Anime is dying

[Hound of UIster]

Aren't the MLP anime?

No. Influenced by anime: clearly, but then given the amount of work the Japanese have done in the animation field, you really can't find any cartoon made in the 21st century that doesn't have anime influences.

 

[Base_Delta_Zero]

In The Last Exile series, the only characters with "super-powers" were the main villains, who rarely interacted personally with anyone, no one had a gun-sword or super-large hand weapon, there were no demons, dragons or monsters of any kind, there was a decent-sized cast of interesting characters (though I tired of Russian analogs), a strong plot (both overarching and personal), superb animation and artistic design, top-notch voice work by both the US and Japanese actors and it was overall very fun and entertaining to watch.

It's one of my favorite series, live action or animated. I so wish they'd follow up with the sequel idea teased in the finale...

...awesome! They are!

http://www.animax-asia.com/shows/lastexile

Doesn't seem exactly like the tease, and there are apparently mostly new characters, but the style is the same. I'll definitely pick this up on DVD.

Damn, now I want to go watch the whole series over again. I don't have time for that!

 

[Silent_Bob]

I will admit i don't like anime or manga. I dont particularly like the art styles used and none of the plots have ever appealed to me enough to bother watching or reading any of them.

That said the OP's post is complete drivel, spouting hackneyed and offensive stereotypes that are no more accurate a description of all Anime fans than me saying all trekkies live in their parents basements eating nothing but Doritos.

 

[C.E. Evans]

I will admit i don't like anime or manga. I dont particularly like the art styles used and none of the plots have ever appealed to me enough to bother watching or reading any of them.

That said the OP's post is complete drivel, spouting hackneyed and offensive stereotypes that are no more accurate a description of all Anime fans than me saying all trekkies live in their parents basements eating nothing but Doritos.

Quite true.

Some of them eat pizza too.

 

[bullethead]

Anime is basically suffering from what American television is starting to go through: a lack of advertising revenue that forces networks to either put out cheap schlock or sticking to successful properties that have been proven to make money. This, added to numerous cultural factors that have pretty much isolated anime and video games as mediums aimed primarily at adolescents, is why much of these days anime isn't all that great, because making something good is pretty pointless if it doesn't earn the studio enough money to make the investment worth it. Things are getting slightly better since there's a bit more openness on Japan's side to engage in western coproductions, but new, original shows with a lot of mainstream appeal are rare. Tiger and Bunny is the most recent example and it was predicted to fail, but wound up as a massive success in Japan across the demographic spectrum, which bodes well for US success.

 

[Nerys Ghemor]

The one anime I remember sort-of liking is one I saw about some girls that did street-racing. But I didn't watch much of it because what I saw wasn't dubbed to English and I personally think a lot is lost between hearing a line said and reading it and much of my TV "watching" is usually done by ear anyway.

Well there's your problem. Dubs suck. Unless they're done by Disney.

Yeah, I can't stand to watch anything dubbed. It's almost universally awful.

Surprisingly enough, given the bad quality of the scripts they had to work with, the dubbing work for the Star Wars prequels (at least in the Latin American Spanish version) is an exception to the rule. The guy who does C-3PO absolutely nails it, and the voice actor for Palpatine has the perfect, creepy voice, and as you might expect from Lucasfilm, the way the dubbed audio is mixed is definitely superior to the usual crap you hear with no effects that you can tell is being read over the original movie.



As for anime...I have tried, but can't get into it. A few things stuck with me--yeah, I admit it, certain Animatrix shorts, and Superbook from when I was very little, which I did not realize until I was older was a very, very old example of the anime drawing style (though certainly not the typical subject matter). But most of it...I just couldn't get past a lot of the shortcuts taken by the animators in drawing characters' features and gestures, and the sameness in the appearance of so many of the characters. And the upskirt stuff bothers me too.

I suspect not all of the plots are bad, and if they were written into a (non-graphic) novel with all the upskirt stuff edited out, it could be fun to read. But actually watching it is laborious to put it mildly.

