Poll: Problems With Anime?

[Sacman]

Some anime are good (FlCl, Cowboy Bebop), some are bad (Naruto, DBZ).

Interesting. I've heard some bad things about DBZ, but Dragon Ball seems to be a classic.

Mind clearing that up?

Dragon Ball Z dissolved into an uninteresting, repetitive, action anime that just went on for far too long... IMO
Dragon Ball on the other hand was fun, fresh, original and had a lot of charm... and most of all it didn't draw all of the attention to the battles, though they were entertaining in their own right, but rather the quirky and fun characters...
Though Dragon Ball Z isn't Teh worst show evar... it's just not that good and most of the problem is that it's paced horribly and filled with way too much filler... Though I heard Dragon Ball Kai is just Dragon Ball Z without filler...

OT: Anime is like any other form of media and is subject to Sturgeon's Law, that states 90% of everything is crap...<.<

 

[Thedarkness77]

I would say the sexism on both sides, its in every anime show.

 

[bubba145]

Other: that most of them have a theme of high school students. its annoying.

 

[DarthFennec]

I answered Awful (English) Voice Acting.
I love a lot of anime shows, but Bleach is the only one I've seen with a competent english dub. That's why I always watch them subbed, it's so much easier to listen to, and often, what they're actually saying (how they word things) is much more intelligent in the subbed versions.

 

[Grey_Focks]

Weeaboos are the big reason, but really it's just not my thing. Literally nothing about it appeals to me. At all. people who insist that it's crazy to just dismiss it like this annoy me, a lot. I promise not to openly bash it if you promise not to keep insisting on how great it is. Deal?

 

[Mass B]

I answered Awful (English) Voice Acting.
I love a lot of anime shows, but Bleach is the only one I've seen with a competent english dub. That's why I always watch them subbed, it's so much easier to listen to, and often, what they're actually saying (how they word things) is much more intelligent in the subbed versions.

Full Metal Alchemist's English Dub is good as well. And I never had a problem with Pokemon....

 

[cryogeist]

i don't know what this would go in but....
the amount of animes that always seems to have a pair of tits bouncing around at all times...it weirds me out >_<

 

[vivalahelvig]

Other; All of the above(with the excpetion of none), the piss dribble they call 'naruto', and an odd thing that peeves me, is that in all the anime I've seen, the guy with the gun ges insta-killed by some bloke with a big sword. Maybe that's why I thought A-bombing Japan was always a good idea......
...is that wrong?

 

[Slenn]

...However the third season...

WHAT? Third season?! When did this happen?!

Yep, there was a 5 episode long 3rd season called Higurashi No Naku Koro Ni Rei. It was made last year and it's considered the OVA of the series and is almost worthless besides having two hilarious episodes that have questionable continuity.

 

[Erica Wise]

I love anime, always have, but for a long time I was only allowed to watch what came on toonami: DBZ, yu yu hakusho, ect. But yeah, I can see why it has so much bad pressed.
The fans are weird mainly. You only get anime fans if ur one of us and a con will scare the piss out of a non-fan if it's either the half naked guy cross dressing or the hundreds of half dressed jailbait swarming that one really bad Squall cosplayer.

Anymore though the shows suck. They're all teenage drama and angst. I hate Angst. Ugh...

Also, y do all the girls have to be 12? Yeah yeah, I get it, she's 17, but she LOOKS like loli fodder.

And y do all the guys have to be either Broly (supremely muscled), a manly sounding possible woman, or that one loser that has all these hot women throwing themselves at him but he still wants the robot?

 

[Sakurazaki1023]

I wanted to know, what is the biggest reason that people stay away from anime?

I like the complex plots, that's definitely a plus point. Voice acting can't be traced to Anime specifically, there's shitty English dubs in most foreign films. Weeaboos are a little crazy and divorced from reality but then so are people who are really into stamps or trains.

Your forgot misogyny in your list, that's definitely incredibly widespread in Anime and in fact a lot of the things in your list (like screechy characterisation) are secondary points which can be traced back to this one.

Unfortunately misogyny is going to be present in some anime just like it's present in some western sitcoms and movies. Thankfully, many of the more mature anime series subvert this by including very strong and well characterized female characters. Motoko from Ghost In The Shell and Haruka from Rahxephon are perfect examples of more realistic characterization creating sympathetic and believable female characters who aren't there just to look pretty. Unfortunately there are also hundreds of shallow stock characters that are nothing more than cookie-cutter personalities stapled onto an attractive body.

I think some of the misconceptions about anime that the OP mentioned stem from a generalized view of popular anime and the stereotypes associated with a few select series. I've noticed that many people see anime in a different light when compared to western programming. Yes, there are some anime that objectify women and involve angsty teenagers bitching about their problems. There is also an entire franchise in western television built around women trying to sleep with Flavor Flav.

