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Can a lifelong anime skeptic learn to love it?

Principate

Saint Titanfall
I explained above why that is. It's a lot of toonboom and flash animation. Adult shows, due to a smaller audience, don't get the budget of shows like adventure time, steven universe, or hell even TTGo. And the two that do, Rick and Morty and Venture Bros, take the longest to make. And although the budgets are lower, adult animation in general has come a LONNNGGG way from Aqua Teen, Brack, and Sealab 2021


Yea I very much disagree with the assessment that there are alot of adult shows with samey aesthetics, I mean, just looking at Adult Swim's catalogue vastly flies in the face of that. The similarity lies in the way they're animated, (without taking into account the shows that deviate like Moral Orel or Robot Chicken).


You should as like I said above, adult animation has come a long way in a very short amount of time.


Popular but not incredibly accepted in social settings. Making a GoT comparison quite useless in this scenario aside from the showrunners really doing a good job making "nerdy" material palatable to a much broader audience.
Ghilbi films are very much açcepted, Pokemon even more so. Just like CoD is. Your acting like comic books weren't in the exact same dump anime is in, in regards to western audiences. The difference is mainly Hollywood sheen.
 

Crossing Eden

Hello, my name is Yves Guillemot, Vivendi S.A.'s Employee of the Month!
Ghilbi films are very much açcepted, Pokemon even more so. Just like CoD is. Your acting like comic books weren't in the exact same dump anime is in, in regards to western audiences. The difference is mainly Hollywood sheen.
Ghibli movies are also by designed not targeted solely towards Otaku. And neither is a concept like Pokemon, which is primarily targeted towards kids. Comic books were in a dump and yes, the creators at Hollywood basically took that material and made it accessible to more than just people who obsessed with comic books and nothing else. Which is a good thing. Hell there's even a really good backlash among the creators whenever comic book nerds DO try to keep it a niche thing and complain about the better representation trend that's been occurring.
 

Principate

Saint Titanfall
Ghibli movies are also by designed not targeted solely towards Otaku. And neither is a concept like Pokemon, which is primarily targeted towards kids. Comic books were in a dump and yes, the creators at Hollywood basically took that material and made it accessible to more than just people who obsessed with comic books and nothing else. Which is a good thing. Hell there's even a really good backlash among the creators whenever comic book nerds DO try to keep it a niche thing and complain about the better representation trend that's been occurring.
Not all anime is targeted at otaku in fact the vast majority of popular ones aren't (as in the ones with actually high viewerships).

The ones that are aimed at otaku are literally aired at the middle of the night. They're smut actual litteral smut.
 

Crossing Eden

Hello, my name is Yves Guillemot, Vivendi S.A.'s Employee of the Month!
Not all anime is targeted at otaku in fact the vast majority of popular ones aren't (as in the ones with actually high viewerships).

The ones that are aimed at otaku are literally aired at the middle of the night. They're smut actual litteral smut.
Would any of the ones that were streamed during the "twitch streams anime" event count as Otaku bait?
 
Good modern anime is hard to think

Steins gate, which expertly uses anime tropes and works with them wonderfully
Attack on Titan, overly dramatic epic
One Punch and Mob Pyscho, both hilarious satires


Theres that one from watanabe about terrorists that i enjoyed. What else is there for post 2010 stuff besides JoJo
 

qcf x2

Member
I also thought Ex Machina was fantastic, so I'll give you some credence. Out of those I've only seen Steins;Gate, which I was not at all a fan of. Though I will give you that it was at least adult and not typical garbage anime.

I'll check out some of your other recs (some of which the last few posters have posted intriguing images of). In fact several of the last few posters have presented some that look potentially interesting to me. And that's great. I'm looking forward to investigating them. They're certainly not the norm though, and that's evident by the fact that most are like 20-30+ years old.

Television in general has a lot of fantastic shows that are not garbage. By comparison, anime probably has around a couple dozen. The same few things are recommended time and again. You can see it in this thread. Even my recommendations, I believe most were recommended by others as well. Anime films (not based on tv series) tend to fare a bit better than series and err on the side of good, but you still have to wade through a lot of crap.