 

[Kelthaz]

You might appreciate some of the Studio Ghibli films. Spirited Away would be my recommendation for anyone on the fence about anime. It's currently sitting at a 97% Fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes with 155 reviews (4 negative) and a glowing review from Roger Ebert. It's not your typical action anime with panty shots. It also has a fantastic dub (the dub was handled by Pixar after all), so you will lose absolutely nothing by watching it in English.

 

[Shaytan]

For adults, I usually rather recommend Princess Mononoke, it's a little les childish than Chihiro. Or Grave of the Fireflies for those who like crying.

It's funny all those people who hate anime. We had a lot of japanese anime on French TV during my childhood. Hating anime would be like hating my own childhood.
I can't even imagine that no one likes Captain Harlock on a Star Trek board

 

[iguana_tonante]

Anime is, and always will be, the very stuff of nightmares. You look at it initially, and wonder why anyone got so far into it’s abysmal lack off value. There is nothing for it to go off of except smut and story lines dedicated to twisting the perception of the viewer. The oldest anime was crudely made and devoid of any originalityAnime, is to some, better than all other forms of entertainment. These people called ‘otaku’ (who spend an inordinate amount of time watching these lackluster cartoons) don’t seem to realize that they could be better using their hours contributing to a much higher purpose in life. We get to have these wee years in our childhoods for cartoons and toys, before we know any better, then we need to move on to more important matters. A man, especially a man, is nothing, when all he can conceivably do is watch either some vomit-inducing, moe, ecchi, hentai, or play eroge dating games while committing autoerotism in front o his PC storing many GB of pirated data
Yet, I can see what would get a poor soul into anime. Manga also. It has to do with a lack of acceptance. A huge lack of belonging and desire to interact with other human beings. This mental disorder of delving into an inexcusably tawdry form of escape just goes to show how much it hurts for some people to be alive. I can sympathize, but don’t much care to leave it be that what some people do is acceptable by any social standard. When all a person does is gawk at a screen with animated characters for most of his/her life, they are unmistakably degenerates.
Anime will die off, then maybe rebuild from the debris of an era where Japan was the home of corrupt businessmen. It could be worthy of reproach, perhaps rivaling Disney’s reign of racist and hidden sexual imagery.

So be careful what you show to your children. They just might become otaku some day if you mistake an anime for a sweetly ”innocent” American cartoon.

1.5/10

Anime is vastly over-rated Japanese seizure-inducing crap.

Oh, what? There's a new series about some white Japanese teenagers who stumble upon magical forces in a near post-apocalyptic land? Well that DOES sound new and interesting!

And the female characters are going to giggle a lot and wear short skirts? So original!

I've heard there is another show where a bunch of people go around in a spaceship doing stuff. Not very original either.

 

[Forbin]

'Tis true I'm having trouble finding new anime I like these days.

Some recommendations of stuff I like:

Black Lagoon: straight-up action/adventure
Planetes: straight-up hard science fiction
Gunslinger Girl: Yeah, yeah, adolescent girl assassins with big guns. But with surprising depth.
Cowboy Bebop: But of course. A little bit of everything - sci fi, action/adventure, noir, humor, buddy cop, espionage... Possibly the most enjoyable, fun anime ever.
Ghost in the Shell: Hard sci fi future police techno-adventure. The gold standard, IMHO.

 

[Leroy]

There is far more to anime than just the stuff the haters have complained about in this thread. What few stuff that gets brought over is just the tip of the iceberg and doesn't represent the medium as a whole sweeping generalizations and personal anecdotes does not a good argument make. The trollishness of the op is fail.

I can't even imagine that no one likes Captain Harlock on a Star Trek board

I like Captain Harlock!

I've heard there is another show where a bunch of people go around in a spaceship doing stuff. Not very original either.

I've heard of a series of movies that feature adventures surrounding people with psychic powers equipped with energy bladed weapons that battle a masked villain. It's another one of those unoriginal feature films.

