How do you feel about anime?

[A1]

I like to think of myself as a dedicated anime fan although I don't think I'm on the level of an actual otaku.

However I'm afraid that the question of "How do you feel about Anime?" does seem to be at least a bit flawed and problematic.

I believe that the most fundamental difference between Japanese Animation and Western Animation is variety and application.


In the West animation is generally just used for either children's content or adult comedy (shows like Samurai Jack, Justice League, and Avatar: The Last Airbender may contain certain elements that may appeal to adults but it still doesn't change the fact that the primary target audience is young people).

But in Japan animation is used for pretty much everything: action (Mobile Suit Gundam 00), drama (Hitohira), tragedy (Texhnolyze), crime drama (Black Lagoon), science fiction (Betterman), medical drama (Black Jack), comedy (Desert Punk), horror (Boogiebop Phantom), fantasy (Record of Lodoss War), psychological thrillers (Death Note), children?s content (Pocket Monsters), Cyberpunk (Ghost in the Shell), romance (Ai Yori Aoshi), adventure (Nadia: The Secret of Blue Water), sports (Prince of Tennis), slice-of-life (Azumanga Daioh), realism (Jin-Roh: The Wolf Brigade), mystery (Higurashi no Naku Koro ni), even pornography (La Blue Girl). Heck, there are even a number of anime and manga titles that revolve around gay or lesbian relationships. There's more that I haven't brought up but I think I've gotten my point across.

Even Yahtzee, who by all accounts is pretty much clueless when it comes to Japanese culture, has admitted (and I'm paraphrasing here) that there is a lot of variety in the world of anime, which of course would pretty much seem to be an understatement all things considered.

It's really not accurate to speak of anime as if all of it were the same because such an idea would needless to say seem to be, all things considered, extremely far from the truth.

 

[TheLaofKazi]

Anime is a medium, not a genre. They tell stories as wide and varied as books, movies, tv, video games, comics, etc.

I'm not one to care about technicalities, but wouldn't the medium be animation, and the style be anime, and the genre be whatever it is?

But yeah, I agree with you, anime is not limited to one type story or whatever, although it does have it cliches and trends, as with all styles, genres, ect.

 

[JimHarryinc]

For all of you who won't give it a chance, though, I have an article a friend of mine wrote that I think is relevant to this thread.

http://www.thespoonfeed.com/why-after-only-two-episodes-you-will-love-anime/

I'm sorry, but I could not get into that at all. As soon as he said we were wrong, I lost all interest. No offense to you, but it is these people who drive me away. The ones who presume to know what is best, and how everyone else is wrong because they don't agree with them.

That seems fair, although a bit quick to judge an article by its opening paragraph.

 

[Vykrel]

imo, most of it is ridiculous crap, but there are a few exceptions.

i love Trigun, Yu Yu Hakusho, and the original Pokemon series. Cowboy Bebop and Full Metal Alchemist are also good

 

[Gordon_4_v1legacy]

The further back you go for Anime, paradoxically the better it becomes. I've recently gotten a hold of Space Adventure Cobra and the original Bubblegum Crisis and they're both brilliant despite being as old as I am (nearly). Teknoman, Neon Genesis Evangelion and Ninja Scroll were pretty much what sold me on the Genre, and anything Studio Ghibli has made is as good as Disney. I don't mind some of the newer stuff, Queen's Blade is a guilty pleasure if only to see the absurd moon logic the show runs on.

Remember though, you are not your fandom and your enjoyment of your chosen medium should never be affected by the hooting dick-holes who ruin it for everyone else.

 

[ninetails593]

I enjoy anime but I absolutely hate dubs (excluding Baccano! and other anomalies). I've been watching One Piece, Fist of the North Star, and Lucky Star.

 

[A1]

I love anime!

I seem to be slowly running out of new anime series to watch...

I'm running into the exact same problem. I grew up watching anime, but the only recent series that have piqued my interest are Canaan and Blassreiter. I think most of this is because of the moe boom that Japan is just now dragging itself out of.

I'm waiting for some more mature and thought provoking stuff to come out of Japan and all I'm seeing is K-ON! clones...

Well you do know why the Moe boom happened in the first place right?

