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Anime character designs over the years

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a18e21d59491eba73c6133ea2adbea5f_zps32a29ac2.jpg

What am I looking at here? The left-hand side is not anime and on the right hand side they have K-On! and Madoka Magika on the same category, the fuck?
 
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Deleted member 231381

Unconfirmed Member
For me, the main problem is the schoolgirl to non-schoolgirl character ratio. I don't want to see hyper-sexualised 13 year-olds everywhere; it's really off putting. I was watching Gargantua and was straight out nope after the 5th episode because a perfectly decent intro and universe was straight up ruined by some of the most gratuitous fan service of all time. I just want them to treat the damn female characters with respect. Seems to me if you had a complete ban on moe, anime would improve dramatically.

EDIT: I tend to prefer my manga late 80s/early 90s, and I wasn't even born until '94, so I'm fairly sure that's not nostalgia.
 

dude

dude
Disney's feature film animation is bad now?

Yeah, even Movie level animation in most animes doesn't even come close the a Disnet feature.
Anyway, best animes were in the 80's and early 90's, from that onward it's mostly crap.
 

Superflat

Member
For me, the main problem is the schoolgirl to non-schoolgirl character ratio. I don't want to see hyper-sexualised 13 year-olds everywhere; it's really off putting. I was watching Gargantua and was straight out nope after the 5th episode because a perfectly decent intro and universe was straight up ruined by some of the worst fan service of all time. I just want them to treat the damn female characters with respect. Seems to me if you had a complete ban on moe, anime would improve dramatically.

EDIT: I tend to prefer my manga late 80s/early 90s, and I wasn't even born until '94, so I'm fairly sure that's not nostalgia.

That fanservice did come out of completely fucking nowhere and I was pretty dumbfounded, lol. Shit was really weird.

I think there's often a trade-off of sorts when it comes to the focus of females in anime today. While they are designed to be cute and appeal to a male audience (to varying levels), there are more female protagonists than ever in this genre, and many of the more popular shows have decent female followings. The male characters in anime are nowdays are often portrayed more as misguided, simplistic, and dopey compared to the females. The males are often the confused ones, and have to be led by the hand by the females.

BUT that also has to do with a different kind of cultural wish-fulfillment where male otaku are useless and want to be put in situations where more interesting females will save them. The opposite of the western "power fantasy" lol.

So what I'm basically saying is, I don't know where I was going with this.
 
For me, the main problem is the schoolgirl to non-schoolgirl character ratio. I don't want to see hyper-sexualised 13 year-olds everywhere; it's really off putting. I was watching Gargantua and was straight out nope after the 5th episode because a perfectly decent intro and universe was straight up ruined by some of the most gratuitous fan service of all time. I just want them to treat the damn female characters with respect. Seems to me if you had a complete ban on moe, anime would improve dramatically.

EDIT: I tend to prefer my manga late 80s/early 90s, and I wasn't even born until '94, so I'm fairly sure that's not nostalgia.

Yeah, 3 out of 44 new shows is totally too many. Totally.
 
I hate when Anime has wonky CG, when it looks like the movement in the animation is stuttering or low FPS. The first time I seen this was the Zoids in the 90's, the movement was really off putting. Even recent Anime has this, Macross Frontier, Rideback, etc. I call it the "Zoid" look.

Miss the days when no CG was involved.

I still think the animation in Macross: DYRL or Wings on Honneamise hold up till this day.
 

Jarate

Banned
I hate when Anime has wonky CG, when it looks like the movement in the animation is stuttering or low FPS. The first time I seen this was the Zoids in the 90's, the movement was really off putting. Even recent Anime has this, Macross Frontier, Rideback, etc. I call it the "Zoid" look.

Miss the days when no CG was involved.

I don't think CG is that much of a problem if it's done correctly, especially if it yields better animation from the characters

Kill La Kill's 1st episode did cg pretty well
 

Jakten

Member
BUT that also has to do with a different kind of cultural wish-fulfillment where male otaku are useless and want to be put in situations where more interesting females will save them. The opposite of the western "power fantasy" lol.

