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Old 04-27-2007, 01:59 PM   #1
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Gainax founder resigns over 2ch controversy.

I was present for this whole travesty, so I'll give my account of what happened.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Anime News Service
One of Gainax's founding members, Director Takami Akai has announced his resignation after comments he published in his Mixi Diary were scrutinized by fans for being "discomforting". He was a producer and prominent force behind Gainax's latest animation, Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann which started running on Japanese TV this month. Akai published his resignation on the Gainax website on April 27th. He's well known as the creator of the popular "Princess Maker" girl grooming simulation games. The comment in question lashed out at alleged criticism of Gurren Lagann made on 2ch with some rather graphic language (something about one bringing one's face to one's anus and breathing deeply). A wave of fan comments subsequently poured into the main Gainax blog indicating they had collectively been insulted. Akai posted an apology along with his resignation, saying that there was no room for an excuse to his actions. His mixi diary was open to the general public. His name will disappear from the credits of Gurren Lagann from the 5th episode, scheduled to broadcast on the 29th. He expressed heartbreak at leaving the staff of the show after having been intimately involved on the production for over 5 years. Akai has his own company titled NineLives and is married to mangaka Kimiko Higuchi. He did the original character designs for the DAICON III animation and was a classmate of Evangelion director Hideaki Anno in his university days. His art influnces include Alphonse Mucha.
Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann is Gainax's most ambitious title to date, but the overall "impact" of the show hasn't been evaluated - it hasn't gotten ratings worthy of reporting and it's primary demographic is children. So, for the first three episodes, the moderate comments on Gainax's blog (between four and five) seemed like the show wasn't hitting home, unlike Lucky Star.

However, when episode four came along, there was a volcanic eruption. The director was a guest from Studio 4°C, and his style of animation was considerably different from the first three episodes. Namely, bad. I'd hate to agree with the 2ch folk on this one but the episode really did stink.

The response to the episode wasn't really all that well recieved, though - 2ch flooded the Gainax blog with over eight hundred entries within a day or so, complaining about the episode, making elitist objective commentaries on it, and demanding Gainax redo it for the DVDs.

Yotsuba was annoyed by this and we (including myself) spammed the blog, berating the idiot otaku for taking the show so seriously. True to style, Gainax itself joined in with the scathing criticism, insulting the low-life otaku and calling them "arse-sniffers" or something simmilar.

2ch rebounded with a "Hivemind" of more complaints about being insulted by Gainax - a couple days later, I hear of this resignation.

Yotsuba discussed the matter at great length, and we determined it's likely the other producers of the show threatened to bail if someone didn't do something about the angry anonymous 2ch users, so Akai took the fall, whether he was responsible or not. Like TYPE-MOON, Gainax has a history of insulting its fans, and has done so for many years, but this is the first time the fans actually succeeded in causing massive destruction, likely because "2ch.net" has become too important a Japanese cultural icon to screw with.

Political correctness claims another victim, I suppose. I can only imagine what horrors would occur if Yotsuba gained that kind of influence. -.-
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Old 04-27-2007, 02:21 PM   #2
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Re: Gainax founder resigns over 2ch controversy.

More.

Quote:
Originally Posted by 4chan
The controversy started with the premiere of Gurren Lagann on April 1. After a few members of the 2channel forums criticized the first episode, a Gainax production staffer identified as Keiko Mimori posted an entry in her journal on mixi, a social networking site. According to her April 4 journal entry under the name Kani@Drill Tamashii ("Crab@Drill Soul"), she wanted to survey the reaction to the series premiere. She found a 2channel thread that said the first episode of Gurren Lagann had "C-level animation" and wrote she could not understand the complaints. She then wrote that she "despises 2channel from the bottom of [her] heart" and these "stupid, stupid, disgusting otaku should die!!" Akai, under the name Magi no Suke, responded that personally reading the comments on 2channel was "like putting [his] face next to an anus and breathing deeply."

On April 22, episode 4 of Gurren Lagann aired with pronounced artistic differences from the previous three episodes. Negative reactions filled 2channel's anime boards, the official Gainax blog, and the BBS of that episode's new animation director and storyboarder, Osamu Kobayashi. This led Mimori to post in the mixi journal under the Kani@Drill Tamashii alias that the animation quality had not dropped and that only the characters' appearances and faces changed. She then said that the staffers shouldn't listen to comments from amateurs who don't know better, but only those from anime industry people.

Members of 2channel discovered this later comment on mixi, but their reaction wouldn't develop into a full uproar until after Mimori and Akai's earlier comments from April 4 were discovered. This and the resulting surge in negative responses led to the removal of comments and eventually even main site content from the sites of Mimori, Akai, and Akai's private company Nine Lives. Finally, on April 27, Gainax posted Akai's open letter announcing his resignation, and Mimori and Akai posted additional statements of regret on mixi.

