Why do you watch anime? ( I usually don't) and what is it about it you like?

[Vandenberg1]

Now I was never into anime. I found the vast majority of what kids threw at me in Jr.High to be boring, depressing and meaningless with hypocritical views or none-sense diolouge. Then there was DB and DBZ... Changed my outlook and I relized there was GOOD anime from Japan. I searched the land far and wide, looking to catch glimpses of other good anime. pokemon had long ended in my life, (thanks to another 150 pokemon coming out, I said screw it and sold ALL my cards for 20 bucks) and I was looking for something else to enjoy in anime.

Now I grew up with mostly cheesy action movies from Schwarzennegger, Van Damn, Seagal; Horror movies of classic slahers wereand still my numberone love. History channel and WW2 shows in general (Now I wanted to teach ancient and classical era history of pagan GERMANIA and GAUL) and all this was before the age of 13!... Anime was a curiosity I needed to satisfy but it was all.. DUMBBBBB.... Deathnote is boring, and gets terrible towards the end as the main character just goes crazy. Bleach goes NOOWWHHEERREEE fast, but some of the fights are intresting. Naruto..uhgggg..Believe it!.. Nothing was intresting besides DBZ..Luckiliy Yu yu Hakusho kept me searching since that WAS A BAD ASS SHOW. It didnt drag itself out ever or had fights more then one episode long or even too much cheesy diolouge NO ONE WOULD EVER SAY IN REAL LIFE. Then I found HELLSING..what a badd ass shbowthat is. Recently one of my anime friends showed me ITALIA. Its dumb as hell but the history background kinda makes it funny, but its still utter none-sense..

So what anime do you watch and WHY?

 

[Jonluw]

I don't think you should let shows like Naruto and Bleach give you such a negative opinion of all anime. They do not represent the majority of anime out there.

I've watched a lot of shows. Among the ones I enjoyed the most are Clannad, Welcome to the NHK, Azumanga daioh, FLCL and The melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya.
Why do I watch anime?
Why do you watch tv-shows? Anime is such a broad term as to render your question meaningless.
I watch anime because it's enjoyable.

 

[Grayjack]

Why do I watch anime? Same reason as the guy above. My favorites are Higurashi no Naku Koro Ni and Angel Beats.

 

[MostlyHarmless]

It's a very enjoyable source of entertainment. I prefer it to live action because the stories are more well evolved.

And it's a damn good time. There's more anime than Bleach and Naruto. Check out some of the old ones like Trigun. Some anime focus more on story like Death Note than fighting like Naruto. Experiment with different types.

 

[Cowabungaa]

I like good fiction. Some anime shows and films simply are good fiction, whether they're anime or not.

Also, the amount of different kinds of anime series is just huuuuuuuuge. Everything from this:

to this:

to this:

to this:

There's horror, fantasy, drama, slice-of-life, sci fi and stuff that's completely bonkers, you name it. Anime is just a cartoon that has originated in Japan, that's all it means.

 

[Ravison]

I watch anime for the awesome pants.

 

[Fbuh]

I don't like a lot of the mass produced shit that comes out with cheesy plot and dialogue. I go to extremes for my anime. Either it's really deep and kind of depressing, like Evangelion or Full Metal Alchemist, or it's zany and lighthearted, like Azumanga Daioh or Excel Saga.

As I have seen it stated before, anime is not just a genre, but a medium unto itself. You can have romance, sci fi, horror, fantasy, or everything in between and still have a good show. A lot of people think anime=cartoons=for kids, but most anime I watch is not suited for children in any way, shape, or form. And yes, there's anime porn, too. You can never have enough tentacles.

 

[Owyn_Merrilin]

Now I was never into anime. I found the vast majority of what kids threw at me in Jr.High to be boring, depressing and meaningless with hypocritical views or none-sense diolouge. Then there was DB and DBZ... Changed my outlook and I relized there was GOOD anime from Japan. I searched the land far and wide, looking to catch glimpses of other good anime. pokemon had long ended in my life, (thanks to another 150 pokemon coming out, I said screw it and sold ALL my cards for 20 bucks) and I was looking for something else to enjoy in anime.

