Whats the deal with anime?

[quote=IPodPulse][center][IMG]http://i.imgur.com/CBEEHvw.jpg[/IMG][/quote]

[quote=HiFromBuddha][quote=Embracing]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 fuck 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. [/quote] There are differences between a weeaboo and otaku funnily enough. Otaku just refers to a person that is obsessive with anime, while a weeaboo is someone who has completely ditched the 'inferior' culture of the gaijins, and have witnessed the supremacy of Japan and have decided to follow down the righteous path of the bushido code. They own several katanas and kimonos because their Japanese. Slightly exaggerated. But seriously, I'm someone who watches anime and just loves to mock it. You can really say anything you want, and I'll probably join in because some of the things present within anime is absolutely hilarious and nonsensical. When it comes to serious topics, I can actually understand that actual Japanese people don't speak in a widely varying volume that seems to heavily exaggerate every English vowel, and that owning fifty kimonos and bowing to all your teachers won't actually make you Japanese. You see, the image that has formed of people who watch anime and read mangoes is a heavily generalised and stereotyped image based upon the downright embarrassing images of hideous, obese people clutching their two beloved body pillows with a little hole cut in them, dressed as Sasuke while doing so. Perhaps it simply hasn't occurred to them that people who literally just watch anime and like it exist. It isn't the anime that turns you like that, it's ignorance and a lack of self-restraint from the actual person that causes to be obsessive to a shameful amount. There are in fact people who realise that there are plenty of anime out there that are shit, and are not biased into thinking that cute 2D girls make the world go round and that cute 2D girls instantly makes a series perfect. It's just the obsessive ones that believe that any insult to anime is a horrible, severe case of racism and that you haven;t reached spiritual enlightenment yet, and they'll probably be on your ass for a long while. This is turning into rambling... The anime culture is pretty disgraceful. Not everyone who watches it has body pillows that have crusty cotton on the inside, but the ones that stand out are the ones that are so damn naive and oblivious of how the world goes, and that pretty much puts a bad name on a lot of people who are in fact sane. Now for the actual question... To be honest, anime is just slightly more mature cartoons. That really is all it is. I liked cartoons when I was a wee lad, and now I've grown up, and so do the cartoons that I watch. I've grown up from anime such as Bob the Builder and The Jungle Book, and now I'm looking for more mature anime like Family Guy. There really is no difference in that. I don't watch it to immerse myself in culture. I watch it because I just want to watch something, and it happens that anime is actually pretty good. Art really doesn't matter to me. Yes, Japanese art style is much nicer than the Western style, but as long as it's done in a manner in which is watchable, then I'm just fine with watching whatever. I will admit though that while art style probably doesn't matter to me in the long run, some scenes in Japanese art styles are absolutely gorgeous, and it's very unlikely that Western styles can, or will bother to replicate it. The experience you get can be vastly varied in terms of eye-candy. I have a lot more to say, but I'm starting to get lazy, so I'll just finish it off here. Just know that the music in Japanese anime is much better than Western cartoons. I really can't deny that. It seems that Western-style just doesn't really give a damn about their music, when they really should. Immersion through the use of music is a really big thing, and the music choice is much better in anime than Western-style cartoons. Ok, now I'm really done. More points to be said, but I'm lazy.[/quote]

[quote=XeresAce][quote=OTGBionicArm][quote=XeresAce] ? I guess that's all. I also happen to like animation over real life. Oh, anime (and cartoons in general) pull off spell effects, superpowers and the like 10 times better than live action shows ever will.[/quote] I'd disagree with that. Of course, no matter what, stuff like that will come off as "not being real" becuase it isn't real. But I still feel more connected to live action movies or shows portraying said types of powers than an anime or cartoon. Sure, the medium has more freedom with what actually can happen, but I generally feel like live action is more powerful. Take the recent marvel movies for example. The visuals in those are pretty astounding and a joy to watch.[/quote] I can't take live action seriously at all LOL Most of the times, visuals are done in such a derpy manner and either end up being too serious, extremely anti climatic or just really, really funny :'D And I've always connected more with anime than movies, even if I only started watching anime a few years ago. I have no idea why though[/quote]

[quote=XeresAce][quote=xIchi]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 fuck 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, clicheés 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 retarded Hollywood plotline with romance subplot. Allthough, the best romance animes, imo, are the ones without romance genre tag. As romance anime itself will always cockblock the shit outta the reader/watcher cus of clicheéd 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.[/quote] ??? kara no kyoukai, shinsekai yori, psycho pass didn't do the job for you? ;___;[/quote]

