Poll: Problems With Anime?

[Hunter6475]

I watch anime from time to time so I guess I would be a casual fan, but a lot of the problems listed in the poll I can relate with. The top three would probably be

1) English dubs: I can think of only 2 shows where I could live with the English voices.
2) Oversexualization: I watched one anime awhile ago where it couldn't go more than 5mins w/o a fan-service shot or whatever every episode, I want plot not teases, there are other things for that if you know what I mean (ahem)..
3) The people(fans): There are people out there that are making a bad name for the rest of us anime fans. Best example is at school, If you enjoy watching it, great, I don't need to hear a 1 hour discussion about your favorite show/character/scene when all I asked for was what was the math hw?..

 

[Krafty_Krocodile]

1. the plots are usally generic
2. the art style makes all anime look the same
3. the fanbase
4. the fan-art
5. filler
6. fan service

 

[PureChaos]

people i've spoken to seem to think that anime is hentai, which is why they steer clear

 

[nomis101uk]

People are thinking way to deep about this. Its really fucking simple.

For the overwhelming majority of the population animie is something on the absolute fringes of our cinematic culture, something that they are only dimly aware of. So some of the answers given above about plots and characters is irrelevent. People don't know anything about those.

And when they do think about it, they think first and foremost: Total kids films. Not the Pixar kind that are kids films, but that are made so that adults can like em too. But something that's not meant to be seen by adults on their own.

Second, the animation and culture are so wierd to us, that we'd feel strange even watching it.

Third, the fanbase in the West is thought of as being hideously, hideously nerdy, wierd and obsessive. Its like, to borrow from Yahtzee, they are to nerds what nerds are to normal people. And frankly, thats not without some grain of truth, even if it is a generalization.

Because of these - particularly the third reason - I think a lot of people feel unconfortable watching them. I've only seen 2 animies all the way through (Spirited and My Neighbour...) and they were exceptional films. But I have to admit I almost felt as though I was doing something a bit dirty that I shouldn't tell people about. Something most of society wouldn't understand and would judge me for. Not something I'm usually concerned about, which I think speaks all the more to the problems anime faces in establishing itself in our culture.

 

[The_Fezz]

Terrifying voice actors and the fact that to a newcomer it's completely impenatrable.

 

[Tsaba]

Anime went from slightly conceivable to utterly ridiculous. A good example would be the gundam series.


I apologize (even though none of you care(haha jokes on me)), I spent 15 mins digging through crappy AMV's to find pieces of episodes to make my point and sadly the second one isn't that great for point making.... Anyways, it seems to me that japan has to keep out doing themselves, everything has to be that much better, and sometimes it's not the action in the series, it can be subtle crap like there outfits, hair, attitudes, emotions, the situations, and so on. Sadly, I believe that anime and games from japan suffer for it, not all of them, but, quite a bit. Don't get me wrong, some of them get it right, but, others get it so wrong they fall flat on their face.

Maybe it's just me, but, these are just my observations with whats wrong in Anime.

 

[Jesus Phish]

That, and many series are too similar to each other, I could seriously make up an anime called "Magical Girl Robot: Tokyo Complex" and you would need to google it to see if I was making it up or not.

Funny enough if you google it the first result has all those words highlighted in the abstract.

I don't like anime much because of it's western fanbase. They put me off by obsessing far too much over anime, that it makes me think either the anime is probably crap and because they so blatently love everything Japan, they're biased, so when they tell me to go watch Bleach because it's an amazing anime, I think it's probably a waste of my time.

If I was to ever watch an anime and then talk to these people, I wouldnt be able to stand the torrent of things I know doubt they have to say about it.

They (animes) all look very same-y to me. This is the same reason I don't watch those shows that all look like CSI.

I generally do not like the anime style of drawing. I don't like the body shapes, I don't like the expressions and mannerisms. I don't like how the characters all look interchangeable from one show to the next. I don't like how they all look like teenagers.

I think my biggest problem is as blue_guy said, it's all very exploitative. Series after series are churned out and at this stage I'd go out on a limb to say that there is a strong percent of anime that is made in the East, for those in the West (and I'm not talking about 4Kids here). I think it's too easy for someone to make an anime and by the sheer merit of it being anime people will buy it. I'll use that new video game Catherine as an example. That thing could honestly just be an anime. People are saying theyre going to buy both versions of it just for the cover art (buy a printer and print the other off). People will go and buy every little related item to that anime/game that's released.

