Poll: Anime...

[Cowabungaa]

It's different in the same way Coke is different from Pepsi. They might feel a little different, but in essence, it's the same stuff. The reason some of your mentioned creations have different art style is simply because they have a bigger budget behind them than your average anime show. Also, look at the faces and the style of animation from 3 random anime titles that come to your mind. Arguing that the style is diverse is simply futile.

Also, can anybody explain what's the fascination with this about in the first place? Reason why I'm asking, and this speaks for itself:

Spoiler

For god's sake, I almost puked in my mouth the first time I saw this thing. Does everything that's popular have to be converted to anime?

O gods get that trailer away from me, Wolverine in anime form? Ewwww...

*ahem*

Anyway, about the styles, I'm not saying there aren't any shared characteristics. They're all still anime, of course, but saying that they're all the same is simply not true. A poster above me puts it really well:

There's basically two main camps for the animoo.

Legendary Anime-

Yeah, that's a bit of a reach around but this is the stuff that breaks down barriers and generally is well received everywhere. We're talking about Miyazaki films and shows that are widely revered like Cowboy Beebop, Ghost in the Shell and Trigun. These are animes that typically blend- they're not rooted in the traditional "holy shit those are huge eyes and boobs" style you'll see in generic anime. There obvious trends from westernized styles, and sometimes even the English dubs can out do their Japanese counterparts.

That anime-

There hair is huge, their eyes are huge, and they're going to spend 30 episodes training and powering up. This is typically the stuff that is actually confusing- unlike other regions Japan typically puts out their anime as soon as it's ready- there really isn't a proper "season" so much as a story arc. So what happens when you get something like Bleach where the show literally catches up with the manga? Filler content. Typically this stuff relies on stock humor to try to carry it through tired morals and generally bad character design.

Sadly, most anime is indeed 'that' anime, but that doesn't mean that there actually is quite a few different anime styles out there, it's just that one of them is the most popular and the one you'll see the most. Shame, because it's that style that often puts people off anime, and I too really dislike it.

But you can hardly argue that Studio Ghibli's style is the same as Cowboy Bebop's or Pokémon's style. And the difference in style goes beyond art style, it's also in the animations, general tone, that sort of thing. Like in 'that' kind of anime you have all these weird facial expressions and motions, like this:
Sadly, again, that seems to be popular, but that doesn't mean that every anime style uses them. I'm glad they don't, I would've hated anime if that would be the case.

I know the Yu-Gi Oh one, but where are the others from?

The first is Grave of the Fireflies, 3d is Cowboy Bebop and the 4th is Spirited Away.

 

[Zannah]

I like anime in general, with the exeption of occasional series that get just too goofy (must... kill... uzumaki... naruto)

 

[AhumbleKnight]

My problem with Japanime is that 95% of it falls somewhere between Bizarre Jelly 5 and Princess Robot Bubblegum.

Spoiler: Youtube videos

Also; why do Japanese cartoons get their own special name, but cartoons from other countries don't?

From my understanding, please somebody correct me if I am wrong, the term 'Anime' was originally the name of the company that makes a lot of it. Same same for 'Manga'. They each have their own unique style and thats why japanese cartoons of simular styles are called anime and manga.

 

[acosn]

The second one is Cowbow Bebop, but I have no idea what the other two are.

Grave of the Fireflies and Spirited Away.

Grave of the Fireflies dealt with the US detonating the Atomic bomb over Hiroshima. Did a very good job depicting....

ok scratch that, I think I'm confusing grave of the fireflies with another movie having gone and read the wikipedia. Gimmi a sec

EDIT:

Ok, no, apparently since someone else agrees it is Grave of the Fireflies. Miyazaki had nothing to do with it directly though- just thought I'd throw that out there.

From my understanding, please somebody correct me if I am wrong, the term 'Anime' was originally the name of the company that makes a lot of it. Same same for 'Manga'. They each have their own unique style and thats why japanese cartoons of simular styles are called anime and manga.

Eh, no. Close though, Anime is simply the Japanese term for animation. Trying to lump it all into one category really doesn't work- the only thing they have in common is a point of origin, but if http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Modernanime.jpg is any guess then you can see why blanket statements about anime don't work.

Just like how there's bad American films there's bad Anime. Just like how there's classic films, there's classic animes too. Its not all a vast array of narutos.

 

[Zealous Kringle]

/snip

It's different in the same way Coke is different from Pepsi. They might feel a little different, but in essence, it's the same stuff. The reason some of your mentioned creations have different art style is simply because they have a bigger budget behind them than your average anime show. Also, look at the faces and the style of animation from 3 random anime titles that come to your mind. Arguing that the style is diverse is simply futile.

