IYO, What Makes a Great Anime?

[stretch87]

IMO, a great anime is one which you end up finishing in one or two sittings because you just couldn't stop opening the next episode after each on finished.

if you try to watch your average, runofthemill series in one sitting, you will probably lose your mind

[tun]

"The greatest story is a love story."
-Isaac Bashevis Singer

[anime ronin]

basicly just keeping my interest throughout the epis with a smashing conclusion. if they dont pull the ending off right, then usually even the greatest animes turn into average or below.

[Shizuka Hiou]

i have to disagree to some extend.
there are animes with cliffhangers, but can be not so good.
eg. kdrama

Firstly
1.Originality i think is crucial. Especially themes. I don't want another love saves the world crap, AGAIN.
2. How characters and the story unfolds.

But in the end
be it great anime, or literature,etc does the best is the flow.
Everything becomes natural not synthetic.
Remember harry potter ending? or digimon's awkard pairing. That is extremly Synthetic.

Is like life drawing, when you watch a good series its "Alive!~"
if it looks and feels stiff, despite the good plot or w/e may be, its just not that great anymore.
(eg of stiff. dragonaut)
(eg of alive. welcome to the nhk [ending was stiff])

[Solais]

Great anime is when it makes you relaxed, and think: Life is suteki!
Great anime is when you laugh a lot, and just after finishing it, you just want to see it one more time. And if it mixes humor and drama pretty well, it will be even greater than a Celestial.
Great anime is when you just smiling when everything blows up, and when the three main heroines just shoot the sh*t out of that defense program, and you just go "OMG!"
And great anime is when you get goosebumps because of the legendary epicness of the epic scenes, and you just have to yell along with the main characters that this drill will pierce the heavens.

That makes a Great Anime.

[finalfantasyfanatic]

Mainly those with a good story where you go, "OMG! I have to see the next ep!" good animation and music is a good addition but not a requirement.

[wontaek]

In accordance to most who already have posted, for an anime series to be great, it just must have
1. great writing to give it excellent plots, dialog, and character developments
2. great directing to capture the magic of the moments by subtle control of background, music, sounds, and pacing
3. great voice acting to make the listener be totally immersed in the mental states of the characters.
4. Suitable character design and decent choice for the surrounding and the music to not let the visual and audio elements be of distraction to the story flow.

Please notice that none of the things I mentioned needs lots of money or technology to make, but will need lots of thinking and preparations.

[Solais]

In short: It must be a Visual Art.

[-KarumA-]

Originally Posted by wontaek

In accordance to most who already have posted, for an anime series to be great, it just must have
1. great writing to give it excellent plots, dialog, and character developments
2. great directing to capture the magic of the moments by subtle control of background, music, sounds, and pacing
3. great voice acting to make the listener be totally immersed in the mental states of the characters.
4. Suitable character design and decent choice for the surrounding and the music to not let the visual and audio elements be of distraction to the story flow.

Please notice that none of the things I mentioned needs lots of money or technology to make, but will need lots of thinking and preparations.

agree with all those pointers X3
saves me time to write them out lol

[Vivio Testarossa]

Well there a few things that I look for in a "good" anime... One of them are "action" scenes, an anime should have a decent amount of these or I lose interest quickly. Another thing is that it must have some cute LOLI type characters (preferably non-sexualized). Yuri, and recently Yaoi are also somewhat important (depending on the series). But the most important thing, ignoring the above is that the anime must have a good plot and/or memorable characters.

[Mushi]

Originally Posted by wontaek

In accordance to most who already have posted, for an anime series to be great, it just must have
1. great writing to give it excellent plots, dialog, and character developments
2. great directing to capture the magic of the moments by subtle control of background, music, sounds, and pacing
3. great voice acting to make the listener be totally immersed in the mental states of the characters.
4. Suitable character design and decent choice for the surrounding and the music to not let the visual and audio elements be of distraction to the story flow.

