Anime. Who would’ve thought it would have this much mainstream popularity in this day and age, compared to being the underground ‘members-only’ niche medium it once was over 20 years ago. With it among the mainstream ranks; this medium has brought about a new generation of anime fans, and while that’s a great thing to a large majority of the anime community, there’s been some talk about the next wave of anime series that will sustain its mainstream dominance. In fact, there’s even a term for it; and that term is The Big Three. For many fans they’re aware of who the ‘Big Three’ are; they are three of the most popular, longest-running anime titles of their genre, and in the world. Whenever someone mentions ‘The Big Three’, they’re talking about Naruto, Bleach, and One Piece.

In the 2000’s Shonen was all the rage, and in EVERY Shonen Jump magazine you’d see these three on the cover. Although Dragon Ball Z, Yu Yu Hakasho, and Rurouni Kenshin (which we like to call ‘The Gateway Three’, or ’90’s Big Three’) made their mark on anime’s rise to popularity, these three solidified themselves as mainstream mainstays due to their stories, their iconic characters, and also being the longest-running shows. During the early 2000’s anime wasn’t as widely accessible as it is now, so trying to get your hands on any type of merchandise of these three anime titles was easier said than done.

When Toonami came to town (we’re not even gonna mention the 4Kids One Piece dub even though the opening music slapped), the hype of seeing these shows along with new manga chapters in the weekly Shonen Jump magazines, was intensified. We all remember the ‘Naruto Takeover Marathon’ (Naruto Hundo) on Cartoon Network, as that’s how a majority of Naruto fans found the Orange ninja. From anime TV series, manga, video games, and movies; the ‘Big Three’ defined a generation of Shonen anime fans the world over. Even today the influence of the ‘Big Three’ is felt among the modern generation of anime fans, and contrary to popular belief, it has led to the rise of ‘The New Three’.

For many fans; the ‘Big Three’ brought them into the anime community in the first place, and even led them to other shows of that genre as well. It doesn’t have to be just Shonen anime, as there could be a ‘Big Three’ of a particular genre or decade; say in our case, the 90’s. We know what our ‘Big Three’ are (as we aforementioned above) when we were growing up, but for some anime fans, it could be the three anime titles that made them become fans in the first place during their childhood; like Pokemon, Digimon, and Yu-Gi-Oh. For Mecha fans it could be Gundam, Gurren Lagann, and Evangelion. For Gen Z’ers it could be Attack on Titan, My Hero Academia, and Demon Slayer.

The ‘Big Three’ is synonymous with the most popular, longest-running, and most iconic anime franchises. Like Michael Jackson (no, not the dude who looks like him in Demon Slayer in the “Smooth Criminal” outfit from the music video); there will never be another ‘Big Three’ as popular, iconic, or generational defining as Naruto, Bleach, and One Piece. If you think about it a lot of fans have those three to thank due to their success, as they have led to the rise in popularity of ‘The New Three’. Every genre has a ‘Big Three’, every decade has a ‘Big Three’, and most of all, every fan has a ‘Big Three’ that got them into anime. Who knows what the future holds for ‘The Next Three’, but for now, ‘The Big Three’ will go down in history as the ones who brought anime to mainstream.

Until next post, stay nerdy! 😉

Anime. It seems everybody’s into it. Since its rise to fame in the 90’s anime has become a BIG part of nerd culture; and eventually as we’ve already seen, mainstream culture. Anime’s influence can even be seen in a majority of American pop-culture; such as music, sports entertainment, and yes…even American live-action. (Netflix, I’m lookin’ at you!)

With the medium now apart of mainstream culture, it’s brought about the ‘wrath’ (and we use this term loosely) of original anime fans; the ones who were there when it was mocked by people who didn’t understand it – mainly bullies. Lately we’ve been hearing this term thrown around throughout the anime community, and that term is ‘True Anime Fan’. Of course for anyone that’s heard of this term before, you might recall it being said from a salty individual on Twitter; ripping into the fans of popular series that have had a spot on Toonami’s line up. Of course you guys know the titles; Demon Slayer, Naruto, One Piece, Dragon Ball Z, SAO, you name it.

