# Why do you like anime?



## The Last Stand (Jul 15, 2019)

I've watched a couple episodes of Sailor Moon, thanks @Cosmos, and noticed that a few Kiwis have anime profile pictures. I wonder, why do you watch or like anime, manga, etc? The cultural differences in animation, tradition, customs? Hearing another language? The character exaggeration?

I love animation, and anime is very different from Western animation. Almost indistinguishable. If there is already a thread of this, apologies. Just curious.


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## Lone MacReady (Jul 15, 2019)

Tits are Life, there is no thinking involved, I just watch.


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## REGENDarySumanai (Jul 15, 2019)

Cultural differences, traditions, and customs. I like scouring everywhere for media from different cultures (I've recently dipped my toes into classic Chinese literature, which has given us our fair share of Japanese media). Honestly, if I wasn't in the IT field, I'd probably be a scholar of some sort.


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## Webby's Boyfriend (Jul 15, 2019)

Who is "you"? Anybody on this site? Surely not, because I hate and despise anime, but I love American animation, though some Eurofag stuff is okay too. My favourite franchise is the Disney Duck universe.

Anime is just retarded and anime profile pics are for politispergs.



Lone MacReady said:


> Tits are Life, there is no thinking involved, I just watch.


To me, that is really creepy, because most animefags are adult men while those characters to whom they fap off are often underage school girls.


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## Absolutego (Jul 15, 2019)

In my experience a lot of what draws people into anime is that animation targeted at teens and up remains very niche in western countries. Anime just supplied a demand that wasn't being addressed by western animation studios.


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## Jeanne d'Arc (Jul 15, 2019)

Mainly character design, original stories, and choice.

There's so much anime (20-40 series every three-odd months) that you're bound to find some set of characters and the stories surrounding them and really fall in love with them, a huge reason why I think waifu culture is so popular right now.

A lot of studios try to do different shit (Kyoto Animation likes cutesy but realistic stuff, Trigger likes over-the-top shit, Ghibli likes more folktale-like/humanizing stories) and it's refreshing compared to the western market where "CALarts" is the favored style by a long shot. Samurai Jack was the last western animated show I really enjoyed, and I'll admit certain episodes of Adventure Time were rather nice. I think the western animation market needs more originality is all, give us more Tartakovskys and Wards and fewer pandering shows like Steven Universe.


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## Clop (Jul 15, 2019)

I don't personally like most of that stuff, I prefer the occasional series that put some effort into the plot, but I can wager a a guess on why a lot of it is popular; It's very honest entertainment. It's catering to pure escapism, it's not trying to preach to you, you can just tune out and stare at colorful shit and fan service.

It's apparently starting to overcome western entertainment, and that's not exactly a surprise to me considering you can't watch or read anything without a feminist screaming about your eyes wandering around a pair of tits _I mean how fucking dare you stare at titties, what the fuck are you staring at titties for yoU FUCKING SICK BASTARD REEEEEEEEE--_

It's not all titties and panties, either. You want wholesome comedy, you read Azuma Kiyohiko's stuff. You want wholesome fantasy, you watch Studio Ghibli's works. Just like video games, I trust the actual consumers of the medium to know how to avoid the shit that journos love to bitch about.



Webby's Boyfriend said:


> To me, that is really creepy, because most animefags are adult men while those characters to whom they fap off are often underage school girls.


Someone's definitely fapping to Webby somewhere right now, and I'm betting she's not old enough to ride a fucking roller coaster. It's best not to think about it.


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## The Cunting Death (Jul 15, 2019)

They have more balls than most American productions.


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## saisegeha (Jul 15, 2019)

I grew up reading and watching Naruto and Dragon Ball with a friend who moved away later on, grew out of anime, learned he killed himself and then picked I it back up for nostalgic reasons and to sort of remember him. These days I find myself enjoying seinen anime like Mushi-Shi and Texhnolyze, but since I don't have much time to sit through a lot of episodes  I started to prefer manga a while ago, mainly Bokurano and Shigurui type stuff.  I also enjoy seeing Japanese culture, but know for damn sure that if I'll ever visit Japan I won't be acting like an autistic weeb and rather learn the basics of their language and try to see the things they're proud of.


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## The Last Stand (Jul 15, 2019)

FatFuckFrank said:


> They have more balls than most American productions.


Something I noticed with "dubbed versions", often scenes would be omitted or edited on Western syndication. Dialogue, plot threads, references, violence to name a few. How does that make some of you feel?


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## The Cunting Death (Jul 15, 2019)

The Last Stand said:


> Something I noticed with "dubbed versions", often scenes would be omitted or edited on Western syndication. Dialogue, plot threads, references, violence to name a few. How does that make some of you feel?


then I don't watch that version


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## UE 558 (Jul 15, 2019)

Because Jojo taught me that I’m gay



Spoiler


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## Webby's Boyfriend (Jul 15, 2019)

Absolutego said:


> In my experience a lot of what draws people into anime is that animation targeted at teens and up remains very niche in western countries. Anime just supplied a demand that wasn't being addressed by western animation studios.


Many "kids'" animated shows, like Disney, feature believable characters with gripping storylines, while "adult" animation usually is autistic reeing about celebrities, politics, sex and profanity.



Annie said:


> a huge reason why I think waifu culture is so popular right now.


To me, and probably most psychologists, that is just very very sad. Can there be anything more depressing than people wasting their love on fictional drawings?



Clop said:


> Someone's definitely fapping to Webby somewhere right now, and I'm betting she's not old enough to ride a fucking roller coaster. It's best not to think about it.


Yeah, you do that, Dutch Hitler bird who calls himself "Clop". En groeten uit Duckstad, Dolf!


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## dreamworks face (Jul 15, 2019)

With anime, you can imagine a venn diagram with three bubbles.

a) Obviously for children 
b) Creepy
c) Good

The surface level, "obviously for children", is a lot of what airs on TV.  It's usually shounen crap, involves tournaments, powering up, and people punching each other.  The americanized dub voices are annoying and the animation is shitty.  I'd characterize stuff like Sailor Moon and Ronin Warriors and Naruto and Dragon Ball Z etc. into this category.  This is generally the normie opinion on anime.

Then there is creepy - there are a ton of tropes like "girl who looks like a 10 year old is really 1000 years olds so it's ok to fuck her", "every male in the series tries to peep in the mixed bath", "harems",. "stealing panties and wearing them on your face is played for a laugh", "little sister really wants to fuck oniisan", "characters stick fingers up other characters butts for laughs."  This is the bitter nerd opinion on anime, and almost any anime show you watch will have one of the tropes above guaranteed.

Then you have the third category, Good (which might be 1% of all anime if that).  Every so often there's a cool show like Cowboy Bebop, Attack on Titan, Kakegurui, Konosuba, Death Note, Neon Genesis Evangelion - there is just so much anime that by law of large numbers, some of it ends up good.  Keep in mind Sturgeon's law - 90% of everything is crap.

Western animated shows aimed at adults are pretty much just animated sitcoms - South Park/Simpsons/Family Guy/Rick and Morty/Archer are all fundamentally the same shit different box.  That is changing a little - I did like Castlevania, but you know, anime is anime even if it's not drawn by Japanese people.  Maybe one day we'll routinely get western animation that doesn't have a moron character making jokes about jews to make anti-antisemitism seem dated, who knows.


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## left arm (Jul 15, 2019)

For me, it's I find the majority of adult cartoons in the west tend to just be adult cartoons because a draw to it seems to be, "Oh man, these characters are doing RAUNCHY things, and this is a cartoon! Cartoons were for kids, but not anymore!"

Obviously, there are exceptions, and that isn't to say that having raunchy humor in anything devalues its worth, but sometimes I just want something that's geared towards adults and the cartoony style is more of a backdrop, which is usually easier for me to find with anime.

Granted, my opinion should be taken with salt, because if I have the option of reading a manga over watching an anime, I absolutely will do that, and this is entirely because I do my best to avoid shounen-shit, isekai, ecchi, and whatever's popular because of shipping, which is what 90% of anime tends to be nowadays. Plus, I almost never bother with anything ongoing as well, because I inevitably stop caring.


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## lobotomy juice (Jul 15, 2019)

I have already seen all good normie shows and new ones are almost always shit except maybe one good new show or a season every year. Besides that anime is just different and thus interesting although I would imagine that fading away once I have seen more than just a few shows. I watch movies and shows pretty rarely and mainly for escapist reasons when I want to take my mind off of work or other real life stuff and anime does it better than most recent shows with big brain political takes or other immersion breaking shit.


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## Sprig of Parsley (Jul 15, 2019)

It's fun.

Do I need another reason?


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## BoingoTango (Jul 15, 2019)

>Deepthoughts

This should be in Multimedia section well, sure whatever. But I guess since it's anime it just gets a pass. Hooray for weeb hugbox.

I hate the vast majority of anime. I hate the annoying over-sexualized tropes. I hate the high school tropes. I hate cutesy animes. I hate fan service. What I like are a few select shows that fall into the anime category, and it is usually despite it being an anime, certainly not because of it like a lot weeb faggots.

Things like Dragon Ball and One Piece are great. Dragon Ball has a lot of interesting concepts, but they are (somewhat unfortunately) not delved too far into, but the badass action and the general satisfying nature of watching Goku whoop the breaks off people never fails to entertain. I can't speak too hard for One Piece because I'm not super far into it (They are on a prehistoric island and there are two giants fighting currently, not sure of arc names), but it has a similar feel, while also offering a VERY unique cast of characters, power, and scenery.

I even like SOME of the more wholesome cutesy stuff. I like My Neighbor Totoro for instance, but it's really hard to compare Miyazaki to what anime is today.

Anyone who says that they just like "anime" is a faggot. You wouldn't go around telling everyone you just love "cartoons". You would have specific shows that you enjoy. Though, I guess since the majority of the shit the chinks in Japan shell out is more-or-less the same thing shoved out over and over again, I suppose it isn't TOO inaccurate


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## Professional iPad Hoarder (Jul 15, 2019)

Usually they have a great (or at least better than chickflix's series) plot and no sjw bullshit, also there is a huge variety in anime topics/styles to choose.


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## Overcast (Jul 15, 2019)

I guess for me, they provide me with something western cartoons aren't really able to provide. Sure, there's a load of degenerate garbage made to pander to high schoolers and creepers, but underneath all of that is stuff that resonates with me in a lot of ways. Like Fullmetal Alchemist (both series) Wolf Children, Castle in the Sky, Welcome to the NHK, Oyasumi Punpun, ect.


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## Fek (Jul 15, 2019)

A younger (idealistic and fairly ignorant) Fek had a thing for some of the older, more idealized animu like _Trigun_ or _Trinity Blood. _They shared a basic story idea that involved a tortured soul trying to use some ancient and hardly understood power to be a force for "good" in the wake of a troubled/tortured past. Typically, that power was incredibly dangerous and the main character struggled to have control over it (keeping it from causing further harm). Sometimes they even failed in doing so, and the destruction the character would cause left them questioning whether or not they could ever truly be redeemed.

I actually enjoyed _Hellsing_ for similar reasons, and thoroughly appreciated the _completely different_ personal perspective of the main character. Instead of being what essentially amounted to a whiny bitch (looking at you in particular, Vash), Alucard had come to terms with exactly what he was and willingly submit to someone else's authority in using that ruinous power for protecting King (Queen?) and Country. He enjoyed being the monster, and understood he couldn't be trusted with the responsibility that came along with it. It left me wondering if it's better to be shackled and directed chaos lacking true freedom than it is to be (for better or for worse) ultimately free to cause ruin just as (or far more) easily as it would be to be a force for "good."

Essentially, I thoroughly enjoyed watching the inner conflict of someone with the power/will to shape things around them choosing to do so for a net positive while avoiding falling into despair, nihilism, or the corrupting seduction their power could (and did) readily provide. I found it to be a fairly good take on what growing up into a man felt like at the time (fucking edgy teenagers, amirite).

Now, all that being said: Current Fek is disillusioned with the entire genre and can't typically be bothered with anime at all. Maybe I've been introduced to the wrong series given my old interests, but outside of partial bits of _Berserk_ and _Gungrave_ (everything that happens *before* the supernatural insanity starts), nothing else has really done it for me. The staggering majority of anime tropes are just god awful to me, personally (oh boy, time to listen to inner monologue for 10 mins while nothing of substance happens..oh boy, there's another 5 mins of the female character looking all distraught repeating the main character's fucking name while he's time traveling through a 30 second bit of action for the entirety of her mantra..etc, etc). I mean, you like what you like, right? If you do? Well, more power to you. 

I think I'm probably just too old for that shit, frankly.


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## Pargon (Jul 15, 2019)

I like Japan's takes on visual storytelling. A good anime director will find a way to tell an intense, interesting story with visuals and supplement with music and a good script read by talented people. That may sound shallow but that's a huge advantage of the medium; consider Evangelion with its mostly-unexplained Christian imagery and psychobabble. Do you know what the fuck the bridge bunnies mean when they say that Shinji's destrudo levels are becoming critical? Fuck no, and it's such a throwaway line delivered when much more important things are happening that you may not notice it.






Thanks, Plinkett.

The point is because of what comes immediately after that, you _somehow figure it out anyway_, or at least to the point that it's necessary to keep up with the plot. The way that's done fascinates me and it's what keeps me interested in anime and manga because it's not something you can rely on merely as an author. You *need* the visual to take the reader/viewer along with you and it keeps things economical by not needing to bog every other scene down with exposition.


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## QI 541 (Jul 15, 2019)

Because anime characters are generally more attractive than western cartoon characters and I find the moeblob slice of life shows to be therapeutic.  Incidentally I don't like extremely dark and depressing anime and it slightly annoys me how common it is for animes that are usually "normal" to randomly place extremely disturbing scenes out of nowhere into it.


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## JM 590 (Jul 15, 2019)

One thing I've wondered about for years is why anime-styled shows aren't widely accepted as proper anime if they're not specifically from Japan.  Like, RWBY and The Boondocks.  

The Boondocks is an ongoing story that peeks into the lives of a family in America, and the dealings with the people around them and America-centric views on racial conflict (pre-Clown World).  So... it can't be classified as an anime entirely because it's made by an American?  What?  Then just call it Japanimation like it's 1998 again.  

Speaking of which, I've always wondered if The Boondocks has a following in Japan.  For all their shows and games that show off Japanese life, I'd like to think they'd be interested to see a show with a bit of American life.


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## Slap47 (Jul 15, 2019)

The Manga industry gives its creators alot of freedom that simply does not exist anywhere else. They make edgier jokes, tackle crazy and even evil themes and in general just tell stories that aren't usually told. There is also an impressive level craftsmenship that goes into Manga that you don't see in many other places. Anime simply takes that niche and puts it to the screen.

You see that level of  craftsmenship with Pixar shit but thats like one studio. A western industry that adapted graphic novels would be probably thrive if it could get off the ground. Of course, graphic novels aren't even as close to Manga in popularity so getting that off the ground would be tough. I don't think the west is lacking in animators, I think it lacks an industry with an infrastructure that enables them. A guy like Harry Partrige starting a studio and pumping stuff out could get things rolling but I really dunno. 



Piss said:


> One thing I've wondered about for years is why anime-styled shows aren't widely accepted as proper anime if they're not specifically from Japan.  Like, RWBY and The Boondocks.
> 
> The Boondocks is an ongoing story that peeks into the lives of a family in America, and the dealings with the people around them and America-centric views on racial conflict (pre-Clown World).  So... it can't be classified as an anime entirely because it's made by an American?  What?  Then just call it Japanimation like it's 1998 again.
> 
> Speaking of which, I've always wondered if The Boondocks has a following in Japan.  For all their shows and games that show off Japanese life, I'd like to think they'd be interested to see a show with a bit of American life.



The Boondocks is great for the reasons I mentioned above. However, it kinda kamikazi'd itself with the latest season. I liked it but it still wasn't as great. It's comedy and willingness to tackle sensitive themes was obviously muted. It basically fell back on memes and references to fill in the gap.


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## BoingoTango (Jul 15, 2019)

Fek said:


> A younger (idealistic and fairly ignorant) Fek had a thing for some of the older, more idealized animu like _Trigun_ or _Trinity Blood. _They shared a basic story idea that involved a tortured soul trying to use some ancient and hardly understood power to be a force for "good" in the wake of a troubled/tortured past. Typically, that power was incredibly dangerous and the main character struggled to have control over it (keeping it from causing further harm). Sometimes they even failed in doing so, and the destruction the character would cause left them questioning whether or not they could ever truly be redeemed.
> 
> I actually enjoyed _Hellsing_ for similar reasons, and thoroughly appreciated the _completely different_ personal perspective of the main character. Instead of being what essentially amounted to a whiny bitch (looking at you in particular, Vash), Alucard had come to terms with exactly what he was and willingly submit to someone else's authority in using that ruinous power for protecting King (Queen?) and Country. He enjoyed being the monster, and understood he couldn't be trusted with the responsibility that came along with it. It left me wondering if it's better to be shackled and directed chaos lacking true freedom than it is to be (for better or for worse) ultimately free to cause ruin just as (or far more) easily as it would be to be a force for "good."
> 
> ...


Those are some pretty good opinions right there.

I've been considering giving Berserk a shot. When you say partial bits, is it basically a lot of flash and badass shit happening without too much substance? Because I sorta had the feeling that might be the case, which I'm not too opposed to (I mean I like Dragon Ball).


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## BoingoTango (Jul 15, 2019)

Pargon said:


> A good anime director will find a way to tell an intense, interesting story with visuals and supplement with music and a good script read by talented people .That may sound shallow but that's a huge advantage of the medium



You mean what any other animation, or hell even normal movies do? I don't see how that's different than any other medium.

When you take the positive adjectives out of this sentence it describes any movie, show, or cartoon:

"A director will find a way to tell a story with visuals and supplement with music and a script read by people"


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## Niggernerd (Jul 15, 2019)

I like anime that resonates with me on a emotional level (Welcome to the NHK,Oyasumi Punpun,FLCL, Steins;Gate) 
As well as anime that just make me forget my meaningless existence (Mecha)

I can't find that with western animation because it's all garbage that panders to exceptional children unlike some cartoons from the mid 90's to mid 2000's (notably Batman,Batman Beyond,Justice league, Samurai Jack)

The style, how the Japanese insert their culture in their work even if it's just a little is fascinating to see, the music and just the concepts of many of the stories are exciting.
 The thing with anime is there's a lot for kids but there's more for adults. The creators understand that so they make series that are philosophical and deep thoughts to try to help you (the viewer) grow as a person which is something I can appreciate with any form of media.

*Also big fucking honkers, thicc thighs, and PHAT booties are straight fire yo.*


Spoiler: The holy trinity


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## mr.moon1488 (Jul 15, 2019)

1: Escape from the non-stop political crap of western entertainment (e.g. if there's a gay character, they don't exist purely to promote "LGBTQ2V***8dopvmpomcv" issues like they do in western entertainment)

2: Normally the humor is actually funny.  (In most western adult oriented cartoons, it's 90% fart jokes.)

3: The art is actually normally really pretty.  Even in western cartoons I liked as a kid, the art wasn't very appealing.  


Spoiler: Ed Edd n'Eddy









4: The characters normally aren't flat, and do change a lot as the story goes on.  

5: Normally there isn't a purist good v.s. evil dichotomy in eastern story telling.  In eastern story telling, quite often the antagonist has a very valid reason for doing what they're doing.  This is a lot more mature way of looking at the world as irl, there haven't been many conflicts where one side is clearly "evil," and the other side "good."  Normally when this is attempted in western entertainment, it's just silly, and the antagonists' reasons, or methods just don't make any sense.  

