I can’t stand fight scenes where people are flying through the air at each other doing stupid poses and making sounds. They usually have some special power, and it’s all so meh.
I really liked Pantheon and then cringed when it resorted to that near their end. There’s lots of exceptions, like princess mononoke.
One Punch Man mercilessly made fun of these things… one hero gets clocked one sentence into his “on the fly plan” mid-fight monologue.
It’s weird that the Japan - the country which arguably had the most positive global influence on how fight scenes are filmed and choreographed in movies has had a complete devolution in fight scenes in animation.
Like look at this fight scene from Ghost in the Shell (1995). Look how calm and harmonic it is 99% of the time, followed by quick bursts of action.
Or this scene from Evangelion (1999), Bebop (1998), Hellsing (1999).
There are some memorable modern fights that push the envelope of animation in modern anime like, Madara Uchia from Naruto (2016), Mob Psycho 100 (2019) or Castlevainia (2021).
But overall modern anime fights are composed mostly of flying, still images screaming “HEYAAA”, internal monologues and 3D explosions.
I don’t hate it, it’s not very good.
Shonin specifically I find cliche
I used to get Cartoon Network as a kid. I watched Outlaw Star and really enjoyed it. However, in one of the later episodes they crowbarred in a topless jacuzzi scene for no reason.
That sums up my anime experience.
I watched Dragon Ball Z and a bit of Gundam Wing but never really enjoyed them.
I bump into Dragon Ball Z fans occasionally and they’re pushing 35 and have themed pillows etc. I think that is mad but I’ve met more than one person like that.
I have no themed things in my house nor would in buy any.
P.S. I enjoyed Samurai Jack and often say “Long ago in a different land” randomly to my partner.
Any recommendations based on the above?
Try Noir. It’s a crime thriller about a pair of assassins who stumble into a conspiracy. Never tries to be sexy even though the leads are women in their early twenties. Has a bit of that Samurai Jack energy where there often isn’t much dialogue and it’s carried by action and the musical score. Also never went past cult classic status so you’re not likely to run into creepy fans. Or any fans, really.
So you hate it because of tits?
crowbarred in
I think when they said that, the implication was that there was no need for such. I.e. it interrupted the flow of the story and didn’t add anything useful, other than perhaps pandering to a certain crowd.
It was like corporate said “You’ve gone 6 episodes and we haven’t seen the antagonists tits. Spin the wheel… Add a hot tub to their space ship and have a bath scene for no reason.”
Tropes, filler, sexualization, the need to categorize or name things and stick to that strict hierarchy (ie. power levels), and laat but not least, the surrounding culture. Probably some other stuff I’m not thinking of as well.
Notably, the anime which doesn’t include these problems can reach some pretty high highs, because anime excels at motion and emotion.
Because most of it uses overly simplistic characters. There’s no depth to them. They’re good because they’re good, they’re bad because they’re bad.
No nuance!
The stories are overly simplistic too.
Not all of them are like this, but enough of them are that I’m just tired of the genre.
i love One Punch Man because it exists to make fun of this exact story style.
… while making its story exactly the style they are making fun of in the most boring way possible. feels like watching a regular shonnen.
To be honest, that sounds exactly like american comics/films.
Why is he bad? Because he hates everything!!
Kill him, he’s bad!!
He’s good. Why? He killed guy that is bad!
Etc.
Gotta pander to the masses and exhausted people I guess.
Yep, there are a ton of those too.
Most western cartoons are self contained episodes tho, while there is a general recurring antagonist, the conflict has to arise, develop and be resolved within the same episode. Very rarely you get multi episode arcs. Sometimes you get overarching storylines as a driving force that span whole seasons, but the main conflicts remain episodic. Spongebob is still working in the Crusty Crab by the end of the show, Kim Possible is still fighting Dr.Draken and Shego by the end of the series, Homer is still working in a Nuclear Powerplant, etc…
Anime is different in that regard because the story is laid out from start to finish usually over the course of 10-20 episodes. Whether the story has actual substance is a different question. But the thing is, anime can get away with an episode were nothing happens as long as it drives the plot towards a conclusion. But a children’s cartoon where for a full episode nothing interesting happens usually won’t even leave the storyboard.
