I relate to this! The fatal flaw of otherwise awesome nerd girlfriends: the damn anime (or manga). Christ, is it too much to ask to at least watch some cartoons that are good/make sense? nope. let's watch this one about a young girl who's half demon, fighting giant robots with a sword and longing for friendship...
1. Good is a completely subjective concept. 2. Make sense? There are, literally, thousands of anime shows. A lot of them make sense. Some of them only make sense in the context of Japanese culture (I'm looking at you, Lain).
^Just my opinion/personal taste. <---which i'm allowed to have. I've seen an anime here or there that was to my liking, so I acknowledge that there is some quality stuff out there. Never enjoyed Manga though. Ever. Between the two, I'd say my lack of enjoyment largely stems from not digging the style of art, not identifying with the culture, and so on. Agree with the fellow below that it's entirely subjective.
The difference is that Lost in Space is ONE SHOW, so it's reasonable to say, "Yeah, I don't like that show." Saying, "Yeah, I don't like an entire country's output in a medium," on the other hand, is dumb. It's totally possible that his ex has shitty taste in anime, but it's a shame to write off all of it because of that, the same as if someone decided that all American comics sucked because someone only shared '90s Image books with them.
It would be understandable for someone on some other continent that didn't speak English, understand American culture, or even read right-to-left to say they didn't like American comics, because all that was imported and translated was super hero drivel. How popular are American comics in Japan, by the way? Are they all stupid?
Why would anyone judge an entire genre based solely on what their girlfriend selects? Does he also avoid all monster movies because she pussy whipped him into watching Twilight?
There is a lot of good anime out there, but there is a lot MORE bad anime, and so-called 'nerd girls' NEVER pick the good stuff. Ever.
1. Twilight is a paranormal romance, not a monster movie. People need to stop confusing the two.
2. Anime isn't a genre. It's a medium. The word specifies which nation this work originated from but has no meaning which pertains to genres.
This puts it on the level of judging all Indian music by what your girlfriend hooked you into watching. Not necessarily proper but at the same time I can see myself being sick of the stuff after being asked to listen to enough of it and glad to just crank some American jams without reading a lyric pamphlet or whatever it is people do if they want to know what the Indian singers are saying.
We don't know the extent of her collection. It's kind of like "How can you say you don't like rap music just based off your girlfriend's 100gb iPod that played non stop the three years you were with her? You haven't heard every rap song ever."
Anon @4/10/2013 5:15 PM: 1. Completely missing the point with Twilight. It doesn't matter what you try to classify it as, if you're missing out on Bela Legosi because your girlfriend dragged you to see that Bella Swan crap, you are making a huge mistake.
2. LOLNO. Animation is the medium; specifically cell, CG, flash, etc.. Anime is a genre of animation.
No, anime is not a genre. You can say it's a style, but not a genre. You would not say that American or European or African animation is a genre.
It is not a genre, because not all anime has a specific look, or feel, or subject matter, etc. Westerns are a genre. Sci-fi is a genre.
To put a dork bow on this, the dictionary definition of anime is "A Japanese style of motion-picture animation, characterized by highly stylized, colorful art, futuristic settings, violence, and sexuality." So this isn't just me babbling.
In your own words: > You can say it's a STYLE, but not a genre. > A Japanese STYLE of motion-picture animation
But that's exactly what a genre is.
gen·re /ˈZHänrə/ Noun A category of artistic composition, as in music or literature, characterized by similarities in form, STYLE, or subject matter.
If a group of works has a recognizable style, and anime most definitely does, it's a genre. If you can look at a piece of animation and say: "that looke like anime," or, "that is very anime-like," and you most definitely can with anime, it's because anime is a genre of animation, which it is.
I think it's time for you kids to turn off the Naruto and pick up a dictionary.
Generally speaking if your argument consists of reading a dictionary definition and then saying "SEE?!" you don't have a very good understanding of the subject, and haven't made a very good argument.
Science fiction is a genre. Fantasy is a genre. Romance is a genre. Police procedural is a genre. Soap opera is a genre. And there are many more. There are anime shows and movies in every single genre. Anime is not a genre itself.
"Anime" simply describes all animation that originates from Japan. (In fact, in Japan "anime" refers to all animation, period.)
Oh FFS. First off, we are using an English website that caters to an English speaking audience that is, with a few possible exceptions, NOT IN JAPAN. The word "anime", like the word "otaku", doesn't mean the same thing over here.
