Anime is dying

[Sindatur]

Eh,

I've watched at least 100 episodes of InuYasha (Which I've enjoyed, but, it does get repetitive, they should've have an end date in mind, and had a definitive arc, then it really would've been awesome).

Actually (if I remember right) Inuyasha towards the last part had several episodes that seemed to form a definitive arc. Going towards the Naraku showdown.

Except they ended that run almost mid-story (think Two Towers), since they had caught up to the manga and went on hiatus.

Finally Japan did finish the entire Inuyasha run on TV, and last year there was some talk of Viz dubbing this new batch of episodes. But I don't know if Cartoon Network/Adult Swim ever broadcast those shows or not. (If they did, I missed it! ) I wanted to watch the remaining shows. Does anybody know whether they are starting that soon?

Sesh-shomaru forever!

Oh, there was an arc, but, it just meandered forever. 270 episodes in all, I believe.

I enjoyed it, but, I've been collecting them up on DVD, $5 minimum per Disk, so, I had to give up on collecting them

 

[A beaker full of death]

While I'm no fan, are most American cartoons any better? G.I. Joe and Transformers were created with the sole purpose of selling toys, and now somehow they've become equally vacuous major motion pictures.

 

[Distorted Humor]

What are the best fan service titles?

 

[zakkrusz]

Eh,

I've watched at least 100 episodes of InuYasha (Which I've enjoyed, but, it does get repetitive, they should've have an end date in mind, and had a definitive arc, then it really would've been awesome).

Actually (if I remember right) Inuyasha towards the last part had several episodes that seemed to form a definitive arc. Going towards the Naraku showdown.

Except they ended that run almost mid-story (think Two Towers), since they had caught up to the manga and went on hiatus.

Finally Japan did finish the entire Inuyasha run on TV, and last year there was some talk of Viz dubbing this new batch of episodes. But I don't know if Cartoon Network/Adult Swim ever broadcast those shows or not. (If they did, I missed it! ) I wanted to watch the remaining shows. Does anybody know whether they are starting that soon?

Sesh-shomaru forever!

Oh, there was an arc, but, it just meandered forever. 270 episodes in all, I believe.

I enjoyed it, but, I've been collecting them up on DVD, $5 minimum per Disk, so, I had to give up on collecting them

No, he's taking about Inu Yasha: The Final Act. A 26 episode televiaion show that aired in 2009 which picks up where the longer TV series left off and finished the franchise definitively. The North American distributor VIZ streams it free and legal there if you wanted to watch.

What are the best fan service titles?

Personally, a few of my favorites would be:

Highschool of the Dead
Sekirei/ Sekirei: Pure Engagement
Needless
Ai Yori Aoshi/Ai Yori Aoshi: Enishi
Chobits
Negima!/ Negima?!/ OVAs
Nogizaka Haruka no Himitsu/ Nogizaka Haruka no Himitsu: Purezza
B Gata H Kei (I think the NA release is called Yamada's First Time)
Girls Bravo
Demon King Daimao

And while I'm at it a few Safe non-fanservice series:
Planetes
Haibane Renmei
Moribito: Guardian of the Spirit
Mushi-shi
Kino's Journey
Kanon (2006)
Ergo Proxy
Rideback
Noir
Witch Hunter Robin

 

[JD]

It's also on Hulu.

 

[The Castellan]

While I'm no fan, are most American cartoons any better? G.I. Joe and Transformers were created with the sole purpose of selling toys, and now somehow they've become equally vacuous major motion pictures.

Not really. Only Western series not selling toys was Adventures of the Galaxy Rangers, which was very good, and very anime like itself in artwork and stories, of course it only lasted one season, since it was not selling a product.

 

[RAMA]

The Japanese also like to think big, they did versions of Lensmen, Starship Troopers. Sticking mainly with hard SF...they also used sky tethers/space elevators, rail guns, O'Neil cylinders, powered suits and a huge number of SF ideas that rarely if ever made it onto US movie screens or TV. Their earlier shows of space adventure and mecha like Battleship Yamato and Robotech were far more advanced than their American counterparts in both animation style and content. They told continuing stories, had real characters, and real consequences. Oh of course they also had their share of screaming schoolgirls here and there, but it was a small price to pay.

RAMA

 

[zakkrusz]

It's also on Hulu.

