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Gone Gonzo  Posts: 2210 Joined: 2 Dec 2007 | |
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Gone Gonzo  Posts: 1499 Joined: 18 Dec 2007 | When I think about anime I can't really make up my mind about what to think about it. On one hand it is as stupid as fuck and pisses me off. On the other hand I've never had much contact with anime. Its like hating something you havn't seen in years. It is hating something you havn't seen in a long time! The damn Angsty (is that a word?) nature of the shitty anime shows really makes me want to go on a violent rampage aimed at people with cat ears. Unfortunately I know to many people who are excited to extremes by Animenia (or something about this). Damn anime... |
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Gone Gonzo Posts: 2210 Joined: 2 Dec 2007 | Yet Hentia is booming along. (Shudders) It's true. It seems you ignor anime for as long as you can then when it does pop back in, it's like you already know each other. Hatred, but still warmth in the familiar. Everything in anime is so over-the-top in a bad way. Like ninja's with powers over some element (say water) dressing in all forms of stupid clothing with a name to match... oh. |
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Copy Clerk  Posts: 99 Joined: 29 Dec 2007 | It all really depends on what anime you're watching. If my screen name is any indication, I'm a Gundam fan. But then there were Gundam shows like Wing, SEED, and SEED Destiny. While trying to watch those I, to paraphrase Lewis Black, had to stick a spoon up my ass to distract myself from the pain. |
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Infamous Scribbler  Posts: 671 Joined: 29 Nov 2007 | I mean...some of it's terrible, some of it's okay, and some of it's really good. That's sorta true of anything. The only odd thing about anime is that unlike say, a movie buff, anime fans tend to watch all of it for the sheer xenophilia of it all. They never seem to gauge the difference between ones that are terrible and ones that are good. Cowboy Bebop is still probably the best TV series I've ever seen. Ninja Scroll is a badass action movie. DBZ is a fantastic sci-fi WWF series (well, it was fun when I was a kid anyhow). Paranoid Agent is pretty intense and has some stunning moments. But yeah, a lot of it is terrible and I don't really watch it unless it's right in front of me. Which is true of anything on TV in general these days. |
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Gone Gonzo  Posts: 1170 Joined: 13 Sep 2007 | It may be obvious from my avatar that I like Naruto, at least when it's not filler. Actually, I don't really like Shippuden at all, I only read the manga now. I enjoy Bleach quite a bit though, the fight scenes are kick ass and the story's kind of cool when it's not talking about some random stuffed animal weird things. They also get points for making a movie that wasn't just filler. But Death note takes the cake. |
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Beat Writer  Posts: 186 Joined: 2 Jan 2008 | Sturgeon's Law: "90% of everything is crap." Bad over used plot are just bad over used plots. Not much can be done about that. Cliched plots work just as well there as they do in the west. I don't really disagree with you, but you have to keep this in mind. We in the west are really just as guilty. Western fanservice includes such things as Baywatch, Deal or No Deal (the women holding the cases), all the "men's magazines", the swimsuit edition of Sports Illustrated, or COUNTLESS Hollywood movies. Is there really any logical place to draw the line? As for the 8 year old look of some anime women, almost childlike cuteness is considered the most attractive quality a woman can have. Their age of consent is also 13. That's just how their culture is. I completely agree with you on the gross fetish stuff though, but it's certainly not just limited to Japan. It's just since the invasion of anime to the west, that we see the worst in them rather than the worst in our own societies. Maybe we're just so used to our own smut peddlers that we ignore them? If you want to demand higher quality entertainment, that's fine. I'm with you on that. But we can't just point fingers at one nation's entertainment and lay all the blame on it. |
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Gone Gonzo  Posts: 1198 Joined: 14 Nov 2007 | There is some amazing stuff out there. As L.B said above, there's good stuff, mediocre stuff and downright awful stuff in all forms of media. Anime isn't any different. I tried watching Gantz not too long ago, and gave up on it after the second episode. Cowboy Bebop, on the other hand, I watched through right till the final seconds of the end credits of the last episode (as L.B again said, it is genius. Kinda like Firefly, only it came out years before). Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust has some downright astonishing action sequences, beautiful design, and the story is worthy of Hammer Horror itself. Princess Mononoke is just all kinds of amazing. Ghost In The Shell hardly needs mentioning. Same with Akira. Spirited Away is just so damn sweet, etc etc. Just avoid the crap like Bleach and Naruto, and you'll find there's some damn stylish stuff to be had. |
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Pulitzer Laureate  Posts: 767 Joined: 22 Aug 2006 |
If ever were there a poster child for teenage angst, I feel that it must've been Death Note. |
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Anonymous Source  Posts: 1 Joined: 27 Apr 2008 |
