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The limitations of anime?


Cy~

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What are the things that you almost never see in anime? Is there a type of anime or a genre that you feel is simply not well represented? Have you ever watched an anime and then realized that it was the only one of its kind?

 

For myself, I wish that there were more honest to goodness mystery anime that were well-made and actually bothered trying to be a decent mystery. It's weird, but one of the best mystery anime that I have ever seen was actually classified as a thriller - Monster.

 

I guess I understand why there aren't more mysteries. A good mystery is really, really hard to do, and many people are tempted to take a formulaic, boring approach. However, those formulas only work in books and carefully crafted movies. For anime, I think that you have to try harder to "thread the needle".

 

What are the things that you have seen to be underrepresented (or impossible to represent) in anime?

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Honestly I wish there was a "choose your own adventure" anime - similar to a TellTale Games series. I suppose that would be nearly impossible to do but it would be so cool to have different chapters depending on what you want the main character to do and each person watching could have a bit more of a customized experience.

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Honestly I wish there was a "choose your own adventure" anime - similar to a TellTale Games series. I suppose that would be nearly impossible to do but it would be so cool to have different chapters depending on what you want the main character to do and each person watching could have a bit more of a customized experience.

 

Not really impossible, imo - you can get some super impressive looking anime style graphics with good cel shading and such, so there's no reason this couldn't be a thing. It should be a thing! :o

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Honestly I wish there was a "choose your own adventure" anime - similar to a TellTale Games series. I suppose that would be nearly impossible to do but it would be so cool to have different chapters depending on what you want the main character to do and each person watching could have a bit more of a customized experience.

Not really impossible, imo - you can get some super impressive looking anime style graphics with good cel shading and such, so there's no reason this couldn't be a thing. It should be a thing! :o

 

Would you say that visual novels fill this gap? I get that they don't have the animation, but they often have the story elements and fairly impressive static graphics and music?

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Would you say that visual novels fill this gap? I get that they don't have the animation, but they often have the story elements and fairly impressive static graphics and music?

 

I completely forgot about visual novels! I do like them but I don't play them very often (I did play the heck out of Hatoful boyfriend). It would be awesome to have one fully voiced and animated. Are there any visual novels that have gotten to that point yet?

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Seeing that most of my favorite anime make heavy use of mainstream tropes, I don't think I've really seen that many anime that are one of its kind and truly unique. And for those that are unique, they would often delve into mind-trip territory, making it way too frustrating to understand the story in the first place. It seems to be difficult for the anime industry to break away from the industry's machinations, largely because of the cultural influence this "moe" has.

 

Then again, I could say pretty much the same thing about American cartoons and American superhero movies. It's culture, not medium, that's the limiting factor here. Gintama is a slapstick comedy because Japanese people love manzai, which the comedic style of Gintama was arguably based on. Shounen anime is abundant because lots of Japanese kids dig that kind of stuff, leading to more production of that stuff. You get the point. Supply and demand. In fact, fanservice only exists because Japanese people love it, thus leading to the "servicing" of the term.

 

As for an anime that's the only one of its kind (that's not a mind-trip), off the top of my head, I could only come up with Hourou Musuko. You can hardly find an anime that deals with such issues out there. It's surprising, considering that Japanese people don't seem to have as much discrimination against gay rights than, well, westerners in general. Even Singaporeans of Asian races (and possibly China citizens) have bias and stigma against homosexuals, making Japanese quite unique in its fairness among Asians (known for their traditionalist values). But most of the homosexuality you see in Japanese media are in forms of comedies, parodies, or famous celebrities. I don't really know any serious drama with homosexuality as its central focus, aside from the aforementioned Hourou Musuko (which, again, is about cross-dressing, not homosexuality).

 

There's also Mushishi, a slice-of-life sort of anime about a man with powers to detect these spirit-like creatures called "mushi". The story revolves around the benefits and consequences these mushi brought to the lives of ordinary citizens. It's a very thought-provoking show, its central theme being the neutrality of life, how one life ends and another would begin. The only other anime that I know that ponders upon such meanings of life is Kino's Journey, another fantastic anime that deals with the happiness and sadness of life, among other important life lessons. I know there are actually a lot of these undiscovered gems out there that try to teach their audience about something other than how to dress girls up in skimpy battle-costumes (looking at you, Kill la Kill), but it's kinda hard to find them.

