Kenshin (Shinta) Himura said:
Anime=Cartoon=CGI=Animation
Remember that.
Sad thing is that most morons who believe anime to be the best thing since sliced bread don't realize that, just in the same context of them not realizing: Manga = Comics.
Anyway, yeah, I like Japanese animation to an extent, because SOME of shows have really deep and involving stories (i.e. Full Metal Alchemist).
Ah thank you.
But, not ALL of them have deep and involving plots...some simple, some predictable, some enjoyable, and a large number...just plain bad.
Good EXISTING Japanese animation - 10%
Bad EXISTING Japanese animation - 90%
Good EXISTING American animation - 10%
Bad EXISTING American animation - 90%
Don't let each respective fanbase of a show fool you. They're not as "OMG!! BEST SHOWS EVER! LOL" sorta stuff. Speaking of the fanservices...me don't like.
THIS. DUDE. GETS. IT.
And on the issue on fan service, that is technically what attracted me initially to anime and manga... but nowadays I'm not fond of it, particuarly when that's all a series such as harem ones have to offer (i.e.
Love Hina).
As for the characters in respective anime, yeah, some I can really compare myself with.
This post wins the thread.
... Oh, I haven't talked about what I like anime, now have I? Well, let's see if I can do justice to how I feel about it, both the good and the bad (if you smell a 'I first started out...' speech coming on, then your nose works... metaphorically, of course).
Well, like most of the anime fan generation of the mid '90s, I first got into anime with series such as
Dragon Ball Z,
Ronin Warriors,
Sailor Moon and the likes. The flow of the animation is something that I was almost immediately attracted to, the fantasy aspect drew me in as well, and lastly the fact that there was a storyline of sorts where one had difficulties to overcome through the course of not just one episode like American cartoons usually have, but spanning over numerous episodes was the final carving into the stone. And so I grew up with this, becoming interested in other series as they were shown on television such as
Gundam Wing,
Rurouni Kenshin,
Yu Yu Hakusho, etc.
Eventually when Shonen Jump became established over here in the U.S. I became interested in manga, so in turn I became more curious about series and went online, and low and behold I saw that there were many sites dedicated to anime and manga. I also started purchasing a magazine called Anime Insider, and a series that took my notice not at first, but gradually because I saw a mention in the section 'Death of the Month' of an anime series called
Hellsing. A few months later I stop into Barnes and Noble and I see a manga version of
Hellsing that was (and still is) licensed and translated by Dark Horse, and remembering some details from the magazine, I decided to buy it and read it. This was where I became more aware of 'mature' manga and also learned that anime and manga didn't just have a demographic of 'young ones.'
One thing lead to another and I saw a few favorite lists of series by some fans that included
Hellsing, and then another name of another series caught my attention:
Berserk. Wondering about it, I mentioned the series in a
Hellsing thread that I had made and a member here, That Scary Clefairy (whom is now in a sort of partnership with me as two of the more knowledgeable anime/manga enthusiasts here, and overall a cool, funny guy), told me that I should definitely check it out. So I did, and first impressions were great as it dealt with pure, raw horror with demons, blood, sex, and violence that I had not yet seen any other manga series do. But then as the story progressed past the first three volumes, another side was shown, and it soon solidified not only my love of the series, but of anime and manga as well.
The story had everything that I soon came to appreciate and love about anime and manga, save for the obvious moving animation frames. It had truly memorable characters, a profound plot, glorious art work, and what was soon to be favorite aspects of mine, symbolism and themes. Those fives factors are what I love about anime and manga (you were wondering when I would get to that, didn't ya?).
Soon thereafter, I became more aware of manga scans and anime subbing over the Internet, and started to learn more about series that actually had depth and ideas that so many shounen series (which were what I had mostly encountered so far) lacked. For manga, I got into numerous seinen series, and currently the genre holds all of my top ten manga favorites. For anime, I watched series that lacked thoughtful themes, but still had deep stories and characters (i.e.
Cowboy Bebop,
Gungrave,
Samurai Champloo,
Vision of Escaflowne, and
X TV; the last two I've yet to watch but have heard nothing but good things about them). But what mainly kept my interest in anime were series such as
Blue Gender,
Ghost in the Shell,
Neon Genesis Evangelion,
Now and Then, Here and There,
Paranoia Agent, and
Serial Experiments Lain (haven't seen the last one, but like
Escaflowne and
X, I've heard nothing but good things of it, save for it being confusing as hell). It's series like those that have such deep, meaningful messages and themes that keep me coming back to anime and knowing that they can be considered with many other thoughtful pieces of fiction, because frankly if all that anime had to offer was
Dragon Ball/
Dragon Ball Z/
Dragon Ball GT,
Love Hina,
Naruto, and
One Piece, then I probably still wouldn't be watching it and just moved on to only view books and movies.
Edit: ... If anyone actually read all of that, then I congratulate you. Hopefully I provided some entertaining reasons as to what it is I like about anime and manga.