So what I'm basically saying is, I don't know where I was going with this.

That's not entirely true, if you look at NA sitcoms especially for the past probably 30 years or more it's the same. The only difference is the lazy useless male (usually husband) isn't viewed as a loser like in anime. The anime fan service stuff is pretty ridiculous though. I watched Kill la Kill the other day and man Ryūko's friend Mako drove me nuts.
 

rvy

Banned
This reeks of a Tetsuo Hara/Miura stealth brag thread. Fucking reeks of it.

I ain't complaining. Anime is shit now. All these fucking dumb looking 10 year olds with gushy eyebrows and puffy cheeks. And those dead eyes.
 

120v

Member
i really miss the 80s style. could be nostalgia goggles but some of that stuff looked incredible... seems like anime in general was better then (and in the 90s)
 
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Deleted member 231381

Unconfirmed Member
3 anime this season fall under 'anime with schoolgirls with any fanservice' category that you dislike. There are 44 anime this season.

When I say schoolgirls, I don't literally mean girls at school. I just mean anime that feature heavily moe characters. I suspect that's a hell of a lot more than 3. Beyond that, there's also various non-moe forms of producing awful female characters - the tsundere archetype is also intensely irritating, enough to put me straight off a show. If you have the list, I'll gladly go through it - I'm always looking for new and enjoyable anime.
 
This pic sums it up pretty well:

http://i6.minus.com/i0j5XpMmQkvC4.jpg

.

No it doesn't.
1. Most of those shots there are from OVAS with a higher quality output, that means more shades and better animation.
2.Why doesn't that chart explain why western animation doesn't usually use heavy shades while anime uses them?
BECAUSE IT'S USUALLY BETTER ANIMATED! Uses more frames, less stills and flows a lot more fluidly (of course this doesn't count ovas, quality series with little number of episodes or movies).

I love anime, but come on, if I got a dollar for all the minutes where anime that I saw during my life that use stills with zero movement I would be a millionaire.

almost nothing beats Osamu Tezukas style for me

tezuka.jpg

I really love Osamu Tezuka's style.

BYW, lots of animes have amazing designs that don`t follow their era norm, even now, so people saying is all shit now are just looking to the mediocre or cheap art animes out there.
During the 90's happened the same, its not all slayers or Saber Marionette, that is the example of the chart.
 

Toxi

Banned
I still think everyone should watch Akagi and Kaiji :)
Kaiji has a guy with a long nose, so I'm watching that one first. I love long noses.

WTF is wrong with this thread?
Actually, I agree. Snow White was done with rotoscoped animation, and she looks dreadful in comparison to characters not traced over a real actor like the dwarfs and the queen.

Disney improved with using real footage as inspiration in later movies; Cinderella looks much better than Snow White.
 
Actually, I agree. Snow White was done with rotoscoped animation, and she looks dreadful in comparison to characters not traced over a real actor like the dwarfs and the queen.

Disney improved with using real footage as inspiration in later movies; Cinderella looks much better than Snow White.

Yep, the dwarfs looked incredible in snow white. the rotoscopy has not helped the movie. Of course they became a thousand times better just a few movies after.
 
When I say schoolgirls, I don't literally mean girls at school. I just mean anime that feature heavily moe characters. I suspect that's a hell of a lot more than 3. Beyond that, there's also various non-moe forms of producing awful female characters - the tsundere archetype is also intensely irritating, enough to put me straight off a show. If you have the list, I'll gladly go through it - I'm always looking for new and enjoyable anime.

It still wouldn't increase that number by much. Hell, we probably have as many anime pandering to females as we do otaku this season. The only anime with overly moe characters this season are probably Noucome, Non Non Biyori, and Aikatsu. A few more have fanservice, but it still leave around 30 anime this season with neither.

