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[NeoIkaruGAF]

“Anime” is many things. It’s as broad a term as “Nintendo games”. Curiously enough, people who use ”anime” as a broad, pejorative term generally tend to dislike “Nintendo games” too, and vice versa.

Anime tends to follow the soap opera formula because that way, a series can go on for literal decades. It’s a thing for manga too - if the product is very successful, there’s almost no way the author can say no to their publisher and put an end to the story, which has to drag on indefinitely.

Anime can talk about literally anything. It’s usually classified according to the gender and age of its average audience, but the bundaries are much more vague than with western productions. Which is why to say “anime is trash” and assuming every anime watcher is a basement-dwelling weeb is a gross misrepresentation.

 

[p_xavier]

"Tom Sawyer c'est l'Amérique,
Le symbole de la liberté !
Il est né sur les bords du fleuve Mississipi,
Tom Sawyer c'est pour nous tous un ami.

Il n'a peur de rien c'est un américain, and i don't know the rest of the song..."

There is Huckleberry Finn too, with an OST solely comprised of bangers like this one




But really OP if you want (kind of ) children oriented anime's go watch Myiazaki's serial work, Sherlock Holmes, Conan, and Lupin, when you're finished with kemonozume.

I was actually singing that song in my head before reading your post lol. I have that series on Blu-ray.

 

[NahaNago]

I went to an anime store yesterday looking for pokemon cards for my son. More 'perverted anime stuff' than 'comedy, drama, action, horror, perverted, fantasy, sci-fi, romance' combined.

'Pervertered anime stuff' is in all of those genres as well. You can easily tell if an anime is perverted or will have some perverted scenes just by looking at the female characters.

Pure comedy, drama, horror, sci-fi, or romance anime wouldn't be generally popular enough to be in an anime store in the west unfortunately. You generally would just get either the boys/teenagers action anime with most likely half naked or busty women in them or for girls pure magical girl or idol singers stuff.

 

[zeorhymer]

I'd just like to make the observation that we have no big titty anime schoolgirl avatars so far replying to this topic.

 

[NahaNago]

I'd just like to make the observation that we have no big titty anime schoolgirl avatars so far replying to this topic.

we were trying to pretend to be classy.

 

[manfestival]

Anime is cartoons but for baguette wearing martini eaters

 

[T8SC]

School girls with big tits.
Antisocial geek with magic powers.
"Western looking guy" as comic relief.


Something like that. Throw in some Gabba music and you've got your first episode.

 

[Men_in_Boxes]

I opened a Pandoras Box here and I want it shut.

My question was answered! Let the thread die you anime loving freaks!

 

[INC]

Akira and Ghost in the shell basically shaped all of Hollywood sci fi.

 

[IDKFA]

Cartoons for big kids.

 

[Amiga]

Anime is animation in what is now the standard Japanese "house style". other than the obvious face designs it is also characterized by more detailed information in the frames and attention to the background of the scenes. and more importance is given to storyboarding. this allows for deeper and more diverse storytelling than regular western animation and even most western live action TV. the best showcase for that are the shorter limited 24ish episode series. the popular 100+ episode Anime are rushed and do a lot of outsourcing so may not seem like much.

Western animation used to as agile but the industry got divested. a small budget industry couldn't take off retaining the same or close quality to cinematic animation. the networks kept asking for cheaper and cheaper until it deformed into the fart joke genre. there were a few standouts like the old DC animated TV shows.

 

[Cutty Flam]

They’re merely animated narratives; stories of many kinds. It takes some getting used to the Japanese sense of humor and their culture when watching these episodes of certain anime

I used think anime was for pussies all through grade school and until recently like eight years ago. But that’s not even close to the truth, I was completely wrong about that. That’s only the negative stigma that’s attached to watching anime. I’ve watched about 10-15 anime shows to completion, and one show even qualifies as a better show than Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul combined, as much as I love those two. But they’re completely different beasts; you could never compare the two even if you tried. The realism in shows and movies versus the extreme fiction and creativity that arises from animation? There is no comparison, it’s apples and oranges. But anime offers a highly engaging experience if you watch a spectacular show. An adventure that you will never find in a show made by actors I promise you that. Peter Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings is the closest mankind will ever see to what an anime can do at its best. An anime can go anywhere; it’s limitless creativity. Shooting film has its limitations with resources and many other factors but a manga artist and the anime that may come into fruition after at some point? That creator’s story has no bounds attached to it

I personally did not like DBZ anime but loved the manga btw, OP. There are much better anime out there than DB and DBZ

 

[Melfice7]

This is like asking can someone explain the concept of movies/series to me?

Theres all kinds of anime on all genres, just like movies/series

 

[BigBeauford]

It's that genre of animation that you would be embarrassed for watching in front of 90% of people you know.

 

[nush]

Isnt that what you're into though? Ya know the ones u pay for manchild style?

MILFs were where they were at my man. Fine wine, not soda.

 

[bronk]

MILFs were where they were at my man. Fine wine, not soda.

This was a good response, respect.

 

[Happosai]

Gelato is just Italian for ice cream, I'm pretty sure, i think that's a tidy parallel.. do Italians have more words for ice cream? Anime just means animation, they don't really have a convenient alphabetical combination to construct "tion"... (i guess they could say ション but they don't) Anything that's animated could be called animation.. i think there are names for different sub genres, i think the heavily formulaic style you're referring to - which i don't like much either lol - could certainly be told apart from other sub genres.

My avatar incorporates one of only 5 or 6 anime i actually like.. three of these series i like are from the 70s and 80s, before they got too formulaic... The Tatami Galaxy is a show i enjoy a lot and has a funky format.

