What is so great about Anime?

[rezaDN1992]

You can't start with every anime at once. I would start with a simple anime. Death note shouldn't be your first. Start with a sonen like naruto or bleach. Then watch full metal alchimist. of course you have to find a genre you like. My second anime was elfen lied and i wasn't really ready for it : I got shocked and freaked out a lot. ( I didn't knew japanse were such perverts jet )

 

[Texas America Murphy]

Because Japan considers anime to be a subset of film, whereas we in American culture consider animation to be a childish plaything incapable of telling serious stories, presenting impacting issues, or developing meaningful characters. It's a terrible, ignorant idea that is the prevailing approach to animation in our culture.

Japan understands otherwise. Their animated works are, by and large, better than their live-action ones, and those who appreciate anime have come to understand the storytelling potential that animation has, however untapped and misunderstood it may be by most of our own culture.

Gurran Laggan, by the way, is an intentional self-parody of the sci-fi mech genre. Don't look to it for serious storytelling. Naruto actually has an incredibly complex culture, mythos, and story, but it must be watched from the beginning to get it, which unfortunately subjects the viewer to a lot of unnecessary juvenile drivel on the way to the brilliance the show exhibits later. Code Geass I haven't seen, so no comment.

Did you watch the first episodes of these shows? Most anime is not like the episodic drivel that populates western animation; you watch it from the beginning or you will be lost. Thus, if you did not see the beginnings, your ideas are entirely invalid due to lack of context and understanding.

Apart from your vague implications of Japanese high-horsery, this is a good arguement. So I guess the reason Gurran Laggan makes no sense is that its parodying genre conventions I'm not familier with? Interesting.

 

[Texas America Murphy]

You can't start with every anime at once. I would start with a simple anime. Death note shouldn't be your first. Start with a sonen like naruto or bleach. Then watch full metal alchimist. of course you have to find a genre you like. My second anime was elfen lied and i wasn't really ready for it : I got shocked and freaked out a lot. ( I didn't knew japanse were such perverts jet )

Yeah you're not really good at reading Original Posts are you?

 

[Texas America Murphy]

i think your tally is off. As of my typing this post i counted...
Bebop: 4
Deathnote: 2

I'll update if i get ninja'd

Thanks a bunch. Its hard because the posts arn't all like GO WATCH DEATHNOTE.

Bebop it is. Girlfriend putting DVD in the player. Live Blogging begins now.

 

[albinokid66]

'My second anime was elfen lied and i wasn't really ready for it : I got shocked and freaked out a lot. ( I didn't knew japanse were such perverts jet )[/quote]'

If you think of Elfen Lied as 'perverted' you have completely missed the point of it

 

[somonels]

Given your background I can see why none of those particular shows catered to your tastes.
"Anime" is no better or worse that western and hollywood films, all mostly garbage. You need to find someone who actually knows the whole anime, I don't really know what to call it: culture, genre, output or something else, and not some mainstream cosplay fangirls. He, or she, can help you find something that you would enjoy. But if the presentation does not suit you, then you won't like anime.

 

[ServebotFrank]

Why didn't you watch Cowboy Bebop? Yeah most Anime is stupid but there are some good ones just you watched the bad ones. Not that I consider Gurren Lagann bad since that show is not meant to be taken seriously until the halfway point."Who the hell do you think I am KIIIICCCCKKKKK!!!" See it's ridiculous.

 

[Texas America Murphy]

Cowboy Bebop Update 1:

He's smoking. On a spaceship. Despite the limited air. Also they're broke and possibly gay.

Alright, now you're just trying to be noir.

 

[masterjiji]

Meh, I don't think of it as art. I think of it as 1) eye candy and 2) a good reason why I don't live in Japan. I completely agree that anime is completely bananas in the plot department, but that makes it a little fun for me. Yeah, it's a pain in the ass learning everybody's name, their family situation, dark backstory, chest hair length, etc. but once you know them it's entertaining to see how messed up a plot can get and still be coherent (with a little effort on the viewer's part, of course), as well as watching people have epic duels with umbrellas and whatnot.

