Poll: To the anime haters

[axlryder]

Edit: because people are mentioning the lack of poll options/similar style of the options. This thread is for a project I'm working on. I didn't want to bring it up, but since it's going to be a mostly seinen style anime designed to appeal to an 18-30 subset, I figured these poll options would be most appropriate. Sorry if they seem constricting, but this thread is mostly about trying to get non-anime fans to voice their reasons for disliking the genre and trying to help alleviate some of the more off putting aspects in my animation/art style.

Escapists, I need your help. Particularly, the help of those who don't really like the general anime style. I need to know EXACTLY why you don't like anime style and if there's anything that could remedy your distaste without just saying "make it not anime". I also need to know if there are any anime styles you consider most tolerable or like the best. This is strictly talking about the visuals; there's no need to mention the story or character aspects.

Here are some images that correlate with the poll
Miyazaki style

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Berzerk style

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Gantz style

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Hellsing style

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cowboy bebop

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samurai champloo

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Also, Jojo's Bizarre Adventure, even though it's not in the Poll

Spoiler

if there are any others feel free to list them down below.

Also, since it won't let me edit the poll, it should say they all "look" the same for the last option.

 

[SneeringCanuck]

I don't like any of them, they all look vaguely similar to me.

Not that I care about anime enough to learn about the styles anyway.

 

[axlryder]

I don't like any of them, they all look vaguely similar to me.

Not that I care about anime enough to learn about the styles anyway.

So what is it that you don't like about anime then?

 

[Lionsfan]

Don't really watch that much anime, but some of my favorites are Dragonball Z, Cowboy Bebop, and Gundam Wing for whatever that's worth.[footnote]Yeah I know those are probably some of the most popular ones, but whatever[/footnote]

 

[z121231211]

Did you just list your favorite anime and called them "Styles"? There's genres associated with anime you can use, you know? And what if someone hasn't seen those animes (you know, like the people who hate anime) and therefor has no frame of reference to classify what "style" they've even seen? (I'm only really familiar with Samurai Champloo on that list)

Not that I care about anime enough to learn about the styles anyway.

Some people have to admit this before giving out their opinions on the whole medium.

 

[senordesol]

What generally turns me off to anime is that a lot of the plots can be boiled down to: a quest for revenge OR to prove I'm the strongest. Now I must stress that this is not all of them, but certainly enough to make up a significant portion of the base.

Furthermore, what bothers me the most is a lack of relatable characters. I was watching this one series -Claymore- which I thought started out pretty good. Here's this chick who can barely keep up with this monstrosity and is basically getting her ass kicked until someone distracts the thing and she kills it, but by the end of the series she's so frickin' over-powered that I'm not exactly sure what's a threat to her or not. She's basically operating on the level of a minor Greek god, and I've lost total investment in her character. Same issue with Van Helsing, and Dragon Ball.

I also gave another series 'gunslinger girls' a shot, but had to quit because I encountered the same problem in a different context. The characters basically acted like unfeeling robots, and I just can't bring myself to care about a plot that boils down to 'they needed to do this thing, so they did.'(over-arching plot of the series not withstanding because I wasn't able to make it past Episode 3)

Alternately, I LOVED Desert Punk, I LOVED FMA, I LOVED The Last Airbender (Yes, I know that's Amerime now ask me if I care). These were all about the characters; learning, growing, fucking up, making difficult decisions, and even though Aang and Edward basically had superpowers it was still pretty clear what the limits of their respective abilities were in any given context.

Give me more anime like that!

 

[Don Savik]

Miyazaki is great because it doesn't stick to a lot of anime stereotypes, in characters and setting. I think the movies have the best stories out of any anime ever.

Hellsing style is waaaaay to overdone to be honest. Its like when I first saw the Bleach anime after reading the books I had. It lacked the unique art style that the author had, because it was a whole team of animators and they're rushing for deadlines. It just looks bad and all blends together. Its why I tend to stay away from the tv show versions.

I agree with senordesol about the characters that are emotionless robots. I can think of so many animes that have characters train for episodes at a time, most of the time as subplots. And in the end you already know the main character is going to show up and super punch the main villain with the power of his bloodline into victory. Thats what I hate about Naruto. Some character ALWAYS is secretly training a move off-screen to use for a perfect moment that 1-hit KOs everyone. But next season, its not as strong because someone has an even stronger attack apparently.

I like Ghost in the Shell, Cowboy Bebop, Trigun, FMA......and thats about it to be honest.

 

[SckizoBoy]

sneeeeeeeeep

Uh-th'-waaah?!