I think VIZ just has Hulu host it anyways and embed the video in their own website.

Also in regards to anime's animation, yeah, it's done on a smaller budget tor television series, but ironically, even when some things like frame rate are sacrificed, the stories are still far better written than you generally see on US television, and more attention is paid to the details so they generally look more artful (coloring, backgrounds, shadows and such). Best of all a lot of them actually end and thus take less time to watch and are often more satisfying. On the other hand big budget theatrical works often have equal or superior quality to anything put out by Disney or Pixar because they have enough yen to work with and don't have to penny pinch.

 

[Showdown]

Like many have said before, anime is just a medium. Treating anime as if they are all the same is like saying all Disney movies are about princesses, all SciFi are about spaceships and aliens, and all American cartoons are about anthropomorphic animals like Mickey Mouse. While I enjoy many anime shows, I can understand some people disliking them. It could be the cultural difference or a matter of taste. Not everyone is going to like everything.

It's mention that many anime shows are similar, say, a school girl with magic. This happens when a show became really popular, like Sailor Moon, and lots of other companies tried to copy it. At one time, a lot of anime are about giant robots, like Gundam and Neon Genesis. It happens in America too. When Ninja Turtles was a big hit, we get Street Sharks and Biker Mice from Mars. It's not new phenomenon and there's too many examples to name.

Would anyone say this is a Sailor Moon or Pokemon clone:
[yt]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XXYDwWTOO2I[/yt]

 

[Myasishchev]

While I'm no fan, are most American cartoons any better? G.I. Joe and Transformers were created with the sole purpose of selling toys, and now somehow they've become equally vacuous major motion pictures.

Well, good thing you chose a true representative sample of American animation, otherwise damning American cartoons as mere toy commercials would be pretty facile.

I certainly prefer American cartoons for humor. Granted, Shin-Chan manages to be quite funny, but that's because it was entirely rewritten in order to appeal to me, the American.

P.S.: the show's not very good, but Transformers: The Movie = greatest cartoon ever made. I measured it with special scientific instruments. My findings were published in Nature.

 

[Roshi]

OP:

tl; dr

 

[Sindatur]

While I'm no fan, are most American cartoons any better? G.I. Joe and Transformers were created with the sole purpose of selling toys, and now somehow they've become equally vacuous major motion pictures.

Not really. Only Western series not selling toys was Adventures of the Galaxy Rangers, which was very good, and very anime like itself in artwork and stories, of course it only lasted one season, since it was not selling a product.

I don't recall Avatar: The Last Airbender as having spawned any toys, it lasted for 3 Seasons, with a continuous story throughout.

 

[barnaclelapse]

One of the things I like about Anime are the long, drawn-out stories. Some of them pull that off really, really well. "InuYasha" would definitely be one.

"Bebop" is not only my favorite Anime film or series of all time, it's also one of my favorite series or film, period, of all time. I think it's a masterpiece in every way.

 

[milo bloom]

While I'm no fan, are most American cartoons any better? G.I. Joe and Transformers were created with the sole purpose of selling toys, and now somehow they've become equally vacuous major motion pictures.

Not really. Only Western series not selling toys was Adventures of the Galaxy Rangers, which was very good, and very anime like itself in artwork and stories, of course it only lasted one season, since it was not selling a product.

I don't recall Avatar: The Last Airbender as having spawned any toys, it lasted for 3 Seasons, with a continuous story throughout.

Avatar:TLA had several toys and many video games. It's kinda the outlier in that it was so good and had a beginning, middle and ending. Even after the disaster of the live action movie, there's still enough interest in the animation to greenlight a new sequel series starring Korra, a new waterbending Avatar.

 

[Hartzilla2007]

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.

You know when Starblazers did something similar it actually worked better than the cop out Space Battleship Yamato came up with.

I watch dubbed anime and enjoy it. Some kiddie fare, some not, but I watch to be entertained. I get headaches with subtitles and haven't the patience or time to get into subbed at the moment. It just doesn't work for me. The last subtitled series I tried for any length was Sailor Moon. I didn't make it past episode 14.

Anyhoo, sub vs dubbed - I understand wanting to hear it in its native saoundtrack, but if I want to read I'll pick up a book. I enjoy the art, and I want to watch the artistry of the images. Can't do that while trying to read the screen, especially with my eyesight and slight dyslexia. And more especially when they decide to subtitle a background song and there are translations running top AND bottom of the screen, sometimes in multiple lines.

