What is so great about Anime?

[Texas America Murphy]

Update V for Vendetta

You know how I know this is fiction? He comes really close to killing his douchebag schoolmate and doesn't. I've met Light Yagami's in real life. If the Deathnote were real the first ten pages would read

"That guy from my homeroom who always calls me a "fag" by jumping off a rooof
after he apologizes to me and the entire Glee club."

In Japan, everyone is a felon.

Okay seriously. You are going to rape her outside a 711? What is every woman in Japan Kitty Gervaise? Or are the Japanese police just hilarious incompatent.

 

[Texas America Murphy]

By the way, off topic question do you live with your girlfiend?.... Not that its any of my buiessness....

You're right. It's not.

Things I have learned today: people with anime avatars have a really creepy obsession with my girlfriend.

Seriously, what could you possibly need to glean from this piece of information?

A: Its a.... thing? from a novel I read, nothing Japanes about it.

B. This is going to sound really weird but my dearly beloved's name is Lenae (just one N not the two) and I wanted to start a club!

What the fuck are you talking about?

 

[Gigaguy64]

I actually do think EL is somewhat of a good starter series.
And i still need to see Please Teacher...

Seriosly man go watch please teacher ITS THE ONLY ANIME THAT GETS ROMANCE RIGHT

Even if its a relationship between a teacher and a student it still does it right.

You would be wrong about the Romance thing dude.
Tekkaman Blade does it, among many other things, right.

Though i don't doubt it does Romance well.

dude tekkaman blade looks like an action anime and if it has romance then it was a sub plot or something.

It is an action Anime.
But one of the main focuses is the interactions between the Characters.
It blends a large amount of Romance, Drama, and even Grimdark with the Action pretty well imo.

 

[mike1921]

Dear Nerds, explain to me what the heck the deal with Anime is.

A little bit of background before we collectively explore this artistic train wreck you call ?Japanimation.?

I?m a film student at the University of Texas. I have never seen an Anime before yesterday. I like to think that I give everything I watch a fair shake. Hell, I even watched an Irani film once. Now, my girlfriend Leanne is a member of our school's anime club, which meets every Friday night. Normally I don?t go with her because my JROTC usually meets on Fridays, but last night I was free because it was Christmas Eve (and its Winter Break), and my girlfriend invited me to have an ?Anime Christmas? with her and her friends who live in the area.

So I walk into the living room and there are these girls dressed up in these weird costumes and stuff. One of them runs up to me and shouts something like ?Cowiie Desi.? So I?m put off, but still determined to see what the big fuss is about. DVDs go in the player and I?m treated to what my girlfriend tells me is the most popular Animes.

First off we watched Naruto. I?ve seen German Art House cinema that made more sense than this. I guess it was about Ninjas, but they were all wearing orange jumpsuits? At no point did any of the plot make sense or any of the characters develop.

After that we watched two episodes of Code Geuess. It was like walking into a Mexican soap opera midway through the plot. Everyone was pulling gambits and double gambits and Russian reversals. I didn?t know who was betraying whom, and I don?t think those cardboard cutouts did either. Also, why is Britain invading Japan? We already did that!

Finally, we watched an episode of this thing Guren Lagan. It felt like I was six years old and watching Power Rangers again. You?d think this would be a compliment. A sort of return to youth. But even at 6 I was doubtful of the artistic validity of Power Rangers. Also, the fact that every character on that show was sexually attracted to a 12 year old girl is incredibly disturbing. Is this okay in Japan?

Some basic research reveals that these shows are some of the most popular Anime both here and in Japan. Why is it so popular? What is so great about these shows? I?m so confused. Nothing anyone does makes any sense, the characters are all cliches, and nothing ever actually happens.

I couldn?t help but notice that virtually half the people on this board of some sort of Anime character as their avatar, so obviously people here love it and its popular. But for all my education I cannot possibly comprehend why people call this ?art.? I was hoping that maybe y?all could enlighten me. There must be something I am missing

Edited for spelling.

The person shouting japanese at you is a weaboo, someone who loves danime so much it over-rided all common sense in their brain and made them decide if anime is great and comes from Japan then Japan must be great and they must do whatever they can to imitate their great culture. Naruto is popular but it sucks. Code Geass is only good if you watched it from the start in which case a lot of anime fans still don't like it.

May I recommend you watch Baccano? Judging by your post it seems like the kind of show you'd love.