There's a retired anime hipster troll occasionally stalking these boards who thinks I'm not allowed to talk about it though so I'll end it there

I mean, you described it fairly well by all means. Yes, you have the right to talk about it. Living in Japan, you could probably explain too that the majority of Japanese who do enjoy the medium are not watching anime but rather, reading manga. I'm old, not really a hipster, but I know this one you speak of. He thinks the same of me and has trolled my threads more than once.

 

[Tschumi]

I mean, you described it fairly well by all means. Yes, you have the right to talk about it. Living in Japan, you could probably explain too that the majority of Japanese who do enjoy the medium are not watching anime but rather, reading manga. I'm old, not really a hipster, but I know this one you speak of. He thinks the same of me and has trolled my threads more than once.

he was a radicalised, algorhythmic right winger too, i think that was why he went after you (and just another reason why he disliked me, on top of this) i remember u were one of the brave few to go against the echo chamber... those days are gone ^_^ <for being better than the people who shat on you

ur dead right about manga vs. anime, yeah

people forget that japan has like 90 million people, that's a huge number for a country with like 6 major cities, yeah u see 300 horny fat middle aged men buying little girl statuettes in a small store in the middle of tokyo.. it's striking, but 300 isn't all that much in a city of 37 million, u see those same 300 and another few thousand at a miku hatsune concert... it's not that much...

 

[-Minsc-]

It's like many forms of live action television/movie fiction, except it's in animated form and comes from Japan (very likely not all animated in Japan now).

 

[Happosai]

he was a radicalised, algorhythmic right winger too, i think that was why he went after you (and just another reason why he disliked me, on top of this) i remember u were one of the brave few to go against the echo chamber... those day are gone ^_^ <for being better than the people who shat on you

ur dead right about manga vs. anime, yeah

people forget that japan has like 90 million people, that's a huge number for a country with like 6 major cities, yeah u see 300 horny fat middle aged men buying little girl statuettes in a small store in the middle of tokyo.. it's striking, but 300 isn't all that much in a city of 37 million, u see those same 300 and another few thousand at a miku hatsune concert... it's not that much...

If it's the same bloke, he didn't leave GAF when all the others bit the dust. I think he's still here. I got pissed because he'd bait decent users in the old Ban/Justice thread and try to get others to mob up on them. I think he eased off when half his buddies were banned or requested account closure.

It surprises me Japan still produces anime considering the decline in domestic audience. I had a Japanese friend that watched the 80's series but she admitted to feeling embarrassed with anime fandom in our time (this was the early 2000s). My Uncle taught at Waseda for 4 years and used to send me anime VHS as a kid or exclusive Japanese printings of Hollywood movies.

Back to OP, explaining anime like you were 5-years old. For Westerners it was the same as most foreign film. Seems to have strange followings in countries outside Japan and was introduced to most in the West through Tezuka works like Astroboy.

 

[Keihart]

 

[Cutty Flam]

Men_in_Boxes a really good starting point would be to watch Death Note

 

[lachesis]

Everything’s a soap opera in a way, if one considers any sort of “drama” to be one.

It’s just another medium to tell a story. It opens up a fantastic avenue of interesting stories once one gets over the preconceptions of 2d animated drawings are childish.

There are certainly trashy ones, but there are ones with amazing storytelling.

 

[SirTerry-T]

 

[Yoboman]

Knowing Men_in_Boxes doesn't like anime has me convinced I should watch more of it

Man is the definition of bad taste

 

[Doom85]

Knowing Men_in_Boxes doesn't like anime has me convinced I should watch more of it

Man is the definition of bad taste

But seriously, some of the outdated stereotypes against anime fans in this thread (especially given how much they’ve grown in numbers in the past decade) is ridiculous. Like, I didn’t realize a few people here wrote for the Big Bang Theory because that’s the same outdated nerd-bashing that they occasionally resort to. Hell, my mom watched Great Pretender on Netflix and enjoyed it and she’s well into her 60’s. If someone of her age can appreciate the medium, I see no reason why younger people have to hate on it to that extreme.

 

[SirTerry-T]

But seriously, some of the outdated stereotypes against anime fans in this thread (especially given how much they’ve grown in numbers in the past decade) is ridiculous. Like, I didn’t realize a few people here wrote for the Big Bang Theory because that’s the same outdated nerd-bashing that they occasionally resort to. Hell, my mom watched Great Pretender on Netflix and enjoyed it and she’s well into her 60’s. If someone of her age can appreciate the medium, I see no reason why younger people have to hate on it to that extreme.

It's like any section of fandom. It's easier to take the piss than it is to try and understand that something some people find joy in might have something to offer.

I've seen a group of fellas in a pub taking the piss out of trainspotters, while at the same time being blissfully unaware that most of them were wearing the same football team shirt and arguing over stats of a footie match just minutes earlier.

It's pretty ridiculous, really.

 

[TheGrat1]

It is weird to see people on what is primarily a video game forum state that they do not understand the appeal of watching an animated tv show. Or, likewise, act like watching animation is weird or repulsive/a sign of retarded (as in: held back) social skills. You do realize that many people would think the same about you for being an enthusiast for this hobby as well, yes?

To answer the OP: Anime is just non-interactive animated media, primarily from Japan. It usually takes the form of television programs, direct to home video shows and feature-length films. That's it. Something like Aladdin, Scooby-Doo or Toy Story would be considered anime if it came from Japan. It encompasses as many genres as any other medium of such content.

Anyone looking for recommendations: Now and Then, Here and There. Just harden your heart first.

 

[GeekyDad]

I opened a Pandoras Box here and I want it shut.

My question was answered! Let the thread die you anime loving freaks!

Now, now. You know that's not how it works.

 

[ÆMNE22A!C]

Anime can be soooo hype



Hajime no Ippo my all time fav I think

 

[Ikutachi]

Power of friendship.