Growing out of anime

[Kiyomizu]

You can't expect originality in any medium. Most ideas have been done, done again and bastardized a few times for good measure.
Even if an anime has an unoriginal plot, it can still tell entertaining stories and have an interesting cast. Most anime bring something to the table.

[erneiz_hyde]

Originally Posted by Komari

If you want depth, try actually going past Japanese
pop culture and getting into the rest.

Well, yeah, of course there's that too. I have other hobbies outside otakudom. But since this is an anime forum, I'm just pointing out things related to that

EDIT: Holy wow I just realized that I got neg rep from you. Yeah, sure most VNs are mindless ero, but when they get good story, they really are better than anime. You just haven't explored too much into it. Strangely though, your avatar is Komari, a character from a VN that is very much contrary to what you believe about VNs. can you really argue that VNs like Ever17(and the rest of that series) or Tsukihime(and the rest of that franchise) don't have depth? And there're truckloads more of decent ones that never got translated into English for most to enjoy.

[synaesthetic]

Originally Posted by Komari

There is always an anime for you to follow, every interest methinks. You just have to find it.

Oh? There has been a marked lack in seinen action, thriller or suspense. A year or so ago, we had tons, what with DtB, Black Lagoon, Canaan, Ga Rei -Zero-, etc. And the horror genre has been remarkably dead as of late.

And we have none now. We have otakubait shows, moeblobs, harems, shonen martial arts, Super Robot and slice of life...

I want me some Real Robot and horror, along with my smart, actiony thrillers written for adults and not pimply-faced adolescents. But there ain't shit like that coming out anymore.

[Kudryavka]

Originally Posted by erneiz_hyde

Well, yeah, of course there's that too. I have other hobbies outside otakudom. But since this is an anime forum, I'm just pointing out things related to that

EDIT: Holy wow I just realized that I got neg rep from you. Yeah, sure most VNs are mindless ero, but when they get good story, they really are better than anime. You just haven't explored too much into it. Strangely though, your avatar is Komari, a character from a VN that is very much contrary to what you believe about VNs. can you really argue that VNs like Ever17(and the rest of that series) or Tsukihime(and the rest of that franchise) don't have depth? And there're truckloads more of decent ones that never got translated into English for most to enjoy.

I never said that all VNs suck, or that all of them are mindless. I know that there are great stories out there in the VN market, but they are not the majority. The way I read your post, it seemed like you were saying that most, if not all, VNs have depth, which is not true.

Now assuming that you haven't heard much of the mindless eroge. I don't blame you, they're mainly meant for release, fetishes and whatnot.

[Echoes]

Originally Posted by synaesthetic

Oh? There has been a marked lack in seinen action, thriller or suspense. A year or so ago, we had tons, what with DtB, Black Lagoon, Canaan, Ga Rei -Zero-, etc. And the horror genre has been remarkably dead as of late.

Most of those shows did not come out close to a year ago, but I agree that the lack of these sorts of shows is lamentable. I've seen and loved all of those, they're my kind of shows. There's Kaiji airing, though. It doesn't get much more seinen thriller than that. But, of course, it's not an action show, so if that's exclusively what you're looking for you're still out of luck.

Hasn't horror always been fairly marginal in anime? I haven't seen many, which is a shame, since the ones I've seen have tended to be exceptional. (e.g. Higurashi, Ghost Hound, Shiki)

[erneiz_hyde]

Originally Posted by Komari

I never said that all VNs suck, or that all of them are mindless. I know that there are great stories out there in the VN market, but they are not the majority. The way I read your post, it seemed like you were saying that most, if not all, VNs have depth, which is not true.

Now assuming that you haven't heard much of the mindless eroge. I don't blame you, they're mainly meant for release, fetishes and whatnot.

Originally Posted by erneiz_hyde

Though even in these mediums, the diamonds are still hidden amidst the craps, similar with the anime.

What does this sentence translate to you?

I played a lot of those mindless eroges, but since those are easily distinctive from the rest, they easily got filtered from my radar when I want to. Seriously though, why do you insist in making me as if I don't know what I'm talking about?