And I know this happens with other forms of entertainment (star wars, blizzard games, halo games), but I don't think to anywhere near the extent it does with anime.

Hopefully I've not offended any of you and I hope you enjoy your animes, but it's really not for me.

 

[Foolishman1776]

When I say "other", I mean "all of the above".

 

[HK_01]

I personally find the animation to be severely lacking in anime series. Very static.

Then there's massive boobies which annoy me. That's not hot, that's ugly.

Mostly it's the terrible animation though. I stick to the manga mostly, it usually even looks better than the anime!

 

[_Cake_]

Emo teens.

 

[Mass B]

I treat anime much the same as I treat any other TV show or film, whether it's from Japan or not.

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

Glad to see some other anime fans who aren't blinded by devotion and are able to point out the flaws in their hobby.

This pretty handily summarizes the text wall I wrote earlier. Just like any other form of media, there is good anime and there is bad anime. The problems and stereotypes occur when bad (or just mediocre) anime become insipidly popular and color the public's impression of anime as a whole.

Here is an interesting thought experiment. Imagine that you live in Japan and decided to watch a popular American television show to see what the fuss is all about. You decide to watch Family Guy. How would your impressions of American television be affected? What if the show was a documentary on Astrophysics on the History Channel? What if it was a trashy 80s sitcom filled with sexism and implied wife beating?

I will admit that there are plenty of people in the anime community that are incredibly obsessive and blindly devoted to their chosen hobby. These people exist in every hobby, from gaming to gun ownership and there is nothing anyone can do to prevent these people from influencing the public perception of that hobby. Level headed and mature anime fans are just as embarrassed by their actions as you would expect. Gamers are embarrassed by the cursing 12-year-olds on Modern Warefare and Christians are embarrassed by WBC. There will always be fanatical sociopaths in any hobby.

Nice avatar. oh! and good point

If my avatar is good, than the image I cropped it from might make your head explode : )

Spoiler

yup, I've seen it before. Personally, i like him as regular Alucard a little better than as Genya

Have you seen this?

http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://static.dailystrength.org/groupfiles/9/1/7/0/10000719/g_1068542096.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.dailystrength.org/groups/anime-club/media/499086&usg=___qvr6HYNq55kFVvWEFU0TE_fKaM=&h=414&w=600&sz=86&hl=en&start=0&zoom=1&tbnid=xvB4aw_z_ydPTM:&tbnh=169&tbnw=225&prev=/images%3Fq%3Djuste%2Bbelmont%26hl%3Den%26biw%3D1142%26bih%3D860%26gbv%3D2%26tbs%3Disch:1&itbs=1&iact=hc&vpx=597&vpy=135&dur=414&hovh=186&hovw=270&tx=167&ty=145&ei=Qh37TJ3zEofAsAPfren3DQ&oei=Qh37TJ3zEofAsAPfren3DQ&esq=1&page=1&ndsp=22&ved=1t:429,r:3,s:0

Favorite Castlevania art ever. it's of Juste Belmont from Castlevania: Harmony of Dissonance

P.S. how do you put pictures into your posts like that? or videos? sorry i just never learned this

I believe there's already a thread for forum guides here in the Escapist.

Thanks. Btw, Felix from Golden Sun: The Lost Age? sweet. haha i have that game, never got around to beating it.... *runs to get gameboy*

Yeah he's my fave character in the series and too bad he didn't appear in Dark Dawn physically, only on flashbacks and if you want to beat it try watching walkthroughs on Youtube.

Yeah I liked Felix a lot too. I don't have DS, so i can't play the new one :/. Still, my favorite JRPG character is Ashton Anchors from Star Ocean 2/ Second Evolution/ Star Ocean EX (the TV show)

Back to the topic i already posted a thread 2 months ago about anime cliches that angers people and here it is. [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/18.234792-Your-most-hated-anime-cliche?page=1]

Seriously when will anime studios, writers, seiyus can come up with something that breaks from stereotypes with an interesting story.

