How do you feel about anime?

[x0ny]

Hate it, it's so cheap, so tacky, the pace is far too slow in some. One Piece, and DragonBall spring to mind. Each episode is 22 mins, 3 mins intro song, 3 mins recap of what happened in the last episode, so only about 14 mins is on the actual episode, 2 mins for outro song too.

So your opinion on anime is based entirely on your perceptions of the most popular series? That's mindless stereotyping and is exactly the same sort of thing as someone saying they dislike games because they're all the same as CoD and Halo.

But it's true though, even a less popular series such as Noir suffers from the same characteristics, which I have a genuine DVD copy of, which I bought about 9 years ago. Neon Genesis, Deathnote (good at the start but turned to shit after episode 23), Bleach, the list goes on and on. Sailor Moon is a joke, just see what the bad guy looks like for that episode then move on, they always kill them using the same method anyway.

In one whole episode of One Piece, I swear to God all that happened in that space of 14 minutes, was a general launched an attack at an army causing a huge tsunami to wipe them out, then some guy freezes the tsunami, bit of chatting, banter, cliffhanger, end of episode. 2 whole minutes was dedicated to the camera panning the army, showing their horrified faces as they stared at the tsunami. TWO MINUTES!!! That's taking the piss, how can people expect me to watch this garbage? And the fact that people so eagerly wait a week for each episode, is just laughable.

95% of anime is complete crap. the better stuff is usually older (i.e. Ninja Scroll, Akira, etc.)

QFT, the older stuff which is better, because I have alot of Dr. Slump, Chibi Maruko-chan, Goldfish Warning, and the good old Doraemon cartoons on VCD which DO NOT suffer from the characteristics previously mentioned. The pace is faster, the ideas were original and creative, the jokes are not only in the visuals (overused fall-face-first-onto-floor "joke"), but more importantly in the dialogue.

 

[kouriichi]

One video to sum it up for me.

 

[TheTim]

i love only a few animes......

like Dragonball metaseries and Rurouni kenshin.

 

[DirgeNovak]

I hate the manga style -- Freaky giant eyes, stupid hairdos and costumes, over-exaggeration of everything, etc, etc... Since animé is basically a moving manga, that's a big eewww for me. However, if someone can point me towards one with a different art style, I might open up my mind. Might.

How about something like this?

Spoiler

Art looks ok, but...

Although only in high school, the brilliant Takuya is working as a physicist at an Alliance scientific facility sponsored by the United States' National Security Agency

...that's another thing that bugs me...I'm pretty sure no high school student works for the NSA in real life. Worst part is, most of those stories (basing myself on Final Fantasy here, that's as close to anime I got) would work perfectly well with adult characters: FF VIII would still have worked if Squall and co. were 25 (Except for Quistis, who should be at least 35 - she teaches in an elite military academy and she's 18 for fuck's sake)

SO basically, I'm looking for an anime that doesn't use the manga style and doesn't feature "angsty androgynous teenagers killing Satan", to quote Yahtzee. Does that exist?

EDIT:

black lagoon or elfen lied.

Assuming Google is right and this comes from Elfen Lied, you didn't quite catch my point.

 

[LitleWaffle]

I like it, but I tend to read the original manga instead. Still, one of these days I'm sitting down for a FMA: Brotherhood marathon.

*high fives*

My favorite one. The intro is so awesome.

More On Topic: Yeah there pretty sweet. Though I think that most people posting on this are either people who love anime or absolutely detest it. Those who don't really care for it probably won't post.

 

[Steppin Razor]

I hate the manga style -- Freaky giant eyes, stupid hairdos and costumes, over-exaggeration of everything, etc, etc... Since animé is basically a moving manga, that's a big eewww for me. However, if someone can point me towards one with a different art style, I might open up my mind. Might.

How about something like this?

Spoiler

Art looks ok, but...

Although only in high school, the brilliant Takuya is working as a physicist at an Alliance scientific facility sponsored by the United States' National Security Agency

...that's another thing that bugs me...I'm pretty sure no high school student works for the NSA in real life. Worst part is, most of those stories (basing myself on Final Fantasy here, that's as close to anime I got) would work perfectly well with adult characters: FF VIII would still have worked if Squall and co. were 25 (Except for Quistis, who should be at least 35 - she teaches in an elite military academy and she's 18 for fuck's sake)

SO basically, I'm looking for an anime that doesn't use the manga style and doesn't feature "angsty androgynous teenagers killing Satan", to quote Yahtzee. Does that exist?

