Dumb fans think Furman should write G1 #81 and beyond.

[Shockwave]

I can see what you are saying about quality. That is actually one reason I quit watching Armada. It was the first time I had not supported a part of the franchise... ever.

As for characters, I care how characters are used as well, but there has to be some pre existing characterization to compare against. For example: Shockwave. The original tech spec establishes that he's basically Spock if you turned him into a giant evil robot purple space gun. Logical to a fault and all that. Now, take into consideration what was done with that in G1. In the comic this was used to great effect and is what had really endeared me to the character. The cartoon completely ignored this. It's a case where Shockwave was used very effectively in the comic, but completely ineffectively in the cartoon. I wasn't happy with what they did in the cartoon and yet, I still found the cartoon entertaining. Now we have Dark of the Moon coming up. Again, we have Shockwave. I won't be able to assess the quality of what they do with Shockwave until I see it. As such, I have to go see it to find out. Now, after I see it, if I decide that I don't like what they've done, I can not support it by not buying the dvd. I guess what I'm saying is you don't know it's bad until after the fact. In the case of comics, I buy them and read them at home. I don't read them in the store first to find out if they're good or not. And, most comic shops would frown on such behavior anyway (one would likely hear the old nugget: "Hey! This ain't no library!").

[BWprowl]

Well, my Power Rangers example is about the best I can come up with to explain this. I often regard a franchise as a hobby. Transformers is my primary hobby. I do not even like Power Rangers. At all. So it comes down to being more about being a member of a particular fandom than anything else. As a Transformers fan, I'll be interested in a comic featuring Transformers, even if it is poorly written. But, since I am not a fan of Power Rangers, I would not be interested in a Power Rangers comic regardless of how good the writing is because it's Power Rangers and I'm not interested in Power Rangers.

This makes me wonder, Shockers, how do you go about picking new series/franchise/fiction/whatever to check out? You say you don't give a toss about Power Rangers and that's fine, but what if, just somehow, you ended up reading this hypothetical super-awesome Power Rangers comic, and absolutely loved it? Would you *then* become interested in Power Rangers to the point that you'd start checking out different parts of it (I hear Time Force was really cool). Would this lead to you checking out Super Sentai and eventually other Toku shows? Suddenly you're a fan of something you previously said you would never be interested in checking *one thing* out from.

My interests can be traced rather organically. I liked watching Beast Wars, which made me a fan of Transformers. Then the sequel to Beast Wars was on Fox Kids, so I watched it there. Fox Kids had a lot of adapted anime on it too, so I watched a lot of that and wanted to see more anime, so I watched more on Cartoon Network, and now I really like anime. Hell, I originally went to /toy/ to talk about Transformers, and those guys do not shut up about Kamen Rider, so eventually I wound up checking that series out, and so for the past year-ish, I've been really into Kamen Rider.

But that's purely for example's sake, Shockwave. Like I said, I'm kinda wondering how you go about getting into the things you're into, unless you mean to say you only pay attention to things that've been around since you were a kid.

[Shockwave]

Well, my Power Rangers example is about the best I can come up with to explain this. I often regard a franchise as a hobby. Transformers is my primary hobby. I do not even like Power Rangers. At all. So it comes down to being more about being a member of a particular fandom than anything else. As a Transformers fan, I'll be interested in a comic featuring Transformers, even if it is poorly written. But, since I am not a fan of Power Rangers, I would not be interested in a Power Rangers comic regardless of how good the writing is because it's Power Rangers and I'm not interested in Power Rangers.

This makes me wonder, Shockers, how do you go about picking new series/franchise/fiction/whatever to check out? You say you don't give a toss about Power Rangers and that's fine, but what if, just somehow, you ended up reading this hypothetical super-awesome Power Rangers comic, and absolutely loved it? Would you *then* become interested in Power Rangers to the point that you'd start checking out different parts of it (I hear Time Force was really cool). Would this lead to you checking out Super Sentai and eventually other Toku shows? Suddenly you're a fan of something you previously said you would never be interested in checking *one thing* out from.

Yes sir, that is exactly what would happen. In fact, that's exactly what happened with Dr. Who. Actually, my friend is as much a Who fan as I am for Transformers and eventually he just kinda forced me to sit down and watch it. And then my enjoyment of the good Dr. just kinda exploded from there. It's even gotten to the point where I've actually caught referrences that he's missed in some episodes. And I didn't like Who as a kid mostly because it often pre emtped He-Man.

