What changes to anime would you make?

[Username Redacted]

One change I'd love to see: More anime made of Ouran High School Host Club.

I don't even care if anyone judges me, that show was awesome but there was way too little of it.

My roommate who really liked the original Ouran High School Host Club recently picked up the live action adaptation and while she hasn't gotten around to watching it I'm going to assume that regardless of whether it's good or not that hilarity will ensue.

Excessive filler would go. It's okay to have a breather episode here and there but I don't like it when shows get... triggerhappy with it.

Fucking this. There are a substantial number of series out there that I flat out refuse to watch due to the incredible amount of filler in them. Which leads into my point.

After thinking long and hard about about the pros and cons of this I think that there needs to be either a completion threshold for source material that's being adapted and/or an ironclad guarantee that a series will get enough seasons to finish.

For example the anime adaptation of Claymore (haven't read the manga*) is a piece of shit because even when it was made it was adapting (I think) only ~50% of the published material (and it still had a decent amount of filler for a 26 episode series). At this point that series represents (more manga has been released since the anime wrapped up), I think, less than 1/6 of the story.

A more recent example would be Blood Lad, an adaptation of a still ongoing manga, which ends incredibly abruptly after 10 measly episodes (lots of promise but ending = crap) The list of animes that pull this abrupt resolve nothing ending because they outpaced the source material is an incredibly long list. The list of animes that I can think of that outpaced their source material and still wrapped up their series in anything resembling a decent fashion is a list I can count on one hand.

*For what it's worth I've heard from those that have kept up with this series that it is essentially a giant painted into a corner mess of a story that's pretty much just gone off the rails; i.e. probably not worth adapting at this point.

 

[PedroSteckecilo]

More Giant Robots and Kill Em All War Tragedy Storylines...

Basically bring back the 80's... also... Giant Robots...

In all seriousness though I'd love to see some of the classic character design styles like those of Yoshikazu Yasuhiko and Haruhiko Mikimoto come back into vogue rather than the dominance of the all consuming eyes style that seems to have been running rampant since the 90's.

 

[StormShaun]

Okay, I shall say my biggest problem.

Harem anime!

Just get rid of them.
The protagonists are usually way too stupid/dense/damn 'lucky'. And having six or ten girls after him is just ... cringe worthy.
AND there are just too many harem anime out there, the world needs better and less!

But I just don't watch them, so avoidance is not a problem.

Other things that could happen.
- Less of the whole school setting. (A nice cop anime would be nice.)
- Do not give everyone huge breasts!
- No random fan-service.

That is all on my end.
I could think of more, but it would take a council of scientists and a whole month.

 

[Casual Shinji]

I agree with both of your points, though I would say that many other countries are also guilty of #1. In the states, our popular media is usually super far up its own star-spangled ass.

And we're still not as insular as Japan is. I mean, yeah, I get it. We love ourselves some self-fellatio, but even we show a greater level of interest in the outside world. And that should say something: most of us can't find another country on the map. But this is very similar to the reason Japan's having trouble selling games to the rest of the world. And we've grown into one of the big suppliers. I don't know for a fact that the same is true of other media, but given the number of people on here who complain they can't find anime/manga/Japanese film in their country, countries I tend to know do have access to US media, I'm kind of inclined to believe that they're running into similar isolation issues.

Which is fine, you know. But it should raise a red flag in terms of the "other countries are like this, too."

I saw an interview with Hideo Kojima recently, and apparently one of the reasons they released Ground Zeroes seperately (apart from the obvious one) was that they wanted a high profile Japanese game for when the PS4 launched in Japan. Since less and less Japanese people are consuming foreign media.

 

[Nubrain]

There are no things that I think need to be broadly changed or removed from all anime because for the most part it's not the tropes it's how they are used. there are some trends of things being over used that I would like to change.

1) Less Pointless fan-service. I personally find that fan-service is best used sparingly and is best used when you're dealing with camp (see kill la kill or Free!) or when it's connected to and interesting well developed character that has more going on than just physical assets (see Holo from spice and wolf.)

2) read the manga endings need to be outlawed. It's okay if some minor loose ends are left hanging or if you're left wanting more with the characters but feeling satisfied if you don't but no cliff hangers unless you know for sure you're getting another season.

