A case for cutting Alto

[Bri]

That's a big thing there. As Western anime fandom first got established one of the most important things to convince people of was that anime was something more sophisticated and varied than what people would think of if you said "Japanese cartoons." Especially before the modern crop of Western animation that was more than simple kids' shows really developed some roots. Sometimes the convincing went too far, and you have fans that won't admit that a lot of anime is best described as "Japanese cartoons" and that even among what is something more, seriously deep and complex storytelling is an exception rather than the rule. Serious portrayals or adult themes, sometimes yes; but in the way of action, horror, soap opera, Western satire animation, etc. Even anime clearly not aimed at kids is most similar to Western forms which are generally and justifiably viewed as lighter and less sophisticated entertainment.

I can agree with saying that anime is not more sophisticated then what we see on television or in the cinema in the West. However it is more likely to find a piece of work among anime that satisfies its audience more then mainstream programs can because anime can focus on a smaller market with known preferences. Same would hold for any Western niche market in entertainment.

[Bri]

We've gone rather far afield from the topic, so suffice to say here that I think we're talking at cross-purposes. You, March, and I probably all have very different ideas of what a mature story is, but I think we can all agree than Frontier can be enjoyed by many people, regardless of age.

Anyway, if you want to continue this discussion, maybe we should move it over to the Frontier Talkback thread.

Fair enough, hehe. Tbh this discussion has me more interested then the original topic altough I'm sure Alto won't mind we have diverged from his proposed cut from the series.

Edited April 4, 2009 by Bri

[Gubaba]

Fair enough, hehe. Tbh this discussion has me more interested then the original topic altough I'm sure Alto won't mind we have diverged from his proposed cut from the series.

To be honest, It interests me more, too, but I don't really want to hijack the thread, either.

I dunno. Topics about how Frontiers sucks, or how character X from Frontier is useless can only go so far before they run out of steam, IMO...but that's just me.

[Mr March]

To avoid going off point further I'll just say that Gubaba was right that my point was missed entirely. Regardless of cultural differences, Macross is a story that's not a challenge to anyone and is made deliberately as such, even if it is sophisticated for a children cartoon. Macross makes no apologies for what it is and it shouldn't have to, but adult subject matter it is not.

Edited April 5, 2009 by Mr March

[VFTF1]

Dagnabit!

I keep trying (and failing) to post something right after Gubaba. I want to see whether his Minmey top avatar will align with my Minmey Bottom avatar

And just to come back on topic: Cutting Alto is - sorry to be so harsh - but really a ridiculous notion.

The only time we've had a pro-active male lead was Macross 7 and people hated it. Alto goes back to the tradition of a passive male lead a la Hikaru - and people want to cut him?

I think sub-consciously they really just want to cut his hair

Personally - I like him the way he is. And his story is cool too.

Pete

[sharky]

When I saw the title of the thread I thought this was a discussion explaining how Alto could be one of those psycho teens that cut themselves to get attention.

[Alex]

Coming back to this thread after being away.

Many people argue for Alto influencing events and pushing the plot forward. His presence encourages Ranka etc.

Problem is that so much time is spent on him. He steals time from other characters and gives them little time for character develoment. I'd rather have Alto be a little more in the background than he is. Yeah, returning to a more passive figure ala Hikaru is great. But Alto is just not interesting to watch.

Edited April 7, 2009 by Alex

[Rbstr]

Hi, I'm new here and a new fan to the series...having not been born yet when it was created(first encounter was CN's 1998 RT re-airing). I just finished watching Frontier this past weekend. So, enough of the disclaimers:

I don't think you can cut Alto out. I'm not his biggest fan...but he's actually fairly integral to the story.

Yeah he's not the best developed character...but that is probably Frontier's critical storytelling fault. He's got a great pool of potential character development available to him that we've kind of glimpsed at but never delved into particularly well.

Given that the triangle never got resolved...I imagine there's some kind of direct sequel that we could eventually see and that could "fix" his character. The series was like 3/4ths of a proper story we got everything up to and including the climax but we never got the falling action or denouement/catastophe. It's very much like we got the first 27 episodes of SDFM up to the epic battle, but none of the rest of it. And that's where Kikaru really grows up anyway, IMO.

Edited April 14, 2009 by Rbstr