Now, Network TV is absolutely largely garbage, but most outside of the industry don't actually break it down like that. By specifying Network TV you are intentionally filtering out all the great stuff found at places like HBO, Showtime, STARZ, Cinemax, FX, AMC, USA, NETFLIX, Amazon, and more. The TV landscape has shifted and "Network TV" is no longer the only game in town, or the norm. The real difference is these cable and streaming outlets are allowing creators more freedom to tell the stories they want to and not forcing them into 20+ episode seasons where they have to churn out stuff on a weekly basis. This raises the quality of the shows and budget per episode. Plus attracts better talent both in front of and behind the camera.

All that said, there are still great shows that come out of network TV from time to time. And certainly plenty of examples from 10+ years ago before the real advent of all these other options.

I mean, we can include subscription channel series as well. I'm picky with my media. For every 10 hyped HBO/Starz/whatever series, I may find 1 enjoyable enough to see through til the end. Most are going to be formulaic because they have a target audience. I could go on a giant rant about that subject, but that would be a bit of a derail. Suffice it to say that most anime is made with target audience(s) in mind as well. And yeah, a lot of the target audience likes really dumb/generic/tropey stuff. Just like sitcoms, CSI shows, "reality" tv, etc.

As for repeated recommendations, I don't really think that's out of the norm because:

1. They're being made "for someone who doesn't like anime" in other words ignoring a lot of entertaining works that do have some stereotypical and/or medium-mainstay elements.
2. They're near consensus good. You ask somebody to recommend the absolute best TV shows for somebody who just got access to HBO/Netflix/etc and you will see The Wire, Breaking Bad and The Sopranos on a bunch of lists. That doesn't mean TV has sucked in between and after those shows.

I have probably watched like 3 anime series in the past few years, so I am hardly an authority, especially on contemporary stuff. That's probably part of why a lot of what I suggested is older (though not that old, Honneamise aside). There is some really creative stuff, it just depends on what you're up for. There are art trips like Kaiba and lighthearted series like Mob Psycho, genre subverting series like JoJo's (which you mentioned) and Madoka Magica, and just wonderfully directed works like The Girl Who Leapt Through Time. Of course there is a lot of trash out there too, but give those a glance as well.
 
Oh -- trust me I know. I understand a bit of anatomy and drawing draftsmanship (I myself dabble in it, I'm not very good though haha!). I understand why it looks simple but I wish it didn't. The problem with American animation is that its gives a small budget to the animators to express themselves. And it's aggravating, but it's whatever. I just dislike the Family Guy-esque art style, is all.

If you think bojack looks family guy esque you should probably get your eyes replaced because they're clearly not fit for purpose.
 
Okay to the people in this thread who don't like anime, you should really check out Nichijou. I know it's "moe" or whatever. But it's really goddamn funny. I don't even like those moe type shows and I think Nichijou is awesome.

People tend to write off "moe" shows (I did too) but the only I've watched is Nichijou and it was completely amazing. Show has a lot of heart too, when you don't expect it. It's also beautifully animated and doesn't depend on sexual jokes to get its audience to buy shit. The show is notorious for actually being a flop.
 

./revy

Banned

I actually think I was fairly clear throughout my whole post despite how much you managed to attempt to misconstrue the entire thing. What university do you teach at?

Ghibli movies are also by designed not targeted solely towards Otaku. And neither is a concept like Pokemon, which is primarily targeted towards kids. Comic books were in a dump and yes, the creators at Hollywood basically took that material and made it accessible to more than just people who obsessed with comic books and nothing else. Which is a good thing. Hell there's even a really good backlash among the creators whenever comic book nerds DO try to keep it a niche thing and complain about the better representation trend that's been occurring.

How much Japanese broadcast television do you think is anime? How much of the population do you think watches that and, of that population, how much do you think is the "otaku" audience? And while we're at it, what is your definition of the otaku audience? Because at some point in this thread I realized you were just playing at an informed discussion, but I'm still interested in your viewpoint because I want to know exactly how far from reality it is.
 
