I'm trying to understand Anime.

[Lagwin]

I would rather eat my own eyes using a hot spoon.

---------- Post added 2013-05-07 at 02:08 PM ----------

Any recommendations for someone that likes the violent ones? I enjoyed Hellsing, Evangelion, code Geass, vampire hunter D and a few more I forget.

lol.
I would second Black lagoon, there is also berserk,claymore ,3x3 eyes, macross zero, fist of the north star(old and cheesy as fuck but nice an violent),elfen lied, deadman wonderland and Aother

[tankbug]

I love anime, but I'm having trouble finding new good ones. The best animes I've seen have existed for at least 10 years, so I don't know happened to the industry. NGE, Hellsing, Last Exile, Trigun, Berserk....When are we going to see new shows for the adult audience? The last one I watched which was decent was Darker than Black, but it was not nearly as good as the ones I mentioned earlier.

[Tsuna]

you would atleast get a bit of a laugh at Upotte and girls und panzer.

Two series you can find absolutely hilarious if you don't take them seriously, and the greatest kind of blight on the industry if you do.

[Seirith]

Why is there such a strong following of the "Kiddie" category Anime? Many of my friends ages 25+ (some in their mid and late 30's) spend hours upon hours watching and rewatching DBZ or Gundam or stuff like that, and debating it, in debth.)

Everyone likes different things. Is this even a serious question? You don't understand that people like different things?

[Lagwin]

Two series you can find absolutely hilarious if you don't take them seriously, and the greatest kind of blight on the industry if you do.

Girls und panzer wasn't actually that bad...a bit cutesie but not excessively so, Upotte was verging on something i would normally drop(excessive fan service and a lot of innuendo) but they at least put the effort into some research on the guns.

[EnclosedOne]

want excessive fan service and zombies then watch highschool of the dead xD

[ddsad2212]

Offtopic.

That post on anime not having a plural blew my mind. The amount of time I have spent trying to figure out the correct way to say it... Makes me feel dumb not just looking that up

---------- Post added 2013-05-07 at 02:33 PM ----------

want excessive fan service and zombies then watch highschool of the dead xD

Haha, agree one of the only shows of its type that does not try and hide what it is. And to be honest it is fairly fun to watch!

[dawawe]

Anime and Manga have been rising in popularity for years. But I never managed to get it.

I tried to watch all the mainstream popular stuff like Dragon Ball Z, Gundam, Naruto, Inuyasha, Naruto, and recently I seen a reference to Attack on Titan and checked that out too.

But I just don't get it. Very often they are based on solid story backdrops, but Jesus the exposition is horrendous. Full of clitches, unamusing humor etc.

Then you have all the contemplation, the blablabla. Most of the time its bloody horrible. The action sequences are terrible. The characters are all half twits. It's like the Comic book cliche of the villain going on 4 hour explanations on how they will cut the hero in two using a complicated, prototype laser, while he is tied to a table, instead of just freaking shooting him in face. Anime feels the same but the protagonists do the same.

How is it enjoyable? They are terrible.

I don't say I never seen Anime that I would have liked. There are things like Vampire Hunter D, Hellsing, Blue Gender (this suffered from all the above, but the backdrop was too good) Ghost in a Shell, Jin-Roh, or the brilliant Cowboy Bepop.

These also use a lot of character exposition but they make sense and don't interupt the flow of the action. Plus they try to stay away from stupid cliches.

Now I might be missing something here.

**EDIT**

I'll reformulate the question, as I have put it badly before.

Why is there such a strong following of the "Kiddie" category Anime? Many of my friends ages 25+ (some in their mid and late 30's) spend hours upon hours watching and rewatching DBZ or Gundam or stuff like that, and debating it, in debth.

(Yeah I work and hang out in a somewhat geeky enviroment.)

most of the shows you named are terrible. Also if you are watching english dub versions you are missing out on a lot of it. English censors and dubbing companies dumb down anime to suit kids more.

some stuff you should check out:

Code Geass
Evangelion (new theatrical releases for times sake) 3 done so far
FMA:brotherhood in japanese
Gurren Lagann
Bakemonogatari
FLCL

movies wise almost anything Studio Ghibli and Miyazaki(father not son) especially Princess Mononoke. (stay away from pnyo)

[Shadowsz]

watching anime is like getting time where you are allowed to shut off your brain and just accept.

stupid stuff becomes ingenious stuff.