So you're looking for something that is the animated equivalent of real life? With nothing that's even remotely unlikely to be true in it? I can't help you there. I'm sure it exists, but it's not the sort of thing I have any interest in.

Not to be a dick, but what sort of games do you play if you can't even suspend your disbelief for an anime that has one teenage character (about 18-19 or so I think he is) in the not-too-distant future who is a genius and works at the NSA?

 

[Romidude]

I hate it personally, I really wish I could like it, but there's just so much stupid shit. Also I know too many pedo-weaboos, so I've been turned off of it even more.

 

[Okuu_Fusion]

I like it... It seems thats all I really watch nowadays...

 

[prinnydood3231]

I'm a big Anime fan, but the overlap between games in anime for me is I'm a JRPG fan. Anything beyond that I couldn't tell you why I like it dood.

 

[vanthebaron]

I hate it personally, I really wish I could like it, but there's just so much stupid shit. Also I know too many pedo-weaboos, so I've been turned off of it even more.

Read elfen lied then talk to me bro.

 

[Jake the Snake]

Tried to get into it, but I just couldn't. It always demands too much of a time investment, is always over the top (in the annoying weird way, not the good way), and the characters typically boil down to stereotypical archetypes.

 

[Steppin Razor]

But it's true though, even a less popular series such as Noir suffers from the same characteristics, which I have a genuine DVD copy of, which I bought about 9 years ago. Neon Genesis, Deathnote (good at the start but turned to shit after episode 23), Bleach, the list goes on and on. Sailor Moon is a joke, just see what the bad guy looks like for that episode then move on, they always kill them using the same method anyway.

What characteristics? All you said was that they are ~20 minutes long and have an intro and ending sequence. Most anime series are produced for once-a-week screenings on tv, so it'd make sense for them to be exactly like regular tv shows.

As for killing them using the same method - news flash, they do the exact same thing in movies and games. In games with guns, you shoot people. It doesn't matter if you're using a different gun, you're still just performing the same action over and over.

In one whole episode of One Piece, I swear to God all that happened in that space of 14 minutes, was a general launched an attack at an army causing a huge tsunami to wipe them out, then some guy freezes the tsunami, bit of chatting, banter, cliffhanger, end of episode. 2 whole minutes was dedicated to the camera panning the army, showing their horrified faces as they stared at the tsunami. TWO MINUTES!!! That's taking the piss, how can people expect me to watch this garbage?

You're taking One Piece, one of the big 3 anime series at the moment, and using it to make a sweeping generalisation that is factually incorrect about the entirety of anime. You don't like anime, fine, I don't care. It's no skin off my nose. Just say you don't like the art style, or the Japanese culture or whatever. Don't go and make completely wrong points that are easily disproved, though.

And the fact that people so eagerly wait a week for each episode, is just laughable.

Ok then, how about I do the reverse to you. Based off your avatar I assume you listen to Slayer. I find it laughable that you eagerly wait the 1-2 years it takes before another albums gets released. I mean, serious, it's just 50-60 minutes of noise on a cd. How laughably pathetic is that.

See how easy it is to make blanket statements that are wrong?

My understanding is that the grimdark was supposed to be comedic; of course a universe where chronic genociders are the good guys isn't serious.

Spoiler: Also, if that is the case, then I'm fabulous.

Something like that. There was a bit of humour in the earlier stuff, but now it's all GRIMDARK and not funny in any way, shape or form. I actually quite like the ridiculously dark and oppressive setting more, but the fanbase contains its fair share of nutters that scare people off.

Bearforce 1, huh. That was pretty funny.

 

[SilverUchiha]

...

[long discussion ensuing]

Ahem. I remember when I first fell for the awesome pop-culture draw-in that was anime when I first saw Pokemon. As I got introduced to more shows, I became more interested in the medium as a whole, as well as the manga. To this day, I still watch some shows and read many manga... but I don't know why. I find horrid faults with all of them. Even my favorite series, Naruto, is something I mock constantly for so many reasons (too much filler, too cliche, not really ninajs, arian-asian main character, Sakura, etc). And that's only one of them. Don't get me started on the ones I hate.

In short, I love anime, but the anime we get from Japan is getting rather boring and, in some cases, just plain awful. Newer stuff like High School of the Dead is just a shameless piece of garbage with the only redeeming quality being that it at least TRIED to do gritty-realistic horror... it just forgot that it was doing that about halfway through the opening credits. Then there is Iron Man which would have been better for so many reasons had an American studio put it together. Specifically, a Marvel-based American studio.