You can't really segregate anime styles like that, however much it may seem like it. If anything, though I separate it by studios: Gonzo; Production IG; Manglobe etc. etc. all of whom have a particular aesthetic within their repertoire that they can call their own.

Anyway, I don't really care, because there have been some damn good anime from all of 'em.

I also gave another series 'gunslinger girls' a shot, but had to quit because I encountered the same problem in a different context. The characters basically acted like unfeeling robots, and I just can't bring myself to care about a plot that boils down to 'they needed to do this thing, so they did.'(over-arching plot of the series not withstanding because I wasn't able to make it past Episode 3)

Most of the episodes are either standalones or come in really short arcs... episode... 10 I think, is rather difficult to watch... anyway, read the manga, it's much better and far more relatable, because I found the voice acting in the first series very wooden, especially the central fratelli and not enough Triela, who I think has the best plots throughout.

Alternately, I LOVED Desert Punk, I LOVED FMA, I LOVED The Last Airbender (Yes, I know that's Amerime now ask me if I care). These were all about the characters; learning, growing, fucking up, making difficult decisions, and even though Aang and Edward basically had superpowers it was still pretty clear what the limits of their respective abilities were in any given context.

Give me more anime like that!

Hmmm... when it comes to the action adventure type anime, most are plagued by being so meme-stuffed it's bleeding out of their pores... I find myself watching them less and less these days. I tend toward the slightly weirder.

Having said that, I recommend Seirei no Moribito (one of the best fantasy story-driven series I've ever seen), Witch-Hunter Robin (can get a little boring at times, but it's much more thoughtful than most), Soukyuu no Fafner (needs a little getting used to, but it's a good character driven series, if a bit pretentious from time to time) and Ergo Proxy (a rather acquired taste, can be seen as really pretentious since it unashamedly embraces intellectualism and doesn't care about the viewer, especially episode 11, which is a philosopher's wet dream of an anime episode).

 

[RedEyesBlackGamer]

They all look uninteresting, apart from Gantz, which I cannot see, because the OP is a bandwidth thief.

Apparently, we should kill him too. I think it is a bit drastic, but hey, he said please.
OP: It really depends. I don't watch much anime (I try to start a series occasionally, but it never lasts), but I just look for decent voice acting and writing. I'm not picky about animation.

 

[senordesol]

/snip

Sweet, thanks. I don't read mangas (nothing against them, just can't justify the cost.), but I'll have a look at your recommendations.

 

[anthony87]

I like Highschool of the Dead style.......
Massive tits and zombies FTW! ^_^

 

[SckizoBoy]

Sweet, thanks. I don't read mangas (nothing against them, just can't justify the cost.), but I'll have a look at your recommendations.

You're welcome. Judging by your love of actioners with good stories, I'd thoroughly recommend checking out Seirei no Moribito.

Character development is very good, it has a strong element of fantasy without being overpowered, and the fight scenes (which are quite well dispersed throughout the 26 ep run may be kinda short, but they're damned near possible, not just plausible... which is bewildering, but welcome, considering the genre).

 

[axlryder]

Did you just list your favorite anime and called them "Styles"? There's genres associated with anime you can use, you know? And what if someone hasn't seen those animes (you know, like the people who hate anime) and therefor has no frame of reference to classify what "style" they've even seen? (I'm only really familiar with Samurai Champloo on that list)

Not that I care about anime enough to learn about the styles anyway.

Some people have to admit this before giving out their opinions on the whole medium.

Every anime I listed has its own style. They're mostly adapted from seinen manga and thus carried on that artist's individual flair. Each artist has their own "style" but since barely anyone knows the names of manga artists just naming the anime made the most sense. Calling them "seinen" and "shonen" styles would be too broad and the genres themselves don't generally encapsulate a style. Thus, the way I did it makes about as much sense as anything. Also, no, those aren't my favorites, I just figured that more seinen styles (and thus slightly more realistic styles) are more likely to be tolerable for non-anime fans. Of course I threw in Miyazaki because his work seems to be fairly well received.

 

[DrgoFx]

What OP is doing is listing the art styles of several famous Anime Artists. This is the equivalent of me listing off several well known comic artists and saying "These are art styles of western comics."

It's like saying Animaniacs is a common form of drawing in the cartoon world. It's specific to that one show.

 

[axlryder]

Uh-th'-waaah?!

You can't really segregate anime styles like that, however much it may seem like it. If anything, though I separate it by studios: Gonzo; Production IG; Manglobe etc. etc. all of whom have a particular aesthetic within their repertoire that they can call their own.

Anyway, I don't really care, because there have been some damn good anime from all of 'em.