Takami Akai has been a part of Gainax since before its official founding, when he worked on the animation and character designs for the DAICON III and IV convention's opening videos. He was classmates with future colleagues Hiroyuki Yamaga and Hideaki Anno at the Osaka University of Arts. He has been a frequent guest of overseas anime conventions, particularly in California and Germany.
:14

Nice going, 2ch.
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Old 04-27-2007, 02:33 PM   #3
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Re: Gainax founder resigns over 2ch controversy.

Don't even try to compare 2ch with 4chan. As a non-Japanese, even I find it insulting; I can only imagine how retarded natives would find your attempts to fantasize at what would happen if 4chan ever wielded the sort of political importance that 2ch has. The fact of the matter is, 4chan fits Obi-Wan Kenobi's description of Mos Eisley to a tee ("You will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy") and its appeal is restricted to a very small niche of English-speaking society -- the otaku. 2ch, on the other hand, has always been and continues to be visited by and utilized by everybody in Japanese society who is interested in collecting images, reading stories, or discussing the news. It is like "a messageboard for all Japan." The content that the many channels deal with is staggering, and people from the lowly otaku to the CEO of a major business corporation can all be found posting there. So yes, 2ch does hold a lot of sociopolitical clout (whether its sysadmins ever hoped it would or not).

That stated, I think that this is horribly disappointing news. If Akai was not so stereotypically Japanese (damn it! :x ), he would not have cowed out to public criticism for his puerile rant and he would not have felt it necessary to resign. I very much doubt that Gainax encouraged him to resign as, frankly, he is crucial to the success of Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann and Gainax really needs for this series to succeed -- they have a long history, ever since Evangelion, of producing quality shows with shitty endings or shitty shows with shitty endings. Gainax can never pull an ending off. Ever. This is their final chance to defy the critics and to pull off "a great series with a good ending," as many anime fans have tired of Gainax's horrible inability to give series proper closure and Gainax is feeling the burn. Even Bandai is feeling some pressure from sexy newer studios like Kyouto Animation; Gainax is in no position to fuck up.

So what does that make this scenario, then? A case of a stereotypically Japanese man uttering "Sumimasen! Sumimasen! Moushi wake arimasen deshita!" and jumping into a pit 6 feet deep that he dug out with his own two hands and saying, "Sayonara!" Ugh. -_-; I'm so fucking sick and tired of good Japanese men cowing out so easily to public criticism; you'll never find a human being alive who cares more about public opinion and who would rather kill himself than be an enemy of the public at large than a Japanese man. This is such a disturbing, tragic story because it shows that Japan, for all of its "Westernization," has still retained one of its most odious and displeasing cultural phenomena. A similar concept is seen with Japanese PTAs (before whom all teachers cower; good examples of this problem are explored in fictional pieces like GTO but are presented in the real world by sources like Azrael).

=====================

I have more to say, but reading your 2nd post to the thread (which you made after I began to write my reply), I'm not sure I understand 4chan's role in these events as I ought to. So I have to ask, what exactly did 4chan do? Are you guys responsible for encouraging Akai-san (directly or indirectly) to flame 2ch? Or did you guys show up to the party after everyone had already left (i.e. after all the damage which cost Akai his job had already been dealt) and just spammed like idiots? Depending on your level of involvement in this story, I either do or do not have some pretty scathing words for you ...
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Old 04-27-2007, 03:09 PM   #4
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Re: Gainax founder resigns over 2ch controversy.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Talon87
Don't even try to compare 2ch with 4chan. As a non-Japanese, even I find it insulting; I can only imagine how retarded natives would find your attempts to fantasize at what would happen if 4chan ever wielded the sort of political importance that 2ch has. The fact of the matter is, 4chan fits Obi-Wan Kenobi's description of Mos Eisley to a tee ("You will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy") and its appeal is restricted to a very small niche of English-speaking society -- the otaku. 2ch, on the other hand, has always been and continues to be visited by and utilized by everybody in Japanese society who is interested in collecting images, reading stories, or discussing the news. It is like "a messageboard for all Japan." The content that the many channels deal with is staggering, and people from the lowly otaku to the CEO of a major business corporation can all be found posting there. So yes, 2ch does hold a lot of sociopolitical clout (whether its sysadmins ever hoped it would or not).
For all our sakes I'd hope nothing like Yotsuba ever becomes as mighty as 2ch - I agree, it's a rather crude, nasty place, and letting it run its own course away from the mainstream is for the best of all interested in anime/manga.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Talon87
That stated, I think that this is horribly disappointing news. If Akai was not so stereotypically Japanese (damn it! :x ), he would not have cowed out to public criticism for his puerile rant and he would not have felt it necessary to resign. I very much doubt that Gainax encouraged him to resign as, frankly, he is crucial to the success of Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann and Gainax really needs for this series to succeed -- they have a long history, ever since Evangelion, of producing quality shows with shitty endings or shitty shows with shitty endings. Gainax can never pull an ending off. Ever. This is their final chance to defy the critics and to pull off "a great series with a good ending," as many anime fans have tired of Gainax's horrible inability to give series proper closure and Gainax is feeling the burn. Even Bandai is feeling some pressure from sexy newer studios like Kyouto Animation; Gainax is in no position to fuck up.
Ratings were a big issue with Gurren - I heard independently from what I posted in the second post that 2ch's opinion of the show was, "it sucks". Not enough sexual fetishes and cheap harem fanservice I guess, but considering Gurren is a kid's show it makes sense Evangelion folk might be upset. Considering the budget of the show, it cannot afford to be a "minor success" - it's got to utterly dominate the cultural climate.