My interests can be traced rather organically. I liked watching Beast Wars, which made me a fan of Transformers. Then the sequel to Beast Wars was on Fox Kids, so I watched it there. Fox Kids had a lot of adapted anime on it too, so I watched a lot of that and wanted to see more anime, so I watched more on Cartoon Network, and now I really like anime. Hell, I originally went to /toy/ to talk about Transformers, and those guys do not shut up about Kamen Rider, so eventually I wound up checking that series out, and so for the past year-ish, I've been really into Kamen Rider.

But that's purely for example's sake, Shockwave. Like I said, I'm kinda wondering how you go about getting into the things you're into, unless you mean to say you only pay attention to things that've been around since you were a kid.

I'll admit that I do tend to limit my own fandom. But I've gotten a lot better in recent years, at least now I'm willing to give new stuff a chance before I say it sucks outright. In all fairness to Power Rangers, I did actually give it a chance back in the day and saw a few episodes and just couldn't get into it. I've also given anime a chance and couldn't really get into that either. But at least I did give it a fair chance. On the reverse side of this, I've started watching My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic purely on the advice of you guys here and have not regretted it. Same reason I got Blackest night and Brightest Day. So... you know, I do branch out a little bit.

[Onslaught Six]

What anime have you watched, by chance? The turds vary a hell of a lot from the gems. I don't want to sound pushy, but to decry the whole of anime due to one or two bad shows you've seen are comparable to going "Well, Spider-Man sucks, so all comic books suck."

[Gomess]

What anime have you watched, by chance? The turds vary a hell of a lot from the gems. I don't want to sound pushy, but to decry the whole of anime due to one or two bad shows you've seen are comparable to going "Well, Spider-Man sucks, so all comic books suck."

It's actually worse, since mainstream anime covers a much wider range of styles and genres than mainstream comic books.

[Shockwave]

It's mostly stuff that's shown up on Adult Swim. There is one anime film I like: Ninja Scroll.

[Gomess]

Sounds like Trekwave's only "problem" with anime is that he hasn't been exposed to enough of it, particularly more obscure examples (this isn't an indictment, but Ninja Scroll is one of those anime that almost seems made for a Western audience). Not that he *needs* to be exposed to more, but, thought I'd try and put it nicer.

For a bit of extra context, most people I know don't consider me an "anime fan", but I knows what I likes, and a noticeable bit of it is cartoons produced in Japan.

...Good thing about Ninja Scroll, considering how widely distributed it was in the West? As far as I remember, there's no ninja in black pyjamas and facemasks in it. 10 points!

[Onslaught Six]

Depending on when you were watching, Adult Swim's smattering of anime is either gold or crap. Amongst the gold you can find Cowboy Bebop, Big O (seriously, fucking Big O), Ghost in the Shell, Trigun, and the first Fullmetal Alchemist anime. (I haven't seen Brotherhood so I can't comment on it.) If you learn to like the tropes, Bleach and InuYasha can be passable. The crap is mostly...everything else. Oh, and obviously there's Dragonball/DBZ, but that kind of goes without saying, yeah?

[Gomess]

Alright, I'm gonna throw in some recommendations, since that's basically where O6 just took this (Trekwave, this is by no means me saying "WATCH DIS OR I NO LIEK U"):

Daughter of Twenty-Faces (starts off as a fairly innocuous Victorian drama about an orphan, but Ep 8 sees the most shocking- and early- tone change I've ever seen in a story)

Heat Guy J (android detective, a law that criminals serving life sentences be given the heads of animals, wonderful music and animation, 'nuff said)

Hokuto no Ken (Chuck Norris can't watch a whole episode without crying or losing a testicle (better known as Fist of the North Star))

Gun X Sword (everything. No, really. It has everything, even cowboys, Mexican Power Rangers, giant robots that transform into giant weapons, swords that look like guns and guns that look like swords, and a hugely satisfying ending)

Saint Seiya (ok, I can't REALLY recommend this one, but I grew up on it just like I did Transformers =3 Kickass theme songs, too.)

Note that most of the anime I like is for kids, but that's true of most of the *fiction* I like. There's plenty of anime made for adults (no, not porn).

[Shockwave]

I think a huge part of it for me is the style. The way a lot of characters are drawn in anime (I would cite Dragonball as the example) is just visually appauling to my eyes. I gave Dragonball a chance and... couldn't get into it. The style in Inuyasha bugged me too. In both cases... I just gotta say: There were dinosaurs that walked this Earth that stood two stories tall and didn't have eyes that big. Just sayin'. I did watch Bleach and thought that was pretty good. Big O... again with the eyes. If it weren't for that, I probably could have gotten more into it.

I will definitely concede that when it comes to anime I probably am missing out on some good stories and writing, but a lot of the artwork style is just so off putting to me that it's distracting.