The rise of online viewing and streaming made piracy a very serious problem for the industry and at least one point the Moe fans were pretty much the only anime fans who were still actually buying. Although fortunately the industry seems to be slowly but steadily coming around and adapting by coming up with new business models that revolve around online streaming and digital distribution.

So I don't really think that it's all the industry's fault. It's just the usual economic ups and downs I guess.

But don't get me wrong I don't have anything against the Moe art style. In fact I've heard that the anime Lucky Star is actually pretty good. I'll probably check it out at some point in the future.

 

[Owyn_Merrilin]

You'd think with an avatar like mine, I'd be a huge Anime fan, but actually, it just means I like UC Era Gundam quite a bit. When I was a kid, I was heavily into anime, but by the time Toonami went to one night of almost nothing but Naruto a week, I wasn't watching all that much. Now that there's no anime on before 11:00 at night, I don't really watch any. I still watch an episode or two once in a blue moon, but I do it because in Japan, animation is used to tackle pretty much whatever topic the creators decide to cover, meaning there's bound to be stuff that anyone will enjoy if they look hard enough. Basically, I like anime, but I'm more of a sci-fi/fantasy nerd than a straight up anime nerd -- it's just that there's plenty of anime that fits that bill.

 

[Enzeru92]

I love it and manga since they're basically the same thing and most anime wouldn't exist without their manga counterpart.

 

[A1]

I enjoy anime but I absolutely hate dubs (excluding Baccano! and other anomalies). I've been watching One Piece, Fist of the North Star, and Lucky Star.

Sorry, but I can't help but be curious about what exactly you mean by "anomailes". Do you mean anime that have stories that don't actually take place in Japan like Gunslinger Girl, Fullmetal Alchemist, Nadia: The Secret of Blue Water, Trinity Blood, Eureka Seven, and others?

 

[ninetails593]

I enjoy anime but I absolutely hate dubs (excluding Baccano! and other anomalies). I've been watching One Piece, Fist of the North Star, and Lucky Star.

Sorry, but I can't help but be curious about what exactly you mean by "anomailes". Do you mean anime that have stories that don't actually take place in Japan like Gunslinger Girl, Fullmetal Alchemist, Nadia: The Secret of Blue Water, Trinity Blood, Eureka Seven, and others?

No, I mean dubs that are better than their Japanese counterparts.

 

[Soviet Heavy]

For all of you who won't give it a chance, though, I have an article a friend of mine wrote that I think is relevant to this thread.

http://www.thespoonfeed.com/why-after-only-two-episodes-you-will-love-anime/

I'm sorry, but I could not get into that at all. As soon as he said we were wrong, I lost all interest. No offense to you, but it is these people who drive me away. The ones who presume to know what is best, and how everyone else is wrong because they don't agree with them.

That seems fair, although a bit quick to judge an article by its opening paragraph.

Well, to be honest, I did read the whole thing through, and my assumptions based on that first paragraph were justified. I can't stand people like that.

 

[theSovietConnection]

I don't mind anime itself, presently I've been getting into Black Lagoon and the old Space Battleship Yamato, but I have to say the most vocal portion of the community, they really grate on my nerves. There's also a tendency to just sweep North American animation, and really entertainment as a whole, under the rug. This bothers me, because I think there is a lot of quality North American work that is completely ignored for a lot of the reasons people also ignore Japanese anime, because they either can't or don't want to cut through the crap to find the true gems that are out there.

 

[Sakurazaki1023]

I love anime!

I seem to be slowly running out of new anime series to watch...

I'm running into the exact same problem. I grew up watching anime, but the only recent series that have piqued my interest are Canaan and Blassreiter. I think most of this is because of the moe boom that Japan is just now dragging itself out of.

I'm waiting for some more mature and thought provoking stuff to come out of Japan and all I'm seeing is K-ON! clones...

Well you do know why the Moe boom happened in the first place right?

The rise of online viewing and streaming made piracy a very serious problem for the industry and at least one point the Moe fans were pretty much the only anime fans who were still actually buying. Although fortunately the industry seems to be slowly but steadily coming around and adapting by coming up with new business models that revolve around online streaming and digital distribution.