Angsty - yes It is sad, but the teen angst factor does appeal to the core audience, the same reason why |
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Muckraker  Posts: 237 Joined: 22 Jan 2008 | so your biggest complaint about anime is that it's not beleivable? pretty weak case man and i have to disagree with you, evangelon was one big steaming peice of shit show with no point and not a single character worth anything to anyone. i mean when it comes to over the top style things i'd think a mortal kombat fan would be the last person to call foul. i will agree that some anime can be really bad, inuyasha, wolf's rain, and yes the endless card game/small animal collection anime's are just getting inane, and the fact that now they're doing transformers in that amero-anime style is kinda retarded. but anime is kind of designed to be outragous, hell watch shin chan, guns at school will be the last thing on your mind. anime is just like american movies, some are good, some are just ok, some are shit, but with anime i think the ratio of good to crap is a little better than american movies. hey, hentai is alot of fun and actually one of them i've discovered is good enough to watch just for amusment even when i don't feel like a little porn, but hey everyone has different limits with porn and sex in general so if you don't like it it's pretty understandable but i love the stuff |
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Gone Gonzo  Posts: 2327 Joined: 28 Nov 2007 | Before you start knocking all anime, watch Trigun. Seriously, I've seen several anime shows (granted, most for only a couple episodes) and Trigun is still the best I've seen. Shame it was shut down so quickly. Second favorite is Full Metal Alchemist, but you would probably find that too angsty. |
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Anonymous Source Posts: 4 Joined: 27 Jan 2008 | "So what do most Anime do so wrong?! Anime's like Howls Moving Castle, Akira, Ghost in the Shell, Neon Genesis are hugely enjoyable and absolutely amazing by any standards. Then how is it that another Anime with the same formula manages to stuff it all up? Does it lack the creativity of Howl? The gorgeous emotional drama that is Neon Genesis? The action packed... action of Akira? It boggles the mind how Dragon Ball Z was great fun when they were fighting Freezer but turned sour when they got to Cell." So basically what you're saying is this |
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Infamous Scribbler Posts: 671 Joined: 29 Nov 2007 |
I thought they finished Trigun. The one thing I've always liked about anime is that they do a set number of episodes and then end it. If they make a second season, it acts more like a sequel than some sprawling never-ending story. |
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Press Junketeer Posts: 399 Joined: 6 Feb 2008 | It sounds like your friend is sexually repressed, because that is what that kind of anime is geared towards: sexually repressed middle aged Japanese men. This audience also buy used girls panties & take pictures of teeny boppers in anime/schoolgirl costumes outside of anime conventions. Unfortunately, outside of Japan this cultural difference seems to be missed by some anime fans; & so such things are lapped up as part of anime culture, rather than the equivilent to a lads mag or one of those late night steamy dramas that are softcore porn in all but name. They're something that allows for auto-eroticism without being seen as overly perverse/exploitative/x-rated. The reason its done in anime is because the laws governing real "pornography" in Japan are (or were) so strict that what you get is so bizzare (masturbation golf for example) or so cencored that its hard to really see the erotic quality. |
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Gone Gonzo Posts: 2327 Joined: 28 Nov 2007 |
That's what I meant. Still, Trigun should have, and could have, gone for more than half a season. |
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Pulitzer Laureate  Posts: 857 Joined: 9 Dec 2007 | No mention for the absurd movies of anime? I'm not talking about those based off actual TV series, but rather original products of Ghibli and such like? Whilst they tend to be full of obscure references to Japanese spiritualism and have plotholes so big you could fall down, they still make for a charming bit of cinematography or two. |
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Gone Gonzo Posts: 2327 Joined: 28 Nov 2007 |
Think what you will. I still say Miyazaki is a genius. Or mad. Or a mad genius. |
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Muckraker  Posts: 337 Joined: 27 Jan 2008 | I read manga mostly, but I have discovered the two greatest short series(es) of anime ever: Princess Monoke is my favorite anime movie, and I give Cowboy Bebop two thumbs up (even though I've only seen half the series). |
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Paperboy  Posts: 49 Joined: 26 Dec 2007 | There is something that bothers me for some time now: |
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Copy Clerk Posts: 97 Joined: 23 Dec 2007 | Why has no one mentioned Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann when discussing good anime? The people behind NGE and FLCL combine to make one of the best anime series I've seen. This show is also the place of birth for probably the manliest man to ever be conceived. I can't stand most anime. I can watch Cowboy Bebop, FLCL, TTGL, G Gundam, a little Death Note, and maybe a little bit of Bleach. I can't stomach stuff like NGE (Neon Genesis Evangelon) due to it being, or trying to be, too deep. It was alright until it started rounding the final turn towards the finish line. It just... I don't know. I just hated it. There's always going to be some person out there who likes whatever is shoved out there. Whether it be an anime about four high school girls just talking, I'm looking at you Lucky Star, or two emus taking a vicious dump, somebody is going to watch it. |
