If you’re wondering what’s up with this post: I was actually asked by the marketers of AnimeTV to review their first episode. It’s awesome to see such a request from a professional company, but at the same time that’s not going to stop me from giving it a fair review. AnimeTV basically is presented by Johnny Yong Bosch and Christina Vee, and it shows reviews of mainstream anime and interviews of important people in the American anime business. Right from the start it’s clear that it’s aimed at teenagers, rather than a wider demographic, so I’m not exactly the target audience, but here’s what I think about it:
Episodes are split up in three parts. The first part is called the “Hima segment”, where a panel of four people basically discusses what they’ve been watching, reading or playing. Basically a round of quick recommendations. The first part is a pretty nice recommendation for the Strongest Disciple Kenichi; it discusses why it’s more interesting than your average shounen, and even though it would have been interesting to see them discuss some of the lesser parts of the manga, it piqued my interest. After that there was a nice part about a new manga from Clamp and how they refuse to do cute stuff.
The segment completely derails after that, though. An overly obsessed Naruto fangirl starts rambling a completely incoherent story that clearly wasn’t prepared beforehand. In about one minute, she basically did just about everything that you shouldn’t do when making a quick recommendation: it’s incredibly disjointed, nonsensical for people who aren’t familiar with the Naruto franchise, instead of talking about what makes it good, she starts shipping her favourite couples, she imagines herself in the storyline and she actually spoils part of the storyline (way to go in a segment that’s meant to get people interested in a franchise…). This is the kind of talk that you’d expect in a bad fanfiction forum, not in such a professionally produced video like this.
After that another guy talks about the Yugioh trading card game, but he never really says anything about it. If I watched this video without knowing about it, I’d still be clueless. He just rambles on and on about how he pwns at the game, but that’s about it. People from Revision3: you wanted my opinion on this bit, and here it is: dump these two dimwits and replace them with two people who do know how to voice their opinions properly. You’ve got such a great opportunity to record a program to promote anime in a professional environment. You can’t waste it on these two people.
The next segment shows an interview, as we get to see inside the Bang Zoom studios (the same that was invaded by Conan o’Brien a few months ago, apparently), and an interview with a voice actors and one of its executives. This may just be me being outside of this show’s target audience, but that interviewer got very much on my nerves. He placed too much emphasis on himself, and too little on the actual people he tried to interview. I’m not sure whether teenagers would appreciate that style of interviewing more, though. When the interview actually gets to business, I guess it’s interesting enough, though not anything special. The second interview was a bit cheap, because the guy who was interviewed also worked as the producer of AnimeTV. It must not have been hard to get an appointment with him…
The third and final segment is an actual review of a mainstream anime, and I think that this is the best part of AnimeTV. What makes it more interesting than your average review is that the creators basically put four people in one room, and all of them have different opinions on what they watched. This is actually a pretty good way to collect different opinions. The fanboy and fangirl are back, though, and while they’re a bit better here, they pretty much stated the obvious and the girl again couldn’t resist to comment on the hotness on one of the male characters.
My basic issue with AnimeTV is that while they have nice ideas, a lot of the reviewers and interviewers don’t really make use of the unique opportunity here. They’re part of the Invision 3 network, which also has many other shows that are not about anime, and thus it has the potential to get non-anime fans curious into the franchise. If you then have a rambling Naruto fangirl going on and on about how she’d like to marry one of the characters, then that’s only going to have the opposite effect. With good reviewers however, it has the potential to be an interesting show.
Err..I’ll disagree here psgels.While it’s true that that you and hell even me would prefer to have professional unbiased reviews,the majority audience the show wishes to cater to will eventually be the fanboys and the fangirls.While some may disagree saying that the fanboy/fangirl base is quiet insignificant and useless,you really can’t blame them for exploring all the options.
I personally don’t consider it a bad idea to have the fanboy/fangirl on the show because they are for the better or worse a necessary existense of the anime viewing audience and need to be catered to!
I think it depends on the aim of the reviewer. If they want to be watched by the largest audiance possible, the fangirl/fanboy can have their use but I’m unsure whether fanboys/fangirls like to watch one of them rambling (it could also put off other audiances). On the other hand, if they wish to get new watchers into anime or just inform about different shows, they better fire the fangirl/fanboy.
