Is there, or is there not an OVA? (An effort toward closure)

Post by **VegettoEX** » Sat Mar 10, 2007 8:46 pm

Thanos wrote:I have a request:

Please close this topic.

Why? There's no reason to. Please continue on-topic, folks. Thanks!

Thanos · Post by **Thanos** » Sat Mar 10, 2007 8:50 pm

Well, do as you like.

OVA, not OVA... it seems as though it's a matter of opinion.

Anonymous Friend · Post by **Anonymous Friend** » Sat Mar 10, 2007 11:54 pm

Thanos wrote:Well, do as you like.

OVA, not OVA... it seems as though it's a matter of opinion.

I don't think it can be a matter of opinion. It either is or isn't or it's something else. If it does in fact fall slightly out of both catergories, we may need to come up with a term that properly defines what it is. A point that was brought up earlier was that it falls into the definition of the individual word Original Video Animation, but does it fall into what the complete term itself means?

And just to repeat a question I asked somewhere else:

A. Friend wrote:Well, folks, lets just go all the way back to the beginning ... then jump apprx. 6,000 yearto when this "Thing" was being produced. Was it intended as an OVA, a walkthrough, or something else? Lets not fight over what we see it as now.

MajinVejitaXV · Post by **MajinVejitaXV** » Sun Mar 11, 2007 2:04 am

Anonymous Friend wrote:Well, folks, lets just go all the way back to the beginning ... then jump apprx. 6,000 yearto when this "Thing" was being produced. Was it intended as an OVA, a walkthrough, or something else? Lets not fight over what we see it as now.

Well, it was originally released as a visual guide to the NES game. What that means, essentially, is that it was created to detail the events in the game via animation. Technically, it would fall under the category of being an OVA in terms of production, whether we're talking about today or the day it was released.

I dunno why people want to fight this. "OVA" simply means "direct-to-video," it doesn't mean it's a whole new original story or anything to that effect. It's an OVA based on a game that was later used for other purposes (namely the PlayDia game). Okay? Good.

-Corey

Acid_Reign · Post by **Acid_Reign** » Sun Mar 11, 2007 3:57 am

That's the thing, Corey. There seem to be quite a few people out there that really aren't ready to admit that it's an OVA yet. I suspect that this is due to the fact that they kinda "grew up" under the impression that it was a debunked myth, so to have it reversed now is a hard thing to accept. It doesn't help when Daizex still has a very fractured narrative when describing this thing. Yeah, so maybe it's not "just" an OVA; maybe it's this "super incredible OVA with a really bizarre background"... but it's still an OVA, and it deserves to have an article that points this out without beating around the bush.

Though we may have things cleared up here on the forums, the average reader—as we've seen with members here whom have read the whole thing—is likely to misinterpret the information, which appears under the "Newbie Guide," of all places. I remember not believing this myself when coming across the information on Wikipedia. Before I was even a poster on Daizenshuu EX, I had referenced its frontpage multiple times, and had explained to others that the Lost Movie was actually video game footage.

Now, I'm not saying it's impossible to extract the truth from what's up there...obviously some were able to; nor, again, am I demanding that a change be made...but really, what harm would it do to give this thing a proper update? On a forum where "Tien" is word-filtered to "Tienshinhan," you would think that the topic would be given a little more restitution than "call it whatever the bloody fuck you want."

I would like to call to attention to Olivier Hague's post. He's already pointed out what needs to be changed.

Before the "do you honestly care that much about this little thing, yadda yadda yadda" arguments come rushing in, I would just like to say that yes; of all of the—okay, maybe not "movies" per se, but I'll opt for: animated alternate storylines—this one is my favorite. It was something that I really got excited about when I first discovered it, and it'll be a treat to own it on the Dragon Box some day. I think we can all attest to something similar with this franchise.

And so, if the work of rephrasing a couple of sentences is too grudging (and I mean that sincerely—I'm sure Mike's life is just as busy as everyone else's), I'd be happy to do it myself. Is this modest proposal, by any chance, fair enough?