Originally Posted by Echoes

Hasn't horror always been fairly marginal in anime? I haven't seen many, which is a shame, since the ones I've seen have tended to be exceptional. (e.g. Higurashi, Ghost Hound, Shiki)

"Horror" in anime also tends to be more suspense and thriller than actual horror imo. I can still stomach and enjoy horrors in anime(in fact, I enjoy the suspense), but I have a hard time trying to enjoy watching live horror movies. I blame the sudden startling scenes. My heart is too weak for those.

[DonQuigleone]

Horror doesn't work on me, I seem to be able to take the SUDDEN TERROR scenes in stride (they can sometimes spook me). I much prefer creepy stuff, so anime horror works for me. Always prefer "horrific" over "horror". I will agree with others that there hasn't been much of it lately. But hey, the last two years have generally been bad. Things are looking up this year though. Next season we'll be getting the first real robot show for a while (Gundam AGE). Will make for a nice change. Mecha has always been my fave.

[Echoes]

Originally Posted by erneiz_hyde

"Horror" in anime also tends to be more suspense and thriller than actual horror imo. I can still stomach and enjoy horrors in anime(in fact, I enjoy the suspense), but I have a hard time trying to enjoy watching live horror movies. I blame the sudden startling scenes. My heart is too weak for those.

Yeah, people can use the genre horror to describe a lot of different things. I'm probably guilty of narrowing to the subgenre I actually like, which is psychological horror, stuff like Silent Hill, Jacob's Ladder, Lovecraft and so forth. While I don't necessarily hate anything that uses gore and jump-scares, they don't deliver the same sort of meaningful experience, and in keeping with the thread's theme, I feel that I've mostly grown out of enjoying that form of "horror" unless it is exceptionally executed.

[Kameruka]

Not until Yosuga no Sora and Ore no Imouto come to scene, I may gave up my hope to anime itself to improve. Fortunately both shows make me stick to anime while only for a while. However the powers from both shows seems to be waning and I may lock myself to my jobs, etc. While its clear I'm not going to see something like Yosuga no Sora again but for Ore no Imouto sequel, it will take very long time to happen.

I also suspect that dreaded Tokyo Youth Ordinance Bill(or so it called) is slowly killing anime industry. I smelled some conspiracy that made by some porn otakus attacking anime otakus. Note that most pornoghrapic shows are stay intact because it obviously made for adults alone while anime is more universal, some for kids and some for adults.

[CMSensei]

I haven't been watching any anime lately, its been a while. I haven't really gotten really into one. The last one I got into was Hetalia. Now I tried to watch Bakuman and it got me for a while but then I don't know I just kinda stopped. Its been like months since I got into anything? and in between would be a few here and there some times reruns..

Now I know I didn't totally give up on anime, I mean I have been more up to date with my manga..Maybe I am just waiting for one to jump out at me. Now fan wise, I am all good lol if it wasn't for some characters that caught my fangirl senses I would have never found some anime that I still like today even though there now gone. Maybe I am just becoming lazy, but it does tend to take me a while to start watching something new sometimes.

[synaesthetic]

I've just been playing video games. At least the PC gaming industry still knows how to feed my appetite for escapism.

[Last Sinner]

Hit a similar wall myself recently. Watched some older series friends recommended. Then went very old-school. Now I''ve got plenty more to investigate at my leisure at a slow pace and won't fall bored with the medium. Learning what the people that started this industry did and other major people who made it evolve - quite fulfilling. Just because digital animation makes the visuals look a bit better doesn't mean the pre-digital era content isn't worth watching.

[katsumi]

It's interesting to stumble onto this particular thread after being inactive quite a long time in the hobby as well as this forum.

Originally Posted by Last Sinner

Then went very old-school. Now I''ve got plenty more to investigate at my leisure at a slow pace and won't fall bored with the medium. Learning what the people that started this industry did and other major people who made it evolve - quite fulfilling. Just because digital animation makes the visuals look a bit better doesn't mean the pre-digital era content isn't worth watching.

I made a similiar experience.

