Don't like anime?

[Crazy Penguin]

Have you watched Cowboy Bebop yet Nate?

[Segaholic2]

Haha, no. :P Unless you can count a random episode I saw one night on Adult Swim, but it didn't make much sense to me and I didn't get it so I didn't particularly enjoy it so I don't think that counted.

I could probably be bothered to if it were free and easily accessible to me... Although I guess that's not much of an excuse with the internet, and doubly so with my college connections. :P I'll remember to pick up a couple of the first episodes next time I get the chance, then. BUT I DON'T GUARANTEE I'LL LIKE IT!!

[Esrever]

Every aspect of anime, from the writing and pacing to the basic visual style, is so relentlessly homogenous that it makes the American animation industry look diverse.

Ninjas, giant robots, improbably beautiful jailbait, angst-ridden teen boys trying to become ninjas, angst-ridden trying teen boys to pilot giant robots, angst-ridden teen boys fawning over improbably beautiful jailbat. Sure, you can make similar sweeping generalizations about every country's animation and film industries. But with anime, the difference is that the generalization honestly and accurately describes about 99.9 percent of what is produced. And don't even get me started about the apparently mandatory character design style. Considering the tiny creative palatte the Japanese force themselves to work within, it's no wonder that people are so quick to treat anime as a genre instead of a medium.

Of course there are exceptions... I have seen some wonderful Japanese animated films and television shows. But they're great for the same reasons that any film or show from any country is great: interesting ideas, tight execution, solid storytelling and unique style. Most anime is no less hackneyed and cliched than American cartoons. It's just hackneyed and cliched in a different way, and in some ways, in a way that is even MORE restrictive and repetetive.

(Like NT says, just as an asside, Japan is one of the most incredibly racist countries in the western world. If that statement startles you than you might want to do a little reading.)

(Also, the Chinese aren't much better.)

[Baba O'Reily]

Isn't Japan in the east, though?

[Omni Hunter]

It depends on your location. I think Esrever implies that it's a developed country like the U.S./U.K. It's true that anime is full of it's own cliches and Magical Shopping Arcade Abinobashi points most of them out.

[Delphine]

The Japanese aren't racist so much as xenophobic. In general, the Japanese hate everyone that's not Japanese. There are exceptions, of course, but for the most part, the rest of us are seen as inferior.

[j-man]

But they have such small penis. So small.

[Pepperidge]

I feel that one needs to be an anime fan to truly hate anime.

[chriscaffee]

The moms suck their kid's dicks so they do their homework instead of masturbating.

[Kishi]

So a couple mothers go down on their sons and the whole country gets a bad name. Hey I heard that in America every schoolkid gets his own assault rifle.

As for anime being homogenous, it's actually crazy diverse. There are innumerable distinct varieties and flavors. So, I don't know what that accusation is all about.

[plasticwingsband]

The moms suck their kid's dicks so they do their homework instead of masturbating.

So a couple mothers go down on their sons and the whole country gets a bad name.

I've heard this mentioned a few times, but I thought people were just talking out of their asses and making shit up. Did this actually happen?

[Locit]

The Japanese aren't racist so much as xenophobic. In general, the Japanese hate everyone that's not Japanese. There are exceptions, of course, but for the most part, the rest of us are seen as inferior.

So why do so few anime characters actually look Japanese?

[G.Silver]

As for anime being homogenous, it's actually crazy diverse. There are innumerable distinct varieties and flavors. So, I don't know what that accusation is all about.

I was thrown by that too, but I think what he means is that within that variety of genres and targeted age groups, things do become very homogenous.

The reason anime appeals to so many people is because there ARE so many genres and there is so much more animation produced within them, when you seperate the wheat from the crap (even if the percentage is the same) you get a lot more wheat than from other countries (the US at least). I will agree to the statement that there is a greater percentage of diversity (within its market-tested target groups) in the US, but that's only because there is so little produced, animation just doesn't seem to be as profitable so you see very little "me-too" animation going on, and shows that do not quickly prove themselves tend to sink like stones.

And of course, the genrefying of anime is half the fun, as pointed out in Abenobashi, anime fans (ok, SOME anime fans) are some of the most "self aware" fan out there, the stereotypes and predictability is, at times, part of what makes it so enjoyable, provided you do enjoy those stereotypes.

[G.Silver]

So why do so few anime characters actually look Japanese?

Here's the catch--the Japanese don't think that they, themselves, look Japanese, they look "normal." Us westerners are the freaks who need to be portrayed "strangely." Very few animation characters from any country actually closely resemble a particular nationality, they are iconic symbols of "people" and it turns out that when you break it down to that level, people of all nations simply recognize "people" and their minds assume that it's the sort of people that they are most familiar with, themselves. In the case of the Japanese, being so homogenus in the first place, they're even more suseptible.

World unity through animation! It's beautiful!

[Crazy Penguin]

As for anime being homogenous, it's actually crazy diverse. There are innumerable distinct varieties and flavors. So, I don't know what that accusation is all about.

Examples? Ghibli aside. And how many don't feature characters with the same basic facial design template as almost every other cartoon and comic from Japan?

[Spazz]

<i>Panyo Panyo</i> Digi Charat, as opposed to..Ninja Scroll or <i>Elfen Lied</i>?

[Pepperidge]

The art style is still the same at the most basic level. Even Crayon Shin-Chan inhibits undeniable "anime traits". It's just the way they do it.

[plasticwingsband]

The moms suck their kid's dicks so they do their homework instead of masturbating.

So a couple mothers go down on their sons and the whole country gets a bad name.

I've heard this mentioned a few times, but I thought people were just talking out of their asses and making shit up. Did this actually happen?

Question, please?

[One Classy Bloke]

The moms suck their kid's dicks so they do their homework instead of masturbating.

So a couple mothers go down on their sons and the whole country gets a bad name.

I've heard this mentioned a few times, but I thought people were just talking out of their asses and making shit up. Did this actually happen?

Question, please?

I do believe this is true. Apparantly, because the pressures of school are soo big in japan, school kids have little time to go out and fuck eachother. *insert complex method on how mother gets involved* And so the mother fulfils their need for ejactulation, and also gives a load of evidence to Freud, i guess.

[chriscaffee]

So a couple mothers go down on their sons and the whole country gets a bad name. Hey I heard that in America every schoolkid gets his own assault rifle.

You can't even define "assault rifle."

Question, please?

Yes it did happen. A friend of mine found an article about one particular case. I don't know if it was a popular thing or just some isolated incident, probably the latter, but it's still hilarious that both parties have no problem with it.

[Kishi]

<a href="http://norbert-x.com/rock/userfiles/Kis ... t">Here</a>.

And if you honestly can't think 99.9% of anime character designs all adhere to a single template, then you obviously just aren't looking at them. If they're really basically all the same, then so are all animated characters; you may as well say that you can't tell the difference between Mickey Mouse and Speedy Gonzales.

You can't even define "assault rifle."

Yeah, you're a gun freak. We get it.

[chriscaffee]

Yeah, you're a gun freak. We get it.

What does that have to do with anything? I doubt I could come up with an adequate definition for the term.

[Omni Hunter]

[Crazy Penguin]

And if you honestly can't think 99.9% of anime character designs all adhere to a single template, then you obviously just aren't looking at them.

Please show me as many examples as you can.

[Locit]

Waitaminute, can't they just masturbate like the rest of the world?