Why are most Anime nowadays absolutely stupid.

[Dommyboy]

Old anime is good anime. A lot of the stuff now is just based on the fact it's a cartoon, skipping out on awesome plots.

That's not really true, you just need to know where to look. Anime to Japan is like hollywood to us. There's plenty of excellent recent animes. You just need to know where to look.

Unfortunately I haven't witnessed a good anime show in quite some time. Perhaps you could recommend somewhere that I could found about new anime creations. Being in Australia, it's not very easy to get a look at the new anime shows with the only channel showing them being SBS.

 

[sirdanrhodes]

Anime, even when it's English, you STILL have no idea what the fuck is going on!

 

[sanzo]

Well, that's probably a formula applicable to most shonen shows with more then 50 or 100 episodes. The longer it draws on, the worse it becomes >_<

Which is why a good rule of thumb is, stop watching past episode 50. Any good, self respecting anime will have run its course by then. The only exception I'm willing to make to that rule is Kenshin. Though even kenshin got pretty lame after the Kyoto arc.

Didn't FMA have like 56 episodes? Or something? can't remember...

But yeah, overall, that sounds like a decent rule.

In most cases, it seems that old anime movies are better then most shows storywise anyways... I still watch old 2 hours long anime(s) from the late 70s to late 90s period.

FMA had 52, and then a movie afterwards

Weirdly enough, the last few episodes were not as good as the rest of the show. Maybe he's right about that rule of thumb

 

[Crash486]

Unfortunately I haven't witnessed a good anime show in quite some time. Perhaps you could recommend somewhere that I could found about new anime creations. Being in Australia, it's not very easy to get a look at the new anime shows with the only channel showing them being SBS.

well it really depends what you're into and what you define as good, but as i stated earlier in the thread, my top 3 picks right now are

Gurren Lagann:
27 episode long comedy/drama/action mech anime from Gainax, the people who brought you FLCL

Soul Eater:
51 episodes, this is bone's latest project, excellent art style, they're on episode 48 right now so you can catch it before it ends if you hurry)

Spice and Wolf:
16 Episodes, this is more of a drama than it is anything else. It follows a merchant on his journey to take a human incarnated wolf back to her home in the north. Sadly they only made the first season, but its rumored a second season is soon to come.

 

[Good morning blues]

Since I was about 12 or so, I never really liked anime. The reason it's all absolutely stupid is because it's aimed at young, undiscerning audiences, or an audience of ridiculous nerds who will watch and enjoy it simply because it's anime. It's bad for the same reason porn is bad: because it doesn't need to be good in order to be profitable.

My least favorite anime cliche is the only joke that is ever used in anime: male character says something lecherous, female character reacts loudly and angrily, and possibly with violence. This isn't funny and never was funny, and almost every joke I've ever seen in anime is either exactly this or a variation on it.

Oh please, generalizing, eh?

Some anime is really, really serious. And I mean it.

There is good anime and there is bad anime. But, unfortunatelly, there is only this much good anime compared to heaps of bad anime. You know, just the same as anything else in other types of media ? (And anime is just a medium.)

Generalizing? Yeah! Kind of like saying asking "why are most anime nowadays absolutely stupid."

The majority of the anime we get over here were aimed at adolescents in the old country, and you'd better believe that includes almost all of the "really, really serious and I mean it" anime.

Yeah, it's a medium, but it's an especially restrictive medium. Television lends itself to certain types of representations, and anime others. I personally find the representations that anime encourages to be pretty goddamned stupid.

This isn't to say that I hate all anime. Akira was a great movie, and there have been one or two that I've liked since I outgrew the vast majority of it. By and large, though, it's even more of a wasteland than television or radio.

 

[mangus]

cough cough berserk. the internet is a place for research as well as griping, try to do the former before the latter.

 

[Crash486]

FMA had 52, and then a movie afterwards

Weirdly enough, the last few episodes were not as good as the rest of the show. Maybe he's right about that rule of thumb

Just about all of my favorite animes are right around the 27 episode mark. I'll generally watch an anime into the 50's range but if there's not an ending in sight by then, I'm done with it. I don't mean hard fast stop at episode 50 when the series fanale is 2 episodes away. But if it leaves the 50's its most likely not worth following out.

I watched all of FMA and thought it was pretty decent. I don't think I really liked the ending, and the movie seemed just an excuse to rectify their shoddy ending, but both were very acceptable. Not stellar, but pretty good.

 

[sanzo]

Well, that's probably a formula applicable to most shonen shows with more then 50 or 100 episodes. The longer it draws on, the worse it becomes >_<

Which is why a good rule of thumb is, stop watching past episode 50. Any good, self respecting anime will have run its course by then. The only exception I'm willing to make to that rule is Kenshin. Though even kenshin got pretty lame after the Kyoto arc.

Didn't FMA have like 56 episodes? Or something? can't remember...

But yeah, overall, that sounds like a decent rule.

In most cases, it seems that old anime movies are better then most shows storywise anyways... I still watch old 2 hours long anime(s) from the late 70s to late 90s period.

FMA had 52, and then a movie afterwards

Weirdly enough, the last few episodes were not as good as the rest of the show. Maybe he's right about that rule of thumb

I don't know. I actually really liked the end of the anime and the movie. I liked how it wasn't the usual happy end where everyone lives happily ever after. I'm aware that it's different from manga, but so what... I don't really read any manga these days, FMA especially.

Well, that was just me personally.

