Forum - View topicMao-Chan Slammed.
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rektagunn
 Posts: 218 Location: enohana |
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"Geneon isn’t marketing this to children. Mao-chan has “buy me, otaku!” written all over it....Sure, the kids might like the special edition doodads, but we all know who these products are being sold to."
-Zac All the things you pointed out regarding the packaging, price, lunchbox, etc. are applicable to the children's market. If kids can convince their parents to buy the whole DBZ Cell Saga DVD box set, the same would apply to Mao-chan and its price. Now, maybe the premium reversible packaging might lean more to the adult otaku demographic....but all your other points is consistent with the children's market..... |
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lianncoop
Past ANN Contributor
 Posts: 1705 Location: Indiana |
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Sure, it's applicable to kids, but fan-crazed otaku will cherish such succulent extras. Besides, they needed something to entice the adult demographic to purchase the DVD, since the content wasn't going to win them over. |
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Legato 2057
 Posts: 437 Location: Soon to be Japan |
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I was not expecting that line, it is the funniest thing I've seen all week. |
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cyrax777
 Posts: 1825 Location: the desert |
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Im surprised Zac managed to sit thru the whole thing without shooting his DVD player. Guess he Had to take one for the review team. I barely made it thru the first ep when it was coming out fansubbed and I liked Snow Fairy sugar!!!
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LordByronius
ANN Columnist
 Posts: 861 Location: Philippe for America! He is five. |
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"I don't go down to where you work and slap the **** outta YOUR mouth!"
Man, if you think Zac's being too harsh on these shows and their fans, just imagine the obscenety-fueled vitriol I could lob at them. ...PLease? I realize that's hardly a postive endorsement, but hey. Oh, and I'M BACK BTW |
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Zac
ANN Executive Editor
 Posts: 7912 Location: Anime News Network Technodrome |
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I know what the original line is, LB, I was trying to be non-obscene.
Thank you, David Cross and Bob Odenkirk. You've enriched all of our lives. -Z |
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cyrax777
Posts: 1825 Location: the desert |
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Coming soon from Geneon "Card Captors Gone Wild"
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littlegreenwolf
 Posts: 4796 Location: Seattle, WA |
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Oooo, here comes my shouta complex. GIMME SYAORAN AND ERIOL! ... opps... I mean Li and Elli! >.>; |
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sailor_titan
 Posts: 51 Location: Vermont |
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All right, time for my two cents!
I, for one, was a little perturbed by the review. Before you all go screaming my head off, I have a few very legitimate reasons for this. First, let me make it clear that I *have not* seen Mao-chan. I plan on renting it, since I like cute stuff. Secondly, I *do not* like Love Hina or Ken Akamatsu. Like certain other members of this thread, I would be mildly happy if he were run over by a truck. I'm sick of seeing ads in the back of my Kodocha or Marmalade Boy of women with barely concealed tits and rather disturbing tan lines. I think what bothered me the most about the review of "Mao-chan" is that it is consistently said throughout the review that "People who like cute shows expect us to go easy on them! Well, we're not going to, because that's stupid!" I remember a certain Steel Angel Kurumi 2 review that went, oh, something like this:
The series then goes onto to get a "B", despite the fact that--according to the reviewer--it has no redeeming value besides fan service. Now, I have no problem with this. If you're going to write a series from the perspective of someone who is looking for bouncing boobs, hey, give it a B, because that's what it's supposed to do. But it sure doesn't make a hell of a lot of sense to to turn around to Mao-chan and say
Please, if nothing else, be consistent. If you're reviewing shows from the perspective of people who like the shows and are looking for a show of that type (in this case, saccharinely cute) give it a grade for those people. If you aren't, don't! The other thing that really bothered me is that there was mention that "if you’re a girl ages three to six, you’ll probably love Mao-chan, and rightfully so." If looks like it's for six year olds, talks like it's for sixs year-olds, and would be cool if you were six years old, why not review it from that perspective? Moreover, would a six year old necessarily get entertained by crap? Maybe once or twice, but the really good movies are the ones that you get sick of because they ask to see them so many times. I was happy to see a positive review for Super GALS! from ANN, which I felt wasn't getting any of the much-needed attention it deserved, but I'm a little disheartened by this inconsistent treatment. I just wish you had either slammed "Kurumi 2" or gone easy on "Mao-chan." |
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Zac
ANN Executive Editor
Posts: 7912 Location: Anime News Network Technodrome |
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Titan, you're ignoring the most important paragraph in the entire review.
