AGP#032 – The Art of Active Viewing (ANext2010)

Hosts: Evan “Vampt Vo” Minto, Karl “Uncle Yo”
Custer, Ink
Recording: A panel called “Fandom &
Criticism: The Art of Active Viewing” at AnimeNEXT 2010


This episode isn’t quite a typical Ani-Gamers Podcast episode, in
that it’s not a couple of geeks chatting on Skype about silly
Japanese cartoons or video games. Instead, this is a recording of
a panel that I ran with Uncle Yo and Ink at AnimeNEXT. The audio
quality isn’t great, so I apologize upfront for that. (And yes,
Uncle Yo had to leave before the end without saying a word, which
I forgot to mention in the podcast’s foreword.) If you have any
feedback regarding the episode, though, feel free to let us know
in the comments or at our e-mail address we’d love to hear you
chime in on this interesting subject!


Show notes and links are, as usual, after the break.


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(Runtime: 1 hour, 2 minutes)

[00:00] Opening Song: “R.O.D. Theme” by Taku Iwasaki (Read
Or Die OAV OP)[00:16] Evan’s little foreword. You know,
for people who don’t read show notes (i.e. not you).

[01:31] Panel begins with some introductions.


[02:29] First question: “How exactly do we define a good anime
versus a bad one, and should we even define a line between
them?”


[07:51] “What IS active viewing, and what separates it from the
typical viewing that most fans go about?”


[15:48] “How does the social and critical context around a work
affect [what kinds of expectations we go in with]?


[21:32] “Can questioning the content of a [work] ruin your
enjoyment (or someone else’s enjoyment) of the work?”


[27:47] “What purpose do you think negative comments and
reviews serve in critiquing and discussing? Do they help or
hinder our discussions?”


[33:28] “How can suspension of disbelief help and hinder
critical thinking?” (We bring up “Fan-Wanking.” Hilarity
ensues.)


[40:26] “Since anime and manga are foreign materials, how do
those cultural differences (and also aspects of translation)
factor into how we watch and judge things? A particularly
interesting question is ‘Are we reading good translations of
Japanese or translations of good Japanese?'”


[49:59] “A big hurdle for young anime critics and people trying
to become anime critics is the dated visuals. [How can we
convince them to look past dated visuals and storytelling
styles?]”


[1:00:10] The critic Ego’s final review from Pixar and Disney’s
Ratatouille (as referenced by Ink in the panel). Here’s a link
to the YouTube video of the clip.