There was a poll (internet) a while back that ranked Gurren #3 in popularity, but it and Hayate (#2) had less than half the votes of Lucky Star. Yotsuba was angry about that as well, but then we found out it was an internet poll. It's possible this whole matter might be some big publicity stunt, but I think that's a bit removed from reality.

However, Gainax has a history of NEVER bowing to public opinion, EVER. These are the same guys who had their studio ravaged by angry otaku and weathered everything from bankruptcy to death threats. Having Gainax back down really shows that SOMETHING big has changed since 1997, even if we are not sure what was changed.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Talon87
I have more to say, but reading your 2nd post to the thread (which you made after I began to write my reply), I'm not sure I understand 4chan's role in these events as I ought to. So I have to ask, what exactly did 4chan do? Are you guys responsible for encouraging Akai-san (directly or indirectly) to flame 2ch? Or did you guys show up to the party after everyone had already left (i.e. after all the damage which cost Akai his job had already been dealt) and just spammed like idiots? Depending on your level of involvement in this story, I either do or do not have some pretty scathing words for you ...
The eight hundred post blog entry was brought to our attention, so this whole mess happened before we had any hand it it. I'd say we accomplished, well, nothing. There were three types of Anonymous posts: spams, anti-American ones (made by 4channers, of course), and "support Gainax" posts. The majority were of the latter (at least when I left).
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Old 04-27-2007, 03:21 PM   #5
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Re: Gainax founder resigns over 2ch controversy.

That really disappoints me -- like, you have no idea how much I'm disappointed to hear -- that Lucky Star is so popular. The animation looks crude beyond my ability to show contempt (SO UGH! :x ) and it's nothing but a lolikon's dream. The only thing worse than Lucky Star could quite possibly be an animated version of Kodomo no Jikan ... which I really wish all of the HongFire lolikons would shut up about ... she's in 3rd Grade, for Christ's sake! @_@

I would like to believe that it's nothing more than a scheme concocted by lolikons to inflate Lucky Star's popularity at the expense of better shows, but unfortunately, I don't think that's the case. What we're witnessing could be (quite frankly) the dawn of a new era. The dawn of the Loli Years. Lolikon is on the rise; more and more users are coming out of the closet, so to speak, saying how much they love loli hentai and absolutely adore little girls both sexually and asexually. And these lolikons are more viciously clinging to Japan than ever before as nations the world wide are taking measures to illegalize loli artwork. So it's quite possible that, through their fervent campaigns online to sponsor lolikon, they have indirectly sent the message to the anime studios, "We want more loli anime, and you can damned well be sure that we will support it." It seems like more and more series are pandering to this fetish -- where in years past we had brainless fanservice shows which had no redeeming plot and just a pretty pair of breasts bouncing around, it seems that now that niche has been swapped out for brainless loli-fanservice series like Lucky Star, Kamichama, and Ichigo Marshmallow. Loli for the sake of loli. Gone are the days of Grenadier, and come are the days of Kodomo no Jikan.

You can see it in the hentai world, too. While there have always been tons of loli and shota doujinshi, H-animes are starting to pander to lolikon interests; many are the H-animes which either exclusively feature little girls or shamelessly find a way to mix up little girls with overly-developed older women in a poorly-conceived attempt to please both groups. I don't think they realize that most men who like a cute girl with big breasts aren't necessarily looking for a mother and certainly don't get turned on when her 12-year-old daughter is in the background, but my opinions don't matter, apparently, since the number of these "dual featurettes" is on the rise.
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Old 04-27-2007, 03:32 PM   #6
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Re: Gainax founder resigns over 2ch controversy.

