Everything You Know about Anime Is Wrong

[Xirema]

Good article, but you're gonna be preaching to the choir. Either people already know this stuff, or they're not going to be willing to change their beliefs to acknowledge your facts.

 

[Rinshan Kaihou]

Interesting read. But I will say this.


Anime has "The disapperance of haruhi suzumiya". Therefore, any argument against it is invalid.

GODDAMN Disappearance was an incredible film. And not just because it made up for the "Endless 8" tripe either, it was just... Incredible. They even managed to give Yuki a bit of personality and screen-time without seeming weird and out-of-place. And who knew that Haruhi worked so well with more of a drama slant? Also, the soundtrack was performed by an Australian orchestra *tearful patriotic salute*

Just wanted to let you know OP that I enjoyed the read, and I even learned some things. I'm an anime fan, but I only watch shows that my friends recommend, since I can't be bothered with most animes that are released recently.

My advice? Pick out something at random from the aniDB that sounds interesting and give a few episodes a shot. I've discovered many awesome anime that originally were just a blip on my radar because the concept was "interesting".

I've thought about this kind of thing myself and have come to the conclusion that the most fundamental difference between animation in the west and animation in Japan is application. As far as I can tell in the west animation is usually just used for either children's content or adult comedy. But in Japan animation is used for pretty much everything (although to be sure some genres may be more popular than others). Anime is everything that live-action is and more. In light of this it's a shame when some people simply take a look at one or a few anime titles and think that they've got the jist of it or anything like that. But sadly that seemingly has been the case before. I don't think a lot of people really understand how much variety anime has and that it's a medium and not a genre as you say.

"the most fundamental difference between animation in the west and animation in Japan is application"... I like that. That's a great way to describe it.

Well this is good because I literally just watched Disappearance last night for the first time, and E8 the day before. 36 hours ago I was ready to burn Kyoto animation at the stake, because of endless 8. I was raging so hard. And then.... I wastch disappearance. And now all I want to do is give them a medal for that work of genius. I've never seen a studio so goddamn schizophrenic, but praise well earned. Also, after half an hour or whatever in, my reaction was "WHEN DID NAGATO BECOME SO DAMN CUTE". Loved her in it. I could go on about it for hours. But I won't. :3

 

[Otaku World Order]

Interesting read. But I will say this.


Anime has "The disapperance of haruhi suzumiya". Therefore, any argument against it is invalid.

Yeah, but anime also has "The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya-Season 2", which was downright insulting. And I'm a hardcore Haruhi fan.

 

[Xirema]

Interesting read. But I will say this.


Anime has "The disapperance of haruhi suzumiya". Therefore, any argument against it is invalid.

GODDAMN Disappearance was an incredible film. And not just because it made up for the "Endless 8" tripe either, it was just... Incredible. They even managed to give Yuki a bit of personality and screen-time without seeming weird and out-of-place. And who knew that Haruhi worked so well with more of a drama slant? Also, the soundtrack was performed by an Australian orchestra *tearful patriotic salute*

Valid point. My only real problem with Disappearance was it's sheer length, which was probably just a little too much. (It's currently ranked as the #8 longest animated movie ever created!)

 

[Xirema]

Interesting read. But I will say this.


Anime has "The disapperance of haruhi suzumiya". Therefore, any argument against it is invalid.

Yeah, but anime also has "The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya-Season 2", which was downright insulting. And I'm a hardcore Haruhi fan.

Watch the English dub of Endless Eight. Hearing Crispin Freeman ad-lib his lines is the sole saving grace of that nightmare.

Edit: "CANST THOU NOT SEE THE NO DIVING SIGN????!"

 

[Rinshan Kaihou]

To me, Disapperance, more than made up for Endless 8. I don't understand how that's possible, but it just does. Nagato= Fkn Cute as hell, and Haruhi with long hair = <3

 

[Syzygy23]

Yeah, well, no.

If you want to write a complete guide on anime make in more objective next time. A love letter to anime from an anime fan wont convince me of anything.

By the way, 8 of the 13 images you posted picture little kids. Way to go.

^this

What the fuck is with Japans' media and WAY too young girls? I don't know about them, but the rest of the world considers that borderline, if not outright, pedophilia.

 

[Xirema]

Yeah, well, no.

If you want to write a complete guide on anime make in more objective next time. A love letter to anime from an anime fan wont convince me of anything.

By the way, 8 of the 13 images you posted picture little kids. Way to go.

^this

What the fuck is with Japans' media and WAY too young girls? I don't know about them, but the rest of the world considers that borderline, if not outright, pedophilia.

The explanation I heard (may not be accurate) is that Japan (And many other eastern cultures) treats sexuality differently than we do. Sex is treated less in terms of morality (Not to say morality isn't a factor, just that it is less so) and more in terms of societal responsibility. Combined with the fact that the age of consent is lower than in most developed countries, and that high school students are treated more like young adults/college students would be here in the west, and you end up with a level of sexuality that people from western cultures find uncomfortable.

And to be fair, there's a lot of stuff we do in the USA that seems completely insane to foreign cultures. *coughSOPAcoughGunPossessioncoughNeedIgoOncough*

 

[Otaku World Order]

Interesting read. But I will say this.


Anime has "The disapperance of haruhi suzumiya". Therefore, any argument against it is invalid.

Yeah, but anime also has "The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya-Season 2", which was downright insulting. And I'm a hardcore Haruhi fan.

Watch the English dub of Endless Eight. Hearing Crispin Freeman ad-lib his lines is the sole saving grace of that nightmare.

Edit: "CANST THOU NOT SEE THE NO DIVING SIGN????!"