[N-7]

want excessive fan service and zombies then watch highschool of the dead xD

That show went really over the top lol especially the uncensored version.

[Al Gorefiend]

OP: What exactly are you missing out on by not liking/watching Anime? The last Anime I've watched was DBZ when I was like 10 years old, and it wasn't enjoyable. If you don't enjoy it, don't try to. Anime is extremely.. uh.. "exotic", and the only thing you might be missing from not watching it is not understanding some forum's fanchat. I personally cannot stand Anime in the purest form of the word, and absolutely loath Japanese pop-culture (Yes, even Nintendo). When I say this in person, nobody cares. When I say it on the Internet? Shitstorm. Who cares if I don't know what Harikuri Sansumblahblah is, or I've never played Legend of Zelda, or Naruto sounds like a brand of Ramen Noodles to me. Anime is just like everything else on the Internet, if you say you do not like it, prepare to offend somebody.

[Cybran]

Thanks, looks like Black lagoon will be worth a watch.

Nothing special really.

[Tsuna]

I love anime, but I'm having trouble finding new good ones. The best animes I've seen have existed for at least 10 years, so I don't know happened to the industry. NGE, Hellsing, Last Exile, Trigun, Berserk....When are we going to see new shows for the adult audience? The last one I watched which was decent was Darker than Black, but it was not nearly as good as the ones I mentioned earlier.

You know trigun was sort of an on the fence series between shounen and seinen right? And by adult do you mean you're looking for... hentai? I don't do hentai recommendations

But whatever, in no particular order.

Baccano!, because the mafia is cool, also GUNS, it's also one hell of a hard story to understand so it'll pick your brain.

Trinity Blood, because it's Trigun but dark and features religion. NOTHING is more evil than the Catholic Church.

Welcome to the NHK, because it's the biggest reality stfuppercut you'll ever deliver to anyone living at home and jobless

Attack on Titan, because when there's something that eats humans, defecation hits the oscilation.

C: Money of Soul and Possibility Control, because the economies of the world are really controlled by billionaires waging wars in alternate dimensions and fucking over reality.

Elfen Lied, because tits and blood and gore.

Angel Beats, BECAUSE THE FEELS, ALL THE FEELS. It's a bit less michael bay than most of the other recommendations floating around but it takes a good look at the human condition and stfuppercuts religion and the idea of "God" something fierce, it's a good thing. Also the feels.

Psycho-Pass, because it's like Ghost in the Shell SAC and Cowboy Bebop had a lovechild drawn by a studio who make it their mission to perfect the bishounen and ASLFDKAJFSAFKLAJL, just watch it, three episodes is enough to cause addicition.

[Lagwin]

Nothing special really.

Ohh but it is...it doesn't have an all encompassing story to the series and is more like a slice of life anime but the slice of life is pretty much all scum and villainy.

[Deleted]

Go watch Elfen lied it is amazing!

Also i watched ALOT of anime and some i like some i dont. But the realy long ones like naruto and DBZ tend to have those 4 hours of talking about how awesome they are because when they where made they where about to catch up to the manga so they just makes everything happen a little slower.

But yea finde something you like and then try to finde something like that. Lately i been watching Magi I like it. But agien i like most anime.

But if you realy want a grown up one. go watch Elfen lied it is only on 12 or 13 ep's so there wont be those 10 EP's without much happening.

Also something like Full metal alchimist. there is both the one called Full metal alchimist and Full metal alchimist brotherhood. think brotherhood is the best as far as i reamber

[Itisamuh]

It's certainly not for everyone. Personally I've never liked any of it except Dragonball Z and...the stuff that can't be talked about.

[Simulacrum]

Personally I never understood why people like many of the more 'adult' animes, like Black Lagoon, Cowboy Bebop, Trigun, Hellsing, etc. I watched Black Lagoon to like ep 7 because the premise seemed mildlyinteresting, but beyond that one scene with the boat I was extremely bored through the whole thing. Cowboy Bebop I also found to be pretty meh (I honestly don't see the appeal at all), though not as boring as Black Lagoon. The OP complains about boring, unamusing humor, cliches, terrible contemplation, etc, but still names Cowboy Bebop as brilliant, despite it featuring all of that a plenty? Rarely have I been as irritated by predictable, chice character interactions as I was by that show, or as bored with the philosophizing in it... but just because I like it doesn't mean it sucks.