 

Horror is truly not well-represented in anime. THERE WE GO, something real to talk about in this topic. Horror anime always suck. Okay, that's an exaggeration, but you know that good horror anime is incredibly difficult to find. There's just some unknown reason that animators find horror difficult to portray, maybe because of the association of anime with kid-friendly. I don't know. The best they could do is disturb you with frightening subjects adults would fear, or creep you out with an atmospheric build-up like Ghost Hound (which I dropped due to being bored). I can't remember the last time someone told me, "Man, that anime was scary."

 

No, jump-scares don't count.

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I think I would like it if we ever saw a mocumentary anime done in an eastern style. Imagine something along the lines of District 9 with less pointless fighting and cut up action scenes, all with an Eastern twist. I imagine that would be hard to do though. That said, I bet a lot of anime fans would watch a real documentary if it was told by anime characters and had animation all throughout, so that could be interesting as well.

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Human' themselves limit it, just like every other human endeavor. But I haven't really said anything new. As for what I think it's lacking, hmmmm..... human sized chests, drama which features real normal reactions, an anime which critically evaluates Japanese society itself, one which doesn't bastardize European or any other history, a harem anime with consequences and one in which one person is chosen, more serious-ish fantasy animes like berserk.

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I think I would like it if we ever saw a mocumentary anime done in an eastern style. Imagine something along the lines of District 9 with less pointless fighting and cut up action scenes, all with an Eastern twist. I imagine that would be hard to do though. That said, I bet a lot of anime fans would watch a real documentary if it was told by anime characters and had animation all throughout, so that could be interesting as well.

 

Holy shit, that's actually a fantastic idea. Hahaha. I would actually watch this, especially if it focused heavily on geopolitics and took on the character of a lightweight thriller. Those can actually be really satisfying...

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For myself, I wish that there were more honest to goodness mystery anime that were well-made and actually bothered trying to be a decent mystery. It's weird, but one of the best mystery anime that I have ever seen was actually classified as a thriller - Monster.

 

I guess I understand why there aren't more mysteries. A good mystery is really, really hard to do, and many people are tempted to take a formulaic, boring approach. However, those formulas only work in books and carefully crafted movies. For anime, I think that you have to try harder to "thread the needle".

 

Have not really seen Monster, but I have to agree that anime that is mostly considered a mystery series tends to be pretty awful.

 

Heck, Detective Conan, which I get the most traffic for on my blog, is not able to completely satisfy me all the time, and that is considered one of the best mystery series out there.

 

Unfortunately things do not always work out so well in books either.

 

As for my thoughts on the topic at hand, I do not think that that there are as many limitations on anime, as there are with live-action shows, but much of the staff at the various studios do not seem to be able to entirely deliver on what a show needs to have.

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Have not really seen Monster, but I have to agree that anime that is mostly considered a mystery series tends to be pretty awful.

 

It's kind of sad, if you think about it, because there's a lot of opportunity for making a mystery anime that is actually good. Just the fact that it would be unique could be enough to secure a really decent audience for a new show. Still, I see probably a half-dozen harem anime every season (minor exaggeration) and no one bothers to try making a mystery.

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It's kind of sad, if you think about it, because there's a lot of opportunity for making a mystery anime that is actually good. Just the fact that it would be unique could be enough to secure a really decent audience for a new show. Still, I see probably a half-dozen harem anime every season (minor exaggeration) and no one bothers to try making a mystery.

 

I guess harems are just more appealing than mystery geeks, huh?

 

Then again, anime studios are just like any other business.

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I guess harems are just more appealing than mystery geeks, huh?

 

Maybe? I'm not sure, tbh. I mean, we could always have a harem that includes mystery? Hell, I'd take that, because I'm so desperate.

 

I wonder if it's a chicken and egg problem. To date, there really aren't any "true" mystery anime that didn't just parrot Sherlock Holmes poorly (or, worse, just not even try). I've never watched Detective Conan, though, so maybe that's good?

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I've never watched Detective Conan, though, so maybe that's good?

 

In the beginning, it was great and delivered most of what I want from a mystery series, but these days, it is a hit and miss kind of thing and the cases are not always as interesting as they used to be.

 

If you want to check it out the manga is vastly superior because the plot holes in the anime do not exist in the manga and stays pretty good for maybe 26 volumes.

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I'd like to see a First Person Point Of View anime.. That probably sounds stupid, but with a certain plot I feel like if it's done right it could end up being good?

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