Secondly, when trying to argue terms with someone who is clearly ignorant of their meaning, a quick lesson in basic English, such as a dictionary reference, is very much in order.
You kids seem to have grasped the concept of defining a genre by subject matter, but simply refuse to accept that genres can also be defined by style and form. But they can be. And are. You also don't seem to grasp that genres can contain other genres based on other criteria, or that a work can be span several genres at once.
Again, if you can look at an animation and recognize it as anime it means anime is a genre.
I really have to wonder why you weeaboos are so vehemently set against admitting you enjoy a particular genre of animation. It's almost like you are trying to elevate anime to be something more than what it is.
Who are these "kids" everyone is talking about? You know no actual kids are on this website, right?
I feel that anime is not a genre of animation, but it absolutely is a genre of art. Whatever, though. Way past nitpicking already. Doesn't matter all that much to me what it's called. I just enjoy it.
"Kids" is a much more generous assumption than "people who could not be bothered to pay attention in grammar school and persist in their illiteracy into adulthood."
It is a genre. What you feel about it will not change that.
Genre is something the creator does on purpose. If you want to write a coming-of-age story, you consciously put in the elements of that genre. If you leave those elements out, you have failed to write a coming-of-age story.
Identify all the common elements to anime that you want--big eyes, hair colors that don't occur in nature, all the things that make you recognize anime when you see it, as many as you can think of, even those that aren't common to every anime, like robots or annoying-animal-sidekicks. An animator in Japan can make a project that has literally none of those elements, and it is still an anime, categorically, because it is animation that came from Japan.
> Genre is something the creator does on purpose. Only if they're a hack trying to write to a target audience for easy sales (this is a lot of what's wrong with steampunk).
Most creators just have a story to write, and they leave it up to the audience and critics to pigeonhole their work into various genres. That's how genres work. This isn't a hard concept for you kids to figure out, so why do you keep failing at it?
Also anime is not just "animation from Japan" (even though that in itself would qualify as a genre). A lot of "western" animation came out of Japan (at least until we discovered it was cheaper to chain Koreans to the drawing tables). Is the animated "Hobbit" anime? Or "The Last Unicorn"? What about "Megas XLR" or "Teen Titans"? They may not qualify under your precious overly rigid personal weeaboo definition of the genre, but to the rest of us they're anime.
No, it isn't a contradiction. Sometimes, what you feel is right and what is true are two different things. I feel that Anime is not a genre, and also Anime is not a genre. So in this case, what I feel and what I now know coincide.
Anime is animation, not a genre of animation. No one ever calls animation of any other country a "genre" of animation.
I was waiting for that lame, tired criticism to come around. Oh, did you recognize my screen name? You're so perceptive! It was the first anime I really loved, and that's true for millions of people. Is it the best anime ever? No, but It's still a very good show.
I've watched tons of anime since then, but liking dudes with superpowers fighting is never something to be ashamed of. RIGHT, comic book fans? Please, you make me laugh. You should go into comedy.
You don't even come in here under any name. I, on the other hand, wear my fandom proudly.
But anime is a genre. Your refusal to admit it means you either do not know what anime is, which is doubtful (despite your questionable taste in anime), or you don't know that "genre" means, which you've more than demonstrated.
Deal with it.
The real question is why you have so much difficulty admitting anime is a genre of animation. Why does that bother you so much?
Point me to your sources which state that anime is a genre. I'll wait.
What anime I like isn't in question. The anime I like are pretty awesome. If anyone actually knew what anime you were into (Are you into anime at all? Have you watched anime, or just have heard about it. Who's to know?) we could gauge your tastes as you shallowly gauge mine.
I'm not bothered by anime being a genre of animation; it's not. If the sky's blue and you say it's red, I'm not going to allow you or anyone else to continue to say that.
Now, I'll ask you: is the animation of every country its own genre of animation?
> source Been there; done that. It's a genre BY DEFINITION, and I've given you the definition.
Nobody here is saying the sky isn't blue, but you are denying what a sky is.
You YOURSELF have said that anime has a recognizable style to it, and we call any body of art that can be recognized by a particular style or theme or subject or origin or whatever a GENRE of the art. That's what the word means. We are posting on an English board for an English speaking audience, and by the English definition of genre and the English definition of anime, anime is a genre of animation.
