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Old 2011-09-07, 16:56   Link #1
Flower
Blooming on the mountain
 
 
Join Date: May 2010
Location: Deep in their roots, all flowers keep the light....
Aspects of anime series and why we like what we do....

I have been thinking of something of late regarding anime series and that is it's "re-watchability". This is going to be a long initial post here, so I ask your indulgence at the beginning!

Part of what first got me thinking about this was when I went back and tried to re-watch Spring 2011's "Ano Hana..." series. That series was without doubt my favorite, and I followed it very closely with ever ep that came out. When I went back to re-watch it I found it was not as engaging, and wondered why.

Then this season I have been following a fair number of series, and two of them were always "on the brink" for me of dropping them: No. 6 and Mawaru Penguin-Drum. Finally after ep 8 of both I kept No. 6 and dropped Penguin-Drum.

Putting aside for the moment whether anyone else agrees whether I should have kept or dropped either of these series, I began to wonder:

1.) What "following a series" actually ... erm ... "meant" or "entailed" as opposed to watching several eps of a series all in a row. (In the manga realm this could be similar to following a series chapter by chapter over a long period of time).

2.) Whether some series are more effective when they are "followed" on a weekly basis and others are more effective when several eps in a row are "steamrolled". (In the manga realm this would be reading all the chapters of a completed work only.)

and 3.) What the "re-watchability" of a series of either sort indicates about that series itself. (Equally applicable in the written realm: i.e. re-readability.)

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After thinking about these things I realized that for myself following a series means investing a certain part of my attention and emotions on the story as it trickles out bit by bit.

Did I like the story I was being exposed to? Did I like the content? And furthermore did I want to be exposed to the story or characters or content to the type of and or degree of intensity or focus that "following a show" involved? I also wonder if others "follow" a series in similar levels of focus as I do?

****

Furthermore it came to me that whether or no I wanted to invest my attention in a show on a "following" basis was not necessarily indicative of whether or no I thought a show was "good". (Case in point with an immediate example is Penguin-Drum. I think it is actually a pretty good story - it was the "following" mode I get into that made me drop it after too much Ringo.) I will prolly watch Penguin-Drum some time after it is all finished.

Finally, as I mentioned earlier, I really liked Ano Hana and Gosick while they were airing and followed them closely, but was surprised to find that I found they were not very re-watchable.

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The whole realm of re-watchability is, I think, both a related question to the general subject of the thread and maybe even its own subject in of itself.

I find that there are not many shows I find "re-watchable". But the ones I seem to find most re-watchable are largely (but not solely) among my favorites. Things like:

Kimi ni Todoke series
Aria series
Marimite series
Clannad & After Story

But there are other series which are not among those I consider the "best" that I find highly re-watchable. Examples being:

Saki
Angelic Layer
Index and Railgun series

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Anyway ... with all this being said, what do other posters in here think about this? I suppose an overview of the thread would be considering some of the aspects of why you like a series or no, and how you are exposed to a series contributes to that, I guess.

But feel free to begin to talk about any of the general topics mentioned.
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