Mao-chan *seems* like it's for kids, but it's *sold* to adults, and therefore we have to assume that the target market for this is *not* six year olds, it's adults. You know, ADV doesn't send me Hello Kitty DVDs. I don't get Strange Dawn discs from Urban Vision, who released that title under their "UV Kids" label. Why? The target market for those DVDs doesn't read reviews and therefore there's no point in me reviewing that title. Geneon went out of their way to sell this show to adults, so they're assuming that the target market isn't kids. It should be. If the show sells itself to me as a 'cute show for adults' and winds up being a 'cute show for very small children that sucks really bad', it may as well paint a big red target on itself. Think about it this way: Mao-chan is as if they took Teletubbies, put it in premium reversible special edition packaging, priced it at 29.99 and placed it in the 'drama' section of Best Buy. With that sort of classification, it is going to be judged along with its peers and held up to that standard. Kurumi 2 was a much better show, overall, than Mao-chan was. Yes, it was all about fanservice, but it had a reasonable (if embarassingly simple) story, fun dialogue, a really good dub and high-quality animation. For a jiggle show, it was in the upper echelon in terms of quality. The review reflects that. The show makes no bones about being what it is. Mao-chan is pretending to be something that it isn't, and that's where we run in to problems. As for the "reviewing from the POV of a six year old", the only thing I mentioned was that little kids might like it BECAUSE it's repetitive and obnoxious. I'm not really in touch with my inner six-year old, and I think that's going a little too far just to scramble to find something nice to say about the show. Kurumi is a show about tits that sells itself as a show about tits. Mao-chan is a really awful show for children that's selling itself as something cute and fun that can be enjoyed by adults, a'la Risky Safety or A Tiny Snow Fairy Sugar. It is most definitely not that. Therein lies the difference. I feel my reviews are consistant and that the Mao-chan adequately describes the problems the show has in order for my reviews to remain consistant. |
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sailor_titan
Posts: 51 Location: Vermont |
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This would be a very good and completely gratifying response were it not for one small detail:
You say that with Kurumi, it's okay, because there actually exists fans who watch shows purely for the "jiggle factor." It's not okay for Mao-chan because for shows like Mao-chan, which exist to be cute, there has to be some other charm involved--that is, the hitch can not be cuteness alone as it is jiggling alone for Kurumi. (at least, for the most part. I will concede that you mentioned Kurumi had some other charm, but you review did seem to imply that it was mostly jiggle-fest.) If there's no market for Mao-chan, then why are you mentioning that legion of fans will be upset at you for criticizing it? If you think that this will happen, that seems to imply such a group of fans exists. Therefore, there is a market for a show such as Mao-chan, and thus, it makes perfect sense to market it for adults as well as children. I suppose the only real way to test this theory would be to look at the actual sales of Mao-chan. |
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Craeyst Raygal
 Posts: 1383 Location: In the garage, beneath a 1970 MGB GT. |
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Sailor Titan, obviously you have little grasp of a concept called "Self-Deprecating Humor". Commonly referred to also as "Tongue-in-Cheek".
If you take a good look at Zac's review pattern, he only cuts idiotic shows down when they're presented seriously. Steel Angel Kurumi (a show I'm quite familiar with) approaches its T&A with the classic Monty Python "Nudge Nudge, Wink Wink" attitude. Other good examples of shows like this are Labyrinth of Flames and Amazing Nurse Nanako. Basically, they're shows where the creators and the distributors are fully aware that they're making shallow and silly shows whose only assets are attached to the female characters. Now, you start throwing out titles where the creators are trying to dodge this and take themselves way too seriously like Love Hina, and Zac comes down on them like a ton of very bitter bricks. It works the same for the "cutesy" genre. Zac came down hard on Mao-chan for taking itself too seriously. It's silly tripe, and the creators refuse to acknowledge that it's silly tripe, and the distributor isn't announcing that it's just silly tripe, thus it falls to Zac and other responsible reviewers to tell people "Hey, this is silly tripe." |
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Mohawk52
 Posts: 8202 Location: England, UK |
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Could never get my tongue around tripe. (snigger)  Sorry.
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Louie-kun
 Posts: 420 Location: I'm back. |
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I actually have new respect for Zac and his reviews. Sure, Zac can be harsh, but he's honest, and I like that in a reviewer. I've read several reviews of various anime shows on AOD and I've noticed that several of the reviews are wishy-washy and will usually dismiss a crappy show because it has loads of fanservice, like Ai Yori Aoshi, or it's geared towards kids, like Mao-chan. I may not always agree with Zac, but I feel that I can trust his reviews.
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ChrisBeveridge
Posts: 162 |
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So because you think a show is crappy, I must think the same?
As I said with Mao-Chan, i'm actually watching the show with its target audience, and it's rather charming and fun to see how she reacts to it. How you watch a show, and who you watch it with, can dramatically change your opinion of it. I can't stand watching anime with fans. The last time I did it, it was with a showing at a convention of some movie I can't recall. It was one of those serious type ones, like Perfect Blue or Wings or some such, but there was nothing but laughter throughout all the serious moments. Same thing with a few episodes of Kenshin I had caught before with a group, during the serious fight scenes, nothing but jokes and such made during it. That completely changes how you take it in, especially if you get caught up in it, which a lot of people do. It's one reason I stopped going to video rooms in conventions and it's why I stopped watching shows with anyone other than my family. It's not that I don't value other opinions (otherwise I wouldn't read Zac's reviews, or Allens or others as they are posted) but it's that so much of fandom is so... I'll be polite and say self-absorbed into thinking that what they like is all that there should be and what they don't like should be ridiculed by all. I refuse to do that. Even if *I* don't like something, i'll look at a release and say how it stands up for those who DO like it. |
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