Anime Series vs. Anime Movies

[awesomedude20]

Over all my time mingling in anime communities, I've noticed a very strange trend with a lot of people.

 

"I don't like anime movies."

 

But why the hell not?

So that brings the question to the table... WHY? I can't quite comprehend why people would inherently love an anime SERIES, over watching an anime MOVIE, to the extent that they wouldn't want to watch ANY anime movies.

I'll be honest, my usual immediate response is

"Just watch better movies."

(But they don't often like that answer.)

And realistically speaking here, the only difference between a good anime series, and a good anime movie, is their length. A lot of people see that length difference as a problem though? In my eyes, they're simply failing to understand that while a show is crafted to be a 4-8 hour experience, a movie is crafted to tell its narrative in just 1-2 hours. Because it's crafted in that way, a good movie will have absolutely no problems getting the viewer invested in the story it's trying to tell.

There's a reason movies are so bloody successful... well, damn near everywhere.

And whenever people look me dead in the eyes and say that anime movies aren't as good as anime series...

I wish to strangle some people.

 

Anyways, would love to hear your thoughts. Do you prefer series to movies? Movies to series? "Whatever is made well"?

Chat about it.

[Shiroe]

I'm fine with watching anime movies, it's just rare that I find a good one that's also something I like. Many anime movies are dramas, namely A Silent Voice, I Want To Eat Your Pancreas, and Your Name. Although I liked A Silent Voice, I don't really have the motivation to watch the other two. A lot of Ghibli films could also be described as Drama, but I'm not going to argue for or against that. These are typically what comes to mind when you ask someone what an anime movie is.

Some anime movies are movies that go alongside the series. There are some anime movies like Overlord's which are just a recap of the series, which I can understand skipping. Other anime movies like Kizumonogatari, No Game No Life Zero, Youjo Senki, and Fate/stay night: Heaven's Feel are pretty popular though, so take that for what you will. (Hell, look how popular Dragon Ball and Pokemon movies are.)

Most importantly, I think the reason why people watch anime in general is to get attached to characters. A lot of the times people will say something like, "I watch this anime for the girl" or, "I watched this anime because of a clip on YouTube". I don't think there's anything necessarily wrong with this, but that might lead into your point about anime movies, which typically focus on the plot. Wrapping that point into my previous points...

Since people are already attached to characters from the Monogatari and Fate/stay night anime, they'll feel comfortable watching Kizumonogatari and Heaven's Feel respectively. That's an obvious point. On the other hand, you're going to have to convince me to watch something like I Want To Eat Your Pancreas. I've seen many stories of sick girl heals depressed boy, so reintroducing this theme for characters I don't care about is already putting the movie at a disadvantage for me.

Edited August 23, 2019 by Musuko

[Ohayotaku]

I’m pretty much in agreement with @Musuko‘s points.

Probably the biggest point for me is that a lot of movies fall into the ultra-dramatic tearjerker category which tends to be too heavy for me.

Another point I’ll bring up is in a movie if you don’t like the main character/couple, you’re pretty much screwed since the limited run time means they’re generally front and center through out. There are numerous series where I actually prefer the side or supporting characters to the mains. A series can manage to give them enough attention scattered throughout and maybe an episode or 2 of their own. Generally a movie can’t do that.

Advantages movies have over series:

1) Usually higher production values (animation, art, soundtrack)

2) Less of a time investment

3) More likely to get the attention of people who don’t usually watch anime

4) Less filler (though I personally feel that filler episodes can be very entertaining and sometimes even offer insight when they’re done right)

Edited August 23, 2019 by Ohiotaku

[作曲者]

Many of the best anime movies don't see 'home release's or streams until months after they initial launch. Promare is a great recent example, there isn't even good torrent of the movie yet.

Take for example "devil man cry baby". It is pretty much a movie, it had a major release on Netflix that made it seem 'more current'. Due to this, the channels of communications which promote discussion of current things, i.e Youtube, reddit, /a/, etc.. talked about it. 

But we can see that one of the most impressive animations of 2018 'Sayonara no Asa ni...' was barely discussed on any of the aforementioned platforms, I think it was around 3 months until a decent subtitle of the movie was released. I am not saying that movie was under appreciated, lot's of people loved it according to MAL, but no one really talked about it.

I'm not sure I would say people dislike anime movies, it's just there is less social incentive to watch anime movies when compared to 'legendary anime series' or currently airing shows.

Edited August 25, 2019 by 作曲者

[Nova]

Sometimes i do watch anime movie like from studio ghibli and the rest from anime series that has movie from them

[Beocat]

Well, it really depends. Stand-alone movies are good, but many movies attached to an anime series are there purely for fan service, so if you are looking for anything deeper than a recap of the season's conquests (aka, how each girl joined the harem, SAO I'm looking at you),  or a beach day designed solely to get all the girls in coconut shell bras (ala Familiar of Zero), or...something of similar design, you are in for a let down. Many older series avoided that with actual interesting storylines in their movies (Tenchi, Sailor Moon, and Cardcaptor immediately spring to mind...mostly), but I don't enjoy the newer ones. I got the PsychoPASS movie and didn't enjoy it, mostly because it centered on a character I wasn't interested in though the story was decent itself. @Ohiotaku got that one right for sure. I guess it depends on why the movie was made first, and who the story centers on second.

[BleachKing96]

If we are talking about the anime movies that are still anime, most of them do fairly well I think. Though, if we are talking about live action remakes... that's another matter entirely. I always wonder how anime live action films manage to crap all over the series (mainly trashing the Bleach film here but the Deathnote films weren't that great either).

If we aren't discussing the live actions then ignore me 

[Serge heartless]

There are a lot of good anime movies, but some movies need to be remade. Like Akira, Akira movie left a lot out from the manga. A lot of the ending from the manga was cut out also. Maybe if a Akira remade came out now it would be like 2-3 movies if they add more from the manga. 

 

Also some movies are not cannon from anime series, so I don't see a point of them. Like the DBZ movies, like 97% of them aren't cannon. 

Edited September 8, 2019 by Serge heartless