Anime, what a horrid little thing you've become.

[zombielifecoach]

I never really thought too much about Anime. The books give me a terrible headache(just can't get the reading back to front thing). But I recently came into the custody of Appleseed Ex Machina and several Gungrave DVDs and I thought they were "pretty sweet". So now I want to explore the Anime horizons. But I'm not much for the "killer-tentacle-penis-stuff". Guns or chicks with guns are cool. Even robot chicks with guns would be great. Hell if anyone knows of an series that has chicks, guns, robots AND the undead now THAT would be spec-friggin-tacular. If anyone knows of anything that fits the bill please send me a title or two in message so as not to bore the obvious learned Anime contributors with directing my Anime-noob ass down the road of Japanese Animatory Enlightenment. Thanks to any and all.

 

[thebobmaster_v1legacy]

BTW, most disservice you could do to most animes is watch the English version, which is usually badly dubbed and censored.


That said, since everyone else is, I'll post my list of favorite anime shows and movies:

Trigun (English dub is very high quality)

Full Metal Alchemist (only watched it in Japanese)

Outlaw Star (English dub is also very good)

Naruto (dear God, avoid the English version at all costs!)

The Getbackers if you can get past the Engrish

Mononoke-hime or Princess Mononoke (English dub is very good)

Steamboy (see PM)

Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind (it has Mark Hamill and Patrick Stewart. Nuff said)

 

[Zera]

You guys seem to be overexagerating the bad aspects of anime. Its ironic though since what I like about anime is how the characters overexagerate expressions. To me it makes the characters seem more believable, most of the time anyways. The truth is that there is bound to be something of your tastes no matter what you like. What is my tastes? Well I have plenty, but one of my favorites would be thrillers. Case and point look up an anime called When They Cry. It starts out as a generic harem comedy, but quickly goes straight to hell. Watch the first 4 episodes and see what I mean. And I try not to use the term Anime since it separates it from the rest of the worlds animation.

 

[Yaotl]

I find that the most popular and most known animes are the ones that sold enough in Japan to be valid for sale in the West, American companies pick this up mostly I think, but don't quote me on that.

So of course we probably miss out on some underground gem that is less known, for example, I didnt see anyone list Jungle wa Itsumo Hale Nochi Guu which is probably the funniest piece of anime to date or that brilliant masterpiece Paprika. These are two animes the later a movie mind you, that I find are almost never quoted as the great ones of our time, it's always Comboy Bepop, Trigun, Evangelion and on and on it goes, Gundam even. Trigun was really quite a fine piece altough as always I found it better represented in the original manga by Yatsuhiro Nightow, the Hellsing anime was shit, Hellsing Ultimate on the other hand was a brilliant animation much up to the standard of Kohta Hirano's childishly badass style.

Anyway, went off on some strange tangent there, my point is that what we get is what's worth distributing over here, what's worth the money to subtitle and gods forbid dubb (altough I will agree that sometimes it works), so we probably miss out on a few sweet gems only thoose freakishly obsessed Otakus know about. What I can say the Japanese do way better than us in the west is animated TV shows, because in all Western TV shows, animated or not, nothing really happens, even in shit like Lost and Heroes nothing really happens, just an epic plot-twist circle-jerk, and anime always goes somewhere which is probably why I watch next to no (especially american) tv shows.

 

[The Sorrow]

Yeah, Hellsing Ultimate is amazing. So is the manga.

 

[Nugoo]

It could sort of play out like Death Note where a goody two-shoes, genius-type character, lets call him Dave, develops a new quantum particle in a laboratory's particle accelerator. Through some inner karmatic reversal; such as Dave getting cancer (which isn't that uncommon in his field) or something emo like his girlfriend dying in a car accident; and then Dave decides to mutate the population with his discovery - after he makes a portable version of it though - and bring on the apocalypse, but secretly. Chaos ensues as he one by one starts mutating people - some get powers, some get horrible, horrible cancer, etc - and an antagonist starts to snoop around his lab after doctors find out what is going on. Shit, it's something new and doesn't involve a fucking giant robot or a cute sidekick.

That sounds exactly like an American comic book.

@thebobmaster: FMA actually has a really good English dub, too.

Now on to the reason I'm posting on this thread: FMA manga [http://www.onemanga.com/Full_Metal_Alchemist]! If you liked the anime, read the manga, it's quite a bit better, and this is coming from someone who loved the anime.

Another anime worth recommending is The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya. If you don't like anime because you can't understand what's going on, stay as far from this series as you possibly can. Otherwise, it's fantastic.