The term ‘True Fan’ usually means that you’re well-versed in the material of the medium that you’re passionate about, but in anime’s case; you’ve watched ‘enough’ anime to know about what genres are trending, what series has good/bad plot and character development, and the reputation of the animation studios that produce the shows that you watch. Honestly, there’s really no set number of shows that you have to watch in order to be classified as a ‘True Anime Fan’, however to the many ‘anime specialists’ out there; if you ONLY watch anime titles that are deemed ‘popular’ or ‘mainstream’, then YOU are not classified as a ‘True Anime Fan’.

This type of mentality has garnered some rather controversial attention, which has lead to gatekeeping within the anime community (which we’ve talked about on a previous post) as well as Twitter feuds online. Sure, anime is now accessible to a casual market of consumers, but now that its among the ranks of mainstream popularity, it has brought in a whole new generation of anime fans who didn’t originally have access to it during its rise. You don’t have to watch a specific anime title to be considered an anime fan, in fact, if popular titles like One Piece or Demon Slayer brought you to the world of anime fandom in the first place (and you like it), the you ARE a ‘True Anime Fan’. Who knows; maybe that one show can lead you to underrated or hidden gems that you’d never thought you’d find.

It seems many fans forget that they too (yeah, we said it); THEY TOO, were watching one anime title that they really liked when they were growing up. (For us it was Dragon Ball Z.) As you get older within the anime community your tastes in certain genres change over time, however to the casual anime novice they’re just trying to get their feet wet into the fandom and see what shows will peak their interests. You don’t need an ‘anime checklist’ to figure out if this is the show you should be watching or not due to its popularity. If you like a show (regardless of its story, characters, etc.), the you’re a fan of that show. If that show leads you to other shows; then you’ve become not just a fan of THAT show, but the other shows as well. Basically we’ll end this post a lil’ somethin’ like this:

Watch what you wanna watch and who cares what others think!

Until next post, bye! 😉

Anime. Everybody knows somebody in their lives who loves it, watches it, lives it, eats it, and breathes it! The consumers of this medium used to be the victims of bullying and ridicule back in the days of middle and high school, but now it is among the ranks of mainstream and has become widely accepted all across the globe. So out of all of the genres that your average otaku consumes on a daily basis, what is it about the Isekai genre?

Every new anime season; there has been an influx of anime titles from this genre. Some of them are strong contenders of being ‘Fan Favorites’ like That Time I Got Reincarnated As A Slime, while others were trying something new but might have made a misstep somewhere. Out of all the anime genres the Isekai genre is…the most saturated. Like every genre before it there is some history as to why it became what it is today, and don’t think you’re outta the woods America; cuz’ we’ve been on the ‘isekai’ train with our own fairytales. (Alice in Wonderland, Narnia, The Wizard of Oz, does that ring a bell?)

For any history buffs out there; the concept of this genre came from ancient Japanese Literature, and the story of Urashima Taro – who saved a turtle and was brought to an undersea kingdom. (I wonder if that’s the story that inspired The Little Mermaid and Aquaman…?) Five days later he returned to his village; 300 years into the future. That story was adapted into one of the FIRST anime isekai films in 1918 by Seitaro Kitayama, but if we’re talking about modern isekai stories; there’s Warrior From Another World (1976), Aura Battler Dunbine (1983), Fushigi Yugi (1992), El-Hazard (1995), need we go on?

In simple terms; Isekai has had its foot in the anime game for a long time, and Miazaki’s Spirited Away (2001) was one of the most well-known and popular isekai anime movies of its time. (In fact, there are still fans who cosplay as that ‘spirit’ thing to this very day. We forgot its name so don’t @ us!) Also happening in the 2000’s was the popularized isekai anime title; The Familiar of Zero (2004), which popularized isekai through light novel and web novel media. This of course led to Familiar of Zero fan fiction becoming so popular on the website “Let’s Become Novelists”, that it spawned a genre of original isekai novels on that site; which led up to the creation of Re:Zero (2012) by Tappei Nagatsuki.

