deeper than I thought (Love Hina parallels), deeper than I thought (Love Hina parallels)

I’ve read quite a few Love Hina manga, and like many folks here, have noticed the parallels between (Dom's edit, because he's pissed off that everyone keeps thinking it's all Love Hina, when Love Hina is as much a homage to older shows than MT is) MT’s Yuki and Maison Ikkoku's Yagami. (end edit)

Lately, I started watching the Love Hina anime, and the storyline diverges somewhat from the manga. After watching episode 2, I think MT’s homage to LH runs much deeper than the manga suggests.

In the manga, Shinobu is already on the scene when Keitarou appears at Hinata Inn. However, in the anime, Shinobu first shows up looking for Keitarou - to return his sketchbook, full of sketches he’s done of less-than-fully-clad women that he left behind in embarrassment when she caught a glimpse of it.

The parallels to Piro and Yuki are obvious, and it makes me wonder just how many other references in MT to relatively obscure anime have gone over my head. (Love Hina? Relatively obscure? You obviously didn't go to AX for the gigantic Love Hina fanbase that went to the panel...)

(To the best of Dom's knowledge, Love Hina anime episodes are under license for distribution in the US by Bandai/AnimeVillage. Support anime in the US and buy the DVDs when they come out)

[ September 04, 2001: Message edited by: Dom ]

Yeah, I can understand Shinobu and Yuki but how do you compare Kimiko with Narusegawa? She'd have to be kicking his ass all the time Well I guess Piro never does anything perverted to her....

Yeah, she hasn't beat up on him yet, but then, he hasn't accidentally violated her modesty yet. We can but hope...

I pair Kimiko and Naru just because they seem like the love interest to Piro/Keitarou.

Bandai has held teh licenses formally for a little over 2 months .. fan subbing distribution should have stopped. Greg at Bandai has said they will prosecute if they find people still distro-ing.

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Originally posted by Phaedrus:

(To the best of my knowledge, Love Hina anime episodes are not under license for distribution in the US. ) Phaedrus ]

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Fred has noted that he actually came up with the concept of Yuki BEFORE having seen Love Hina. I beleive it's in one of his old rants...

And besides, Kimiko hasn't beaten up Piro yet either.

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Originally posted by Hungus:
Bandai has held teh licenses formally for a little over 2 months .. fan subbing distribution should have stopped. Greg at Bandai has said they will prosecute if they find people still distro-ing.

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Oops. [deleting archives]

No intent to incite to license violations. I was under the impression it was not under license.

I have obviously pissed off Dom. Mea Culpa. I abase myself.

Fansubbing occupies a fragile niche in the media food chain. Fansubbers provide a valuble service to viewers and licensee's alike, by providing "early buzz" to encourage interest in series that otherwise might not find a market in the US. However, responsible viewers of fansubs (of which I count myself as one) understand that copies must not be used or passed on once a distributor has licensed a series. It was never my intent to promote distribution of a licensed series, an act which would jeopardize the fansubbing community.

Dom, I think I understand why you needed to moderate this thread, but it doesn't sit well with me when you edit and use my own words to mock my opinions. A deletion of sensitive information, along with an explanatory post would have a lot more gracious.

As a relative newcomer/outsider to anime and manga, and one who doesn't read Japanese, anything not generally available in the US is "relatively obscure" to me. YMMV. Bandai's new license notwithstanding, I can't (yet) rent or buy a licensed copy of this series.

Whether intentional or not, and whether you tired of hearing about it or not, the parallels between Megatokyo and anime series like Love Hina are striking, and (apparently) interesting conversation among many readers of MT. Cut me some slack here.

Oi. No need to abase yourself. I'm just sick and tired of every second fan telling Piro "Hey, you're ripping off Love Hina!"

You're about the twentieth "MT is waaay like Love Hina" thread in the past two months. Wrong place, wrong time.

Just my opinion, MT is a whole heck of alot deeper than LH. We have actual people in MT, not a bunch of dumb walking caricatures.

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Originally posted by WildOne:
We have actual people in MT, not a bunch of dumb walking caricatures.