 

[Itisnotlogical]

I find it amusing that by and large the only people defending it are the same ones with anime-ish avatars. Who would have guessed? I find the vast majority of it annoying and tedious as well. And most of the time, the one fanboys claim to be the best of the bunch, are little more than pretentious and fear-mongering drivel. The only thing I've seen from the art form that was any good are the ones dealing with mythology and fables, such as Spirited Away. And that had more to do with the story rather than the weakly drawn style of art. Sure, the animation itself is really nice except when they do things like the cheap still-frame-and-move-the-camera stuff; that had to have set them back a couple of bucks. But it's the actual styles of art that makes me want to stab myself in the face whenever I'm exposed to it. It's just flat-out hideous. The fact that so much of the material they use with that style of art and animation is trite and full of pedophiliac themes (don't even try to defend that -- anime has more upskirt shots of little girls than any other medium I've ever been exposed to in my life, inclluding actual upskirt porn websites) just adds fuel to the fire of my loathing for anything anime. EDIT: Hmm. It's stripping out all of my carriage returns for some reason. EDIT 2: Weird. Sorry for the unintended block of text.

I enjoy anime. Look, I don't even have an anime avatar!

There's plenty of anime that doesn't feature upskirt shots at all, or maybe once for comedic effect. See: Hellsing, Neon Genesis Evangelion, the movies of the latter, any movie by Hiyao Miyazaki. In fact, Studio Ghibli's films are very good about not overly-sexualizing female characters. You're focusing on the bad instead of the good.

 

[The Castellan]

Anime is vastly over-rated Japanese seizure-inducing crap.

Oh, what? There's a new series about some white Japanese teenagers who stumble upon magical forces in a near post-apocalyptic land? Well that DOES sound new and interesting!

And the female characters are going to giggle a lot and wear short skirts? So original!

No offense to those who like and enjoy anime but, for me, it's never done much for me and I've tried watching the better anime series and movies out there and I just can't stand it.

1. Only one show out of hundreds ever caused seizures. Don't exaggerate.

2. What will make it interesting is when half those teenagers die in battle and the mourning adds a human element not replicated in ANY American cartoon since the animated Transformers movie.

3. Right. Pretty girls in short skirts. THE HORROR! Thank the lord nobody else in entertainent is that shallow...oh wait, what was that show? The one that had the guy with the ears?

I would submit that you haven't seen the best anime there is, because the best doesn't leave you feeing like you've seen it all before. I used to think that too. You haven't seen everything.

Thanks! As a hardcore anime fan, you beat me to the punch on answering 1-3. Only a few shows ever did a seizure, and was like a single episode out of hundreds, and not everyone is prone to suddenly spazing out from a set of flashes.

Yes, apart from The Simpsons, every western cartoon I've seen seems to have a "no death policy". We either see pilots' jets blow up, with each of them miraculously bailing out, or horrible American dubs of animes which get butchered with American stupi....er, censorship. Voltron is a perfect example....with it's 'stun guns' 'fruit juice', 'sleeping spells', and 'robot soldiers' Look at when Sven/Quiet in the 5th or 6th episode....we know he got stabbed in the back by the monster's sword, we know he is dying, his companions unable to fight back the tears, yet we hear "I'm badly hurt, but don't worry, I'll get better!" and then we have his younger brother appear much later in the series, and we are told it's the same man, despite being much shorter and being a totally different guy. Or him and Lothar, who both fel lto their deaths in the Japanese, but "the water broke their fall" in the American dub, when there's no water anywhere to be seen.

Girls in short skirts....unless you're some right wing, GOP candidate, go out and get laid if girls in skimpy costumes bother you. And it's ironic than many anime haters I know are hardcore comic fans or hardcore scifi fans.....and yet they got no problems with Wonder Woman, She-Hulk, Super Girl, Princess Leia and so on, who all are known for rather revealing costumes themselves. Plus I happen to like seeing anime characters carrying over sized weapons.

