I've been pondering this for a while and I've been wondering: Can there really be such thing as an overrated piece in the entertainment industry?

Let's look at it, when you are making music, a video, a video game, a flash animation, or whatever, your purpose truly is to do one thing, entertain people. Yet it seems that whenever something entertains a large group of people, or becomes a phenomenon, self appointed critics and entertainment connoisseurs call them overrated.

What makes a critic a critic? Is it the ability to be picky? Is it the ability to find anger and frustration in what most people find joy and humor? Or is it by viewing or listening to an immense amount of videos and music. If so, then the person who has watched the most movies, listened to the most music, the most cultured person on the planet, should have their opinion become entertainment law. If he says your favorite movie sucks, then it sucks.

But that's not how it works. Everybody has their own tastes and likes their own things, and this isn't news. If you enjoy a certain type of entertainment, it would be pointless to not embrace it because it has been labeled as overrated or drivel, because you would be denying yourself something you like and completely missing the point of entertainment.

Also, I'm not denying that cultural influences and peer pressure can influence one's taste. Some people dislike Family Guy and claim that most people only like it because their friends do. But that's how entertainment works. That's why music from other cultures may not be enjoyable to you. That's why foreign films seem odd.

So now I've become a bit of a hypocrite. I'm attacking negative influences on one's tastes while advocating positive influences. But here's my point, there is no such thing as overrated, if you think you like something, you probably do. Even fads aren't overrated, they are just not capable of long term entertainment. Being unable to enjoy what the general populous does is NOT an advantage, it just means that you have to sit through a bunch of crap in order to grin every once in a while. I'm not attacking those that have placed themselves in a critic position for having their own tastes, but rather for insulting and ridiculing all of those who do not share the same opinion.

All in all: Stop being dicks, entertainment is for fun. It's not really a big deal.

Well, I'll be given some free time with school lately so I'll be able to spend much more time working on my own projects. Thanks to my life drawing class, my animation skills are much improved and I'll be stepping farther away from tweening and more towards frame by frame animation.
At the time I'm looking for voice actors who are interested in voicing:

Rue
Shin
Tea (Who I'm renaming Sara)
Seraph

So drop me a PM if you can do any of those voices. Also, if you'd like to help with background design for the animation, feel free to contact me. I'm looking for backgrounds that are very nicely illustrated and detailed such as those seen in most animes, or if you could point me towards a few tutorials to help me capture that style, that would be great too.

Thanks to all of you who encouraged me to continue working on this project, I promise not to let you guys down!

Thought I'd give a shot at the Metal Gear contest. Not sure if I'm that funny, but I think my animation skills could stand a chance. Better get started.