 

[greygelgoog]

Most anime I've ever seen alwyas makes me say in my head:
"what the fuck is going here?" "Why are they flying?" "What the shit is with that cat?" "Who made her a god all of a sudden?" "whoah, you guys can teleport? why aren't you robbing banks then?" "You can glow now? Wait, if you can glow, why are you fighting monsters, let some other masochist do that, you could totally become a pro spelunker, or a carny." "Oh, god, why? That's your sister you fucked up mutant!" "No, just no! Get the fuck out of that giant robot. That is totally unnecessary for the task at hand." "You're how old?!" "Just kill him already! screw the rules, you're rich!" "Ok, Light, I know you're a derranged psychopath, cram school could do that to a human, but there's a hot girl throwing herself at you, and you're not on top of that like a cathedral on catacombs. I don't want to see this actually happen, but seriously, every other guy around you is drooling over this chick and you treat her like she's a pile of ants. God, you deserve the police to lock you up, I don't care if you're a magnificent bastard."
I could go on for pages and pages at a time, but no one wants to hear about my confusion.

Stupid works of fiction, always doing things that don't happen in real life!

 

[Jhereg42]

It's not that anime has decreased in quality, it's that the volume of anime has been increasing, along with access to it. Aside from the classics, there is usually at least one good series produced in each season. It's just a matter of wading through the crap to find it. Shakugan no Shana, Claymore, Black Lagoon, Bacanno, Ghost in the Shell: Solid State Society. . . all very good, but not well known outside of otaku circles at this point. If anyone has a chance to watch these I would suggest taking the time.

 

[GloatingSwine]

Anime hasn't gotten worse, it's just that the market for anime outside of Japan has opened the pipeline far enough that now the shit gets through as well as the quality. Anime has always been this bad and always been that good.

Well, no, there's always been shit released.

When I look back on the stuff I used to watch in the mid nineties or so I realise just how bad we had it in the days before internets. These days, we are actually getting the decent shows, the stuff that no-one would possibly have taken a risk on before, no matter how popular it was in it's home country.

 

[GloatingSwine]

Anime was some American jackasses' idea to create a clever sounding word to make cartoons tempting.

No, it was some Japanese jackasses' idea to create a word that was easier to say than "animation", which gets really horribly mangled if you try and render it into Japanese.

 

[GloatingSwine]

And, of course, the fact that the OP couldn't understand Higurashi no Naku Koro ni, one of the best anime series of recent years, pretty much invalidates his opinion on anime full stop.

 

[Shamanic Enzan]

You watched "Ikkitousen", the show that's entire reason for existing is the stripping of women. I wouldn't take that as a complete example of anime. I'd recommend Death Note, Code Geass, and Ghost in the Shell as a more general appeal for the style. Claymore, Cardcaptor Sakura, Gunslinger Girl, Solty Rei, and Nadesico are more "niche" series you might want to take a look into. And if you love soap operas, there's always ".hack//sign"

 

[Koselara]

FYI... "Howl's Moving Castle" was a loose adaptation (character development & part of the plot converted to generic 'anime' types) of a young-adult novel of the same name by U.K. author Diana Wynne Jones. It can't quite be used in comparisons of good/bad anime, since the underlying story wasn't written by somebody even remotely connected to the industry.

 

[PurpleRain]

Wow guys, 3 pages. Who knew huh?

Anyway, I just read through everyone's comments and agree with most of you. I do enjoy some anime, the stylish ones, but this rant was mostly aimed at the shit that pouring out at the moment (mostly due to the rise of the net and the global age: www.crunchyroll.com).

I really hate this massive fanbase of anime fanboys and girls that dress up like their favourite characters. These are the people who think all anime are great and should be worshiped night and day.

And, of course, the fact that the OP couldn't understand Higurashi no Naku Koro ni, one of the best anime series of recent years, pretty much invalidates his opinion on anime full stop.

I understood it (aside form the freaky lightshow ending). It just sucked in terms of script and characters. The part with the girl stabbing her own head with the knife had me laughing until my sides hurt.

Honestly, I have no problem with hentai, which is unashamedly about sex. It just really irritates me, as it does the OP, when some anime have so much fanservice or sexual tension that they basically become softcore porn but are just unwilling to admit it. I hate when an otherwise-good anime is marred by meaningless fanservice.

Some hentia's fine, yopu just have to fight your way past the dickgirls, the incest, watermellon boobs, tenticles, rape, fetishes, etc.

Haveing sexual tension in anime is just pathetic. It's basically calling out for fanservice and trying to promot itself that way. When you get shows that are basically porn but without the porn, it really hurts to watch and just drags the whole story down shit creek and dumps it there.

Panty Shot + Explosion + Fight + Panty shot + Obscure philisophy + Panty Shot + Fight = your average anime.

The truth. Basically summed up what I said about the sexual tension. The need for panty shots is degrading to the viewer. Well, at least I felt degraded by watching it.