3) If you're going to do filler put in some character development and don't make it totally pointless. an example of this done well is in Beyond the boundary in the episode where they kind of accidentally make an idol band so they can fight a monster. This does nothing to the plot at all but was an interesting character reflection or at least i felt so. where this is gone wrong....well I don't think I need to point that out as any long running show has more than a few that have no point to them. I'm currently over 200 eps into one piece and as much as I'm enjoying it 30 or more eps could be cut from just what I've seen and you'd loose nothing.

of course with the amount of stuff coming out now and just how easy it is to watch legally for free it's a lot easier to find the really good stuff even if there is a lot of not so good stuff there too but that's true for every media.

 

[Horon]

While I WAS fully prepared to come into this thread and post "TINY MINISKIRTS!" in size 72 font, I decided a much more wordy version would be appropriate.

 

[Lazy Kitty]

Maybe not really a change to the anime itself, but rather to the way I watch it.
With a time machine, so I don't have to wait for episode 2 when I find a nice anime.

 

[CpT_x_Killsteal]

Stop pumping out all the same archetypes to satisfy each type of stupid fan service. Please. Make a story, involve a crappily done romance sub-plot, put tits and panties all over the screen, but for fuck sake I don't want to see the exact same scene I saw in the last 2 animes I watched. If you're gonna shove tits in my face, be original about it.

For studios to stop jumping on the hype train of certain character archetypes i.e. "Certain type of character is all the rage at the moment, let's shoe-horn her in". 5 bucks on teal hair and big tits being the next big thing.

 

[Candidus]

Keep ramping up the fanservice. It's approaching my ideal levels at the moment, looking at shows like Date A Live II and No Game No Life, but it's not quite ubiquitous enough yet.

And while I'm quite serious about that, I'll say the following with the preface "more seriously". More seriously, I'd like for it to become standard for series' that don't get a second season to get an OVA that wraps everything up and says goodbye properly... This is wishful because if they're not doing a second series, it's because the DVDs didn't turn a profit for the studio, so where's the money to do it right?

Still...

 

[diligentscribbler]

Anime is a medium, not a genre. Any kind of sweeping change won't be applicable to all anime unless you were to say something silly like, "make it live-action".

Anime is definitely not a medium,animation is the medium. That's kind of like saying film Noir is a medium when its not its just film but with a very specific set of stylistic concerns. Anime is just animation with a very specific(extremely so in anime's case) set of stylistic concerns, it can largely be judged by the same scale any other piece of animation is.

As to what's wrong with anime, there's a bunch and I don't think they're fixable.

With TV animation you take what you can that's as true in Japan as in America(or Australia for that matter).

Tv is not a friendly environment for ambitious auteurs, but I think it should be. I think that change would make the landscape for Tv Anime much more vibrant like the Anime Film scene.

 

[Techno Squidgy]

Changes I'd make to Anime? Uhm. I dunno, maybe mandate that there be some more serious space based anime. I want more Bebop, basically, just without the cast of Bebop. Whether it's based in the Solar system, or further reaching, I just want some space based anime, that doesn't involve giant mechs. They're cool and all, but I prefer the Firefly/Bebop style.

 

[Not Lord Atkin]

1> change the FUCKING art style for once. it's standardised to the point when it all bleeds together into this huge blob of nothing. All anime art style exploit the same tropes, work with the same elements and share the same aesthetic. There is no variety and it kind of makes me sick.

2> get rid of the current rating system. the system in which manga is produced is beyond cynical, all manga and anime now becomes this focus-tested gibberish that changes and twists not according to the author's creative vision but the reader/viewer rankings. Which means that just about every story works with the same setup, same character archetypes and never really gets anywhere for fear of ratings dropping.

3> get rid of filler. it's infuriatingly annoying, it does not add anything to the story besides bland characters and general confusion and it only serves to widen the gap between the releases of anime and manga. So here's an idea: how about releasing anime less frequently? that way, anime publishers both get rid of the filler problem AND get extra time to work on animation quality. I mean, they are already raking in insane amounts of money, I'm sure that a less cynical and less factory-style approach would not hurt their income THAT much.

 

[Username Redacted]

1> change the FUCKING art style for once. it's standardised to the point when it all bleeds together into this huge blob of nothing. All anime art style exploit the same tropes, work with the same elements and share the same aesthetic. There is no variety and it kind of makes me sick.