What I DON'T like about anime is that it's either a romantic drama or it's a violent one that suffers from what I call "Dragonball syndrome." Remember how intense the fights were in early Dragonball, anyone? The Goku-Raditz (sorry if I misspelled that) fight was way more enjoyable than watching Frieza and... SOMEONE float above an exploding planet and talk about how the planet was exploding in between yelling at each other and looking surprised at the other's power level. An unfortunate number of violent animes do this; start out with insanely fast, high-quality fight scenes until the art department bitches enough that the director(s) resort to powering-up scenes instead of real combat. That's just the violence aspect of it, though. Character development also tends to go down the shitter from what I've seen, instead resorting to angst that takes eons to resolve any sort of interpersonal relationships. Gah.

Whatever. I still like some animes, for different reasons. I don't call myself a huge fan of it (I may well be in denial about that one), but I still enjoy it.

 

[Texas America Murphy]

Cowboy Bebop Update 2:

Alright. Cut from gritty blues playing bounty hunters to dangerous outlaw and beautiful mysterious dame walking into a bar and buying some drugs. But the bar is in Mexico. SPACE MEXICO.

AND THEY ARE OUTLAWS.

And then a rival gang comes and theres a shootout but this outlaw is just too fast.

Jesus Christ. It's like these writers watched Fistful of Dollars for the first time back to back with Chinatown and Blade Runner and are just so fucking excited about it.

 

[derdeutschmachine]

Personally I watch anime because I find it funny as well as different from american shows. Your points, while valid in the scope you may have seen the episodes, show little or no attempt at understanding what happened before or after the small pieces that you saw.
I am by no means defending bad anime, cause' there's a whole lot of that going on, but there is alot more merit to your argument if you would actually watch an entire season of a show, where all things are, in fact, explained.
Like anything else, if you pick up in the middle of everything, nothing makes sense.

 

[ServebotFrank]

Why didn't you watch Cowboy Bebop? Yeah most Anime is stupid but there are some good ones just you watched the bad ones. Not that I consider Gurren Lagann bad since that show is not meant to be taken seriously until the halfway point."Who the hell do you think I am KIIIICCCCKKKKK!!!" See it's ridiculous.

'

Because i didn't know about its existance until ten minutes ago asshole that's why.

Whoa what's with the attitude I was being informative. Most popular anime is ridiculous anyway and that anime club was watching the bad ones. Don't get pissy at me for commenting on this. That sentence about Cowboy Bebop was mostly aimed at the guys at that club not at you so don't be all uptight about it when you asked us what our opinion on anime is which I said was 80% stupid. Normally I don't admit I watch anime because all the anime you listed was stupid.Next time you want an input on something let me know.

 

[Texas America Murphy]

What I DON'T like about anime is that it's either a romantic drama or it's a violent one that suffers from what I call "Dragonball syndrome." Remember how intense the fights were in early Dragonball, anyone? The Goku-Raditz (sorry if I misspelled that) fight was way more enjoyable than watching Frieza and... SOMEONE float above an exploding planet and talk about how the planet was exploding in between yelling at each other and looking surprised at the other's power level.

No. I don't. Because I have NEVER SEEN WHATEVER THE HELL YOU ARE TALKING ABOUT INCOHERENTLY.

 

[Glaive_21842]

Jesus Christ. It's like these writers watched Fistful of Dollars for the first time back to back with Chinatown and Blade Runner and are just so fucking excited about it.

Fist full of Dollars, Chinatown, and Blade Runner...god damnit now you've gone and got me excited...

 

[2xDouble]

*snip*

I like this post. Alot. This is very interesting. So basically what you're saying is that all anime is of an effectively serial nature?

Tally now stands at
CB: 1
DN: 1 because my girlfriend just voted for Deathnote.

