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Whether it's Akadot addressing its weaknesses and successfully improving the site, or a dilution of the acid tongue
that sometimes lashes us, our letters this past month have been generally rife with compliments. Of course, there is always
room for blunder.
 Starting off with commentary, the following letter is an anonymous response to our article on the
premiere of "Jin-Roh" in Long Beach, CA at the end of May.
Dear Akadot,
While I'm glad that "Jin-Roh's" gonna be at the Laemmle's Sunset 5, I'm skeptical that it's likely to get noticed by
the Academy.
I'd say the only Japanese animated film that has a chance of being nominated-and winning any awards is "Final Fantasy," simply
because it's backed by a major movie studio. (I.E. Sony/Columbia/Tri-star, or whatever you prefer to call it.)
Also, even if it does get nominated, the Academy has no real taste in the awards it gives out. The Academy will choose
an award based on its financial success or its generic themes. An example would be the former. I guarantee that had "Crouching
Tiger Hidden Dragon" been a bomb, it would have no chance of winning any awards. And "Gladiator" won over "Traffic" simply
because "Gladiator" focused on the concept of "freedom", while "Traffic" focused on the drug war, which is more
"controversial." And controversial films simply don't cut it at the Academy.
So I hope "Jin-Roh" has a chance of making it to the Academy, but I don't think Viz or Bandai should be pressing
their luck.
- Anonymous
Dear Akadot,
Even though I'm about to comment on a sort of hole in your site, you all do a great job and I love your site. I visit
it every time I come online in hopes of seeing an update to read.
Well, to not make this a sycophant's letter, I'll get to the point. I ran into a problem when reading an
article. Someone had complained about the numerical grade given to the second "Trigun"
DVD. Luis Reyes said that the critic who gave the grade, Owen Thomas, reserves high numbers for anime that has changed his
life, and that he doesn't just give top scores to any run of the mill show. It didn't seem like all the reviewers on the
website did the same, otherwise Luis would have just said so.
So how does everyone grade? I like to reference the site to find anime worth watching, and it's hard to tell if it's
topnotch stuff or just pretty good. A suggestion I have is to list the reviewers and their favorites and ideas in grading. But
that's if they all don't think alike and all.
- Melfina Hobo
Dear Melfina,
I sincerely appreciate the comment.
I agree, it's sometimes difficult to gage what is top notch and what is simply OK when numerical ratings can be so
erratic. That's one of the reasons why we post the review and synopsis before the ratings page. And it is also why I
have the critics, on the ratings page, write a two to three line commentary explaining why the anime deserves that particular
rating.
Words are far more expressive than arbitrary numbers. But it might be wise to include a critic's favorite and least
favorite titles on the site so readers can better gage the scale on which a title is being judged. Again, thanks for your
input, and I will consider including something like that in future revisions of the site.
And thank you for reading and enjoying the site. As you know, there's a lot of criticism out there so it's always good
to get a little positive feedback now and again.
Sincerely,
Luis Reyes
Editor, Akadot
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