Olivier Hague · Post by **Olivier Hague** » Sun Mar 11, 2007 3:29 pm

Sun_Wukong wrote:Its the Japanese version of Dragon's Lair.

Well, the Playdia games are.
The OVAs we're referring to are something else.

MajinVejitaXV wrote:I dunno why people want to fight this. "OVA" simply means "direct-to-video," it doesn't mean it's a whole new original story or anything to that effect.

Exactly. If they were to produce new animation about Gokû and his friends teaching viewers how to cook, and release that on the video market, it would be an OVA.

The only point I'd concede is that there's some Famicom footage in these videos... But who's going to argue that's what the videos are about? It's just a few seconds once in a while, really. Despite the few seconds of game footage, "House of the Dead" still is a movie, not some "thing" we don't have words for (... OK, maybe that was a bad example, actually, but you get my point).

Folken-sama · Post by **Folken-sama** » Tue Mar 13, 2007 8:39 pm

KinoFourpaws wrote:Also, on the topic of OVAs being direct-to-video movies, that's not necessarily correct. There are several OVA/OAV (I believe these are the same, please correct me if I'm wrong) series that have aired on television.

That's right.

That was the case for the new Saint Seiya OVA series, for example, but I think it was because of some exclusivity contract between the channel and the studios. But in the end, the final versions of these OVA were the DVD releases, which included scenes that weren't completed on time for the TV broadcast, and even some redone shots.

A point that was brought up earlier was that it falls into the definition of the individual word Original Video Animation, but does it fall into what the complete term itself means?

Well, what has been explained about "what OVA means" is already the "complete term".

It's only animation produced for the video market, and nothing else. The main thing is the video market, which implies a slightly different way of working than for a TV series, for example.

A TV series generally implies (well, implied, at the time of DBZ) , I think, horrible time restrains, because you had to produce at least 3 or 4 episodes per month, for a weekly broadcasting, which is constant work, and mostly in the case of über-long series like Z, quality had often to be sacrified in order to meet the deadlines: which explains this multitude of various "less talented" animators, or even the involvment of corean studios (also to save money), etc. The best animators couldn't work on every single episode, they had already too much to do.

What the video market "brings" to all this, is that, well, it removes a lot of the restrains of a TV series, ie no more tight schedule (well, not as tight as for a TV series, anyway ^^), no more weekly deadline to meet: you have all the time to dedicate yourself to your production, you can polish it more (and so you have more money to do it), you can maintain constant quality.

Anyway that's my opinion, I'm not saying I'm an expert on this...

So really, OVA is only related to a way of production, and has absolutely nothing to do with the actual content, ie status of the plot (canon/side story), aim of the anime (walkthrough/whatever), whether it uses one second of video game/live footage, etc.
It's just another type of production, which has not the same restraints as a Tv series, etc.

Olivier Hague · Post by **Olivier Hague** » Tue Mar 13, 2007 9:19 pm

Folken-sama wrote:The main thing is the video market, which implies a slightly different way of working than for a TV series, for example.

It also means they're going for a different audience. "People who'd pay money for cartoons."

Super Sonic · Post by **Super Sonic** » Tue Mar 13, 2007 10:30 pm

I still say it's essentially Dragon's Lair or Space Ace, with the playing parts taken out.

MajinVejitaXV · Post by **MajinVejitaXV** » Tue Mar 13, 2007 10:38 pm

Super Sonic wrote:I still say it's essentially Dragon's Lair or Space Ace, with the playing parts taken out.

Except the "playing parts" were added in for the Playdia. You know, since the VHS releases came over a year before the Playdia games.

Reading is fun, yes?

-Corey

NeverRamza · Post by **NeverRamza** » Wed Mar 14, 2007 7:31 am

This thread has made me laugh at all the non-believers over the years

Thanos · Post by **Thanos** » Wed Mar 14, 2007 10:59 am

NeverRamza wrote:This thread has made me laugh at all the non-believers over the years

yes bcuz u r so smart and so much more informed then us mere mortals that u treat ur opinion as fact

Anyway, I could sworn that a consensus was reached that it is not an OVA. But there still seem to be people who are desperate for new material to call "unseen by American eyes". Oh well, to each his own.