The point is that while western television caters to many genres, demographics, and personal opinions, people assume that all anime is catering to a single demographic. Some anime is for kids, some is for adults, some is geared toward males, some is geared toward females, some is geared toward misogynists, some is nothing but softcore porn, and some of it is truly art. You wouldn't consider Citizen Kain equal in artistic merit to Nacho Libre just because they are both movies, so stop classifying all anime as either Naruto or porn.

To put this rambling back into video game territory...

When most people think about anime, they are probably thinking about a series that is about on par with Grand Theft Auto. It may be popular, but you wouldn't point to it as a shining symbol of the maturity and artistic creativity of modern gaming.

 

[RJ Dalton]

Honestly, the fanbase never bothered me, because my general opinion of people throughout my life is that people can all fuck off regardless of who they are and what they're into.
The complex stories are quite honestly the thing I tend to love about Anime over western animation, that and they take it much more seriously (usually and in ways that tend to matter to me). That said, the thing that turns me off the anime that I don't like are also the things I hate about media in general; namely, an over-reliance on stock plots and characters. When I was first getting into anime, I'd make the flawed assumption that all anime was creative and original because I never saw the stock elements of western television in it. It wasn't until years later, during my high school years when I had the shit tons of disposable income and free-time needed to amass a huge collection that I was able to see that anime is just as uncreative and stock driven as western media, it just has different stock elements. And so, like western media, the anime I tend to like is the stuff that does stuff differently from other anime series, or at least does the stuff really, really well, which is not nearly as often as I would have said back when I was in middle school.

 

[team star pug]

Some anime are good (FlCl, Cowboy Bebop), some are bad (Naruto, DBZ).

I think the main problem with the bad anime is that they do nothing to make the characters likable to me, and then every episode is either angst, filler, or drawn out fight scenes. However, the good anime keeps me interested and some (such as Cowboy Bebop) are amongst my favourite shows.

Still, all of the idiots who worship anime and think Japan is a paradise that does no wrong are annoying.

Essentially, what I'm saying is that anime has its good and bad parts, just like all entertainment.

Dragon ball Z... bad?

 

[DarthFennec]

Full Metal Alchemist's English Dub is good as well. And I never had a problem with Pokemon....

Never seen FMA (always wanted to try it but I never have time), and I never got into Pokemon ... well I did, just, the game, not the anime. Is it good? It seems rather child-oriented to me ...

 

[EarthBoundGiygas]

I hate it when the English Dub (or English Subtitles) changes the meaning from the original Japanese.

Like alot of the Poorly dubbed shows especially 4kids.

 

[EarthBoundGiygas]

Full Metal Alchemist's English Dub is good as well. And I never had a problem with Pokemon....

Never seen FMA (always wanted to try it but I never have time), and I never got into Pokemon ... well I did, just, the game, not the anime. Is it good? It seems rather child-oriented to me ...

Ehh first 2 seasons were good, just dont EVER watch anny anime from 4kids its the equivalent of shoving rattlesnakes into your ears, and bees into your eyes.

 

[Phoenix Arrow]

I don't like telling people I read manga because there's a clear vocal majority and stereotype. I understand that for every guy with a body pillow there's like 1000 without, but people already have this belief that cartoons are for kids and you should grow out of it at 14 or whatever and this doesn't get challenged. You don't get news stories saying "respectable man enjoys Hellsing", you get "psycho marries anime character".

Comic books you can get away with now that the Avengers and Batman have good films. But what major live action anime films have been released in the west?

 

[Mcface]

The fanbase.
I instantly want to dislike everything they do. They are, by far, the most annoying people. I would rather listen to some wanna be tough guy blast shitty music through his phone for an hour straight, than listen to someone talk about anime for 5 minutes.

The huge amount of people with anime avatars (all of which look like they could be from the same show, mind you) will probably tell me how wrong I am, but i don't really value your opinion, so.

also, it has a lot to do with me just flat out disliking modern Japanese culture. I don't relate, don't like, and don't want to watch it.

 

[Mass B]

Full Metal Alchemist's English Dub is good as well. And I never had a problem with Pokemon....

Never seen FMA (always wanted to try it but I never have time), and I never got into Pokemon ... well I did, just, the game, not the anime. Is it good? It seems rather child-oriented to me ...

definitely check out FMA, i've only seen like 4 episodes so far, but from what friends tell me and from what i've seen, it's pretty darn good. Also, yeah pokemon is probably more for the kids, but it was such a big part of my childhood....

 

[Mass B]

I hate it when the English Dub (or English Subtitles) changes the meaning from the original Japanese.

Like alot of the Poorly dubbed shows especially 4kids.

sorry, i posted this earlier, bur forgot to quote. I'm pretty sure subs are usually better about that kind of stuff, offering little side note that explain cultural references that you wouldn't get in English dubs. At least, from what i've seen