That’s why “filler episodes” are usually an eastern anime instead if a western cartoon trope.
And most of those episodic shows are just there for the humour. They don’t have an arc because they’re just there to make fun of something for 20 minutes and move on.
I have to agree with you. That is a very common trope in anime, sometimes they deserve it but most of the time they are Mary Sues, and it rankles me.
That being said, it’s escapism, it’s fun, it’s like, what would I envision heaven to be like.
That being said, I do wish writers would focus more on having actual problems to solve and that there would be real stakes in the storyline for the main characters to overcome where there is a real risk of loss.
Being OP is super fun for one season but when season 2 rolls around it’s not fun anymore.
I disagree with you but you answered the question, so take your upvote.
Still, anime is just a medium, and there is wide variety of content, some with simplistic characters, and some without.
Oh for sure, there’s some really great ones that don’t fit my generalisation.
The problem is that too many do fit it. And all the biggest ones seem to.
Anyways, you’re right.
I get asked this question a lot, because I love many traditional Japanese cultures, but not anime. First of all, I don’t hate it, I still respect it, but it’s simply not my cup of tea.
I often find it to be overstimulating and sexualized. someone said it’s like food with too much salt, that perfectly describes it for me. It’s just too over the top sometimes. The sexualization is also off putting. It’s a constant distraction from the plot and undermines the rest of the characters and story.
I also don’t like the voice acting style, where it is again overbearing, especially for women characters. That’s not what people sound like. It’s way too high pitched and trying way too hard to sound “cute”.
I’ve always felt like anime requires a huge time investment to enjoy it; so I’ve always avoided it.
It’s like… I feel like I have to look up if there’s any weird stuff before I can get into any of it. Like I love fma (brotherhood ftw) and really enjoyed Death Note and some Netflix shows. But I couldn’t finish sword art online. I should have known when an early episode introduced a little girl voice trope character… Who was almost immediately attacked by tentacles.
Sex stuff doesn’t bother me (laughed my ass off at the wild food war competition show) but the kid stuff is fucking weird. And it’s common enough that I stick to other media mostly
They are actually 10,000 years old but just happen to have a young body. It’s not a sleazy conceit at all.
Hmm 👀
Didn’t think I needed an /s on that statement but maybe I did!
Honestly I do like anime but I have to turn a blind eye to the creepy/ecchi shit in order to enjoy some shows. It’s just a fucked up part of Japanese culture. A bit like how Ignition Remix is still a banger even though R Kelly is a monster.
That’s true! Any recommendations?
Neon Genesis Evangelion, Cowboy Bebop, Berserk (1997), Hunter x Hunter (2011), Ghost in the Shell (movie), Akira (movie), pretty much all of Studio Ghilbi.
Apart from EVA those are fairly good for keeping the creepiness to a minimum. I think Berserk at least contextualises it as being part of a brutal universe in a GoT kind of way.
Kill La Kill is probably the creepiest one I’d still say was good but it crosses the line a few times tbh.
love NGE. So weird. But wonderful too
I’ve tried cowboy bebop twice. About five episodes. I know something is wrong with me. Next time I get sick I’ll try again.
Never heard of Berserk
Read some of hxh in shonen jump. Wow. Totally forgot I bought like a dozen of those over a decade ago. It seemed a little silly with the power levels of it’s the one i remember. I actually tried the show but lost interest when they were in a big tournament and started discovering they had like powers? Or that they could power up? Felt goofy. Should I stick it out?
Ghost in the shell - been meaning to check this out
Akira? The live action big eyed thing? I don’t remember hating that movie. But I don’t remember much at all it
Studio Ghilbi is fun. I really wish I saw my neighbor Totoro before I was a grown ass man so I felt the magic more lol. I actually haven’t seen anything others but they have rave reviews. Occasionally my local theater shows the films and I’ve been trying to see the wolf howling castle or whatever it’s called
Yeah - Context matters.
