American Amateur Animé Awards
Feb. 25th, 2007 03:21 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
robotech_masterWell, that was very…something. Not terribly polished or professional, and I got the feeling nobody involved really took themselves too seriously. The performances by a Japanese flautist and a drum ensemble at the beginning were kind of neat, kind of cultural—and then the whole thing took a nosedive into amateurishness. Between 80% of the presenters being animé (voice) babes in fancy dresses (and the presenter for Best Package Design being the fashion designer who designed all those fancy dresses) and the nomination and winner lists being rather odd, and there being some guy in an armchair (apparently from the Conan late-night show) on the stage for no adequately explained reason, it was strange enough. The fact that one of the co-presenters was a guy in a rubber Guyver suit was just the icing on the cake.
And then there was the bizarre nominations lists, which really make you wonder. To take just one example, nominated for Best Feature were Akira, Inuyasha 4, Pokémon 8 (sounds like a sports score, doesn't it?), Fullmetal Alchemist, and Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children. What a peculiar list of titles. If it's supposed to be for recent movies, what the heck is Akira doing on that list? And if it's supposed to be for all-time great animé, why do we have Pokémon and Inuyasha titles on there but no Miyazaki stuff?
Also worthy of mention is that they explained that to come up with the nominees, they asked a bunch of studios and critics for their "best" lists, and then had 45,000 plus fans vote to determine the finalists. Which is fine, but I noticed they didn't ever say how exactly they picked the winner from those finalists. Hmm.
In the end, it seemed to me that it was just a mutual backpatting session by animé industry professionals, cooked up by the New York ComicCon publicist. I really have a hard time taking it seriously, and it makes me wonder if there will in fact be a second annual American Anime Awards. Not that I'm sure it would be any great loss if there were not.
And then there was the bizarre nominations lists, which really make you wonder. To take just one example, nominated for Best Feature were Akira, Inuyasha 4, Pokémon 8 (sounds like a sports score, doesn't it?), Fullmetal Alchemist, and Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children. What a peculiar list of titles. If it's supposed to be for recent movies, what the heck is Akira doing on that list? And if it's supposed to be for all-time great animé, why do we have Pokémon and Inuyasha titles on there but no Miyazaki stuff?
Also worthy of mention is that they explained that to come up with the nominees, they asked a bunch of studios and critics for their "best" lists, and then had 45,000 plus fans vote to determine the finalists. Which is fine, but I noticed they didn't ever say how exactly they picked the winner from those finalists. Hmm.
In the end, it seemed to me that it was just a mutual backpatting session by animé industry professionals, cooked up by the New York ComicCon publicist. I really have a hard time taking it seriously, and it makes me wonder if there will in fact be a second annual American Anime Awards. Not that I'm sure it would be any great loss if there were not.
