Destroy All Podcasts DX Episode 138 - Aim for the Top! 2 Diebuster: The Movie
Hosts: Dylan, Jeremy, Nat
This is about giant robots grabbing entire planets and throwing them at monsters, sublimated homosexuality, and kicking a poor defenseless dog.
Click [HERE] to Double Lightning Kick!
| Posted 3 May, 2010 - 03:32 by Destroy All Pod... |
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Comments
31 comments postedIt's a solid show overall and I think you guys pretty much nailed everything. If you can find it for a good price it's worth picking up, I was lucky finding the complete OAV on DVD for $25 brand new locally as a comic shop was clearing it out.
Sorry if a show that was on four years ago is too old for you. I don't get Cartoon Network any more. My point was that the Teen Titans cartoon and the comic book that went with it, Teen Titans Go!, is an example of American comics trying desperately to attract a kid audience and not really succeeding. The reason we brought up things like the '90s X-Men cartoon and Batman: The Animated Series is they were allowed to tell superhero stories to kids without dumbing it down or making it full of anime-inspired pratfalls and eyedrops and wisecracks.
This is why I think Teen Titans is kind of insulting to kids. The "oh man, kids like anime, let's copy that!" attitude is silly and the so is the "well, we can't have an action or adventure story without lots of lame jokes!" thing. The original Teen Titans comics the show was based on weren't what I would call silly, and that's the problem.
It seems like American comics, especially superhero comics, only have two states: Grim and gritty murderfests or "omgz e so silly! Come laugh with us!"
This is a problem.
But it's still all about superheroes, still aimed at an adult male audience, and still something that is not drawing in children or teenagers, especially not female ones.
And Teen Titans ran from 2003-2006, which was 4 years ago.
And how many of those are available at mass market bookstores like Barnes and Nobles or Borders? We said in the podcast there are plenty of indie books that do not fit the adult male superhero thing, but that mainstream comics, especially Marvel and DC, were hopelessly out of touch with today's children and teenagers.
You've completely missed what we were talking about on the podcast.
The point was that Japanese animation companies are increasingly making product ONLY for a very specific SHRINKING niche audience: adult males and mainstream American comic companies (Marvel and DC) are doing the same thing. So yes, you completely missed the point. Mainstream American comics are useful as a comparison to what's wrong with Japanese animation.
P.S. Your regular average person will not go INTO a comic book store, but they will go into a Borders.
Some guy I knew in high school set up Warhammer campaigns and watched and wrote Teen Titan fanfics, since those were the only 2 things he talked about. From then on, I stayed away from those 2 entities and stuck with Gunpla and Initial D, and I was content. Ok, so i did watch a tad of Teen Titans back in the day, just here and there, and I think i saw that movie they did, i cant remember.
Well... Ive heard this wasn't that great I suppose from my sources (I would be lying if my source I heard this from started with a D and ended with a Surat), but what the heck, ill look into it.
I can relate well to you guys over the declining American comic scene. I can go back to the days when you simply went down to a 7-Eleven and find a whole row of comics on the newsstand for all types. I would be asking mom for the 75 cents or a buck for whatever issue I could get and that was that. It's true of what happened these days to make it the way it is. I personally would rather say they don't make any real "fun comics" like they used to, the kind that sold in the millions 40 years ago. Everything's made to be sold to that aging audience who would go out of the way to get anything they can get their hands on. I grew out of that long ago since I just couldn't handle that sort of thing anymore. It's rather a shame when even big box stores like B&N would feature less and less of it as well, but I guess it's just the way it is.
I watched the first ep of Diebuster around when it came out and didn't care for it (wasn't a fan of FLCL either). It would take Gurren Lagann before I could like that art style so some day I should go back and rewatch it.
I keep hearing you guys referring to fan pandering. Why is that the kiss of death for you? I guess because you're not really the targeted demographic for most anime today.
Maybe if you weren't such a worthless puke you'd actually respond to us instead of just typing this same comment into every podcast and doing that little nose-snort "giggle" thing you think is so precious.
Ugh, forget it.
True, but just because a show lacks substances doesn't always make it bad. But then I tend to place value on art first, content second.
Oh yeah, then why don't you like FLCL?
Not really fond of the art style.
Also known as the same art style used in Diebuster and Gurren Lagann.
"I can't speak completely for them, but fan pandering tends to not come with actual substantial content.Like Final fantasy: Advent children. It's great to look at, it gives you plenty of moments to geek out on, but it lacks substance."
You can't speak completely for the...?
NEWS FLASH: You just did & you've flashed it with your 'buts' that are too nauseating for for the public bellies to digest b/c it's shocking. I've heard of fanny-fan-services made by fans before but this is puking.
-R78
Can't say I like Diebuster as much as Gunbuster myself either, but the ending (and generally speaking the entire sequence of events leading up to it) certainly makes up for that. It's pretty much a nod to the fans of the original while still being an entirely appropriate way to end Diebuster's own story.
As a side note...with the benefit of hindsight, it's rather obvious that Gurren Lagann takes a lot of cues from and was definitely influenced by Gainax's previous giant robot shows, beyond the FLCL/Diebuster art style. It just did so in such a way that the series appeals to a wider (though arguably not really mainstream either, but that's another topic) audience.
I did like Diebuster I downloaded the first two eps fansubbed probably when it first came out, as the others didn't appear I never bothered. Then last year or the year before I noticed that we had all six eps released as a two disc set and got it for about £6 of of play, was not able to get Gunbuster though and that has sky rocketed in price again. At times I was a bit huh what the hell whys is that, then as you said ah I see they told me why. Having watched the series version I couldn't say what the pacing is like, in the movie version, but to me it could have been 5 episodes as sometimes there's the dreaded "Filler" in a few areas that slow a lot down.
A sequence I must admit I liked was where they take the team photo of the topless. Fan pandering has always been around and at times the whole debat as to why something is in a series comes down to it, I for one get a bit annoyed at constant randomness put into serious things, but then again I just think of Samurai Pizza Cats and remeber Kyatto Ninden Tendo was a serious show in Japan and had all these random elemnents in it there were turned into jokes during translation. The curse of Carl Macek continues though I love Pizza Cats and a lot of things Harmony GOld-Streamline did.
What's this, whats this, there's white stuff in the air.
Actually, Samurai Pizza Cats was from Saban Entertainment (whose former boss apparently bought back the Power Rangers not long ago).
Adaptation by Carl Macek, is in the credits (at least am sure it states that, I guess I will check). Yes the Power Rangers is still going strong, but I grew up with Might Morphin so for me thats the best one, I have got some raw versions of Zuyranger though to watch.
What's this, whats this, there's white stuff in the air.
Edit Huh maybr am wrong am sure I read somewhere he helped with the adaptation as the end credits to the movie compilation doesn't list him.