Do you like Anime? Then you're stupid because Anime is stupid.
I keed, I keed... But seriously, I've never understood why Anime is so popular. I'm going to point out and explain my problems with the Anime "genre" as a whole. Understand of course that I am generalizing here. Not all Anime is like this. However so much of it is, that I can never say I like Anime. I do however like a few shows that happen to be Anime. These shows are the exception to the genre (Ergo Proxy, Deathnote, Tetsuwan Birdy and ERGO PROXY AGAIN BECAUSE IT IS A MASTERPIECE), but sadly these nuggets of gold fail to redeem the sheer amount of crap that is Anime.PROBLEM #1 ▲ Style
In any animated show, style plays a huge part in portraying character. It allows you to give each character unique characteristics that embodies his/her personalities. Unfortunately in anime, most characters have the exact same faces with just different hair and slightly different eyes. This makes for a very bland expressionless character that frankly fails to provoke any kind of emotional attachment from me. They are boring.PROBLEM #2 ▲ Quality of Animation
Anime shows are notorious for being cheap and cutting corners. They typically use many stagnant shots, where the only thing that is animated on screen is the camera panning or the character's mouth. I understand that you have a budget, but come on. It's embarrassing to even call this animation at times.
PROBLEM #3 ▲ Endless Exposition
I don't want a character to tell me what's going on in the story, I WANT TO SEE AND EXPERIENCE IT! I can't stand when characters clumsily spit out long spouts of exposition to explain what's going on in the plot or to provide back story instead of presenting it to the viewer in a way that actually takes CREATIVITY AND THOUGHT.
PROBLEM #4 ▲ Convoluted PlotPlots in Anime do not make sense 99% of the time. They are all over the place and contain ridiculous amounts of plot holes.
PROBLEM #5 ▲ God-like Characters
I see this all the time. Let me break down a simply story-telling method for you all: An extremely important part of a story is the characters. You make the audience attached to the characters and put them in hazardous positions. The audience likes the character and doesn't want them to get hurt/die, so it creates
tension. You give your characters limitations and weaknesses so that you are afraid for their safety. That is interesting and exciting. However, when a main character seems to have no limit to their power and seems incapable of dying or has even DIED ON MULTIPLE OCCASIONS AND STILL CAME BACK TO LIFE the story loses all tension. You no longer care about the character because you know they'll be fine. They're gods! Who cares. I HATE THIS SO MUCH!
I have even more problems with Anime, but frankly I'm tired of writing and I'm sure I've already stirred up enough of a shit storm as it is.
Oh also Mushi-shi is a pretty good show that happens to be Anime.
~Josiah▲
YOU DON'E LIEK ANIMU WELL IEM GUNNA GO ALL KAWAII DESU ON YOUS BEACUASE ANINMEE ISH TEH BEST!!!!!!11!!!1!11!11!ONEONEone
ReplyDeleteNo seriously, I get your point. A major part of character creating is also silhouettes, so when FREAKING EVERYTHING looks the same, it's hard to make out just who's who. I mean don't get me wrong, I love it all the same, but dang. I could also go on a rant about that anime "style" that has so crazed the young american artist population right now, but I think I'll stay away from long, angry paragraphs xD
Oh ps your derp naruto is fantastic
ReplyDeleteWhile I can agree with you on some of your issues with anime/manga, I don't on others. and I figure ill add some conversation...
ReplyDelete#1 Here is the thing with anime, it is the style, not the genre. Within this style though, is any genre thinkable, horror, romance, action, even erotica/adult.
#2 this is highly over generalizing. while some are like this, not all of them are. We could say the same thing about regular TV CG, but not all shows have bad CG.
#3 While I also find this to be highly annoying I can somewhat understand why its done. Anime/manga is also notorious for having extremely long series, like with Inuyasha, 56 books and 8 or 9 seasons. If most of the story isnt filler, than there is a lot that happens, so I guess Im talking more of recap...
#4 Once agian, I think you are over generalizing. I can agree with this on most action/fighting based anime, like bleach for example, but still not all of them. The other thing is that eastern culture is extremely different from western culture, and there are a lot of things that we may not pick up on or understand (like old myths/history/wives tales, speaking of, thats what the nosebleed thing is, an old Japanese wives tale about inappropriate thoughts)
#5 Once again, this could be said about a lot of stories, you know the character is going to get out, that good has to triumph (unless your name is George RR Martin, in which case we still know every one is going to die). But I do understand this with anime, and it does bother me...but once again i think its more action based, and since I read some shojo, i know that it is not always the case.
man, that sounds like im ranting, oh well, i was half dead when i wrote it...
ReplyDeleteI just kind of find it ironic that everything you complained about in anime is blatantly overused in western comics. And considering anime is simply an animated adaptation to a manga series, it's not exactly a surprise. Anime is simply more notable for it because it's easy to criticize. However, you should first criticize the story telling of western society before you move overseas.
ReplyDeleteFor instance... "God-like characters?" Have you seen Superman? His only weakness is Krytonite, and he even gains immunity to it later on.