Is anime getting repetitive?

Rikimaru_X · February 2007

Can't explain, but it seems that things are always just the same. A hard-headed/dumb charcter, a quiet/cool headed character, a ditsy and clumsey chararcter, a buffed out character, and some mixed feelings character. Somthing like that. I mean all I keep seeing is the same thing. I see no kind of originality or diversity. I mean this is the one reason why I look at Marvel/DC stuff like Justice League or X-men. Where people change, feelings change and they act as real humans. There is just a handfull of Anime shows that I feel is entirely different from others and one of them is Cowboy Bebop. Some of these shows really need some flavor, but I guess it's whatever to attract the kids.

Astropuyo · February 2007

Welcome to adult tastes!

I used to be a big fan of anime..when I was a teenager and such.

I can still watch "some" anime but most of it annoys the piss out of me.

I used to be the "friend" who was all japanese loving and such.. God why?

The only thing I like from japan now a days, is 5% of the women, they can keep the rest.

Draenor · February 2007

"getting" repetetive? no

Inherently repetetive due to the style? yes

modjoe86 · February 2007

Originally posted by Draenor

"getting" repetetive? no
Inherently repetetive due to the style? yes

I like where you're going with this one.

Elapsed · February 2007

People who like anime are wierd.

Rikimaru_X · February 2007

Originally posted by Draenor

"getting" repetetive? no
Inherently repetetive due to the style? yes

Sounds like it.

Gameloading · February 2007

Anime is for children and teenagers, thats why its getting repetive.

damond5031 · February 2007

I never could understand what people get out of anime...When I was in the Navy serving in Sasebo Japan I knew all kinds of guys that were really into this stuff; the navy exchange had a whole section of the store dedicated to anime. I watched ghost in the shell but just couldnt get interested in the rest of it'.

Kurush · February 2007

I've found the plots of most anime I've seen, which is admittedly very little, to be not to my liking. The first problem is that many of them seem based on themes rooted in Shinto belief and the outlook it teaches. I can't relate to that or really understand it, so I see no point in watching it. The second problem is that the rest are just plain stupid. I only like an anime if it has some great atmospheric music and some good fight scenes.

Escaflowne was pretty cool, I think. The plot was really quite dumb, but the fight scenes were alright. I think that one handled the important subject matter of "giant fighting robots" better than Gundam (hated those).

paulscott · February 2007

not all anime is bad/annoying. but its like wading through a pile of crap to find an edible piece of corn. not worth any sane persons time.

Praetoriani · February 2007

I really liked Great Teacher Onizuka, and watched all 43 or so episodes in a week.

Other than that, I'm not a real fan of anime. Don't know much of it, I guess.

Meon · February 2007

I stopped watching anime when i was around 12.. although i do know a few friends who still (at 21) watch certain anime series.

TimeViewer · February 2007

First off anime is far far from being just for teens, there are a lot of adult animes (and no not just porn). One of the biggest problems is what some of you guys are seeing, especially here in the USA. We only get a fraction of what's been made, and sometimes it's poorly translated (One Piece is a good example of a bad translation, they took a violent bloody show and turned it into a goof).

I'm 49, and I've watched animes for many years, I'm not counting Astro Boy, Speed Racer, etc, my first real anime was back in the 1980's. I found an underground video shop and a copy of Wicked City, a half burned and twice as psychotic Hitler and his son using a machine to raise a demon and start WW3. I still watch new stuff even to this day, I prefer to download unlicensed fan translations via torrents before the censors destroy them. The latest I was watching (until it was licensed) was Death Note, a show that has caused a lot of disturbance due to it's violent nature (it's about a guy who finds a "notebook" dropped by a death god which has the power to kill anyone who's name is written in it).

As to repetition, that's the nature of storytelling, all stories, and games, have the hero, the antihero, someone needs to be saved, etc. There's a good explanation in the documentary on the making of Star Wars, the story was chosen due to it's having all the classic elements needed for a successful story. It's hard to escape the elements you need to make a good story, having someone just sit around and doing nothing just wont cut it. It's how the story is told, and the differing surrounding elements, that attract fans.

dhartz · February 2007

i might take a look at death note & elfen lied.. aret hey good animes

?

Rikimaru_X · February 2007

80s anime was good. Speed Racer, Astro Boy, Transformers. Yeah when I grew up Cartoon Network showed some real good anime. I could never tell it was Anime till my mom told me, also Gigantor. When it comes to anime and me, I'll watch it, but it takes me awhile to find somthing to get addicted to. I'm trying to get into Bleach, but I can't becuase of that stupid main character. I think he's just stupid as hell. I mean it's like many of these charcters don't feel real.