Yes, the Japanese definition of アニメ refers to all animation of any style or origin in Japanese, but you can't try to force the use of Japanese definitions on an English forum. All you will accomplish is greater confusion and make yourself look like a weeaboo ass. For that matter the reverse also holds. When translating the English word anime on a Japanese forum you have to be very careful to translate it as 日本製アニメ, which roughly means Japanese style animation, to distinguish it from all animation.
Oh, and I've been a fan of anime and other genres of animation since long before you were born. I think your perceptions of Dragonball are more than a bit rose colored by your youth. You're not alone in that; I had lousy taste when I was a kid too. The original Dragonball was a fairly decent middle of the road production of a middle of the road story, but everything after that has been utter drek milking the franchise for all it's worth. You'll see that in about 10 years or so. It will probably come as quite a shock.
I guess I've seen it your way, or whatever. Anything to stop this thread from being a mile long.
I've seen a lot of magnificent anime since I've watched Dragonball, but that hasn't soured me on it; Dragonball fails in some aspects, while holding up in others. Akira Toriyama is awesome, and so far what I've sampled of his work is great.
I'll see in 10 years? I watched Dragonball Z when it came to America in the 90s. How young do you think I am? I'm well aware of Dragonball being the golden goose, and it'll probably be farmed for merchandise and movies for maybe another decade to come. Your opinion is your own. You can keep it.
Nothing wrong with mile long threads about animation.
Back when I was about seven I thought Mazinga was the Best Thing Ever. When I re-watched it about ten years ago it wasn't nearly as good as nostalgia made it out to be. In between I watched a lot of animation and had learned to distinguish the good from the mediocre from the bad from the merely profit driven, and Mazinga was definitely never as good as I had remember it being. I still have happy memories of watching it, but now I know my tastes at 7 were anything but discerning.
It may be different for you since your viewing selection is much more limited. American video corporations seem to import only what will be the most profitable at separating children from their parent's money. And even what they do import they can't resist messing with and ruining further. They wouldn't know good animation if it bit them on the butt, and they don't care. Even the better companies are still guilty; look at how Disney has cherry picked Ghibli and refuses to release the entire library even though they made sure to buy exclusive rights to all of it (but that is a rant for another day).
I suppose it's much more difficult to learn what good animation is when all you have to go on is butchered Dragonball, butchered Pokemon, butchered Sailormoon etc.
The viewing selection for anime fans has never been as broad as it is now. Back in the 90s, no, I had to get what I could find, or see on TV.
I have watched a lot of mediocre to bad anime recently, mostly for the purposes of discussion or review writing.
I've already said my piece on Dragonball, and when I was younger, I looked up all that was taken out or modified in it. I would watch Kai, but since free time is for kids, I can't commit to even that reduced amount of episodes.
No, that's actually saying quite a lot. In the 90s, American had anime curated for us, so we got the best that had to be offered, and went "oh, anime's the best thing ever"
Now I and everyone else can try, like, 20+ anime per season (that's just the legal streams), and now everyone who watches anime can't put it on as much of an exotic pedastal, because Japan's pumping out some real lowest common denominator crap, just like any other country doing animation.
> so we got the best that had to be offered Hahahahahahaha!
No.
Not from the official, licensed routes anyways. That's one of the reasons why anime has such a negative reputation among most people in America. The only good stuff being imported was for the niche anime fan market, and the best of that was through the various fansub clubs. The stuff legally imported for mass market broadcast (Pokemon, Dragonball Z etc.) was universally drek, and badly dubbed, butchered drek at that.
It's a little better now, but you still have to do a bit of looking to find the good stuff. The average couch potato still gets spoonfed mostly drek, and so that's his impression of all anime. To be painfully honest he's not that far off the mark. Probably 90% of all anime ever produced has been crap.
We did get really good stuff. I'm talking as fair as mainstream friendly content is concerned, not the somewhat smaller stuff with less appeal.
Just like any film or television, the great stuff is what the general public isn't into. For example, people are still watching Naruto (I like Naruto more than most, but the show does itself no service with the fillers and padding. My queue of episodes grows) but I am dying for people to watch something thought-provoking and atypical, like From The New World, and not that many people are talking about it. Not even anime critics are, really.
I can understand the sentiment, but I'm always bothered by the "it's just a joke" notion of judgment. My wife is the non-anime watcher in the family, and I get miffed at her when she gives me the eye-rolling glace when I'm watching something. That many people can't get past either the art style or the culture or just the idea of animation is reasonable. But I truly hope the "I'm too cool for cartoons" crowd will get over trepidation and give an open minded viewing to something in their wheelhouse.