I agree that this is becoming a bit of an issue. This is usually why I'll take a chance on a series that's doing something different with its art. This season I have high hopes for Mekaku City Actors* and Knights of Sidonia. This is also why I was somewhat disappointed in Gankutsuou: The Count of Monte Cristo as IMO something that looks that pretty shouldn't be allowed to be as boring as I found this to be.

*It also helps that the group producing this series has a really, really good track record.

 

[EMWISE94]

Pretty much what everyone has already said is a thing which I would say does need to change, too much fanservice and whatnot. But my gripe would be that I'd like to see more ANIMATION in anime (heck, 'anime' is the japanese term for animation so yeah).

One of the reasons why I don't watch that much anime anymore is because I got tired of like 30 seconds of nothing but 2 frames and characters just yammering on, it usually tends to make them look waaaay to stiff, or the more diabolical offender: when characters are pretty much flailing around and talking in a seeminlgy normal manner (have you tried waving your hands all over the place and try talking normally? it don't work like that. fine it will for a bit, but you get tired quick!). Sure I understand you're working with a budget so you gotta cut corners here and there but honestly it'd be less annoying to just make a motion comic, you save a lot of cash and things don't look unrealistically stiff.

 

[EyeReaper]

I only have one problem with anime, especially any anime that was "Inspired" by Dragon Ball. and that is Time Skips, nothing turns me off from an anime faster than when on the next episode, anywhere from months to years could have passed without us seeing any of it. There are some exceptions, of course. Any anime about high school can skip over the long breaks in a school year, of course, and I give Dragon Ball a pass if only because I'm pretty sure it started it.

The problem I have with it is, well, it just feels lazy, and operates on a tell, don't show style. I mean, why would you want to see your favorite heroes grow, train and all of that, when we can just say it happened and now its totally 3 years later! ugh. At least throw a montage of what they're doing in there, or something

Also, what do you mean bad year so far? Somebody obviously hasn't seen World Conquest Zvezda Plot.

 

[ReservoirAngel]

I say this as I'm watching Bleach right now and in between the cool action and story I currently have to endure three random tertiary characters who seem to have served little purpose, now serve absolutely none, but that insist on sticking around and contribute nothing except loud vocalisations and painfully un-funny attempts at being funny.

There's your problem.

Bleach is a fantastic story and, up until it jumps the shark with the whole Xcution bullshit, goddamn amazing... but only in manga. The anime is just flat out retarded, once it gets past the Soul Society arc. It gets padded out endlessly with overly complicated and, to put it bluntly, terrible filler that absolutely destroys the pacing, characters, narrative themes, and even the freaking plot. It's frankly embarrassing how badly the guys behind the anime fucked up when it came to translating one of the best shounen manga out there into an anime.

Course, then the manga had to go full retard and tack on an extra 2-3 arcs on the end that ruined the damn near perfect ending they'd already come up with, so I'm not sure it's entirely their fault (just mostly).

See I've never read the manga so I have no idea how the two compare to one another, but for myself personally I actually like the Bleach anime. Quite a lot, in fact. I don't even mind the filler thus far, barring a few weird episodes that might as well take place in a different reality for all the impact on the actual plot they have.

Hell, this is how weird I apparently am with this: I genuinely liked the Bount arcs. It was only after I'd seen them that upon looking on the internet I found out they're apparently widely reviled but I honestly couldn't tell you a good reason about why. Sure they don't technically need to exist for any grander reason but I like them. They tell a decent story, the action's pretty damn good, and I actually think the show's overall pacing would be worse without them.

Spoiler: just in case

Because without the Bount story it would go straight from "Aizen betrays Soul Society" to "Aizen enacts big plan" with no space to breathe in between. And I like having a gap while other stuff goes on for a while.

 

[Kitsune Hunter]

I dunno. What changes would you make to comic books? Or TV series? Or newspapers?

I wish people would stop treating anime as a genre, and just accept that one shitty shounen series does not represent all of anime (not implying that the OP here did, but it seems to be a common misjudgement).

OT: Remove the porny fan service. We've got the Internet and doujinshi for that.