I watched the first part and the review of ghost in the shell out of curiosity, and I have to say you’re right about everything, psgels. The main problem is that this show isn’t adressed to people who actually watch anime the way you, I and a lot of people who follow this blog do. These four guys probably like to focus on mainstream anime, shonen ecc. In the review of ghost in the shell they mostly talked about the visuals.
funny I did watch that show before, I don’t want to say anything bad. But I don’t see anything good from that show
I kind of agree with Andrea… This always happens when it comes to mainstream stuff, you just cant expect people to see things the same way we do, thats why there are people out there who genuinely like Britney Spears’ music etc
I think the most important thing for someone to get into anime is just to have a hook of some sort, and if that is a hot character, then so be it, they will eventually overcome that stuff and start to like anime for what it is ^^
I havent watched it though, so I have no idea how bad the fangirl/boy were, just speaking from a general point of view
My first impression was that this twenty minute Bang Zoom commercial looked like they collected people from a Japanophile club from their local college to pitch a show to G4. Laura alone would scare any ordinary human away. Then I learned that this episode is from the second season. At least this had less Johnny Bosch than the previous incarnation appears to have. That guy is more annoying than Laura.
My God. That has to be one of the most obnoxious shows I’ve ever had the displeasure of viewing for less than five minutes.
Those two morons talking about Naruto, are they for real? What the hell is wrong with them? Is it just some act or are they really that retarded?
this is why I so often respond to ‘why don’t you make lots of friends at anime conventions?!’ with veiled cynicism. There’s a whole lot of crazy in what may roughly be called our community, and it tends to drown out everyone else.
seems to me the creators of the show know that the naruto fanboy and fangirl might seem silly to people,if not they wouldn’t show the other 2 cast members shaking their heads in disbelief like they did a few times.
But what’s really interesting is how they’ve asked you to review it,like you said,you’re not really the target audience,not sure many reading this blog are,maybe they just thought having their show mentionned (in a good or bad way) on a site with so much traffic would be a good way to get more viewers?
I remember watching a few episodes of the first season of the show…Anyways, I have to agree with you there. The first two comments in the Hima segment were nice and definitely worked out well, but Laura kind of hammered in the whole idea that Naruto is the best thing since sliced bread. I mean, it’s not bad that she likes it, and I know I had a similar phase with Rurouni Kenshin ages ago, but the producers should have in mind that watching someone ramble about how he/she wants to marry a certain character is more facepalm worthy than funny. It’s more like she’s serving a painful reminder of our less restrained days as fans (and I sure as hell don’t want to remember)…As for the 4th person, he was bearable, quirky, but bearable.
I’ll try to watch more episodes and hope Laura tones it down a bit. She was much better in the last segment. I understand that I probably will not agree with her much, but at least she’s trying to voice her opinions…
Good God people, cut the forced politeness and be honest; the show is a friggen’ mockery and an insult to people who actually watch anime because THEY ARE GENUINELY INTERESTED IN IT and want to learn more. The fanboys/fangirls are too busy fapping on their blow-up dolls and being tools to watch this show on a regular basis anyway.
But again, I’m plainly surprised they approached you to review at all psgels. They must think Star Crossed’s subscribers and followers are a bunch of mindless sheep who’ll eat up the slime on their boots if its about Naruto or something.
You know, the term “narutard” is not there without a reason.
But perhaps that’s what they also want to show to people to draw the show “down to earth.” Yet again, I do believe that I am also outside of the target audience too, so my opinion should not count so much. I only watched it because it’s here at your blog, so at least their decision to include you do indeed bring traffic.
Hi I’m a first time ‘commenter’ here! I was very interested in this show when I saw that you were going to review it so I decided to give it a shot before your review.
As the show began, I clearly felt that I was not amongst the age group that this show was made for. This certainly does not place me in a position to judge the presentation style of the show with all the quirky snip bits they added in there, although I will strongly agree with you psgels that the interview with BangZoom studios could have been done much better.