I tend to go with dubbed unless there is no hope of there ever being a U.S. release, i.e. Macross DYRL, the Macross series not release in the states that I will watch, and Legend of the Galactic Heroes (the fans can whine about it being becuase its too smart or the animation being from the 80s whatever but lets face it, there probabnly isn't a studio that will want to have to do all the work needed to release an over 100 episode series to the U.S.) and in cases where the dub is way to juvenile to sit through, (lets face it Starblazers qualifies, but at least there's hope for the yamato reboot series I hear is in the works.)

I like anime, but I agree that a lot of anime are bad. But I have some memorable anime that I like until now.
and one of them (maybe because it looks like Star Trek) was an anime series that called " Mugen no Ryvius" / Infinite Ryvius. It was not perfect, as for example, I witness a giant transformable robot in it, and I dare to say that there were several plot hole on it. But, I love it.
If you like Star Trek, maybe you will like Infinite Ryvius too.

You can also check out Space Battleship Yamato and The Irresponsible Captain Tylor since their also Star Treky especially in The Irresponsible Captain Tylor's case.

And the aesthetics can be even worse. If you've watched any late-era Gundam series, you know what I mean. Ugliest fucking things on the planet, because 1)they're cheap and 2)they're clearly made by people who like ugly things for people who have no eyes.

I highly doubt designs like the Exia and the Shrike Gundams are the "ugliest things on the planet for people with no eyes" beauty is in the eye of the beholder I guess.

The mecha designs themselves, while over-the-top in SEED (lol), aren't my main problem. Reasonable minds may differ. I guess. The ones in 00 were certainly tons better. (Although that one that Tiera had--iirc; the purple-headed, nearsighted transman--with the hair looked pretty stupid.) Well, until they went Trans Am (ugh).

Nah, it's the aesthetics of how battles looked in SEED (lol) onward. And 00 was probably about as bad.

"Pink! I need more pink! MORE PINK THAN A DRUNKEN MALL SANTA'S FACE ON CHRISTMAS EVE! MORE PINK THAN ALL THE PORNOGRAPHY IN THE WESTERN WORLD! NOW MAKE IT FLICKER AND SHINE AS WOULD A PINK AND ORANGE SUPERNOVA!"

Like, in the old shows (Wing, 08th Team, MSG in its various forms, and probably the ones I never saw), the battles often tended to look cheap (depending on the importance of the scene, usually), but they didn't look like the animation director was a guy who couldn't keep down his antacid.

My biggest problem with the Gundam shows is that (and I expect to get hell for this) they tend to drag on a little slowly. Now in my defense this was a conclusion I came to after trying and failing to get through the original Gundam series, but being able to get all the way through the compilation movies of the same show.

I really think all the Gundam shows should just try to show for less than 40 - 50 episodes as this would casue way less pading, plus it would help develop the main character fatser so they aren't a whining emo brat* most of the series

* Well for the Gundam series where this is part of the character.

The Japanese also like to think big, they did versions of Lensmen,

Am I the only one who noticed that the Japanese hit all the standard American Scifi tropes in that.

 

[LitmusDragon]

I used to not like anime but now I do. Cool story, I know.

 

[C.E. Evans]

Anime, like most things, is not for everyone. Heck, not all anime is for anime fans...

 

[Bonzo the Fifth]

Yeah, there really isn't any way to damn the entire genre of Anime without damning the entirely of worldwide animation, as there really isn't enough difference to justify slamming one while raising another.

Like most genres, Anime has a lot of variety, some you can like, some you won't. I'm not sure you can make any sweeping statements over the entirety of the genre, though. Not without having actually watched a significant fraction of it.

But really, bagging on a whole genre just because you don't like it? You would think a forum of Science Fiction fans would be a bit more enlightened...

 

[milo bloom]

But really, bagging on a whole genre just because you don't like it? You would think a forum of Science Fiction fans would be a bit more enlightened...

No kidding, you should see them when we try to discuss equines of non-standard coloration. You'd think we were trying to sell their grandmothers to the Klingons or something.

 

[Sindatur]

Eh, back when I was a kid, Anime merely meant Animated (No country or style implied). Japanimation was the term for Japanese Animation by in the old days