Finding your Genre

A

afoia

Adventurer
I thought i'd just post a quick rant.
I took a friend to london expo in May for first time and he seemed to really enjoy himself, but i think he was concerned about what I was buying.
Because he's slowly getting into anime via typical shonen (bleach, naruto) he doesnt seem to realise what else is out there and thinks some of the shows i watch are too 'girly' or 'boring'. Although i watch alot of different genres of anime im more picky that i was when i first started out and now i have pretty much tailored my taste.
This has made me wonder, how many of you jumped in at the deepend with anime, buying (or downloading) different series to get a taste of things? and how long did it take you to realise what genre was right for you?

/rant.
 
Does there have to be a set genre?

I still vary what I buy years after I first started watching anime. I don't watch Yaoi shows but other than that I willing to give most things a try.
 
first series i bought that didn't fit my tastes at the time was Lunar Legend Tsukihime (a series i really enjoyed) but i don't have strict tastes, i just have moods which dicate what i watch :p unless the mood changes i won't watch anything that is different. For example if i'm in a mech only mood, its garunteed that i'm watching something to do with giant robots (either sentient or piloted, it doesn't matter to me).

In those rare times when i'm not in a genre spefic mood i'll give anything a go with one minor exception, it's not slice of life or solely romance (romance with sci fi/horror/action etc is fine) then i won't watch, but this follows my normal entertainment rules anyway (tv shows, movies books etc) so its not a big deal to me :p
 
afoia said:
This has made me wonder, how many of you jumped in at the deepend with anime, buying (or downloading) different series to get a taste of things? and how long did it take you to realise what genre was right for you?
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For me, the 'deep end' is horror, historical and fantasy genres. The second of those is a genre and not a setting, but it's appropriate here.
I've never jumped into them, but I can say I've dabbled my toes in them on occasions when they coincide with my usual repertoire.

Mecha was something I was initially sceptical about, though I've now come to enjoy it for the character drama its premises seem to allow. This gradual acceptance came for an existing interest in sci-fi however, so it's not like I can claim to have warmed to something I was initially opposed to.
 
I like certain genres more than others, such as fantasy and comedy, but there are very few I do not like/don't watch, such as hentai.

Get him into some seinen stuff, if he thinks some anime is girlish or boring.
 
The only things I know I'm not going to be into without watching are just about all Shojo and most Shonen shows. I've never really felt that interested in anything which is based around a kind of "battles" plot structure either, including sport. Basically if it has any sort of fighting, I want guns, women or giant robots involved (preferably all three).

I think I've more or less carried over the genres I enjoy in other media. I never really had to "try out" any particular genres in anime, although like Zin5ki I was unsure of mecha to begin with. Patlabor swept that initial sceptecism aside though.

I know slice of life stuff can be an aquired taste, but I find it can be some of the most fascinating if it's well written - After all it has less gimmicks, it's really more about people than anything else. After that I probably enjoy sci-fi the most, the more original the better.
 
When I started watching anime there was a relatively limited selection to choose from, so I watched what I could and bought whatever reviewed well in magazines. It wasn't until I saw Fushigi Yugi, a cartoon shat from the bowels of Satan Himself, that I realised shoujo melodrama wasn't for me. Notable exceptions are Escaflowne and Fruits Basket, but even they annoyed the crap out me at times. A couple of years later, Princess Nine, a series about an all-girl baseball team that everyone on AnimeOnDVD pissed themselves over, put me off sports anime forever.

Even now there are genres to which I haven't paid much attention. Fighting shows have never interested me, and I'm deepy wary of otaku-centric action or romance shows (like Shana or Clannad), because most of what I've seen of them has been banal, predictable, and terribly written. So, in conclusion, there's no specific genre I favour, but there are those I avoid.
 
The thing for me was that i never started off with your typical shounen. Sure i watched Dragonball Z like most people did when it was on CNX/toonami etc, but i had no idea of anime then. It was mecha i started off with, but i had always been someone who was open to all genres, no particular one i prefer, so i just looked into this and that and chose whichever series i saw that looked interesting, be it horror, comedy, sci-fi, romance..you get the idea. I've never really picked one genre over another so its never been a real problem for me to get into any other genre or try something else out.
 
I stuck with mostly Shounen stuff until mid-2006 when I found like 90% of the things I watched to just keep on going and gradually getting worse (Naruto & Bleach, Black Cat, etc.) FMA was pretty awesome at the time, but I don't really like it anymore. (Old series, of course. But if I had to pick one anime to define my teen years it WOULD be the first FMA anime.) Then I went on to JJBA and Gantz, I mean, hell... I was fifteen when I read Gantz in 2006, I was starting to become less of a dumb AUKN member and someone you could actually take seriously. So Gantz was my first taste of Seinen and JJBA was my first taste of a "Mature shounen" besides FotNS.

