a small rant-ish thing about anime

Don’t get me wrong, I love anime (as in, Japanese animation, for all ye who have not yet heard the term)
I just have a few problems I have to get out of my head.

First, Why does it have to be so sad? Is it really that painful to write a story in which the main character DOESN’T lose at least one, if not all, of his/her close friends/parents/relatives/husband/wife/etc…?

Also, is it just me, or do anime series tend to wrap up much too abruptly and with too little closure? I mean, for example [SPOILERS!!!], Full Metal Alchemist (don’t laugh at the name, the show is actually quite good) runs for 52 (or thereabouts) episodes. Was it really neccesary to try to wrap up the story in about 2 episodes, with one main character in another dimension, all alone, and the other, finally back in his own body, with no memories of everything that happened in the show? Surely there was a better way to wrap that up.
[/spoilers]
The only two anime series I’ve seen that wrapped up well were Last Exile and Haibane Renmei (incedentally two of my favorites).

Well, I’m done ranting for today…

unless someone brings up the wii…

I’m gonna go out on a limb here and say that anime is a terrible fad that needs to die a slow agonizing death like Pokemon did.

I hope you aren’t implying that pokemon is an anime…

No, it’s not. I just wish anime would follow its path.

It is possible… and there are loads of anime without a single death! But don’t expect to see violent anime without …death in it? Your’ll probabily enjoy anime such as “Club-To-Death Angel Dokuro-chan” rather than… FMA

Also, is it just me, or do anime series tend to wrap up much too abruptly and with too little closure? I mean, for example [SPOILERS!!!], Full Metal Alchemist (don’t laugh at the name, the show is actually quite good) runs for 52 (or thereabouts) episodes. Was it really neccesary to try to wrap up the story in about 2 episodes, with one main character in another dimension, all alone, and the other, finally back in his own body, with no memories of everything that happened in the show? Surely there was a better way to wrap that up.
FMA does not follow the original manga fully and the creator has said she/he didnt intend for it to end like that. Infact, the manga is still going and the 7sins (atleast glutonny) is still alive when I last looked.

As to ending it suddenly, I dont feel as though FMA story wise was cut short… Infact, the story wasnt really over (2 movies came out after?) but as i said, it didnt follow the original manga, so they couldnt really continue off of thin air without ruining the FMA ‘brand’

I was under the impression that the anime and manga of FMA were coming out simltaneously… I’m not sure where I picked up on that though.

I was aware that there was one movie (brace yourself for another funny name…) Conquerers of Shambala (I’m pretty sure that’s the title, anyways), but what’s the other one? I checked on google to see if there was one, and didn’t find anything.

i so have to see that movie. yeah, a lot of anime is going to have death of sorts, especially the death of a friend to the main charater, for the simple reason that there are news reports about people dying: people, for some reason, enjoy tragedy, no matter the media. but hey, as long as the tragedy is logical, and contributes to the story, i’m fine with it. it makes the anime feel more emotional. like (don’t know if you watch this) in Trinity Blood, one of the main characters just died, and she was one of my favorites, which drove me into a brief depression (i’m still in denial). also, anime only loosely based on the manga is a bit more common than you think. take (don’t kill me!!) pokemon. yeah, i’ll just stop there. or DBZ. if you’re knowledgable of that series, you’d know that it “officially” stopped after the Freeza (did i spell that right?) saga. the rest is just crap spewed out by directors looking to make a quick buck. and if you wanna see some more anime/manga series that are still going, i suggest Naruto and Bleach. i hear that the manga is still going for each, but there’s also a show for each. i still need to investigate them more thoroughly, but in the mean time, i just like sitting around saturday nights and watch tv for several hours. oh, and if you have high speed internet, i could give you a site where you can watch anime, in case you’re missing some episodes.

since it’s been around for about 40 years, and since it has been pretty popular for about 10 years (in a cultish sort of way) I would say, nope.

Don’t be too suprised if that limb breaks, sending you to an agonizing death.

I can appreciate the high draw quality that anime usually represents, but in almost every other aspect a majority of anime just falls short.