Current season is here: http://anichart.net/fall
 
When I say schoolgirls, I don't literally mean girls at school. I just mean anime that feature heavily moe characters. I suspect that's a hell of a lot more than 3. Beyond that, there's also various non-moe forms of producing awful female characters - the tsundere archetype is also intensely irritating, enough to put me straight off a show. If you have the list, I'll gladly go through it - I'm always looking for new and enjoyable anime.

So you mean those?


If yes it seems you mean chose where the girl/boy ratio and clichéd female characters is high.
 
i really miss the 80s style. could be nostalgia goggles but some of that stuff looked incredible... seems like anime in general was better then (and in the 90s)

Personally I prefer anime from the 80's and 90's. Probably because majority of the anime was sci-fi or fantasy in nature and I tend to like those more. You don't see anime like Wicked City anymore.
 
I hate when Anime has wonky CG, when it looks like the movement in the animation is stuttering or low FPS. The first time I seen this was the Zoids in the 90's, the movement was really off putting. Even recent Anime has this, Macross Frontier, Rideback, etc. I call it the "Zoid" look.

Miss the days when no CG was involved.

I still think the animation in Macross: DYRL or Wings on Honneamise hold up till this day.

This is what put me off 90's spiderman upon rewatch
 
So you mean those?



If yes it seems you mean chose where the girl/boy ratio and clichéd female characters is high.

I love how an anime with 2 guys and 3 girls somehow qualifies. Or anime where the main character is a girl. Even funnier when most of those anime haven't even aired yet and you know which characters are clichéd female characters.

Oh wait, you have no idea what you're talking about. Carry on.
 
What I find interesting is how a particular show has evolved throughout the years. Take Detective Conan, for example:

AwJPN3n.jpg


The early years (90s) had a very distinctive style for the show, but overall I didn't really care for it. Then during the early 2000s, Conan resembles his more modern look and looks a bit cleaner, but there are still remnants of that original art style. Then came 2004-2007, which was, in my opinion, the best look Conan has ever gotten, which felt both clean and organic. Finally, we have 2008 until today, which forgone the organic look and made the show look plastic. Notice that the shading from 2004-2007 is gone from these shots.

I hope that the show eventually goes back into its mid-2000s phase. I can deal with how it looks now, but that particular era really hit a homerun when it came to style.
 

Codeblue

Member
That huge picture that's been quoted a bunch of times has, by a wide margin, the weirdest progression I've ever seen in an image.

It starts off as an infographic comparing East and West, then East Now vs. East Then, then sort of morphs into a promotional poster for some weird anime shading coalition, teaches me how to count different colors, before finally ending with a plea for help.
 
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Deleted member 231381

Unconfirmed Member
It still wouldn't increase that number by much. Hell, we probably have as many anime pandering to females as we do otaku this season. The only anime with overly moe characters this season are probably Noucome, Non Non Biyori, and Aikatsu. A few more have fanservice, but it still leave around 30 anime this season with neither.

Current season is here: http://anichart.net/fall

Okay, so ones I can rule out based on my "do the female characters look awful?"/"does it say anything about ecchi or schools and romance?" test:

Diabolik Lovers, Saikyou Ginga Ultimate Zero: Battle Spirits, Gaist Crusher, Kyoukai no Kanata, Naga no Asukara, Aikatsu 2!, Strike the Blood, IS: Infinite Stratos 2, Outbreak Company, Golden Time, Freezing Vibration, Little Busters! Refrain, Yuusha na Narenakatta, Seiyuu Sentai Voicetorm 7, Magi: The Kingdom of Magic, Yozukura Quartet: hana no Uta, White Album 2, Tesagure! Bukatsu-Mono, Sekai de Ichiban Tsuyoku Naritai!, Meganebu!, Walkure Romanze, Gingitsune, Unbreakable Machine-doll, Non Non Biyori, Arpeggio of Blue Steel: Ars Nova, Noucome, Galilei Donna

Ones I'd have to be cautious in approaching, but may be okay:

Coppelion, Kill La Kill, Log Horizon, Tokyo Ravens, Kyousougiga, Koroshiya-san: The Hired Gun, Pupa

Ones that clear the above tests:

Hajime no Ippo: Rising, Ace of Diamond, Phi Brain: Kami no Puzzle, Kuroko no Basket 2, Gundam Build Fighters, Yowamushi Pedal, BlazBlue: Alter Memory, Kakumeiki Valvrave 2, Samurai Flamenco, Pokemon X/Y.

