I wouldn’t outwardly say that I hate anime but I definitely assume the worst when I hear a show is one. I automatically start thinking it’s going to be style over substance with unnecessarily long fight scenes, unrelatable characters, gross sexualization of female characters (if not child characters), and awkward dubs.
There are obviously exceptions to this. Serial Experiments Lain was my PFP here on Lemmy for a while and it’s one of my favorite shows ever. Within the past month I binged all of Chainsaw Man in two nights and thought it was great. But it was great in spite of the fact that it’s also an anime
may i recommend monster. its 76 eps and more a murder mystery with a hitchcock vibe.
edit - the dub is really good but a little harder to find…
Sorry, I know that this is a thread for people who dislike anime to voice their reasons, but do you mind some rec? Based on what you said, I feel like you’d enjoy Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood quite a bit:
- there’s a lot of substance in FMA:B in the theme, worldbuilding, character interactions.
- there are fight scenes but they never overstay their welcome. They don’t feel tiring like in Dragon Ball Z or similar.
- characters are relatable. For example, the two protags fuck it up big time, right at the start, and yet can you really blame them? You’d probably do the same in their situation.
- there’s practically no sexualisation of female characters. Arguably only one of the villains, but that’s done for characterisation and it would feel off otherwise, it isn’t there for fanservice.
[Note: I’m not recommending this to change your views or some crap like that, it’s just that as I was reading your list of issues I was thinking “true that… wait, FMA:B doesn’t do it!”]
I don’t but I hate anime that rely on awful tropes like exploiting underage girls or the typical sister incest stuff (I would say brother-sister but this also applies to sister-sister)
I also find powerfantasy isekais boring
The Isekai thing is so fucking played out, Its possibly the laziest writing trope ever.
Funnily the only Isekai that was somewhat interesting and realistic “Drifters” still doesn’t have a season 2. It’s basically powerful and influential political figures and warriors from random time periods get transported into a medieval fantasy world after their death. All I want is to see is WW2 anime Hitler take over a fantasy kingdom and get killed by Ninjas, is that to much to ask for? It’s realistic in the sense that the main characters are 10 minutes into a fantasy land with magic and beautiful nature and of course they’re already started making guns and bombs.
I disagree. It can be made good. Good examples are Overlord and jobless reincarnation.
Just because it can be done well doesnt mean it isn’t a shortcut around good writing for a LOT of these stories.
It hands the writer a blank cheque for exposition and worldbuilding because the main character needs to have everything explained to them or figure everything out and it excuses any form of set up as to the how and why the character is in this situation.
I never got into it and people online make it seem cringy. I know there’s probably good stuff out there but weebs are just so weird to me. Love Studio Ghibli and Akira. And used to love Dragon Ball Z and Pokemon - but as an adult never got into the shows.
I am a massive anime watcher and I have this problem too. I used to binge watch a lot of shows, but as I’ve grown older I find I can’t project myself onto the characters anymore and I can’t relate to any of them. There is a severe drought of adult-targeted shows that aren’t pornographic or tragedy/horror in nature. It’s like adults are not interesting unless they are sexed up or murdered.
A lot of the good stuff has already been adapted (most anime are adaptations of some form of light novel or comic book), so in the past few years the production studios have been scraping the bottom of the barrel just to release something. It has resulted in a higher than average set of subpar works every season (3 months, 12 or 13 episodes).
I hadn’t made this connection, but you hit the nail on the head. I’m a little past the point where I’m identifying with the local high school bully victim. In my own analysis, I concluded that much of the problem with the vast majority of modern anime is what comes across as very awkward pacing. At least that’s the way it seems from an American point of view such as my own, I can’t speak for anyone else. I see that theme across many many series that I’m unable to finish after starting. I feel like 10, 15, 20 years ago it was it was very different, in terms of the stories that were told, how they were told, and how they were paced. And plotting was either more universal, or more accessible to a western audience than I feel much of what is put out today is.
People get too obssessed with it
I can’t stand fight scenes where people are flying through the air at each other doing stupid poses and making sounds. They usually have some special power, and it’s all so meh.
I really liked Pantheon and then cringed when it resorted to that near their end. There’s lots of exceptions, like princess mononoke.
It’s weird that the Japan - the country which arguably had the most positive global influence on how fight scenes are filmed and choreographed in movies has had a complete devolution in fight scenes in animation.
Like look at this fight scene from Ghost in the Shell (1995). Look how calm and harmonic it is 99% of the time, followed by quick bursts of action.
Or this scene from Evangelion (1999), Bebop (1998), Hellsing (1999).
There are some memorable modern fights that push the envelope of animation in modern anime like, Madara Uchia from Naruto (2016), Mob Psycho 100 (2019) or Castlevainia (2021).
But overall modern anime fights are composed mostly of flying, still images screaming “HEYAAA”, internal monologues and 3D explosions.