Aison2 · February 2007

well i would say elfenlied belongs to the better ones (and its rather adult content)

anyway pls dont judge the gerne by the crap running arround

2-4pm

there will be only boring stuff for you couse its obviously kiddy-time

its not the fault of the gerne if we just get the stuff for the kidds couse they think

there arent enough people for the adult content (and this thread shows that theyre right)

im defending the gerne couse of "ghost in the shell" its one of my favourite movies

it owns most other movies regardless of gerne or budget

i know the pictures on google seem kinda weird

and first i also didnt want to watch it because of that

but since they said that ghost in the shell was the inpiration for the wachowski brothers to make "the matrix"

i was really curious about it and so i bought it in the end

after i watched it, i really liked it :]

its the old saying:

dont judge by the appearance

Rikimaru_X · February 2007

Ghost in the Shell is great Anime.

pureazure · February 2007

Transformers was awesome. Voltron was also pretty decent, though that was abit repetitive to begin with. Bring back the mid 80's!

Koshiba · February 2007

Elfen Lied failed with the random "fanservice" out of place "nyuuu" crap. Other than that.. I've always been into anime for as long as I can remember. Pretty much really started when I started renting it from local video stores in the VHS days. To be honest though, pretty much everything has repetitive story lines and whatever by now. Hell, I watch regular movies and feel I've seen them before. Same could be said for comic books as well though, videogames too. The main type of anime I'm sick and tired of though is the loser guy surrounded by tons of hot women. It's been done how many times now? And they're all pretty much the same exact clones over and over, I can't even stand to sit through one episode of most of them. Other than that though, there's still things that can be quite entertaining.

Emyrn · February 2007

I love anime even though a lot of it is repetitive. There are a lot of unique and solid ones out there. I'm currently watching the Hellsing OVA's after reading the Manga and they are great even though they are bloody. Besides I've managed to come up with some great story ideas which I'm using from Anime.

MajorBiggs · February 2007

I havent watch anime for years and years since i was like 12, but last week i watched Akira. I was told it was like the greatest "manga" ever or something along those lines.

All i got out of it was a disturbing blob at the end. I dont see what people get out of anime anymore..

mbblade · February 2007

i see anime as just a cartoon that is a little more mature. So if you still watch cartoons then it the same thing

Koshiba · February 2007

People's problems is they only go by the most popular stuff. Popular doesn't always equal better. And I watch anime for the same reason I watch anything else or read comics, play games, etc. Storyline, characters, etc. Overall entertainment.

TimeViewer · February 2007

The thing is you have to look through quite a few to find what you want from them, as stated you can't really go by what's "pop" here in the US, go check out some sites that do, well... pretty much the same thing as mmorpg does for the gaming community, I'd recommend these two,

http://www.animenfo.com/

(Good for small fan writeups and general info)

http://anidb.info/perl-bin/animedb.pl?show=main

(Good for episode name and fansub info)

There's a number of genres, adult are known as Ecchi and Hentai (btw it's my understanding that both these words mean Pervert). There's some very hardcore that I would not allow a younger kid to view but some I see as harmless (non explicit). My niece has watched the non explicit for a number of years now (she's now 15), with her parent's permission I might add, though I've had the job of explaining some of it to her, at her parent's insistence (even though they're very open people they still can't seem to be capable of explaining the simple facts of life to their own daughter, a problem many parents seem to have in the US, but that's another topic). It's a touchy area (pun intended) so you kids may want to stay away from these until your parents grow up. (Some are blocked from viewing the info unless you're a registered pervert... I mean site member)

Some force you to use that gray matter in your head region, like Paranoia Agent did. BTW, for those who could never quite "get" that one, it was about the inner demons we create through our constant self denial of events in our lives (the girl being responsible for the death of her own puppy, the self glorification and abuse of others by the school kid, the cop who abused his position yet pictured himself as a righteous hero of the people, and his abuse of his daughter and her loss of innocence to the man she looked up to, etc).

Some you don't really need to think for, they're all blood and guts (my niece loves those), if you really look there's a bit of everything for every taste. There's also a number of artistic styles, Chibi (small body big head) Unrealistic (or what I call little girls with big boobs) Realistic (normal body type). I think the Chibi and Unrealistic styles are what most "Asian" game haters yap on and on about in here (even though they never seem to actually go check out the game or the actual art style since some postings have complained about games I found to use the realistic style).

Some people will just never quite "get it" though, they've locked themselves into the western "sourpuss old fart" mode, usually those who post "I stopped watching when I was 12". Someone stepped on their funnybone in life and they seem to think that only children have a sense of humor, or that their nads will shrink if they laugh at something. Eastern culture seems a bit more open on this point, like we in the United States USE TO BE. I should remind some of you that the old cartoons were not written for children, Bugs Bunny dressed in drag and smooching Elmer Fudd was meant as adult entertainment, all those old cartoons were originally shown in movie houses along with news reels, not as morning fodder for the idiot box / substitute baby sitter you now plop your kids in front of instead of actually dealing with and relating to them.

