Took the half hour reading (and answering) comments, catching up on other Blogathonners, etc. (Go visit Brian — give him some love.)
And, hey, not only did the in-laws actually comment on my blog, but they contributed a sponsorship, too. Thanks, guys!
Okay, since I have a few minutes — the Teen Titans cartoon.
As noted earlier, it’s anime. Very anime. Whizzies. Super-deforms. Sweat drops.
The characters are anime, too. Starfire is the strange alien who doesn’t understand human stuff and suggests inappropriate ingredients on pizzas. Cyborg is cranky. Raven is channeling Wednesday from The Addams Family. Changeling, er, Beast Boy (again) is relatively non-descript. Robin — well, Robin is Robin.
But file off the serial numbers, change the names and the costumes, and this could be anything straight out of Japan.
The theme music is startlingly kid-pop.
But I like it. Anime doesn’t bother me. It’s a little sillier than I’d prefer, but there’s some serious bits, too, and they are doing at least some minor arc work (“Who is Slade?” indeed), and — well, let’s face it, just like SF in the 70s and 80s, even bad super-hero cartoons are better than none. And this isn’t all that bad.
At least, if you can stomach anime.
Which is an interesting choice on WB’s part. Is it that they wanted something they could sell internationally more easily? Or are they betting that a lot of kids these days have been raised on anime? Interesting, nonetheless.
Definitely banking on kids being raised on anime. Coming off of San Diego last week I saw one blinding truth: the future is in the anime aesthetic. I saw literal thousands of teenage girls and pre-teen kids gobbling up the Tokyo Pop, Bandai, and Viz exhibits. Warner, who controls the Cartoon Network, must recognize this audience and is attempting to tap it with this interpretation of their classic superhero marks. Great! I’d like to see the comics follow suit. Give the kids something their eye relates to and dress the classic stories in that drag and you likely have a winner.
(Wow. That’s Charles Brownstein as in the Director of the CBLDF, who I’m Blogathonning for. Cool …)
One thing I found ironic is that the TT cartoon tag line is Fighting for truth, justice and the last slice of pizza. Whereas the comic book ad I’m looking at says, Most kids fight to party on the weekends. They fight to save lives. Very different message.
I don’t know that I want to see TT the Comic Book take on the same goofy anime-pop style. But I certainly think there’s room for a “Teen Titans Adventures” — paralleling the kid-oriented comics that WB/DC has done for the Batman, Superman, and Justice League cartoons. I think it’s a great way to get kids into the comics world, and I know I’ve used them for gifts before.
Thanks for commenting, Charles!
Many thanks for the love.
Also, many, many thanks for the Teen Titans reminder. I almost missed it.
Whew!
I live but to serve.
Death to anime! Anime books are fine, because I can leave them on the shelf, but it’s been seeping into my comics (if you’ll forgive my proprietary attitude), and ruining the comics experience for me. There was a story arc in Uncanny X-Men recently with anime-style art, and the characters all looked alike! Every single X-Man and supporting character had the exact same triangle for a nose! The only way to tell the female characters apart was by hair and skin color! And now Wolverine: Snikt!, and…
Ugh! MAKE IT STOP!
(This concludes my rant. We now return you to ***Dave’s Blogathon.)
I think there’s a definite place for anime, and I’m not in favor of seeing it replace other comic book styles.
On the other hand, as Brownstein notes, that’s the future.
Yeah, well, to me, anime is the comic art equivalent of rap. The fact that it’s becoming more prevalent does mean that it’s better!
(Shrug) It’s a different visual idiom. Some of it I like, some of it sucks. Not unlike “normal” animation. I’m finding TT (saw another ep tonight) to be fun. YMMV.
We watched this last night, with Blackfire making an appearance.
Eh. It’s not that great. Oh, and that’s pop stars Puffy AmiYumi doing the title song. Look for their Boogie Woogie #5 if you download music.
I wished for better than I got; I have strong emotions about the Titans and had better hopes for it than what was delivered.
Huh. I watched that ep, too. It’s definitely more kid-oriented than I’d’ve druthered, but I’ve seen worse. Much worse.
And I actually have a secret soft spot for J-Pop.
Me too, vis a vis J-Pop.
I don’t mind the anime stylings, but Kim wasn’t engaged, which means I doubt we’ll be watching much. Maybe taped, but we’ll see.
Did the first ep have the origin story? Was Trigon involved?
Looks like Slade is around next episode.
Did not catch, alas, the origin story. I somehow vaguely doubt that it did, though obviously there are bits that should need explaining.