See my post above. Each anime I listed has a very distinctive aesthetic. They aren't defined by the genre or studio so much as the original manga artist. Of course if I said Miura's style, Hirano's style, and Oku's style then no one would know who I was talking about.

 

[him over there]

I frankly really like most anime artstyles, because frankly all anime is is an artstyle.

Here me out I know that anime is a medium not a genre argument has been done to death but I'd just like to say, it's neither. Anime and regular animation are the same thing. Don't say anime is animation from japan, that just makes it japanese animation.

Anime is an artstyle similar to the styles you listed above. Yes I know that japan has produced animation far from this style like panty and stocking and the west has made shows in an anime style but I'm still going to call it anime based on how it looks because it's silly to define an entire medium based on nationality.

That said I don't hate anime, I hate most of the recurring traits associated with them because of the slightly different conventions between japanese and western storytelling but I really like the Samurai Champloo style. It has a slightly more realistic and less generic look in my opinion, characters looking a bit taller and less cartoonish and rounded.

 

[Cowabungaa]

My favourite looking anime so far is definitely 5 Centimeters Per Second. Almost every still of it looks like a gorgeous painting:

It's such a bittersweet story, and so damn beautiful...

Uh-th'-waaah?!

You can't really segregate anime styles like that, however much it may seem like it. If anything, though I separate it by studios: Gonzo; Production IG; Manglobe etc. etc. all of whom have a particular aesthetic within their repertoire that they can call their own.

Anyway, I don't really care, because there have been some damn good anime from all of 'em.

See my post above. Each anime I listed has a very distinctive aesthetic. They aren't defined by the genre or studio so much as the original manga artist. Of course if I said Miura's style, Hirano's style, and Oku's style then no one would know who I was talking about.

Some of them are poorly picked for non-anime fans. There's way better examples to pick to illustrate the surprising variety in anime artstyles, from Kurozuka to Panty & Stocking With Garterbelt to Medabots to Grave Of The Fireflies to Yu Gi Oh and I can keep going on for a while.

Your little list is something more suitable for insiders, not for someone who has just glanced at anime a bit.

Also, your Cowboy Bebop link is broken. Which is a shame, because one of my fav animes deserves a working link. The Gantz one doesn't work either.

 

[SckizoBoy]

See my post above. Each anime I listed has a very distinctive aesthetic. They aren't defined by the genre or studio so much as the original manga artist. Of course if I said Miura's style, Hirano's style, and Oku's style then no one would know who I was talking about.

Sometimes... sometimes not...

Take Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex, you watch the series and all's well and good... read the manga and instantly go: WTF how retro can you get?!

Visual styles often undergo a lot of change from manga to anime, like Gunslinger Girl... which looked a tad too shiny in the first anime adaptation...

Also, original anime end up having an aesthetic that reflects the natural artistic prejudices of the studio (or whoever the lead animators are) that makes them. Just look at Gankutsuou (Gonzo)... uh-yeeesh..., Samurai 7 (Production IG) and Ergo Proxy (Manglobe). (Sorry for regurgitating the same studio names...)

 

[axlryder]

My favourite looking anime so far is definitely 5 Centimeters Per Second. Almost every still of it looks like a gorgeous painting:

It's such a bittersweet story, and so damn beautiful...

Uh-th'-waaah?!

You can't really segregate anime styles like that, however much it may seem like it. If anything, though I separate it by studios: Gonzo; Production IG; Manglobe etc. etc. all of whom have a particular aesthetic within their repertoire that they can call their own.

Anyway, I don't really care, because there have been some damn good anime from all of 'em.

See my post above. Each anime I listed has a very distinctive aesthetic. They aren't defined by the genre or studio so much as the original manga artist. Of course if I said Miura's style, Hirano's style, and Oku's style then no one would know who I was talking about.

Some of them are poorly picked for non-anime fans. There's way better examples to pick to illustrate the surprising variety in anime artstyles, from Kurozuka to Panty & Stocking With Garterbelt to Medabots to Grave Of The Fireflies to Yu Gi Oh and I can keep going on for a while.

Your little list is something more suitable for insiders, not for someone who has just glanced at anime a bit.

5 CM per second is an excellent anime and I love the visuals. GotF is really under the Miyazaki/Ghibli style, though it's admittedly much darker than Spirited Away and has its own visual design (more akin the Ghibli's earlier work). I'm certain most people wouldn't like Yu-Gi-Oh on here (or most shonen for that matter). Regardless, you're correct that most of he ones I listed have a core Seinen style (with some shonen in there). The reason, I suppose is that I'm doing a large project and need to determine a general style to animate in that will turn away the least people possible right off the bat. Thus this thread.