that calls for 4 projects and 8,000 total backers each year. *If* this Skip Beat campaign is successful, I’ll have a war chest that I can use toward licensing new titles. And, I’ll have more credibility when I approach rightsholders.

- Let’s talk about Pied Piper’s first license announcement, Skip Beat. You’re making a lot of shojo fans in North America very happy by releasing it to home video for the first time ever. Is there anything in particular that made this series such an attractive title for your first license?

After I had the realization that I wanted to turn crowdfunding into a sustainable business, the first challenge was to get new titles. In an ideal world, Directions (producer of Time of EVE) or dir. Yoshiura would have the perfect crowdfunding project in the pipeline. But no, that would be too easy!

How to identify and evaluate unlicensed titles? I’d been having conversations with Time of EVE backers and talked with several of them about my predicament. Five of them joined me as Project Curators to scout out new titles, and so they sent me a stream of ideas. My next step was to contact the rightsholders. I got many, many rejections, which gave me the chance to refine my pitch. So I was in a much better position when I met with TV Tokyo. I saw “Skip Beat!” in their catalog, and my jaw dropped.

To be honest, it wasn’t my ideal title simply because 25 episodes increases the costs on all fronts – licensing, dub, authoring, and manufacturing. It is a huge risk. I was looking for a smaller-scale title. But, Kyoko is all about guts. I love the title, and decided to go for it.

The TV Tokyo licensing team was open to letting me use crowdfunding, and I am profoundly grateful that the production committee allowed me to license the title.

I’d like to also give more background into my decision making process for the “Skip Beat!” license. Sorry, this is going to be long…

Once I’ve decided that a title has potential for crowdfunding, the next step is to make an educated guess of the minimum support I can expect from the core fan base. I try to be as empirical as possible. In the case of Time of EVE, I knew 350 or so overseas fans had purchased Direction’s Blu-ray release of the ONA version at $55, so I felt like it was reasonable to expect that at least 300 fans outside of Japan would join an international crowdfunding campaign. So I didn’t want the goal to be much higher than $16,000. Then, I got vendor quotes for the bare minimum release with a tiny production run, and managed to whittle the budget down to $18,000. So that’s how I set the initial goal (which was met within the first 24 hours of the campaign!).

For “Skip Beat!,” I looked at viewer ratings on MyAnimeList, ANN and Crunchyroll, and compared those with the other crowdfunded projects to date. I felt like I could count on 3,000 fans in North America to join the campaign at an average of $70 per pledge (the Time of EVE average was $79) for a total of $210,000. I refuse to set the initial goal above this amount, as I feel that would be unfair to fans and to the title. So, before I licensed the title, I had to ask myself: Can I deliver a quality release with English dub within that budget?

The rational answer is, absolutely not. The dub itself could easily exceed that sum. So, I was stumped. Fate stepped in, however, and one of Pied PIper’s Project Curators introduced me to Mela Lee, an incredibly talented voiceover actress with producerial smarts and the crazy heart of a die-hard fan. She proposed that we could deliver a quality dub within the $210,000 total budget, and then set stretch goals to scale up the dub with backer support. She brought onboard a truly amazing production team with Cristina Vee, Jason Charles Miller and Alexander Burke. It still feels like a miracle to have their talent on board this passion project, and I’m constantly having to pinch myself!

With their participation, I had the confidence to go ahead with the licensing agreement. So, you can think of the five of us as the first group of backers to the project. We are bonded by our love of “Skip Beat!,” and I hope that comes through in the campaign.

- Is there anything in particular you’re looking for in potential future anime licenses?

It boils down to two factors. First, I am looking for unlicensed titles that have a special quality that inspires passion from fans. Each case is different. I ask myself how I feel about the title, consult with the Project Curators who are helping me, read reviews and look at metrics like MyAnimeList. Second, the rightsholder needs to be open to crowdfunding. They need to be willing to let me open up the localization process to backers.

That being said, I absolutely think my business model is going to evolve. Three years ago, even a year ago, I would never have imagined myself taking “Skip Beat!” to fans through crowdfunding. I will continue to experiment with new ideas as I go along. It goes without saying that some of these won’t work out. It is terrifying, and exhilarating!

- Are there any plans to hit any conventions in the United States this year in order to better introduce yourself to fans?

I would love that opportunity!

- If there were one thing that you wanted our readers to know about you, one single thing that stands out about all others, what would it be?

What an amazing and difficult question! This isn’t unique to me, at all, but I’ll write it anyway. I’d like readers to know that I am continually inspired by anime, and I feel like it is such a privilege to be part of this industry.

#anime #skip beat #piedpiperinc #interview

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porcupineinajacuzzi · 8 years

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Sometimes it feels like you can’t win for losing when you have depression and anxiety. On one hand, you’re afraid to talk about it openly because someone out there might think you’re a whiner or that you need to just suck it up and deal. On the other hand, if you don’t talk about it you’re afraid that someone might get mad at you for bottling it up and trying to deal with it on your own.

I don’t know if this is true for anyone else who lives with this but it’s certainly my never ending daily cycle of fear and self loathing.

