My ANN article: 30 Years of Kimagure Orange Road!

[usamimi]

I was very honored to be asked by Zac of Anime News Network to write an article on KOR for it's 30th Anniversary coming in April! http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/feature ... ad/.112950

I obviously wrote it through the lens of my own experience with it, but I hope everyone enjoys it regardless. (Honestly, my first draft of the article was MUCH longer--but I had to cut it down for their word limit. )

[mbanu]

Interesting article! (^_^) I'm a little surprised Zac asked for a feature on an out-of-print anime -- maybe a way of testing the waters to see if there is enough interest for one of the streaming sites to pick it up?

[usamimi]

Interesting article! (^_^) I'm a little surprised Zac asked for a feature on an out-of-print anime -- maybe a way of testing the waters to see if there is enough interest for one of the streaming sites to pick it up?

Thank you! ANN doesn't really have any connections with any anime companies that I'm aware of...other than it runs paid ads for em, but thats about it. I think its more to see if works about older titles would draw in any readers? Plus KOR was a big deal back in the day, even tho its out of print now.

But who knows? Maybe a company will take notice tat people still care about it & look into it? It'd sure be nice, anyway!

[llj]

Nice article, Dawn!

KOR I Want to Return to that Day is a GREAT movie, a very artfully directed movie, but quite cruel. I can't think of any major franchise in recent years that ripped the hearts out of their fanbase like this, that's what made it so unique. The second movie patches things up, but it came so late, many still think the first movie was the last word on the franchise.

I'd like to see the manga ending as a comparison.

[SteveH]

Call me ignorant, I don't understand 'word limits' for an article written to be published on the internet. There's no physical space that costs money. A 5,000 word article doesn't take significantly more storage space on the server than 2,000 words. They burn up more bandwidth on headers and borders and other junk that my Adblocker cuts out.

Of course if they're PAYING by the word then yeah, they're going to have a cutoff but man, some stuff just needs ROOM because there's context that needs explaining.

*bah*

[usamimi]

Nice article, Dawn!

KOR I Want to Return to that Day is a GREAT movie, a very artfully directed movie, but quite cruel. I can't think of any major franchise in recent years that ripped the hearts out of their fanbase like this, that's what made it so unique. The second movie patches things up, but it came so late, many still think the first movie was the last word on the franchise.

I'd like to see the manga ending as a comparison.

Thanks! Yeah, its unique in the respect that it was a fairly realistic portrayal of what might happen if a situation like that played out, which was (and still kinda is?) a bit rare.

The manga ended a bit differently...I don't wanna post spoilers in case people are looking forward to the manga finally being in print sometime soon, but I can say it wasn't as heart wrenching as the first movie at least!

I was actually surprised that there were comments I skimmed were people defended the second movie, cuz back in the day EVERYONE I new hated it. While I can understand wanting the series to end on a better note than the first movie....it was kind of a mess of a movie. And the fact that the trio was SO CAREFUL to make sure they all got along now...eh. It felt like someone going "SEE?? ITS OK THEY'RE ALL FRIENDS AGAIN! DONT BE SAD!", which felt kinda forced to me.

Of course, like I said in the article, its been YEARS since I've watched either so idk maybe I'd feel different now? Lol. But probably not by much.

SteveH, well I'm sure they don't want to pay for a SUPER LONG article And people not familiar with KOR probably wouldn't want to read a 5k article about it...something short & sweet is best. Enough to make people interested, basically!

[llj]

Thanks! Yeah, its unique in the respect that it was a fairly realistic portrayal of what might happen if a situation like that played out, which was (and still kinda is?) a bit rare.

The typical method is to simply not resolve a love triangle/quandrangle, a la Tenchi, and just have the characters keep having wacky sitcom adventures indefinitely.

[llj]

Oh yeah, I just remember about the 2nd KOR movie...would you believe I've bought it twice? I have it both on VHS and DVD. It's not a GREAT movie (certainly nowhere close to the first one from an artistic standpoint) but it's pleasant enough for fluff.

There was a time when I tried to snap up all the KORs on R1 DVD...but I never could justify hunting down (and paying) for the ENTIRE TV series. There's a lot of filler in there too.

[Drew_Sutton]

Great article, Dawn! My one critique would be that the article seemed to abruptly turn from topic to topic towards the end, which I am sure is more the result of having to trim it back for ANN's limit. If you don't mind me asking, did ANN reach out to you, you solicit them, or was it just happenstance? I'd love to write for them if I could hone my writing to a point beyond self-publishing. I hope you're game to write for them some more!

On the topic of KOR, it was always something I heard bandied about through other fans, even in the waning fansub days. When AnimEigo released their first print of the series on DVD, I watched a few episodes with my friend who pre-ordered the set and for whatever reason, never got into it. When the license expired and it was announced they were going out of print, I ordered a set of everything AnimEigo had and I was surprised with how much I really liked the series.

While the character designs are totally 80s (a good thing in my book!) and it's a nice look at the now, very generic love triangle trope, I think the things I love about it the most is the OP/ED soundtracks. Those are songs I can rock out to any time! I especially love the opening sequence for Kagami no naka no Actress. The thing I love second most is Jingoro. FATCATS4LYFE!

[usamimi]

Great article, Dawn! My one critique would be that the article seemed to abruptly turn from topic to topic towards the end, which I am sure is more the result of having to trim it back for ANN's limit. If you don't mind me asking, did ANN reach out to you, you solicit them, or was it just happenstance? I'd love to write for them if I could hone my writing to a point beyond self-publishing. I hope you're game to write for them some more!

On the topic of KOR, it was always something I heard bandied about through other fans, even in the waning fansub days. When AnimEigo released their first print of the series on DVD, I watched a few episodes with my friend who pre-ordered the set and for whatever reason, never got into it. When the license expired and it was announced they were going out of print, I ordered a set of everything AnimEigo had and I was surprised with how much I really liked the series.

While the character designs are totally 80s (a good thing in my book!) and it's a nice look at the now, very generic love triangle trope, I think the things I love about it the most is the OP/ED soundtracks. Those are songs I can rock out to any time! I especially love the opening sequence for Kagami no naka no Actress. The thing I love second most is Jingoro. FATCATS4LYFE!

Thanks! Yeah, it was basically a side effect of having to trim the article down, sadly. ANN reached out to me personally & asked me to write it. But don't let that discourage you--if you have something you wanna pitch at them you should def give it a go!

Ah, Actress in the Mirror is my favorite opening too! It's so good. I love everything about it! and I gotta agree with you on Jingoro. Fat cats are the cutest!