 

[hawkeye52]

since anime is such a wide open medium its hard to pin down what it is. you could be watching say something involving massive robots that are big enough to use galaxies as shurikens. to something more simple such as the series bartender which is just helping sort out peoples problems through simply talking it out.

my personal preference of anime tends to towards echi comedy stuff but i also reguarly watch each bleach episode that comes out every week which as most people know is an action based anime that is mainstream in every sense of the word.

also from what you have watched it is just not good enough to watch a single few episodes of anime and write it off since its most animes are a continuous series meaning that when you miss an episode or two it becomes a problem catching up. also fans become very annoyed when the series just puts in a random filler because it delays the stories continuity more (and they generally suck)

 

[ICanBreakTheseCuffs]

1. You're a film student?
Well whoop-de-fricken-do that does not give you authoroty to decide what is or is not a good medium.

Sir, I completely agree with your statement but since he is a film student wouldn't it make since for him to be able to tell weither or not a type of film is structurely good?

Not if he believes that he can judge (for example) a 600+ anime from a handful of episodes, let alone an entire medium.
To put the above in to perspective it's as though he watched twelve seconds of Gran Torino (bad example I know but just roll with it) and decided that all films everywhere were just old men sitting on their prcch drinking beer and talking to their dogs, or eight seconds of Trasformors and claiming all films were just robots pissing on people.

Also you can argue what makes a film structurally good till you're blue in the face but that won't change the fact that art, any art is subjective, people like different writing tropes, some people have no sense of humor, others hate sad endings, others still love the concept of a regenerating preist with blessed swords dueling an imortal vampire that duel weilds massive hand guns while wearing a giant red fedora, structure can't account for taste.

I understand.I was mixing up what you and me call "good". To me nothing can actually be "good". Yes it can be structurally good as in how its put together.But the rest is up to the player/viewer/reader.It all depends on your preferences. When someone asks me how was a movie/book/game, I say "I liked it" because I can't tell them what's good or not.Again, it's all up to their preferences.If that guy thinks anime is bad its bad....in his view. If someone else thinks it's good its good...in their mind. See what I'm getting at.



On a side note, the guy only asked why so many people liked anime. He didn't want a entire flame war on weither or not anime a genre or medium when it's neither.

 

[Marik2]

You know how I know this is fiction? He comes really close to killing his douchebag schoolmate and doesn't. I've met Light Yagami's in real life. If the Deathnote were real the first ten pages would read

Hes actually being smart about it cuz I guess everyone would think hes the one who did it and they would do a investigation.

 

[Sephychu]

Bit broad. There are good anime and bad anime, and you seem to have been subject to some quite bad ones. Gurren Lagann is utterly bizzare, and rolling with the absurdity is part of it.

I'd suggest Miyazaki for some good stories and character development. FullMetal Alchemist is good too.

 

[CrazyMedic]

no offense but it just seems like you can't just kinda turn your brain off and go back into a child like state mainly with naruto and gurren lagann you shouldn't be thinking "hmmm I wonder if the jumpsuit is a metaphor for the suppression of the working class" you should be thinking "HOLY SHIT DID THAT GUY JUST SHOOT A FIREBALL OUT OF HIS FINGER AND BLOW UP A FOREST"it is one of those things that should be childlike enjoyment, also with code geass and a lot of more serious anime are you sure you were watching them in order and not one episode out of the 25 episodes because imgaine coming during the middle of lost and how you would feel.

 

[DarkRyter]

Update V for Vendetta

You know how I know this is fiction? He comes really close to killing his douchebag schoolmate and doesn't. I've met Light Yagami's in real life. If the Deathnote were real the first ten pages would read

"That guy from my homeroom who always calls me a "fag" by jumping off a rooof
after he apologizes to me and the entire Glee club."

In Japan, everyone is a felon.

Okay seriously. You are going to rape her outside a 711? What is every woman in Japan Kitty Gervaise? Or are the Japanese police just hilarious incompatent.

Yes, most high schoolers would try to kill people they personally know. But alas, Light isn't some pastiche of some flamboyant drama kid you used to throw into opposite gendered bathroom stalls.

 

[LordOmnit]

Jesus Christ. Light is really slow on the uptake. If I had found that I could kill people with a fucking notebook with my living room my list would look like[...]
::List::
Light is really bad at justice.

Too high profile. You don't change the world in a controlled fashion by making a huge entrance. The world is like a non-Newtonian fluid, too much force will only make it rigid. Also Light is not trying to do justice, he's thinking of making himself out to be justice. Again, also, you're justice looks to be anyone who disagrees must be killed, I'm reminded of a certain Orwellian nightmare scenario.
And judging from your further posts on the matter, I'm starting to wonder if you have no suspension of disbelief of if you are just trying to make this thread into a big batch of flame-bait.