Life and other things got in between and more important. So when there were no new shows to immediately catch my interest, I had the feeling I was growing out of it. Out of nostalgia (or habit ) I still followed a few blogs out there, though.

Then I accidentally found some shows (not necessarily pre-digital) that had been aired a few years back that interested me and pulled me back into the whole thing. It just isn't as intensive as it was in the beginning.

As long as there are interesting stories to be told, it seems I'm sticking with it .

[HurricaneHige]

I don't know, it's not like anime is completely dead. There are at least 1-2 series worth watching per season, but I do agree that most of it are reharsh of the same ideas and fanservices over and over again.

Sometimes I wonder why I bother watching 10-15 anime a season to find that one good one worth watching, but then again when you watch something like AnoHana and/or Madoka you realize those efforts were not wasted.

Sadly...the list of anime worth watching get smaller and smaller every season...hopefully this is only a phase the industry is going through.

[yezhanquan]

Originally Posted by synaesthetic

I've just been playing video games. At least the PC gaming industry still knows how to feed my appetite for escapism.

I get my "anime fix" from playing JP games, namely Valkyria Chronicles 1 and 2, and Gundam Musou 3. Oh lordly, that last one was LOL and cringeworthy in one package.

[xxanimefan4_ever]

Originally Posted by Kameruka

Not until Yosuga no Sora and Ore no Imouto come to scene, I may gave up my hope to anime itself to improve. Fortunately both shows make me stick to anime while only for a while. However the powers from both shows seems to be waning and I may lock myself to my jobs, etc. While its clear I'm not going to see something like Yosuga no Sora again but for Ore no Imouto sequel, it will take very long time to happen.

I also suspect that dreaded Tokyo Youth Ordinance Bill(or so it called) is slowly killing anime industry. I smelled some conspiracy that made by some porn otakus attacking anime otakus. Note that most pornoghrapic shows are stay intact because it obviously made for adults alone while anime is more universal, some for kids and some for adults.

for me ore no imouto was horrible. It just made me go why I can't believe anime has sunk this low... other such horrible post 2006 anime are ef, seto no hanayome, toradora, darker than black, vampire . I wouldn't say tengo gurerran whatsevre its called is as horrible but i pesonally was bored by it. sword of stranger -2007-was horrible imo just because the characters/story was so weak and I'm jjust not that big a fan of action esp when the story is this weak. I think the only anime I liked in 2007 was minami-ke? hmm I don't know..

I read these blog entries and it just explains it so well why it's such a piece of shit.

http://fuuing.blog53.fc2.com/blog-entry-81.html
http://fuuing.blog53.fc2.com/blog-entry-91.html
http://fuuing.blog53.fc2.com/blog-entry-89.html

and this blog entry about late night anime in general:
http://fuuing.blog53.fc2.com/blog-entry-94.html

Sorry they're all in JApanese oh man this person postd new entries since the last time.. I got to get on reading!! k'.

I don't thnk I grew out of anime. I just don't want to watch shitty anime. right now there's a lot of shit coming out so... I'mma watch the ones that came out in the 90s or 80s. I literally gave up on anime that came out after the year 2006 or 2007 (oh snap minami-ke came out in 2007 so)... cause 2006 was good with like ouran, haruhi, welcome to the nhk, geass (the fun factor), sayonara zetsubou sensei, nana. after that there's like nothing that comes that seems as good as any of those in entertainment factor/etc/etc... but it's more like it gets worse and worse and I get more and more surprised people actually can watch that crap or actually finds that crap interesting... I mean good for you watch whatever you like instead of forcing yourself to watch something you don't lke just becasue of the praise on the net... but still I'm just so shocked crap passes off as entertainment.

Oh and you could get into the argument that there's always lots of crap being released every year that only 10% is actually good and whatever percent of that is masterpiece or whatever... but seriously like I said before I gave up after 2006/7... so I pesronally don't feel that way about the past few years (I can't find a single anime in one season let alone that one year that seems worth my time let alone multiple... wow I LOVE 2006) .