Spoiler

I just thought the whole "The other side of the gate is our world" thing was really weird. Also, even though she explained it, Dante being able to call the gate by using Rose's child was also kinda out there

I did like the movie though

 

[Raptoricus]

another manga I would LOVE to see go to anime if done right is Saint young men...a satirical comedy where Jesus, and Buddha come to earth as mortals and are room mates in the modern age.. funny as hell.. more so with JC blowing all the rent money on samurai armour.

WOW, that sounds mind bendingly funny!

On topic, yeah I'd totally agree that there is a hell of a lot of bad anime out there, just like in any other form of media, like it's been said, you just need to find the good stuff, read some synopsis's before you start watching them is a rule that I always follow. Most of the one's that have been mentioned here are good in my opinion, especially Samurai Champloo, if you liked Cowboy Bebop then go for it, it's by Shinshiro Watanabe who is the same guy who made Cowboy Bebop, so it is pretty similair in style.
Well that's my two cents anyway, I'd go more into it, but I'm feeling ill today.

 

[Crash486]

I'm usually not a huge fan of OAV movies that deviate too far from the plot of the original anime. FMA's movie was nice in that it actually picked up where the anime left off. I have a vastly different opinion of the cowboy bebop movie "Knocking on Heaven's Door." It wasn't that it was a bad movie, it had everything that made cowboy bebop great, it's just that I was so happy with how they ended bebop, it didn't need to be resurrected.

It's the equivalent of someone writing in a few more pages into the end of the bible with a purple crayon.

 

[Raptoricus]

I'm usually not a huge fan of OAV movies that deviate too far from the plot of the original anime. FMA's movie was nice in that it actually picked up where the anime left off. I have a vastly different opinion of the cowboy bebop movie "Knocking on Heaven's Door." It wasn't that it was a bad movie, it had everything that made cowboy bebop great, it's just that I was so happy with how they ended bebop, it didn't need to be resurrected.

It's the equivalent of someone writing in a few more pages into the end of the bible with a purple crayon.

Very true, I hope you haven't heard (or rather don't hear about) the live action movie that's coming out soon, that's more like taking it and smearing it in grade A turd by the sounds of it.

 

[Crash486]

Very true, I hope you haven't heard (or rather don't hear about) the live action movie that's coming out soon, that's more like taking it and smearing it in grade a turd by the sounds of it.

I've heard, sadly. I'm hoping it never makes it to fruition. Right now as far as I know it hasn't gone into production. Maybe if we hope hard enough, it will just be filed away as an internet rumor and nothing more.

 

[More Fun To Compute]

Well, that's probably a formula applicable to most shonen shows with more then 50 or 100 episodes. The longer it draws on, the worse it becomes >_<

Which is why a good rule of thumb is, stop watching past episode 50. Any good, self respecting anime will have run its course by then. The only exception I'm willing to make to that rule is Kenshin. Though even kenshin got pretty lame after the Kyoto arc.

The only long running shonen manga with any legs that I can think of is One Piece. I would say that it actually gets better as it goes on and the anime that isn't filler is also good.

 

[olicon]

It fills me with dread, and even shame, that the last anime shows I enjoyed were Lucky Star and Azumanga Daioh. They both belong to this genre of female high school students who do nothing but talk. I'm serious, that's all it is. It's the stupidest premise I've ever heard, yet somehow it reaches me, and it's funny to watch. At the same time though, I feel a little weird watching it.

The thing is, those ones are usually produced much better though. (Try Kannagi sometimes, you'll love it).
Like all things in life, there are fewer good anime than bad ones. Guess which ones are cheap and are usually taken overseas to sell to kids?
If you want good anime, you would normally have to dig a little deeper. It's like finding good books at the store. If you go to the classics section, you have the best of the best, distilled and proven by time. If you go to the new arrival section, you'll have to take your chances. You could try reviews, but they won't always be very accurate.

 

[sanzo]

It fills me with dread, and even shame, that the last anime shows I enjoyed were Lucky Star and Azumanga Daioh. They both belong to this genre of female high school students who do nothing but talk. I'm serious, that's all it is. It's the stupidest premise I've ever heard, yet somehow it reaches me, and it's funny to watch. At the same time though, I feel a little weird watching it.

Azumanga Daioh is possibly one of my favorite anime of all times, and I'm sure as hell not ashamed to admit it.

AzuDai is a peculiar type of show: it seems like it's meant for the kids, but I don't think you can actually appreciate it unless you're older.

When I watched that show, I can remember thinking "Hey, I used to do stuff like this all the time with my friends when I was in high school". It's familiar in a way. I think that's what makes it so good

Edit: That and Osaka. I've yet to see another character turn randomness into such hilarity

 

[doctorwhofan]

I like Bleach.

Then again, I started watching anime before I knew the word, starting with Star Blazers at 8. Then Robotech. Ranma 1/2. Neon Genesis Evagelion. I own a ton of them on DVD. My favouites are FMP!, Bleach, FMA, Crest of the Stars, Trinity Blood, Hellsing, and Kenshin.

There are stupid ones. However, most Anime require starting at the beginning or else it's utter nonsense.

You, sir, have good taste. That is all.

THat's Ma'am to you!

as for manga being the original form. Not always. FMP! and Crest of the Stars started life as a book or light novel in Japan. Crest FEELS like a book and FMP! has feel of realism in its action scenes and plots to be a book.

Regardless, FMP! is my favourite. I named my dog Sousuke. I like Heero's slightly more inept "cousin"

I forgotto mention Gundam Wing. Love that one too!

 

[FROGGEman2]

Ahh, it's just that none of you know where to look. Paprika, My Neighbor Totoro, Spirited Away, Nauusica (i think that is how its spelt)THEY are the good films in Anime.