There's nothing wrong with Batman Anime being like the Animatrix. It all depends on how you look at it.
You can be cynical and call it all commercial marketing...which the use of the word 'advertisement' would seem to imply; it exists merely to sell a
product. But that's not entirely fair, because a good deal of genuinely popular...well, pop culture...has emerged from the blunt desire to sell stuff. The
Transformers, f'instance, was just a cartoon made to sell repackaged Japanese toys in America. Heck, the increasing proliferation of superhero movies and
cartoons is in general comic book companies leveraging their properties, realising there's more money to be made than just in comic books. But that
doesn't mean its bad.
It isn't just about the money. This stuff wouldn't sell if someone wasn't buying it. So there's an audience, and an audience that demands more.
There's also a point to be made about convergence culture. Things are rarely contained within a single medium these days. A popular novel spawns movies, TV
shows, and video games - that's an increasing trend, and one that can't entirely be attributed to commercial interests.
The Matrix in particular...the creators claimed they were deliberately trying to create a narrative and world stretching across mediums - movies, games, comic
books. How successful they were is a different story, but that was their stated artistic intent. Obviously that's gotta be taken with a grain of salt,
since nobody's gonna come out and say we're just making stuff in the hopes you'll buy it and fill our wallets...but I don't wanna dismiss the
idea entirely. Convergence culture exists, there's a trend towards it, and there's nothing wrong with exploring the boundaries and linkages.
I mean, I'd suggest that in trying to make Batman anime, the folks at DC are trying to capitalize on the popularity of Japanese animation and penetrate
different markets. It could be the same sort of thing that's driving Marvel to make an X-Men Shoujo Manga. There's probably some element of calculation
there. And as Epsilon said, it could be cross-promotion with an upcoming movie. But that doesn't mean that it still isn't genuinely a creative
and artistic experiment.
And it could be cool.
-- Acyl
You can be cynical and call it all commercial marketing...which the use of the word 'advertisement' would seem to imply; it exists merely to sell a
product. But that's not entirely fair, because a good deal of genuinely popular...well, pop culture...has emerged from the blunt desire to sell stuff. The
Transformers, f'instance, was just a cartoon made to sell repackaged Japanese toys in America. Heck, the increasing proliferation of superhero movies and
cartoons is in general comic book companies leveraging their properties, realising there's more money to be made than just in comic books. But that
doesn't mean its bad.
It isn't just about the money. This stuff wouldn't sell if someone wasn't buying it. So there's an audience, and an audience that demands more.
There's also a point to be made about convergence culture. Things are rarely contained within a single medium these days. A popular novel spawns movies, TV
shows, and video games - that's an increasing trend, and one that can't entirely be attributed to commercial interests.
The Matrix in particular...the creators claimed they were deliberately trying to create a narrative and world stretching across mediums - movies, games, comic
books. How successful they were is a different story, but that was their stated artistic intent. Obviously that's gotta be taken with a grain of salt,
since nobody's gonna come out and say we're just making stuff in the hopes you'll buy it and fill our wallets...but I don't wanna dismiss the
idea entirely. Convergence culture exists, there's a trend towards it, and there's nothing wrong with exploring the boundaries and linkages.
I mean, I'd suggest that in trying to make Batman anime, the folks at DC are trying to capitalize on the popularity of Japanese animation and penetrate
different markets. It could be the same sort of thing that's driving Marvel to make an X-Men Shoujo Manga. There's probably some element of calculation
there. And as Epsilon said, it could be cross-promotion with an upcoming movie. But that doesn't mean that it still isn't genuinely a creative
and artistic experiment.
And it could be cool.
-- Acyl