Please notice that none of the things I mentioned needs lots of money or technology to make, but will need lots of thinking and preparations.

That pretty much nails it for me.

Being one who is very visually oriented, I put a lot of emphasis on artwork and animation. But, average artwork and animation can be compensated for by the qualities mentioned by wontaek.

As far as originality... here's some interesting side reading.
http://www.ipl.org/div/farq/plotFARQ.html

There are only so many types of stories that can be told. What makes some of them "great" is the unique twist the creators put on them by combining the right elements.

[DragoonKain3]

In my heavily biased opinion? It having a boy/girl childhood friend pair, and somewhere in the series, them hooking up for good.



Okay okay, being serious now, tun said it best for me...

Originally Posted by tun

"The greatest story is a love story."
-Isaac Bashevis Singer

I very quickly lose interest in a show that's without romance, so in anime, that's what I look for. It's rather the rule rather than the exception that romance would exist in anime, and the few exceptions I see, I never do finish.

In all honesty though, if I wanted to experience great writing, plot, characterization, acting (etc. etc.), I'd be reading books and/or watching films. Because on average, I'd say anime is worse on all accounts, and so I don't really have high hopes for it. I basically turn to anime because it's trends serves my interest, rather than because I'm expecting a masterpiece or something.

[gold_orb]

fast with likeable characters and can keep my incredibly short attintionspan. also has to keep being amusing for the first haf of the season if i am going to finish it.

Ex. super gals, disgaea, and he is my master.

[Veronin]

First of all, a good and likable cast and characters. Originality is a big deal too, since it won't be too great if it has been done a million times before. There is also a bunch of other stuff including pacing, animation, sound, etc.

[stormy001_M1A2]

Interesting character and dialogue got me hooked fast. And setting must be good too.

[Guernsey]

I know this is subjective but I wonder what exaclty makes great art in anime? Regardless of audience or genre, there seems to a treasure among the the trash (figuratively speaking of course) that stands out above the rest and it is hailed as the best among anime or any medium. What excactly makes great quality entertainment?

[MadPanda]

Like you said, that's a pretty subjective question...but then, all art is subjective. But what separates the Mona Lisa from graffitti??? I guess it's the idea of 'general consensus'--wether or not enough people agree that one anime is better than the other for common reasons.

For me, if an anime has beautiful art, a great storyline, memorable characters, music you can't get out of your head, excellent voice work, and a nice flow beginning to end, then you have 'it'. Even then, those six categories are themselves subjective, as people have their own tastes in each of them...but again, if enough people agree, maybe there's a reason for it.

I won't name any titles here, for fear of starting a "my choice is better than yours' war. The above is just my opinion on anime as a whole. I will say this, though: It may not be "The Greatest Anime Ever", but "Spirited Away" gets high marks from me on all six of the above categories. I'm just sayin'.

===
MadPanda...(of course, your mileage--or kilometerage--may vary)...

[EnchantingPrincess]

Originally Posted by MadPanda

Like you said, that's a pretty subjective question...but then, all art is subjective. But what separates the Mona Lisa from graffitti??? I guess it's the idea of 'general consensus'--wether or not enough people agree that one anime is better than the other for common reasons.

For me, if an anime has beautiful art, a great storyline, memorable characters, music you can't get out of your head, excellent voice work, and a nice flow beginning to end, then you have 'it'. Even then, those six categories are themselves subjective, as people have their own tastes in each of them...but again, if enough people agree, maybe there's a reason for it.

I won't name any titles here, for fear of starting a "my choice is better than yours' war. The above is just my opinion on anime as a whole. I will say this, though: It may not be "The Greatest Anime Ever", but "Spirited Away" gets high marks from me on all six of the above categories. I'm just sayin'.

===
MadPanda...(of course, your mileage--or kilometerage--may vary)...

I agree with you
Also Spirited Away is a great Anime I can't get enough of it

[roriconfan]

It's great if it feels special in a positive way.

[Agito Akiyama]

The characters.