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Um... with the exception of Piro, Largo, Seraphim, Dom, Ed and Tsubasa, the rest of the MT characters are _NOT_ actual and real live people.

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Originally posted by Phaedrus:

Dom, I think I understand why you needed to moderate this thread, but it doesn't sit well with me when you edit and use my own words to mock my opinions. A deletion of sensitive information, along with an explanatory post would have a lot more gracious.

As a relative newcomer/outsider to anime and manga, and one who doesn't read Japanese, anything not generally available in the US is "relatively obscure" to me. YMMV. Bandai's new license notwithstanding, I can't (yet) rent or buy a licensed copy of this series.

Whether intentional or not, and whether you tired of hearing about it or not, the parallels between Megatokyo and anime series like Love Hina are striking, and (apparently) interesting conversation among many readers of MT. Cut me some slack here.

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I'm with Phaedrus on this one. At the other community where I spend more than 10% of my online time, (www.lugnet.com) there is a no edit policy. Posts made, once made, can't be modified by ANYONE. They can be cancelled by the originator or by an admin, but not modified.

That means that sometimes messes don't get cleaned up but, more importantly, it's clear who said what. That is VERY important. Serious violations of copyright or other illegals get deleted outright and the posters repost corrected versions later in the thread if they are so inclined. Messier, but more intellectually honest.

Dom, the rules here are what they are, and I acknowledge that we are but guests here and it's not up to us to decide what they are, this ain't a democracy. Yet I still voice my displeasure at how Phaedrus has been treated here.

It is one thing to edit away illegal material. It is quite another to make editorial comments right in the middle of someone's post.

Phaedrus is a valuable contributor to forum life, someone I'd be pleased to have as a friend in real life, (as much as he and I enjoy twitting each other over nits in the Haiku threads, it's all in fun) and someone who I've never seen raise his voice in anger in the flamewars that happen here occasionally, or do anything intentionally to cause any sort of trouble whatever, and I don't think what you did was right.

Edit these words away too, if you are so inclined. We all know you can do so on a whim. But know that I still feel the same way whether these words remain or not, and know that if you edit them away you're showing that you can't handle honest constructive criticism. You're bigger than that.

The delicate touch is sometimes better, you know.

-JAF

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Originally posted by Syao-chan:
Um... with the exception of Piro, Largo, Seraphim, Dom, Ed and Tsubasa, the rest of the MT characters are _NOT_ actual and real live people.

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I think WildOne meant that these characters are real/believable and *could* be actual people, as opposed to caricatures that one looks at and says 'no one would EVER do THAT!'

or maybe not.

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Originally posted by Just another fanboy:

Dom, the rules here are what they are, and I acknowledge that we are but guests here and it's not up to us to decide what they are, this ain't a democracy. Yet I still voice my displeasure at how Phaedrus has been treated here.

It is one thing to edit away illegal material. It is quite another to make editorial comments right in the middle of someone's post.
Edit these words away too, if you are so inclined. We all know you can do so on a whim. But know that I still feel the same way whether these words remain or not, and know that if you edit them away you're showing that you can't handle honest constructive criticism. You're bigger than that.

The delicate touch is sometimes better, you know.
-JAF

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In order:

1) Displeasure noted.

2) Not that I'm going to do anything about it. Despite what you're trying to insinuate here, I'm not Big Bad Mr. Jackbooted SS Villain.

Well. Okay, so I am. But I'm not a complete asshole. However, I'm also not made of stone. After the sixtieth "drawing a parallel between Love Hina and MegaTokyo", I've started seeing the persistent and continued existence of these threads as an insult to Piro and Largo's ability to write their own stories--Piro will most likely post soon talking about how he should've just watched Love Hina before writing these scripts, and nixed several plot points...

That's his opinion. This is my opinion. MT took a few things from Love Hina--the layout being the largest inspiration. Love Hina, however, is not the be-all end-all of anime. It is a comedy/love story in a long series of comedy/love stories. Everything dips from the same pot.