I'm not saying all anime is bad. Hell, I love Soul Eater, Death Note, and will even tolerate Code Geass enough to stop ripping on it for being just like Death Note. But a lot of American shows do a much better job at both animation and plot (Samurai X, MegasXLR, Avatar, and several others).

Okay... I'm done ranting.

 

[rekabdarb]

Dislike them, mostly because of OVER THE TOP ANIME REACTIONS!

Spoiler

alright but it's not fair to judge an entire genre of television by what only a small percentage have. alright maybe 50% but whatever. Don't watch shonen shows. Watch the more "serious" ones

 

[rekabdarb]

super snip

alright Berserk. There someone in adult hood. The second episode he's technically in his later teen years but then there is like a 5-10 year skip (doesn't really say...)
hoohum i figured someone woulda posted before i double posted... oh well what's done is done

I love it so much I fap to it, what does that tell you?

sigh you don't say shit like this in a forum. you keep that shit to the grave

 

[DirgeNovak]

So you're looking for something that is the animated equivalent of real life? With nothing that's even remotely unlikely to be true in it? I can't help you there. I'm sure it exists, but it's not the sort of thing I have any interest in.

Not to be a dick, but what sort of games do you play if you can't even suspend your disbelief for an anime that has one teenage character (about 18-19 or so I think he is) in the not-too-distant future who is a genius and works at the NSA?

Ok, maybe I didn't express it right. I can suspend my disbelief, but events must be likely to happen in the universe set by the fiction: Takuya can be as much of a genius as you want, there is no way a high school student can amass the knowledge necessary to work on a quantum physics experiment for the NSA, especially in a realistic fictional universe (in the case of The Place Promised in our Early Days, some sort of uchronia with elements of science-fiction, but it is still fairly grounded in reality, if the recap on Wikipedia is accurate). I have absolutely nothing against fantasy - I'm currently writing a fantasy novel, but if the writer chose to make a realistic universe (it is set in 1990s Japan, after all), he should have taken that into account when creating the characters. Otherwise, it's a definite plot hole. How in the nine hells could Takuya get enough knowledge to be selected by the NSA, probably against, you know, doctors in physics?

My point wasn't exactly against the "unrealism" of an 18 year old quantum physicist, it's more about mangas and animes' (and JRPGs' for that matter) obsession with teenage heroes. It alienates adult viewers and seems to assume teenager viewers can't relate to anyone else besides teenagers, which I find quite insulting as a former teenager

But tell me, would the story have been as good if Takuya had been a, say, 27-year old guy with a doctorate in experimental physics? No need to change anything else but a bit of backstory - change the middle/high school from the beginning to a university, the factory to a lab, and voilà: you got the exact same story - which sounds good by the way, I might still check it out, plus believable charcaters.

 

[theevilsanta]

I think Japanese anime has a leg up on America (and the rest of the world) in a strong animation style that brings with it the ability to make some great works. Its strength, other than the tradition of good animation, are that it's an established genre for mature audiences (not just kids) and it doesn't cost a lot to make either. Unfortunately almost none of it takes advantage of these strengths and 90% of it is just weird niche Japanese culture things.

I liked Cowboy Bebob (the movie, never saw the show (is it a show)). I liked that 50 minute anime film about vampires and vampire hunters in modern time (called Blood i think, it was mostly action). I LOVED Akira and the original Ghost in the Shell was cool. And the Hayao Miyazaki films are Best Picture worthy. I just don't like anything else. DBZ was dumb, Bleach was boring, Naruto was weird, Full Metal Alchemist was meh, etc. InuYasha was decent though.

Edit - Anime shows that are just sooooooo sloooooow - Claymore, Gilgamesh, and Death Note. They were decent otherwise.

 

[Aesir23]

I'm pretty neutral about it and my interest varies from show to show. I don't watch anime very adamantly though. I've been watching since I was 8 and I've only seen: Hellsing, Devil May Cry, the first 3 seasons of Pokemon, the first season of Digimon, and the first season of Dragonball Z.

The only thing I can't stand about anime is the fangirls. The sane ones are alright and I can get along with them, but the insane fanatical type of fangirls give me the intense urge to try and burrow my way to the centre of the Earth just to get away. You know the type, the ones that use Japanese honorifics or Japanese words in everyday speech or on the Internet even if they're not of Japanese descent.

 

[Requx]

It's okay...but they totally overrun cons.

 

[Nazulu]

Love it. We need more anime like Cowboy Bebop and FMA, because animation can be for adults as well. It's ashame that it suffers the same issue as video games, only seen to be for children.