6: Anime isn't afraid to have multiple protagonists, and can often times do this very well.  Who's really the MC in Fairy Tail?  Who's the MC in Batman?  

7: Big jiggly anime tiddies

As far as manga goes, I'm honestly starting to enjoy Chinese comics, and Manhwa more.  Manga is getting bad about something getting popular, and then everyone else ripping them off.


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## Fek (Jul 15, 2019)

dreamworks face said:


> I did like Castlevania, but you know, anime is anime even if it's not drawn by Japanese people.  Maybe one day we'll routinely get western animation that doesn't have a moron character making jokes about jews to make anti-antisemitism seem dated, who knows.



I didn't mind that until it kinda went right the absolute fuck off the rails and followed characters (the viking? guy, and "one of the writers loves torture porn" plot armor bitch) that had no business taking over the story. I thought it really just crashed and burned as it went on, sadly.



BoingoTango said:


> Those are some pretty good opinions right there.
> 
> I've been considering giving Berserk a shot. When you say partial bits, is it basically a lot of flash and badass shit happening without too much substance? Because I sorta had the feeling that might be the case, which I'm not too opposed to (I mean I like Dragon Ball).



So there are enough iterations of _Berserk_ that I can safely say "I'm not sure." The one I watched (_The Golden Age_ miniseries..three movies) had enough downtime between things happening that I'm not sure you'd care for it if you're looking for a higher tempo action show. The action itself tended to be satisfying when it did happen. 

I didn't watch all of it, but someone had me try out one of the _Fate_ (maybe _Zero_? fuzzy on it, apologies) series that seemed to have more action going on than much else. Not sure if that helps you.


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## Sīn the Moon Daddy (Jul 15, 2019)

Because she's my lithium flower, duh.


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## Caesare (Jul 15, 2019)

The Last Stand said:


> I've watched a couple episodes of Sailor Moon, thanks @Cosmos,



That's a little girl's show. What's next, the my little ponies?


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## Niggernerd (Jul 15, 2019)

Sīn the Moon Daddy said:


> Because she's my lithium flower, duh.


Ah, Motoko, the only cygril that makes me big thunk about cyberspace with my dick


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## Recoil (Jul 15, 2019)

I don't actually like Anime per se, I just happened to watch Akira when it came to Blockbuster video back in 1990 and I've been trying to recreate the experience ever since.


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## kadoink (Jul 15, 2019)

Different story structure than what we usually have in the US, different types of characters culturally, and most important, less faggotry...unless its Jojos Faggot fest.


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## Dom Cruise (Jul 16, 2019)

Well, I'm an animation fan in general and like the fact that anime is something that grows with you, rather than being relegated to either for kids or comedy like most of western animation. 

But I'm also drawn to the styles of anime specifically and what can I say? I love Japanese culture, it is what it is.

Even the more disreputable types of anime like the fanservice shows is entertaining to me the way say direct to video b movies from the 1980s are entertaining to some people, even when it's bad, it's still fun.

To be honest I think a big appeal behind most anime is that you get the feeling the creators behind a series just want you to have a good time, there's no political BS and there's no sense of cynicism, even when it's something schlocky or derivative you can tell it's made with an honest desire to entertain you behind it, unlike a lot of stupid western movies and TV shows that clearly holds the audience in contempt, especially in the SJW era.

So it's rare that I don't get some entertainment value from whatever I watch, but of course a lot of it's not going to be everyone's cup of tea, but there's a wide enough variety of anime out there that I think anyone could find at least a few things they'd like, saying "I don't like anime" is akin to saying "I don't like movies", there's too much of it out there for that to be a fair statement.


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## Niggernerd (Jul 16, 2019)

Dom Cruise said:


> there's too much of it out there for that to be a fair statement.


I agree, I think the problem is most western audiences see fan service anime come out of the wood works more than ones with actual concepts,character development etc etc
You saw a lot of normie fans when DBZ was at its peak of popularity (cell saga) 
It was action packed and cool af.

We hardly get those anymore (not in a creation sense but sent to the west) and if we do the MC are just all powerful and plot armored the fuck out and/or have a harem.

OPM is basically the DBZ of the modern era, it's popular with normies because it's over the top with action and not jiggly titties and embarrassing to watch if anyone catches them watching it.
Subbing also turns people off because they want to watch rather than read.

I guess it depends if they want to look for said shows but I don't think they want to rather they see what's out and base their judgement with that


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## Overcast (Jul 16, 2019)

Dom Cruise said:


> Well, I'm an animation fan in general and like the fact that anime is something that grows with you, rather than being relegated to either for kids or comedy like most of western animation.
> 
> But I'm also drawn to the styles of anime specifically and what can I say? I love Japanese culture, it is what it is.
> 
> ...



It does say a lot about something when I would rather watch a stereotypical harem anime than a show that's caught up in the SJW mentality.

One knows what it is and tries to have fun with it, the other just feel disingenuous and is just exhausting to watch.

They're both shit, but one is easier to clean up.


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## The Last Stand (Jul 16, 2019)

dreamworks face said:


> The surface level, "obviously for children", is a lot of what airs on TV. It's usually shounen crap, involves tournaments, powering up, and people punching each other. The americanized dub voices are annoying and the animation is shitty. I'd characterize stuff like Sailor Moon and Ronin Warriors and Naruto and Dragon Ball Z etc. into this category. This is generally the normie opinion on anime.





Apoth42 said:


> The Boondocks is great for the reasons I mentioned above. However, it kinda kamikazi'd itself with the latest season. I liked it but it still wasn't as great. It's comedy and willingness to tackle sensitive themes was obviously muted. It basically fell back on memes and references to fill in the gap.


As for the Boondocks, that's because the creator of the strip and previous seasons weren't involved that season. It's coming back apparently, with the creator, so hopefully it will retain the original glory.

Another thing I wanted to ask: how would you describe anime art style? Some anime like Bleach, One Piece or Naruto use action sequences while others focus on character development. Somebody mentioned Steven Universe, how is that classified as anime? Same with the Boondocks,


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## Gravityqueen4life (Jul 16, 2019)

got into it while i was young and during the late 90s and 00s, a lot of good shit came out. also thanks too the internet, it got alot easier too get a hold on so you didint have to watch tv with terrible dub, having too wait for new seasons too come out or pay 10-15 dollars for a dvd with only 2 or 3 episodes on it. now days i have trouble watching anime more and more since i find most of it to be boring or sub-par to the shows that i watched in the past.

i have also gotten more into manga since its a lot quicker too read it and i find the art very appealing too my eyes.


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## Niggernerd (Jul 16, 2019)

Gravityqueen4life said:


> got into it while i was young and during the late 90s and 00s, a lot of good shit came out. also thanks too the internet, it got alot easier too get a hold on so you didint have to watch tv with terrible dub, having too wait for new seasons too come out or pay 10-15 dollars for a dvd with only 2 or 3 episodes on it. now days i have trouble watching anime more and more since i find most of it to be boring or sub-par to the shows that i watched in the past.


My older cousin was rambling on about the new AoT but all I could think about was the Guyver the bioboosted armor op
Good shit back then.


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## Gravityqueen4life (Jul 16, 2019)

Niggernerd said:


> My older cousin was rambling on about the new AoT but all I could think about was the Guyver the bioboosted armor op
> Good shit back then.


tried reading AOT but i lost interest very quickly. seems to be held as the second coming off animation by the normalfags. the same people who watches my hero academia that looks like naruto: the zoomer edition to me.


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## Megaroad (Jul 16, 2019)

Personally, I remember when I was a kid that I loved to draw but hated the cartoons at the time (would draw comics based on the video games I played).  Nicklelodian's foundation was pretty much ugly as fuck cartoons that felt beneath me (Rugrats) or was just gross for the sake of being gross (Ren and Stimpy).  All I remember from early Cartoon Network was Hannah-Barbara cartoons until it's original content rolled out and I'd fucking hang myself if I had to sit through another Disney sing along.  What little adult animation we had was edgelord central (did like Aeon Flux).

So when Toonami first appeared around when I was 10 and it had Robotech, that shit blew me away.  A cartoon with an engrossing story that takes itself seriously, characters with personalities and problems that carry over each episode, cinematograpy like that found in live action movies and beautiful art that looks like the stuff I enjoyed drawing?  Sign me up.

The closest western animated show I experienced at that point was maybe Beast Wars or later seasons of ReBoot but even then those were ugly CGI shows.  I'm sure I saw Voltron or G-Force before that, and Pokemon and Sailor Moon was a thing (at hours I couldn't watch) but I never got too into those.

Once the late 90's/early 00's rolled around and our cable service would air things like the Golgo 13 movies, Hellsing, Bubblegum Crsis, Area 88 and Wicked City I've been pretty much a fan since.


----------



## Syaoran Li (Jul 16, 2019)

For me, I love anime for several reasons.

One reason is nostalgia. 

As a kid, I loved watching the kiddie anime dubs that were on American TV back in the late 1990's and early 2000's. Stuff like Digimon, Sailor Moon, Cardcaptors, Yu-Gi-Oh!, Monster Rancher, etc.

As I got older and I was entering adolescence, I started getting into "mature" titles like the stuff that was popular on Adult Swim like Cowboy Bebop, InuYasha, FMA 2003, Stand Alone Complex, and Trigun. 

I also got into the older VHS-era anime from the 1980's and 1990's (my uncle was a fan of those back when he was a teenager) and I'm talking the violent edgy stuff like Ninja Scroll, Vampire Hunter D, AKIRA, and Legend of the Overfiend. 

As a teenager, I also got really big into edgy seinen titles like Black Lagoon, Elfen Lied, and Hellsing.

The second reason I like anime is due to the fact that it's honest entertainment with a wide variety of genres and styles, which is a refreshing relief in the 2010's. 

Even the blatant creepy fanservice shows are more enjoyable than a lot of the typically bland fare of 2010's American TV. At least the creepy fanservice anime are honest about what they are and you can enjoy them in a "turn your brain off" sort of way.

American animation is mostly dominated by ugly "CalArts" style designs and is either kiddie stuff or preachy pandering dangerhair bait like Steven Universe. There are a few exceptions in the 2010's such as Voltron: Legendary Defender, although that has an infamously insane fandom.

As for "adult animation" in the West? It's all raunchy crude humor sitcoms or raunchy crude humor Adult Swim shorts. 

The problem is that The Simpsons was the first cartoon meant for older audiences that actually caught on in America, and most of the animated shows that followed in its wake were usually greenlit to "outdo" The Simpsons, with Family Guy being the most egregious example.

The one major example of American adult animation that is an exception to the rule would be King of the Hill, which ended in 2010. King of the Hill is a sitcom, but it's less of a raunchy goofball comedy and more like the closest American equivalent of a "Slice of Life" anime comedy. In fact, King of the Hill is very popular in Japan for precisely that reason.

(No joke, there is actually a "Subbed vs. Dubbed" debate in the Japanese King of the Hill fanbase)


----------



## Kiwi Jeff (Jul 16, 2019)

I like watching people punch each other and robots doing a cool thing


----------



## Niggernerd (Jul 16, 2019)

Gravityqueen4life said:


> same people who watches my hero academia that looks like naruto: the zoomer edition to me.


The only good thing about MHA are tsuyu lewds.
I couldn't get into AoT because of how normie as fuck it was. The edgy factor isn't shocking just redundant. If it wanted to blow me away with edginess it should of taken notes from Violence Jack.
3rd ova (2nd? Idr)  is literally hot girls need to escape underground from roving rapists/murderers and most get raped and murdered before escaping.


----------



## Secret Asshole (Jul 16, 2019)

Because Jojo is amazing:





















In all seriousness, I was out of anime for a very long time. I used to watch it in the 1990s, but anime was way different back then. You basically didn't have series as such coming to the states, but movies. When the Sci-Fi channel was still Sci-Fi, it had all this great fucking anime on it. Project A-Ko, Lodoss War, Macross, all classic shit. Around college I got into it because of Hellsing, but I was more used to US schedules for TV, so I fell out of it. Anime, until relatively recently, was usually relegated to one or two series. This is because of the massive costs involved and sometimes you wouldn't get another series until YEARS after the first, because of how ridiculously expensive it was. This still happens today, the gap between AoT seasons was so excessive that many forgot it even existed. That's probably my biggest gripe with anime, is that it is so costly that sometimes good anime won't get another season or just stop mid-arc. Or it takes a VERY long time to get another series.

But its getting better. So I got more into it. The thing for me is multi-faceted: The way that anime tells stories is different than Western shows. The unique cultural aspect and its pure Japanese-ness is so different its attractive. A lot of times, the art is fucking beautiful. You can't even compare it to Western cartoons. That's because the West has not evolved.

Check out the Real Ghostbusters (1980s, 1990s):






Now:





Art has gone _backwards_ from the 1980s and 1990s in the West. Even the cheapest shows have better art than the shows now. Also the 'Real Ghostbusters' for kids, had scary and terrifying stories and each character was good and unique on their own. Shit was good. But animation in the West has largely been relegated to dogshit. Everything is either badly drawn comedy or badly drawn for little children. The exceptions are Avatar and The Boondocks. But that's about it. And even the Boondocks is comedy. There's nothing really 'serious'. Maybe Avatar. Even that was more aimed at children. And then, its still fucking UGLY. Its not appealing to look at.

But there's really nothing that can compare to it. Especially since the art style in the West has rapidly been degenerating. When in anime there's tons of different ways to do art. Some is simplistic to a point, then gets complex. Good anime can tell its stories through its own artistry and visuals. Even anime with simple drawing style can get complex when it wants to do unique emotions or story-telling. The reverse is also true, well-drawn animation can go simplistic. There's also the music too.

There's also cases where you're basically looking at your own culture through the lens of another. Like in anime that is set in the US you get the unique perspective of how someone from Japan views the United States. Or even your own culture. I'm a spaghetti nigger, and this season of JoJo was set in Italy. So it was fun for me to see how the Japanese interpret Italian culture.

Another thing others have mentioned is that anime is generally free from the restrictions of the West in terms of creators. They don't have to worry about including this, or that. Or offending anyone. They tell the story they want to. And a lot of it can be fucking strange, weird, abstract. And that's fascinating. Its also the reason why Manga is raping American comics in its asshole. Its because Manga has no creator restrictions. It does what it wants and that's appealing. You don't really get a sense of a political message or being lectured to, if it even has one. Its trying to entertain you. The characters are also all typically visually appealing. Sure, there's fan service, but who gives a fuck? Is that really terrible? I think its better than nowadays where they're trying to pass off ugly, fat dumpy women as 'beautiful' and covering every beautiful woman in the equivalent of a burka. I mean, I don't watch a lot of fan service anime, so maybe that's it.

I mean, there's all sorts of dumb shit too, but there's dumb shit in every form of entertainment. But in anime and manga, you can get stories that Western creators are too fucking terrified to tell. And I'm generally getting tired of cowardly entertainment. Its why people have left American comics behind. They're not daring. They're not compelling. They're dumb, boring dogshit. With manga, there's so much out there and its so simple to follow. I also don't have to be afraid of being lectured to, or being dressed down for liking something or faced with SJW power fantasies that no one else has. My patience has ended and I no longer buy entertainment that tries to lecture me, has diversity in it for no reason or insults its audience in any fashion. I'm done. If someone wants my dollar, don't fucking talk down to me. Don't try to teach me anything. I don't need your faggot lessons. I work hard enough, intellectually and work wise. I want to be entertained, told compelling and thrilling stories and see beautiful art, animation, people, etc. I'm tired of being told those are 'bad' things to want. Anime provides them. The West no longer does.

Basically, Western pop-culture has a dulled edge that's made it way too safe and a lot of time lectures to, dismisses and insults its audience. Even when it tries, you can still feel the hesitation and need to compromise because of inter-sectional culture and the fear of Twitter. The East is more daring, stranger and more appreciative of its audience and doesn't care what Baizuo Western faggots think and isn't afraid to tell them to go fuck themselves. That's really what it comes down to, and why I've gotten back into anime.


----------



## dreamworks face (Jul 16, 2019)

Secret Asshole said:


> Art has gone _backwards_ from the 1980s and 1990s in the West. Even the cheapest shows have better art than the shows now. Also the 'Real Ghostbusters' for kids, had scary and terrifying stories and each character was good and unique on their own. Shit was good. But animation in the West has largely been relegated to dogshit. Everything is either badly drawn comedy or badly drawn for little children. The exceptions are Avatar and The Boondocks. But that's about it. And even the Boondocks is comedy. There's nothing really 'serious'. Maybe Avatar. Even that was more aimed at children. And then, its still fucking UGLY. Its not appealing to look at.
> umb, boring dogshit. With manga, there's so much out there and its so simple to follow. I also don't have to be afraid of being lectured to, or being dressed down for liking something or faced with SJW power fantasies that no one else has. My patience is limited.


Dragon Ball Super isn't drawn half as well as any random episode in Dragon Ball Z, and you have new shows like Baki that have the audacity to do their fucking fight scenes in incredibly terrible CG.  Granted, One Punch Man and Mob Psycho have fucking amazing animation, but I'd argue the average show has gotten worse since the late nineties.


----------



## UE 558 (Jul 16, 2019)

kadoink said:


> Different story structure than what we usually have in the US, different types of characters culturally, and most important, less faggotry...unless its Jojos Faggot fest.


How kadoink feels whenever me, Secret Asshole, and BILLY MAYS discuss jojo


----------



## I Love Beef (Jul 16, 2019)

Some autism from me, but I like anime because despite it being from Japan.... Well, as everyone said before, there's freedom to it. And for me, it comes also from a place of patriotism, as strange as that sounds. Obvious Murica man here, obviously.

Like, the FCC and the Morality in Media faggots were already targeting Beavis and Butthead and anything that didn't fit the description of Apocalypse Readying Conversion Therapy in Cartoon form at the time, and despite the DC Animated Universe, the Comics Book Crash of '96 already marked some sort of creative dearth that has evidently shown its damage into the future. I'm only one man, by the way, and if you want cringe as fuck embarrassment to national identity, I sure wouldn't want to be around either of them, except Beavis and Butthead. So when anime came in and filled in the cracks and got a fandom with everything that American animation was deprived of at the time, you obviously have a champion. A real industry provides not just for kids but adults and the growing, not just the mainstream but the alternative and underground, and not just the multimillion franchises but the budding and independent. It's a real inspiration to look up to, and that energy is still there, even if for most they have to research it and dig it out of the ground. Plenty of people though know it deep down, as I can tell. 

But now for the fun part. 



Webby's Boyfriend said:


> Who is "you"? Anybody on this site? Surely not, because I hate and despise anime, but I love American animation, though some Eurofag stuff is okay too. My favourite franchise is the Disney Duck universe.
> 
> Anime is just exceptional and anime profile pics are for politispergs.
> 
> ...


In b4 i fire this up like it's a flame war in the early 2000s

Because everytime I've encountered someone like Webby's Boyfriend, they're usually some attention starved contrarian who wants to fag up shit for attention. We get it, you don't like anime, have your gold snowflake and fuck off. Stand next to the ponyfuckers and furries, please. Don't even get me started on how Disney now shits on its founder's grave. Have fun explaining to me about Uncanny Valley: The Movie, AKA "Live Action Lion King", and tell me how that will go over post opening week. I have a lot of ammo, and you just got me started. Stand up or sit back down. I got all night. 