You guys may be hating on it now, but in 2012 Sword Art Online took isekai’s popularity to the next level. (We know Progressive is gonna fix that, but at the time it came out people couldn’t stop talking about it!) This was also the year that the term “isekai” was coined, and as anime titles like SAO became popular, it led to more web novels being written on ‘Naro’ (Let’s Become Novelists); like Mushoku Tensei (which became an anime), Saga of Tanya The Evil (which also became an anime), and TONS of others that all came afterwards. The Isekai genre got SO popular in the early/mid part of the 2010’s that fans…in both Japan and the West (i.e. the U.S.)…were SICK of it! Why do you think there’s a ‘brand new’ isekai title…EVERY! DAMN! YEAR?!

This genre got so annoying, that there was a blanket ban placed on it in 2016 due to it overcrowding the anime and manga market. Fans to this day are wondering ‘How long are they gonna milk this genre?!’, but if you ask Kadokawa (manga publisher) in 2017, they ended up banning all isekai stories in their own contest. You know this genre is oversaturated when big-name manga publishers, and isekai-churning web novel websites start banning it from any contests they host. All because of a fisherman who saved a turtle…

No matter how sick of it we are, isekai is still a popular genre in both anime, and manga. Throughout every anime season there is gonna be at least 2-3 isekai titles that will be subbed, dubbed, and dropped by fans. It’s become the genre you love to hate; which might explain why Konosuba got created. The Isekai genre has become so saturated that it’s now the butt of many jokes; even to the point where parody anime titles (like Konosuba) are made.

Something so small as a man saving a turtle and being transported to another world, has allowed this genre to ascend to a level of popularity; that it has achieved meme status in that same aspect. Isekai has gained a cult following over the years, but for some fans – at the cost of its own self-respect. Its the one genre that is both hated and loved at the same time; from its copy-and-paste storylines, to its half-assed character development. However, there have been some titles that have managed escaped this ‘curse-like’ cliché, so when some one says “Not another damn isekai!”, just know that the fisherman and the turtle started it.

Until next post, stay nerdy. 

If you’ve been an anime fan since the 90’s (or even the 80’s) then you’re already familiar with how it became so popular today. The art style, the direction, the animation, the complex stories, and the character development all encompass what the foundation of anime is for many fans of the genre. Many fans who are products of the 80’s and 90’s remember an era where it was rather expensive to buy dubbed episodes of your favorite titles of that time. In fact; if you wanted to get the first dubbed season of Dragon Ball, you had to by a set of 12 bricks (VHS tapes for Gen Z’ers who don’t know what ‘bricks’ are) that only had 2 or 3 episodes on each for $150. 2000’s kids will never have to do that now; for that exact same price, and possibly even less (maybe a third), you can get every dubbed and subbed season of Dragon Ball Z (or Kai if you want the 100% ‘true-to-the-manga’ version).

This may come as a shock to those who don’t know this, but…dubs are EXPENSIVE! Now, if you didn’t think that came as a surprise, then allow us to give you an even greater FYI. Anime…is EXPENSIVE to make! Yeah, how’s that for a surprise?

Ever heard of the phrase ‘You get out what you put in?’, yeah, that goes for Hollywood movies and Anime production. Creating Manga is one thing, but producing an anime adaptation based on its source material (the manga), is a whole other monster. The process that goes into adapting your favorite titles into anime form is more layered than you think. (Contrary to popular belief, there are those within the social media world that believe it is ‘easy’ to produce anime. To that we say…try making your own Sourdough bread and get back to us with your results!)

For this post; we’ll be going over how much it costs to produce one episode of your favorite anime title, the overall cost to make a season, and the phases that need to happen. (We’ll be going by the U.S. equivalent of Yen, so feel free to translate how much it costs in Japan.)

The Cost of 60 Seconds of 2D Animation

For anybody that’s taken animation courses, the animation part of the overall process is done in frames to simulate an action (or actions) that are taking place. This is also the part where the animators can get the most creative. If you’ve heard the word ‘FPS’ (no, not First Person Shooter) then you may have seen it whenever you render videos for Youtube. For anime in this case; it’s rendered between 24 and 30 frames per second, but for this post we’re gonna say 30 frames per second. There are 60 seconds in a minute, and with an FPS of 30, its 30 x 60 = 1800 frames per minute.

