MAGA

[Saltyk]

That's right. MAGA.
Make Anime Great Again.
What? Did you think it was something else?

Okay, there's a ton of anime released every year. And it varies in tone, intent, and quality. But I think one person has really upped the ante in what anime can be. That person is one. No, seriously. It's One. The guy who created One Punch Man.

One Punch Man has an interesting history. I mean look where it started.

While I couldn't call this terrible, I certainly wouldn't pay money for it. However, it eventually got noticed by a lot of people. One of whom was Yusuke Murata, who has effectively redrawn the series as a manga. And Holy Jesus does he do some amazing work.

Spoiler: Just look at it

Yes, this is a manga. Really!​

And, of course, One Punch Man has been adapted into an anime. Though, judging by that last image they didn't have to do too much.

I think part of what makes this series so noteworthy to people is a combination of things. There's the comedy to it. But also how well the series actually builds up villains. The build up of the Deep Sea King was excellent, for example. And how well it handles the characters. How characters like Genos and Puri Puri Prisoner change throughout the series. And there's also the fights, which are excellent.

And oddly enough, how relatable Saitama is. Yes, I know he's a God among men who finds fighting monsters the size of buildings boring, but I think that IS what makes him relatable. To him this is all mundane. It's just Tuesday. How many of us have experienced that? How many sit in cubicles just waiting for the end of their shift? To Saitama fighting monsters is his cubicle.

But that's not the end. Recently, another of One's works has been made into an anime. Mob Psycho 100. A series about a boy with near infinite psychic powers who just wants to be normal. He doesn't see his ability as unique or special. And there is something refreshing about that. Seriously, go watch Mob Psycho 100 if you haven't. You'll thank me.

So, has One, despite his lacking talent as an artist, managed to reinvigorate anime with his writing and humor? Are there others who done this, either today or historically? Am I over-hyping the work of one man?

And remember. Make Anime Great Again!

 

[McElroy]

My name is McElroy and I'm an anime-hater.

"Hello, McElroy."

One day I realized adults shouldn't be watching Chinese cartoons. It's bad for them and they regress into manchildren, start collecting figurines, and other weebshit like writing as ^_^.

"We here at Anime-haters Anonymous have all experienced something similar, but everyone has a way out. After all, anime is not a genre but a medium."

Hold on a sec, we don't just anonymously laugh at weebs here? That's the only reason I'm here for...

"Get outta here!"

Hey, I still like DBZ Abridged! And Miyazaki!

"Outta here, McElroy!"

 

[TheMysteriousGX]

One[footnote]hehe[/footnote] can only hope stuff like One Punch Man or Mob Psycho 100 can revitalize the medium. It's had a problem with making copies of copies of copies for awhile now. OPM single handedly convinced me to give anime a shot again after a decade of my highest praise being "meh, it's alright". Led me to Mob Psycho, led my to JoJo. (which ps from tropes that preceded Dragonball, if not being entirely original)

That said, for every OPM, there's a hundred trope-ic shows featuring moe-blob and her best friend otaku-bait.

 

[Silentpony_v1legacy]

The fuck is with all the anime threads the past month or two? What is this, 2003? Did we all just watch Cowboy Bebop for the first time again?

 

[The Philistine]

So Studio Trigger saved anime with Kill la Kill, then One made anime great again? There's always a hyped show every season, and sometimes it turns out to live up to the hype. There's junk every season and there's a great show or three among the rough. I don't really see OPM doing much to change that cycle, other than maybe a glut of western superhero riffs.

I wouldn't even say that OPM's story is anything that stands out, just a very well balanced group of characters that were saved from obscurity by Yusuke Murata's reillustration of ONE's original doodles.

 

[Scarim Coral]

The fuck is with all the anime threads the past month or two? What is this, 2003? Did we all just watch Cowboy Bebop for the first time again?

Maybe it's due to the increase rate of moe, faservice ish anime lately? Ok I don't know if that was true or not but Miyazaki did left in the industry cos they were pandering toward that.