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Muckraker Posts: 337 Joined: 27 Jan 2008 | Who? Kamina? |
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Copy Clerk Posts: 97 Joined: 23 Dec 2007 | Yeah. Kittan's a close second. |
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Muckraker Posts: 293 Joined: 18 Jan 2008 |
[sarcasm] It's the popular thing to call anything that involves drama and emotions, especially when it involves teenagers and/or comes from japan. Everyone else is doing it, why don't you? [/sarcasm] In seriousness, I see the word "angst" as usually being used to refer to media that is overly dramatic and emotional. It's usually coupled with the word "teen", as we all know how our hormones and emotions went out of control during our teen years. Oh, wait, that was more sarcasm... Rain, this is more of a big rant than a review, persay. While you did get several laughs out of me, you certainly seemed to go on how most anime is just nonsensical, softcore porn than a enjoyable media (which WOULD be considered an enjoyable media for some people). Of course, maybe I'm thinking too seriously on this.. |
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Pulitzer Laureate Posts: 767 Joined: 22 Aug 2006 |
Half a season? It was a 26-episode arc. As far as I know, that's a full season. To second L.B. Jeffries's comment, that's one of the things I like, and consider (somewhat) a hallmark of a quality anime. Set, pre-defined story arc, that isn't dragged out into the 100's of episodes for the sake of filling time (and selling merch). Cowboy Bebop, Trigun, Samurai Champloo: these are my exemplars of how to do it right. @Piorn: Angst |
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Gone Gonzo Posts: 1170 Joined: 13 Sep 2007 | Sorrow, nice death note reference in the zombie RP by the way. |
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Muckraker Posts: 337 Joined: 27 Jan 2008 | L's my favorite fictional character of all time, so I had to work something in there. Anyway, I have to respectfully disagree with naming Kamina the manliest, Jagdedge. Berserk's Guts is the manliest, possibly tied with Hellsing's Alucard. |
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Anonymous Source Posts: 1 Joined: 27 Apr 2008 | I don't get the point of PurpleRain's rant. There is a lot of different kind of anime and his friend obviously likes stuff he doesn't. Tastes differ. End of story. |
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Copy Clerk Posts: 97 Joined: 23 Dec 2007 |
The thing is, you have to die a manly death in order to even qualify for the manliest being in exsistence. Punching a kid in the face, having the obligatory hot girl waiting for your tender loving, killing upwards of twenty people in giant mechs, and then killing their General, all while sustaining injuries resulting from a giant laser to the chest and a glaive 20 times your size being stabbed into your back are all awesome and manly things, and all things that made up his death sequence. Kamina was the embodiement of everything GAR. |
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Copy Clerk  Posts: 114 Joined: 6 Apr 2008 | Anime has way too much angst. I dont know why people find it enjoyable. It just annoys the crap out of me. |
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Copy Clerk Posts: 111 Joined: 7 Feb 2008 | As many already pointed out, basically it all boils down to Sturgeon's Law and your friend being a bit of a pervert. So, here are some good titles to cheer you up: |
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Copy Clerk  Posts: 67 Joined: 14 Nov 2007 | Anime isnt so bad Coyboy Bepop is the best anime Ive ever seen, Neon Gensis Evangelion is also worth watching (untill ep 20) then it goes all psychological and I couldn't follow differnt story with Henti I stay away from that. |
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Paperboy  Posts: 17 Joined: 3 Mar 2008 | I think Makoto Shinkais Movies should be added into the Good Anime List. |
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Copy Clerk  Posts: 95 Joined: 23 Feb 2008 |
I agree completely. The only thing about elfen lied that pisses me off though is the ending song. You just finished watching a deeply disturbed girl with invisible hands brutally murder or maim like 17 people and then this happy jpop theme comes on. It's just about the most inappropriate choice of song I've ever heard. Doesn't stop the story from being superb, though. |
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Muckraker Posts: 337 Joined: 27 Jan 2008 |
Counterpoint: You know what it took to kill Alucard? They had to bloody erase him from existence in a paradox. He survived mutilation, decapitation, hundreds of bullet wounds, even crashing an SR-71 into an aircraft carrier's deck. Guts: Where do I begin? The fact that his sword as more than a foot wide and between 6-7 feet long? The fact that he sliced off his own hand to get it free to protect the woman carrying his child? The fact that he's taken out demons twice his size? That his hand was replaced with a fake one that conceals a cannon? HOW MUCH MANLIER CAN YOU GET?! |
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(The following isn't intending to be racist against the Japanese. I'm sure they're great folk.)
