Girlchan in Paradise (70% of all anime)

[Chakra-X]

Maybe I just don't "get it". Or maybe you haven't read as many books as I have, so it all feels new to you. Whatever the case, Girlchan in Paradise struck home for me. I laughed because, based on my experience, its true.

Haha, I was waiting for you to say what you thought of the animation.

I find it ridiculous that people have reviewed the animation, complaining about the bad animation or storyline, completely missing the point that it's satirical.

 

[Zeonix]

Haha, I was waiting for you to say what you thought of the animation.

I find it ridiculous that people have reviewed the animation, complaining about the bad animation or storyline, completely missing the point that it's satirical.

I'd watch this over "DRILL TO THE HEAVENS!!!" any day of the week.

 

[guest]

But it seems that Most new Anime isn't worth watching. Now Compare Gundam Seed to Gundam Wing. You see the change. Just compare the art style as well.

Gundam Seed had emotional depth, amazingly fluent and detailed animation and asked philosophical questions regarding relationship and the duality of man. Gundam Wing had the most cliche archatypes I've ever seen in a mecha, choppy old animation barely better than the original Mobile Suit animations and the plot seemed designed purely to drag out the story, rather than progress it.

To be fair I never finished watching Gundam Wing- not out of a dislike for it though, purely circumstantial- but all the same Gundam Seed amazed me. Not on the standard of say Furi Curi or Evangellion, but still a fantastic anime, far better than the new Gundam 00.. Which has taken many steps back from where Gundam Seed lead the series.

And the animation examples you showed don't really support you. In each of the older ones there is a single-colour or single-shade, simple background. In each of the new ones there is a highly detailed background- Well, perhaps other than the crappy Naruto filler art. And I know that's filler, I regrettably remember that episode, with that guy with the lighting sword bull.. I remember it because that was when I stopped watching. Both new and old examples have little detail on the faces, but the newer examples are cleaner, they have less difference. The skin tones are also more accurate, although I'm not pointing fingers at the purple girl, I'm sure there must have been a lighting explanation for that.
Furthermore those images, obviously, aren't animated. Modern day animation is far, far more fluent with higher frames per second than older, by comparison "juddery" animation. This is most likely due to technological difficulties rather than the artist's knowledge or skill, but it is a factor all the same.

-----Okay enough on that post---

I'm going to hit y'all up with some Media theory here, though I forget the theorist's name, maybe some others will know who I'm talking about. He created the idea of a genre cycle; A genre goes through three stages: First it will be groundbreaking and unique, then it will be "classical" with well established conventions and target audiences, and finally it will reach "parody" stage at which point the conventions have become so well established that the genre may be predictable, and moreover this is pointed out in common media. Hense the Simpsons and other sitcoms taking the piss out of Westerners and sci-fi so much, because they're in a parody stage of their life span. You could also say that FireFly is in the groundbreaking stage, having created an as-of-yet unexplored hybrid genre.

Scream is a good example of a serious Horror movie that uses parody elements because it recognises such conventions aren't effective anymore, and of course Scary Movie is a good example of an all-out genre parody.

Anyway, this applies here. These conventions are not of anime; they are of fighting anime. DragonBall Z was classic age, Naruto/Bleach are parody age (Hense the conventions appear less and are occaisonally used in a mocking way) and hmm.. I guess Yu Yu Hakusho may have been ground breaking stage, I'm not sure how far back that goes though.

The point is not all anime is like this. These are parodies of the fighting anime genre, which has entered its parody stage- and has been at this stage for a good 10 years, maybe less. Hence why we're getting new, creative animes like Death Note (To be fair there is at least one parody manga of that around already, but it is very easy to do so with a series that takes itself so seriously) and Gundam Seed, which was certainly ground breaking, but after Seed Destiny missed the point completely I doubt there'll be another anime quite like it.
ROW ROW FIGHT THE POWAH, and by that I mean Tenga Turra Gurren Lagaan (or whatever) is like Scream- it's a serious anime, with somewhat meaningful messages, that uses parody aspects becausae the conventions are no longer taken seriously. Rather than try to stray the border line, like Naruto/Bleach do, of adding a ton of audience-pleasing conventional fillers but changing them enough that it isn't totally predictable and hoping no-one notices they decided to totally blast out of the genre restrictions and make the series so ridiculous that it parodied the conventions and made a good contrast against shows that took themselves to seriously.