As pitiful as Lucky Star might be, it can't be worse than Manabi Straight, though I'd agree that the popularity of both shows (generic-looking, poorly rendered, pedo-tastic harem moe anime) is disturbing.

Like with GaoGaiGar as Sunrise's response to Gainax's Evangelion, Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann appears to be Gainax's response to the rise of loli/moe love in recent days. Unfortunately, it looks like that in spite of the impressive budget both GGG and Gurren have, they might end in obscurity. X.x;;

Most people I've talked to hold the same opinion as the Japanese - they came to Gurren because of Yoko. Most stayed for Kamina, I'm here for Simon and Buta and the promise of Gar in the far future. It's an awesome, high adrenaline show...but that might not be what Japan likes anymore.
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Old 04-27-2007, 08:51 PM   #7
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Re: Gainax founder resigns over 2ch controversy.

Honestly, I am ignorant to alot of what is being said here, but this really does worry me. I have never really been a big fan of Gainax because I have only thouroughly watched two anime by them (FLCL and Kono Minikuku Mo Utsukushii Sekai). Despite my ignorance, I did think of Gainax people with balls. Hell, Evangelion and all of their fan-service fest anime supported this as well. It is a shame that pretty much the heart of it just quit because of some criticism. I hate to see this happen because I really like Gurren Lagann and I like it because of the high-energy fighting sequences and not because Yoko is a cute face with huge knockers.

As for the loli thing that was mentioned, I hope the hell future titles do not turn into loli fan-service fests. I know loli is popular and I have started to like it a little, but too much is too much. Hell, I quit watching Kami-Chama Karin just because it focused way too much on little girls acting cute. Shakugan no Shana is another title that I think relies alot on loli fan-service, but I ignored the fact that Shana spends ALOT of the show nekkid, and enjoyed it for the action and the good story. If fans are really too ****ing shallow to enjoy anime for it's actual redeeming qualities, then the future looks really crappy.
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Old 05-01-2007, 12:23 AM   #8
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Re: Gainax founder resigns over 2ch controversy.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Talon87
The dawn of the Loli Years.
Do not want!

Quote:
Originally Posted by Doppleganger
As pitiful as Lucky Star might be, it can't be worse than Manabi Straight
Oh hell no! >_<

What did ya dislike about Manabi? The first episode or two kinda sucked but it took off from there. Is the end crap? I've only seen up to episode seven so far.
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Old 05-01-2007, 01:34 AM   #9
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Re: Gainax founder resigns over 2ch controversy.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Lindz
What did ya dislike about Manabi? The first episode or two kinda sucked but it took off from there. Is the end crap? I've only seen up to episode seven so far.
You like Nanoha, so there's nothing to discuss, really. Manabi is a table where pedos and people in need of an esteem boost can drink together in lustful misery.

I disliked it because it was stupid, among things. Frankly, I couldn't get past those two episodes but I won't even bother to go to the third on good faith - as far as I'm concerned, it'll probably be just as bland and nasty.
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Old 05-02-2007, 09:19 AM   #10
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Re: Gainax founder resigns over 2ch controversy.

Heh, I was thinking the exact same thing Talon was:

Me: "Man, that's so Japanese of him."

You know, it's really sad that a message board holds such importance and power in Japanese society. Somebody from Gainax should have hired some hackers to crash the servers. That would've showed them.
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Old 05-02-2007, 04:06 PM   #11
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Re: Gainax founder resigns over 2ch controversy.

Quote:
Originally Posted by PiccoloNamek
Somebody from Gainax should have hired some hackers to crash the servers. That would've showed them.
That's like a felony and if they linked it back to Gainax, they'd probably be in deeper shit.
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Old 05-02-2007, 04:16 PM   #12
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Re: Gainax founder resigns over 2ch controversy.

It's only a felony if somebody finds out who did it. Otherwise it's OK.
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Old 05-26-2007, 07:05 AM   #13
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Re: Gainax founder resigns over 2ch controversy.

I also have no idea why Lucky Star is so popular. Theres only so much pedo I can take.
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Old 05-27-2007, 12:15 AM   #14
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Re: Gainax founder resigns over 2ch controversy.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Holy Emperor
I also have no idea why Lucky Star is so popular. Theres only so much pedo I can take.
It's a massive conspiracy of trolls. The show is absolutely horrible, and I take back what I said earlier - Manabi Straight, as pathetic as it is, cannot be compared with LS for quality of storyline.
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