BoingoTango said:


> >Deepthoughts
> 
> This should be in Multimedia section well, sure whatever. But I guess since it's anime it just gets a pass. Hooray for weeb hugbox.
> 
> ...


Wow Sean O'Mara, obvious post is obvious. Was "Japtoon" too ineffective for you? Are you that much of a pussy to restore Colony Drop? I mean you guys obviously did post on 4chan. 

Just exercising my rights. You want to strike back, feel free.


----------



## Secret Asshole (Jul 16, 2019)

kadoink said:


> Different story structure than what we usually have in the US, different types of characters culturally, and most important, less faggotry...unless its Jojos Faggot fest.



The most fucking hilarious thing to me is that Araki was giving an interview where the interviewer asked him if he was ashamed that JoJo had become an icon for the gay community and he said yes and he says that he doesn't intend for JoJo to be gay in any way.



Jojo is so masculine it makes you do a complete 180. Gay pose? Yes. But...going to blow some fucker's head off? Yes. But the guy is also wearing hearts. Also yes. And that's how Jojo is so masculine it makes you homosexual and its fucking beautiful.



purpleboy said:


> How kadoink feels whenever me, Secret Asshole, and BILLY MAYS discuss jojo



And this how we feel:


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## BoingoTango (Jul 16, 2019)

Secret Asshole said:


> Jojo is so masculine it makes you do a complete 180. Gay pose? Yes. But...going to blow some fucker's head off? Yes. But the guy is also wearing hearts. Also yes.* And that's how Jojo is so masculine it makes you homosexual and its fucking beautiful.*



Proof that all anime fans want to get pounded in the ass.


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## UE 558 (Jul 16, 2019)

Secret Asshole said:


> The most fucking hilarious thing to me is that Araki was giving an interview where the interviewer asked him if he was ashamed that JoJo had become an icon for the gay community and he said yes and he says that he doesn't intend for JoJo to be gay in any way.


Apparently that was a hoax, he’s never actually addressed whether or not Jojo is gay.


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## Secret Asshole (Jul 16, 2019)

purpleboy said:


> Apparently that was a hoax, he’s never actually addressed whether or not Jojo is gay



Ah, I didn't realize that. I just found that hilarious considering how JoJo is. I honestly don't give a shit either way.



BoingoTango said:


> Proof that all anime fans want to get pounded in the ass.



If you don't like Jojo, you're a faggot. And if you like Jojo, you're a faggot too apparently. So there's no escaping homosexuality for you son. (This argument is foolproof and has no holes whatsoever. HAH)


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## UE 558 (Jul 16, 2019)

Secret Asshole said:


> Ah, I didn't realize that. I just found that hilarious considering how JoJo is. I honestly don't give a shit either way.


Correction: he did address it in a different interview, but it was more him being confused by the thought of gay pucci rather than outright dismissive


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## Un Platano (Jul 16, 2019)

Secret Asshole said:


> If you don't like Jojo, you're a faggot. And if you like Jojo, you're a faggot too apparently. So there's no escaping homosexuality for you son. (This argument is foolproof and has no holes whatsoever. HAH)


I'm completely apathetic about jojo which makes me an asexual or something so HAH


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## Secret Asshole (Jul 16, 2019)

Un Platano said:


> I'm completely apathetic about jojo which makes me an asexual or something so HAH



FUUUUUUUU



purpleboy said:


> Correction: he did address it in a different interview, but it was more him being confused by the thought of gay pucci rather than outright dismissive
> View attachment 844982View attachment 844983View attachment 844984View attachment 844985View attachment 844986View attachment 844987View attachment 844988



Ah, gotcha. I mean, most people joke about it because of his relationship with Dio, but I don't really think it was. Pucci was more driven to 'create heaven', so relationships other than that goal-driven thought would probably be irrelevant to him.


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## Kiwi Jeff (Jul 16, 2019)

*This* is why I watch anime.


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## X-Shaped Weeaboo (Jul 16, 2019)

Modern anime is trash. I love manga mostly because it enjoys more artistic freedom and has a more raw approach to traditional anime cliches and storytelling. (See: One Piece anime vs the manga.) 

But the culture of anime today is what turns me off from it all the most. It's so vapid and fucking tiring. When I got told by some normie-fag that HeroAca was an example of a good Shonen series because the main character hurts themselves to "get powered up", I asked them if they had read Claymore or Trigun to which their response was "Uhhh what's that?" I'm not impressed by modern shows, especially because the subversive shit people are constantly praising in them have existed for ages and it's annoying to constantly be told to be impressed by shit that's so ordinary. 

Obviously I display my love for Panty and Stocking in my profile pic, but that's because it's basically everything I care about in manga and anime on display: "Fuck it, here's some wild and insane idea that you'll never see from the West or anyone else." Shits why I also have a ton of respect for One Piece. Oda knows what the fuck he wants and fuck everyone who tells him what to do. The only thing that sucks is that he got one of the worst anime adaptations of all time to show for it.


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## I fap to junior idols (Jul 16, 2019)

I like the artstyle


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## Slap47 (Jul 17, 2019)

Secret Asshole said:


> Because Jojo is amazing:
> 
> 
> 
> ...



I'd actually say that the 2000s was a golden age of western animation. There was alot of garbage but basically everybody was getting a budget to make something cool.

Adult Swim was actually putting out stuff that was insane and most govts were pretty willing to subsidize small projects.

Avatar, Megas XLR, Kids Next Door, Boondocks and many more.

You had all of these cool pet projects lead by passionate people. The animation was cheaper but the stuff had soul.

I also have no problems with lessons. The Cartoon Recess is probably one of the greatest "slice of life" shows ever.

I'd say the show that represents the final decline of the west is Korgoth the Barbarian - insanely good but never made because Adult Swim plays it safe.






						YouTube
					






					www.youtube.com


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## X-Shaped Weeaboo (Jul 18, 2019)

Apoth42 said:


> I'd actually say that the 2000s was a golden age of western animation. There was alot of garbage but basically everybody was getting a budget to make something cool.
> 
> Adult Swim was actually putting out stuff that was insane and most govts were pretty willing to subsidize small projects.
> 
> ...



So long as we're going to be praising Western Animation, especially the more mature and adult stuff, let's not forget that this fucking show existed.









						Moral Orel Sacrifice rant
					

Moral Orel Season 3 episode 11- Sacrifice. Clay rants about sacrifice to the reverend, police officer, and doctor




					www.youtube.com
				




Bojack Horseman and Rick Sanchez have fucking nothing on how dark this character (and hell, the whole show) is. Seriously though, the animation on Clay is so fucking good not because it's fluid or innovative but because it's so _fucking *real.*_


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## WhoIsSutterKane (Jul 18, 2019)

I only like extremely violent anime from the 90s.


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## Lemmingwise (Jul 18, 2019)

I prefer western animation. It's more wholesome.

Video related.


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## troon patrol (Jul 19, 2019)

I really have no fucking idea why anyone adult would bother to watch any anime outside of Cowboy bebop and dragonball. Dragonball Z was on basic cable and I watched it even though was painfully edited as fuck to not reference any kind of death. All references to death to were changed to "the next dimension" they  even had to force some gay as dubover when a helicopter got shot down about it being a "robot helicopter". 

Cowboy bebop was and still is fucking awesome but, then again I'm white trash and love gun pron.


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## AverageAnimeWatcher (Jul 20, 2019)

I  agree with most of what's been said.

I would just add that I think a huge advantage is that western animation is mostly kiddy cartoons designed to sell toys to 15-year-olds and younger or the other extreme with super edgy cartoons for adults (rick and Morty, Southpark, drawn together etc ). With very little in between.

Anime does have genres by ages, but it's far more varied on its types of stories.  Western animation for around the '90s had a hard time letting go the looney tunes/Hanna barbera style. Meanwhile, you got Sailor Moon, ranma 1/2 and Dragon ball Z.


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## Dom Cruise (Jul 23, 2019)

WhoIsSutterKane said:


> I only like extremely violent anime from the 90s.



If you like that then you should check out Kemonozume from 2006, which is like a post modern take on that type of anime, from Masaaki Yuasa, most recently known for Devilman Crybaby.

Unfortunately it never got an official US release, even a year after Devilman Crybaby created renewed interest in Yuasa, which is strange, but fansubs aren't too hard to find.


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## Varg Did Nothing Wrong (Jul 23, 2019)

I watch two different types of anime mostly: Jojo, and calm/funny slice of life anime. Jojo is great because of the weird story lines, the stands, and whatever. Slice of life is just a completely relaxed viewing experience and I guess it's sort of a way to put yourself into the shoes of one of the characters, where the most stressful thing is whether or not you'll go cicada hunting or whatever. Non Non Biyori is a great anime for just drinking a beer, putting up your feet and watching kids do kid stuff without any sexualization or weird creep overtones. Same with Nichijou, or reading Yotsuba, or whatever else - just wholesome fun that you can watch and feel your inner tension melting away, no stress, no nothing. Just good fun and a smile on your face. It's like the media equivalent of petting a cat.


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## X-Shaped Weeaboo (Jul 23, 2019)

Varg Did Nothing Wrong said:


> Nichijou



What makes Nichijou good isn't the slice of life stuff. It's the fact that it's actually fucking animated like the people making it actually gave a damn. 90% of Slice of Life anime are barely animated at all with tons of boring still-shots, long monologues of characters talking in a room, usually eating or sitting at desks or benches, or being dragged and dropped as they "walk" by having their bodies bob up and down as the digitally rendered stock backgrounds pan. 

The only anime that did this sort of thing right was Lucky Star, a show that knew to take the piss out of the traditionally boring format by making the characters never talk about anything important a la the "How do you eat bread" opening of the show.


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## Varg Did Nothing Wrong (Jul 23, 2019)

X-Shaped Weeaboo said:


> What makes Nichijou good isn't the slice of life stuff. It's the fact that it's actually fucking animated like the people making it actually gave a damn. 90% of Slice of Life anime are barely animated at all with tons of boring still-shots, long monologues of characters talking in a room, usually eating or sitting at desks or benches, or being dragged and dropped as they "walk" by having their bodies bob up and down as the digitally rendered stock backgrounds pan.
> 
> The only anime that did this sort of thing right was Lucky Star, a show that knew to take the piss out of the traditionally boring format by making the characters never talk about anything important a la the "How do you eat bread" opening of the show.



You're missing the entire point of what I said I liked but ok feel free to sperg out


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## Niggernerd (Jul 23, 2019)

Kiwi Jeff said:


> View attachment 845007
> *This* is why I watch anime.


Ah I see you're a man of culture as well.



X-Shaped Weeaboo said:


> What makes Nichijou good isn't the slice of life stuff. It's the fact that it's actually fucking animated like the people making it actually gave a damn. 90% of Slice of Life anime are barely animated at all with tons of boring still-shots, long monologues of characters talking in a room, usually eating or sitting at desks or benches, or being dragged and dropped as they "walk" by having their bodies bob up and down as the digitally rendered stock backgrounds pan.
> 
> The only anime that did this sort of thing right was Lucky Star, a show that knew to take the piss out of the traditionally boring format by making the characters never talk about anything important a la the "How do you eat bread" opening of the show.


NHK is arguably the best Slice of Life tbqh. Sub-plot is hilarious because it's about making hentai games even though Satou wasnt a weeb but wanted to be part of something that didn't make him feel alone (too bad Yamazaki was just a loser himself and had bad taste in gal games)
The manga itself is superior because it shows why he talks to his household appliances (my nigga Satou high as fuck)
And really shows that the other characters were basically using Satou for their own means. Yamazaki just wanted him so he can make his own game, Hitomi just wanted someone more pathetic than herself and Misaki the same and had a obsessive mentally abusive affection towards him, she wanted to "help" him from his hiki life and at the same time put him down as a way of making him having to need her.
It's really good to help someone realize that the only way you can make your own life better is yourself and not relying on others.
Nichijous Slice of life isn't so much in your face because it's mostly really good comedy but when the SoL hits, it hits.


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## verissimus (Jul 23, 2019)

It would be far more appropriate to say liked instead of like anime for me although that's not to say everything that's come out since about 2006 has been crap; however, if I had to say what got me to like Japanese anime, then I'd say it would be as what a few have already stated : great animation, balls to the wall action for a number of them (DBZ, Ninja Scroll, Macross Plus, Gundam Wing, etc.), somewhat more mature in terms of theme(s), willingness to have blood and kill off characters, and pretty goods scores at least for some of them (anything pretty much with Yoko Kanno in it, Gundam Wing, Escaflowne, Rurouni Kenshin, etc.  (Note : again just to stress, I'm applying this for anime that came out mainly between the 80s and 90s).  

Western animation rarely had all of the above.  We mostly got comedic cartoon shows either family friendly (Freakazoid, Looney Tunes, Pinky and the Brain, etc.) or mature (the Simpsons, Venture Brothers, Boondocks, etc.), comic book bases series (Batman, Superman, X-men, and Spiderman TAS), a few action adventure shows (Swat Kats, Thundercats, Samurai Jack, Avatar, etc.) or Disney Movies many of which were certainly not bad for what they were, but as someone else rightly pointed out, most of them simply couldn't fill in the gap that some anime could because many of them were simply unwilling to go to places anime did although that probably had more to do with the intended audience of shows and other times American censors/weak-kneed studio executives.


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## Crichax (Jul 23, 2019)

Webby's Boyfriend said:


> Anime is just exceptional and anime profile pics are for politispergs.





Niggernerd said:


> I can't find that with western animation because it's all garbage that panders to exceptional children unlike some cartoons from the mid 90's to mid 2000's (notably Batman,Batman Beyond,Justice league, Samurai Jack)



People who hate either the nebulous concepts of anime or Western animation blow my mind. Anime is a medium, not a genre. Same thing with Western animation.

Both anime and Western animation have given us some excellent shows, even in recent times. _Sanjay and Craig_, _Gravity Falls_, _Madoka Magica_, the awesome fanmade Touhou anime, etc.

All of these are very different from each other, but they're all quality stuff.



mr.moon1488 said:


> As far as manga goes, I'm honestly starting to enjoy Chinese comics, and Manhwa more.  Manga is getting bad about something getting popular, and then everyone else ripping them off.



Chinese storytelling is becoming better and better, TBH. I watched two episodes of the Chinese anime _Everlasting Immortal Firmament _(with fansubs on YouTube), and it's scary how good they are. While they aren't subtle at all and sometimes rely on bland random humor (ha, ha, ha, Starbucks joke in Ancient China), overall, the writing feels like someone combined Japanese humor with Adult Swim, and I love it. Better first impression than _Rick and Morty_, to say the least.



Piss said:


> Speaking of which, I've always wondered if The Boondocks has a following in Japan.  For all their shows and games that show off Japanese life, I'd like to think they'd be interested to see a show with a bit of American life.



It does, actually. I talked to a Japanese guy in the comments section of a Boondocks Japanese dub video. I used Google Translate to translate his messages to English and mine to Japanese. Basically, he says he has fond memories of this show. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PsDdRW_jf_o&lc=UgxzSaljW77MRbcTyz94AaABAg

I can imagine the Japanese fanbase would be a lot higher if the companies behind Boondocks were to rerelease the Japanese version on some streaming service over there (or on Blu-Rays). Some Japanese geeks absolutely love _South Park_, after all.


----------



## TerribleIdeas™ (Jul 23, 2019)

Weabs are marginally closer to being human than furries.


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## ES 195 (Jul 23, 2019)

TerribleIdeas™ said:


> Weabs are marginally closer to being human than furries.


Weebs are the scum of the earth and should be purged with extreme prejudice. That being said, weebs are light-years closer to being human than furries.


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## queerape (Jul 28, 2019)

I've liked anime as long as I can remember, all the way back to Ranma 1/2 and Sailor Moon when I was a kid. Why I originally watched anime is beyond me really, as I'd have been too young to remember. But, a large driving force of what kept me in it was because my sister joined in with me and later I built friendships and even romantic relationships of anime and engagement with anime/nerd media.


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## ⋖ cørdion ⋗ (Jul 28, 2019)

I started watching anime about 3-4 summers ago. I watched all the big sad ones (fuck Your Name though. Generic, boring, and praised for trans awareness when bodyswapping is literally done at least once in every kids show) and actually felt emotions, which was nice for a change. Then I tried looking at sports, because ultimately they have an easy to understand plotline, and isn't just treading water with comedy or 'cute girls do cute things'. They join as first-years, see their SENPAIs graduate, become the senpai, win a tournament or something, and then graduate from school by the last episode.

I don't really want to experience the perfect childhood or anything, and I like that especially with sports, it's a contained span of 3 years. They could spend all their time in school cycling, but then they graduate and become an engineer and never touch it again. Just like real life. I did however recently start reading manga instead, as the author gets their point across personally and in 1/5 the time. Anime has since sort of lost its magic, and I've been overexposed to its ~magic~ and am now back to being jaded.


Webby's Boyfriend said:


> Anime is just exceptional and anime profile pics are for politispergs.


Honestly, the choice of anime, character, and expression for an avatar says a lot about a person. I believe it's rooted in the need seen with furries etc to have a personal 'me' to be recognized by. For example, if you have the most basic thot from some top 10 anime as your profile pic, I can tell you're as deep into it as Elon Musk (who only watches anime on Netflix), while having some side character from an unpopular anime probably means you either completely relate to them or at the least watch anime that isn't immediately popular.


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## John Titor (Aug 4, 2019)

I got into mostly because of the variety I don't usually see. Back then my choices were family sitcoms, dysfunctional family sitcoms, teen dramas starring adults pretending to be teens, trashy "adult" humor ala Family Guy and if I'm lucky, a movie airing on TV; not having cable sucked. On the comics side, it's nice to see something that wasn't capeshit for once.
Edginess might have been a factor because I used to think Inuyasha was amazing for having the balls to have someone killed.


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## lurk_moar (Aug 5, 2019)

I had this avatar saved to my computer when I was very huge into Bleach and just used it on the farms.

I was a huge anime fan as a teen, then outgrew it. I started to watch bleach as an adult and Dragonball Super. Thanks to the shitternet, I cannot remain focused too long on one thing, so It is hard for me to watch one episode of anything anymore. I cannot sit still long enough. Anime still holds a special place in my heart. I love 2D anime and the art style as well. I love the story telling in anime, but some novels are also very creative too. High speed wi-fi with free anime on demand would be a dream come true as a teenager, but as an adult I am more into Chinese dramas and my kindle. I am more into novels because my exact place on the kindle is always saved versus YouTube or other streaming where it is a hit or miss.

I haven’t been diagnosed with ADD.


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## millais (Aug 5, 2019)

"King of the Hill" captures the essence of what it means to be 40 yr old Boomer


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## Guts Gets Some (May 23, 2020)

I like anything from any genre, so long as the writing appeals to me.

Anime thinks outside the box most of the time and does things I can never dream of in anything else, is the biggest reason I was drawn to it. 

Like with anything, there are good animes and bad ones, so I like to check out anything regardless of genre or what it's classified as.


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## Agent Abe Caprine (May 24, 2020)

I love animation and comics in general. Anime and manga just has more variety in terms of topics and settings. Mostly stick with the older stuff. There's something about pre-2000's anime that draws me in. There's good modern stuff, of course.


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## Kari Kamiya (May 24, 2020)

To fill a void in my life.