This dude's problem is that this ex was probably watching anime she likes. Maybe he should've gotten interested and found some stuff that interests him.
Or... maybe the anime thing didn't really bother him when they were together. Maybe he's taking the breakup pretty hard and is just trying to cope/look for positives by magnifying the extent to which certain small grievances bothered him.
We don't know. All I'm sayin', Saiyan, is that you seem to be making a lot of assumptions about this poor soul and his relationship based on a single sentence. Maybe a little tolerance and understanding is in order. Love and peace, yo.
~Some Random Internet Guy Whose Opinion Really Doesn't Matter
Freiza is dead. Vegeta's son fucking killed him in the blink of an eye. Who's the real bitch?
Anyway, whether he's caught up in the moment and he's exaggerating his feelings, or he really dislikes anime, I don't think he has much love for Japanese animation to begin with.
I think his girlfriend might deserve some blame, because she was probably watching gay romance anime or harem shit, and torturing this boy with "quality time." OR maybe she was watching some cool or quality stuff and this guy is straight up ignorant. Who knows?
As has been said before, nerd-girls never pick good anime. The kind of girlfriend who will make her boyfriend watch anime will not be watching good anime. That's just how those girls are.
It's the female anime fans who are shy, almost embarrassed, about their viewing who can actually pick the good stuff.
Yes, everything you've said is a universal law and is in NO WAY sexist, not even a bit. Men have great tastes, and never subject their girlfriends to fucking trash.
Just because people are having serious discussions/arguments/nerd rages about the comic doesn't mean that we didn't have a laugh about it. Now that we've enjoyed it, it sparked conversation.
It is funny, but if you've been a nerd/geek for any length of time, this ain't new. This is a downright civil thread as compared to anime message-boards.
Ever heard a lover of "moe" (look up moe anime for an explanation) basically describe themselves as an oppressed minority, equal to gay, black, latino, etc. people? Now that makes this look like political discourse.
"Freiza is dead. Vegeta's son fucking killed him in the blink of an eye. Who's the real bitch?"
Oh god... this site is consuming itself in a sad reality/death of irony vortex type thing... MR TIM! There's your storyboard for tomorrow dished up and ready to go!
Oh, it goes in cycles. The last time it spiraled out of control, we lost some good posters. Things were pretty boring for awhile, then started to pick up. Looks like we're entering the Death Spiral again.
Now superheroes, those are a sensible adult pass-time. Nothing quite like men and boys running around in tights to firmly declare to the world that you are not a pedophile.
I saw from the front page that there were fifty comments. I knew immediately that a horde of anime fans had risen in protest... and then sat back down again, breathing heavily.
Oh god, I know that feeling.
ReplyDeleteHahahahaha!
ReplyDeleteYup.
I relate to this! The fatal flaw of otherwise awesome nerd girlfriends: the damn anime (or manga). Christ, is it too much to ask to at least watch some cartoons that are good/make sense? nope. let's watch this one about a young girl who's half demon, fighting giant robots with a sword and longing for friendship...
ReplyDelete1. Good is a completely subjective concept.
Delete2. Make sense? There are, literally, thousands of anime shows. A lot of them make sense. Some of them only make sense in the context of Japanese culture (I'm looking at you, Lain).
^Just my opinion/personal taste. <---which i'm allowed to have. I've seen an anime here or there that was to my liking, so I acknowledge that there is some quality stuff out there. Never enjoyed Manga though. Ever. Between the two, I'd say my lack of enjoyment largely stems from not digging the style of art, not identifying with the culture, and so on. Agree with the fellow below that it's entirely subjective.
DeleteNever watch Anime again? What a horrifying thought.
ReplyDeleteSame for me but "Lost in Space."
ReplyDeleteThe difference is that Lost in Space is ONE SHOW, so it's reasonable to say, "Yeah, I don't like that show." Saying, "Yeah, I don't like an entire country's output in a medium," on the other hand, is dumb. It's totally possible that his ex has shitty taste in anime, but it's a shame to write off all of it because of that, the same as if someone decided that all American comics sucked because someone only shared '90s Image books with them.
DeleteIt would be understandable for someone on some other continent that didn't speak English, understand American culture, or even read right-to-left to say they didn't like American comics, because all that was imported and translated was super hero drivel. How popular are American comics in Japan, by the way? Are they all stupid?