Another reason why i like ashton. Unlucky swordsman with two dragons fused to his back and a wooden barrel fetish. I've never heard of anything like it. Plus, Star Ocean 2 had a good, complex story with complex relationship mechanics that lead to over 80 different endings or something. Problem is, i haven't met too many people who know of star ocean. just another example of how good japanese media is usually more under the radar.

well golden sun is also one of those good japanese media that well i can't say under the radar but rather didn't get proper advertisement. still it took six years to make a fucking sequel. and yes the anime that are good i know are like you said easily forgotten or flew under the radar.

Problem is, I haven't seen any of those low key animes haha (unless you count interstella 5555 as low key). I've only seen more popular shows like pokemon, Dragonball, DBZ, FMA, Bleach, etc. Basically whatever stuff was on toonami and some stuff that's on adult swim i have seen at least 30 seconds of

isn't that what the american anime market is. release the things that are guaranteed or have a high chance for profit and forget about the quality. well that's also what's happening to hollywood too. one or two good movies along with 15 or more concentrated feces.

Amen. it's a sad, sad truth.

not just sad, the ugly truth. anyway speaking of movies. most movies based on comics are getting good (ironman 1 and 2, batman begins and the the dark knight etc.)
btw speaking of ironman last night i watched the ironman anime and i could say it pretty good.
and the wolverine anime is especially facepalm worthy, trust me the wolverine anime will just disappoint you.

here is the iron man anime trailer:


and the wolverine trailer:


tell me what you think.

Wow the Ironman one looks good. I gotta check that out. Yeah Wolverine does look pretty lame, which is a pity.

 

[Nannernade]

I got to go with the terrible english actors they don't even sound into it when they are read their lines you can easily tell they are reading them from the script, at least in Japanese they sound like they're into it.

 

[ohellynot]

It's all the same. They are all rehashes and copies of each other, almost to a tee. The ones that happen to be innovative and well written usually tend to be labeled as "classics", since you know.. they're not painful to watch.

If thats the case try bakuman, it's still only in comic form, it's by the guys who did death note, completly driven by plot and a completely original plot. 10/10 in my book.

 

[mr_rubino]

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...<.<

Namek exploding was the longest 30 seconds of my life.

OT: The fans. The retreaded ground. It's called "Sturgeon's Law", not "Sturgeon's Excuse". If anime is truly the golden messiah that will lead us to the promised land that weeaboos claim, it should have so much more potential than every other form of media, so to say "Yeah well Hollywood and FPSes lol" is hardly any excuse. In fact, this makes falling into ruts worse, no?

EDIT: And of course most of the people who whine about English dubs (and never met an interchangeable MeguHaya clone they didn't like) are about 12 and have no concept of the actual bad (and some weren't even that bad... just very flat) dubs that came around when anime was gaining its foothold in America. They've been getting absolutely spoiled with good dubs in the last decade, just saying they hate English dubs because that's just what weeaboos are supposed to do, eh? Then to prove their point about "all" dubs, they post random clips from a no-money project noone saw. (Whatever noobs. "Nicole" was awesome in Chaos Wars.)

 

[cabalistics]

Okay most of anime is clichéd rubbish but so is most of music, most tv shows, most cartoon, most books and most movies you just have to use your common sense to screen out the crap for instance i mostly avoid anything set in highschools or with very young character if the plot description is something like finding love/ inner power with self belief/ robot/ magic powers I usually don't bother.

Here's my general list of stuff that doesn't fall into those traps and are worth watching

Black Lagoon
The story follows a team of pirates/mercenaries known as Lagoon Company, that smuggles goods in and around the seas of Southeast Asia in the early 1990s.[4] Their base of operations is located in the fictional city of Roanapur in Thailand, and they transport goods in the 80-foot (24 m) Elco-type PT boat Black Lagoon. Lagoon Company does business with various clients, but has a particularly friendly relationship with the Russian crime syndicate Hotel Moscow. The team takes on a variety of missions?which may involve violent firefights, hand-to-hand combat, and nautical battles?in various Southeast Asian locations and when not doing much, the members of the Lagoon Company spend much of their down time at The Yellow Flag, a bar in Roanapur which is often destroyed in firefights.

This is my favourite at the moment. It's a very gun heavy combination of 80's - 90's American and Asian action and gangster movies.