Something like that. Different series' might feed off of each other which could explain why the entire medium tends to be so engrossing (and why it may be difficult to distinguish between various series, disregarding blatant plagiarism and imitations). I did mean to be a little more specific in that each show that many find difficult to grasp is far better as a whole (rather than implying the entire medium is connected somehow, though now that we've mentioned it... heh). Code Geass, for example, is like watching a chess game one move per episode. Some will find it fascinating, some will find it tedious, and some will be trying to figure out the overarching strategies, gambits, etc. (as if you could figure out an entire chess strategy from a single move without being able to see the entire board or all of the pieces in play...)

Put my vote down for Cowboy Bebop. Deathnote is another "chess game" soap opera that happens to contain exaggerated moral conundrums (very cool) and magical beings/artifacts (also cool). This is not to say DN is bad (it is, in fact, quite good in my opinion), but if you're looking to ease into the medium, a more episodic show like Cowboy Bebop (not to mention CB's incredible jazz soundtrack and musical references) is easier to follow (usually).

*reads previous posts* Damn. Ninja'd. heh.

 

[mirasiel]

Lets see you've started off with 'dear nerds', you've waved your film student credentials around like we care what difference that would make to *our* opinions and you've really nicely dissed your girlfriend as apparently some brainless ditz only worthy as, what arm candy?

You've even failed in basic logic that if you start in the middle of something you are probably not going to understand a damn thing.

Yeah, troll-a-riffic.

if you dont like bebop based on its music score and animation alone then you probably have no soul

 

[ntw3001]

Bah, okay. I ain't some kind of great anime lover, but I've watched Cowboy Bebop and Evangelion, and yeah. Evangelion probably isn't a good one if you're not sure whether you're interested, because it's so utterly... Japanese? Yeah, fine, I'll leave that description there. If anyone cares to take issue with it they can go hog wild.

Cowboy Bebop is excellent, though. It is space opera with jazz. Don't expect anything too deep; it's just outstandingly hip. You might also watch Samurai Champloo, which is by the same studio and pretty similar in tone, but this time it's anachronistic-pastiche-Edo-period Japan, featuring samurai and hip-hop.

That's all I've got.

Oh, also I'm not sure what's causing the rage reactions in this thread. It's fair to identify the huge bundle of tropes common to anime shows and take them as broadly indicative of the style (I prefer the word 'style' to 'genre' for this discussion). It'd be in the same vein to say 'I don't like Hollywood movies, they're brainless blockbusters without substance', which honestly, most people around here would probably love to hear.

 

[Texas America Murphy]

Cowboy Bebop Update 3? Maybe 4? I don't even care.

Oh how adorably predictable. The quiet dangerous badboy main character flirts with the mysterious and dangerous dame. Jealous boyfriend kicks his ass. Oh but wait he was just doing it to pick the dudes pocket he didn't really care about the girl.

Or does he?

Literally every single frame of this episode is trying its hardest go "HEY GUESS WHAT WE WATCH A LOT OF MOVIES YOUR DAD LIKES."

 

[Wintermoot]

Neon Genesis Evangelion?

Great anime, bad choice for a newcomer.

This, basically.
Also, if you're going to watch Evangelion, watch the whole thing. Please.

also dont try too watch it in one sitting (it left me in a bit of a depressed state)

Ooh I did that, it's odd isn't it? Though I felt much better about going to school the following day.

I was already pretty depressed (I got bullied ALLOT around the time I watched it)

 

[Texas America Murphy]

Lets see you've started off with 'dear nerds', you've waved your film student credentials around like we care what difference that would make to *our* opinions and you've really nicely dissed your girlfriend as apparently some brainless ditz only worthy as, what arm candy?

You've even failed in basic logic that if you start in the middle of something you are probably not going to understand a damn thing.

Yeah, troll-a-riffic.

if you dont like bebop based on its music score and animation alone then you probably have no soul

Are you calling me a misogynist, boy?