That's a hell of a load more than 3 I crossed out purely on the basis of what the female characters looked like/have as roles. That said, if anyone particularly wants to recommend any of the ones remaining from either the cautious/cleared sections, I'll gladly go watch them - I seem to remember Hajime no Ippo being quite well received?
 
Okay, so ones I can rule out based on my "do the female characters look awful?"/"does it say anything about ecchi or schools and romance?" test:

Diabolik Lovers, Saikyou Ginga Ultimate Zero: Battle Spirits, Gaist Crusher, Kyoukai no Kanata, Naga no Asukara, Aikatsu 2!, Strike the Blood, IS: Infinite Stratos 2, Outbreak Company, Golden Time, Freezing Vibration, Little Busters! Refrain, Yuusha na Narenakatta, Seiyuu Sentai Voicetorm 7, Magi: The Kingdom of Magic, Yozukura Quartet: hana no Uta, White Album 2, Tesagure! Bukatsu-Mono, Sekai de Ichiban Tsuyoku Naritai!, Meganebu!, Walkure Romanze, Gingitsune, Unbreakable Machine-doll, Non Non Biyori, Arpeggio of Blue Steel: Ars Nova, Noucome, Galilei Donna

Meganebu doesn't even have any girls.
 

Shouta

Member
That's a hell of a load more than 3 I crossed out purely on the basis of what the female characters looked like/have as roles.

I wouldn't get worked up too much. It really is a general trend in anime over the last 15-20 years.The problem is either being too pinpoint or being too generalized of a comment that it gets the detractors of said comments riled up.

Having been around anime since the 80s, I definitely agree with you on the whole.
 

Mesousa

Banned
Personally I prefer anime from the 80's and 90's. Probably because majority of the anime was sci-fi or fantasy in nature and I tend to like those more. You don't see anime like Wicked City anymore.

It is economic, like all japanese culture,

When the economy died in the late 80's=early 90's all entertainment changed. There was a STEEP drop off in quality of Television,Movies,Music, and Anime at this point in time.
 
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Deleted member 231381

Unconfirmed Member
I wouldn't get worked up too much. It really is a general trend in anime over the last 15-20 years.The problem is either being too pinpoint or being too generalized of a comment that it gets the detractors of said comments riled up.

Having been around anime since the 80s, I definitely agree with you on the whole.

Do you have anything to recommend? I genuinely do enjoy a fair amount of anime, but lately I feel like I've been draining the pool of stuff that's not blargh lately. I liked Attack on Titan a lot, but that's finished up, same with JoJo. HunterxHunter was enjoyable up until the Chimera Ant arc, but the pacing is getting to me now. Like I said, I've heard good things about Hajime no Ippo - is it worth checking out?
 
Okay, so ones I can rule out based on my "do the female characters look awful?"/"does it say anything about ecchi or schools and romance?" test:

Diabolik Lovers, Saikyou Ginga Ultimate Zero: Battle Spirits, Gaist Crusher, Kyoukai no Kanata, Naga no Asukara, Aikatsu 2!, Strike the Blood, IS: Infinite Stratos 2, Outbreak Company, Golden Time, Freezing Vibration, Little Busters! Refrain, Yuusha na Narenakatta, Seiyuu Sentai Voicetorm 7, Magi: The Kingdom of Magic, Yozukura Quartet: hana no Uta, White Album 2, Tesagure! Bukatsu-Mono, Sekai de Ichiban Tsuyoku Naritai!, Meganebu!, Walkure Romanze, Gingitsune, Unbreakable Machine-doll, Non Non Biyori, Arpeggio of Blue Steel: Ars Nova, Noucome, Galilei Donna.

