[NinjaRealist]

BIG EDIT!!!!! THIS I NOW A THREAD ABOUT GENRE DECONSTRUCTION ANIME !!!BIG EDIT

(this is the thread I should have made to begin with)

I figured out that what I really was respoding to in School Days and Narutaru wasn't so much the realism as the genre deconstruction. I looked up a big list of genre deconstruction anime and, lo and behold, many of my favorite animes are on this list, including:

Mai-Hime
Evangelion
Fullmetal Alchemist
Now and then Here and There
Berserk
Toradora! (I originally used this as a counter-example but accordin g to the internets I was dead wrong)
Great Teacher Onizuka
Trigun

(also, do you guys think that D. Gray Man is maybe a deconstruction of the Shonen genre just a little bit, it kinda feels that way?)

and of coure School Days and Narutaru (and it seems like Madoka Magica is poised to become a favorite as well.

Please help me out if you think there are others that should go on this list.

Now I'm not gonna deny that I find genre deconstruction animes to be more realistic but I think you guys need to understand, I'm not talking about realism in terms of the plot and the setting because you'll almost never get realism in terms of plot and setting in anime.

Out of this list, the only ones that come close to realism in these two categories Toradora and GTO which both have healthy dose of the unbelievable.

But what all thee animes do hold in common is that, IMO, the character interactions are more believable to me than in most anime.

Now I'm not sure why I feel this way and so many others vehemently disagree. Perhaps it is that I've had a grimmer and sadder life or maybe it's just that I am more fixated on all the atrocious aspect of human nature. At any rate, anime that tries to realistically represent how cruel and manipulative humans can be to each other has always been more appealing to me than anime that teaches you that, "You can do anything if you try your hardest." Clearly, this is the opposite for many of you.

Original Thread Starts Here

Cliff Notes Version:

Why are anime reviewers so offended by realistic romance anime? It may be more fun to watch a show like TWGOK or Toradora! but it is important to have realistic and cautionary tales like School Days also.

Long Version:

As someone who thinks of himself as fairly experienced in love, almost everything about the characters and the situations rung true to me. It was almost as if School Days took the H-Game, Harem Anime, concept and then showed what the consequences would be if someone actually tried to live their life in this same manner.

Yet almost all of the review sites* gave this show extremely negative reviews, which was stunning to me. I not only liked the plot of this anime but the music, the cinematography, the dialogue, the pacing, I found many aspects of this anime to be excellent. I could understand if people were jut giving it mediocre reviews, but many of the sites gave it less than 4/10 which is about the worst possible review.

My conclusion is just that people have reacted negatively against the realism because it's too brutal for them. Since I guess many anime fans are pure escapists seeing a high school anime injected with this kind of brutal realism is probably just too much for them to take. However, I can't help but feel that School Days is a much more realistic portrayal of how dismal and heart-rending teenage romance really is.

I'm not faulting people for liking escapist animes (hell the last show I watched before this was Toradora!) but personally, I find romance anime with perfect fairy tail endings to be more objectionable than an anime like School Days which is a much more realistic portrayal of what happens when you screw every girl in your high school.

EDIT

Exhibit B Narutaru:

Anyways lest this solely become a thread about School Days I'd like to put out another, perhaps more famous example of an anime which is scorned for it's IMO realistic portrayal of human nature and shocking conclusion, and that anime is Narutaru.

I loved this anime and I love the manga eve more, because it does something similar to School Days which is, it takes a cliche anime premise and injects it with realism. In Narutaru that premise is the common, what if a child suddenly gained magical superpowers.

Many people would say this anime is absurdly unrealistic and in many ways it is, but I think it is extremely realistic how, rather than just using their powers to help people, or go on adventures, most of the children use their superpowers to bully each other and commit horrific acts of violence.

And while this anime is panned for what some see as its irrational shift from whimsical fairy tale mode into deeply disturbing and violent mode, i think this more sober exploration of common anime tropes is deeply refreshing.

Questions, comments, agreement, disagreement?

*(except the fantastic Nihon Review, which I am predisposed to loving because a lot of these guys reviewers used to post with me on the old animeacademy.com forums when they were still alive and bustling)