The "Anime Talk" column here on the blog is normally geared towards fans of anime, this week I want to hear from that segment of our community that doesn't watch nor do they care to watch any anime. I'd love to know why you do not like anime, what about it turns you away is it something about the entire genre or was there a particular anime series or movie that ruined it for you ? As I have mentioned a few time that the classic anime movie Akira almost made me into an Anime Hater. I watched that movie and could not stand it and did not want to see anymore anime. If it were not for a stubborn friend that kept pushing anime on me until he found something I did like I likely would not be writing about Anime on this blog today.
So that's our topic of discussion for this week, leave your comments below letting us all know about why you don't watch anime, and so that our anime fans out there do not feel left out on this topic I'd like to ask you what Anime (s) series or movies you dislike even though you are fans of the genre.
For me, it’s mostly the culture…
Sure, way back when, I watched “Gigantor”, “Astro Boy”, “Scott McCloud: Space Angel”, and “Tobor, the Eigth Man” on the local TV station (before WGN became a Superstation… YES, I’m old!). Back then, my age was in the single digits, or had been recently, and, mostly, I thought, “Oh, boy! Cartoons!”
But, sorry, I’m a Westerner, I’m more familiar with Cowboys than with Samurai, and I really don’t GET a lot of the Japanese references/institutions made in most Anime…
Agree with Wiley Pete. The cultural references don’t always come across. I’ve covered about everything that I dislike about anime, so I’ll try to come up with things that I like.
As for the art, anime can be very stylized. Lots of epic action and unbelievably detailed backgrounds. Whereas a Western cartoon would show a brown rock wall, the anime wall has different tones and shading with ledges and small trees with wild blossoms growing out of them, maybe a waterfall and some birds bouncing about. That includes TV anime. Western cartoons reserve such nuances for full-length movies.
Anime develops characters more than most other cartoons. Granted, sometimes this can really drag a story down. However,it provides motivation. Which gives the audience something to embrace or reject.
Anime plot twists actually pivot the story. They don’t provide a “shocking” moment just to turn a story upside down. I’m looking at you, American “horror” movie writers with all your stupid suckage waste of film.
So, art direction and character development are some of anime’s strong points.
I don’t hate anime, but a lot of what I’ve seen leaves me cold. A few years ago, one of my co-workers recommended Miyazaki’s Princess Mononoke, and I found it one of the most beautiful, moving films I’ve ever seen. I liked it so much I added it to my permanent DVD collection. I also really enjoyed Castle in the Sky. On the other hand, I found Spirited Away, the film for which Miyazaki won an Oscar, to be way too bizarre for my taste–sort of like a Japanese Alice in Wonderland story on an acid trip. I’ve seen Vampire Hunter D and individual episodes of anime series like Bleach and Full Metal Alchemist and I found the plots way too convoluted to pick up if you hadn’t started from the beginning. I’ve also seen some anime that’s just basically animated pornography (and poorly animated pornography at that), so I can take it or leave it.
I usually don’t like anime that’s “crazy”, like “High School! Kimengumi” because I just don’t find it fun or interesting.
OTOH, I like humor in a show, like in the amazing Cowboy Bebop (Oh, do I miss it!!!) or FMA, but the moment it breaks in craziness and nonsense, I just drop.
I hate the fanservice of a lot of shows.
I don’t mind anime porn, it’s supposed to be porn, just like there are, say, action movies and porn movies, but, even setting aside the sexist angle, it’s often unrealistic, and even insulting to me, not unlike blockbusters with all in SFX: “If I put enough of eye candy, that dumb shit won’t even realize my movie/anime is crap”.
I also don’t like the tendency to drag on successful shows in order to make money and/or please fans (DBGT… In fact, IMO, all DBZ post frieza), although american tv shows suffer from the same problem (Prison Break, anyone?)
I liked the clips of VH-D that I saw and some of the short ones I can’t remember titles for.
Mostly I don’t watch anime for the same reason I don’t watch a show till it’s out on DVD: I don’t like enough of them to put up with commercials, trying to hear them over my squidlings while preventing them from hearing cussing and horrible writing, trying to tape them. It’s just so much easier to let people who know me recommend pilots to rent or borrow two to three years later. –Not enough good writing anywhere.
Confusing as always, my lovely.
Agree w/ Arioch on the commercialized anime. The whole “let’s kill everyone and blow up a planet so Goku has time to grow a giant ball of energy that could nuke the sun” concept made me like DBZ less and less as it went on (for me when Majinn Buu showed up that was the last straw–though I kept watching to see what would happen, and even made the mistake of watching GT through to the…um…end?) And don’t get me started on bringing in supposedly non-canon OVA characters (Garlic Jr.) to fill space between sagas or the sudden appearance of Goten as Goku’s “other son.”
Which also gets me pissed about Bleach, a series that has not just one miniature arc but several entire seasons of non-canon side stories that I skipped over because they had no purpose but to stretch the series and make money. I think I’m somewhere in the “Origin of the Mask” flashback season right now, but I haven’t seen an episode of Bleach in months.
Other shows I will watch again and again, like FMA, Sailor Moon and Inuyasha because they run the perfect 50 episode length, although few series of this type offer a satisfying and/or bloody and/or understandable conclusion.
Some live-action movies have even adopted this non-violent, nonsense, non-ending policy, like The Matrix. The movie in question draws you into a world that demands you try to make sense of it, stuns you with ultraviolent mech battles, impressive FX-assisted powers, and high-speed martial arts of the aforementioned DBZ variety, only to end its trilogy with an anticlimactic pile of confused disappointment.
I still like anime, but I’m choosier now.
I remember when I was 5 (1979, here, otakus) I preferred Mazinger Z, Battle of the Planets/G Force), Space Battleship Yamato, and any other fairy tale anime like “Heidi” instead of whatever WB or Hannah-Barbera cranked out. Later, the superheroes took over but I got caught up with all the Voltrons and the mashed up “Robotech” series…Which I still like but, I … I just don’t watch anime anymore because no matter the “genre”, it’s all the same story with the same frickin’ Archetypes. Wether anime/manga keeps it at a main 5 characters (leader, rebel, princess, nerd, and big guy) or bring in more, familiarized watchers know what they’ll get from the cast. It’s ridiculous, no matter how it’s dressed up, character development is the same. Case in point the “tsundere” girl. I’m tired of the same recipe. If I’m wrong, please suggest some titles with original content and I will bust out my munchies and push play.