Hunter X Hunter shit? Pouf is not pleased by that remark

Spoiler

OT: If I could change one thing, it would probably be pacing. If you're going to adapt an anime at least make sure the manga is at least at 100 or so chapters so that you have enough material to work and to keep it at a nice steady pace, about 2-3 chapters per episodes. My biggest problem with the 1st season of Magi was that the pacing was ridiculously fast, in the first 3 episodes it went through 16 chapters just like that. The other thing I would change is to make sure it follows the manga. Now I'm not a crazy manga purist, I will accept changes as long as it doesn't interfere with the overall plot too much. If you're going adapt something and run out of material, just take a break, don't come up with some contrived filler ending that ruins the whole experience, it's the reason why after watching FMAB ending, I can never watch the original FMA anime again, the ending pissed me off the first time and after seeing how brilliant the ending to Brotherhood was, I just can't watch the original again

2) Shows with a large cast needs to be maintained. Take Hunter X Hunter for an example. Right now there's this huge brawl going on but you wouldn't know it due to the fact it keeps focusing on everything else but the fight. So let's say that it was to focus solely on Gon and Nefe-chan until their story was done then move on to that retarded octopus till his story was told. We would know that every event is happening at the same time despite being showed one after another and if they felt like they needed to clear it up that one event is happening after another, that can just make the narrator tell the audience since he never shuts up anyways. This would also be a better path for the audience. If you didn't care about the humanity of the Chimera Ants (which doesn't make sense to be talking about anyways. The Ants are made from humans so why wouldn't they have humanity?) you could just tune into the episode, see that's it's a octopus episode and move on to something better.

I'm not really sure about that approach to be honest, while yes there is a lot going on during the invasion which at times does get complicated, but switching between fights isn't so bad, take the Morel v Pouf and Knuckle v Youpi for example

Spoiler

The conclusion of Morel's fight greatly influenced Knuckle's fight, now if we were to focus on fights until they were done, we would then focus on the first fight, the Youpi fight. If they were to do this without focusing on anything else, it would make it more complicated as people would then ask, "wait why's Morel here? Where's his pipe etc. The same could also be said about Killua saving Knuckle from Youpi's attack, people would get confused about what happened when him and Gon met Pitou

Also on a little side note that while Ikalgo's part isn't as interesting, compared to everything else, but his interaction with Welfin leads the way for a small, but important role for Welfin near the end of the arc

 

[Keiichi Morisato]

Here are a few things I would change:

1) Stop making a series that is only twelve episodes long. This drives me nuts. It is rarely enough time to get the story flushed out and engaging. Outlaw Star, Shakugan no Shana, and Crest of the Stars all had plus twenty episodes and they worked out fine, but twelve or thirteen seems to be the new favorite amount. I know that many times these turn out to be 'seasons,' but that leads into another problem I have.

2) If you're going to make seasons, make the freaking seasons! I don't know what it is about anime--maybe because it's cartoons or something--but it takes the FOREVER to release a new season in most cases. Still waiting on Strike Witches, Sekirei, and Heaven's Lost Property for their supposed new seasons, and it's a lot time. At least Railgun got a new season, but now I have to wait until the English version is released. At least Naruto manages to constantly release a new box set every two months, but that leads to a ton of filler, which can be bad in its own way.

3) If you are going to make an anime based off of a manga, then follow the manga. I know of several mangas that I've read/reading that got an anime that butchered the manga, but the biggest one is Negima. That anime could have been amazing, but they ran into the same problem that so many other shows do: they caught up to the manga and, not wanting to wait or do filler (like Naruto), they went off and did their own thing, completely destroying the series. So, how do you fix this? I would think the answer can be found in my second statement. Once you catch up to the manga, take a break. Let the manga get ahead for a bit. Take a few months off, and then release a new season. But don't take years to do it

heavens lost property was released monthly, so they had to wait that long because they are actually following the manga, and the manga just ended last month. it seems all the manga i am reading is ending this year, Bleach, Naruto, Sora no Otoshimono, OH! My Goddess, and a few others that i have been reading.

 

[kortin]

Get rid of all moe and harem anime. They're mindless shit. Terrible writing should ever get a pass because of "cute girls doing cute things". Also I would remove anything involving Puella Magi Madoka Magica from existence for being a pathetic piece of shit of an anime with an absolutely disgusting amount of fake depth.

 

[Keiichi Morisato]

my gripe would be that i want to see more space adventure and fantasy adventure anime. like Lunar or fantasy, and CowBoy Bebop for sic-fi. mainly, i am tired of seeing high schoolers, and being set in a high school.