The News Thread (for news that does not need a thread)

Buzz201 said:
The whole "it should be about art" argument seems a little stupid to me. Nobody could see the hundreds of animated films released in a year, especially when many are only given festival screenings or incredibly limited releases. Ultimately, the idea that Disney and Universal are buying Oscars is silly, all they're doing is increasing the number of people that are able to see their films -- and anybody campaigning for films to be less accessible is stupid.

I genuinely believe that the majority of Oscar voters vote the way they do for artistic reasons. And to be honest, I'm finding this whole thing hypocritical, as nobody has provided a solid artistic reason why Your Name deserves to be included or why any of the other nominees don't. (It's important to note that the Academy's failure to nominate Your Name is not necessarily indicative of a dislike of the film, but perhaps simply a preference of the other nominees.)

The logic behind everybody's argument here seems to be that it deserves a nomination because it was big in Japan, how is this any different to nominating films seemingly just because they were big in America?
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I don't know if the Oscars should be about art really. With art being subjective, any attempt to rate it will be based on a set of criteria agreed by a limited group and so there'd still be great potential for doubt and disagreement.

Still, it seems a little unfair that the Oscars can pretend to be about merit without really making any effort to back that up and while generally keeping quiet about the fact that their system is essentially a popularity contest of sorts. Voters may well make their decisions based on their genuine beliefs about the merit of particular films but (as I understand it) there's not really a system in place to ensure that they do so. It probably doesn't help that the voters may not be a particularly diverse group, though perhaps that's ultimately irrelevant in a majority based system anyway.

I'm not sure what qualifies as a solid artistic reason for being deserving of recognition, but I don't think it's fair to suggest that people only feel that Your Name is deserving of a nomination because it has been big in Japan. The film has been quite popular internationally (I believe it is now the highest grossing Japanese animation internationally) and has generally done well despite more limited showings than "mainstream" films. It seems to have been popular even with audiences who don't routinely watch animation and it seems to have at least some appeal to a wide range of animation fans. There are clearly things about the film itself that makes it work for quite a variety of people. I don't think it's unreasonable to suggest that the film may be deserving of some recognition for it's achievements (whether or not it actually wins anything).

Besides, I suspect most people just object to it being left out when it's something they really enjoyed and, since the Oscars itself is voted for on much the same basis, I don't think there's anything unreasonable about that.
 
Smeelia said:
I'm not sure what qualifies as a solid artistic reason for being deserving of recognition, but I don't think it's fair to suggest that people only feel that Your Name is deserving of a nomination because it has been big in Japan. The film has been quite popular internationally (I believe it is now the highest grossing Japanese animation internationally) and has generally done well despite more limited showings than "mainstream" films. It seems to have been popular even with audiences who don't routinely watch animation and it seems to have at least some appeal to a wide range of animation fans. There are clearly things about the film itself that makes it work for quite a variety of people. I don't think it's unreasonable to suggest that the film may be deserving of some recognition for it's achievements (whether or not it actually wins anything).

Besides, I suspect most people just object to it being left out when it's something they really enjoyed and, since the Oscars itself is voted for on much the same basis, I don't think there's anything unreasonable about that.
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How does one prove something is about merit? Surely you'd need an objective scale of merit for that to work...

Literally, I was looking for any artistic reason other than "Well, Kermode quite liked it". He's a BAFTA member and it didn't get nominated there either...

However, part of my point is that nobody's come up with a reason why any of the others shouldn't be nominated. I believe the number of nominees is fixed, so really, what would people cut in favour of Your Name and why? Ultimately, "I enjoyed it and it was big in Japan" (as I understand it, Your Name is still coming out internationally, so really most of the hype is still just from Japan) doesn't make it Oscar worthy, if there are enough better films within the year to push it out of the nominations.

I mean, I genuinely really enjoy Suicide Squad, I'm not bitter it didn't get nominated for Best Picture as I can't made a solid argument for it being there and/or one of the other nominees not being there...
 
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Buzz201 said:
Literally any reason other than "Well, Kermode quite liked it". He's a BAFTA member and it didn't get nominated there either...

