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Whats the deal with anime?

Creator: Electro522 November 10, 2014 8:08am
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lifebaka
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Short answer: It's an aesthetic. Some people like the way animated stuff looks. Especially the hand-drawn animation favored in Japan. And the market's desires aren't necessarily being met by existing English-language animated shows. This is probably the major reason anyone ever gets into anime, they like the way it looks. Everything else is... Gravy, basically. And you get used to all the weird parts.

So yeah. I actually think the popularity of anime is pretty simple. People want to watch animated action scenes, and anime is where they can get that.

Also, OTG, I think some of your points are pretty silly. Anime is perfectly understandable to people outside of Japan. Unless you're going to assert that nothing is ever worthwhile outside of its home culture (which is silly and clearly false), you don't really have a point to stand on. You don't have to like media from other cultures, because learning the rules by which the culture operates while also consuming media is hard, but your personal dislike definitely does not make media from other cultures bad. Nor is your point about fantasy (your point about FMA is about fantasy, not anime) reasonable, because the idea that the only stories worth telling are the ones where we can identify with the main characters is ridiculous.

Your statements about over-reliance on tropes are well-taken, but... It's not exactly like other media don't do exactly the same thing. Vampire romance novels, detective drama TV shows, modern military shooter video games, action movies, horror movies, indie platformer video games, daytime soap opera TV shows, all of Tolkien-esque fantasy. Et cetera, et cetera. Unless you're also going to claim that novels, American TV shows, Hollywood movies, and the modern video game are all also always bad for the same reasons, you're holding anime to a different standard than you hold other media. Which is silly. Anime isn't bad just because a lot of it is mediocre or bad. A lot of everything is mediocre or bad. But we don't claim that other mediums are bad as a whole just because most examples from them are.

Now, clearly you don't have to like anime, but please don't think that you can judge people who do. And don't think that you can judge a medium based upon anything except a long and deep look at it. Criticism comes from a place of love; if you don't love what you're criticizing, you're just bashing it. And bashing things isn't cool.
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I'm not bashing anime fans (I was bashing my friends who are unhealthily obsessed with it.) or anime in itself. I think it's a fun medium to watch, but as stated, I do feel the market for it is a tad saturated at this point due to it's popularity. It's pretty overwhelming to me.

But yea on to your actual points; I'm not saying anything can't be enjoyed out of it's own culture, I'm saying that if you don't don't understand Japanese (and are reading subtitles) or the foreign language dubs for the show are not like, an amazing quality, you lose a very big plane of emotional depth to what you are watching. As for fantasy vs reality, that is honestly a preference, and I agree my statement there was a bit silly (as we all play video games specifically to escape reality).

I didn't mean to imply that other forms of entertainment aren't without problems. I was more focused with the topic at hand. ;p

Again, I don't really dislike animes as a whole. I just dislike a lot of things that tend to be commonplace in them. And again I admit that I am incredibly jaded to the subject. I'm sure you all have met "that guy" that won't shut up about animes to you. It makes you like it a bit less does it not?
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I like anime on its own. It's great and would spend to watch it if it didn't take so much of my time. The other main issue I'm put off by anime is precisely because of these semi-hardcore/hardcore fans who just seem to equate to talking to an 8 year old. Anime as a whole naturally gravitates these kind of people who are unhealthily introverted or who aren't emotionally balanced. The amount of times I go to an animecon and just feel my IQ dropping listening to some of these people or feeling faint from heavy BO is unreal. One of the reasons I've gradually stopped attending them. Those are the kind of guys that make me think that anime really is just for kids and not an artform. Luckily, there are people who are mature enough to not let it sway their entire existence and can talk about anime (and real life) sensibly whilst still having both feet firmly planted on the ground instead of the clouds.

I very nearly got trapped in exactly that kind of lifestyle and I thank the heavens that I did not, that I spend a lot more time experiencing life as a whole package, rather than watching other people live their lives through a screen (seriously, when that clicked emotionally that I was wasting my time watching other people live their lives when I had mine - wasting mine - I felt so stupid and disgusted about myself).

The fact that it's Japanese does prove to be an initial inhibition for people trying to understand the context, but I've found that over the years as you learn more about the culture, you understand things far more easily. Good translations really help for this as well. And truthfully, regardless of culture, human beings are very much alike in many respects, particularly emotionally, anyway.

To be very frank, anime is pretty much good for the same reason any other media is. If you got something good to show, then people will want see it, regardless of what form it takes. A lot of anime show fights which younger audiences will want to see and a fair amount will actually contain a good story.
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Similar to OTG I have no time to waste watching anime like Bleach, Naruto, One Piece, or 90% of the anime that has come out. Everything is super overdone and has been done 100x before, and it's honestly boring af. I can't stand watching that stuff anymore.

I used to watch it a lot, but I think that was mainly because I had nothing else to do at 2 am watching tv.

Most recently i've watched ATLA, The Pet Girl of Sakurasou, Kampfer and Aria: The Animation, or at least those are the ones I've been able to finish once I start. I watched Free! for a while too, and I should probably watch it again, but I think it's had some of those overdone elements in it too.

For me Anime is something I watch mainly when I'm eating food on my ipod, or in bed before I go to sleep. Times when I don't really have many other options but want to pass the time somehow.

It's not a lifestyle to me, and in all honesty I really hate people who try to make it like that. It's sort of racist, in a lot of cases.

Anime is probably most popular though because there are short episodes about many different topics (like OTG said, there's a LOT), they're easy to download/watch, and there's a large community around them.

But I do understand why you wouldn't like them too. It's not really any different on tv shows either - you usually find trash, and maybe 1 or 2 diamonds in the rough.


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So many walls of text.................I love it!

