Why do I keep reading Ask John?

[nenena]

Siiiiiiiigh.

Anime fans can be so stupid sometimes.

Comments

[furikku.livejournal.com]

Wow, way to keep a neutral tone there, questioner. 9_9

Also, if it were direct plagiary, wouldn't Gaiman be in Deep Shit, since lawsuit-happy Disney owns the Ghibli stuff over here? (Or are his films under Disney? I haven't bothered to research this, obviously.)

[meiousei.livejournal.com]

I don't think that was a very clear question. Did they mean that Gaiman was "stealing" scenes from Miyazaki's movies to put into the movie adaptations of his novels, or did they mean that Gaiman took ideas from Miyazaki's films and inserted them into his books in the first place? Either way, my brow furrows and I try to think of some sort of example where that would be the case. Other than what you already pointed out about archetypes, I can't think of anything telling.

Also, I'm almost positive that Coraline pre-dated Spirited Away. And if Gaiman's blog is to be believed (I read it regularly), once the screenplay was out of his hands, Gaiman didn't have any creative control over how Stardust turned out.

[atelierjoh.livejournal.com]

(I'm assuming you're back from your trip.)

Welcome back!

[hauntedreality.livejournal.com]

Well, the guy did a nice job of answering the ridiculous question. I need to check out Stardust one of these days.

[miss-breeziness.livejournal.com]

This kind of reminds me of certain sections of the film score fandom, who are always ripping on a certain James Horner guy because of the similarity of some of his music to classical or other film pieces. As someone who has written both music and stories myself (for high school, admittedly, nothing published), I know how easy it is to subconsciously or even consciously take themes, feelings or even a few entire sentences or passages from another work, just because they're so beautiful. I remember one short story I wrote for English class which liberally quoted from popular song lyrics now and then, and I got an A+ for it. :) So, I'm not so hard on other artists who do this, I guess.
Why some fans make such inane and spiteful comments is anyone's guess...Some anime fans seem to share this dogmaticness with the film score fans I mentioned above. One man said it's because the film score fans feel "marginalized" in society, and the anime fans may feel so too. (Yes, I know that's no excuse to be a real jerk, but maybe it has an influence.) Maybe they're "lashing out" at the "popular" things in spite. But this needs more deep thought and analysis.