3) As for the editing, well, I clearly marked what I edited with parentheses. If you don't like it, well, fine, I won't do it again except in cases I see fit (IE excessive cursing, gigantic images, etc)

ok folks,

before we engage in full scale dom bashing (only largo and i are allowed ot beat the hell out of dom - and we do it enough for everyone ) Dom gaff'd a little on his handling of editing on the first post - being agressive is dom's nature, so please take it with a grain of salt. We're a mixed bag of nutcases here at MT.

Dom is simply reacting to what has been an un-ending barage of 'Megatokyo is a Love Hina rip-off' accusations that have barraged us over the past six months. It's made us a little sensitive, i think. I have great respect for Akamatsu Ken - an amazing amount, actually. I refer to him as my evil twin. ^^;; - and i too hvae found the similarities and things disturbing - mainly because they were never intended. I did not watch or read LH until long after some of the 'similarities' were already in place.

So, for the record, No, there isnt intended to be a similarity to Love Hina - its just the fact that both Love Hina and Megatokyo spoof the same genres - Ren'ai games and anime. we spoof a lot of the same constructs, the same stereotypes. Similarties are inevitible.

Sorry for the confusion folks, and don't get mad at dom for defending me on this - i'm getting tired of typing out the same response over and over again ^^;;

piro

ps: as for 'gestapo' forum moderation, we hvae a pretty hands off approach as it is. There are some people who have advocated a VERY firm hand with MT forums, and i refused. the chaos you see today is partly because of that, but its part of its charm

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Originally posted by Dom:
After the sixtieth "drawing a parallel between Love Hina and MegaTokyo", I've started seeing the persistent and continued existence of these threads as an insult to Piro and Largo's ability to write their own stories--Piro will most likely post soon talking about how he should've just watched Love Hina before writing these scripts, and nixed several plot points...

That's his opinion. This is my opinion. MT took a few things from Love Hina--the layout being the largest inspiration. Love Hina, however, is not the be-all end-all of anime. It is a comedy/love story in a long series of comedy/love stories. Everything dips from the same pot.

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Very valid point, but I think your beef is more with people like OD who were saying "why did Piro copy X? That sucks. Piro, I demand you do stuff differently instead of copying", than with people like Phaedrus who seem to be saying "wow is that ever neat, I have discovered neat things about LH, an anime I wasn't even aware of until MT made me so".

Further, if your point IS valid, use your powers of persuasion to convince us of the validity of your point rather than your jackboots™. They get mud on everything.

While I agree that I'd rather Piro didn't go wonky about it and cut away perfectly good plot for no good reason, I don't see censorship as the way to achieve that. Rather, we need to persuade Piro that we love him and that what he does is fine and that we cherish and enjoy the parallels when we discover them.

I think trying to censor stuff so Piro doesn't do silly action P, Q or R seems to sort of imply something about Piro that I don't think is there. He's not *that* nutty, is he, that you have to change reality before he sees it?

I personally don't know anything about anime at all other than what my kids are teaching me, and what I learn here, so the threads are all new info to me. Maybe to those who have lived anime all their life (lucky you!) it's old hat but to me it's new and wondrous and I appreciate the info when presented appreciatively (I even asked OD to give us more info about VPM so I could learn, but he didn't...).

I'm done.

-JAF

[ September 04, 2001: Message edited by: Just another fanboy ]

[ September 04, 2001: Message edited by: Just another fanboy ]

I have never seen that Love Hina anime or the manga so I cant really say, But i just like megatokyo as a nice online comic. I also wanna see more of the DOM comics, stick figures they may have been but they where still funny, But I wonder when he will come back.

Last I saw Dom he was being blown out the window of a love hotel by ed. see strange candy

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Originally posted by Razer:
I have never seen that Love Hina anime or the manga so I cant really say, But i just like megatokyo as a nice online comic. I also wanna see more of the DOM comics, stick figures they may have been but they where still funny, But I wonder when he will come back.

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one thing's for sure though, MT is frightfully similar to after eden. except that after eden focuses on romance and is only 200+pages long. The similarity is not in the plot . but in the characters.

This post has been edited by Pedophilia on Jun 1 2006, 10:58 PM

Holy Necromancy of Doom. 2001!