 

[balladbird]

No one series or creator is going to make anime great again. The only way anime can reinvigorate is if it pulls itself out of this self-perpetuating, endlessly receding spiral of marketing their entire industry to an incredibly small niche market who will buy overpriced merchandise to keep the whole system afloat.

Unfortunately, only a concerted effort by a large number of people who are creative, brave enough to take a risk, and rich enough or well connected enough to get their projects funded, working together on a series of experimental works with the intent of capturing a new market would be able to break that cycle... and if such a grand experiment failed it would be cataclysmic, so I can see why no one is lining up to be the one who pulls that trigger.

More than making anime great again, One Punch man exemplifies the only way I've enjoyed anime all these years: Enjoy the good series that manage to make it through the piles of junk pandering to the moe-moe fanboys and the fujoshi... the twin pillars of the current anime industry.

 

[McElroy]

nowdays there is an insane amount of female dedicated fanservice popping up.

Define "an insane amount".

 

[TheMysteriousGX]

nowdays there is an insane amount of female dedicated fanservice popping up.

Define "an insane amount".

JoJo's Bizarre Adventure and Free! I'm guessing.

EDIT: Could be One Punch Man as well, I guess. Genos is pretty fine, and even though I'm not a shipper Genos totally has a thing for Saitama.

 

[Queen Michael]

Nitpick alert: One Punch Man was already a manga. It was redrawn as a new manga.

 

[NPC009]

Anime has always been great... as long as you don't expect to fall in love with every new series out there.

Personally, I'm pretty content with the offerings this past year. We've got an ESP with an 80s vibe subverting 80s ESP shows using great animation and a solid sense of humour, an figure-skating show that just screams LOVE!! towards its characters and the sport (featuring some adorably romantic moments to boot), an amazingly fucked up 'life in a game world' series, a super relaxing series about a teenage witch with some excelently timed jokes, and a freakin' rakugo anime...

I usually end up watching half a dozen shows each season and that's not bad at all, especially if you consider that I often skip manga adaptations because I've already read the original and would rather watching something that's new to me (sorry, Natsume's Book of Friends!).

 

[The Philistine]

nowdays there is an insane amount of female dedicated fanservice popping up.

Define "an insane amount".

Not literally insane but I think there is more female dedicated fanservice shows than male ones:
Trickster, Yuri!!, Uta no☆Prince-sama♪, Magic-Kyun! Renaissance, Touken Ranbu: Hanamaru, Watashi ga Motete Dousunda, (I'm not sure, I should see) Nanbaka and a lot of sports anime that sometimes do male on male baiting.

Throw a rock at any magical highschool, shounen tournament arc, or or cute girls show and you're going to get an avalanche of fanservice aimed at hetero male audiences. Nevermind the slice-of-life and historical action pieces that have yuri undertones.

The market is pretty saturated in fanservice for just about any preference.

 

[Silentpony_v1legacy]

The fuck is with all the anime threads the past month or two? What is this, 2003? Did we all just watch Cowboy Bebop for the first time again?

Maybe it's due to the increase rate of moe, faservice ish anime lately? Ok I don't know if that was true or not but Miyazaki did left in the industry cos they were pandering toward that.

But hasn't Anime been panda throwing since like...forever?

 

[TheMysteriousGX]

The fuck is with all the anime threads the past month or two? What is this, 2003? Did we all just watch Cowboy Bebop for the first time again?

Maybe it's due to the increase rate of moe, faservice ish anime lately? Ok I don't know if that was true or not but Miyazaki did left in the industry cos they were pandering toward that.

But hasn't Anime been panda throwing since like...forever?

Back in the day, when a gal lost her shirt due to a close encounter with a crane arm on a cat-walk, you didn't get a four second splash animation with a colored background, a slow pan, an oddly suggestive tone, and a blushing face.

It was just a thing that happened. Now get off my lawn, Matlock's on.

 

[crimsonspear4D]

Whole anime series or studios alone can't save an industry that's been rolling around in its own stagnant filth for going on goddamn two decades now. I think most of us can agree that even with the uptick in superb animation quality, creative story elements, and unique, sometimes immersive, universe building, even the most beautifully crafted, entertaining, well-regarded anime barely amounts to being okay, maybe even good, based on one simple, yet crucial, factor: THE CHARACTERS.