Okay, no actually, I like anime because the character designs are just all over the place. Yeah, Western animation can be like that, too, but there's something about anime just going all-out with character designs and although there's a basic foundation of how anime _looks_, it's so diverse that unless you're paying close attention to the design, you can look at a line-up of characters and know their personalities, the style, if they're from the same series or not, you know how creative the designer can be. There's a certain allure to it that while you _can_ trace it back to Disney and MGM's animation unit (_Tom & Jerry_, mostly), the Japanese understand the general appeal of _beauty_. And there's a noticeable evolution of style over decades, and I love it.

Plots are also so diversified that you can pick just _one_ genre and you will be satisfied for a good long while checking off the listed shows. Imagination is off the charts because the sky's not even the limit, it's something sorely missed in the West because we're too scared to take risks. Japan's more willing to take risks, although after the bubble burst that's definitely been put in a harness, but they still manage to work around it. But nevertheless, you'll find yourself expanding on other genres you might've never thought you'd like because of how interconnected many of them have become over time. It's almost like an endless mine of twisting and converging tunnels where you'll find gems and duds of all kind, and I wouldn't have it any other way. I'm sure I haven't seen the metaphorical light of day for over a decade now even though I can still watch Western animation (especially when it comes to franchises), but it needs to catch my attention or have been a carryover from my childhood. Think the last original one that really caught me in its vice grip was _Gravity Falls_, now that I think about it.

Learning about another country's culture (or learning I _have_ interest in learning another country's culture, so having to do personal research on my own time has been fun) is a big appeal, but ever since I was a kid, I latched on to anything that was animated at the time, and anime was just different to me before I even knew it was _called_ anime. The eyes I think were what attracted me, they're so big and sparkly and beautiful and come in all shapes and colors and _oh my God_ I love eyes. But that's too simple and silly an answer even though I would say that was my stepping stone.


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## Longjack Attack (May 24, 2020)

Avatar and The Boondocks are the only so called anime shows that are worth watching. Other than those, i think the whole anime craze is gay and overrated.


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## Orion Balls (May 24, 2020)

Because my dad liked Saturday Anime on Sci-Fi, and it was something we could do together.
E- Robot Carnival is still our jam.


Stuck in Corners said:


> Avatar and The Boondocks are the only so called anime shows that are worth watching. Other than those, i think the whole anime craze is gay and overrated.


So, the only anime worth watching are Western cartoons? Okay.


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## Leaf-eon (May 24, 2020)

I like the art style.


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## Bloitzhole (Oct 3, 2020)

Medium is irrelevant. Story matters. Character development matters. If "The Count of Monte Cristo" had first been told in that insane sci fi interpretation "Gankutsuou" rather than in the wonderful book by Dumas, it'd still be a great story. Some of the tropes are horrible, but if you can look past them, just like you might in any other medium (I've always hated how easily men fall for the femme fatale in Film Noir), you might find some great stories you could've missed otherwise. Here's a couple of examples

Naoki Urasawa's "Monster" is a masterpiece of crime fiction that could be (and Guillermo del Toro wanted to, for HBO) adapted into a TV show or book with no major trouble (in fact, aside from a briefly overemotional woman in the first episode, it lacks any typical anime-ish aspect in nearly 80 episodes. Also no filler aside from episode 13, which is largely just minor character development. Might be the reason why the writer/artist was taken serious enough to collaborate with the Louvre). At its core is a very interesting question about morality: If you alone were responsible for saving someone's life, are you also partially responsible for the consequences of their actions in the life they go on to lead?

"Rainbow Nisha Rokubou no Shichinin" is the most bromantic story of 7 delinquents trying to make it through the horrors of a juvenile correction facility in the aftermath of World war II, where the guard is a sadist and the director/"doctor" a pedophile. It's like the anime version of the Prison Break TV show, except the characters are slightly more believable.

"Higurashi No Naku Koro Ni" is 50% slice of life weeb drivel that utterly drains the spirit with all of its horrible anime tropes, and then 50% hauntingly occult murder mystery that cleverly blends an unreliable narrator with paranoia a lá Rosemary's baby. Every episode is 15 minutes of "why am I watching this. What is this meaningless bullshit" followed by 6 minutes of "what the christ is happening and why are the first 15 minutes suddenly so meaningful". It goes from a couple of teens playing card games in a shitty school to someone being literally crucified or beaten to death with a baseball bat. Never found another show that can do that without seeming utterly incoherent.


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## Zig-Zag the Grand Vizier (Oct 3, 2020)

I like anime because I'm autistic and the flashing colors and easy-to-read facial expressions keep me from screaming at the existential horror of daily life.


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## Atatata (Oct 3, 2020)

I got into anime simply because it was easier to get my hands on when I was a broke kid. Comics weren't worth the price considering how small they were and all the popular cartoons were on cable.

Imo manga simply has more variety and innovation. I tend to read gimmicky and edutainment manga, which there is a lot. I like being able to read absolute trash when I want to, and how manga doesn't feel like its necessary to have a modern sense of morality shoved in so people feel safe. That, and anime animation is simply better.


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## 5ever a crab (Oct 3, 2020)

It's my personal Michael Bay. But if I were to convince others that some of my bug-eyed uguu kawaiis are deep and thought-provoking, I'd use manga and not anime.


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## Syaoran Li (Oct 4, 2020)

JM 590 said:


> One thing I've wondered about for years is why anime-styled shows aren't widely accepted as proper anime if they're not specifically from Japan.  Like, RWBY and The Boondocks.
> 
> The Boondocks is an ongoing story that peeks into the lives of a family in America, and the dealings with the people around them and America-centric views on racial conflict (pre-Clown World).  So... it can't be classified as an anime entirely because it's made by an American?  What?  Then just call it Japanimation like it's 1998 again.
> 
> Speaking of which, I've always wondered if The Boondocks has a following in Japan.  For all their shows and games that show off Japanese life, I'd like to think they'd be interested to see a show with a bit of American life.



I mentioned this earlier, but King of the Hill has a pretty decent sized following in Japan (cue the memes) precisely because it's more or less a slice-of-life comedy and it doesn't really have the otaku stigma either for obvious reasons, so it's got a cult following among both otaku and some normies too.

There was even an official dub of the show.






The Boondocks might not be as big of a thing in Japan since a lot of its humor is very American and is from the view of American racial politics and pop culture. Japanese racism towards blacks aside, there's a lot of the jokes that just don't make sense to the average non-American unless they've done the research.

It's sort of like how a lot of Americans don't get the satire in most Monty Python sketches since they were mainly satire of politics and current events in late 60's/early 70's Britain. 

The more memorable Monty Python stuff in America tends to be the really goofball gonzo stuff (Dead Parrot, The Lumberjack Song, Self Defense Against Fruit, Spanish Inquisition) since it's not dependent on British pop culture and current events from nearly fifty years ago.


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## The Bovinian Derivative (Oct 4, 2020)

Generally unlike mainstream American comics manga, and their anime adaptions, do a single long form story, or interconnected arcs, and I prefer that over rebooting every so often but reusing 95% of the ideas and then still writing filler anyway. 90% of manga is still trash though, just as everything else, but Japs generally tend to come across more honest and upfront about their work and I admire that about them and they never try to preach to me unless I catch the occasional shonen somewhere where they tell me how to use the power of friendship to kill God.


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## ⋖ cørdion ⋗ (Oct 4, 2020)

They take place in Japan where school clubs are (mandatory?) which lead to kids developing interesting hobbies and then wanting to pursue those. Here in the EU, we're just give a ball and told to fuck off for 50 minutes once a week. The only thing being older mattered in public school was which kids you could harass. In the three-year system of Japan, there's seniority and a level of responsibilities. If a dude starts season 1 as a first year, he'll respect the third years and eventually become one.

What the fuck do western TV shows offer? 8 people who make couples in different ways?


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## The Last Stand (Oct 4, 2020)

I heard that the reason why Japan makes anime based on younger people is because they long for a simpler time of being a kid.


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## Spit bucket (Oct 10, 2020)

I have this weird relationship with animu where I'd play games based off the shows more than watching the shows themselves. I saw dragon ball once a few times as a kid then my dad bought me DBZ budokai 1 for ps2 and I played it to death and bought 2 and 3. Watched the 4kids dub of one piece and got the fist Grand battle and again played it to death, didn't watch the funi dub till 2016. I was autisticly obsessed  with naruto as soon as it started airing in 2004 I played every ultimate ninja game, both uzumaki chronicals and all the storm games besides 4 because I hated it at that point. My profile pic is the only character I still like from the show. Since then I've seen a ton of shit. From Berserk to Bleach from Kill La Kill to Trigun and a bunch of other's. Nowadays I narrowed my taste down to a few.

tldr: I played games of animu shows then formed my own taste for it.


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## DDBCAE CBAADCBE (Oct 10, 2020)

I don't know that I do like anime.

It could be said that there are certainly anime that I enjoy and I have seen quite a lot of different genres and individual shows within the medium. However, I believe that the vast majority of anime is mindless garbage without any merit or quality. The fact that there are real people that not only enjoy HunterxHunter but actually believe it's an intelligent series with a gripping plot is enough to make me understand that the anime community is afloat in a sea of slobbering retards that will endlessly and autistically consume any media you set in front of them so long as you can craft a narrative that satiates their vapid and egocentric sensibilities.


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## Aqua Panda (Oct 10, 2020)

Depends. I've basically stopped watching newer shows. The only stuff I've seen from the 2010's are SAO (enjoyable but flawed) and Cells at Work (fascinating and fun concept).

The 80's and 90's had tons of sci-fi and fantasy stuff that I enjoyed the hell out of. Record of Lodoss War is still to this day the most faithful European based traditional fantasy Japan has put out. Universal Century Gundam is a fantastic hard sci-fi setting. (Robots being military hardware is an inspired and likely accurate in the future concept.)

One of the major reasons anime caught my eye was because it was doing stories/concepts that modern US tv just wouldn't touch. (Especially in the early half of the 00's when everything was a procedural or reality show.) Letting a story have complex themes, violence, and sex/nudity when appropriate really went a long way to creating more thrilling and interesting stories that caught my attention and dollar.

I cooled off greatly to the medium once the digital switch over happened and the massive wave of slice of life and high school shows started. (FMA 2003 was the last show I really really enjoyed.) It honestly seems to me that the current industry is in the early phases of what happened to squaresoft and Japanese rpg's. Overly designed, scared to make any bold story choices, and lacking on actual compelling story. I dearly hope it doesn't head down the same disastrous road US comics did.

Also, all the harem shit just doesn't appeal to me. Especially now that I'm older and have been through real romance/relationships. Occasional fanservice is all well and good but I just never got that particular self insert fantasy. (And I have no idea why stuff like monster girls are so popular.)


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## make_it_so (Oct 11, 2020)

Of the ones I do watch, I like for the same reason I'd like any other film or series - it has a story or characters that are appealing to me.


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## Had (Oct 11, 2020)

As far as anime goes it's pretty good whereas "western media" has been on a big decline as far as producing quality content
for example
Cartoon network 2020 vs



2005



Anime is pretty good in of its own right but really western animation at least as far as anything coming out of a studio is horrible.
I want to hear interesting stories with interesting characters in interesting worlds with interesting plots. 
western cartoons have given up on this, I don't know if there's a soul factor I can blame it on it just seems the entire industry has decided to throw itself down the shitter.

I know a lot of people who grew up watching anime and liked it for that reason.
But I mostly like it because they are making good stuff and it's a good way to meet people.


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## Tree (Oct 11, 2020)

Japan still has a culture to speak of, and it shows.

Sometimes, at least. Most anime is not worth the time.


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## Mage of Conquest (Oct 11, 2020)

I love the art. I can't draw for shit, but anime seems to be pushing me to start. With that being said, I stopped after watching the Captain Harlock animated series. And not the CGI movie on Netflix; I thought it was okay, though.

These days, I'm more likely to play video games to pass the time, but even then some games have the anime look and feel to them.


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## JamusActimus (Oct 11, 2020)

I don't anymore it's a pretty lazy and unimaginative in general.
Shonens are boring and immatur eans seinens are for edgelords.
The fandom sucks just take a look at anime conventions.

The last anime I enjoyed was Mob psycho 100


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## Pointless Pedant (Oct 12, 2020)

The Last Stand said:


> I heard that the reason why Japan makes anime based on younger people is because they long for a simpler time of being a kid.



Most people don't, but losers do. And losers are the ones buying all the merchandise.

School life in Japan is very regimented, even more than the workplace is there. The long hours are the same, but as an adult at least you're making money rather than just memorising knowledge for a test that most people forget afterwards, and you can make your own career and personal choices. This is a great thing, _unless_ you're a stupid and childish person who can't handle the responsibility, in which case you get the Chris Chan mentality of immersing yourself in fantasy and never growing up. In America, people seem to do this with superheroes, and in Japan, it's cartoons. There are clear parallels to be drawn between both subcultures, and most people in Japan aren't really into cartoons except the huge ones like One Piece which have been around for decades. The ones who are are basically Japanese MovieBob. (EigaBob?) I certainly didn't see much of them when I was there, though I didn't go to central Tokyo.

This is also why I don't like superhero and Japanese cartoon media. They're badly written fantasies with terrible hammy acting and puerile understanding of relationships. Aside from Chris Chan no one speaks like "YOU WILL FEEL THE WRATH OF MY VENGEANCE RAAA" in real life, it's just stupid. Unlike most people here I _like_ political and satirical subtexts as long as they're not based in fanatical progressivism, which I strongly disagree with. _Dr Strangelove_ and _Network_ are classics.

I enjoy some American adult animation like _The Boondocks_, _South Park,_ and _King of the Hill _though. They're genuinely funny shows with actual insights to make that aren't just the asinine "LMAO he fell on her boobs, this is totally how relationships work in real life" crap you see in Japanese cartoons.


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## janedoe (Oct 12, 2020)

i got into it because the art. 
stuck with it because sometimes interesting stories come out of it.
am gradually losing interest in it because the same shit is being regurgitated from it, with occasional outliers.

i especially fucking hate how formulaic shonen anime is. the premise entertains for maybe one or two seasons then it always turns into a _how much can we jerk off the main character?_ spree. but i get it's a power fantasy for overworked chinks who don't touch pussy and have desires to neglect responsibilities.


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## mr.moon1488 (Oct 12, 2020)

Same reason I like King of the Hill and South Park.  It's about the story and dialog, and not the massively overpaid actors.


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## Sage In All Fields (Oct 12, 2020)

Most of the reason I watch anime is honestly because I enjoy weeb culture. Aside from that I just enjoy alot of the stories told with the medium, the art styles and the questions they pose. I recently watched Battle Angel Alita and it was a lovely show despite being so brief.



janedoe said:


> i especially fucking hate how formulaic shonen anime is. the premise entertains for maybe one or two seasons then it always turns into a _how much can we jerk off the main character?_ spree. but i get it's a power fantasy for overworked chinks who don't touch pussy and have desires to neglect responsibilities.


I just hate how long shonens get, it's the same concept drawn out for 100+ episodes I don't understand why anyone would sink that much time in. I got to like episode 70 of Fairy Tail and just could not be bothered anymore.



Pointless Pedant said:


> They're genuinely funny shows with actual insights to make that aren't just the asinine "LMAO he fell on her boobs, this is totally how relationships work in real life" crap you see in Japanese cartoons.


thinly veiled sexual assault moment


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## Hongourable Madisha (Oct 12, 2020)

I like the odd few anime games like Ace Attorney and Danganronpa, they're fun mystery solving games pretty heavily inspired by Agatha Christie but better than game adaptations of her work, and the anime is incidental (though making fun of thr Japanese justice system and school system and a lot of pop culture is pretty inherent to those two). Junji Ito is about the only manga writer I read, because of his art and ability to create horror that sticks with you and unsettles you rather than just giving a cheap shock. He sculpts his monsters and lights the sculptures to draw them better and make ridiculous twisted things look realistic.
Zipang is decent too, it's basically The Final Countdown but Japanese, a Marine Self Defence Force ship gets sent back in time to Midway and the crew all disagree on what to do, and learn a lot about Japan in that era. It's a pretty good look at WW2 that actually acknowledges the atrocities the IJA committed, it critiques European colonialism and the atomic bomb and explores Japanese identity but it's refreshing in that doesn't shy away from how bad the Axis actually was, which makes a change from bullshit like Hetalia or any number of "glorious Nippon did nothing wrong ever" bilge. It doesn't go far enough in a lot of places in dealing with the issues, some are just implied - Junji Ito does, he made pretty heavy references to Unit 731 in Gyo and the weebs and Jap nationalists were very upset with him for even mentioning it - but it is as upfront an analysis as you're likely to get and is a pretty good sci-fi at the same time.


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## Syaoran Li (Oct 12, 2020)

Pointless Pedant said:


> This is also why I don't like superhero and Japanese cartoon media. They're badly written fantasies with terrible hammy acting and puerile understanding of relationships. Aside from Chris Chan no one speaks like "YOU WILL FEEL THE WRATH OF MY VENGEANCE RAAA" in real life, it's just stupid. Unlike most people here I _like_ political and satirical subtexts as long as they're not based in fanatical progressivism, which I strongly disagree with. _Dr Strangelove_ and _Network_ are classics.
> 
> I enjoy some American adult animation like _The Boondocks_, _South Park,_ and _King of the Hill _though. They're genuinely funny shows with actual insights to make that aren't just the asinine "LMAO he fell on her boobs, this is totally how relationships work in real life" crap you see in Japanese cartoons.



That may be true, but at the same time, if it's up front about being fantasy or whatever then I don't see the harm. Just be honest and admit that it's a fantasy meant for entertainment.

With genre fiction and fantasy works like anime, it's all about everything in balance and don't try to make something into something bigger or more meaningful than mere entertainment

I like political and satirical subtexts as well, but at the same time, I also find a lot of people who shit on any kind of genre media or anything that's not got some deep meaning to be insufferably pretentious and a lot of them tend to be tryhard hipsters and pseudointellectuals trying to look more mature than they are.

I'm not saying you're like that because I've seen enough of your posts to know better, but it is a disturbingly common trend to see fans of literary fiction and "serious" non-genre media who automatically shit on any kind of fantastical or unrealistic entertainment end up being the kind of guys who are just barely a step above MovieBob and try to overcompensate.

C.S. Lewis wrote about this sort of phenomenon decades ago, the "liking things is for spergs" mindset where a person is so obsessed with being mature that they end up overdoing it and looking immature and childish

I love anime, even the unrealistic "ultimate power/lol he fell on her boobs" stuff because it's fun and it's not meant to be some serious didactic work. At the same, I take it for what it is and enjoy it in moderation

That said, I also do not like the losers who buy all the merch and go all out with their nerdy BS and I do like a lot of insightful shows (seriously, King of the Hill is my favorite show of all time) and the more serious movies and books as well.

I don't like pretentious arthouse shit, but I do love Martin Scorsese's films in general and some of the historical epics and dramas (Gladiator, Gettysburg, Nicholas and Alexandra, Gangs of New York, Saving Private Ryan, Amadeus)

Everything in balance, as it were.

Liking genre media does not automatically make you a loser. Being a consoomer sperg does.


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## Cabelaz (Oct 12, 2020)

I think fate is based but thats the only anime I care about


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## Mr. Bung (Oct 12, 2020)

A lot of it is aesthetic, but I haven't been partaking as much lately because the vast majority of anime features characters around the 15-28 age range and it makes it harder to relate. I don't know why there isn't a greater market for anime featuring characters in their 30's and 40's yet, and you'd think there would be with an aging population of weebs, otakus etc. in Japan, the U.S., and elsewhere as well as a growing audience of older people getting into this stuff. And no, girls who appear 6 but are really 1000+ years old don't count.