Now I grew up with mostly cheesy action movies from Schwarzennegger, Van Damn, Seagal; Horror movies of classic slahers wereand still my numberone love. History channel and WW2 shows in general (Now I wanted to teach ancient and classical era history of pagan GERMANIA and GAUL) and all this was before the age of 13!... Anime was a curiosity I needed to satisfy but it was all.. DUMBBBBB.... Deathnote is boring, and gets terrible towards the end as the main character just goes crazy. Bleach goes NOOWWHHEERREEE fast, but some of the fights are intresting. Naruto..uhgggg..Believe it!.. Nothing was intresting besides DBZ..Luckiliy Yu yu Hakusho kept me searching since that WAS A BAD ASS SHOW. It didnt drag itself out ever or had fights more then one episode long or even too much cheesy diolouge NO ONE WOULD EVER SAY IN REAL LIFE. Then I found HELLSING..what a badd ass shbowthat is. Recently one of my anime friends showed me ITALIA. Its dumb as hell but the history background kinda makes it funny, but its still utter none-sense..

So what anime do you watch and WHY?

Just wondering -- have you been watching all of those series dubbed into English? Because Naruto, while not exactly the best anime out there, is a lot less annoying in Japanese. He has this little vocal tic where he says "Datte Bayo" at the end of most sentences, and it does translate to "believe it," but the voice actor does it in a much less bombastic manner than the English voice actor did it, and the translation of that specific phrase is generally left out of the subtitles. In other words, it's nowhere near as annoying. The cheesy dialogue problem in general is the result of taking Japanese, a language where saying "goodbye" takes four syllables, translating it into English, and then adding enough words that the lips on the animation match up to what the characters are saying in the audio. It's almost always better to watch an anime series -- or any other foreign language production, for that matter -- in it's original language, with subtitles if you don't speak said language.

Getting more on topic, everything you listed aside from Hellsing, Hetalia, and Deathnote are weekly shonen series, meaning they're the Japanese equivalent of our Y-7 rated Saturday morning action cartoons. There's a whole world of anime out there that's nothing like those shows.

Some good series:

The UC timeline Gundam shows (Mobile Suit Gundam, Zeta Gundam, Etc.)
Ruroni Kenshin
Outlaw Star
Cowboy Bebop

Some good movies:

Akira
Anything by Hayao Miyazaki (these include Castle in the Sky, Spirited Away, KiKi's Delivery Service, Nausicaa: Valley of the Wind, Princess Mononoke, Howl's Moving Castle, and quite a few others)
The original Ghost in the Shell movie is supposed to be pretty good (I haven't seen it)
The Venus Wars
Mobile Suit Gundam: Char's Counterattack

Edit: As for why I watch it and what I like about it, I watch Anime because in Japan, animation is treated as a medium worthy of just as much respect as live action film. As a result, you get stories of pretty much every type that you can imagine. I'm also a huge fan of science fiction and fantasy, and animation is an incredible media for telling that type of story. Reason being, special effects are extremely expensive and difficult to make believable in live action, but in animation, they cost just as much as drawing anything else, and they are just as believable as anything else in the piece. Of course, I'm more of a general animation fan than I am an anime fan, but the same reasons hold true for all of animation that hold true for anime -- it's just a wonderfully diverse medium.

 

[dyre]

I don't normally watch anime, but when I do, I watch cowboy bebop.

But anyways, I watch the occasional anime for good plot, imaginative or interesting setting, etc. Same reason I watch the occasional film or read a good book. Though, I admit I sometimes watch films just for action, which I don't do for books or anime.

 

[TheYellowCellPhone]

I think my favorite is Outlaw Star, since it's action packed, the characters are funny, and the colors.

Dear god I love the colors.

 

[Scrustle]

I too dabble in anime. I'm not a huge fan of it because there is a hell of a lot out there and some of it can be pretty hard to get in to since the series run for an ungodly length of time. But generally I also am really put off by the popular animes. I can't stand Naruto, and I find Bleach just to be... uninspired. I tend to hate animes which are about teenage angst. I lived through enough of that already and I don't need to be reminded of it. And I wasn't a fan of it at the time either, so no thank you.

I think the main reason I like animes is that it is wonderfully produced (most of the time) and can cover so many themes that are more mature than you get from other types of animation.

Sometimes I also like animes for their cheesy factor, if it's something that isn't forced and the characters and plot are still good. For example right now I'm watching through Initial D, and although it's very geeky and cheesy it is great entertainment and brings a charm to the show.

I personally liked Death Note, I loved the tennis match of wits between Light and L a lot. It drops off in quality half way through the series but I still found it enjoyable enough to see through to the end. It was quite a bit more mature than other animes I've seen.