Anime and I have a love-hate relationship, and I mostly agree with Purple. I know it sounds like fuel for a fan-boy holocaust, but the most enjoyment I would get out of a series would be when something makes fun of it (read: Yu-Gi-Oh the Abridged Series).

"Mind Crush!" It shows how stupid Yu Gi Oh really is, what with everyone playing a card game... to determine the outcome of the future!!! But then, I didn't need to watch the abridged to realise how crap it was.

so your biggest complaint about anime is that it's not beleivable? pretty weak case man and i have to disagree with you.

Not that it's unbelieveable, just crap. If you can make some believe in the ridiculous and make them believe that, then it's truly great. I'm saying, I hate shit that's so unbelieveable and has no style or form to make you believe in it at all. Things like that rollerskating-battle-show-thing (I really should start reaserching what I write about) are crap because in no way does it try to entice the viewer. "Let's roller blade to the death team!" *changes channel*

i mean when it comes to over the top style things i'd think a mortal kombat fan would be the last person to call foul.

Haha, well played sir.

Everyone can't like every anime there is, but someone likes it. You can't ***** everytime you find something that isn't perfect by YOUR standards.
People are different you know

Some people like eating poo too.

 

[GloatingSwine]

I understood it (aside form the freaky lightshow ending). It just sucked in terms of script and characters. The part with the girl stabbing her own head with the knife had me laughing until my sides hurt.

If you think the "ending" is the end of the sixth story (the one with the rooftop bit), you don't understand it. There's a whole second season which turns everything you think you know about what you've seen on it's head.

Also, your summary indicates that you have not paid very much attention to the show. Higurashi is a mystery series. It's designed so that you have to put some effort into working out exactly what is going on.

Haveing sexual tension in anime is just pathetic. It's basically calling out for fanservice and trying to promot itself that way. When you get shows that are basically porn but without the porn, it really hurts to watch and just drags the whole story down shit creek and dumps it there.

Why is sexual tension "pathetic" in anime? Do you have the same response to it in any other media? If you do, you should probably seek some kind of psychiatric assistance for your sex aversion problems. Oh, wait, I just read your next sentence and you actually don't know what sexual tension means. You seem to think it means display of sexual characteristics to entice viewership (commonly called fanservice), rather than dramatic tension arising out of sexual attraction, overt or implied, between two or more individuals (characters in a fiction, in the case of anime).

Really, showing that you blatantly don't understand terms you're throwing around and criticising series you haven't actually paid a scrap of attention to doesn't make you look clever. Nor, in fact, does attempting to dismiss an entire medium of fiction because you don't like some examples of it.

 

[Sheppard]

My favorite anime series/movies are gundam, appleseed, and robotech. But of course the best is HAMTARO!!!!!

 

[PurpleRain]

I dislike Higurashi for it's dislogue and terrible characters. I know all about the second season about the girl trying to find through the different realities the one where no one dies. My friends raped it all down my ear. I still hate the show. I've been trying to watch it, it's just too hard for me to get into. It's just terrible. I don't even care enough about the characters to make me want to work out the mysteries. Like an old 80's hammer horror, you don't give two shits about the teens, you want them all dead.

As for the sexual tension in anime, what I ment was that they use it to promot itself. Their's sexual tension in NG:E but yet no panty shots or incest like (insert bad anime name here). Sorry if I mis-wrote what I was trying to say.

 

[Niniux]

I'm absolutely in love with Studio Ghibli's work, even if the movies are somewhat for kids. Something about them invokes the same feelings that old RPGs like Secret of Mana and Chrono Trigger used to invoke. Just the music and the beautiful scenery makes for a magical experience.

Yeah, I'm a dork.

 

[nightmare_gorilla]

As for the sexual tension in anime, what I ment was that they use it to promot itself. Their's sexual tension in NG:E but yet no panty shots or incest like (insert bad anime name here). Sorry if I mis-wrote what I was trying to say.

so now you're complaining about incest, damn man are you against EVERYTHING fun?

joking... seriously i was kidding

it's been my experience that the gratuitus panty shots in anime aren't about getting people excited or trying to make people watch the anime, it tends to be used like physical comedy. a friend of mine bought me one called "agent aika" it had absolutley no sex or nudity in it but 90% of it was panty shots, it was technically a comedy designed just to be silly, i had a couple good laughs at it.

when it comes to things being beleivable or unbeleivable in context i basically boil it down to "does this make the anime more fun" if it does that i'll let it go, if it makes the anime less fun it has to be an interesting or unique concept. in baki the grappler some guy on alot of steriods started puking up green slime in the middle of a fight, after doing that his muscles shrunk and he went from beheamoth to lanky in 30 seconds, now in a fighter anime having a really skinny weak guy is dumb. but then he started using his arms like they were whips and that made the fight alot better. so even though it's kinda dumb the concept is really interesting so i actually liked it alot.