Okay seriously. You are going to rape her outside a 711? What is every woman in Japan Kitty Genovese? Or are the Japanese police just hilarious incompatent.

Two things here: it is very common for anime to use that everyone ignores a crime happening nearby bit, and what was it? Two, three minutes of them harassing her? With people trying to walk away from it probably thinking someone else will call the police do you think they'll be in there with sirens blaring, guns drawn, and yelling for everyone to get on the ground in a minute or two? Maybe with some good luck and it being an American cop show not trying to pull the police brutality thing.

 

[Texas America Murphy]

Update VI

The thrilling conclusion:

Deathnote would be much better if it were about a man whose powers were that he could voodoo through people off of roofs with a flick of his pen.

The End.

 

[scbunchy]

Anime is just a style of animation. The problem you're having is that in film the visual style of a movie normally determines the tone and thematic elements of it. Take for example the Film Noir style. As soon as you see all that shadowy black and white you know you're in for gritty, hard boiled, "realism". In Anime the visual style tends to be ridiculous regardless of the subject matter, which makes it hard to separate how any given anime presents itself and what it's actually about.

 

[Marik2]

It is an action Anime.
But one of the main focuses is the interactions between the Characters.
It blends a large amount of Romance, Drama, and even Grimdark with the Action pretty well imo.

Well I think please teacher does it better cuz thats the whole focus on it

 

[A random person]

OK, I'll just chime in here because I'm not reading all of this.

Your problem is that you watched Naruto, kinda the popular poster child for what people don't like about anime. You also watched Code Geass, not exactly the best gateway series (though there's worse out there). And Gurren Lagann was made by the FLCL guys, it's known for its brand of insanity (though it gets more serious and heartfelt later on).

While anime may not be a medium, it sure as hell isn't a genre, and is still diverse enough so the impetus behind the "it's a medium" argument still works (anime isn't all about shonen, those just get promoted and well-known because they're easier to market).

I'll just recommend anything by Miyazaki and Kino's Journey, which is what I usually do in these situations.

Edit: Oh, and while I like Eva, it's a bad, bad idea to heavily recommend it to someone trying to get into anime, considering how many people immediately start hating Shinji (though personally, he strikes me as what would happen if you put Charlie Brown in a post-apocalyptic world). My friend who's not normally an anime fan loved it, but there's a pretty high chance of just further screwing things up with it.

 

[Gigaguy64]

It is an action Anime.
But one of the main focuses is the interactions between the Characters.
It blends a large amount of Romance, Drama, and even Grimdark with the Action pretty well imo.

Well I think please teacher does it better cuz thats the whole focus on it

I would think so too.
Im just saying that its not the ONLY one that does.

 

[Lisiecki]

Texas America Murphy: So, I'm still lost here.

Your girlfriend knows you mock her in public, but your still her nicest boyfriend?

Did the last one get her drunk and pass her around at parties?

 

[Roamin11]

By the way, off topic question do you live with your girlfiend?.... Not that its any of my buiessness....

You're right. It's not.

Things I have learned today: people with anime avatars have a really creepy obsession with my girlfriend.

Seriously, what could you possibly need to glean from this piece of information?

A: Its a.... thing? from a novel I read, nothing Japanes about it.

B. This is going to sound really weird but my dearly beloved's name is Lenae (just one N not the two) and I wanted to start a club!

What the fuck are you talking about?

Gwarsh your grouchy!

I dun't got a anime avatar,

And I am amused by the fact we both have a girl Named Lenae/Lennae who like Anime

Best luck, good wishes, lighten up!

 

[DarkRyter]

Update VI

The thrilling conclusion:

Deathnote would be much better if it were about a man whose powers were that he could voodoo through people off of roofs with a flick of his pen.

The End.

No, it wouldn't. It's a detective mystery/thriller. Deal with it.

Honestly, your flippant condescending tone towards critizing it does not help get your point across.

 

[stormcrow5]

Its just like saying whats the big deal about TV. and u just saw snips of the shows so just like anything with a plot line seeing 1 bit of it with no background on it of corce its gonna suck if u dont know whats happening happend or anything about the series. Of couce its not everyones cup of tea so to say, but then again what put on TV will appel to EVERYONE in the world? If u picked one and watched it of your own with all there is out there im sure u could find a anime you like