But anyways since all they release is crap nowadays you know I have that freetime that I can dedicate to something else so I am grateul in that sense like there's anime that came in the 90s that I want to see etcetc and I have time for it now. So for that I am very grateful. lol

[Archon_Wing]

Wait, wasn't there like a thread like this before?

Fortunately, for me, personally, I never grew out of anime because I was never there to begin with, so I don't have any nostalgia goggles. In fact, I pretty much despised anime save for a few until around 2005 or w/e til I saw Paranoia Agent which was really something different and showed me that this medium could handle serious issues.

Before that, I assumed anime was mostly anime ecchi harem bullshit and long running shounen, and well.. it seems to be that way for all of anime. That assessment still hasn't changed.

Anyhow, I truly enjoyed anime since 2006 to about 2008. It started with Haruhi Suzumiya, and I looked all around for stuff. 2006 was definitely the year of anime.

But come the end of 2007, after Higurashi Kai, there were a ton of disappointments, with the crapfest of Shana II, and some truly god awful animes like Dragonaut and chaos;head. 2008 was pretty much unwatchable, 2009 wasn't really better save for Clannad After Story and Aoi Bungaku. Honestly, anyone who hasn't seen Aoi Bungaku should go see it; if you're looking for something quality. Bakemongatari seems to be widely approved of, but I just never really liked it.

Although I didn't see it that year, there was Rebuild of Evangelion 2.0. I was just like gah.

2010 had some decent movies, Haruhi and Nanoha 1st, but was also plagued with the god awful Unlimited Blade Works movie. As for tv series there was Durarara, which was great for thriller and had pretty good storytelling.

But overall, I was pretty not satisfied with 2008-2010... When Ore no Imouto's one of the better shows of the year, damn... grasping for straws lol. Pretty much 1-2 anime every season or less, and usually one or both was shit.

However 2011 seems to be pretty good; I swear I watch more anime in 1 season than I did for 2010 or 2009!

Usagi Drop is a good slice of life that does not pander at all. Seriously. I've never seen a recent show like that.
Steins;Gate is a well done sci-fi show that manages to have witty dialogue.
Madoka is a breath of fresh air to the Magical girl genre...
Penguindrum is definitely diffrent...
Ano Hana is well scripted melodrama
Even something like no.6 proves to be a halfway decent sci-fi action thing, despite that...
Kamisama no Memochou is awfully well directed for a JC staff anime.
Kaiji gives insight into the darkness of human nature and has a godly soundtrack. That may be worth checking out.
Tiger and Bunny is a hilarious deconstruction of superheroes.
Arguably the worst show I'm watching right now is Hana Saku iroha, and that still functions well as a comedy. It would still outclass most shit from last year.

And sometimes one has to look a bit harder. True Tears was a good romance anime from 2008, and ef as well.

We just need a bit more action-oriented anime, so well Madoka kinda did that, the true kickers would be coming up... Shana III and Fate/Zero!

I feel like, whether like it or not, pretty much every major studio has brought their game up. Except for Kyoto Animation and Deen-- damn failures.

It's still better than tv though...

[Kaioshin Sama]

I think 2011 is going to be a really important year in trying to get those people that haven't really paid attention to anime in a long time back into the scene. 2010 got the ball rolling towards the end of the year after IMO a pretty weak year in 2009 that saw some real lows in terms of content for the broader spectrum of demographics out there and 2011 is really capitalizing on what 2010 started by continuing to move the ball in the direction of having quite a bit of variety in content and appeal from season to season.

For the first time since perhaps 2003 (maybe 2007 as well) I don't think you have to be a moe otaku living in Japan to get the most out of the anime scene and I really hope that both the industry and the fandom out there don't pass up this great opportunity to keep the good times going into next year as well. Honestly as good as this year has been so far I'll even go so far as to speculate that the best is yet to come in the fall and winter seasons. Lots of reasons for me to be positive about anime right now.

[yezhanquan]

I enjoyed Toradora and Eva 2.0.....

But yeah, the only TV I watch nowadays are news and documentaries. Not all news are Fox News.

[hollowification]

i am 28 been watching since 16 yrs old growing out is hard but some how your mind wonders and u have play to play image of dbz in head u know word of by heart.