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## Jonah Hill poster (Oct 12, 2020)

Mr. Bung said:


> I don't know why there isn't a greater market for anime featuring characters in their 30's and 40's yet, and you'd think there would be with an aging population of weebs, otakus etc. in Japan, the U.S., and elsewhere as well as a growing audience of older people getting into this stuff. And no, girls who appear 6 but are really 1000+ years old don't count.



Thing is, there are some anime out there like this. I remember there was a manga out there that was popular at one point where it featured a guy being a househusband for his wife in the beginning, while being a ninja in his past life.


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## Samson Pumpkin Jr. (Oct 12, 2020)

Pointless Pedant said:


> This is a great thing, _unless_ you're a stupid and childish person who can't handle the responsibility, in which case you get the Chris Chan mentality of immersing yourself in fantasy and never growing up. In America, people seem to do this with superheroes, and in Japan, it's cartoons. There are clear parallels to be drawn between both subcultures, and most people in Japan aren't really into cartoons except the huge ones like One Piece which have been around for decades.


I guess the difference between soyboys and otakus is that the soyboys have jobs. I don,t know a lot about Japan so I don't know if otakus have good jobs, but you can see the boy-soy marvel movie maniacs working in offices or journalism. I don't know what's there for otaku in terms of work aside from fast food and retail. You, as the Japan enthusiast, can tell me


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## tumblrkek (Oct 12, 2020)

Austrian Conscript 1915 said:


> I guess the difference between soyboys and otakus is that the soyboys have jobs. I don,t know a lot about Japan so I don't know if otakus have good jobs, but you can see the boy-soy marvel movie maniacs working in offices or journalism. I don't know what's there for otaku in terms of work aside from fast food and retail. You, as the Japan enthusiast, can tell me


The equivalent word in western culture would be "nerd". A nerd can have a good job, what he can't have is friends because he's probably on the spectrum, has poor social skills and is into some obscure shit no normalfag cares about.
Also note that similarly to how "nerd culture" became popular in the West, Japan is mellowing out towards otakus with more and more young nips identifying as such.


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## 三字经 (Oct 13, 2020)

It's fun


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## Aidan (Oct 13, 2020)

I don't watch anime but within the genre you can find at least unique shows/stories. The genre as a whole is way too tropey/samey for me, I don't get how people can watch Dragon Ball Z for 20 years and not get bored of it, for example.
But the unique ones (often still riddled with retarded tropes) can be entertaining sometimes, like Death Note, Evangelion, Cowboy Bebop, and others. I tend to go into any anime assuming it'll be garbage and that's been a pretty safe bet so far, but Cowboy Bebop is at least always good. You will never get anything like that out of western cartoons, for some reason.

Anytime someone tries to get me into anime they recommend the most generic retarded bullshit. The protagonist is probably a young boy, they're definitely OP as fuck, but they just need to have faith in themselves and fight for their friends.. There's probably a "cool guy" silent badass and then the tag-along girl who is conveniently badass when needed but can be used as a damsel in distress for the main character.
99% trash, 1% gold.


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## Pointless Pedant (Oct 18, 2020)

Syaoran Li said:


> That may be true, but at the same time, if it's up front about being fantasy or whatever then I don't see the harm. Just be honest and admit that it's a fantasy meant for entertainment.
> 
> With genre fiction and fantasy works like anime, it's all about everything in balance and don't try to make something into something bigger or more meaningful than mere entertainment
> 
> ...



I think you're misinterpreting what literary fiction actually is. A lot of it is straight up fantasy (Borges, Vonnegut, Kafka, etc) and merit is not solely judged based on realism. Take Pynchon, for example. Gravity's Rainbow is not a serious book, and it's certainly not a realistic one, but it's a major classic of late 20th century literature since it represents the clash of liberal hippie culture with crushing paranoia, the impending threat of nuclear destruction, and the horrors of WW2 a few decades earlier. Good writing doesn't have to be pretentious, either (see Twain, Hemingway, Steinbeck).

Of course there _are_ books like "the eternal struggles of being an upper class tranny, by I. Cutmydickoff", but these are 1. generally not accepted as actual classics and 2. not at all representative of what literature or cinema actually is. This kind of crap is _way_ more common in trashy YA writing than actual literature, in my experience.

The problem with anime isn't that it's not realistic (it's a cartoon, of course it's not), but that it's usually full of ham acting and sexual awkwardness that looks like it's written by a virgin. _That's_ what people mean when they say it's low quality, not that a cartoon doesn't exactly mimic real life. It's not like _The Boondocks_ is very realistic either. That said, realistic cartoons do exist (_Persepolis, Waltz with Bashir_), and I doubt you'd share my fondness for them.


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## Meat Target (Oct 18, 2020)

I mostly just like the art style. I've never been able to stick to a series other than _Girls und Panzer (_which I readily admit is just Asian _Thomas the Tank Engine_ for autistic /k/ommandoes and history buffs).

The genre gets a bad rap from hentai and other such pervy subgenres, but that's like saying all cinema is bad because CP or pornos exist. Characters with big eyes and voices that sound like baby-talk in Japanese are cute and endearing because we associate those things with other cute things, such as puppies and small children. How often do you see parents describe their own children as cute or beautiful? All the time. That doesn't make you a chomo.








Spoiler: Amateur EvoPsych speculation



This seems connected to an evolutionary instinct; your children are your genetic legacy, and so you find them makes you bonded to them and protective of them.



That said, also think anime's association with loser nerds can be funny, such as moe anthropomorphism. Places, things, or concepts personified as a cute cartoon girl are a bizarre juxtaposition.


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## ToroidalBoat (Oct 18, 2020)

I don't know if it's just me or the crappy city I live in, but reality seems to have this harsh and ugly "tint" to it. Seems like everything is decaying or dying. Buildings are always run down. There's not much color. Seems everyone is bland, and being different enough makes you stick out like a freak. And real life is more about tedious mechanistic routine and suffering. Not to mention the isolation and insanity modern life can breed.

In art - not just anime - the world doesn't have to be like that.


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## Meat Target (Oct 18, 2020)

ToroidalBoat said:


> In art - not just anime - the world doesn't have to be like that.


But it's become fashionable to the point of absurdity. Starting in the mid-aughts/post 9-11 world, being grimdark and edgy got popular. I remember tons of sports teams integrating black into their uniforms when they hadn't had it before. Then by the Obama years, we had Nolanverse Batman, Game of Thrones, Breaking Bad, and everything else that made relativism look more "realistic". Now the only way we're able to portray binary morality is through capeshit and Star Wars.


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## ToroidalBoat (Oct 18, 2020)

Meat Target said:


> in the mid-aughts/post 9-11 world, being grimdark and edgy got popular


9/11, recession, "culture wars", 2020 - that's probably why.


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## bot_for_hire (Oct 20, 2020)

Aidan said:


> Anytime someone tries to get me into anime they recommend the most generic retarded bullshit. The protagonist is probably a young boy, they're definitely OP as fuck, but they just need to have faith in themselves and fight for their friends.. There's probably a "cool guy" silent badass and then the tag-along girl who is conveniently badass when needed but can be used as a damsel in distress for the main character.
> 99% trash, 1% gold.


You SHOULD HAVE watched Devilman Crybaby as they told you.


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## Abilene (Oct 20, 2020)

Overall weirdness, due to basic cultural differences. Occasionally breathtaking visuals. Multi-genre approach. And fucking giant robots.


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## Pointless Pedant (Oct 20, 2020)

Meat Target said:


> But it's become fashionable to the point of absurdity. Starting in the mid-aughts/post 9-11 world, being grimdark and edgy got popular. I remember tons of sports teams integrating black into their uniforms when they hadn't had it before. Then by the Obama years, we had Nolanverse Batman, Game of Thrones, Breaking Bad, and everything else that made relativism look more "realistic". Now the only way we're able to portray binary morality is through capeshit and Star Wars.



Why is that bad? Some periods in history were relatively black and white, like WW2, but even then the allies (very reluctantly) teamed up with commies to defeat Hitler, to the point of shipping dissidents back to them to get killed after the war. Western betrayal was the black mark on the allies' victory. There is always moral complexity going on. Maybe people have matured enough that they want to explore life more fully. You even describe the alternative as (cape)shit.



ToroidalBoat said:


> I don't know if it's just me or the crappy city I live in, but reality seems to have this harsh and ugly "tint" to it. Seems like everything is decaying or dying. Buildings are always run down. There's not much color. Seems everyone is bland, and being different enough makes you stick out like a freak. And real life is more about tedious mechanistic routine and suffering. Not to mention the isolation and insanity modern life can breed.
> 
> In art - not just anime - the world doesn't have to be like that.



Man, you would have _hated_ the early 20th century. Even in peacetime, try a shift in a 1920s factory for mechanistic routine. Coal miners shovelled coal for 8 hours down a pit.


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## DDBCAE CBAADCBE (Oct 20, 2020)

Is "The lack of Jews" an acceptable answer.


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## Meat Target (Oct 20, 2020)

Pointless Pedant said:


> Why is that bad? Some periods in history were relatively black and white, like WW2, but even then the allies (very reluctantly) teamed up with commies to defeat Hitler, to the point of shipping dissidents back to them to get killed after the war. Western betrayal was the black mark on the allies' victory. There is always moral complexity going on. Maybe people have matured enough that they want to explore life more fully. You even describe the alternative as (cape)shit.


Because relativism, nihilism, and "da villain is acktchually da good guy" is not the same thing as moral complexity. The work of hacks like Alan Moore or Hideo Kojima are really just Machiavelli or Nietszche for kids.


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## Pointless Pedant (Oct 20, 2020)

Meat Target said:


> Because relativism, nihilism, and "da villain is acktchually da good guy" is not the same thing as moral complexity. The work of hacks like Alan Moore or Hideo Kojima are really just Machiavelli or Nietszche for kids.



Machiavelli was an incredibly astute author and political commentator and people should read him (though obviously his writing on war and politics is about warlords in early modern Italy and classical Rome, not the present day). He was tortured by the Medicis, so he had a lot of bitter personal experience with the people he was writing about. He never claimed that despotic rulers were actually the good guys, either, just that it's better to be feared than loved if you can't have both, in the context of a time when cardinals had people assassinated on the regular and most of Europe was run by tyrants. The _Discourses on Livy_ go into more detail on what he actually thought good governance should be.

Nietzsche was an insane virgin, but he did actually offer some decent insight into how political radicalism arose in Europe after the "death of God" and decline of the religious fundamentalism that led to the 30 years' war and treaty of Westphalia back in the 17th century. This culminated in the French revolution and then subsequently communism and fascism hundreds of years later. He wasn't really that nihilistic either, more about how people had to make their own meaning from life when nothing was ordained.

Now, the "for kids" bit I do have issue with, but that's also my problem with anime.


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## Meat Target (Oct 20, 2020)

Pointless Pedant said:


> Machiavelli was an incredibly astute author and political commentator and people should read him (though obviously his writing on war and politics is about warlords in early modern Italy and classical Rome, not the present day). He was tortured by the Medicis, so he had a lot of bitter personal experience with the people he was writing about. He never claimed that despotic rulers were actually the good guys, either, just that it's better to be feared than loved if you can't have both, in the context of a time when cardinals had people assassinated on the regular and most of Europe was run by tyrants. The _Discourses on Livy_ go into more detail on what he actually thought good governance should be.
> 
> Nietzsche was an insane virgin, but he did actually offer some decent insight into how political radicalism arose in Europe after the "death of God" and decline of the religious fundamentalism that led to the 30 years' war and treaty of Westphalia back in the 17th century. This culminated in the French revolution and then subsequently communism and fascism hundreds of years later. He wasn't really that nihilistic either, more about how people had to make their own meaning from life when nothing was ordained.
> 
> Now, the "for kids" bit I do have issue with, but that's also my problem with anime.


Okay, let me clarify:

I didn't mean Machiavelli and Nietszche have nothing to say. I meant that their ideas get rehashed in pop culture, and said pop culture authors get credit for Machiavelli and Nietszche's ideas as their own. 

As for "for the kids", I mean it's dumbed down, like a Children's Bible but for edgy philosophers. 

Part of the reason I gave up on Game of Thrones is that the whole theme of Realpolitik was hopelessly cynical; everyone's corrupt and scheming, you can't change the system, and everyone you put your hope in is gonna get clapped, so why even bother?

There's enough bleakness in Clown World IRL. I'm not looking for more reminders of Clown World. Ambiguities, trade-offs, and sacrifices in storytelling do not require everything to be all grimdark all the time. 

One of the reasons humans have stories is to inspire people to confront and overcome adversity. As Neil Gaiman once wrote, "Fairy tales are, in a sense, more true; not because they tell us dragons are real, but because they tell us that dragons can be beaten". 

I get the point of gritty realism and that the good guys don't always win. _Blood Meridian _is one of my favorite novels. But pop culture these days seems incapable of any nuance between binary capeshit and angsty, woe-is-everything grimdark.


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## ThatOneLurker (Oct 20, 2020)

First off, I don't like all anime. I think a lot of it is garbage that's mass-produced for limp wristed nerds who want to overindulge in their isekai power fantasies and fap to anime girls all day.

That said, occasionally, you find a good one with a complex story and characters that can entertain. It also helps that nowadays there is way, way less Globohomo and shit in anime than in western media. If there are minority characters, they aren't treated as some special shit based on their skin tone, they're just characters like anyone else.

That said, you're more likely to enjoy manga than anime. There is a lot of really great shit out there that has no hope of ever being animated because it, "doesn't appeal to the current demographic of anime watchers".


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## Pointless Pedant (Oct 20, 2020)

Game of Thrones also just turned plain bad as it went on. Even people who actually liked the series hated the last series. I wouldn't say that _realpolitik _ was a bad decision for the writers, though. The mediaeval and early modern periods were full of that sort of behaviour, like the 100 years' war in which England repeatedly tried and failed to secure the throne of France, aided by the Burgundians - so French people were helping England fight France. That doesn't mean GOT was a well written show (reviews bombed hard towards the end), but the basic themes were fine for the setting they were trying to represent.

From what I gather, the bad guys didn't win in GOT anyway. All the villains ended up dead at the end.


ThatOneLurker said:


> First off, I don't like all anime. I think a lot of it is garbage that's mass-produced for limp wristed nerds who want to overindulge in their isekai power fantasies and fap to anime girls all day.
> 
> That said, occasionally, you find a good one with a complex story and characters that can entertain. It also helps that nowadays there is way, way less Globohomo and shit in anime than in western media. If there are minority characters, they aren't treated as some special shit based on their skin tone, they're just characters like anyone else.
> 
> That said, you're more likely to enjoy manga than anime. There is a lot of really great shit out there that has no hope of ever being animated because it, "doesn't appeal to the current demographic of anime watchers".



True. I don't like anime, but some older _gekiga_ comics are alright, like Mizuki Shigeru's cartoon history of Japan during the Showa era.


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## Meat Target (Oct 20, 2020)

Pointless Pedant said:


> Game of Thrones also just turned plain bad as it went on. Even people who actually liked the series hated the last series


I should also add that it got too complicated for me. I read the books and quit about halfway through _A Storm of Swords._ I couldn't keep the characters straight, whether it was Jon traipsing around north of the Wall with wildlings or some hadji trying to get in bed with Daenerys. I just lost interest. 

But yeah, when it had become mainstream by Season 7 and 8, I came to outright loathe it. Call me a nerd or a hipster all you want, there's truth to the "popular, therefore ruined" meme.


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## Pointless Pedant (Oct 20, 2020)

As I said, the end of Game of Thrones wasn't well received anyway. You're really not alone in getting tired of it, just for different reasons.


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## ToroidalBoat (Oct 20, 2020)

Pointless Pedant said:


> Man, you would have _hated_ the early 20th century.


Oh I don't doubt that. Crappy as it is, the modern world (at least before Current Year) is an improvement over the past. Earth has always been a hellish world - _at least_ since agriculture. If humans weren't so prone towards evil, it wouldn't be so bad.

But at least morality in the modern world versus morality in the past shows there may be hope for improvement.


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## Pointless Pedant (Oct 20, 2020)

ToroidalBoat said:


> Oh I don't doubt that. Crappy as it is, the modern world (at least before Current Year) is an improvement over the past. Earth has always been a hellish world - _at least_ since agriculture. If humans weren't so prone towards evil, it wouldn't be so bad.
> 
> But at least morality in the modern world versus morality in the past shows there may be hope for improvement.


I'd recommend _Constant Battles: Why We Fight _by Steven LeBlanc on this. Before agriculture, life was hard too. Populations would grow to the limits of the land to support them, and then tribal war would break out. Only modern agriculture finally fixed this problem.


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## ToroidalBoat (Oct 20, 2020)

Pointless Pedant said:


> then tribal war would break out


How far back did it say that population growth wars problem went?


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## AMERICA (Oct 20, 2020)

A big part of the appeal of anime is the continuity (ie not episodic). There didn't used to be the range of high-quality live-action TV shows that exists today.

I got into anime when I was still a kid. I liked anime compared to American cartoons for this reason (prefer longer storyline). That, and I've never found American cartoons funny. I preferred the more serious tone of (some) anime.


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## Pointless Pedant (Oct 21, 2020)

ToroidalBoat said:


> How far back did it say that population growth wars problem went?


Before civilisation. Chimpanzees fight tribal wars.


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## Lemmingwise (Oct 21, 2020)

Webby's Boyfriend said:


> To me, that is really creepy, because most animefags are adult men while those characters to whom they fap off are often underage school girls.


Yeah why can't they have their identity revolve over a non sexual romantic relationship with a fictional underage duck like a normal person?


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## ToroidalBoat (Oct 21, 2020)

Pointless Pedant said:


> Before civilisation. Chimpanzees fight tribal wars.


Seems humans are a pretty crappy species then.

But not all are bad, and humans can make pretty good art.

And back on topic, I think anyone can make anime or manga style art - they need not be something "only Japanese can make".


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## Pointless Pedant (Oct 22, 2020)

ToroidalBoat said:


> Seems humans are a pretty crappy species then.
> 
> But not all are bad, and humans can make pretty good art.
> 
> And back on topic, I think anyone can make anime or manga style art - they need not be something "only Japanese can make".



Given it's largely a ripoff of Disney art anyway, yes, absolutely. Ever wonder why they draw so many of the characters as white people with big eyes? Because they're copying Disney. The actual Japanese art tradition, drawing people who actually look Japanese, is very different.


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## Heckler1 (Oct 26, 2020)

In general I think animation is a potentially wonderful medium for telling stories that otherwise might not be able to be seen otherwise. Unfortunately due to Walt Disney, animation in the west is largely seen as kid's stuff or low brow comedy material. So if you want an animated story that is for regular adults, there isn't much outside of anime you can get into.


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## GermanicusJuliusCaesar (Oct 27, 2020)

Heckler1 said:


> In general I think animation is a potentially wonderful medium for telling stories that otherwise might not be able to be seen otherwise. Unfortunately due to Walt Disney, animation in the west is largely seen as kid's stuff or low brow comedy material. So if you want an animated story that is for regular adults, there isn't much outside of anime you can get into.


Exactly. This is also why weebs get super defensive whenever someone refers to anime as 'cartoons.'


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## JektheDumbass (Oct 27, 2020)

Everyone is using too many words to say "big anime tiddies"


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## Pointless Pedant (Oct 27, 2020)

GermanicusJuliusCaesar said:


> Exactly. This is also why weebs get super defensive whenever someone refers to anime as 'cartoons.'