What about the cost you ask? For just 60 seconds of video, the average cost is $6000. We’re not making that up; it actually COSTS $6000 to make just ONE minute of anime! If you divide 6000 by 60, it costs $100 to make 30 frames of animation – and we haven’t even factored in the time it takes to do this! (We’ll get to that soon enough.)

The Overall Cost Of One Anime Season

So 1800 frames of a 60-second animation costs an average of $6000 (depending on the studio), so how much does it cost to produce a 23-24 minute episode? Take that $6000 and multiply it by 24, and you’re looking at $144,000; or if you multiply it by 23 you’ll get $138,000. Depending on the studio you’re looking at between $100,000-$300,000 per episode. For every 43,200 frames of animation, it costs $144,000. (Or $138,000 for 41,400 frames of animation.) You want 12 episodes? That’ll be between $1.6 Million-$1.7 Million, and in some cases up to $3.6 Million if the season is 24 episodes; the equivalent of two 12-episode runs. We’re surprised your wallet hasn’t killed you yet! XP

That number is double or triple if you’re producing an anime movie between 90-150 minutes long.

The Production Phases

Ok, we covered the money…but what about the time? Well there’s phases in the production process that have to happen before the money for said production can even be kicked out. First is the Concept Phase. You need a base or a foundation for the characters, right? Well it all starts here. The artists will create character concepts of what they want the character to look like, move like, and what their mood will be like. They then go through testing animations to get an overall feel of the character before they do a ‘final draft’ design. Sad thing about this phase is; it’s where most projects end…but not all the time.

Survived the first phase? Then the Storyboard Phase is next! This is where the ‘action’ happens as the cuts and story composition as a reference for every animation. You know all the backgrounds for all the action, rom-com, isekai, and fantasy anime titles you like? Well, this is the phase where it all comes together.

Now onto Phase 3; the Animation Phase. This. Is. The. Phase. That. Takes. The. Most. Time! Most fans get annoyed when other ‘fans’ complain about the animation of a series, but their response to that is ‘If you think it’s so easy, why don’t you try it!’ The lead artists will create the keyframes; then with the missing gaps in between, the animators will draw in the frames leading into the next keyframe the main artists have set. (Don’t forget the lip flaps, because those have to be animated too.)

Finally comes Phase 4; the Cutting Phase. All of the scenes are cut together with the colors corrected, the music produced, and the voice actors with their lines already recorded. We haven’t even factored in the cost of music and voice acting; especially if you want professionals, but this is the phases of the process in a nutshell. As for the time this process takes, you’re looking at between a couple of weeks to a few months. (A lot of studios have deadlines, so you also gotta factor that in too!)

So Big Spender, you can’t say making anime is easy, can ya? This is just the cost of producing the anime you love so much, and we haven’t even gotten into the promotional and advertisement costs, IP copyright laws and protections, overseas distribution, English-dubbing, musical composition royalties, ADR, broadcast streaming and home video release rights. ALL of this goes into the process of creating the anime that you love, and how are they able to recoup the cost? You basically BUY THEIR PRODUCTS! (Prints, Blu-Rays, DVDs, anime figures, apparel, official art books, etc.)

The next time some troll on the interweebs tells you that they think its ‘easy’ to make anime, direct them to this post and tell them to make their own Sourdough bread and post the results. Anime’s expensive, but with such a high demand for it worldwide, we don’t see it dying off anytime soon – no matter how expensive it is to make.

That will do it for this post, so until next time, stay nerdy! 😉

Anime. What more can be said about it that hasn’t already been said before. It went from being an underground niche medium (and still is in some parts) to a mainstream stay that has seen the light of Hollywood and the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. Everyone has their favorite titles, genres, waifus, husbandos, best boys and best girls, but if there’s one thing that anime fans love more that anime itself…its anime openings.

What is it about these ‘openings’ that draw in crowds of otaku from all around the nation and even overseas? From its panning cameras to its vivid and vibrant colors anime openings have always given fans a taste of what the atmospheric mood of the show that they’re watching, will be about.