I dunno. Watching Haruhi without hearing the voice of Aya Hirano is like watching a Bond movie without bad double entendres.

To me, Disapperance, more than made up for Endless 8. I don't understand how that's possible, but it just does. Nagato= Fkn Cute as hell, and Haruhi with long hair = <3

Yeah, it did make up for Endless Hate. Futher proof that Haruhi is capable of miracles maybe?

 

[FireAza]

Yeah, well, no.

If you want to write a complete guide on anime make in more objective next time. A love letter to anime from an anime fan wont convince me of anything.

By the way, 8 of the 13 images you posted picture little kids. Way to go.

^this

What the fuck is with Japans' media and WAY too young girls? I don't know about them, but the rest of the world considers that borderline, if not outright, pedophilia.

I'd go back and find my post I made about Japan, it's age of consent, and America, but Xirema summed it up pretty well. Basically, American society does not equal the rest of the world.

One thing I don't understand is people assuming that if an anime has a young character that it's suppose to be fap material. Even if they're not being portrayed sexually? Paedophiles are able to get off to children regardless of depiction? Wouldn't that be like saying straight men can get off to women regardless of what she's wearing or doing?

 

[Kuroneko97]

Huh. This was an interesting read. Lately I haven't been watching much anime, But this season I've already omitted the ones that look like shit. I almost always avoid harems unless I'm in the mood for something raunchy, yet I don't want to watch porn.

Lately I've just been stuck watching Comedy Central and typing stories, and lately I've started playing Starcraft with my friend. And reading Magico, which I hope gets an anime adaptation.

 

[FireAza]

Huh. This was an interesting read. Lately I haven't been watching much anime, But this season I've already omitted the ones that look like shit. I almost always avoid harems unless I'm in the mood for something raunchy, yet I don't want to watch porn.

Lately I've just been stuck watching Comedy Central and typing stories, and lately I've started playing Starcraft with my friend. And reading Magico, which I hope gets an anime adaptation.

Juding by your avatar, you're a fan of Madoka? Did you like it's art style? If so, check out anything done by studio SHAFT (Bakemonogatari, MariaHolic, And Yet the Town Moves, Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei etc), because imaginative, creative, unique visuals is kinda their thing.

 

[letfireraindown]

Interesting read. Can't say I learned that much, but I've been watching anime for about a decade.

 

[Risingblade]

I already knew all of this...your tittle lied to me

 

[bbobjs]

I didn't really read the replies so excuse me if this is redundant but:

If you're going to talk about western animation, you definitely need to mention things that are heavily influenced by anime, like Avatar: The Last Airbender. You should mention cases where Japanese animation studios are commissioned to produce series intended for western audiences (The 2011 Thundercats reboot for example) or cases where Japanese studios collaborate to adapt western IP (the various Marvel adaptions by Madhouse). I also think Powerpuff Girls Z deserves a special mention.

You should also talk more about the influence of western culture on various anime and anime designed with the western market in mind. It also probably would have been good to talk more about the recent changing of trends, how the shounen genre has shifted from being mainly aimed at young boys to mainly aimed at teenage girls. In many ways the changing trend is parallel to how the slice-of-life/magical-girl genre shifted from being aimed at young girls to 20-something men.

Finally you should probably also educate people on where they can watch this stuff legally and for free so that they can judge for themselves... but w/e. Anyway I definitely appreciate the effort/goal of your article and if you're intending to amend this at some point I'd totally be interested in collaborating with you.

 

[Micalas]

Name one Live Action TV series aimed at adults starring a child or an adult with extremely childish proportions in the main character role. Go.

Different Strokes *trollface*

 

[bbobjs]

Name one Live Action TV series aimed at adults starring a child or an adult with extremely childish proportions in the main character role. Go.

Sup!

 

[CrayKing]

Pretty good read, learned a few things i didn't know about japanese animation.

I Don't exactly watch many anime nor read many mangas, but with both of them it's more than their western counterpart(Spongebob and Matt Groening excluded of course). Genereally I'm somewhat attracted to the 'strangeness' that anime and manga sometimes possess(Learned of a manga called "Dorohedoro" a few weeks ago, and I'm hooked), on account of them having a significantly different cultural background than i do.

I know this can also be seen in western animation as well, just in a different way, But some of the 'sexploitation'?(not sure if that's the real word for it) in japanese animation is genereally ofputting for me. Of course there are exceptions for this(i.e. when it serves some sort of 'purpose')

Glad you mentioned "Tokyo Godfathers". I actually watched it december 24 in the morning on tv, I thought it was really good.

 

[bbobjs]

I dunno man. He seems to have facial hair. (By the way, might wanna add something to your post to avoid mod wrath. Did not report and telling you because im nice.)

Yea but he's got those sick proportions right? Alternatively I'd argue The Wonder Years and to a lesser extent Malcolm in the Middle were intended to appeal to adults or young adults.

Also thanks for the warning, but I'll let the image rock, not super worried about being banned from this site.

 

[ElPatron]

Wait, I thought anime is not cartoon? Isnt that what the OP is arguing?

And yeah, a lot of western cartoons feature kids, but they are marketed to kids. With anime... Not so much. Lots of kids (or adults with childish proportion, as the OP put it) in animes aimed at men. Huh.

Violent movies have portrayed children.

The Simpsons is not exclusively marketed for adults, but the show is "adult". It stills features children.

You can't just make children disappear out of a world. That "Boondocks" thing isn't for children either, but they feature many generations on the show (the "grandpa", the "father" and "uncle", and the two kids - they are just representing generations)