plixik wrote:Over the past few months I've had the habit of watching 1-3 episodes of an anime and dropping it. Maybe I'm just impatient, but if it doesn't grab in the first few episodes then I out.
I can't help but compare them to all the outstanding American and British TV shows that have been coming out. It seems at the end of anime episodes I've just been shutting them off and not caring what is going to happen. Then I go watch something like Breaking Bad or The Walking Dead and after an episode ends, I literally can't do anything except watch the next episode. Where are the anime that is that good? The last anime that has done that to me was FMA: Brotherhood.
Interestingly enough Plixlik, I have been suffering the same fatigue as yourself. Though it's rather harsh to generalize all the recent anime, I have to say I've found most uninteresting and unappealing.
Even in popular shows like Blue Exorcist, I've watched the first few episodes and pretty much telegraphed everything from the start of the episode to the end. It's not that I claiming to know every plot twist, but for some reason Anime as a whole seems unable to allow itself to step outside its "norms". Character Archetypes are horridly prevalent and only degrade the overall shows quality...the fact that you can quite literally hold two characters from completely different shows next to each other and find not only strong physical similarities, but identical character traits, is nothing less than alarming.
Anime storytelling also has an issue with treating the viewer like an inept 5 year old with horrible memory, characters state the obvious often and basic story elements rarely go unclarified , and when I said unclarified I mean mentioned about 50 times. Forgive me for the lack of example, but I'm pretty sure you all have experienced quite a few scenes where a character will state something that was beyond obvious about 50 times over and elements that would have only added to the story if left simply alluded to, are thrusted into the views face for instant digestion.
Though that hinges on the demographic IMO, at the very least I'd say most anime wants to keep the young pre-teen audience in it's target as they are the most likely to indulge in product based on impulse, so plot/story elements are targeted accordingly.
The humor is also very dated, grope/peep jokes became tiresome in 2009, and instead of becoming witty there has seems a switch to outright perversion in lieu of straggling punchlines. Japan has always been lacking in it's comedic attempts so I simply blame the society in which it's based. Though really, the face-in-boobs comedy needs to switch up.
The one thing I will ALWAYS admire American based (and I say based because we normally keyframe then outsource to asian countries.) is the facial expressions in the animation. From Walt Disneys work to the more recent season of Avatar we seem to have a finesse with depicting character emotions that the Japanese rare showcase. In the majority of Manga or Anime characters really only seems to have two emotions in any transition, and in the mass of the scenes simply one as they are talking. Which, as humans,do not. As we speak our facial expressions can shift in myriad ways depicting a wide range of feelings upon enunciation, Anime generally ignores this human trait and gives one static expression/emotion for a line or even a range of lines, even in the more "eccentric pieces".
Though I will always indulge, I personally hope we get more anime-Inspired work like Avatar: the last airbender, which proved to be liked by a wide demographic whilst holding an anime stylized character base. Which brings me to my last point:
Fight scenes: The sword-cut ins, powerups and generic powerblasts that simply get blocked or avoided need to be reduced...seriously. It's REALLY sad when a show aired on nickelodeon has more intricate fight scenes in one episode, than an entire series in an anime.
