Rentahamster
Rodent Whores
I thought it was a neat show. First anime in ages that I've felt compelled to watch the whole thing in two sittings.
Is Mainstream Hatred Of Anime Growing?
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I thought it was a neat show. First anime in ages that I've felt compelled to watch the whole thing in two sittings.
That seems like a fair assessment.
A (much more indulgently) wordier version of what this guy said, apparently.
Haibane Renmei and Kino's journey?
Jex
Member
I detect a serve amount of sarcasm coming from that post.
Stumpokapow
listen to the mad man
Please do. Here are my requirements:
- if it is a series, that it is short with no filler
- should not be built around fighting or combat
- should not contain robots
- should look good, with smooth animation rather than choppy stuff
- should treat women like human beings with dignity, equity, and rich inner lives and should ideally have female characters that are not merely love interests for male characters
- should engage with human, social, and political themes and preferably in a real rather than fantasy world
- should be targeted to adults
- character's eyes should be appropriately sized for their head
- if it has a theme song, the theme song should not overly earnest desperate generic Japanese pop
- should not be described as anyone ever as "badass"
- should not contain a young female character who is rude and abusive to everyone played for laughs
- should not contain a young female character that makes shrill, high pitched noises as a stand-in for actually expressing themselves with words
- should not contain soft focus shots where characters gaze longingly into each other's eyes
- should not contain that dumb blushing reaction where there's a sweat drop and the person screws up their eyes
- should not contain uguu or waifu or whatever other babble people use to express how they want to surround themselves with shrill excitable cute girls
- should not have extended details about how a male character is a pervert
- should be available legally for a reasonable price in North America, preferably dubbed. If it's subbed, the subtitles should be professional and localized, not merely translated
I've asked this before and got a few solid recommendations that I have enjoyed, but in almost every case people remind me that I'm really rubbing up major tropes and approaches used in Anime.
Edit: for example, without knowing anything about the shows, the summaries in the Anime of the Year 2014 results thread exclude most of those shows that made the cut. Not all, mind you.
Perhaps. My sarcasm detector has been unreliable as of late.
Stumpokapow
listen to the mad man
About the first half as it was recommended to me and I enjoyed it a lot. That is a very reasonable recommendation.
Very thoughtful.
TheSadRanger
Banned
Hey stump have ya seen Paranoia Agent? It fits most of the requirements from the list you posted.
edit: It's pretty heavy into political, social themes as well.
edit: It's pretty heavy into political, social themes as well.
Rebel Leader
THE POWER OF BUTTERSCOTCH BOTTOMS
I think log horizon fits most of stumps requirements.....
That or I'm a fan of it mostly because it doesn't do the usually "stuck in mmo" crap
That or I'm a fan of it mostly because it doesn't do the usually "stuck in mmo" crap
You should check out hunter x hunter. It really good and meets most of your requirements.
The Technomancer
card-carrying scientician
Stump, have you seen Paranoia Agent as well? It fills just about every criteria on your plus list and basically none on the minus. Its one of my favorite anime of all time, a psychological occasionally surreal look at the social pressures that build up in an environment like urban Japan. Its warped and fascinating, by Satoshi Kon if you know any of his work like Perfect Blue or Paprika
Only 13 episodes too
EDIT: It is ridiculously expensive sadly.
Crash Station
Member
Gonna say that's going a little bit further than what people usually complain about.
Not a real world modern setting.
ShinRPGamer
Member
Have you watched Durarara? It's a good show and should fit most if not all of your bullet points. Only downside is that buying the complete Blu-Ray box set will cost you a bit, but it is available on legal streaming.
Makes a much better, far more violent read.
As for the sentiments of some, I can see where you're coming from in writing people off because it's pretty easy to stereotype a good part of the audience, but think for a moment about those of us who will almost never bring up what we like exactly because of the stereotypes surrounding it. Some of us aren't exactly fans of that part of the audience either.
Moral Panic
Member
- should engage with human, social, and political themes and preferably in a real rather than fantasy world
PING PONG is a great anime in any case. Saved last season for me.
May not have the mainstream recognition of Attack on Titan, but it sure as heck set the new standard for storytelling, visuals and characterization in the Anime medium.
If you're staring at that image with utter confusion, I can assure you I am being completely serious, and that you should watch it.
Crash Station
Member
Technosteve
Banned
@Stump
Nana (ナナ?) is a Japanese shōjo manga/anime series written and illustrated by Ai Yazawa, serialized in Cookie published by Shueisha. The manga derives its title from the name of the two main characters, both of whom are called Nana. Nana Komatsu is a small town girl who goes to Tokyo to follow her boyfriend and college friends, with the hope of having her dream life. Nana Osaki was in a popular punk band in her home town. She goes to Tokyo with the goal of making it big as a singer. The two Nanas meet on the train ride to the city. Later, they run into each other again when they happen to check out the same apartment, and the girls decide to become roommates. The series chronicles their friendship and their lives as each chases her dreams.
it fills majority of what you are asking for.
Nana (ナナ?) is a Japanese shōjo manga/anime series written and illustrated by Ai Yazawa, serialized in Cookie published by Shueisha. The manga derives its title from the name of the two main characters, both of whom are called Nana. Nana Komatsu is a small town girl who goes to Tokyo to follow her boyfriend and college friends, with the hope of having her dream life. Nana Osaki was in a popular punk band in her home town. She goes to Tokyo with the goal of making it big as a singer. The two Nanas meet on the train ride to the city. Later, they run into each other again when they happen to check out the same apartment, and the girls decide to become roommates. The series chronicles their friendship and their lives as each chases her dreams.
it fills majority of what you are asking for.
