The appeal of Anime

[harvz]

i really dislike it when people put everything together, anime, games, etc. saying all anime are the same is like saying bulletstorm and peggle are the same, yes their both games but they deal with entirely different subject matter (if you can even say peggle has a subject matter).

take the difference between pokemon and death note (staying with the known anime), pokemon is a story about a kid getting a creature and wanting to be the best (and aimed towards kids, which i was when it came out) and death note is about a teenager finding a note book which, when someones name is written into it (following a few rules), will kill them. this leads to the teen believing himself to be a god and passing judgement down on others, evading capture and general manipulation of others.

these 2 anime can not be put together, no matter how hard you try, the medium is the same but thats as far as it goes. it doesn't stop there, there are probably more genre's with anime than there is live action tv.

some criticize its narrative and such due to it comming from japan, imagine if death note came from america...ok, thats enough imagining, you know if it did batman would hold Light (death note protagonist) down while superman would drive the american flag through his heart.

 

[Lateinos]

imagine if death note came from america...ok, thats enough imagining, you know if it did batman would hold Light (death note protagonist) down while superman would drive the american flag through his heart.

That...actually sounds kind of awesome. Can that please happen?

 

[Asuka Soryu]

Welcome to the thread where I don't get why others have different tastes then me and end up liking things I don't.


"Aesthetically it all looks almost identical to me"

Same way I feel about American comics.

"poorly written" Yeah, because cartoons are known for their highly developed plots.

Alot of these complaints seem like, "hey, I saw some of anime so it must all be the same"

"Teenagers with angst"

Great Teacher Onizuka
Trigun
Dragon Ball Z
Yu-Gi-Oh!
Yu-Gi-Oh! GX
Digimon
Hikaru No Go
Cardcaptor's
One Piece
Dragon Ball
Pokemon

I didn't seen any 'angst'.

 

[Rienimportant]

I'm a big fan of anime partially because I like the animation, and partially because I like the lack of realism, I accept the stories are happening in places with far different physics and technology (such as any mecha anime) but I have never personally had a problem with the dialogue.

I usually watch shows subbed, and though sometimes the grammar of the subbing is a wee bit off, it's an alright job, and the original voices work a lot better for me than dubbed voices, they've always bothered me with their tone on certain lines, it always seemed to give a different feeling than a subbed dialogue.

And as for actual stories, I'd argue that some (obviously not all of them) have good stories, and Code Geass specifically (although I do like the stories of many others) is one of my favorite TV show storyline that I thought was actually well thought out and connected the characters.
But then again, I also actually think Sucker Punch has merit and is a valid piece of cinema and has a good story, instead of just being a nerdgasm show.

 

[harvz]

imagine if death note came from america...ok, thats enough imagining, you know if it did batman would hold Light (death note protagonist) down while superman would drive the american flag through his heart.

That...actually sounds kind of awesome. Can that please happen?

suppose it could, but it would be over in 30 seconds, i think it may be better if Light stays in japan

 

[The Apothecarry]

Anime is appealing to me if it has balanced amount of sex appeal, action , and comedy. To be honest, any anime I watch could do without sex appeal, but it's a nice little bonus.

Anime that I like:
-Grenadier: The Beautiful Warrior
-Ghost in the Shell
-Black Lagoon

 

[kickyourass]

Spoiler: spoilered for size

Wow thanks, I've been looking for a chart like that. So yeah, watch a few of the anime in that chart (Though personally I would suggest avoiding Hotoru no Haka [AKA Grave of the Fireflies] unless you have a large amount of anti-depressents nearby), if after that you still aren't into anime then there really isn't anything anyone can do about it, you're just not into anime.

 

[Nightshard]

The World God Only Knows

The premise of that series made me cringe at first, but I'm really glad I stuck with it. It was a lot better than I expected.

 

[darklinkjf]

The Same could be said about American Cartoons. All you need is some words changed around.

I just don't see it. Aesthetically it all looks almost identical to me, the style frequently seems overwrought, and poorly drawn, and the delivery is mediocre at best, and 'chalkboard nail scratching' at worst. The comedy never seem make sense to me, yet they almost always seem to feature some array of dysfunctional families, each with their own flavor of angst. I suppose my overall attitude can be summed up with one word, namely lackluster.

I don't mean this as an insult to you or American cartoons, nor am I questioning your tastes. I'm just ranting on art form because the art form I prefer is being attacked.