Anime... anime, anime, anime. Where do I start? I can't say I hate anime because it's like saying I hate an entire media, but to say I like every anime that rears its god awful face, well, that wouldn't be proper of me.
A friend of mine, with an anime fetish of epic proportions, let me borrow one of Digital Versatile Disk box sets called... I'm not really sure actually. I couldn't bothered checking the name because frankly, I want it as far from my memory as humanly possibly, but things as terrible as that stick. I assume this kind of mind torture was used to drive people mad.
The story basically went something like this:
In Japan, schools fight other schools for no reason. To fight you have to wear special earrings. One day a hot sassy chick bunks up with her cousin (cue awkward yet steamy incest relationship) and goes to school to fight. She obviously sucks because she gets beaten up as many times as the sun as set. But nobody worry, she's the one and will unlock super 'the one' powers by the end of the series to kill the big baddy! I think the reasoning behind this madness is because every time she gets beaten in a fight, ALL HER CLOTHES GET TORN OFF!! All down to her bra and panties at least. Aww, put it back in fellas. Why, oh why, do the Japanese insist on crapping on their only descent marketing aside from Whale meat?! Each shot of a girl was low enough to be titled 'up-skirt-cam' and the entire story was full of sexual tension. I'm pretty sure the protagonistis mother wanted in on her son as much as his cousin. This was like some weird hentia, except pass the sex and nudity for partial nudity and fighting... leading to partial nudity.
After trudging all the way to the third episode I decided to give my delicate mind a break from the crap it was spoon fed and give it back, yelling at him anime style, that is: throwing my hand in the air and making my head grow larger then it should. He, of course, would have none of it since as (previously stated) is an anime fanboy, and all animated thing Japanese, like fishporn (don't go there. Just nod and move on) and schoolgirls with invisible hands, are all thumbs up to him.
Unable to grasp the fact that I found the softporn/'Mortal Kombat goes to school' entirely unwatchable, he sits me down and shows me another great masterpiece of Japanese artistic talent, Higurashi no Naku Koro. Another useless waste of good ink. That ink isn't free you know! It comes from trees or something. Anyway, Higurashi's about a group of schoolgirls that look like they're about 8ish. One goes on a killing spree, everyone dies, the story repeats itself going through each girl as a different killer. Sounds like it could have been good, but honestly it was far from it. Saying that the dialogue was rubbish, would stain rubbish's good name. And, I'm a bit fuzzy about this, but apparently it's ok to bring a gun to school in Japan. I know in Australia it's highly illegal, but in Japan they have toilets painted like girls so you can pee on them. Two different worlds. My friend desperately to show me something good in it, fast forwards me to the final and dramatic scene. An '8 year old girl' places bombs around the school and hunts people carrying a butcher's cleaver that was double the size of her. Wouldn't it hurt her arms lugging that huge thing around with her? Apparently she has Hulk strength in that tiny body of hers. Anyway, stuff happens, things go on and eventually she faces off with the protagonists on the rooftop. He's armed with a wooden baseball bat while she still has that 'fuck off' huge cleaver sword. Charging at one another they lock in battle. As their weapons meet sparks and a Dragon Ball Z light show blows its way across the roof. Wait, back up. When did baseball bats shoot lasers?! And why doesn't metal cut through wood?
So what do most Anime do so wrong?! Anime's like Howls Moving Castle, Akira, Ghost in the Shell, Neon Genesis are hugely enjoyable and absolutely amazing by any standards. Then how is it that another Anime with the same formula manages to stuff it all up? Does it lack the creativity of Howl? The gorgeous emotional drama that is Neon Genesis? The action packed... action of Akira? It boggles the mind how Dragon Ball Z was great fun when they were fighting Freezer but turned sour when they got to Cell.
Sadly, less the 10% of Anime is rubbish (new research affirms), which only leaves the few good to collect fandom. In all honestly, you can't say that you're not tired of more anime shows promoting some kind of product to children: Yu Gi Oh, Pokemon, Bayblade, Digimon, and something else that's cross between Peggle and Pong complete with the standard supernatural monsters. Wait, the latter actually sounds cool. You can't say, with a straight face, that stupid series about skateboarding street fighters, or people that turn into planet destroying beasts and fight giant Zerg creatures from space are just plain ridiculous and annoying stupid. I think the problem was when somebody forgot to draw the line between dumb fun and just sheer dumb. I've grown tired of demons with cat's ears, sluttish girls causing sexual tension for fan service drawn for 4chan, heroes with powers locked away inside them and transforming antagonists! I can't stand anymore giant robot fights, angels in the guise of girls, sexually repressed boys that have a demon brewing inside, ninja's with secret powers when they change their eye patches, enemies hulking around 40 foot swords and 20 more episodes of that same damn Spirit Bomb! Hurry up Goku!