If there’s one thing we’ve learned over the many, MANY years of watching anime, its that the music to the opening of an anime title is the first thing that jumps out at us. If the opening gives us a visual of what the anime series is going to be about, then the music will give us what type of emotion that show will carry along with it. If we had to give an example right now, the best one that everyone’s familiar with is Soul Eater. As soon as you hear the first kick drum you guys lose it; not because its one of the most recognized opening anime songs in the anime community, but also the fact that anybody that is a fan of Soul Eater (or knows someone who is) is already familiar with the opening sequence. Hell, we have T.M. Revolution as one of our top tracks on our Spotify playlist.

When it comes to anime openings it makes fans feel a special type of way; most of the time they’ll sing along to the song or even just do a crazy dance because the rush of endorphins just hits you. The music as we’ve said before is the emotional piece of the opening; which lets the viewer know what the mood and the feeling of the show will be about, while the opening sequence introduces you to the cast of characters that interact with one another, and give you a glimpse of what the story of the series will be about – depending on the genre. Supernatural Fantasy Harem titles like High School DxD will have music and visuals that make you feel a sense of action, excitement, danger, and yes…boobies. High School Rom-Coms and Slice-of-Life Comedy anime openings give you more of a silly, zany, entertaining mood with its music and opening sequences; while psychological thrillers and horror anime openings give you more of a chilling, uneasy, and anxiety-induced mood.

Anime openings are always associated with the overall mood of the anime title itself. There are various alternative versions that change from season to season to reflect the mood of the show during that season; like when the second opening to a funny rom-com title becomes more series and drama-filled during its second season (or half). For some fans the opening may actually be the best part of the anime series even though the rest of it onwards may be, well…trash. (We’re not judging you.) At the end of the day; we love anime openings because they make us feel a sense of excitement and joy when watching the showcase of vivid colors, high quality sequences, and impeccable attention to detail. In fact, there are some anime-inspired shows that have taken a page out of the anime opening playbook to pay homage to anime openings as a whole. To put it simply; there is something visually beautiful about anime openings, and to end this post, here’s one opening that we all know and love! 😉 

Remember when you were a kid and you watched one of your favorite Saturday Morning Cartoons, and then Monday morning you’d talk about said cartoon with your friends at school? If the answer to that question is ‘yes’ then you’re one step closer to what we’re talking about on this post. That one thing we’re talking about…is opinions. Everybody has them, everybody is entitled to them, and everybody isn’t afraid to voice them.

When it comes to opinions, they’re always unpopular. They can be as simple as pineapple on pizza, or as confusing as who’s the best Spiderman (*cough* Tom Holland). The most common places to find them would be from the fans of the sports and entertainment industry; ESPECIALLY the anime and gaming industry! Before social media invaded the internet anime fans only knew about what new shows were coming by television advertisements or Toonami (cuz’ we’re products of the 90’s and that’s how we found anime). Back then we just enjoyed it; and wasn’t even focused on character or plot development, or why Team Rocket wanted to capture Pikachu so badly, or even how Sailor Moon was the pinnacle of the Magical Girl genre of anime; as it opened the door for so many other titles that came in afterwards.

To us; anime was fun, and we had fun watching it. Sure, we got bulled for watching it and gushing about it every single time, but during those days it was all we had growing up. Jump ahead to the 2000’s and now we’re introduced to the era of social media (i.e. MySpace). Now we’re able to take our love for anime to our online chat rooms which helped create small little communities. At this point you’re probably asking where do these ‘unpopular opinions’ you’re talking about come in? Hang in there, cuz’ it wasn’t until 2010 that everything changed.

When anime started getting mainstream attention during the start of the next decade, that’s when we knew there was a shift coming. Now that social media sites like Twitter and Facebook gave a platform to people to voice their opinions, people now have a platform to voice their opinions. Youtube gave rise to aspiring content creators to share their content with the world, of course they all brought their opinions along for the ride. Anime has become so subjective these days; now instead of enjoying titles like Dragon Ball Z, Gundam Wing, Pokemon, Cowboy Bebop or Sailor Moon just because they were fun to watch, we find ourselves on the receiving end of heated debates like how Vegeta is actually stronger than Goku, and why Gen Z anime fans like Boruto over Naruto. (Don’t ask us why.)

