AQ : Rantings and Ravings

Here I sit, wondering what the hell I can write this rant on. I have a few ideas, but none seem long enough. Then I make a visit to the Save Our Sailors site. (http://www.iwaynet.net/~sos/sos.html) Wow, suddenly all this stuff is coming to me!

We have always maintained in principle the SOS is a good idea. They have brought a lot of exposure to what’s going on with the dub and have done a fair amount to promote it. However, they have also caused a lot of damage as well. Lately the SOS has been the brunt of a lot of criticism, not just from this site, but a lot of other sites and even companies. This has lead to the SOS developing a much more defensive attitude. Their site is now riddled with things like "Scorecards" and other self-promoting stuff to put down its critics. Now while it’s OK for the SOS to be defensive and "explain their side of the story", it’s another thing to make up things they say they were responsible for.

This has been a SOS tactic in the past. Pick up credit for every positive thing that happens to the North American version. A lot of people have criticized them for this. Critics argue they had nothing to do with a lot of the things that happened to the dub. SOS is trying counter this by saying it wasn’t a "coincidence" all this stuff happened, it WAS thanks to them! On http://www.iwaynet.net/~sos/coincidence.html they list several things that have happened to the dub since September 1996. Now while SOS may have played a hand in some of these things, they no way had anything to do with a lot of the things listed on that page.

They may have played a role in getting Program Exchange, USA Networks, and The Cartoon Network picking up the show in the States, but they were not the only reason it was picked up. Sure they brought some exposure to the show, but that’s about it. They can’t take sole credit for it. I’m sure DIC was doing a lot more to get these companies to pick up the show than SOS ever did.

That’s not my real problem with this "scorecard". What is my biggest problem? The SOS had nothing to do with the 17 newer episodes being made. The 17 newer eps were made for Canada, sponsored by a Canadian company, Irwin. Irwin sponsored new SM eps simply because SM toys was the hottest thing to hit the company during the 1995-1996 toy season (and this was due to high ratings, not a SOS pro-cot). They simply wanted to extend the success of their sales by promoting new eps to be made. Actually up until the 17 new eps were made, the SOS were against any similar Canadian promotions. SOS seems to forget they were dead set against an earlier attempt by the Voice Actors of the show (Canadians) to make new eps. They also said once there was no need to try and target Canadian companies like YTV to help get new eps.

Also regarding the 17 new eps, "Some fans say that DiC will butcher these episodes even more than the first 65." To which they reply "DiC makes fewer changes." The only fewer changes Dic made was changing Mercury’s attack to Shine Aqua to be more like the original and changed Luna-ball to Luna-P to be more like the original. Now while those changes were sort of nice, none of the other attacks were changed. Plus, there is something in writing called consistency. Having Mercury go from "Ice Storm" to "Shine Aqua" almost overnight is kind of odd. I think that’s what those fans were referring too.

As for the rest of this "Scorecard", SOS is simply taking credit for good reporting. They take credit for reports made in just about every anime news source at the same time or even before they got it. None of this has to do anything with "Successful Campaigns or Coincidence". They had a campaign to get new voice actors for Mars and Tux? Ummm, that's called reporting, not campaigning! I noticed they do seem forget several of their bad examples of reporting like... ummm... well, can you say Prince Uranus?

The SOS’s latest campaign also scares me. While it over all maybe a good idea, they are promoting it all wrong. They titled the new letter writing campaign on their site as: "We've Followed The Rules, Now Let's Change Them..... This time it’s personal!" That title alone will give some people the wrong idea of how they are supposed to write their letters. To me that title says, "Let’s flame these guys!" Sure they explain below how you should write them (some of which is laughable), but they want young children to write these people. They even say, "the younger the better". They should know the younger they are, the less they are going to take the time to read all of the stuff they have on there. So maybe they should fix that title? Did they forget the whole Bandai fiasco already? Did they forget how much that mail and fax campaign ticked Bandai off which may have led to their pulling SM’s sponsorship?

SOS’s "scorecard" gives themselves an A plus grade. Now while everyone is entitled to some mistakes and no one is perfect, I would give SOS a C plus. I would add the following comments to that grade: SOS needs to pay better attention to its history. While they are thinking about all the good things in their past, it’s time they also looked at the bad things in their past a little bit harder. Ever hear the expression, "You learn from your mistakes?"