DeleteGeez, someone send this guy some Cowboy Bebop and Samurai Champloo. STAT!
ReplyDeleteWhy would anyone judge an entire genre based solely on what their girlfriend selects? Does he also avoid all monster movies because she pussy whipped him into watching Twilight?
ReplyDeleteThere is a lot of good anime out there, but there is a lot MORE bad anime, and so-called 'nerd girls' NEVER pick the good stuff. Ever.
2 things.
Delete1. Twilight is a paranormal romance, not a monster movie. People need to stop confusing the two.
2. Anime isn't a genre. It's a medium. The word specifies which nation this work originated from but has no meaning which pertains to genres.
This puts it on the level of judging all Indian music by what your girlfriend hooked you into watching. Not necessarily proper but at the same time I can see myself being sick of the stuff after being asked to listen to enough of it and glad to just crank some American jams without reading a lyric pamphlet or whatever it is people do if they want to know what the Indian singers are saying.
We don't know the extent of her collection. It's kind of like "How can you say you don't like rap music just based off your girlfriend's 100gb iPod that played non stop the three years you were with her? You haven't heard every rap song ever."
DeleteAnon @4/10/2013 5:15 PM:
Delete1. Completely missing the point with Twilight. It doesn't matter what you try to classify it as, if you're missing out on Bela Legosi because your girlfriend dragged you to see that Bella Swan crap, you are making a huge mistake.
2. LOLNO. Animation is the medium; specifically cell, CG, flash, etc.. Anime is a genre of animation.
No, anime is not a genre. You can say it's a style, but not a genre. You would not say that American or European or African animation is a genre.
DeleteIt is not a genre, because not all anime has a specific look, or feel, or subject matter, etc. Westerns are a genre. Sci-fi is a genre.
To put a dork bow on this, the dictionary definition of anime is "A Japanese style of motion-picture animation, characterized by highly stylized, colorful art, futuristic settings, violence, and sexuality." So this isn't just me babbling.
In your own words:
Delete> You can say it's a STYLE, but not a genre.
> A Japanese STYLE of motion-picture animation
But that's exactly what a genre is.
gen·re /ˈZHänrə/ Noun
A category of artistic composition, as in music or literature, characterized by similarities in form, STYLE, or subject matter.
If a group of works has a recognizable style, and anime most definitely does, it's a genre. If you can look at a piece of animation and say: "that looke like anime," or, "that is very anime-like," and you most definitely can with anime, it's because anime is a genre of animation, which it is.
I think it's time for you kids to turn off the Naruto and pick up a dictionary.
Generally speaking if your argument consists of reading a dictionary definition and then saying "SEE?!" you don't have a very good understanding of the subject, and haven't made a very good argument.
DeleteScience fiction is a genre. Fantasy is a genre. Romance is a genre. Police procedural is a genre. Soap opera is a genre. And there are many more. There are anime shows and movies in every single genre. Anime is not a genre itself.
"Anime" simply describes all animation that originates from Japan. (In fact, in Japan "anime" refers to all animation, period.)
Oh FFS. First off, we are using an English website that caters to an English speaking audience that is, with a few possible exceptions, NOT IN JAPAN. The word "anime", like the word "otaku", doesn't mean the same thing over here.
DeleteSecondly, when trying to argue terms with someone who is clearly ignorant of their meaning, a quick lesson in basic English, such as a dictionary reference, is very much in order.
You kids seem to have grasped the concept of defining a genre by subject matter, but simply refuse to accept that genres can also be defined by style and form. But they can be. And are. You also don't seem to grasp that genres can contain other genres based on other criteria, or that a work can be span several genres at once.
Again, if you can look at an animation and recognize it as anime it means anime is a genre.
I really have to wonder why you weeaboos are so vehemently set against admitting you enjoy a particular genre of animation. It's almost like you are trying to elevate anime to be something more than what it is.
Who are these "kids" everyone is talking about? You know no actual kids are on this website, right?
DeleteI feel that anime is not a genre of animation, but it absolutely is a genre of art. Whatever, though. Way past nitpicking already. Doesn't matter all that much to me what it's called. I just enjoy it.
"Kids" is a much more generous assumption than "people who could not be bothered to pay attention in grammar school and persist in their illiteracy into adulthood."
DeleteIt is a genre. What you feel about it will not change that.
