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Okay I agree and disagree with people in this thread:
I completely disagree that when you discuss things like characterization, themes, plot elements, etc that this is pointless because we are not reading a book. It is not pointless because these things are still part of the story being told through the animation.
Even in film these elements are discussed. Now it is true depending on the film these elements might be more or less important.
I completely understand what visual storytelling is: Someone mentioned Paperman and it's simple story well I am going to mention one of my favorite silent films Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans. This film has probably the most simplest stories you will ever see but it is a triumph in visual poetry where through mainly images (and limited title cards) we see the fall of a relationship to its rebirth.
If we want to take a scene from a movie another favorite example of mine is in Citizen Kane the breakfast scene where we see Kane and his wife getting more distant over breakfast (again no words tell us this is happening).
Then there is Hitchcock's Rear Window where we see many little stories unfold outside the window in the different department buildings.
These are things that cannot be done in writing but can be done with visuals. You don't have to tell the audience something is happening through words you can show them. You can also create mood & atmosphere with lighting, camera angles, close ups, and sound, etc.
Does anime do this too? Well yes. I know someone mentioned Another for its sound design well for me the best example of this would probably be Ghost Hound
Another recent example is the witch battles in Madoka. We are never told who the witches are but we can infer from what we see during those battles (candy, music, amusement park, etc).
I talked about the effectiveness of the horror in Shin Sekai Yori this isn't just because of the story but because the director knows how to create that tense mood.
However, story, characters, and theme are part of visual storytelling too. Again when you have a simple story then they might be less important but that doesn't mean when a visual medium excels in the non-visual aspect this is not important. In my book the story and how it is told are both important & are not always the same thing (and in fact I can argue it is the same for books, you might not have the use of visuals but you still tell your story with prose, do you use 1st or 3rd person, flashbacks, etc).
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