[subject line altered to something a BIT more appropriate]

And I put it as semi-spam because I'm going to turn the topic to something
a bit more relevant, see below.  I had to speak to this.

I apologize in advance to Mark, who I'm about to use as the basis for this
argument.  Nothing personal, you just happened to leave a perfect opening
for this.

On Sun, 7 Sep 1997, Mark Page wrote:

What? There's plot development in ChaCha? =P

What, there's plot development in anime?

Shin Seiki Evangelion.  X.  Nausicaa.  Mononoke Hime.  Wings of
Honneamise.  etc...  (Hrm.. one CLAMP, 2 Miyazaki, and 2 Gainax...)

There's plot development in any tv show?

Babylon 5, for starters.

You might as well ask 'there's plot development in any book or play or
movie?' and cover all bases.  

Anime and TV shows are just mediums for expressing something.  Yeah, it
doesn't have to have plot development (ChaCha's a great series despite a
lack of anything REMOTELY resembling a plot), but it doesn't mean it
WON'T. 

You cannot make a blanket statement about a given media... too many times
I've heard things like 'a video game can't have a plot' (I can point to a
couple RPGs which have quite good ones, and even a few action games).
Even heard 'fanfics can't have plot development'.

Just because one thing in a category may not have a plot doesn't mean
everything in that category won't.  Judge things in a category on their
own merits... otherwise you'll end up judging 'Babylon 5' on the basis of,
say, 'Baywatch'. 

<gets off soapbox>

Sorry, I've just heard statements saying 'All <category x> have <trait y>'
a few too many times.  Even here on the FFML: 'No Ranma fanfic has any
depth', 'No Sailor Moon fanfic has character development', 'No Evangelion
fanfic makes any sense'.  (Ok, I actually heard the last comment on a
DIFFERENT list, but...)  While we -do- have a bit of an overflow of Ranma
and Sailor Moon fanfiction... those statements do -not- always apply.  I'd
argue that Zen's _Bitter End_ had depth, and I'm sure there's Sailor Moon
fanfiction that has character development... John Biles and Jeff Hosmer's
_Sailor Moon Z_ is probably a good candidate - I wouldn't know, I don't
really read Sailor Moon fanfiction.

Anyway, Mark phrased his reply perfectly right at a time I needed to
rant... again, nothing personal, Mark. ^_^;

I'll shut up now... ^_^;

----[Loki]-----------------------------------------------------------------
Jeremy Blackman / Anime fan/fanfic author, Game Designer/Engineer
loki@maison-otaku.net (personal mail) / Maison Otaku Productions founder
loki@thekeep.org      (mailing lists) / Fanfic author / anime
jeremy@lith.com       (work)          / Monolith Productions