My wife—whom I’ve been married to for nine years, after dating for nearly 14—cautiously admitted that she used to be “really into anime,” having spent some unbeknownst-to-me years watching the likes of Sailor Moon and Vampire Hunter D. It’s the first new thing I’ve learned about her in more than a decade, and the fact that she kept it a secret for so long—and clearly hesitated in confessing it to me now—definitely speaks to the stigma that still surrounds anime

If your wife hid from you, the fact that she likes animated shows from Japan, then I'm sure it says something about you, rather than anything about the stigma surrounding anime.
 

Principate

Saint Titanfall
If your wife hid from you, the fact that she likes animated shows from Japan, then I'm sure it says something about you, rather than anything about the stigma surrounding anime.

Yeah this is fucking odd. I mean they've been together that long and the examples she lists are that vanilla.

May as well be scared about telling people that I watched Pokemon back in the day or Card Captor Sakura.
 

Thud

Member
Good modern anime is hard to think

Steins gate, which expertly uses anime tropes and works with them wonderfully
Attack on Titan, overly dramatic epic
One Punch and Mob Pyscho, both hilarious satires


Theres that one from watanabe about terrorists that i enjoyed. What else is there for post 2010 stuff besides JoJo

Terror in Resonance is some pretentious crap that goes nowhere.

Other Watanabe productions are way better in direction. Besides Cowboy Bebop nd Samurai Champloo there's Kids on the Slope. Terror in Resonance doesn't look that bad as most anime aired on tv, but yeah that's about it. Feels really hollow.
 
Terror in Resonance is some pretentious crap that goes nowhere.

Other Watanabe productions are way better in direction. Besides Cowboy Bebop nd Samurai Champloo there's Kids on the Slope. Terror in Resonance doesn't look that bad as most anime aired on tv, but yeah that's about it. Feels really hollow.

Ah, Kids on the slope was excellent! Such good stuff
 

Fou-Lu

Member
I would like to see a similar article from someone that actually tried. Even better if they were actually a skeptic instead of someone who seemed disgusted by the idea of people watching anime.
 
I mean, im not out here proclaiming JoJo as some amazing lige changing greatest of all time thing. Its good, i obviously like it, im not going to put otjers down for not feeling the same.

Well, if you only need a handful of hyperbolic statements from a few fans to be able to consider something overrated, then pretty much every good anime out there (and a lot of bad ones) are overrated.
 
Well after shitting on Anime earlier in the thread I did actually find something I actually love. One Punch Man. Its the first anime I actually find funny in the way it wants me to. That is one I'd recommend to people. Also watched a few episodes of Parasyte which seems really cool.

Mob Psycho looks pretty damned cool too. Looked at some youtube reviews. Some longform anime can be pretty sweet, just seems a small fraction. I've definitely given certain anime a proper look, and really found some to terrible though. I just found the writing of Death Note to be terrible and the acting in Attack of Titans to be so obnoxiously over the top. Plenty of others, but I am open to searching for gems like One Punch Man or Parasyte which feel more Western to me. More Western in tone and execution or plot. One Punch's humor feels more like stuff out of a Western comic book.

For me its very important to not ever watch any of it in dubbed. Why are all the dubs so damned bad? Sometimes its a few sometimes its a lot, but the tons of the dubs are always so off. Like its some young breathless sissy. While the original Japanese voices tend to be much deeper richer and even to my ears more nuanced. Also important to find something with a good or at least not an offensive art style.

Still, people should go ahead and watch One Punch Man. Parasyte looks cool too. Parasyte is more like something that was adapted from a good sci fi American or British comicbook. It's pretty awesome actually.

If I could find more like One Punch Man or Parasyte that would be great.
 

petran79

Banned
Still, people should go ahead and watch One Punch Man. Parasyte looks cool too. Parasyte is more like something that was adapted from a good sci fi American or British comicbook. It's pretty awesome actually.

If I could find more like One Punch Man or Parasyte that would be great.

Parasyte was adapted from a Japanese manga actually and I'd suggest reading that instead of watching the series.

Manga author did an even better work about Ancient Greece during Phillip and Alexander years
 

Lois_Lane

Member
My qualification was:



Japan seems to have some sort of weird hang-up about portraying ordinary adult women as leading characters. It's always teenagers and little girls. It all ends up contributing to the atmosphere of sexualization and fetishization that makes people like me extremely uncomfortable about the medium.
Mushishi, Death Parade, and Samurai Champloo. That's all I got.
 
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