Question for anime fans

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Yeah I guess that one of the reasons I did not follow Brotherhood was that I had really already seen the first series, and that I did not really see the huge increase in animation that some people said gripped them. I have also seen some trailers to older shows, and the poor animation movement is a bit of a turn off. Also not a fan of some series thathave particulary ugly looking animation like Tatamari and House of 5 leaves.

Well it is not like Disney is immune from cutting corners, just search Disney recycled animation.

It's not really cutting corners on the animation. It's just animated an identical scene with new characters. I find when they do that (from what I saw in the first video I clicked) it didn't really detract from anything. It still looks good and serves it's purpose for the most part. In anime cutting corners leads to a noticeable drop in quality.

A lot of anime are mostly conversation and they still cut corners every chance they get.

I really liked this show but the animation is sooo boring. It sucks when a good anime is 75% conversation.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SJ1YFKby-wA[/youtube]

I didn't meant "further limited animation", I meant that they developped "limited animation" further. They have been able to use it as a strength rather that a weakness by using establishing shot and ryhtm.

Hanna Barbera is the animation studio that made Tom and Jerry, The Flinstones, The Jetsons, Yogy Bear, Scooby Doo and many other series. While animation was declining on big screen they made animated series for televison on a far lower cost using limited animation. Before critcizing the use japanesse make of animation you should at least know about such things.

I didn't explain myself well when I was talking about "asking" french-canadians their favourite "cartoons". But still it's easy to observe that the most missed cartoons for some generations were generally animes. Of course this is not a absolute, but still a strong trend.


The reason north-american animation look horrible when "copying" anime, is because they do it wrong. There is the exception of Avatar: The Last Airbender who have done it right, but animated in Korea. Those who don't use the anime style still frequently go for the same style that Hanna-Barbera, like SpongeBob SquarePants or Fairy Godparents; rather that the more costly naturistic style of the 80s and the Disney animated serie of the early 90s.

Some japanesse movies do equal, or even surpassing, the level of details seen in Disney movies.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eik3angwgD4[/youtube]

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qyX89c3nSHw[/youtube]

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LnY01Jgw6Go&feature=related[/youtube]

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZQRc1AYuOlg[/youtube]

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T37GhIqsO28[/youtube]


I said they understand better that movements are illusions. This is showed in the way they use limited animation and the way they're animating. If you're ever watch in slow motion the sword fights during San attack of Irontown in Princess Mononoke, you could notice that the swords/knikes swings are made with only two drawing (beginning of the siwng and the end) and some bright motion lines. It's allow much more dynamic and fast movements that what would permit full animation in less drawings, and the brain still decode it as a full movement.

Yes I know that movies often get a great boost in quality. They put a lot more effort into them than they usually would with a tv series.

Action scenes are getting better but in general everything else is staying pretty much the same. The majority of anime tv shows are very lazy.

There are some bad ones. I am trying to think of some western tv animation to compare anime too, but I am having a hard time thinking of any.

Most of the ones I saw during childhood were anime. Especially in the morning you would see stuff like Dragonball Z, Yugioh, Pokemon, Digimon etc. repeatedly. Often when American shows were aired they might be a mix of live-action and CGI.

Some American animation includes like, The Simpsons, King of the Hill, Daria etc. I can think of more, but I can't remember the names of them. They all seemed fairly old though. Only one I can think of is Catdog.

I don't know of many people who watch anime for the animation.

I watch anime because movies are just way too long and the lack of good western TV shows is disturbing. I mean, there a good couple funny shows but not really anything that tells great stories besides maybe Doctor Who and other Sci-Fi shows, but those run on way too long. Same reason I don't watch shows like Bleach. Fifty episodes is pushing my limits already!

Compared to western cartoons anime's animation is far superior. Also I watch anime for the story, not because of how it looks.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aJ0GqT5qr08[/youtube]

You are all forgetting that story isn't really what makes anime good, not most of the time anyways, if that were true than all animes might as well be books (Yes, an anime can be good with just story alone, Monster is a such example). Sound and animation are important too. Like this scene for example gets away with minimal animation because of the way the animation is used and the music working together to create memorable scenes.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YnZizdOrgqU[/youtube]
Another example of animation and music working together to create a memorable scene.

I think this is the reason why anime fans exist. Such a style of directing simply does not exist in Hollywood.

^

When it works, it works well.

It's when there aren't enough of those kinds of scenes that I lose interest.

I think an anime needs to be good at everything that it does. Story, direction, music, animation etc. The overall product needs to be worthwhile. It seems all too often there's an anime with a great story, music etc. and poor animation. Or there's one with great animation and a worthless story.

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First video looks like The Black Swan...

I hate this argument... It's basis lies in the implication that all a book has is story, as opposed to animation which has, well, animation or video games which have gameplay. As a fan of great stories regardless of medium, I must say that this statement does a disservice to literature by dismissing that literature has any sort of art to it besides writing a story. One such technique would be adding to suspense by withholding vital scene description by simply avoiding naming the character. This allows for scenes which can be revisited later filling in pieces of the puzzle that couldn't be done in any visual work. As such, I find your argument ignores the fact that while animation has animation and video games have gameplay, literature has its own unique experiences.

Sorry for the tangent, and looking back I am sort of doubting that any of this needed to be said considering it is unrelated to the core discussion and very nitpicky, but I might as well post it toward anyone reading who might find this interesting. This is also by no means a personal attack, as I'm sure you were aware of this and just not thinking through your statement.

If an anime doesn't have a good story I don't watch it.

Sorry for being ignorant on books I could never read one properly all the way through, bleh my poor taste in books! >:P Anyways for any anime new comers I highly suggest the anime FLCL. If you like FLCL, chances are you will like a whole lot of other animes It's really bizarre and totally unexpected! The soundtrack is amazing and the animation is mesmerizing so it plays out like one long music video.
Watch it for free and legally on Youtube now
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So back to a related subject, what makes anime so good?

FLCL is great and if you enjoy such silliness, check out Gurren Lagann which is also by Studio Gainax! Gurren Lagann does get quite serious at the end, but that only makes it even more awesome. If you want something serious, though, you might want to pass both of these. Evangelion's good if you like Freudian psychology and postmodern existentialism. And angst. Lots and lots of angst. My mom enjoyed the first episode of Fullmetal Alchemist which is an all time classic, too. It's surprisingly deep for a shounen action show.