 

[Palademon]

Well, you can't really just watch a few anime and say you've seen it all, no matter how diverse they were. That's probbaly an extra point in anime's favour.

Other points would be that in anime as opposed to western cartoons, it features more interesting story based series, where mature subjects can come up, for example death. Once when I explained somebody's death from an anime to someone they just said to me "...but death doesn't happen in cartoons...". I facepalmed.

Even if you come across something with fanservice, and you find it a put off, you have to admit western cartoons don't have it, and for someone who finds it interesting or amusing it can be another extra point.

Voice acting varies a lot. I mostly watch dubs but quite often people complain about them. They will say the subs are better. Sure with the subs it doesn't matter since you have to read subtitles, so it's not neccesarily better, since it's hard to judge the acting ability of a language you can't understand.

 

[Ghaleon640]

Well, long story short, it gets a little hard if you don't describe what you have seen. (And if I missed it when I skimmed the thread, my mistake.) But Bleach or Naruto's angsty teens are different from Full Metal Alchemist's angsty teen, and is still probably different compared to a Final Fantasy movie's angsty teen, which is still a different character than Light from Death Note, an angsty genius teen who tries to rule the world by killing everyone bad in it and everyone who gets in his way. Or at least thats the plot summary I've gotten from the first few episodes I've seen.

All I mean is I don't know which of the above, if any, you've seen, but since each character is different in their own way, maybe you've simply come across the most obnoxious characters rather than an interesting one. Granted, not all of them are 'angsty teens' I was just trying to take my closest guess as to the characters you may have been talking about.

There is a lot of variety to anime that you don't find unless you start to want to learn it and find whats good in your free time. Talking to friends, browsing a store, I don't know.

And well, as far as everything looking the same, there are really different art styles, but I don't feel I started to notice until I 'wanted' to pay attention and look for the differences.

I personally like anime because it is different from everything else. I'm tired of Seinfeld, Friends and the like, is it so wrong to want an action movie that doesn't have to be a huge multi-billion dollar hollywood movie with a boring protagonist? Is it so wrong to ask for the style of Afro Samurai? Maybe Escaflowne for a romance with some action and violence? Mushishi for calm and mellow self contained stories?

Essentially, it is like a different platform. You don't see this sort of stuff on normal tv. Dexter has the whole vigilante thing going for it, and its very popular for that. Its different. Well, though I haven't seen more than one episode of dexter, I feel that anime is a way to go even farther. This is a world where the hero can be a complete bastard or just do something on a scale larger than anything else a normal tv show can offer.

Ok, that didn't end up being short at all. Ah well.

 

[Twilight_guy]

Your statement is the equivalent of saying... "I don't get fantasy books" or "I don't get horror movies." Its a statement about an extremely broad and diverse subsection of a medium and one that is not easily qualified since making such broad statements is hard with the inherent diversity.

 

[tzimize]

I just don't see it. Aesthetically it all looks almost identical to me, the dialogue frequently seems overwrought, and poorly written, and the delivery is melodramatic at best, and cringeworthy at worst. The stories seem to never make sense to me, yet they almost always seem to feature some array of teenagers, each with their own flavor of angst. I suppose my overall attitude can be summed up with one word, namely stale. Then, perhaps I'm being close-minded. If anyone can sway my thoughts to the contrary, I would more then welcome it.

I used to be a huge anime fan for the following reasons:

I liked the style (of good anime, not the triangle nose type)
I liked the fact that there were animated shows tackling grown-up subjects and not shying aways from violence, death or even sex.
I liked that the stories were of a different kind than western stories.
I liked the fact that the stories actually moved forward instead of being in an eternal limbo untill the shows cancelled.
The shows usually had pretty good soundtracks.

I stopped being a fan because:
After a while you get used to it and the freshness is gone.
The way characters interact is often so.....annoying.
I wasnt really impressed with blood in animation anymore.

The thing is, when you get over the fact that Anime is just animation with a very different cultural base than your own (unless you happen to be japanese....) you (at least I) realise that its not unlike most other media. The vast majority is crap, and then there are gems sprinkled in the garbage. If you find those gems, and can get over the fact that cartoons can be grown up, Anime can be a source to grade A entertainment. If not, you're really not missing much.

 

[Rufei]

Apologies for the sudden appearance here; I thought it was worth it to register for the forums so that I could post in this thread.