Don't tell them that Spongebob is called anime in Japan, then.


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## Dumpsterfire Enthusiast (Oct 28, 2020)

Anime usually has some really creative world building with the trade off of having some cringy characters. Can be sort of annoying how often they force in a bunch of fetishy stuff when it isnt relevant, can be alright when theyre more subtle about it but they usually have no subtlety


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## verygayFrogs (Oct 28, 2020)

It helps numb my pain and forget my troubles by watching kids explode giant monsters


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## Based Papa John (Oct 28, 2020)

Depends on which anime. There are some that I like (_Steins;Gate_, _Fullmetal Alchemist_,) and some I don't (_Sword Art Online_), but it's on an individual basis. 

I'd say that I do like anime cheese, for one. I like that many of them place emphases on a group dynamic with elements of meaningful friendships. _Steins;Gate _especially appealed to me because of the friends that the characters reminded me of.

What I don't like is Otaku/Weeb culture. The autism, the cringe, the rampant pedophilia, etc. is enough to make anyone ashamed that they like anime. I try to stay away from the culture as much as I can and try to enjoy the shows for their own sake.


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## Pointless Pedant (Oct 29, 2020)

Based_Papa_John said:


> Depends on which anime. There are some that I like (_Steins;Gate_, _Fullmetal Alchemist_,) and some I don't (_Sword Art Online_), but it's on an individual basis.
> 
> I'd say that I do like anime cheese, for one. I like that many of them place emphases on a group dynamic with elements of meaningful friendships. _Steins;Gate _especially appealed to me because of the friends that the characters reminded me of.
> 
> What I don't like is Otaku/Weeb culture. The autism, the cringe, the rampant pedophilia, etc. is enough to make anyone ashamed that they like anime. I try to stay away from the culture as much as I can and try to enjoy the shows for their own sake.


I can actually respect that. I don't like the cartoons themselves, but the fanbase is so much worse.


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## Ughubughughughughughghlug (Oct 29, 2020)

Heckler1 said:


> In general I think animation is a potentially wonderful medium for telling stories that otherwise might not be able to be seen otherwise. Unfortunately due to Walt Disney, animation in the west is largely seen as kid's stuff or low brow comedy material. So if you want an animated story that is for regular adults, there isn't much outside of anime you can get into.



I don’t think it’s Walts fault at all. It’s really more the fault of the networks and other firms who never tried doing anything for adults, or who even make stuff more childish than old Disney stuff. The industry as a whole chose to wallow in children’s entertainment.

Ive thought about this whole topic some because I love cartoons because they combine art forms; a cartoon version of something would, to me, be inherently more valuable artistically because of the literal artwork in it. And there’s a lot more potential for variety with what you can do with it. But Western cartoons are mostly aimed at children or are lowbrow comedies, and Japanese anime, unless it’s really old, has an art style I find repulsive and other sensibilities I can’t stand.


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## Heckler1 (Oct 29, 2020)

Ughubughughughughughghlug said:


> I don’t think it’s Walts fault at all. It’s really more the fault of the networks and other firms who never tried doing anything for adults, or who even make stuff more childish than old Disney stuff. The industry as a whole chose to wallow in children’s entertainment.
> 
> Ive thought about this whole topic some because I love cartoons because they combine art forms; a cartoon version of something would, to me, be inherently more valuable artistically because of the literal artwork in it. And there’s a lot more potential for variety with what you can do with it. But Western cartoons are mostly aimed at children or are lowbrow comedies, and Japanese anime, unless it’s really old, has an art style I find repulsive and other sensibilities I can’t stand.


I wholly disagree. It is absolutely Walt's fault. Walt Disney vs the Fleischer Brothers decided the fate of American Animation. It was Walt that pushed the idea of animation needs to be for families to get kid's money while FB were more experimental and daring. It's also why Ralph Bashki is criminally underrated, as his films(some with debatable quality) all are definite boundary pushers and works of art. 

Walt Disney was the Vince McMahon of animation, and to pretend anything else is laughable.


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## Jimjamflimflam (Oct 29, 2020)

I like animation in general because the medium allows real creativity in the right hands.

Just seems like in American animation it falls in one of two camps. Either kid stuff or raunchy adult humour.  

Alot of crap used to push merchandise to nerds and weebs in anime but you get some real great gems occasionally.  

Re-read dragonball recently.  Forgot how fun that was before the strongest under heaven tournament when it turned into a gotta get stronger storyline.  Humorous, endearing fun characters, clean great art and just a overall fun adventure.


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## Spangled Drongo (Nov 2, 2020)

As someone who’s developed a disdain for the anime fandom and hasn’t properly  sat down and watched a series in years, I have a lot of issues with the medium, mostly to do with tropes and cliches as well as how extreme some fans can get.

Once upon a time I was a hardcore weeb/Japanophile, not only with an anime obsession but also an obsession with anything Japanese, though grew out of it and try to distance myself from the more cringeworthy elements of Japanese pop culture. What I dislike about anime now is the moé shit that’s obvious coomer bait (being female and straight it does nothing for me, and yaoi/BL doesn’t appeal either as the type of men it portrays aren’t what I’m into) and popular shounen series with the overly determined teenage protagonists and battles that last for several episodes. And even if a series is set outside of Japan/in a fantasy world, there’s always going to be elements of Japanese culture there, and while I understand that’s there specifically to allow the Japanese audience, its main market, to find something relatable, it can be detrimental to the western audience who either don’t get it, or find it takes away from their enjoyment of the story.

I don’t want to hate on all anime. As a former fan I understand that it’s just as varied as any other art form. But at the same time, aspects of it I once either overlooked or viewed as positive are now negatives to me and the negative baggage of the weeb phase affects my ability to get back into it.


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## Dave. (Nov 2, 2020)

Because


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## Pointless Pedant (Nov 2, 2020)

Longcat said:


> As someone who’s developed a disdain for the anime fandom and hasn’t properly  sat down and watched a series in years, I have a lot of issues with the medium, mostly to do with tropes and cliches as well as how extreme some fans can get.
> 
> Once upon a time I was a hardcore weeb/Japanophile, not only with an anime obsession but also an obsession with anything Japanese, though grew out of it and try to distance myself from the more cringeworthy elements of Japanese pop culture. What I dislike about anime now is the moé shit that’s obvious coomer bait (being female and straight it does nothing for me, and yaoi/BL doesn’t appeal either as the type of men it portrays aren’t what I’m into) and popular shounen series with the overly determined teenage protagonists and battles that last for several episodes. And even if a series is set outside of Japan/in a fantasy world, there’s always going to be elements of Japanese culture there, and while I understand that’s there specifically to allow the Japanese audience, its main market, to find something relatable, it can be detrimental to the western audience who either don’t get it, or find it takes away from their enjoyment of the story.
> 
> I don’t want to hate on all anime. As a former fan I understand that it’s just as varied as any other art form. But at the same time, aspects of it I once either overlooked or viewed as positive are now negatives to me and the negative baggage of the weeb phase affects my ability to get back into it.


I mostly agree with you but I find it's interesting that you find elements of Japanese culture detrimental. Does that mean you wouldn't watch something like _Stray Dog_ or _Fires on the Plain_ because of elements of Japanese culture, though it's obviously not lame and pervy/childish like cartoons?


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## I Love Beef (Nov 2, 2020)

Longcat said:


> As someone who’s developed a disdain for the anime fandom and hasn’t properly  sat down and watched a series in years, I have a lot of issues with the medium, mostly to do with tropes and cliches as well as how extreme some fans can get.
> 
> Once upon a time I was a hardcore weeb/Japanophile, not only with an anime obsession but also an obsession with anything Japanese, though grew out of it and try to distance myself from the more cringeworthy elements of Japanese pop culture. What I dislike about anime now is the moé shit that’s obvious coomer bait (being female and straight it does nothing for me, and yaoi/BL doesn’t appeal either as the type of men it portrays aren’t what I’m into) and popular shounen series with the overly determined teenage protagonists and battles that last for several episodes. And even if a series is set outside of Japan/in a fantasy world, there’s always going to be elements of Japanese culture there, and while I understand that’s there specifically to allow the Japanese audience, its main market, to find something relatable, it can be detrimental to the western audience who either don’t get it, or find it takes away from their enjoyment of the story.
> 
> I don’t want to hate on all anime. As a former fan I understand that it’s just as varied as any other art form. But at the same time, aspects of it I once either overlooked or viewed as positive are now negatives to me and the negative baggage of the weeb phase affects my ability to get back into it.


ngl, not to come across as to posture or impose, but you obviously need more than just obsession and sensation to continue being a connoisseur than just a fan. I'm sure that applies to everything. I remember living through the times of the anime boom of the late 1990s and the early 2000s; those were passionate, and great times, at least in my perspective. Sure, nothing was all that perfect, but that energy and those feelings from those memories still are there deep in me.

I too am not too much into current day anime stuff; sure, somethings strike my fancy, like Symphogear and Redline and what not, and it's nice to see anime still thriving. Thankfully I know how to balance out what I like with what the changing world holds so that I don't take things for granted.

Again, if you ask me, the problem is that out west has established and firmly rooted tastes in what it wants out of anime, but it's a menagerie of problems; there's the idea that anime can only be made by the Japanese, there's little good mentality going on establishing anime into the American cultural fabric, fandom is still pretty cringe all around from not just the spergs and spazs but to the "smart" and "tasteful" fans, and there's little self motivation to want to get into actually creating anime/manga of original content. It's definitely a most careful balancing act for sure if someone wants to take up the task, but nothing has yet become groundbreaking, or has maintained a good burn from its start (one bad example would have to be RWBY). I still believe since those boom days that anime as a style bears symbolism (at least to me) in that it represents the liberation of the freedom of expression and the upstart of meaningful revolution considering its influence in American sequential art and popular media at the time, and in the world of today where everything is getting poz'd, SJW'd, and overtly corporately controlled to shit, I think it's going to be the last bastion that is going to hold out in the face of corporate media astroturfing and the last grabs of the abused corpse of Hollywood. Again, I've mostly played video games and watched anime/read manga at a lesser rate, but I still am an oldfag- Nothing's changed my perspective, video games still count. I read the guides and dev materials, slag off.

If there is anything to argue on though, it would have to be the idea that Japanese virtues and mores do need to be recognized, acknowledged, and understood on a fundamental level, while with a recognition of a deep awareness on a human level that ties everyone together, and you have to practice this in your daily life. Everyone in the world too is guilty of some degree of bias for their home nation or ethnicity as that's who the authors are, and should feel no guilt in shame over it, so for every reason that America gets to save the day in action movies and TV shows, I can give leeway that Japan saves the day or a Japanese person saves the world and becomes a globally respected figure. Plus, there's plenty of series in the past that don't have overly explicit Japanese presence, and to some perspectives of people, the law of attraction is real; it's amazing to know how many Japanese American figures there are in American entertainment. Even then, I do believe anime can be made with western tastes in mind, but it can't strictly follow what mainstream thought and standards dictates into today; it's like there's a tradition that's yet to be established for anime out west itself, and it has to realize that on its own.

I'm probably waxing reminscient and nostalgic long on, carrying my old banner and journeying raggedly onward with old ideals intact, but I think it's nice to meet with someone from those passionate days again. Sorry you were a weeaboo though. Personally, I think that baggage is something you must sort through and come to terms on your own, really, if you want to move on from it. At least you're not one right now.


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## Spangled Drongo (Nov 3, 2020)

Pointless Pedant said:


> I mostly agree with you but I find it's interesting that you find elements of Japanese culture detrimental. Does that mean you wouldn't watch something like _Stray Dog_ or _Fires on the Plain_ because of elements of Japanese culture, though it's obviously not lame and pervy/childish like cartoons?


It’s interesting because I do still enjoy Ghibli films, out of nostalgia and because they don’t attract anywhere near the same amount of cringe you see in the fandoms for series like Naruto, Hetalia and whatever slice-of-life show featuring underage girls being quirky is currently popular (when I was growing up it was Strawberry Marshmallow and Azumanga Daioh). It’s something I’ve noticed in other areas of Japanese pop culture too - there are definitely some video games, live action films and music that are less weeby than others - for instance when it comes to games I’ll happily play Final Fantasy, Monster Hunter, Soul Calibur and Ace Attorney, but dating sim games and most other visual novels are a hard pass for me.

I think it has something to do with whether or not it has universal appeal outside the otaku demographic (in the west in particular) - continuing on with my example of the vidya, I’m a gamer first and foremost, and a lot of games from Japanese devs appeal to me because I find the story, gameplay and/or aesthetic compelling, and if there is a slight Japanese cultural element to it, it’s not overt like some of the games aimed at a more niche audience. The things I do enjoy nowadays are mostly made in the west and their fanbase is majority western as well - I’m pretty sure RPGs like WoW and Elder Scrolls as well as tabletop games like Warhammer have a small Japanese audience, but since Japan as a whole is very insular and most people prefer to stick with what they know, domestically produced content is what sells best. And while there is a demographic of Japanese people who do idolise the west, I haven’t noticed much overlap with the people most likely to take an interest in nerd culture - it’s mostly fashion and beauty companies that hire foreign or mixed race models to appeal to the young stylish women in their 20s and 30s, and European/American things tend to have a luxurious, high class image in Japan which appeals to that demographic, but it’s certainly not the approach a game company would want to use when trying to sell video games to otaku.

(I haven’t stayed in Japan for more than a month, but when I had an all-consuming obsession with the culture I did a lot of reading on the subject, and made friends online with a few Japanese people who were willing to tolerate a foreigner asking all these questions. I studied Japanese for a considerable amount of time so there was hardly any language barrier, but it was when I started to get deep into learning about the culture that I found out about some of the more unsavoury bits that put me right off, and ultimately came to realise it wasn’t worth pursuing and decided to move on after losing interest.)

Also sorry for the TL;DR reply, it’s just that this topic has me doing a lot of reflecting on my weeb past and how it’s affected my opinion of anime and other stuff in that realm.


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## LinkinParkxNaruto[AMV] (Nov 3, 2020)

I like 80s and 90s stuff, they are really kewl and the visual style in those old animes is very bold and striking, some anime creators have pushed animation to some really awesome places that you would otherwise not see ever coming from USA, think stuff like Akira, Gits, Paprika, etc. I think most people would agree some anime movies and shows are just amazing cinema who happens to be animated. And even if its not some high art sometimes you just want to watch some edgy stuff with trippy visuals thats also not an ironical tongue in cheek sitcom in hanna barbera format. 

Moe is shit though.


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## Spangled Drongo (Nov 3, 2020)

I Love Beef said:


> ngl, not to come across as to posture or impose, but you obviously need more than just obsession and sensation to continue being a connoisseur than just a fan. I'm sure that applies to everything. I remember living through the times of the anime boom of the late 1990s and the early 2000s; those were passionate, and great times, at least in my perspective. Sure, nothing was all that perfect, but that energy and those feelings from those memories still are there deep in me.
> 
> I too am not too much into current day anime stuff; sure, somethings strike my fancy, like Symphogear and Redline and what not, and it's nice to see anime still thriving. Thankfully I know how to balance out what I like with what the changing world holds so that I don't take things for granted.
> 
> ...


That then raises the age-old question: does it still count as anime if it was produced outside of Japan? I remember Tokyopop when they were still around would occasionally publish OEL (Original English Language) manga, which I wasn’t interested in as a preteen at the peak of my weeb phase, as I didn’t believe it was “real manga”. There’s also the grey area when it comes to manhwa (Korean)/manhua (Chinese), they all derive from the same word, but I find it interesting that there’s a distinction based on what country they originate from. And as far as anime goes, the most famous example I can think of that was produced in the west is Avatar, but mostly I’ve seen that referred to as _inspired _by anime but still ultimately a western cartoon. I guess it just comes down to whether you define it as a particular art style and maybe a few specific tropes/reoccurring themes, or as animation specifically produced in Japan.

And I can completely understand why a Japanese creator would want to make something that’s culturally relevant to their audience - it’s much easier to get into a work of fiction if there’s something in it that connects to your experience of reality, as someone who writes as a hobby this is something I understand well. But my preferred genre is high fantasy, with settings that deviate from reality quite a bit, and I’ve found very few anime that has the same feel as my favourite works of western fiction - more often than not it’s isekai and I’d rather see a pure fantasy setting than “Japanese teenager gets magically transported to fantasy world”. My ex showed me the first few episodes of DanMachi and while I appreciated the setting and the mythology references, there was still a common anime trope that I disliked - the gratuitous fanservice. There probably is a series or two that is just a sword and sorcery adventure with little to no fanservice, I just haven’t been actively looking, due to the negative baggage with my past weeb phase.

Again, not trying to hate on anime as a whole - just my take as a disillusioned former hardcore fan.


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## Eris! (Nov 3, 2020)

When I watch anime it does not give me the profound sense of meaningless ennui I get from western media. People in anime respect their parents, pray at shrines, and take their work and future careers seriously. Even in ridiculous, campy, or overtly lewd settings, that foundation remains in some sense. The fundamental underpinnings of a meaningful society are all still there, where they have been excised from western culture.


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## whogoesthere (Nov 3, 2020)

I think anime is the same as film or anything visual media. If it tells an interesting story then I will watch it. I don't care for most of it, too much "big tiddies!" for my tastes, but something a bit more serious I will give a shot. 

Its just another way of telling a story. Kinda like saying "I like books", no one likes books, they enjoy some but not all, different strokes and all that.


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## Pointless Pedant (Nov 3, 2020)

I Love Beef said:


> ngl, not to come across as to posture or impose, but you obviously need more than just obsession and sensation to continue being a connoisseur than just a fan. I'm sure that applies to everything. I remember living through the times of the anime boom of the late 1990s and the early 2000s; those were passionate, and great times, at least in my perspective. Sure, nothing was all that perfect, but that energy and those feelings from those memories still are there deep in me.
> 
> I too am not too much into current day anime stuff; sure, somethings strike my fancy, like Symphogear and Redline and what not, and it's nice to see anime still thriving. Thankfully I know how to balance out what I like with what the changing world holds so that I don't take things for granted.
> 
> ...


People making anime out as this heroic last stand against communism are really weird to me. It's junk made for profit by underpaid animators and mostly sold to China. Censorship will come when the CCP asks nicely.



Erischan said:


> When I watch anime it does not give me the profound sense of meaningless ennui I get from western media. People in anime respect their parents, pray at shrines, and take their work and future careers seriously. Even in ridiculous, campy, or overtly lewd settings, that foundation remains in some sense. The fundamental underpinnings of a meaningful society are all still there, where they have been excised from western culture.


For a lot of people in Japan "working" is sitting around doing nothing for hours and giving the appearance of working hard to trick the boss. I'm guessing you probably don't get a lot of satire of corporate culture in anime though...