As for the narutard, I mean Im speechless I cannot possibly comment on that it was extremely annoying and extremely hyped up. It reminds me of a Canadian channel YTV that showed a lot of anime and the annoying sailor moon voice actress! Uggh it was painful and this probably competed with it!
Very fair review I’d say. Great job psgels please keep up the great reviews! I truly enjoy them! Now back to reality I guess!
BokuNo
P.S: psgels, might i recommend you review The Twelve Kingdoms (or Juuni Kokki in japanese), I think you’ll find it worth your time!
I can handle that Johnny Bosch guy but the fangirl/fanboy nature of the show kills it. It’s a problem with most anime podcasts the announcers don’t usually try for a good product and end up with just a long fangirl/fanboy rant.
^ And yes I know it’s a show not a podcast, but it just seems like the right word.
I just watched this. I couldn’t agree with you more Psgels. XD
You could have just summarized it in one word – pathetic.
laura reminded me a little of my few visits to an anime society… it didnt last long. at the end of the day i consider myself a fairly normal guy who watches anime. its a part of my life and i love both viewing and discussing it but its not my entire life. the whole anime otaku cultural norms such as cosplaying, fan-service or buying bizarre manga/anime merchandise has just never appealed to me. i’ve avoided every invitation to conventions and the like because i cant stand fanboys/girls obsessed with shows to such an extent as seeing characters with sexual desire. they seriously freak me out and im an anime fan so i cant imagine how creeped out a casual/curious person giving the show a go would feel watching laura rant on about about fictional cartoon like that.
if its aimed at teens then fine, but i think animetv should either be presented by fans of anime or by fanboy/girls obsessed with the whole sub-culture. you cant really compromise as you’re going to alienate people from both sides.
In this show you see clearly that they don’t take anime serious, but I think it is much more annoying – and I know it is a little out of topic here – how in some countries the completly ruin a show. I’m from Germany, what they did to Narto is incredible. Cutting out almost all blood-scenes, changing the dialogue that you cannot even follow the story anymore, inserting a childisch opening etc. Or with another mainstream show: Sailormoon. They changed the sexuality of the characters. THAT IS PATHETIC. And it shows again that they don’t take anime serious, the try to get it to an audience and it seems they don’t can believe older people would like it. That is really sad 🙁 When it comes to Naruto, it is in Germany not even directed to teenager, more to little kids of six years.
It wasn’t bad, but all we here are really not it’s target audience. Not only because of our age, but because we watched some anime already an this show is oriented to first-timers. If you watch anime wore or less frequently, spend time in blogs, forums, etc, you’ll gain nothing from this. No in-depth look (though 2nd and 3rd parts have such potential).
So if you look from this point, maybe narumaniacs were used to show some otaku archetypes to people new to Japanese culture.
Wow! Since you’re being asked by professional companies to review their work, you should be a professional anime critic (yes, I mean this as a compliment)! I mean, look at all your reviews on all the anime you’ve seen!
Um, I’m 18, do I fit the demographic? Since I sure as heck didn’t feel like it, even the me of a few years back would have been taken aback by how unprofessional some of those fans were. The interview was really oddly conducted (I agree, more influence on the interviewer instead of the interviewee) the first section sounded like they were (badly) flying by the seat of their pants, and that they were getting paid by the number of show titles they drop. Frankly, I actually don’t want to watch Ghost in the Shell after seeing that and am losing faith that there are many coherent and rational anime fans out there.
It is shows like this that lead me to believe that regular fan culls should be a part of anime fandom. Starting with everyone responsible for this…. unmitigated pile of dessicated tripe. It is almost like they wanted their show to be hated.
Wow, I was fine until the spoilers. No, that isn’t cool. I didn’t even get as far as the Naruto fans. I get the idea that the segment is like a youtube vblog or some crap but as a produced show it should step and at lease be better edited to keep it interesting.
wandering-dreamer, please don’t skip Ghost in the Shell because of this shit. GITS 2: Innocence has the best, most beautiful animation and artwork I’ve seen in anything that I’ve watched, and the first one has been such a huge influence, not just on anime but science fiction and pop-culture also. Yeah, those fans were stupid, but Ghost in the Shell really is an amazing franchise.