This is a pretty good sample of the action

Berserk
Born beneath the gallows tree from which his dead mother hung, Guts has always existed on the boundary between life and death. After enduring a terrible childhood, he spends his adulthood in brutal combat, pitting his strength against others in order to build his own. Life is simple enough for Guts until he meets Griffith, the inspirational, ambitious, and beautiful leader of the mercenaries, the Band of the Hawk. When Guts loses to Griffith in a duel, he is forced to join the Band of the Hawk, and, despite himself, finds a sense of camaraderie and belonging amongst them. However, as Griffith leads his soldiers from victory to victory, the bloody wars and underhanded politics reveal a side to him that nobody quite expected. Very soon, what seems like a straightforward march for conquest becomes a harrowing struggle for humanity and life itself. Can Guts, a simple warrior, defend those who have come to mean the most to him, all the while struggling not to lose to the darkness he has carried with him his entire life?

Kind of like an epic dark Conan the Barbarian

This is pretty good sample of the action

Witch Hunter Robin

Witches are individuals with special powers like ESP, telekinesis, mind control, etc. (not the typical hogwart and newt potions). Robin, a craft user, arrives from Italy to Japan to work for an organization named STN Japan Division (STN-J) as a replacement for one of STN-J's witch hunters who was recently killed. Unlike other divisions of STN, STN-J tries to capture the witches alive in order to learn why and how they became witches in the first place.

Starts of as a sort of police procedural with powers but develops into something much deeper

Intro

Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex

The world in the future is a place filled with crime made easier and harder to track with cybertechnology and cyborgs. This is where Section 9, a secretive agency dedicated to keeping public peace from behind the scenes, comes in. Major Kusanagi and her team explores and uncovers the truth behind some of the strangest crime puzzles in each episode... each of them a 'stand alone complex

Basically a much more technologically advanced intelligent 24 with great action

Intro second season

Hellsing Ultimate (OAV)

Vampires exist. It is the duty of Hellsing, a secret organization sponsored by the British government, to hide that frightening fact and protect the blissfully unaware populace. Along with its own personal army, Hellsing has secret weapons. Alucard, an incredibly powerful vampire, has been controlled by Hellsing for years. It is unclear how he feels about being a servant to the Hellsing family, but he certainly enjoys his job as a vampire exterminator. Seras is a fledgling vampire and former police woman. Although reluctant to embrace her new self, she is a valued member of the organization. Integra Hellsing, the current leader, is usually fully capable of fulfilling her duty, but lately, vampire activity has been on the rise. Unfortunately, the cause is more alarming than anything she could have imagined. A group long thought dead has been plotting in secret since their apparent destruction over 50 years ago. Plotting to plunge England, and perhaps the entire world, into war.

A great vampire show with properly monstrous vampires probably great for messing up Twighlight fans

Favourite bit slightly edited for spoilers
[/quote]

 

[[.redacted]]

I like anime. and for me, people saying anime is bad is like saying halo is bad; doesnt affect how and when i watch/play it, i just deny watching/playing it

The plain and simple truth (minus the halo).

Edit: Cabalistics, I notice you're missing Claymore from that list. For shame.

 

[instantbenz]

I enjoy anime ... enjoy is different than those freaky furries ... I think there are extremes on both ends ... I just don't get the white white ... the gray area makes science.

 

[cabalistics]

Edit: Cabalistics, I notice you're missing Claymore from that list. For shame.

I thought about adding Claymore but it's too similar to Berserk and although Claymore is amazing and looks a lot better Berserk made a bigger impression on me.

 

[SushiJaguar]

As a kid, watching Mighty Morphing Power Rangers, I was shocked to learn it was actually a huge rip-off of a whole group of Japanese TV shows. Since then, I've watched a whole load of anime, and the thing that annoys me the most is dubbing. Really, it contains the most terrible voice acting. Some people claim it's because the English-speaking VAs can't sound good enough because it's a different dialect and accent, but that's no excuse not to do the best job you can, instead of hiring the ones that sound furthest from their original VAs.

 

[[.redacted]]

Edit: Cabalistics, I notice you're missing Claymore from that list. For shame.

I thought about adding Claymore but it's too similar to Berserk and although Claymore is amazing and looks a lot better Berserk made a bigger impression on me.

Hmm, be that as it may, nigh everyone has heard of Berserk, Claymore is buried gem.