Genre is something the creator does on purpose. If you want to write a coming-of-age story, you consciously put in the elements of that genre. If you leave those elements out, you have failed to write a coming-of-age story.
DeleteIdentify all the common elements to anime that you want--big eyes, hair colors that don't occur in nature, all the things that make you recognize anime when you see it, as many as you can think of, even those that aren't common to every anime, like robots or annoying-animal-sidekicks. An animator in Japan can make a project that has literally none of those elements, and it is still an anime, categorically, because it is animation that came from Japan.
> Genre is something the creator does on purpose.
DeleteOnly if they're a hack trying to write to a target audience for easy sales (this is a lot of what's wrong with steampunk).
Most creators just have a story to write, and they leave it up to the audience and critics to pigeonhole their work into various genres. That's how genres work. This isn't a hard concept for you kids to figure out, so why do you keep failing at it?
Also anime is not just "animation from Japan" (even though that in itself would qualify as a genre). A lot of "western" animation came out of Japan (at least until we discovered it was cheaper to chain Koreans to the drawing tables). Is the animated "Hobbit" anime? Or "The Last Unicorn"? What about "Megas XLR" or "Teen Titans"? They may not qualify under your precious overly rigid personal weeaboo definition of the genre, but to the rest of us they're anime.
Anonymous 5:25, It's not a genre, and the cases made here for it being a genre have been unconvincing. I don't leave definitions to "feelings."
DeleteYes, and that person is you. "Nerd-girls never pick good anime." I don't know what you see that as.
Delete> I FEEL that anime is not a genre of animation,
Delete> I don't leave definitions to "FEELings."
Facepalm.
At least he waited a couple of posts to contradict himself.
And as to someone named after a dragonball character trying to discuss good anime: 'nuff said.
No, it isn't a contradiction. Sometimes, what you feel is right and what is true are two different things. I feel that Anime is not a genre, and also Anime is not a genre. So in this case, what I feel and what I now know coincide.
DeleteAnime is animation, not a genre of animation. No one ever calls animation of any other country a "genre" of animation.
I was waiting for that lame, tired criticism to come around. Oh, did you recognize my screen name? You're so perceptive! It was the first anime I really loved, and that's true for millions of people. Is it the best anime ever? No, but It's still a very good show.
I've watched tons of anime since then, but liking dudes with superpowers fighting is never something to be ashamed of. RIGHT, comic book fans? Please, you make me laugh. You should go into comedy.
You don't even come in here under any name. I, on the other hand, wear my fandom proudly.
But anime is a genre. Your refusal to admit it means you either do not know what anime is, which is doubtful (despite your questionable taste in anime), or you don't know that "genre" means, which you've more than demonstrated.
DeleteDeal with it.
The real question is why you have so much difficulty admitting anime is a genre of animation. Why does that bother you so much?
Point me to your sources which state that anime is a genre. I'll wait.
DeleteWhat anime I like isn't in question. The anime I like are pretty awesome. If anyone actually knew what anime you were into (Are you into anime at all? Have you watched anime, or just have heard about it. Who's to know?) we could gauge your tastes as you shallowly gauge mine.
I'm not bothered by anime being a genre of animation; it's not. If the sky's blue and you say it's red, I'm not going to allow you or anyone else to continue to say that.
Now, I'll ask you: is the animation of every country its own genre of animation?
> source
DeleteBeen there; done that. It's a genre BY DEFINITION, and I've given you the definition.
Nobody here is saying the sky isn't blue, but you are denying what a sky is.
You YOURSELF have said that anime has a recognizable style to it, and we call any body of art that can be recognized by a particular style or theme or subject or origin or whatever a GENRE of the art. That's what the word means. We are posting on an English board for an English speaking audience, and by the English definition of genre and the English definition of anime, anime is a genre of animation.
Yes, the Japanese definition of アニメ refers to all animation of any style or origin in Japanese, but you can't try to force the use of Japanese definitions on an English forum. All you will accomplish is greater confusion and make yourself look like a weeaboo ass. For that matter the reverse also holds. When translating the English word anime on a Japanese forum you have to be very careful to translate it as 日本製アニメ, which roughly means Japanese style animation, to distinguish it from all animation.
Oh, and I've been a fan of anime and other genres of animation since long before you were born. I think your perceptions of Dragonball are more than a bit rose colored by your youth. You're not alone in that; I had lousy taste when I was a kid too. The original Dragonball was a fairly decent middle of the road production of a middle of the road story, but everything after that has been utter drek milking the franchise for all it's worth. You'll see that in about 10 years or so. It will probably come as quite a shock.