Mainly for these 2 reasons:

  • The japs have somekind of a freaky obsession with little kids/teens as main characters of the story.
  • The story (if thats what you can call it in most cases) is usually hyper emo, and completely weepy. The characters always have somekind of a cliche emotional weekness that they “can’t let go”. It’s just so corny.The only anime that I could really say “I liked” was the “Ghost In The Shell” series. I mean it had emotional parts as well, but they were perfectly balanced with the action, and the whole thing was much closer to “mature” than any other anime I ever looked at.

Have you ever seen Cowboy Bebop or Trigun? It has neither of those things. Plus, my brother and I liked both GitS, and we’re both fans of those two shows. I get what you say about the teenager thing. Most animes I’ve seen revolve around little kids.

Social: OMG!! you get a hug now, or a cookie, if you’d rather prefer that instead. Ghost in the Shell is awesome, but now it’s off saturday nights on cartoon network, so i can’t watch it (i tuned in during the second season, and was trying to catch up on the first when the schedual was re-arranged). do you watch anime on adult swim, or do you have a different source (question aimed at whole community)

[Edit] Cowboy Bebop rocks, can’t deny the theme song!

That’s because there’s only that one movie you mention.

I stopped watching right at the beginning of DBZ (I only liked the original). Anyway, what you’re saying is partially true. There were lots of filler plots because the anime was running at the same time as the manga, but its creator (Akira Toriyama) kept writing it up until a year before DBZ ended. It should’ve ended with Dragon Ball, anyway.

Yep, they’re both still running. But there are quite a few manga/anime series that have been running for over 10, 20 or even 30 years (yikes).

i would like to express my utter disgust at all things anime. that is all.:slight_smile:

i would like to express my utter disgust at all things anime. that is all.:slight_smile:

/me raises his glass in a toast

It’s only really gotten infectiously popular recently. And yes, it’s been around for a long long time, but now it’s just getting ridiculous. 15 year old nerdy Americans are watching shows made for little Japanese kids. It’s LAME.

There are good shows though, Cowboy Bebop especially, the old Gundams, Macross, etc.
There’s just a lot, a LOT, of stupid shit.

I guess it’s more the people that it attracts than the anime itself that are to blame. It used to be D&D, now it’s this.

I think Social pretty much hit it right on.

Yes, I did. They were both good shows (trigun could have done with a little less sobbing, but still, very well written series).

I’m [Adult Swim] exclusive. However, I’m sure that you can find anything that interests you online. [AS] still runs GITS “Second Gig” reruns every weeknight at 1:30AM, in case you’r interested.

I think it’s a combined effect of both: the pathetic anime, and the people it attracts.

Would I be far off in suggesting that maybe one causes the other? I mean weepy emo anime titles (which are unfortunetly a majority), usually attract weepy emo loser kids, and that in turn slaps a bad label on the whole genre.

If you don’t like it, don’t watch it. Lots of people love anime. It is an animation genre totally different from anything else out there.

Would I be far off in suggesting that maybe one causes the other? I mean weepy emo anime titles (which are unfortunetly a majority), usually attract weepy emo loser kids, and that in turn slaps a bad label on the whole genre.
Using your logic I could also say that emotional hollywood movies makes all hollywood movies bad. I hated “The English Patient”. Does this mean all other movies are bad. No.

Some emotion isn’t a bad thing. It makes the characters and the story seem more real.

It’s only really gotten infectiously popular recently. And yes, it’s been around for a long long time, but now it’s just getting ridiculous. 15 year old nerdy Americans are watching shows made for little Japanese kids. It’s LAME.
Most anime shows are not for little kids. This is where most people get it wrong. Just because something is animated, doesn’t mean it is for kids. That is exactly the same faulty reasoning people make in assuming all games are for children.

The fact that it is getting more popular implies that a lot of people like it. Does this make all of them wrong and “lame” just because you don’t?

Horay!:cool:

First of all there is a movie which “wraps” it up, and second of all they are making another series to continue it.

Second of all, anime aren’t always “sad”, for example Samurai Champloo has pretty much all happy endings for the whole series, so you obviously haven’t seen enough anime. Besides that it makes for good drama.

Finally, if you like it, why complain?

From the sound of it you don’t have enough experience with anime to make any kind of judgement, so basically get over it.

Mystery

PS: To those people making stupid comments about anime, go back to watching your poorly made live-action movies with bad acting and stupid dialogue. (Note: Sound like your reasoning for not watching anime)