Is Kill la kill the one my friend watches with the talking clothes? Cause I can’t, my dude. Hahaha
Forgot to mention I enjoyed AOT. Saw one punch but thought it was too meta for me. My friend said it’s good because it plays on tropes. But idk. Sucks cause I LOVE that artist. He drew a series called Eyeshield 21 about a Japanese (American) football team. It was funny as hell but my goodness, that art is incredible. Yusuke Murata
Ugh I’m gonna post some. It’s just so gah damn beautiful
https://images.app.goo.gl/b31vLUCwFtBn1Ena8
https://images.app.goo.gl/DJqQWvaxRf6wefNK6
https://images.app.goo.gl/tDcgXkqtBnR8GKGq6
https://images.app.goo.gl/irLVMeak8w1QgE158
What were we talking about
Is regular ignition even a thing?
I don’t believe so but not expert enough on his discography to confirm.
The facial expressions and the constant noises. It’s like a food dish with too much salt, doesn’t matter what the other flavor is once you decide you can’t stand the overpowering vibe of the thing.
I’ve never heard it described better in my opinion. It’s perfectly fine for others, but for many it’s simply too overpowering.
Not in the “hate” camp, but I’m very picky with anime. I recognize it’s a wide genre with tons of legitimately great productions.
There’s a lot of anime stuff that just irritates me for reasons I’ve not been able to put into words other than “it makes me cringe from embarrassment.” Female characters that are less an interesting or fun character and more like an endless void of cutesy vibes and nothing more, the anime pratfalls to punctuate a joke, weird creepy stuff towards women, laughably edgy characters, changing art styles to something tonally clashing for comedic effect (only example I know off the top of my head is in Hellsing Ultimate, which I’ll admit I’ve only seen in the form of the abridged series), overtly blatant fan service, all the characters being teenagers, etc. Tropes like these tend to irritate me to the point of getting in the way of my enjoyment of a show and it kills a lot of anime for me.
Motherfucker preach!
I like some Anime because I get bored with Hollywood, and I really just want something different, I hate most anime because the 16yo boy who is thrust into the role of the hero surrounded by attractive half naked women with huge tits and is constantly embarrassed but yet somehow manages to constantly save the day because reasons is even more played out than the NCIS writing room.
Besides the fact that 3/4 of it is emotional pornography, it’s a trigger for my PTSD.
Chiming in as someone who actually owns a few different anime on DVD/blu-ray.
My whole thing is that I like good media. Anime is a medium. There’s good anime out there. As many have already said, those’re few and far between because the vast majority of people working in the medium seem determined to pigeonhole it as genre trash and perv shit.
I kinda stopped watching anime early in my 20s. The late 00s into the 10s seemed like the absolute worst period of time for worthwhile anime being made. I’ve sat through a few more current big-name ones since then and shit hasn’t improved.
So yeah, I don’t hate anime as a medium, I just hate like 99% of the medium’s content
I don’t but I hate anime that rely on awful tropes like exploiting underage girls or the typical sister incest stuff (I would say brother-sister but this also applies to sister-sister)
I also find powerfantasy isekais boring
The Isekai thing is so fucking played out, Its possibly the laziest writing trope ever.
I disagree. It can be made good. Good examples are Overlord and jobless reincarnation.
Just because it can be done well doesnt mean it isn’t a shortcut around good writing for a LOT of these stories.
It hands the writer a blank cheque for exposition and worldbuilding because the main character needs to have everything explained to them or figure everything out and it excuses any form of set up as to the how and why the character is in this situation.
Funnily the only Isekai that was somewhat interesting and realistic “Drifters” still doesn’t have a season 2. It’s basically powerful and influential political figures and warriors from random time periods get transported into a medieval fantasy world after their death. All I want is to see is WW2 anime Hitler take over a fantasy kingdom and get killed by Ninjas, is that to much to ask for? It’s realistic in the sense that the main characters are 10 minutes into a fantasy land with magic and beautiful nature and of course they’re already started making guns and bombs.
Youre mistaking indifference for hatred.