We’re not saying that you shouldn’t have an opinion, but at the same time it feels like anime fans have overanalyzed anime to the point where it has to be either good, or bad. Take the first season of SAO for example; while the creator may not have had any experience in what MMORPGs are or how they function (cuz’ yeah, the series DID have its flaws, and we saw how bad it was getting bashed online), to some fans it was still entertaining to watch. There are even opinions out there that state if you haven’t seen the ‘Big 3’ or ‘Big 4’ (if you count Sailor Moon) that you’re not a ‘real fan’; and that’s where things get toxic and ugly.

That’s probably what we’re forgetting; that anime’s original purpose was to entertain us. It was something different from what we were used to watching, and it had such compelling and complex stories that were beyond anything our minds could fathom. When it comes to anime reviewers (including ourselves), they love breaking things down and seeing how things work; from the story to the characters and everything in between. When we try to fit anime titles into one of two categories, good or bad, or tier lists (and we’re all guilty of that), it takes the fun our of enjoying what it was trying to do in the first place – entertain you.

At the end of the day its about enjoying the shows you like. You like AoT (Attack on Titan)? go for it! You think Rias Gremory is best girl? Have at it! You think Demon Slayer is the best show ever made? Cool! No title out there is without its flaws, but if you love your favorite anime (flaws and all) then it has value to you regardless of what other people’s opinion of it is. You never want to base or shape your opinion off of someone else’s opinion (even if you admire them), because when their opinion matters more than your own opinion; it makes you forfeit the entitlement of your OWN opinion.

No matter how you slice it; anime fans will always have an opinion about anime – and there’s nothing wrong with that. Unpopular opinions only become problematic when boundaries are crossed (especially when it comes to voice actors), and there have been several moments where that’s happened (the Darling in the FRANXX Ichigo situation comes to mind). When it’s all said and done; if you’re getting the entertainment value from the anime titles that you’re watching, then that’s all that really matters. You’re free to acknowledge and accept other people’s opinions of shows that you like, but don’t let their opinions shape your opinions. On that note that will do it for this post.

Until next time, stay nerdy! 😉  

What’s up guys! Last month we made a teaser post that we were going to be bringing in a new segment for the month of February known as Viz Media Spotlight; where we highlight all of the new and current anime and manga titles Viz has to offer. When it comes to anime and manga, we do our best to keep up with all of the current trends that are happening among the industry as well as in the community. So for this Viz Media Spotlight we’ll be doing some overviews of series and manga titles that are currently available for streaming and reading, and maybe a trailer or two!

Bleach: The Thousand-Year Blood War

Every Bleach fan (including us) has been wondering if the series was going to continue after the battle between Ichigo and Aizen. Well, after a 9-year wait we’ve finally got an answer; in the form of a brand new arc entitled The Thousand-Year Blood War. We have no idea what’s gonna go down in this arc, but if you wanna know why old school Bleach fans (and by that we mean Millennial fans) are so excited over this new story, just watch the trailer for yourself! 😉

Tower Of God: The Complete Series

Although we watch a lot of anime, there are some titles that stand out among the crowd in terms of plot and character development. This title being one of them; recommended by D&A’s Aaron M. Goldman, Tower Of God is a series that you definitely wanna check out! It tells the story of the main character named Twenty-Fifth Bam (as in ’25th Bam’, don’t ask cuz’ we don’t know either)  as he and his friend Rachael have been trapped beneath a vast and mysterious tower. Suddenly Rachael decides to enter the tower; which devastates Bam, and leads him on a mission to go into the tower himself to find her and get her back with the help of some allies he meets along the way. The manga is also available to so be sure to watch and read both if you’re a fan of this series (or is interested in becoming one).

This Viz Media Spotlight is just a small taste of what we’re trying to make this segment out to be; although this one’s just a temporary one for the month, we’ll be working and researching hard to bring you updates on what anime and manga you can find on Viz Media’s website. (As we’re just highlighting new trailers and also what our recommendations are based on seeing the titles for ourselves, but we WON’T be spoiling any of the them.)

That will do it for this post, and as always we thank you guys from the bottom of our hearts for all of the love and support that you’ve given us for the blog; and D&A Studios. Until next post, stay nerdy! 😉