Ones I'd have to be cautious in approaching, but may be okay:

Coppelion, Kill La Kill, Log Horizon, Tokyo Ravens, Kyousougiga, Koroshiya-san: The Hired Gun, Pupa

Ones that clear the above tests:

Hajime no Ippo: Rising, Ace of Diamond, Phi Brain: Kami no Puzzle, Kuroko no Basket 2, Gundam Build Fighters, Yowamushi Pedal, BlazBlue: Alter Memory, Kakumeiki Valvrave 2, Samurai Flamenco, Pokemon X/Y.

That's a hell of a load more than 3 I crossed out purely on the basis of what the female characters looked like/have as roles.

Cool, doesn't change the fact that there's only 3 anime that fell into you original claim. Just because you added romance, any school setting, and any fan-service to move the goal posts doesn't disprove anything. Especially when you discount a show with NO females when your original claim was there were too many schoolgirls shows.

I bolded the ones that have nothing to do with your original claim or even your revised one.
 
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Deleted member 231381

Unconfirmed Member
Cool, doesn't change the fact that there's only 3 anime that fell into you original claim. Just because you added romance, any school setting, and any fan-service to move the goal posts doesn't disprove anything. Especially when you discount a show with NO females when your original claim was there were too many schoolgirls shows.

I bolded the ones that have nothing to do with your original claim or even your revised one.

Okay, so I'll expand my claim and be more precise:

There are too many anime shows that feature appallingly poorly written female characters and/or appallingly poorly written romance. Is that precise enough for you?
 
For me, the main problem is the schoolgirl to non-schoolgirl character ratio. I don't want to see hyper-sexualised 13 year-olds everywhere; it's really off putting. I was watching Gargantua and was straight out nope after the 5th episode because a perfectly decent intro and universe was straight up ruined by some of the most gratuitous fan service of all time. I just want them to treat the damn female characters with respect. Seems to me if you had a complete ban on moe, anime would improve dramatically.

EDIT: I tend to prefer my manga late 80s/early 90s, and I wasn't even born until '94, so I'm fairly sure that's not nostalgia.

If we're talking about respect, K-ON has more respect for females than the average 80s OVA. (And indeed the K-ON anime is a fairly popular series among females.)
 

Shouta

Member
Do you have anything to recommend? I genuinely do enjoy a fair amount of anime, but lately I feel like I've been draining the pool of stuff that's not blargh lately. I liked Attack on Titan a lot, but that's finished up, same with JoJo. HunterxHunter was enjoyable up until the Chimera Ant arc, but the pacing is getting to me now. Like I said, I've heard good things about Hajime no Ippo - is it worth checking out?

Recently? I haven't been watching anime as much as I used to because of the content and demographics shift. I read a lot of manga more now because the stuff I can enjoy is still available in that format. I also moved to marathoning shows over watching them weekly so I haven't really caught up on shows in the last few years. I intend on doing so eventually, heh.

Did you ever watch Tiger and Bunny from 2011 or so? I think that was the year. Space Brothers' manga was pretty good as a recall but I don't know about the anime. Those are the only ones I can think of off the top of my head.
 
Okay, so I'll expand my claim and be more precise:

There are too many anime shows that feature appallingly poorly written female characters and/or appallingly poorly written romance. Is that precise enough for you?

THREE of the animes you listed don't even show or mention a female character. Plenty more feature no romance and give little details about the female characters. You're going to have to be more precise, especially when you enjoyed Attack on Titan and mention poorly written characters.
 
Glad to see Haruhiko Mikimoto got some love in this thread. Grew up on the 80s stuff - Macross, Maison Ikkoku, Kimagure Orange Road, etc. - and that's the anime style I'll always love (outside of Ghibli, because Ghibli is always in a class by itself).

Shout out to Akemi Takada - her character designs in KOR, Patlabor, Urusai Yatsura, and Maison Ikkoku remain as timeless to me as Mikimoto's.
 
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