Spoiler: TL;DR

I don't think I need to spell out that the overwhelming majority of male protagonists are utterly horrible, generic, and boring people to waste your time watching. With personalities and motivations that make you want to take a brick to their nuts every time they appear on screen.

And female characters in general? I mean I know they mostly only exist as mascots, advertisments, and fap-bait, but even in universe I don't even see them as people. They're props, cardboard cutouts, living furniture. No matter the style, history, or quirk/personality - because even a lamp could have that - they serve little purpose other than trying to keep your attention.

Hell, most supposed anime fans on blogs, forums, etc. couldn't tell you the plot or characters from some of the supposedly highly popular anime that come out yearly that you couldn't just read from a wiki, but show them a picture of the show's waifu-bait and all of a sudden they have eidetic memory.

One simple thing could save most anime from just being another batch of vaporware and that's giving your characters some bit of humanity or nuance, not some clone of the same character that's been in 10 shows that season alone.

As an example, when you're making another harem anime, rather than have your male anchor be some boring, infuriatingly over-chivalrous, nice guy or some whiny, dickless, perma-virgin as your stop from having him do SOMETHING romantic or sexual to his eagerly waiting will platoon of cock socks, have your male character be gay or at least aggressively not interested in them. You could just have him being constantly swarmed by his harem of slavishly devoted, highly curvaceous - or loli, sex goddess and he couldn't even be begged to give a shit because he's chasing down overweight, frumpy, Plain-Jane" girls or dudes to care.

That alone has some comedic value, put some giant robots and religious symbolism in there and you got a show for a season.

 

[NPC009]

nowdays there is an insane amount of female dedicated fanservice popping up.

Define "an insane amount".

Not literally insane but I think there is more female dedicated fanservice shows than male ones:
Trickster, Yuri!!, Uta no☆Prince-sama♪, Magic-Kyun! Renaissance, Touken Ranbu: Hanamaru, Watashi ga Motete Dousunda, (I'm not sure, I should see) Nanbaka and a lot of sports anime that sometimes do male on male baiting.

Throw a rock at any magical highschool, shounen tournament arc, or or cute girls show and you're going to get an avalanche of fanservice aimed at hetero male audiences. Nevermind the slice-of-life and historical action pieces that have yuri undertones.

The market is pretty saturated in fanservice for just about any preference.

I'm not saying there's no fanservice for males, I'm just tired of the idea of "all anime fanservice is for males".

It's an understandable idea, though. Fanservice towards female viewers is relatively new, especially in this quantity (and quality). Series like Ouran and Black Butler opened the gates less than a decade ago, and it wasn't really until Free! that higher levels of female-oriented fanservice began to be considered mainstream.

Many older female fans probably remember the days when the had to make do with Gundam Wing fanfics.

 

[09philj]

Back in the old days, most of what was imported were the things that US and European distributors were absolutely sure could make bank. This did mean that most of the things that were brought over were good, but there was a lot of fairly similar stuff. With the increasing popularity of things like CrunchyRoll, mass importing of the whole of a company's seasonal output is the norm. On the upside, slightly more oddball and adventurous work gets to western audiences. On the downside, all the shit gets here as well. Couple that with a lot of writers wanting to ape other successful work or stay in their comfort zone, and things are bound to be on a downward trend by percentage, but there's still a lot of good work.

 

[NPC009]

I think the anime that best encapsulates this is Genshiken, contrast the old cast which represents anime fans in the show debut: [genshiken]

Yep. And while I'm fond of the original Genshiken, am having a lot of fun with the recent cast as well. There's a better sense of representation. Ohno used to be a bit of the token geekgirl, but now she is one girl within a cast of many and all characters are different. They do reflect current developments in anime (related) fandoms.