So I don't really think that it's all the industry's fault. It's just the usual economic ups and downs I guess.

But don't get me wrong I don't have anything against the Moe art style. In fact I've heard that the anime Lucky Star is actually pretty good. I'll probably check it out at some point in the future.

I don't have anything against moe either, I just prefer more introspective and mature titles. I've heard a few of the moe titles are good, they just aren't my cup of tea.

On the topic of piracy and distribution, I have a personal rule. If I watch an anime as a fansub and I enjoy the series (aka watched more than an episode or two of it), I will buy the official english release. I actually watched Rental Magica when it originally aired in Japan and was finally able to fulfill my obligation to buy the series now that it has an english release.

 

[Sakurazaki1023]

I've only just started watching anime, I'm halfway through Higurashi No Naku Koro Ni at the moment. And it's completely awesome.

I have Serial Experiments Lain lined up next... that should be VERY different.

If those series are the kind of thing that you like, I can heavily recommend Ergo Proxy or Texhnolyze. Texhnolyze even has the same director as Serial Experiments Lain.

I tend to prefer the more adult oriented series, but I have no problem with a lighthearted, romance, or shonen series now and then.

Some personal favorites are:

Ghost In The Shell: Stand Alone Complex
Rahxephon
Ergo Proxy
Texhnolyze
Hellsing: Ultimate
Gunslinger Girl
Black Lagoon
Full Metal Panic
Blood +
RIN ~Daughters of Mnemosyne~
Darker Than Black
Trinity Blood
Witch Hunter Robin

Whoa... screw Serial Experiments Lain, I'm watching Texhnolyze. That looks so fuckin' epic.

Thanks, mate

It's an awesome series, but I will warn you that it can get a bit cerebral and artsy at times. The entire first episode is told completely mute with only a single spoken line. It does not baby the viewer in any way, so expect to keep your brain 'on' when watching it. It's also very subtle and not particularly wordy, so you will have to put the pieces of the plot together yourself.

That being said, it's one of my favorite mind-fuck series (second only behind Ergo Proxy), and it's a masterpiece of animation.

 

[A1]

I enjoy anime but I absolutely hate dubs (excluding Baccano! and other anomalies). I've been watching One Piece, Fist of the North Star, and Lucky Star.

Sorry, but I can't help but be curious about what exactly you mean by "anomailes". Do you mean anime that have stories that don't actually take place in Japan like Gunslinger Girl, Fullmetal Alchemist, Nadia: The Secret of Blue Water, Trinity Blood, Eureka Seven, and others?

No, I mean dubs that are better than their Japanese counterparts.

Oh. In that case do you know about El Hazard? Because as I understand it the English language voice work of that title is widely viewed as superior to the original Japanese voice work, with even the director and some other members of the production team viewing the english voices as the definitive voices of the characters. I myself am well acquainted with this title and I must say I think the english voice actors did really well.

 

[Hollock]

To be honest I'm not really passionate about any one nerdy thing, I'm not a film nerd, video game nerd, or anime nerd, I have a little intrest in all of them. I don't get too deep into any of them. As far as anime goes there are a lot I really really like, (the last one I saw was FLCL like a month ago and I LOVED it [ and I usually don't like robot anime, or comedies]}. But when I watch some, I notticed that I get really invested into whatever I'm watching. So if I find one that I like, , but I can go months without seeing them. And I'm probably one of the few people here who didn't grow up watching anime (except pokemon). And now that I'm opening up to them I'm getting to enjoy all these old ones that you only faintly remember (remember what it was like when you first saw Trigun? yeah I'm still a little buzzed from that). As far as where it's going, I like one that airing today, Highschool of the dead (actually what's up with that one?)(and I know this has some problems). The only ones I've seen that I don't like are the big 3 (Though I liked Naruto before the time skip, it was pretty good then!), Full metal panic, Samurai Champloo (that was really dissapointing), and Fairy Tail (Oh my GOD! I hate this! And it's the only one I ever hear my friends talk about). So I think my problem is that I only watch ones that are reccomended to me, and those are usually good.

 

[ckam]

Just like any other entertainment media out there: Crap until it convinces me wrong.