It's not difficult to lob critisicms at the likes of evangelion or hellsing or what have you either, the former of which is just totally absurd on every level imaginabe (and features some of the most insufferable characters in history, even if it is justified in this case), and the latter of which is just violenceporn with an invincible protagonist of such power that he's a single greaer threat than evrything else on the british isles combined, who has inexplicably been enslaved by normal humans, and just goes around raping people to death (and sometimes worse, as part of his powers is the ability to rape people's souls inside his own body after he's killed and eaten them).

It's not hard to point at the flaws of any given anime and say 'this is why I think this sucks'.

I don't think that because an anime features adult protagonists and lots of extreme violence, gore, rape, babykilling, and so on, (or, god forbid, long boring, "realistic" stretches of absolutely nothing happening, stretching out events that should take 5 minutes to several episodes with tedious music and characters contemplating to themselves and each other banalities) that it's any more inherently intellectually stimulating or entertaining than one that features huge guys with power levels in the centillions screaming at each other... outside of the fillers, anyway. The only major differences I've experienced between the two is the differences in tone... well, and "adult" anime tend to be a little more intersting on average in my experience, to the point where I personally stay away from all animes with child protagonist by default unless it gets extremely good recommendations, but even so I can't fault the people who enjoy those more than I do, because it's not hard to find tons of flaws in all the shows I like as well.

Psycho-Pass, because it's like Ghost in the Shell SAC and Cowboy Bebop had a lovechild drawn by a studio who make it their mission to perfect the bishounen and ASLFDKAJFSAFKLAJL, just watch it, three episodes is enough to cause addicition.

Eh, I liked that show mainly because of the premise initially. About halfway through I started liking it more because of the antagonist, and about when shit started hitting the fan I began enjoying it for reasons beyond just those two redeeming features, but it took a long while to get there - much longer than just 3 episodes. The main protagonist was extremely boring (to the point where I was genuinely starting to believe that this was her in-universe power parallel to that of the antagonist) right up to the last couple of episodes.

[Solomodex]

You should try watching Death Note, That's the best Anime i've seen, not that im an expert or anything as i prefer regular series (Breaking Bad, Walking Dead, Dexter etc) But that one is quite good if you're trying to get into the genre.

[Zonas]

It's really just a matter of preferance.

I've liked some anime shows, and I've continued to find new ones I like. But I wouldn't say I "Like" anime. It's just another genre that people can enjoy. Sure, there are those idiots who make the fact that they watch anime their biggest identity, there are also names for people likethat...

Most animation these days that are meant for a much older audience is done by japanese animators. My personal feelings for it is that I usually prefer watching animation over live-action damn near every day. When done well, I'd much rather see fake people go through plot rather then bad actors, I've also seen much better voice actors than I have actual actors.

There are some issues with some shows that I have that some people can have themselves. Some animes do have problems. To name a few populare ones in America like DBZ or Naruto back when they showed up on TV all the time, DBZ had issues like being drawn out, while Naruto had the glaring problem of over-explaining EVERYTHING.

A big thing I also don't like about anime is the way non-japanese viewers of it react to it. As I've mentioned before, there are some people who take the fact that they might enjoy some anime, even if it is the most obscure piece of trash you've ever seen, and make it into their biggest trait, it's just annoying as all hell. I also hate the idiotic... "Anime Hipstes"...? Who complain and complain about the "English dubs" all the way until the cows come home. Right... because hearing uninteligible speech is SO much better... Sure, I'll admit that bad dubing in a lot of much older anime is a running gag to anyone who knows it, it's not like that all around. Also, not to sound racist, but I can barely stand hearing most Japanese voice actors. Many of them have the most ear wrenching voices you could hear... makes me want to deafen myself with rusty knives.

But really, that's issues that are created by the viewers of such shows. All in all, anime is just another genre in its own right because of how different it is compared to others. It has many cliches that carry over between a lot of the shows, but there are some animes that are generally well reviewd and should be given the chance. Some people just stay away from anime because they don't like "cartoons" or they just don't get a lot of the more eastern traits that appear. It doesn't mean you can't give it a chance and see if you enjoy it.

[Cybran]

Ohh but it is...it doesn't have an all encompassing story to the series and is more like a slice of life anime but the slice of life is pretty much all scum and villainy.

I watched it recently and it felt unrealistic (more than others), drawn out, with a weak story/dialogue and not that great fight scene animations.