One of the most popular trends in media criticism, in YouTube Video Essays and Analysis videos, is to praise the artistic genius of works that did something innovative and new and hate everything after that was just trying to copy it's success. Lindsay Ellis does this in her videos a lot.
But I'm someone who has a long history of genuinely liking the alleged knock offs more then the thing that started the trend. I don't think Robin Williams' Genie is any inherently funnier then the similar characters in later Disney movies, in fact the Gargoyles make me laugh more.
To me nothing is a more meaningless criticism then "they tried to be like _____ but missed the point". Because to me good derivative art ideally should be about applying this innovation to a new different "point".
What they really mean is the thing they're criticizing has no point, that it isn't actually trying to say anything and existed only because of executive mandate. And in my opinion that accusation is never true, ever, not even once.
No matter how much a work may begin as a corporate mandate to superficially imitate something else with little care for the substance, it's still being brought to life by Artists who will use this opportunity to Artistically express themselves. It may not always be Art you like, it's not even always Art I like, but it's still Art.
Art I don't like is usually more because it's saying too many things, and even then only if they are from my perspective incompatible messages, because Movies and TV Shows and Anime are all collaborative mediums, so sometimes all of the artistic expressions may not mesh well. And even that rarely happens, I can be good at reconciling apparent conflicts.
You know why it's so common for Capitalism to create art that intentionally or not criticizes Capitalism and advocates for Communism? Because Capitalism makes money off selling people what they want, or at least the illusion of it, and most people want Communism and hate Capitalism, they just don't all realize it yet.
Once again, the one Genre where I'm most like this is modern "Dark Magical Girl Anime". Thing is I probably like Madoka Magica more then most trend setters I'm thinking of here, exactly how I would rank these shows constantly changes depending on my mood.
Most AniTubers seem to have maybe one post Madoka show they like while looking at the rest with the most cynical view possible. I love Yuki Yuna Is A Hero and Daybreak Illusion and Magical Girl Site and Wixoss. Raising Project and Spec-Ops Auska are the only two I've ever had an overall less then favorable views of, yet I've also had some positive thoughts about both of them.
In the case of Asuka it's not at all because I perceive it be any more Dark then the standard, I think it's probably less Dark then plenty of shows I like. I'm just tired of superhero stories with military protagonists, a trend I barely tolerate when America does it and is one of the tends I turn to Anime to get away from.
Raising Project is complicated, part of my issue is what I know about the stories after this point in the Light Novels, that future stories won't always end as happily as this one. Still I enjoyed it a lot the first time I watched it. Then I tried re-watching it after I'd just watched Site and found it ironic kind of. Superficially Site is the much Edgier looking show, but in the substance Raising Project felt more like it was running on shock value.
In a way this isn't that different from my relationship with the proper Magical Girl Warrior genre. I like Sailor Moon a lot, a whole lot, she deserves to be viewed as having the same cultural significance as Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Spiderman and Buffy The Vampire Slayer. But I still feel like other less well known Magical Girl Warriors have more personal appeal to me, from Wedding Peach to some PreCure to Nanoha to Pretty Sammy to really niche ones like Galaxy Fraulein Yuna and maybe even one literal Hentai I watched.
All Art is derivative of Art that came before to some degree. But some are more likely to have that comparison to an older work unfairly held agaisnt them then others.
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