[quote=xIchi][quote=XeresAce][quote=xIchi]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 fuck 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, clicheés 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 retarded Hollywood plotline with romance subplot. Allthough, the best romance animes, imo, are the ones without romance genre tag. As romance anime itself will always cockblock the shit outta the reader/watcher cus of clicheéd 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.[/quote] ??? kara no kyoukai, shinsekai yori, psycho pass didn't do the job for you? ;___;[/quote] Not really. Kara no Kyoukai was good, but nothing to go super hype over. Shinsekai Yori had it's problem with the source material and the analogiously anime. Psycho Pass kinda is in the same theme as Ergo Proxy, but cmon, if any1 here watched both, Ergo Proxy would just be miles better while also going into Psycho Pass' field of subject (with the Hue system etc).[/quote]

[quote=Latest Legend][quote=OTGBionicArm]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 crap you could imagine like it was serious ground breaking shit.[/quote]SOA is just another terrible shounen with hardly any plot (that's making sense) and a lot of action. Especially true for the second half. Like many tried to point out in this thread already, this is just a certain genre of anime, not all anime are like this. In fact, there are plenty of SAO haters in our very own Manga&Anime thread. Shows like SAO are the shows that reach the general (non-anime) public though ("entrance anime"), which maybe says more about people that don't watch anime than people that do watch anime regularly. Anyway, the goal of shounen is to deliver mindless action, and it did this very well. [quote=OTGBionicarm]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.[/quote]So you judge a book by its reader? I'm getting a bit confused here. I thought the goal of this thread was to discuss why people like anime, not about why people don't like anime (though I appreciate the discussion and questions) . Anyway, it's definitely not about people that like anime and why you (or anyone else) find these people disgusting or why you hate them.[/quote]

[quote=DarkAkumaLord]All I have to say is enjoying anime is much easier than our own animations because of the many different genres (ecchi to harem to SoL to Mecha to horror to etc.) Since I hang around Weeaboos and Noobs, with semi elitists sometimes irl and mostly elitists online, I can tell you how people who watch anime work but that isn't the question is it ;) I'm a semi elitist now anyways so it's awkward irl sometimes. After all the only reason I'm probably not one is because enjoyment is subjective and I like bad animes such as SAO and stuff. It's bad but enjoyable, so I will say it's bad but I like it :)[/quote]

[quote=Toshabi]People have low standards and want overly simplistic, easily predictable and fan servicey (sexually and the traditional ways) cartoons to watch. Anime is a dead art imo, that's amongst the walking dead thanks to the fan base of easy to amuse fans. As the king of Japanese Animation (Miyazaki) said, anime is dead because the industry is filled and run by its fans who have no grasp on the concepts of believability or reality. That's why every character in current day anime are so fake, phony and downright retarded. Tl:dr- Modern day anime enthusiasts have no taste/are simpletons. It's just one massive fan servicing circle jerk.[/quote]

[quote=sirell][quote=Embracing] 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.[/quote] Precisely this.[/quote]

[quote=Searz][quote=HiFromBuddha]There are differences between a weeaboo and otaku funnily enough. Otaku just refers to a person that is obsessive with anime, while a weeaboo is someone who has completely ditched the 'inferior' culture of the gaijins, and have witnessed the supremacy of Japan and have decided to follow down the righteous path of the bushido code. They own several katanas and kimonos because their Japanese.[/quote] Oh.. The more you know. [quote]Not everyone who watches it has body pillows that have crusty cotton on the inside [h2]pillows that have crusty cotton on the inside[/h2] [h1][b]crusty cotton[/b][/h1][/quote] D: [quote]To be honest, anime is just slightly more mature cartoons. That really is all it is. I liked cartoons when I was a wee lad, and now I've grown up, and so do the cartoons that I watch. I've grown up from anime such as Bob the Builder and The Jungle Book, and now I'm looking for more mature anime like Family Guy. There really is no difference in that. I don't watch it to immerse myself in culture. I watch it because I just want to watch something, and it happens that anime is actually pretty good.[/quote] Replace anime with animation and I'm all aboard. [quote=xIchi]and the analogiously anime.[/quote] http://stormofjay.files.wordpress.com/2013/06/grammar_police_by_rysis.jpg[/quote]