Longcat said:


> It’s interesting because I do still enjoy Ghibli films, out of nostalgia and because they don’t attract anywhere near the same amount of cringe you see in the fandoms for series like Naruto, Hetalia and whatever slice-of-life show featuring underage girls being quirky is currently popular (when I was growing up it was Strawberry Marshmallow and Azumanga Daioh). It’s something I’ve noticed in other areas of Japanese pop culture too - there are definitely some video games, live action films and music that are less weeby than others - for instance when it comes to games I’ll happily play Final Fantasy, Monster Hunter, Soul Calibur and Ace Attorney, but dating sim games and most other visual novels are a hard pass for me.
> 
> I think it has something to do with whether or not it has universal appeal outside the otaku demographic (in the west in particular) - continuing on with my example of the vidya, I’m a gamer first and foremost, and a lot of games from Japanese devs appeal to me because I find the story, gameplay and/or aesthetic compelling, and if there is a slight Japanese cultural element to it, it’s not overt like some of the games aimed at a more niche audience. The things I do enjoy nowadays are mostly made in the west and their fanbase is majority western as well - I’m pretty sure RPGs like WoW and Elder Scrolls as well as tabletop games like Warhammer have a small Japanese audience, but since Japan as a whole is very insular and most people prefer to stick with what they know, domestically produced content is what sells best. And while there is a demographic of Japanese people who do idolise the west, I haven’t noticed much overlap with the people most likely to take an interest in nerd culture - it’s mostly fashion and beauty companies that hire foreign or mixed race models to appeal to the young stylish women in their 20s and 30s, and European/American things tend to have a luxurious, high class image in Japan which appeals to that demographic, but it’s certainly not the approach a game company would want to use when trying to sell video games to otaku.
> 
> ...


Minecraft, Call of Duty, Fortnite etc are huge in Japan. I'm not sure who you were talking to who said they don't play western video games. It's comparable to Mario and Animal Crossing being big in the west. This also applies to other media, there are loads of Marvel and Star Wars spergs there. Unless you're talking about the tiny subcultures of people who never leave their rooms they're not insular at all.


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## Spangled Drongo (Nov 3, 2020)

Pointless Pedant said:


> Minecraft, Call of Duty, Fortnite etc are huge in Japan. I'm not sure who you were talking to who said they don't play western video games. It's comparable to Mario and Animal Crossing being big in the west. This also applies to other media, there are loads of Marvel and Star Wars spergs there. Unless you're talking about the tiny subcultures of people who never leave their rooms they're not insular at all.


Now you mention it I sought out chat groups on the app LINE that were full of people who'd never spoken to a foreigner before as they spoke no English, and I wanted to impress them with my knowledge of their language and culture and get the validation I sought, that I could indeed fully assimilate into Japanese culture and not be singled out as a foreigner. In fact there was one girl who wasn't very bright, and asked me "do you speak Australian?" when I told her I live in Australia. I was able to laugh it off and correct her, but gives you an idea of some of the people I spoke to online.

The ones I interacted with who _did _enjoy western culture had only really scratched the surface from what I can recall and a lot of it was stuff that was mainstream enough to make it to Japan and wasn't necessarily nerdy - I did also get the occasional message asking me "hey, do you like Ariana Grande and Justin Bieber?" and would get defensive like "are you assuming I like that trash just because I'm a gaijin?"

Every now and then I do sometimes search for fandoms I'm part of in Japanese and see what comes up, but on Pixiv for example there's very little fan art for them compared to the massive categories for whatever the hottest new anime or manga is. Granted, the internet might not be the best way to gauge Japanese interest in western fandoms, but it's where a lot of fan communities are.


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## Pointless Pedant (Nov 3, 2020)

Longcat said:


> Now you mention it I sought out chat groups on the app LINE that were full of people who'd never spoken to a foreigner before as they spoke no English, and I wanted to impress them with my knowledge of their language and culture and get the validation I sought, that I could indeed fully assimilate into Japanese culture and not be singled out as a foreigner. In fact there was one girl who wasn't very bright, and asked me "do you speak Australian?" when I told her I live in Australia. I was able to laugh it off and correct her, but gives you an idea of some of the people I spoke to online.
> 
> The ones I interacted with who _did _enjoy western culture had only really scratched the surface from what I can recall and a lot of it was stuff that was mainstream enough to make it to Japan and wasn't necessarily nerdy - I did also get the occasional message asking me "hey, do you like Ariana Grande and Justin Bieber?" and would get defensive like "are you assuming I like that trash just because I'm a gaijin?"
> 
> Every now and then I do sometimes search for fandoms I'm part of in Japanese and see what comes up, but on Pixiv for example there's very little fan art for them compared to the massive categories for whatever the hottest new anime or manga is. Granted, the internet might not be the best way to gauge Japanese interest in western fandoms, but it's where a lot of fan communities are.


Most Japanese people don't know what Pixiv is. It's only the 78th ranked website in Japan. It's kind of like asking random people if they know what 4chan is (for comparison, 5ch is ranked 67th and most people don't use that either). I get the impression you're evaluating the whole country by its smelly nerds. Twitter, Instagram, YouTube are the mainstream sites there, as they are here. Japanese Twitter is actually much better than ours because you don't have idiots screaming their terrible takes on politics all the time.

Funny thing is, how you reacted to being asked about Ariana Grande (which I agree, she's terrible) is exactly how a lot of Japanese people would react if people asked them about watching cartoons as an adult. Sure, it's part of the culture, but most mature people aren't interested.


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## Syaoran Li (Nov 3, 2020)

Pointless Pedant said:


> People making anime out as this heroic last stand against communism are really weird to me. It's junk made for profit by underpaid animators and mostly sold to China. Censorship will come when the CCP asks nicely.



I think the reason why people think that is because of American corporate astroturfing that's targeted at the American market and has been amplified by Woke Left spergs on Twitter. For a bunch of self-professed anti-capitalists, they seem to gladly parrot the corporate party lines and take part in efforts to suppress the potential competition that can harm corporate profits.

For some strange reason, SJW's/Woke Leftists tend to have an extremely autistic hatred of anime that is far more irrational and goes far beyond throwing shade at spergy weebs or rolling your eyes at the more goofball or obvious fantasy elements of certain titles and sub-genres.

The "anime as the heroic last stand against communism" meme is a case of every action having an equal opposite reaction. The mostly American SJW's went full retard in their hatred of anime and manga (barring two specific mainstream titles* because of nostalgia) and this is where you get that meme as the equally retarded reaction. It's mostly an American phenomenon but thanks to social media and the global nature of the internet, it spills over into other countries where anime was never much of a thing outside of fringe circles (like the UK)

Really, it's two different groups of spergs falling for astroturfing done by American corporations and aimed specifically at the American market. Anime is a lot more mainstream in the United States compared to the UK and most of mainland Europe (but less so than in China or Southeast Asia) because there was a very widespread and popular boom period in the late 90's and 2000's that didn't really end until around the time of the Great Recession. Anime was aired on network TV and basic cable in mainstream hours and got good ratings.

It started out with titles aimed at children and young teens for Saturday Morning cartoon blocks and at its peak in the early-mid 2000's, you had manga being sold in Wal-Marts and K-Marts and the more "edgy for basic cable but still PG-13" sci-fi/fantasy and horror titles being aired on basic cable as well, mainly on Adult Swim and Sci-Fi Channel, but occasionally on other channels as well.

Premium cable channels like Starz, Encore, and HBO would even air the more acclaimed or popular anime movies that weren't typical Ghibli stuff you usually see get praised by the "mature" snobs either. 

IIRC, the original Ghost In The Shell movie from the 90's got a lot of airplay on Starz and Encore at various hours in the early 2000's.

Vampire Hunter D got a fair bit of airplay on HBO and Cinemax and in an edited form for TBS and TNT in the 90's and very early 2000's.

*-The two titles that Twitter wokesters cut slack are Pokemon and Sailor Moon.

Both are practically "normie" mainstream fare in America and a major part of childhood nostalgia for a lot of Millennials and older Zoomers in the US since they were on mainstream TV a lot back then. My Hero Academia is the only newer series that gets a pass from SJW's but I can chalk that up to the fact that SJW's really love capeshit for some reason and MHA is explicitly a love letter to old-school Marvel and DC style superheroes.




Spoiler: Tangential side-sperging



The fact that two supporting protagonists (Sailor Neptune and Sailor Uranus) in Sailor Moon are also a lesbian couple also helps sell the idea of it being a "woke queer lesbian anime" when the manga was created by a straight woman who simply had a "Y2K Liberal" approach to homosexuality in an otherwise conservative country and every other member of the Sailor Guardians are heterosexual (Sailor Moon initially had a crush on Sailor Uranus until she found out she was a short-haired woman and not a feminine-looking boy)

The two characters in question are normie non-woke lesbians (Uranus is a tomboy but isn't a total butch dyke radfem either) and don't even appear until the third season, and every other LGBT character on the show are flamboyant and downright villainous (two major villains in the first season were originally a gay couple in the manga) seems to fly over their heads.

And before any weebs mention the Sailor Starlights (three male sidekicks who transformed into girls when they got their powers) those weren't trannies. Naoko Takeuchi is a bit of a sperg when it comes to "Only girls can be full-fledged Sailor Guardians" and having the guys magically transform into women for their powers was a compromise since those characters were exclusive to the anime's final season. They've also explicitly said multiple times that they weren't trannies.

The only transgender character on the show was Fish-Eye, a relatively minor but very creepy villain.

Sailor Moon was one of the first anime I watched as a kid and I have a lot of nostalgia for it, so forgive my sperging.


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## CheezzyMach (Nov 3, 2020)

Pointless Pedant said:


> People making anime out as this heroic last stand against communism are really weird to me. It's junk made for profit by underpaid animators and mostly sold to China. Censorship will come when the CCP asks nicely.
> 
> 
> For a lot of people in Japan "working" is sitting around doing nothing for hours and giving the appearance of working hard to trick the boss. I'm guessing you probably don't get a lot of satire of corporate culture in anime though...
> ...


What'll be funny is if/when the pendulum swings back in Western culture while anime goes full conservative to appease China.

Weebs who have been smug posting about the pozzed West and sjws will be on suicide watch if that happens.


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## InsolentGaylord (Nov 3, 2020)

CheezzyMach said:


> What'll be funny is if/when the pendulum swings back in Western culture while anime goes full conservative to appease China.
> 
> Weebs who have been smug posting about the pozzed West and sjws will be on suicide watch if that happens.



You would love that wouldn't you?


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## Pointless Pedant (Nov 3, 2020)

Syaoran Li said:


> I think the reason why people think that is because of American corporate astroturfing that's targeted at the American market and has been amplified by Woke Left spergs on Twitter. For a bunch of self-professed anti-capitalists, they seem to gladly parrot the corporate party lines and take part in efforts to suppress the potential competition that can harm corporate profits.
> 
> For some strange reason, SJW's/Woke Leftists tend to have an extremely autistic hatred of anime that is far more irrational and goes far beyond throwing shade at spergy weebs or rolling your eyes at the more goofball or obvious fantasy elements of certain titles and sub-genres.
> 
> ...


Ironically, the "normie mainstream fare" anime in America are also the ones people have heard of here. Pokemon is a household name, Sailor Moon and MHA less so but I've seen toys from them in second hand shops.

France does seem to have a real interest in it, linked to their comics culture. Shows like Hokuto no Ken were shown there in the past. Aside from France it's something very much associated with neckbeards in Europe, though. People do know what anime is in Europe, but it's very much associated with memes and online edgelords rather than childhood memories and it's mostly mentioned in the context of parody, with people either imitating the squeaky girl voices or the guys making constipation faces as they power up for 10 minutes. Anime porn is also known to exist, but anyone actually watching it would be laughed at like someone into body inflation.

One question I'd like to ask is the idea going around fans that anime was going to experience some kind of popularity boom in the 2020s. Outside Asia I really can't see that happening, and you're talking about the 2000s boom in the past tense here. If anything it seems like it used to be more popular than it is.


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## Syaoran Li (Nov 3, 2020)

CheezzyMach said:


> What'll be funny is if/when the pendulum swings back in Western culture while anime goes full conservative to appease China.
> 
> Weebs who have been smug posting about the pozzed West and sjws will be on suicide watch if that happens.



It's possible, but I wouldn't call it a sure thing either. Especially if a Trump reelection hurts the Chinese economy bad enough via tighter trade sanctions or if 3GD gives out in the next raining season (it barely scraped by this year and nearly all the other dams and levees were destroyed to save it)

The odds of anime going "woke" to appease China are about 50/50 right now though.

Even then, I think the capeshit fad is going to die out in the 2020's, especially if we get the fabled MCU flops in 2021 and 2022.

The "CalArts" Tumblr garbage like She-Ra and Steven Universe is already on life support as it is, with the two aforementioned titles being the only real success stories (unless you count Adventure Time) and both have ended on a bad note.

As much as I like to rag on Marvel/DC, I do still think you'll see a handful of "evergreen" figures who will still get adaptations for movies, TV, and games but it'll be the ones who were popular and had crossover normie appeal even before the capeshit boom.

With DC, it's Batman and Superman (and Wonder Woman to a lesser extent) and with Marvel, it's Spider-Man, The Incredible Hulk, and the X-Men circa the "Bronze Age" of the 70's and early 80's like Wolverine and Storm.



Pointless Pedant said:


> Ironically, the "normie mainstream fare" anime in America are also the ones people have heard of here. Pokemon is a household name, Sailor Moon and MHA less so but I've seen toys from them in second hand shops.
> 
> France does seem to have a real interest in it, linked to their comics culture. Shows like Hokuto no Ken were shown there in the past. Aside from France it's something very much associated with neckbeards in Europe, though. People do know what anime is in Europe, but it's very much associated with memes and online edgelords rather than childhood memories and it's mostly mentioned in the context of parody, with people either imitating the squeaky girl voices or the guys making constipation faces as they power up for 10 minutes.
> 
> One question I'd like to ask is the idea going around fans that anime was going to experience some kind of popularity boom in the 2020s. Outside Asia I really can't see that happening, and you're talking about the 2000s boom in the past tense here. If anything it seems like it used to be more popular than it is.



In America, the 2000's boom is very much over but the crash that ended it was heavily tied to the Great Recession and the subsequent rise of the MCU, which is very much a faddish thing and is dependent entirely on normal people being bored enough on a summer weekend to see the movies (and outside of the meticulously planned Marvel franchise, isn't really working as well)

The cringe of the turbo-weebs and the usual boom and bust cycles of fads and trends didn't help that decline, but I've noticed that even in 2019-2020, anime isn't quite as dead as it was in the early 2010's here in America. Not as big as it was before in 2005, but not as small as it was in 2013 either.

It's a "down but not fully out" thing here in the US

There's a fair bit of things I've seen online and in person that makes me think we're going to get a second anime boom in the United States in the 2020's. It will be a strictly American phenomenon and the Asian market will always be bigger, but I really think a new cycle's about to happen.

I'd wager part of it would be tied into a wider 2000's nostalgia movement similar to how the current "geek is chic" fads like the MCU, the She-Ra cartoon, and Star Wars sequels banked on a wider 1980's nostalgia movement that was also happening at the same time.

Really, it's going to be a mix of Millennials and Early Zoomers nostalgic for the 2000's and Late Zoomer and Alpha Gen kids wanting to watch shows that are genre-oriented (and not boring dramas) but aren't "woke" or trends that are currently burning out like capeshit.

We're going to probably see the "mainstream" trends in media and the "nerd" trends diverge once again in the 2020's as the COVID-wracked corporations will have to quit putting their eggs all in the same big-budget franchise baskets to stop losing money. Especially if the Chinese market suffers for whatever reason.


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## Pointless Pedant (Nov 3, 2020)

Syaoran Li said:


> It's possible, but I wouldn't call it a sure thing either. Especially if a Trump reelection hurts the Chinese economy bad enough via tighter trade sanctions or if 3GD gives out in the next raining season (it barely scraped by this year and nearly all the other dams and levees were destroyed to save it)
> 
> The odds of anime going "woke" to appease China are about 50/50 right now though.
> 
> ...


Even if China's economy contracts a bit it won't stop the fact that they're the main market for this stuff. Remember that anime is much bigger in Asia than anywhere else.


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## Syaoran Li (Nov 3, 2020)

Pointless Pedant said:


> Even if China's economy contracts a bit it won't stop the fact that they're the main market for this stuff. Remember that anime is much bigger in Asia than anywhere else.



I agree.

What I was trying to tell @CheezzyMach is that if the Chinese economy is hurting enough, you won't see as much pandering from anyone in general, especially the extreme subservience companies like Disney have for them (and they're considered unusually careful around the Chinese even by Hollywood standards)

Japanese studios are more likely to censor for the Chinese government than for American woke punks and soy beardos on Twitter, Tik Tok, and Tumblr.


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## Pointless Pedant (Nov 3, 2020)

Syaoran Li said:


> I agree.
> 
> What I was trying to tell @CheezzyMach is that if the Chinese economy is hurting enough, you won't see as much pandering from anyone in general, especially the extreme subservience companies like Disney have for them (and they're considered unusually careful around the Chinese even by Hollywood standards)
> 
> Japanese studios are more likely to censor for the Chinese government than for American woke punks and soy beardos on Twitter, Tik Tok, and Tumblr.


True, because American Twitter is not their target market. You get that pandering from Hollywood because they literally _are_ those people, but not from anyone else.


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## CheezzyMach (Nov 3, 2020)

InsolentGaylord said:


> You would love that wouldn't you?


Can't deny it'd be funny.


Syaoran Li said:


> It's possible, but I wouldn't call it a sure thing either. Especially if a Trump reelection hurts the Chinese economy bad enough via tighter trade sanctions or if 3GD gives out in the next raining season (it barely scraped by this year and nearly all the other dams and levees were destroyed to save it)
> 
> The odds of anime going "woke" to appease China are about 50/50 right now though.
> 
> ...


Bro I hate to say it but that's arrogant as fuck, America's pissing match with China will have no effect on the anime market. The West is an afterthought at best to the Japanese.

Also it won't be going woke that's mostly a western thing it would become much more conservative though. * fanservice would be severely toned down I think  *


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## Syaoran Li (Nov 3, 2020)

CheezzyMach said:


> Can't deny it'd be funny.
> 
> Bro I hate to say it but that's arrogant as fuck, America's pissing match with China will have no effect on the anime market. The West is an afterthought at best to the Japanese.
> 
> Also it won't be going woke that's mostly a western thing it would become much more conservative though. * fanservice would be severely toned down I think  *



I meant that it would have an effect on the American market and companies like Warner and Disney and I probably should have worded it a lot more clearly.

I agree that it'll be more conservative with the fanservice if they're pandering to China


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## Duncan Hills Coffee (Nov 3, 2020)

I find that I'm _very _picky when it comes to anime, like I am with TV in general. To me, if you're going to make a product that requires a large time investment, you better make it worth watching all the way through. I often drop TV shows after a couple of episodes because I realize that I don't feel invested enough to sit through to the end.

Anime's in an even more precarious situation because the really popular stuff, like shonen fighting and slice-of-life shit, doesn't interest me (well the shonen did but I got sick of it a long time ago). The stuff that does interest me tends to be stuff that non-anime people like too, like Cowboy Bebop and Trigun. The fact that those kinds of shows typically clock in at 26 episodes helps too because it's not so large a time sink.

I dabble in movies sometimes. I really enjoyed Akira and Spirited Away was a beautiful little movie. The movies I have seen show that Japan can produce stunning animation that rivals even Disney's best (seriously, Akira came out the same year as Oliver and Company and looks so much better).

I can see why people enjoy anime since it can be a nice fantasy to escape in, and I genuinely wish I could enjoy it on that level, but every time I try to I find myself wanting _more _out of it, whether it be on a storytelling or emotional level. And sometimes it delivers; like I said, I enjoy some anime but it seems to me the anime I like isn't the norm, as idiotically hipsterish as that sounds.