Also, can anybody explain what's the fascination with this about in the first place? Reason why I'm asking, and this speaks for itself:

Spoiler

For god's sake, I almost puked in my mouth the first time I saw this thing. Does everything that's popular have to be converted to anime?

I'd say more like different in the way Coke is from Fanta or V. Frankly I like a good portion of it and can understand the appeal of a few of the ones I don't but, feh, if you don't like CO2 in your drink...
I can't really think of any other Western work turned anime-style at the moment, aside from Halo: Legends but, jeeze, if I hadn't seen the title on that I would have suspected it was a Ninja Gaiden cash in.

 

[acosn]

So a large part of it is shit.

But how does that disqualify the entire genre? The lion's share of Hollywood action movies is shit, as is a significant portion of literature, television shows, Western comic books, pop music, etc etc. Hell, the only form of entertainment I can think of where very few big titles are utter rubbish is actually video games. Maybe we are spoilt that way.


But Manga and Anime have spawned people like Masamune Shirow, Mamoru Oshii, Hideaki Anno, Katsuhiro Otomo, Kosuke Fujishima, Hayao Miayazaki, among others, can't be worthless. I'd kick 90% of Western TV shows to the curb for Ergo Proxy, just as I consider GitS: Innocence and Mononoke Hime to be masterpieces of Sci-Fi and Fantasy, regardless of medium.

Honestly I like the animated series of GitS more than the movies. If there's one thing I hate its when they get bogged down in long, drawn out dialogue sessions that literally only debate morality and do little for the plot.

If you literally need that for the plot to make sense you've failed somewhere. Both of the Ghost in the Shell movies gave me migraines, no joke, and I fell asleep half way through the second one the first time I watched it. I ended up having to read the mangas to make heads an tails of it.

 

[James Hueick]

Anime is god's gift to the world!

 

[Bat Vader]

Yes, I do like anime quite a bit. I will admit though that I have been watching less and less of it. I have the entire Death Note series on DVD and have not yet started watching it. Mostly because when I want to start watching it I get side tracked and have to either go to work, play WoW/video game, or read.

 

[Falconus]

I like Anime. And by Anime I mean the animation style. which is a special form of limited animation based on strong character poses. And yes, these:

to

to

to

all use the same animation style, which I'm not going to go into detail about because I'd basically have to write an essay detailing several different animation styles to explain it, and I don't feel like spending an hour writing.

 

[Ghostkai]

Favourite series is Cowboy Bebop.

Recently watched all of Gantz, it's not bad.

 

[AbsoluteVirtue18]

It all depends on the anime.

 

[Cowabungaa]

all use the same animation style, which I'm not going to go into detail about because I'd basically have to write an essay detailing several different animation styles to explain it, and I don't feel like spending an hour writing.

That I can see, but not the same art style. That's what I wanted to point out with that post, not all anime's look and feel the same.

 

[NghtmaresXNoVaKaiNe]

I like SOME anime. I love Miyazaki. I love almost anything that Studio Ghibli comes out with, especially 'Grave of the Fireflies' which is the only movie to make me sob like a baby.

Ahh, how could you truly enjoy that while feeling so horrible. I love the Miyazaki movies and Grave of the Fireflies was beautiful (for a much older movie). But it was so sad that I laid in my house depressed for half a week.

I personally like steampunk animes (Fullmetal Alchemist being the king). It breeds two bizarre concepts, adds in a handful of war, some really awesome fight scenes, and excellent story and some of the best voice acting (both dubbed and raw) that I've ever seen. Mmm.

Another good one is Trigun. It's an absolute comedy up until episode 14 or 15 where the jokes start to dull and the main characters once quirky and hilarious actions have ceased.

Last but not least, Desert Punk. And awesome series with great character development, a great story (you can sink your teeth into it...no no wait that lines for Hellsing. AHAHAH! Cause it's about vampires. Ahahaha! o-o)

Anime does take a bit getting used to though. If alls you've watched in your life is american cartoons then you'll probably be thrown for a loop that the story actually continues, it's not just an 11 - 23 minute story arc about a character learning a moral or Wile E. Coyote chasing that damned Roadrunner (He'll catch him someday...you watch. And when he does, he won't know what to do with him, just like a dog chasing a car or the Joker finally catching the Batman.

All in all, animated awesomeness lies in what you appreciate. If it's big-breasted schoolgirls battling for honor against a horde of blue demons...so be it. If it's a small, fairly squarish, white kid with a secret lab the size of 15 football fields, somehow, hidden behind his bookcase, then awesome...because I like Dexter's Lab too...

 

[EeveeElectro]

I like most of it, but some just go too far, like Ninja Schrolls.
I haven't watched it in ages, I might find some to watch now I've got some free time.
They need to know the basic measurements of women too.

 

[Sergeant Schatten]

i usually watch the anime of manga ive read
and i guess it's like seeing a movie based on a book
they usually don't do it justice