However, part of my point is that nobody's come up with a reason why any of the others shouldn't be nominated. I believe the number of nominees is fixed, so really, what would people cut in favour of Your Name and why? Ultimately, "I enjoyed it and it was big in Japan" (as I understand it, Your Name is still coming out internationally, so really most of the hype is still just from Japan) doesn't make it Oscar worthy.
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That might be a bit more difficult if people haven't seen all of the other nominees. Even if they feel Your Name is more deserving than the ones they've seen, picking on another film could lead to arguments that could distract from the main point that they feel Your Name is deserving enough. If people feel that Your Name is one of the best animations they've seen in the year then I think that's a reasonable standard for commenting, even if what they're mostly saying is that they feel the awards don't represent their views on the best films for that year.

It's also a little more difficult to say which film shouldn't be included without knowing exactly why they were included in the first place. I don't think there's an official reason given for why a nominee is picked or why other potential candidates are not (though I could be wrong).

"Oscar worthy" is basically "popular with the select group that decides these things", so I don't think that's much of a standard. It's not really different than people saying that they particularly enjoyed a film and thus feel it is worthy of an award.

Buzz201 said:
I mean, I genuinely really enjoy Suicide Squad, I'm not bitter it didn't get nominated for Best Picture as I can't made a solid argument for it being there and/or one of the other nominees not being there...
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If you thought it was within the top films you'd seen for the year (at least high enough to be within the number of potential nominees), then I suppose that'd be a solid enough argument. At the end of the day, the views of the people who decide the Oscars aren't really any more valid than the views of anyone else.
 
The article says that specific rights vary, so I guess Crunchyroll mostly has streaming rights for the shows. I'm not sure how that works for their deal with Funimation, but I'd guess that they're basically sublicensing to Funimation as part of the agreement while Crunchyroll are the official rights holder.

I'm pretty sure Sentai announced that they have home video rights for the third season of Haikyu, presumably some other shows would be in a similar position.
 
Smeelia said:
The article says that specific rights vary, so I guess Crunchyroll mostly has streaming rights for the shows. I'm not sure how that works for their deal with Funimation, but I'd guess that they're basically sublicensing to Funimation as part of the agreement while Crunchyroll are the official rights holder.

I'm pretty sure Sentai announced that they have home video rights for the third season of Haikyu, presumably some other shows would be in a similar position.
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I was under the impression that master licensor generally meant they controlled merchandising rights. (I'm sure we saw an announcement that Viz were master licensor for JJBA before Warner got the rights.)

Why wouldn't Crunchyroll say that unless trying to mislead people though?
 
Well if some Tanaka has a bee in his bum about something CR could have an NDA on the matter. Remember how long it took Viz to admit Toei were screwing them off for the SM Masters?
 
In regards to the Academy Awards, while I was personally hoping for Your Name to be nominated, I'm actually pretty chuffed with the creative diversity of the nominees - it certainly feels a lot more like a judge of artistic merit than previous years. However, I've said all along that Zootopia will take the prize and after finally seeing it earlier this week, frankly, it deserves to. Zootopia hits all the right notes - huge buzz on release, great humour even adults can appreciate and an overarching moral that is even more important today.
 
The Animation category at the Oscars has been one of the few not to complain about over the past few years. Direct anger at no Amy Adams nomination for Arrival and how Scorsese's Silence has been overlooked by every awards show, despite (or maybe because of) it being his more complex and thought provoking film in decades.
 
Yami said:
The Animation category at the Oscars has been one of the few not to complain about over the past few years. Direct anger at no Amy Adams nomination for Arrival and how Scorsese's Silence has been overlooked by every awards show, despite (or maybe because of) it being his more complex and thought provoking film in decades.
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If Kubo does not win I expect the animation community to throw a fit due to how badly it did at the box office
 
They do indeed. I unwittingly bought a couple of bootleg keyrings in their London shop a few years ago before I learnt how to properly identify the fakes. :mad:
 
They also appeared on BBC News with a story about them being good for autistic people. Maybe that's how they won?

Aside from AOL, I don't think I could name any UK stores that definitely won't sell fakes.
 
Ian Wolf said:
Would UP sell fakes?
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I suspect not, but their poor reputation for customer service and the fact their entire business is based around behaviour of questionable legality, leads me not to use them, unless exceptional circumstances arise.

I think there's a store called Otaku.co.uk, who occasionally post here, but I couldn't comment on their legitimacy.
 
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