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## Spangled Drongo (Nov 3, 2020)

Syaoran Li said:


> I meant that it would have an effect on the American market and companies like Warner and Disney and I probably should have worded it a lot more clearly.
> 
> I agree that it'll be more conservative with the fanservice if they're pandering to China


No matter the reason, toning down the fanservice would make it easier for a lot of people to get into anime imho - random underwear shots and huge bouncing titties can certainly ruin one’s enjoyment of a series, and I don’t mean this in a feminist “hurr durr sexy women bad” way, but rather that it can ruin a good story when something sexually suggestive is thrown in _just because_. Normies who only have a vague idea of what anime is do often seem to think the sexual stuff is representative of the entire medium, and while there are certainly plenty of series that lack it (be they aimed at a younger audience, or focused around a plot that doesn’t lend itself well to fanservice, or simply created by someone who doesn’t like it), they’re not entirely wrong as when the pervy stuff does come up, it certainly stands out and sticks in your memory as the usual fanservice tropes are pretty much unique to Japanese media.

And it’s not just the fanservice aimed at a male audience either - sparkly bishies aren’t exactly my cup of tea either. Obviously each to their own, but again, it’s something I think could certainly be improved on if anime/manga creators want to bring in more fans from the west.


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## draggs (Nov 3, 2020)

Cartoon tiddies

But really since animation is seen as a serious form of storytelling (unlike in the West) and it costs much much less than most live action TV and most top tier live action movies, there are so many different kinds of stories that can be told and are

Also cartoon tiddies


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## InsolentGaylord (Nov 3, 2020)

Longcat said:


> No matter the reason, toning down the fanservice would make it easier for a lot of people to get into anime imho - random underwear shots and huge bouncing titties can certainly ruin one’s enjoyment of a series, and I don’t mean this in a feminist “hurr durr sexy women bad” way, but rather that it can ruin a good story when something sexually suggestive is thrown in _just because_. Normies who only have a vague idea of what anime is do often seem to think the sexual stuff is representative of the entire medium, and while there are certainly plenty of series that lack it (be they aimed at a younger audience, or focused around a plot that doesn’t lend itself well to fanservice, or simply created by someone who doesn’t like it), they’re not entirely wrong as when the pervy stuff does come up, it certainly stands out and sticks in your memory as the usual fanservice tropes are pretty much unique to Japanese media.
> 
> And it’s not just the fanservice aimed at a male audience either - sparkly bishies aren’t exactly my cup of tea either. Obviously each to their own, but again, it’s something I think could certainly be improved on if anime/manga creators want to bring in more fans from the west.



China isn't as worried about Fanservice as much as things that go against the Chinese Government, among other things.


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## Pointless Pedant (Nov 3, 2020)

InsolentGaylord said:


> China isn't as worried about Fanservice as much as things that go against the Chinese Government, among other things.


China bans porn so they won't let them take it too far.


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## I Love Beef (Nov 3, 2020)

Pointless Pedant said:


> It's junk made for profit by underpaid animators and mostly sold to China.





Pointless Pedant said:


> For a lot of people in Japan "working" is sitting around doing nothing for hours and giving the appearance of working hard to trick the boss. I'm guessing you probably don't get a lot of satire of corporate culture in anime though...





Pointless Pedant said:


> Minecraft, Call of Duty, Fortnite etc are huge in Japan. I'm not sure who you were talking to who said they don't play western video games. It's comparable to Mario and Animal Crossing being big in the west. This also applies to other media, there are loads of Marvel and Star Wars spergs there. Unless you're talking about the tiny subcultures of people who never leave their rooms they're not insular at all.


To tack onto @Syaoran Li's post into the future, I am one of those older fans who grew up in that time frame and the geographical area he was talking about, and to summarize everything I've said to @Longcat, to witness that era first hand was inspirational. That was the time when Hollywood and the entertainment industry had to deal with the situation when comics, animation, and video games had just as equal, if not more sway and public appeal on par with TV shows and movies, and fucked with all the censors because the moral watchdogs couldn't touch them because of the money and public appeal for doing things that weren't regulated to be bastardized "kid safe and family friendly".

To lay myself bare for a bit, I am an artist. I enjoy art. I work with art. I enjoy learning about the history of art. I also don't agree entirely with everything society thinks, because much of the time, there's always something hypocritical and absurd going on that runs contrary to where they claim they put their money where their mouths are. I like anime, because I've seen more art and skill applied to it and spread to the world in application than any of the ass sniffing artsy fartsy hoity toity "art makes me special and better" exceptional dipshits who are crying in woe about how the world doesn't appreciate art, but never does anything to tackle this dilemma that is only exacerbated by their own absurd ignorance. Yes, nothing is perfect; I know all about Japan's economic and business culture, from its highs to its lows; I know about series whose staff are so uninspired that don't really fucking care about what they put out, and I am well aware of corporate soullessness and its corruptive greed and malign influences. I honestly don't care though, because nothing is entirely certain or perfect in the world, and life is what you make it. I've also never been to Japan yet, but I guess for all of life's mysteries and blessings, I'll take it that I'm probably better for it until the opportunity comes.

I am also a video game hobbyist who plays a lot of more "obscure" video games, and I grew up way more with Japanese made games; nothing personal, but aside from splitting hairs and explaining myself, that's where I get my anime experience from too. Again, I am old- I grew up in that age before the minecrafts and the fortnites and the call of duties, and have been out of the mainstream for a while. I grew up "retro" or whatever. Played arcade games and emulators and burnt out around 2010-ish.

And if you were wondering, no, I don't like anime simply because it's Japanese. And I honestly don't get where people think that anime is specifically Japanese. I dunno. I'm probably too tired of people not using their brains and not thinking hard enough about our constitutional rights and what that means for our human condition. We're also on a thread that is talking about anime, so I don't need to explain anything more.

So oi, life is all about perspective, mate.



Longcat said:


> That then raises the age-old question: does it still count as anime if it was produced outside of Japan? I remember Tokyopop when they were still around would occasionally publish OEL (Original English Language) manga, which I wasn’t interested in as a preteen at the peak of my weeb phase, as I didn’t believe it was “real manga”. There’s also the grey area when it comes to manhwa (Korean)/manhua (Chinese), they all derive from the same word, but I find it interesting that there’s a distinction based on what country they originate from. And as far as anime goes, the most famous example I can think of that was produced in the west is Avatar, but mostly I’ve seen that referred to as _inspired _by anime but still ultimately a western cartoon. I guess it just comes down to whether you define it as a particular art style and maybe a few specific tropes/reoccurring themes, or as animation specifically produced in Japan.
> 
> And I can completely understand why a Japanese creator would want to make something that’s culturally relevant to their audience - it’s much easier to get into a work of fiction if there’s something in it that connects to your experience of reality, as someone who writes as a hobby this is something I understand well. But my preferred genre is high fantasy, with settings that deviate from reality quite a bit, and I’ve found very few anime that has the same feel as my favourite works of western fiction - more often than not it’s isekai and I’d rather see a pure fantasy setting than “Japanese teenager gets magically transported to fantasy world”. My ex showed me the first few episodes of DanMachi and while I appreciated the setting and the mythology references, there was still a common anime trope that I disliked - the gratuitous fanservice. There probably is a series or two that is just a sword and sorcery adventure with little to no fanservice, I just haven’t been actively looking, due to the negative baggage with my past weeb phase.
> 
> Again, not trying to hate on anime as a whole - just my take as a disillusioned former hardcore fan.


Yes. Yes it does. Not the hipster wojak fuckery of "lol anything animated is anime", but if it's in the style and spirit, it kinda is. Most attempts tend to miss out on the latter though.

Again, it's not wrong for anywhere else to create their own anime, but I can't guarantee that copy and pasting sitcoms or primetimes and prettying them up with an anime veneer is a sure fire way for success. Anime already has its own cultural impressions and baggage wherever it goes, and what works with fans and what the fans have built up in expectation and enjoyment in the fan community is what thrives. I believe understanding that as a foundation and building off of that is the only way that thrives, but I'm just speculating. 


Longcat said:


> No matter the reason, toning down the fanservice would make it easier for a lot of people to get into anime imho - random underwear shots and huge bouncing titties can certainly ruin one’s enjoyment of a series, and I don’t mean this in a feminist “hurr durr sexy women bad” way, but rather that it can ruin a good story when something sexually suggestive is thrown in _just because_. Normies who only have a vague idea of what anime is do often seem to think the sexual stuff is representative of the entire medium, and while there are certainly plenty of series that lack it (be they aimed at a younger audience, or focused around a plot that doesn’t lend itself well to fanservice, or simply created by someone who doesn’t like it), they’re not entirely wrong as when the pervy stuff does come up, it certainly stands out and sticks in your memory as the usual fanservice tropes are pretty much unique to Japanese media.
> 
> And it’s not just the fanservice aimed at a male audience either - sparkly bishies aren’t exactly my cup of tea either. Obviously each to their own, but again, it’s something I think could certainly be improved on if anime/manga creators want to bring in more fans from the west.


I've always felt that problem was a western thing. You know, the whole intellectuallism versus physical stoicism thing, western society's emphasis on being "real", the whole expected life cycle where you're supposed to have a nuclear family thing and you're supposed to lose your virginity by 18, etc. Not to say for all of them, but most Japanese people tend to not give a shit by general value of sex is natural and they also know how to keep that under wraps, and as long as you're not being a neet or otaku you can be into anime. Not that the whole "lol virgin" thing doesn't exist out there, but that kind of stuff is more ingrained with greater divides in specifically what you enjoy than how you enjoy it, and the whole interests hierarchy out west.

You're right in that it shouldn't be in everything, but at the same time, I don't trust the idea that things should be toned down simply to garner more appeal.


Heckler1 said:


> Walt Disney was the Vince McMahon of animation, and to pretend anything else is laughable.


Really? I heard that after he aired Snow White and the Seven Dwarves, his tune changed when the Oscars gave him a special kid's award despite Snow White moving people to tears.


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## The Last Stand (Nov 4, 2020)

Can somebody explain why anime women have breasts that defy gravity?


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## Syaoran Li (Nov 4, 2020)

The Last Stand said:


> Can somebody explain why anime women have breasts that defy gravity?



I'd say it's meant as an exotic thing, same reason why so many anime characters look stereotypically White despite the fact they're Japanese (Sailor Moon) or from a fantasy equivalent of feudal Japan (Naruto) or why so many others have totally unnatural hair colors and eye colors


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## Heckler1 (Nov 4, 2020)

I Love Beef said:


> To tack onto @Syaoran Li's post into the future, I am one of those older fans who grew up in that time frame and the geographical area he was talking about, and to summarize everything I've said to @Longcat, to witness that era first hand was inspirational. That was the time when Hollywood and the entertainment industry had to deal with the situation when comics, animation, and video games had just as equal, if not more sway and public appeal on par with TV shows and movies, and fucked with all the censors because the moral watchdogs couldn't touch them because of the money and public appeal for doing things that weren't regulated to be bastardized "kid safe and family friendly".
> 
> To lay myself bare for a bit, I am an artist. I enjoy art. I work with art. I enjoy learning about the history of art. I also don't agree entirely with everything society thinks, because much of the time, there's always something hypocritical and absurd going on that runs contrary to where they claim they put their money where their mouths are. I like anime, because I've seen more art and skill applied to it and spread to the world in application than any of the ass sniffing artsy fartsy hoity toity "art makes me special and better" exceptional dipshits who are crying in woe about how the world doesn't appreciate art, but never does anything to tackle this dilemma that is only exacerbated by their own absurd ignorance. Yes, nothing is perfect; I know all about Japan's economic and business culture, from its highs to its lows; I know about series whose staff are so uninspired that don't really fucking care about what they put out, and I am well aware of corporate soullessness and its corruptive greed and malign influences. I honestly don't care though, because nothing is entirely certain or perfect in the world, and life is what you make it. I've also never been to Japan yet, but I guess for all of life's mysteries and blessings, I'll take it that I'm probably better for it until the opportunity comes.
> 
> ...


Good post my dude.

So I would say that even if Walt had a change of heart around or after Snow White: the damage was already done. There was no real competition after that point, so Walt could afford to ease off the gas a bit. Unlike Vince however, Walt had no WCW esque competition, with Warner pretty much settling for the small screen, leaving Disney the king of Big Screen animation. So the only person doing adult animation is really Bashki in the 70's. Even if we give Walt a pass, his corporate creation held animation back in the west for at LEAST 50 years, in large part due to the masterful branding and power of Disney Co.


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## biozeminadae1 (May 1, 2022)

A nation which loves its culture so much and does everything it can to portray its splendor is something not seen anywhere else to the extent as with Japan. Their love of their own nation or civilisation state is what made me love anime and from then on - the rest of Japan.


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## UtadaWasabi2 (May 1, 2022)

I don't watch anime but I don't mind cute anime girl


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## Wormy (May 1, 2022)

I like 80's aka economic boom Japan era anime, but after that, the number of titles I like can be counted on two hands at best. It just went places I hadn't seen animation go at that point and a real feel of letting the artists do what they wanted without as much monetary worry. Obviously, this was a mistaken impression, but the fact it could impress like that is still worth praise.


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## Donker (May 1, 2022)

"One question I'd like to ask is the idea going around fans that anime was going to experience some kind of popularity boom in the 2020s."

Not at all, the entire Japanese pop culture industry from film, television, anime and music has been on a steep decline for decades now. The entire industry now relies on niche whales who will buy all the expensive merch over widespread audience acceptance. They've gone the GW warhammer route for the entire industry.

Great article series on it from a decade ago and it's largely only gotten worse.


			https://neojaponisme.com/2011/11/28/the-great-shift-in-japanese-pop-culture-part-one/


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## Gender: Xenomorph (May 6, 2022)

Anime are super fucking cringe.

I tried watchin them unironically and... Jesus fuck.


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## crows in guns (May 6, 2022)

I like hentai.


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## SSj_Ness (May 6, 2022)

I don't have much choice. I'm not really even that into anime, but it's practically the only decent way to watch a show. I'm not even just talking about how woke everything has become, even older stuff is just boring. Watching 24, Prison Break, etc puts me to sleep.

I really can't think of many shows I like. Early Walking Dead, Star Trek TNG/DS9, and Tim & Eric (Adult Swim) come to mind. I'd really have to think beyond that.

With anime there's also a sea of trash to sift through, but when you find something good it's amazing, like Death Note. I get criticized as a "weeb" by people who hate anime, and as a "fake anime fan/filthy casual" for mostly just watching mainstream stuff like DBZ. Sorry I don't like obscure things I don't know exist and couldn't even pronounce if I did.


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## Sparkling Yuzu (May 6, 2022)

I really like the animation style, I find much Western animation to be so ugly it's almost a visual and sensory assault and only suitable for satire and comedy. I also like how common urban fantasy type situations are but it's not just chicklit smut novels like in the West. I love supernatural creatures and pretty things. I also like the sincerity of a lot of the characters which would be mocked here bc we are so cynical.


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## Osmosis Jones (May 6, 2022)

Most anime makes me cringe to high hell but I fucking love Neon Genesis: Evangelion and I'll take suggestions of any other anime with that more low-key style, none of that weird weeb shit. Attack on Titan was cool but it was too much sadboy shit for me.


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## Sparkling Yuzu (May 6, 2022)

Osmosis Jones said:


> Most anime makes me cringe to high hell but I fucking love Neon Genesis: Evangelion and I'll take suggestions of any other anime with that more low-key style, none of that weird weeb shit. Attack on Titan was cool but it was too much sadboy shit for me.


Jojo's Bizarre Adventure.


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## Uberpenguin (May 6, 2022)

Gender: Xenomorph said:


> Anime are super fucking cringe.
> 
> I tried watchin them unironically and... Jesus fuck.


In my limited anime experience I've found there's a direct correlation between how few waifus there are and how cringe a given anime is.

In something like One Punch Man there's, like, one psychokinetic waifu and the show's pretty alright because it doesn't take itself too seriously and it plays with genre tropes. In Cowboy Bebop women are only around when they have a narrative purpose.

That's the problem though, the people who most consistently consume and spend money on anime are legitimately autistic speds who need fetishistic material constantly to activate their dulled autistic senses, so anyone who actually wants to make something that uses the medium to its maximum potential without having an erection the entire time gets pushed off to the wayside. They just aren't as profitable.


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## Thiletonomics (May 7, 2022)

One appeal with anime, is that there hasn't been as many cases of series running themselves into the ground, due to poor sequels/later releases, compared to all of the various Western media (and not just TV and movies) that fell victim to this. And the list is massive, which includes:


The Last of Us (due to TLOU2)
Star Wars (Disney Sequels)
Game of Thrones (Season 
LOST (a very terrible and pointless ending)
How I Met Your Mother (bad ending)
Mass Effect (ME3's ending, and ME:Andromeda)
Star Trek (later adaptations)
Battlefield (2042, V to a certain extent, BF4's terrible launch, BF Hardline)
Halo (the poor later games, as well as the TV adaptation abomination)
Blizzard's games (sexual harassment/assault accusations, older staff leaving the game, Activision's acquisition making them more focused on the $$$, the forced E-Sports pushes, drinking the Woke Koolaid)
Magic: The Gathering (same reasons as Blizzard, for the most part)
Compared to anime, aside from Attack on Titan #139, and maybe Danganronpa V3's divisive ending, how many times has a series ran itself into the ground, and out of relevance?


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## RSOD (May 9, 2022)

Thiletonomics said:


> One appeal with anime, is that there hasn't been as many cases of series running themselves into the ground, due to poor sequels/later releases, compared to all of the various Western media (and not just TV and movies) that fell victim to this. And the list is massive, which includes:
> 
> 
> The Last of Us (due to TLOU2)
> ...


Lol you havent heard of konami


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## Atatata (May 12, 2022)

Osmosis Jones said:


> Most anime makes me cringe to high hell but I fucking love Neon Genesis: Evangelion and I'll take suggestions of any other anime with that more low-key style, none of that weird weeb shit. Attack on Titan was cool but it was too much sadboy shit for me.


There's low key stuff each season, problem is its low key so unless you look for it, you're not going to see it.
That being said, I don't really know how Eva got this status when its very anime. The angel designs, Asuka and Rei being some of the biggest examples of "classic" waifu archetypes, even the "mysterious slightly homosexual white haired pretty boy" has been used over and over again since. Sure, one could say its self aware, but so is a lot of anime.
I could understand if it were Gundam, but Eva?


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## Osmosis Jones (May 12, 2022)

Atatata said:


> There's low key stuff each season, problem is its low key so unless you look for it, you're not going to see it.
> That being said, I don't really know how Eva got this status when its very anime. The angel designs, Asuka and Rei being some of the biggest examples of "classic" waifu archetypes, even the "mysterious slightly homosexual white haired pretty boy" has been used over and over again since. Sure, one could say its self aware, but so is a lot of anime.
> I could understand if it were Gundam, but Eva?


Maybe it helps to understand that I haven't watched anything other than Evangelion, Death Note, and some Ghibli films. 

I had friends in jr HS obsessed with Hetalia so I'm acutely aware of that, and that shit is wildly gay. Someone showed me Angel Beats and said it was the best thing ever. That was retarded. 

I guess I like some sophistication without a shitload of absolutely ridiculous scenarios that seem based on fetishes. Anime tropes don't bother me. If schoolgirls with guns is an anime trope then God help you.


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## Thiletonomics (May 14, 2022)

Darsheel said:


> Lol you havent heard of konami



I don't remember seeing Konami getting as much vitrol as something like GOT Season 8, or ME3's ending.


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## RSOD (May 14, 2022)

Thiletonomics said:


> I don't remember seeing Konami getting as much vitrol as something like GOT Season 8, or ME3's ending.


Man you missed the p.t shitshow


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