Bad, annoying voices....that's once again the results of bad North American dubbing. Like with Voltron, again.....the Japanese had legit voice actors, and even though I can't understand Japanese without subtitles, one can hear the raw emotions in their voices. The American version had a bunch of voice actors, probably being told to do so, and speak in stereotypical cartoony voices. Pidge in Japanese is not the annoying idiot he is in the American version. And many of the female characters in the American are actually done by the male voice actors in a very poor, grating falsetto. I say either do animes with only subtitles or a legit voice cast who can do their jobs without some idiot in charge telling them to sound like Disney or Sponge Bob characters.

Most people that I personally know whom dislikes anime tend to only get their anime sources.

I say stop using cable television to see what anime is. There's tons out there that is equal, and more often, better than what we Westerns get.

 

[The Castellan]

Then he put on the next episode, about half of which was the main (underage) character trying on different outfits in *extremely* sexual poses. That was the end of that for me.

This is getting funny.

The fact that so much of the material they use with that style of art and animation is trite and full of pedophiliac themes (don't even try to defend that -- anime has more upskirt shots of little girls than any other medium I've ever been exposed to in my life, including actual upskirt porn websites) just adds fuel to the fire of my loathing for anything anime.

~Snickers~

Congratulations, guys, you re now officially beginning to sound just like your parents.

Now if you'll excuse me, I am going to find those episodes to watch.

 

[firehawk12]

You know, I was just thinking of the seasonal anime thread I used to make here a few seasons ago and this popped up (including the three posts in the TV forum).

Yikes!

 

[Goji]

Then he put on the next episode, about half of which was the main (underage) character trying on different outfits in *extremely* sexual poses. That was the end of that for me.

This is getting funny.

The fact that so much of the material they use with that style of art and animation is trite and full of pedophiliac themes (don't even try to defend that -- anime has more upskirt shots of little girls than any other medium I've ever been exposed to in my life, including actual upskirt porn websites) just adds fuel to the fire of my loathing for anything anime.

~Snickers~

Congratulations, guys, you re now officially beginning to sound just like your parents.

Now if you'll excuse me, I am going to find those episodes to watch.

Yeah... funny thing about that, I don't need my parents to tell me not to enjoy watching children being sexualized. It just doesn't float my boat. Sorry, I guess.

 

[The Castellan]

Then he put on the next episode, about half of which was the main (underage) character trying on different outfits in *extremely* sexual poses. That was the end of that for me.

This is getting funny.

The fact that so much of the material they use with that style of art and animation is trite and full of pedophiliac themes (don't even try to defend that -- anime has more upskirt shots of little girls than any other medium I've ever been exposed to in my life, including actual upskirt porn websites) just adds fuel to the fire of my loathing for anything anime.

~Snickers~

Congratulations, guys, you re now officially beginning to sound just like your parents.

Now if you'll excuse me, I am going to find those episodes to watch.

Yeah... funny thing about that, I don't need my parents to tell me not to enjoy watching children being sexualized. It just doesn't float my boat. Sorry, I guess.

You might want to take a look out there. Many teens do that themselves, I mean you're not gonna see someone be a 'sweet, innocent child' till they hit 18 or 21 with some folks, sorry to disappoint you, they were were even like that in the 1950's. I find anime more realistic in portraying them as they are. Like the school girl seen in the Dr. Who anime posted here, I've seen many girls, and some guys, just like that.

Anyhow, off to go decide with other anime elements to add to my Trek comics.

 

[Goji]

Yeah, um, I don't care. At all. I just don't want to watch it. You're welcome to it, though.

 

[firehawk12]

A lot of anime is made simply to appeal to the male nerd though.

That's not to say American nerd fair doesn't do the same - Transformers has more than enough objectification of women - but let's not get ahead of ourselves.

 

[The Castellan]

A lot of anime is made simply to appeal to the male nerd though.

And to some of the female nerd crowd as well.

That's not to say American nerd fair doesn't do the same - Transformers has more than enough objectification of women - but let's not get ahead of ourselves.

And super heros, like Wonder Woman and Cat Woman, lassos, whips, and stilettos, oh my.

And don't get me started on Princess Leia on a leash.