I'm also a huge fan of Studio Ghibli. Their work is just beautiful, and even though a lot of it is "kid-friendly" it is still produced to be a good piece of entertainment for anyone, not just something to shut the tykes up for 2 hours at a time. The films have wonderful settings and good deep characters and engaging plots. Hayao Miyazaki has an astounding imagination and ability to create good characters and worlds. His studio produces some of the best anime out there.

There are several animes I've seen a bit of but not really got in to, but I aim to at some point. Ergo Proxy is one such show, it deals with a lot of philosophical themes like personhood and the future of technology. Also Samurai Champloo seems to have great animation and setting with amusing characters to it.

And although some people may not say it counts as real anime (I disagree) I really like the Avatar: The Last Airbender/Legend of Aang series. That series takes a lot of cues from Studio Ghibli. In fact when the animation studio was first creating the character of Appa they went to Ghibli for advice on how to animate him, since he is quite similar to the Cat-bus from My Neighbour Totoro. They have a wonderfully realised setting. It feels real and like it has real history. The show has multiple plots going on all the time which are all great, the best actually being Kuzo's (the antagonist), especially in the latter 2 series. It's a great show and I don't think it gets the respect is deserves as an anime.

So yeah, anime is cool...

 

[Von Heix]

Yep, same principle applies to TV/Movies. Mass produced crap with few rare gems.

I enjoyed anime initially because they were not the standard whitewashed TV/Movie crap in cable T.V. And took risks incorporating human dilemmas/sensibilities unlike the morally repressed Western entertainment media.

But like I said, most of it is crap. Ecchi/Harem/Lolicon... *shoots self in face*

 

[Spaec]

I think anime is a pretty sweet medium, anime series usually aren't afriad to be completely, surreally "out there" to convey messages or emotions (Neon Genesis Evangelion anyone?), which is what any art is all about. That being said, anime is pretty wide. I've watched Evangelion, Lucky Star which is basically a silly high school diary and animated Firefly precursor Cowboy Bebop.
But it just goes to show that there's a lot of diversity and a no-holds-barred presentation - the exact opposite of both Hollywood and gaming these days. Bottom line: variety.

 

[Palademon]

I watch it because it's nicely varied and usually has a plot.
Western animation is usually unconnected episodes based around humour.

Anime can be pretty much anything.
I'm suprised you found DBZ to be an example of good, sure it's fun and most of us can get behind it with oru experiences as a child, but hardly at the high end of quality.

It seems you like the thing most newcomers complain about-seemingly all popular (and therefore by their logic meaning good) anime being about fighting.

I like it because it's enjoyable. I like some better than others, and there's usually none I hate because I like variety, but there's bound to be one I don't like. I don't have any preconceived notions of it all being the same.

As for suggesitons, do you like giant robots fighting? Some can be pretty epic, not all of it is cheesy.
If you want badass fighting, maybe Deadman Wonderland, pretty sadistic what with the powers coming from blood, and its disturbing premise.

 

[katsumoto03]

I watch some. The series I watch at the moment include K-On!, Sgt. Frog, and some Gurren Lagann.

 

[Shakomaru]

I have to honestly say that Bleach has THE BEST filler arcs. Also, there is a lot of uniqueness and the enemies actually have enough power to win sometimes. plus, URAHARA.

 

[Xpwn3ntial]

I got into anime for two reasons: five-fingered hands and giant robots.

I stayed because it delivers things that western television just doesn't offer anymore. I mean, there were things like Gargoyles, Transformers, Firefly, Heroes, and Batman with continuous plots and story arcs but those are either finished or in their death throes of running on too long. Anime is more like extended movies in my world than just TV.

 

[Mike Laserbeam]

Clannad, Baccano!, Durarara!!, Welcome to the NHK!, FLCL, Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei, Bakemonogatari, Azumanga Daioh, Darker Than Black, ToraDora!, Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann, Paranoia Agent, Cowboy Bebop, Samurai Champloo, Monster, Kamichu!, Great Teacher Onizuka...

Why do I like anime? Because what I've just written is a fragment of the list of anime I've enjoyed, and they're all incredible.

 

[Canadamus Prime]

You know it really irritates me how people always lump all anime into one gigantic massive pile. There are so many different kinds of anime, some of which are good and some of which I can't stand. For example I can't stand those High School harem type animes. You know the ones that feature this one awkward guy as the protagonist who lives alone for some arbitrary reason and has every girl in his High School fawning over him EXCEPT the one he actually likes. ¬_¬
...or any variation there of.