Can I just say thank you to everyone who responded to this? Makes me feel special!

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This topic is of most importance to a lot of people on MOBAFire.
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I'd just like to point out that there currently is an anime fad in the States. Not really sure why it's happening but you do have a lot of people who go like "THIS IS GODLY" to shows that simply have interesting concepts like SAO, randomly use Japanese phrases because they think it's cool, and people even making up terms for people like that. Like why the **** does the term "weaboo" exist when the term "otaku" was meant to be derogatory? People even go like "Yeah, I'm an otaku" like it's some categorical term.

That being said, I personally watch anime because I enjoy the shows and the artwork. It's just like asking why people talk about Game of Thrones or Hannibal. I think anime first emerged as a medium to add fantasy elements into tv shows without making the shows seem complete fake (Back in the day technology wasn't as developed). Nowadays of course, you can see all the blood and dragons in GoT and think they're realistic.

Animes are simply TV shows with Japanese culture (I guess moreso it's own culture now) inside of it. The shows mostly target a teenage fanbase. You can see how Game of Thrones has a medieval background or how Suits has a strong American background. It's the same thing.

However, it is true though that anime production has dropped in pure quality over the years. This is mostly because most animes nowadays are just mediums for light novel writers to earn extra money, since there is already an existing target audience that will almost guaranteed a sizable revenue. Of course though, there are also great original anime. The most notable ones are probably Miyazaki films like Spirited Away, which depict modern societal issues through various symbols and themes.

Overall I feel watching anime is a nice way to kill time. Take out the obsessive fanbase and you have a bunch of chill people who just simply enjoy watching shows.
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1. Anime is a poor medium for relating to characters (if you're not Japanese).

2. Anime often uses cheap money saving tactics in animation. There I said it. Anime's actual animation may "look" good. But it's often cheap and heavily uses looping animations or other gimmicks to cut costs. Before you guys unleash the proverbial **** storm on me for that statement, I'm aware that not all animes do this. I'm simply pointing out that a hefty majority of them do. While the artistic value in a lot of American and other cartoons is often lower, these shows generally cut corners less and makes the whole experiance more enjoyable, in my opinion.

3. Many animes are rehashed as ****. I've seen dozens of animes that made me feel exactly like DBZ did. Bleach, One piece, etc all follow the same basic feeling which is "A bunch of badass dudes are fighting. There's some talking in between, but that's irrelevant". (This statement is gonna get me ****ing plastered on a wall) How many animes are about some awkward guy surrounded by women? How many are about Giant Robots? As much as I love Zoids, that's another trope that anime tends to over use.


1. Partially disagree, but I'll never understand how something like Monogatari got so popular in the west when 99% of its humor comes from wordplay and cultural references. For subtle references though, like ones in Lucky Star or Daily Lives of Highschool Boys, you sort of understand them after watching a couple anime. The point about relating to characters is completely wrong though. Not all English dubs are bad either, Ouran Host Club and Death Note were really good, and Baccano sounded better in English, but the statement holds true for 90% of dubs. Most people aren't able to relate to being sent to fights to the death as teenagers, being trapped on an island with dinosaurs, or fighting a galactic empire, but that's point of fiction, you don't have to be able to connect with the characters to get a feeling of their experiences.

2. Probably true, I'm too lazy for [citation needed], but I believe it. I still like Japanese artstyle better and haven't really seen cartoons that can compare with even slightly above average animation.

3. It's a problem shared by all media types. The "badass dudes fighting" isn't the worst of it either, slice-of-life shows are definitely worse.
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Embracing you brought up SAO, someone made me watch that and I was dumbfounded by how asinine it was. >.> Like yea the concept I guess is cool, but they were spewing off like the most basic no-brainer MMO **** you could imagine like it was serious ground breaking ****.

Gave me cancer.

I think you did sum up a good portion of my problem with anime though. It's largely the obsessive American fanbase, rather than the anime itself.
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Guess I am just going to add my 2 cents here.
So I first got into anime as it was a medium for more mature people.
Or at least it was showed around 7-8 PM on german TV (Stuff like Dragon Ball, Arjuna, Ghost in the Shell, Hellsing, etc.).
These animes where a heavy contrast to the ones in the noon (Pokemon,Digimon,Yu Gi Oh, Sailor Moon, Dedective Conan) and got me interested in more.
Sadly, in my opinion, I got into the world of anime via Naruto. As german TV was running Naruto randomly without any order and thus destroying the storyline. Therefore, I googled the Naruto anime on youtube/myvideo/google and later found streaming websites, where I then started to watch seasonal animes and top lists.
In contray to western movies, it felt more interesting as I was already fed up by the generic plotline of hollywood movies. As someone mentioned here, it was always the same with different clothing.
Every genre had a romantic subplot, making some movies unbearable for me. Why the **** does a Hero need some girl to protect and love, just to argue with her and break up and then saving her by defeating the antagonist and then it ends in an happy end for them. Doesn't defeat the antagonist suffice? (At least for me).

But as of now, alot of people have mentioned, the anime market is saturated and everything feels generic and not unique.
Every plot was somehow already taken, clicheƩs are being overused and characters are not even close to interesting.

I am mostly watching animes nowadays to fill space in between (eating in front of PC or before going to sleep). And it is still more entertaining that the ******ed Hollywood plotline with romance subplot.
Allthough, the best romance animes, imo, are the ones without romance genre tag. As romance anime itself will always ****block the **** outta the reader/watcher cus of clicheƩd misunderstandings or someone randomly interrupting a developement situation for MC and Heroine.

Obviously, I still watch in hope to find some stuff again like Ergo Proxy and Eden of the East. Those 2 were super interesting and had nice atmosphere, while also having a great story that I enjoyed to watch through.
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