Just like any other medium, anime is both an artistic medium as well as an industry. With that, many projects are done to earn money, which means low risk decisions and a desire to prioritize monetary gain over that of artistic expression. It seems that OP is disappointed with mainstream anime. Don't worry, a lot of us are.

Largely, there have been a lot of recommendations that people have divulged. Some of them are good, others are actually more successful mainstream projects that to be fair take a ridiculous amount of these low risk decisions (Code Geass, for example). I'll attempt to provide a small list of anime where expression was prioritized.

Baccano!: A tale of thieves and mafia in 30s era America, told in a nonsequential manner. It questions the nature of a story explicitly and attempts to address the notion of an established central narrator.

Cowboy Bebop: It's Firefly, but with a more consistent style and mood (and much earlier). Space blue collar blues is the theme - this one addresses class struggle. There is a surprising amount of depth in this anime, despite what the initial presentation gives off.

Eden of the East: A political thriller detailing the events around an amnesiac, enigmatic man named Takizawa Akira, and his involvement with a small start-up company, 10 billion yen, and the future of Japan. It attempts to provide political commentary. Not as deep as Baccano!, but certainly more approachable. The ending to the series is a little schizophrenic.

Mobile Suit Gundam Unicorn: The naming aside, this series asks a very important question - "What if space expansion results in the question of sovereignty, where land is no longer a true metric?" While battles are fantastical to a degree, this Gundam exists in the Universal Century universe, which was the basis of "real robot" (robots within plausible scientific reasoning, akin to that of hard scifi). With an extensive history as a backdrop (about 20 or so titles to the storyline), it explores the political side of the human experience.

Paprika: It does what Inception tried to do, but does it with more rigor and depth. Another Satoshi Kon movie, Paprika is about a woman who delves into the dreams of others as a "dream therapist." Definitely trying to question the human psyche at some point, but I didn't have the time to read into this.

Aside from these titles, OP, I would also recommend anime aired on the noitaminA block. This block is reserved for anime that pushes the boundaries of anime. Currently airing are Fractale (an original work done in a Miyazaki style that questions the nature of distance and human interaction as well as our drive for modern convenience versus our human roots) and Wandering Son (an anime adaptation of a manga that draws serious attention to people with Gender Identity Disorder and their struggles in society).

I've also heard that Mononoke is absolute bliss. You might want to give that one a try.

 

[Code Monkey]

When I first got into it, it was mainly for niche appeal. I couldn't find any Western Animation that took itself seriously, so I turned to Anime. Of course, anime is just another method of storytelling. That means some anime is good, some is great, some is bad, and some is shit. Sturgeons Law applies. Instead of watching Shonen, or Moe, seek out some of the classics. I ask anyone who says all anime is crap to watch one episode of Cowboy Bebop.

 

[infohippie]

EDIT: Post didn't get eaten afterall, damn you, deceptive internets!!!

Also, I used to love Dragonball Z when I was a little kid, and I realize now how terrible it is, but its a part of my childhood damn it, I still love it, for the nostalgia. So I guess I don't hate all anime.

When you were a kid? Dude, you're still a kid! According to your profile, you're only nineteen.
I can't take you seriously when you complain that all anime sucks, since you obviously can't have experienced much of it. You especially couldn't have had the chance to try much seinen anime, which is where you'll find the more interesting storylines, themes, and characters. You would have been too young for those until just a couple of years ago, and unless you've been doing nothing but eat, sleep and watch anime since then you won't have expereinced many of them. I've been watching anime for nearly a decade longer than you've been alive and I'm still finding amazing, thought-provoking shows I'd never heard of before.

 

[Zetsubou^-^]

anime as a genre is appealing to most people because unlike western comic books, anime does not actually have a standard it HAS to conform to. that said, the largest groups of anime are for so called angsty teens, and therefore often involve angsty teens. if your only looking as far as say shonen jump or similar publications, your gonna get a VERY repeditive group.

some of the best anime are the ones that don't get hype in america. however, since you don't seem interested, i'm not gonna rattle off what i think is good. look for yourself or take some other people's suggestions.

i will say that as far as voice acting goes, don't expect america to consistently put out anything good. japanese voice acting is generally much better. but if you don't like subtitles and don't know japanese, your out of luck.

 

[BlackSaint09]

I guess the reason i like anime is mainly because i enjoy watching them.
I tried to explain why but i guess my explanation skills do suck.