MajinVejitaXV · Post by **MajinVejitaXV** » Wed Mar 14, 2007 11:02 am

Thanos wrote:
NeverRamza wrote:This thread has made me laugh at all the non-believers over the years
yes bcuz u r so smart and so much more informed then us mere mortals that u treat ur opinion as fact

Anyway, I could sworn that a consensus was reached that it is not an OVA. But there still seem to be people who are desperate for new material to call "unseen by American eyes". Oh well, to each his own.

It's not an opinion, the company that owns DragonBall Z says it's an OVA. Moreover, it was made as a direct-to-video release, which is a synonym for OVA. What is the problem? O_o;

-Corey

Grandmaster J · Post by **Grandmaster J** » Wed Mar 14, 2007 6:36 pm

They're both OVAs because it's, yet, another conflict in the DragonBall Universe, with original animation. That's how I see it.

By the way, Toriyama did the animation for the Playdia games, right?

NeverRamza · Post by **NeverRamza** » Wed Mar 14, 2007 6:43 pm

Thanos wrote:
NeverRamza wrote:This thread has made me laugh at all the non-believers over the years
yes bcuz u r so smart and so much more informed then us mere mortals that u treat ur opinion as fact

Anyway, I could sworn that a consensus was reached that it is not an OVA. But there still seem to be people who are desperate for new material to call "unseen by American eyes". Oh well, to each his own.

A consensus here means nothing. There was a time when the consensus here was that the "OVA" was someone who played through the Playdia game, recorded it with their VCR, and then pasted it all together. That consensus was wrong.

Here are the facts: by very definition, the "Playdia footage" could fall under the term OVA. Perhaps "OVA with a weird history" but that does not disqualify it. It's still a direct to video release vaguely based on a video game with just about two seconds worth of effort put it to try to play it off as a "video guide" or what the hell ever to sell just a few more copies.

Nothing there disqualifies it from filing under the term OVA.

Now with Toei putting it on their website that they consider it an OVA? Well, good times right there

Argument over.

Olivier Hague · Post by **Olivier Hague** » Wed Mar 14, 2007 10:16 pm

Grandmaster J wrote:By the way, Toriyama did the animation for the Playdia games, right?

I'm not sure Toriyama ever did any animation...

Gaiash · Post by **Gaiash** » Wed Mar 14, 2007 10:27 pm

Grandmaster J wrote:By the way, Toriyama did the animation for the Playdia games, right?

I don't think Toriyama knows how to make animations.

Mayuri Furiza Kurotsuchi · Post by **Mayuri Furiza Kurotsuchi** » Thu Mar 15, 2007 1:08 am

Gaiash wrote:
Grandmaster J wrote:By the way, Toriyama did the animation for the Playdia games, right?
I don't think Toriyama knows how to make animations.

Knowing him, he'd probably forget all of the colors for the characters, and maybe even the process of animating if he did know how to.

BlueSky · Post by **Kaboom** » Thu Mar 15, 2007 11:07 am

Mayuri Furiza Kurotsuchi wrote:Knowing him, he'd probably forget all of the colors for the characters, and maybe even the process of animating if he did know how to.

"Toriyama-san, why did you color Majin Buu green?"

"...huh?"

Bardock the Mexican · Post by **Bardock the Mexican** » Thu Mar 15, 2007 5:46 pm

The sad thing about this little subject is that I fear that the only thing that would close it FOR GOOD would be an addition to the "There is no OVA" section on the main site. That's it. Until that happens we are going to keep having newbs coming in and saying 'OMG there is so an OVA" and so forth. This topic will probably go down as another thread going in the same circles as all the others like it. It's like the whole thing going around on how horrible Funimation is. It's a dead horse, let's stop beating it.