https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cwwdl0JGqxI
It’s Ranma 1/2. Some anime shit. So if you’re not interested, as you shouldn’t be, you can stop reading right here.
Once again, Ali hid the most important information from the title because she knows that had she put “Ranma 1/2” in the title, nobody would watch.
Did I mention Ranma 1/2 in my comic book post? No. But I mentioned it here:
https://gamergrrlsofficial.blogspot.com/2020/06/spring-retro-pickups-alis-retro-pickups.html
Anyway, they re-skinned this Ranma 1/2 game for the US release.
0:45 – “Why did they bother going through the effort of re-skinning this fighting game for the US audience?”
Well, let’s think about this. The year was 1992. Anime was not popular in the US. Nobody fucking knew about it. Ergo, they re-skinned the anime characters for the game.
This isn’t challenging stuff. But Ali can’t even imagine a world before anime.
Nerds in 1992 were interested in…let me think…well, Star Trek. Was X-Files on yet? No, that was 1993. Dungeons & Dragons, I guess? I don’t actually know anyone who played that. And Magic the Gathering wasn’t yet out. Comic books, I guess.
Computers. This is before the internet. I’m sure that the internet existed but I never heard about it before about 1995. But yeah, computer games were a nerd hobby.
Oh, reading. How silly of me. I forgot about reading. Yeah, nerds used to read. Whatever, fucking Dune books or whatever. Science fiction generally.
Nowhere on the list: anime. I’ve gone over this just recently but it didn’t exist in the US. And it had only fairly recently become popular in Japan.
1:15 – Ali mentions that there were twelve Ranma 1/2 “OVAs”. Whatever that is. Let me Google this.
Original Video Animation. I…don’t know what that means. Even after reading some definitions, I’m not sure. I think it’s like a bonus episode that they put in like box set DVDs. Like season 1 or whatever would have a bonus video. This bonus video is called an “OVA” by hardcore nerds.
Ali just expects us to know that. Yeah, we’re all massive anime nerds. Well, I don’t know. She’s probably not far off in terms of her fanbase.
2:00 – “Keep in mind that anime hadn’t really hit its stride here in the US”.
If she knows this, what’s the point of this video? She asked a question at 0:45 and answered it at 2:00.
She’s talking about how Ranma 1/2 didn’t even come out in the US until 1993. And even then, it was a really niche thing. That’s why my copy of Ranma 1/2 #1 was a fairly expensive comic at one point. It was rare. And the nerds were just getting into this shit.
2:15 – “The US was still like, ‘What the heck is this anime thing?'”
Yeah. So how does she get another six minutes out of this topic?
4:00 – She goes through what the changes are.
That’s the video. I mean…I’m underwhelmed.
Let me Google OVA uncensored. I…oh.
Let’s check out Retro Ali’s Twitter. Maybe some interesting “content” there. There’s a first time for anything, I guess.
No. It’s all Pokemon and anime shit. This has to be autism.
i don't think people used to call them animes. maybe they went by another name, but i'm not sure. also no one talked about classic animes like speed racer, even though it had come out in the early 70s. only people with cable had access to a wider selection of this sort of cartoon. the “cool” kidsnerds. what were they like 30+ years ago? dungeons and dragons was already out by then, but i never met that many people who were into it. they were big into comics and video games, nes and master system, the current systems. the geeky contingent also subsisted largely on re-runs of old tv shows, to the point that they would commit to memory lines from whole episodes of star trek and twilight zone. being into computers was also a huge nerd tell.is it easier to be a nerd nowadays? i don't know. it also beats me what causes people, mostly young men, to develop an unhealthy obsession with certain interests that won't accrue anything of value to them. yes, it's good as a conversational topic, but what if that is the only gear that you know? it also bears mentioning that “nerd” encompasses a huge array of traits, some of them are actually desirable. if you must be a nerd, choose to be the quiet studious type who really digs hard sciences. you'll still need to learn how to talk to girls though.
Yeah, Twilight Zone is always good.I used to like all of this shit as a kid but not as an adult. It seems fine to like that stuff as a kid but I don't know. I suppose that it's nerdy even for kids. But then why did I suddenly stop liking that stuff? Maybe I became cool at some point.