Watching these developments play out in real life has been interesting and entertaining as well. You have old fans unwilling or unable to adjust, old fans just going with the flow or even embracing the changes, old fans that finally feel it's okay to be a fan... Plus, female fans in general seem to be more open about things. Sure, there's a lot of love for series with BL elements, but I've also met plenty of girls who are open about liking shows like Keijo!!!!!!!!, saying those are great fun because they're so over the top ridiculous. I think that's great.

 

[Saltyk]

I'm actually surprised by the opinions. I'm really only a part time otaku, I suppose. I really only check out what people recommend or what I think I will like. Mostly made this thread to see what people thought of One's work and what it might be for anime going forward. It really only takes one great work to alter the status quo in any medium. Anime like Dragon Ball and movies like Matrix can attest to that.

Nitpick alert: One Punch Man was already a manga. It was redrawn as a new manga.

Well, it was an online manga, was it not? I guess you might call it a web-manga. Most people have referred to it as a webcomic and that seems to include anime reviewers I've seen.

 

[NPC009]

I'm actually surprised by the opinions. I'm really only a part time otaku, I suppose. I really only check out what people recommend or what I think I will like. Mostly made this thread to see what people thought of One's work and what it might be for anime going forward. It really only takes one great work to alter the status quo in any medium. Anime like Dragon Ball and movies like Matrix can attest to that.

I'm not so sure about that. Back in the 80s and 90s, the things that were brought over were more often than not part of a bigger trend. For instance, Dragonball Z wasn't the first fight-fight-fight shonen series that got popular, Saint Seiya took off several years prior. It's just that you rarely get to see the big picture unless you're neck-deep into something.

As for One, I think his stuff is great, but:
-What One excel at is deconstructing genres, but he's not the only one with that skill. Other hit anime do the same with other genres. The original Mobile Suit Gundam, Neon Genesis Evangelion, Puella Magi Madoka Magica, Re:Zero... These deconstructions pave new paths by being aware of established rules within genres. As in, they couldn't have existed without the titles that formed the foundations of those genres; titles that were once revolutionary themselves. One does not make something out of nothing.


-Every season has a few shows with amazing animation. While Mob Psycho 100 certainly stands out, the concept of 'animation that doesn't look like shit' was never forgotten. Give a great studio and big budget and you're bound to see something impressive.

My only problems is with Madarame new voice actor and him not getting a girlfriend, I just feel bad for him.

I haven't read the final volumes of the manga yet (the series ended in August), maybe he still has a chance there? And yeah, I do hope the whole MadeHarem thing pays off. All that build-up has to lead somewhere, even if it's just a girl from outside of Genshiken.

I'm not inside anime communities so I don't know how the well the change was received but it doesn't surprise me that some women like Keijo!!!!!!!!, I mean Jojo is heavy into.... "glorifying" the male form but nobody cares because the main thing is how fun the show is.

I think the light-hearted framing has something to do with it. Both Jojo and Keijo move the human body in impossible ways and never ask the viewer to take this seriously. It's very unlike the fanservice shows that spend a lot of time just panning suggestively. And in case of Keijo, the show doesn't try to paint the sport as something noble. The girls are all in it for things like money, fame and plain old fun. That also removes a lot of the creep factor the show could have had.

Maybe the secret for it is the doujins and Light Novels. Studios just buy the rights of those that sell well rather than rely on writers that usually fall into specific categories.

Light novels are an important source for anime studios nowadays, and I guess that makes sense. They're a very accessible medium, for both consumers and writers. And webnovels and comics take that accessibility another step further. With so many people creating and consuming, there are bound to be some gems in there.

That said, when thinking of shows that might push anime further, I often think of original titles first. Adaptations are just that - adaptations; another facet of a multimedia franchise. And while there are excellent adaptations of excellent manga/anime/light novels/webtoons/visual novels/games out there, they just don't feel as fresh as original titles. Original titles can surprise people, because nobody aside from the creators knows what's going to happen the next episode. It's what makes following series like Yuri!!! on Ice so exciting and fun. Whole internet communities are speculating where Victuuri will go. When fans are engaged, popularity grows, and in the end, popularity is one of those things used to measure success.