I guess I've seen it your way, or whatever. Anything to stop this thread from being a mile long.
DeleteI've seen a lot of magnificent anime since I've watched Dragonball, but that hasn't soured me on it; Dragonball fails in some aspects, while holding up in others. Akira Toriyama is awesome, and so far what I've sampled of his work is great.
I'll see in 10 years? I watched Dragonball Z when it came to America in the 90s. How young do you think I am? I'm well aware of Dragonball being the golden goose, and it'll probably be farmed for merchandise and movies for maybe another decade to come. Your opinion is your own. You can keep it.
Nothing wrong with mile long threads about animation.
DeleteBack when I was about seven I thought Mazinga was the Best Thing Ever. When I re-watched it about ten years ago it wasn't nearly as good as nostalgia made it out to be. In between I watched a lot of animation and had learned to distinguish the good from the mediocre from the bad from the merely profit driven, and Mazinga was definitely never as good as I had remember it being. I still have happy memories of watching it, but now I know my tastes at 7 were anything but discerning.
It may be different for you since your viewing selection is much more limited. American video corporations seem to import only what will be the most profitable at separating children from their parent's money. And even what they do import they can't resist messing with and ruining further. They wouldn't know good animation if it bit them on the butt, and they don't care. Even the better companies are still guilty; look at how Disney has cherry picked Ghibli and refuses to release the entire library even though they made sure to buy exclusive rights to all of it (but that is a rant for another day).
I suppose it's much more difficult to learn what good animation is when all you have to go on is butchered Dragonball, butchered Pokemon, butchered Sailormoon etc.
The viewing selection for anime fans has never been as broad as it is now. Back in the 90s, no, I had to get what I could find, or see on TV.
DeleteI have watched a lot of mediocre to bad anime recently, mostly for the purposes of discussion or review writing.
I've already said my piece on Dragonball, and when I was younger, I looked up all that was taken out or modified in it. I would watch Kai, but since free time is for kids, I can't commit to even that reduced amount of episodes.
> The viewing selection for anime fans has never been as broad as it is now.
DeleteThat's not saying much.
No, that's actually saying quite a lot. In the 90s, American had anime curated for us, so we got the best that had to be offered, and went "oh, anime's the best thing ever"
DeleteNow I and everyone else can try, like, 20+ anime per season (that's just the legal streams), and now everyone who watches anime can't put it on as much of an exotic pedastal, because Japan's pumping out some real lowest common denominator crap, just like any other country doing animation.
> so we got the best that had to be offered
DeleteHahahahahahaha!
No.
Not from the official, licensed routes anyways. That's one of the reasons why anime has such a negative reputation among most people in America. The only good stuff being imported was for the niche anime fan market, and the best of that was through the various fansub clubs. The stuff legally imported for mass market broadcast (Pokemon, Dragonball Z etc.) was universally drek, and badly dubbed, butchered drek at that.
It's a little better now, but you still have to do a bit of looking to find the good stuff. The average couch potato still gets spoonfed mostly drek, and so that's his impression of all anime. To be painfully honest he's not that far off the mark. Probably 90% of all anime ever produced has been crap.
We did get really good stuff. I'm talking as fair as mainstream friendly content is concerned, not the somewhat smaller stuff with less appeal.
DeleteJust like any film or television, the great stuff is what the general public isn't into. For example, people are still watching Naruto (I like Naruto more than most, but the show does itself no service with the fillers and padding. My queue of episodes grows) but I am dying for people to watch something thought-provoking and atypical, like From The New World, and not that many people are talking about it. Not even anime critics are, really.
I can understand the sentiment, but I'm always bothered by the "it's just a joke" notion of judgment. My wife is the non-anime watcher in the family, and I get miffed at her when she gives me the eye-rolling glace when I'm watching something.
ReplyDeleteThat many people can't get past either the art style or the culture or just the idea of animation is reasonable. But I truly hope the "I'm too cool for cartoons" crowd will get over trepidation and give an open minded viewing to something in their wheelhouse.
Ask your wife to withhold her judgement on anime and watch Only Yesterday.
DeleteThis dude's problem is that this ex was probably watching anime she likes. Maybe he should've gotten interested and found some stuff that interests him.