#depression

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porcupineinajacuzzi · 8 years

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2016 Wrestlemania Predictions

In my day job I write about anime and manga. A lot. I love writing about anime and manga but I also have other interests that aren’t anime and manga which is why I created this account. I just wanted to have a place where I could talk about whatever geeky thing I wanted. Today that thing is wrestling, more specifically Wrestlemania.

I’ve been a wrestling fan since I was a kid and Wrestlemania remains kind of a big deal for me which is why I’ve decided to make my first post here a prediction post. Yes, exciting I know but like I said this is my place to just spew words out. So alright, here we go...

Ryback vs. Kallisto for the US Title

Prediction: Kallisto Logic: They have been pushing Ryback hard lately but he doesn’t have much of a WM track record. He’s been to the big event three times and has lost every single time. On the other hand, Kallisto seems like he’s being given a genuine opportunity to be the new little engine that could for the company. Once upon a time I was hesitant to say this and I absolutely expected them to give the US title back to Del Rio for good after only a few weeks. But then something strange happened... they actually kept the title on Kallisto and let him go out and entertain the audience. I think the smart move is to keep the title on him for awhile longer because let’s face it, Ryback doesn’t deserve to wear gold again for a very long time.

Natalya, Paige, Alicia Fox, Brie Bella and Eva Marie vs. Lana, Tamina Snuka, Naomi, Emma and Summer Rae Prediction: Brie Bella gets the submission win over Lana.

Logic: The main basis behind this match is Brie vs. Lana right? And that Brie needs a big WM match to cement her... legacy I guess? There are other wrestlers in this match that could make this match a bit more tolerable to watch but the odds are good that they won’t get much ring time (because it’s a 10 woman match on the pre-show) and adding Eva Marie is not doing anyone any favors.

Let’s face it, this is likely going to be a train wreck. Luckily for the audience members who spent hundreds of dollars on their tickets it probably won’t be a very long train wreck.

Usos vs. The Dudley Boys

Prediction: Usos

Logic: This is a throwaway match IMO. The babyfaces will win just to make the audience pop and get extra excited for the start of the show.

Chris Jericho vs. AJ Styles

Prediction: AJ Styles

Logic: This is one of those matches where I honestly don’t care who wins because just watching it is going to make the audience the real winners. Jericho and Styles have proven that they have great chemistry in the ring and are capable of doing amazing things. I didn’t actually expect this feud to go on as long as it has but I’m not going to complain. All I really want from this match is for these two to end the feud on a high note and leave it all out there.

Third Annual Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal

Prediction: Someone we don’t know yet

Logic: No one who has been announced for this match yet has been getting any sort of real push lately. Add in the fact that the match was moved from the main show to the pre-show and then back to the main show tells me that something happened backstage within the last couple of weeks that they think is going to surprise the audience. I have no idea who is returning but it’s going to be fun finding out.

League of Nations vs. New Day

Prediction: New Day

Logic: New Day is super over with the audience right now and they are also on the brink of a full face turn, no way is WWE going to stop that forward momentum by having New Day lose to League of Nations.

Sasha Banks vs. Becky Lynch vs. Charlotte for the Diva’s Title

Prediction: Sasha Banks

Logic: No joke, this could be the match of the night. All three of these women are incredible workers and capable of putting on great matches. As much as I would love to see Becky Lynch walk away with the title, I see Sasha getting the win due to outside interference by Ric Flair which will distract Becky.

The Miz vs. Dolph Ziggler vs. Sami Zayn vs. Stardust vs. Zack Ryder vs. Sin Cara vs. Kevin Owens for the IC Title

Prediction: Kevin Owens

Logic: WWE has tried to turn most of these stars into legit threats for the IC title over the last few weeks but it was too little, too late for most of them. The match will be good and have a couple of great high spots but the only two people in this match who are real factors are Sami Zayn and Kevin Owens who will dominate most of the match. I see this being the start of a very long main roster feud for them.

Dean Ambrose vs. Brock Lesnar

Prediction: Brock Lesnar

Logic: This is going to be brutal to watch and as much as I love watching Dean Ambrose in the ring, he’s not going to beat Brock Lesnar unless there is a bunch of outside interference (which is always possible). In the end, I’m going to go with Brock getting the pin.

Shane McMahon vs. The Undertaker

Prediction: Shane McMahon

Logic: If this had been a straight up match I would’ve gone with The Undertaker but once they started adding in all the stipulations it became obvious that they are going to let Shane win. WWE has become very predictable in that way; if there is more than one long term consequence added to the match they are pretty much telling the audience that it’s going to happen and that’s what I figure is going to be the case with this match. Shane wins after another very brutal contest.

Triple H vs. Roman Reigns

Prediction: Triple H

Logic: After the crowd figuratively vomited on the idea of Roman Reigns winning the Royal Rumble and getting the title at WM last year, WWE has spent the last twelve months trying to get Roman over with the audience with limited success. The crowd loves Roman so long as he isn’t in the world title picture but as soon as he gets into a title match the audience seems to hate him again (or at least gives him a very mixed reaction). I like Roman, I really do and I honestly don’t feel like he’s been shoved into my face. He’s worked very hard to get where he is and deserves success. Does he deserve a main event win over Triple H at WM for the world title though? Maybe. Either way I actually like the title being on Triple H more and think that with Shane winning and getting control over Raw it would be much more fun for Triple H to be champion for a bit longer.

#wwe #wrestlemania #prediction

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