Man I think I should stop here. Yeah I've always got more to say, but this'll do for now. Not all animes are like that, fighting animes are but those conventions are dieing out and new groundbreaking conventions are (slowly) appearing. Anime hasn't always been like this, and it won't always be like this either. Genres are constantly changing, and anime is no different.

*edit* Just stumbled across a good example of genre parody, of overly established conventions etc..
http://www.questionablecontent.net/comics/1350.png
Yeah I read that comic, it used to be funny..

 

[Deathshot]

I think I will stick to G Gundam.... Its DBZ in Mechas.

But I have watched Many anime in my time and mainly cause my Cousin owns an anime shop, but I have looked through them all and noticed... There are anime out there that have had a different look into life and then the ones that just copy-pasta-cut and then just go on.

 

[Deman]

The thing with Anime is that amongst it's japanese fans, they even have words for their favorite cliches and love to see those cliches.

You've got your nekos(cat girls), tsunderes(angry violent women that just want to be loved, but can't express that. Haruhi and Asuka), harems(Tenchi is a good example) and so forth.

To some it's all about playing the same old cliches but trying to top others who have done the cliche. Some people like that. Some people don't. That's really all there is to it.

I came in with the intention to post some recommendations for Zeo, but I realize that the series I can think of that don't focus on one cliche or another are far and few between. My suggestion is to go with older stuff if you can, like Akira(****, tokyo gets destroyed in this one, another cliche). Maybe Serial Experiments Lain since that one does tend to break the mold in many places. Michiko to Hatchin is kind of fun, it's set in Brazil and has a very latin feel to it. I look at that one as kind of a Brasilian Cowboy Bebop, at least in the way that it's action packed with a themed soundtrack.

Bleh, I'm ramblin. Chances are if it wasn't popular in Japan, it didn't follow a formula that many other series have set before it.

 

[Deathshot]

Screw you guys. Im going to watch Hamtaro.

 

[guest]

Maybe Serial Experiments Lain since that one does tend to break the mold in many places.

Man that series confused the **** outta me. I pretty much get it now, but that's only after researching it and figuring it out, the ending made no sense.. Not necessarily in a good way though, I don't think the story was actually explained very well. Guess it's just a matter of taste or summat, it was enjoyable and interesting either way.

 

[Deman]

Man that series confused the **** outta me. I pretty much get it now, but that's only after researching it and figuring it out, the ending made no sense.. Not necessarily in a good way though, I don't think the story was actually explained very well. Guess it's just a matter of taste or summat, it was enjoyable and interesting either way.

It was meant to have an open ended ending so that people can come to their own conclusions. The writers were actually intending for Japanese and American audiences to have conflicting ideas on what actually was going on, though most Americans who would invest time into it also watch a lot of other anime. The views ended up being the same.

 

[MC]

Whatever the case, Girlchan in Paradise struck home for me. I laughed because, based on my experience, its true.

That pretty much sums up how I felt while watching it.

 

[MF29]

I enjoyed it.

 

[Eacos]

Its still worth remembering the sole fact that a large portion of Japan's economy is dependent on the sometimes lame cartoons they manage to export, so having that in mind its quite understandable that anime production en masse is the cornerstone of decent incomes for thousands of people.

I have to agree with Zeonix though, most animes I've seen are all cliches galore types.
Hellsing OVA is by far the best japanese animation I've laid eyes upon since Akira.

lol @ Deathshot

 

[Renyori]

I wouldn't really say that's 70% of anime, the only anime i can think of like that are a few Shonen Jump anime, because they tend to have the same elements.

It's also not just limited to Japanese anime. You can basically take any American tv show, cartoon, movie, pick it apart and find cliches that have been done many times before, unless the movie/tv show was based on historic/true events or something.