Adults watch anime all the time, whole businesses devote themselves to the genre, even ones that have no relation to the industry (like the "maid service" restaurants that have become a fad in Japan). They have their own role play, just as gamers do, we call it LARP, they call it Cosplay, and since some nanonads out there haven't bothered to look, they're a heck of a lot hotter to look at than some of our LARPs, btw ladies there's something for everyone too, it's not all just big boob babes but plenty of guys (as my niece could tell you, well she, and my wife, think they're hot anyways, I'm no judge of man flesh)

There are of course the stinkers, stuff so bad it reaks, that's true of any form of entertainment though. You just have to look around and find what suits your personal tastes. Just like you do with games. Personally I love everything Clamp has produced (the first I watched by them was Chobits, the latest xxxHOLIC). If you're going to poke around I suggest you find something you do like then go look at everything that company has produced, you may find quite a few that gain your interest.

A.Dantes · February 2007

I will disagree on terming "Ecchi" as adult content. All that label really means is that you can expect to come across alot of underdressed girls, breast shots, and mini skirts. While probably in bad taste, none of it would be unacceptable in any company.

As for those claiming Anime is getting repetive, remeber that 90% of everything made, regardless of origin or genre, is crap. The Japanese have rather different views and standards though, so there unimagintive, boring drivel is very different from out unimagintive, boring drivel. While its new, its entertaining but eventually you see enough for it recognize the copy cat clones. The fact that the term anime is merely a presentational style and origin, but has nothing to do with actual content, doesn't help. Just as with US TV, there are series aimed at six year olds, series aimed at 12 year olds (Also the series you see the most talk about for some reason), and series aimed at 40 year olds.

The American TV industry really doesn't help matters. Pretty much everything imported onto TV is the worst example possible. Cartoon Network and others like to pick up the shows aimed at 10 to 13 year olds and just go on and on forever without a real plot (Dragon Ball Z and friends). Anything remotely controversal or philosopical is edited out and the voice actors hired are terrible.

Note that most "anime fans" will also list completly random junk as their "favorites". I've seen a number of people respond with a list of everything they've seen as their favorite with no thought at towards each titles actual merits. They also seem to have issues actually getting a hold of any wide selection, limiting the list to series running in the last six months and a sprinkling of ones that are not hard to find in the US (Trigun seems to show up quite a lot).

TimeViewer · February 2007

@A.Dantes Ecchi comes under that heading being somewhat near our R rating, don't get me wrong I don't view it as porn but some parents may not want their kids watching it, and I'm not here to promote it to children who may be too... umm... undereducated in the facts of life? to understand it beyond the "giggle" factor. My niece has always sat with me while I explained things to her in terms her age allowed her to understand, I've always been very open with her, in fact I've never once lied to her, something few parents can claim with their own kids but something I feel very strongly about, again that is another topic though. Not all parents feel as I do, many, unfortunately to the extreme opposite, since there are laws that would put a person in jail for promoting what they term inappropriate content you have to be careful what you promote on sites where underage children are free to read and follow (posting links to porn for instance is considered child abuse and a sex crime if those links can be accessed by children, you may not agree with the law, but it's there, and porn laws do extend to both cartoon and static drawing forms).

From your comment you seem to view most entertainment as "boring drivel" claiming that 90% of all is crap says to me that most of it is over your head. Yes there is some repetition, all stories since Beowulf have followed a similar format, and some are blatant rip offs of other stories, which is why people should look for themselves and find the original works (much of Clamp's work for instance has been ripped off) they rip it off for two reasons, it was good, and people liked it.

Japanese works have been ripped off for our entertainment for quite some time, and not just in the anime industry. Akira Kurosawa was a Japanese film maker, one of the best the world has ever seen in my opinion, yet few people in the US know who he is even though they've watched rip offs of his movies. "The Magnificent Seven" for instance is one of the best known rip offs, his original "Seven Samurai" was a masterpiece but Hollyweird figgured they could rip off his work and nobody would notice or believe him here in the US if he protested. The US industry is now trying to do the same thing with anime, airing what it considers to be the less imaginative series (like Dragonball Z) while they pump their own talking cars and junk and while they hide away all the good stuff or rewrite the dialog until it's garbage (like they did with One Piece).

The two sites I listed have a good listing, for all ages. There's plenty of genres besides Ecchi and Hentai for people to look through, the Gundam series mentioned comes under the genre Mecha for instance. Some for girls, some for boys, some for both, and plenty for adults. I suggest people go and decide for themselves rather than blindly accept the negative opinions of others.

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