AnimeSuki Forum - View Single Post - What makes a anime/manga personally good in your eyes

***relentlessflame*** · 2008-01-01, 03:33

I suppose the most instructive question to ask would be: who's your target audience? Even if you take the world's most popular manga and anime, those aren't necessarily the sorts of stories you want to write or the sort of audience you want to appeal to. So as you sort through the replies in the thread, you'll sort of have to decide whose opinions are of more importance to you based on the sort of audience you're looking for. For example, I doubt you'd ever have a hope of getting enough money to make an anime if you focused on making a story that was "for me" personally. (That being said, I'm not sure if there's any sort of manga you could make that'd raise the millions of dollars needed to fund an anime production, and unless you're in with a major Japanese publisher...? Well, that's a thought for a different thread, I guess.)

To answer the question, I suppose the most important things to me are actually probably character designs (particularly of the heroines...), the "feel" of the piece (emotions, sentimentality, etc.), (for anime) the quality and use of music, the use of metaphor/symbolism/foreshadowing to tie the plot together around a theme/moral, and of course there's always a sway for the "wow factor" (which could be many things - plot, art, animation... anything really). Like I said, though, those are extremely different from the average fan's tastes, so probably aren't very helpful as a guide to follow.

I think there's a very strong sense of "escape from reality" in anime in general, and I think that's pretty appealing to a lot of people (myself included). When I get home from work, I don't generally want to watch a show that's stressful like real life, but rather a show that'll either lift my spirits, or reflects life "the way it should be" in one way or another (perhaps it's idealized characters that couldn't exist in real life, or idealized circumstances that are too good to be true, or a sense that the characters have power over all that's negative in the world). There has to be some way to identify with the characters and their struggles, whether that's because the viewer places themselves in the show (sort of an assumed first-person), or because they just find the evolving story interesting to watch unfold (but feel attached to it a bit beyond it being simple third-person narrative). Again, though, all that has to do with your target audience and what they find appealing, so there's no easy rule about it.

In the end, I suppose that, as an author, the equally important thing is writing about characters, circumstances, and themes that mean something to you, and hope that it reaches others with like-minded feelings. So even if there is a certain degree of pandering in order to gain popularity and make money, the most important thing to a creative person is generally to stay true to themselves. So, in that sense, maybe this thread isn't all that important after all. Really, as a creator, the "conversation" with the audience has to start with you.

2008-01-01, 03:33	Link #4
*relentlessflame* 　 Administrator Join Date: Dec 2003 Age: 41	I suppose the most instructive question to ask would be: who's your target audience? Even if you take the world's most popular manga and anime, those aren't necessarily the sorts of stories you want to write or the sort of audience you want to appeal to. So as you sort through the replies in the thread, you'll sort of have to decide whose opinions are of more importance to you based on the sort of audience you're looking for. For example, I doubt you'd ever have a hope of getting enough money to make an anime if you focused on making a story that was "for me" personally. (That being said, I'm not sure if there's any sort of manga you could make that'd raise the millions of dollars needed to fund an anime production, and unless you're in with a major Japanese publisher...? Well, that's a thought for a different thread, I guess.) To answer the question, I suppose the most important things to me are actually probably character designs (particularly of the heroines...), the "feel" of the piece (emotions, sentimentality, etc.), (for anime) the quality and use of music, the use of metaphor/symbolism/foreshadowing to tie the plot together around a theme/moral, and of course there's always a sway for the "wow factor" (which could be many things - plot, art, animation... anything really). Like I said, though, those are extremely different from the average fan's tastes, so probably aren't very helpful as a guide to follow. I think there's a very strong sense of "escape from reality" in anime in general, and I think that's pretty appealing to a lot of people (myself included). When I get home from work, I don't generally want to watch a show that's stressful like real life, but rather a show that'll either lift my spirits, or reflects life "the way it should be" in one way or another (perhaps it's idealized characters that couldn't exist in real life, or idealized circumstances that are too good to be true, or a sense that the characters have power over all that's negative in the world). There has to be some way to identify with the characters and their struggles, whether that's because the viewer places themselves in the show (sort of an assumed first-person), or because they just find the evolving story interesting to watch unfold (but feel attached to it a bit beyond it being simple third-person narrative). Again, though, all that has to do with your target audience and what they find appealing, so there's no easy rule about it. In the end, I suppose that, as an author, the equally important thing is writing about characters, circumstances, and themes that mean something to you, and hope that it reaches others with like-minded feelings. So even if there is a certain degree of pandering in order to gain popularity and make money, the most important thing to a creative person is generally to stay true to themselves. So, in that sense, maybe this thread isn't all that important after all. Really, as a creator, the "conversation" with the audience has to start with you.