ReplyDeleteOH, and FUCK YOU, DUDE! Shitty anime haters.
Or... maybe the anime thing didn't really bother him when they were together. Maybe he's taking the breakup pretty hard and is just trying to cope/look for positives by magnifying the extent to which certain small grievances bothered him.
DeleteWe don't know. All I'm sayin', Saiyan, is that you seem to be making a lot of assumptions about this poor soul and his relationship based on a single sentence. Maybe a little tolerance and understanding is in order. Love and peace, yo.
~Some Random Internet Guy Whose Opinion Really Doesn't Matter
P.S. Frieza says to tell you, "like a bitch."
Freiza is dead. Vegeta's son fucking killed him in the blink of an eye. Who's the real bitch?
DeleteAnyway, whether he's caught up in the moment and he's exaggerating his feelings, or he really dislikes anime, I don't think he has much love for Japanese animation to begin with.
I think his girlfriend might deserve some blame, because she was probably watching gay romance anime or harem shit, and torturing this boy with "quality time." OR maybe she was watching some cool or quality stuff and this guy is straight up ignorant. Who knows?
As has been said before, nerd-girls never pick good anime. The kind of girlfriend who will make her boyfriend watch anime will not be watching good anime. That's just how those girls are.
DeleteIt's the female anime fans who are shy, almost embarrassed, about their viewing who can actually pick the good stuff.
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DeleteYes, everything you've said is a universal law and is in NO WAY sexist, not even a bit. Men have great tastes, and never subject their girlfriends to fucking trash.
DeleteIt appears someone needs to learn the definition of "sexism" as well.
DeleteBLAH BLAH BLAH BLAH BLAH BLAH BLAH BLAH!
ReplyDeleteHahahaha, I love all the people getting super defensive about anime, clearly missing that this is a comic to make you laugh.
ReplyDeleteJust because people are having serious discussions/arguments/nerd rages about the comic doesn't mean that we didn't have a laugh about it. Now that we've enjoyed it, it sparked conversation.
DeleteNo one missed the point, It's a simple point.
Hahahaha, I love this site. =)
DeleteI think it's funny that issues like Anime end up causing just as much debating as sexism/racism/politics/etc.
ReplyDeleteMaybe his girlfriend just only ever talked about/watched anime? Even good anime (or good anything) gets annoying after a while. You need to diversify.
It is funny, but if you've been a nerd/geek for any length of time, this ain't new. This is a downright civil thread as compared to anime message-boards.
DeleteEver heard a lover of "moe" (look up moe anime for an explanation) basically describe themselves as an oppressed minority, equal to gay, black, latino, etc. people? Now that makes this look like political discourse.
"Freiza is dead. Vegeta's son fucking killed him in the blink of an eye. Who's the real bitch?"
ReplyDeleteOh god... this site is consuming itself in a sad reality/death of irony vortex type thing... MR TIM! There's your storyboard for tomorrow dished up and ready to go!
Oh, it goes in cycles. The last time it spiraled out of control, we lost some good posters. Things were pretty boring for awhile, then started to pick up. Looks like we're entering the Death Spiral again.
DeleteMost of these people are Anonymous. How do you know if you lose them?
Delete*sigh* Because most of the ones we lost didn't post as Anonymous. Was that really that hard to figure out?
DeleteNo, it wasn't at all. I wasn't being serious- but saying I wasn't serious would deaden the effect.
DeleteOnly pedophiles watch anime.
ReplyDeleteNow superheroes, those are a sensible adult pass-time. Nothing quite like men and boys running around in tights to firmly declare to the world that you are not a pedophile.
DeleteHa ha ha! Shh! Hypocrisy? Nah, no one here could be guilty of that!
DeleteWell, I thought it was funny, anyway.
ReplyDeleteThere is SO much butthurt here that I think my own butt is hurting sympathetically.
ReplyDeleteI saw from the front page that there were fifty comments. I knew immediately that a horde of anime fans had risen in protest... and then sat back down again, breathing heavily.
ReplyDeleteNo, sorry. I apologise. That's horribly misrepresentational. A horde of anime fans did not rise in protest and sit down again breathing heavily.
DeleteIt was mostly just YotaroVegeta.
Yeah, that YotaroVegeta's been running his mouth!
Delete"The last time it spiraled out of control, we lost some good posters."
ReplyDelete"Because most of the ones we lost didn't post as Anonymous."
http://youtu.be/6uS5xPWfxPY?t=24s