The Technomancer
card-carrying scientician
Stump is right on with that list of negatives though. Just about any one of those is enough to get me to roll my eyes, more than a handful and I don't get beyond an episode or two
Rebel Leader
THE POWER OF BUTTERSCOTCH BOTTOMS
and what on that list would it not qualify for?
(besides the obvious fantasy setting)
Is this saying no large eyes at all or just that the eyes look generally ok with relation to the size of the had? Because anime eyes are generally large as you know.
Technosteve
Banned
I don't think Stump can handle something that good
freenudemacusers
Member
a lot of avatar shaming itt. smh.
The Technomancer
card-carrying scientician
Hunter x Hunter is probably the best large scale shonen work of all time (I'm really not exaggerating, I believe that) and would absolutely be my recommendation if someone wanted to only check out one example of that genre, but since it is basically focused on combat and fighting in a fantasy setting I probably wouldn't recommend it for Stump's interests
Chairmanchuck
Member
Tatami Galaxy?
Edit: Time of Eve, though it has "robots" in it. But more like its about psychological questions about what would be considered life.
Rebel Leader
THE POWER OF BUTTERSCOTCH BOTTOMS
shame on you
Crash Station
Member
For one, Log Horizon is waifu central.
Really, Stump's prerequisites are incredibly limiting, not just in anime but many mediums, western or otherwise. Nothing wrong with that, but he'd have A LOT more luck with manga over anime with a list like that.
Yep.
But uh, I've recently been looking at Revolutionary Girl Utena and it's quite good so far...
Has anyone else finished it? I think it may be a good watch but it won't qualify for Stump's list haha (it has a school setting so far but it barely seems to revolve entirely around it).
Rebel Leader
THE POWER OF BUTTERSCOTCH BOTTOMS
What do you mean by that? I never even thought of log horizon in that way.
indeed but not alot of manga gets translated but scanlated
Chairmanchuck
Member
Actually I noticed that most of the people who are in the anime-manga-fanscene and want mature stories, switched to manga primarily or at least to a certain degree.
Moral Panic
Member
Why limit yourself so much? Will the lack of political themes really kill an otherwise great TV show? Or does the presence of robots throw a competent drama into the trashpile? I can understand having preferences but I think you've taken it a bit OTT.
The Technomancer
card-carrying scientician
Jex
Member
As I believe I've said earlier (I can't be bothered to check my own post history), most of those requirements are kind of like asking for it not to resemble the culture that it comes from, or the business space that it's made in. That's just not going to happen very frequently, if it all.
These is no creative space within the industry to produce the kind of show that would meet that bill. It's a small industry that exists to advertise toys, manga and light novels. The staff don't get paid enough to live without working for multiple projects at once. There is no concern for the health and well being of anyone involved in most studios.
A few things that are pretty much impossible:
License holders in America don't want to pick up and release the kind of shows that would fit your criteria, namely the "- should engage with human, social, and political themes and preferably in a real rather than fantasy world & - should be targeted to adults" because that's not what the audience wants. If anyone wanted that kind of show then Hyouka would be licensed, but it's not.
Japan is fairly regressive when it comes to depicting women, anime is certainly no different.
Really, er, I don't think it's commercially possible for any studio to depict the kind of work that would meet many, let alone all, of your requirements. It would probably only end up being something that lost the people involved a great deal of money regardless.
The obvious answer, therefore, is to turn to manga where there is no need to employee dozens of people from multiple companies to produce one story. A manga can just be the work of two, or even one person and therefore there is far greater room for experimentation.
Also, Stump, watch Planetes!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CZ-OyT4ivkM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CZ-OyT4ivkM
The Technomancer
card-carrying scientician
That's why I recommended Satoshi Kon's stuff. Women in Japan, as a theme or subtheme, was basically his area of specialty
Honestly, I think you'd have an easier time finding manga/Japanese comics that fit your criteria than anime. Not all the great stuff gets animated. Then again, I haven't kept up with the good stuff in anime for like 6 years now.
Moral Panic
Member
This is certainly true for me. Otoyomegatari makes anime look like a joke.
Hmm, now that I think about it, Spiral almost made the cut for Stump's list, but the characters have big eyes and are in high school.
Still, that's a pretty clever anime with little action. It's more of a mystery and while the lead girl is silly, she's been braver than the guy on quite a few occasions.
It was back in 2006 that I watched tho so my memory may be failing me.
Still, that's a pretty clever anime with little action. It's more of a mystery and while the lead girl is silly, she's been braver than the guy on quite a few occasions.
It was back in 2006 that I watched tho so my memory may be failing me.
Chairmanchuck
Member
I just wonder how it would be animated. I mean a major part of the manga are the beautiful and detailed drawings.
I think if it would be animated it would lose quite a lot of its charm.
Fornaximus
Member
So you have an issue with "fan service" in anime? I'm not a fan of it, either. But I'm not going to watch something like High School of the Dead and expect Ghibli or Satoshi Kon-tier female leads. There's going to be trash, but there's also a lot of good stuff out there. An easy and recent shonen example would be Attack on Titan with characters like Mikasa, Annie, and Hanji.
Crash Station
Member
"waifu" quirks are present in pretty much every female character to an extent. Really, everyone is tropey all around.
And ignoring that, we also have an importance placed on combat, has "badasses", some blushing, a character constantly being called a pervert, and is not targeted at adults.
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