From then on I was like FabricatedLunatic for a bit all "SHOUNEN SUCKS." I have to admit, I followed the Death Note hype, but I was like fifteen and soon realized it was for the better to... discard it, putting it nicely. But the "Shounen Hate" phase passed by when I read ALL of One Piece in the summer over the course of two weeks in the Six Week holidays it was Chapter 427 exactly that I caught up on, I read it pretty slow too, it enjoyed it that much.

Late 2006/Early 2007 I watched some other things, like some Shoujo, some typical moé/loli anime, etc. At this time I sort of realized that most of it was flooding the anime seasons because Japan LOVES it and it was mostly garbage which was either extremely boring or can be slightly entertaining. Code Geass hype was going down too, I watched some of it and I didn't see it at all, same with TTGL, I thought I'd give it a try, never worked out. (Though I have actually finished them both, TTGL was just an over-hyped parody of a parody stealing the best moments from GunBuster and GaoGaiGar which most clueless mecha newcomers didn't notice. Code Geass is just Yu-Gi-Oh with mechs.)

2008 was when I started watching a lot of things but sticking to my typical "No Loli or fanservice" code, but I started to let it slip when a bro shown me Tenjou Tenge, which I did enjoy. So I lowered my guard a little and as of 2009, I'm a lot more open to most things, though it's mainly mecha/action for me, with a good slow series and some fanservice at the side. All things have some form of entertainment though, so I'd say I'm a lot more mellow as of current and will accept anything.
 
I started off with sci-fi, action and horror series mostly. I think Hellsing (TV) and GitS: SAC were my first. Over time a looked into less obvious genres such as slice of life and such. I think these days I'll watch pretty much anything from any genre, providing it doesn't suck.
 
I think I have watched pretty much most genres but I tend to go more for the action/fantasy/comedy ones as a whole.
But on the manga side it's more towards romance/comedy side of things.
 
I think when I first started watching stuff in the late 80's early 90's there was really only Sci-Fi and supernatural demon type stuff around and the odd fantasy. Nowadays I will watch most things including some quite girlie slice of life stuff, but not overly girlie or kiddie things. Although I will give most things a chance I still can't bring myself to watch many giant robot and mecha shows unless I think there maybe something else to them.
 
While I don't particually pick and choose based on genre there are genres I just enjoy less then others. For example, Horror. It needs to be a great film for me to enjoy it and not lean completely on the horror aspect (see; the sixth sense*), the Horror element alone doesn't do it for me (not speaking anime here, never seen an anime Horror, unless tsukihime counts). I usually find I enjoy, action, adventure, sci-fi (preferably retro futurisum like cowboy bebop and bladerunner, but I can also enjoy some star trek), comedy, romance (depending) and psychological stuff that plays wit chor hed. Of course it all depends on the show. I also quite like films with gothic themes (not sure if theres some kind of genre for that) like D.Gray-Man, xxxHOLiC and The Nightmare Before Christmas. Not Edward Scissorhands though, it sucked.

In anime I generally avoid ecchi and fanservice stuff. It's not that I have any massive aversion to that aspect, just that it's always lacking anything other then pure fanservice, the plot generally being the flattest thing in sight. Get it? Flat? Chested?

*traumatised me as a child
 
I don't have a specific genre. If a series is supposed to be good, I'll watch it. The only exceptions are series aimed at queers/fangirls.

I like dark fantasy - like Berserk & Claymore - more than most other types. I'm also fond of depressing/realistic stories. But I'll watch almost anything.
 
I mainly started off with the manga movies, anyone who's a little older will probably remember them on sci-fi channel & I believe BBC 2 for a while, every week. Ghost in the shell: SAC got me hooked on anime series in general.

Since then I've basically watched anything and everything, I don't really have a specific genre with anime. I like most anime genres. I can tell you a genre that I don't like so much though.............mecha. Other than that, I'm open to everything. I don't really watch the girlie stuff since I'm a guy.

I guess if I had to choose a genre..............hmm.....I'm making it up........the complex genre. I like complex anime.
 
Don't forget the late night anime that channel 4 used to show in the mid 1990s.

While BBC 2 introduced me to films like Akira and Royal Space Force - Wings of Honneamise, Channel 4 showed late night anime series such as Tokyo Babylon 1 & 2, Cyber City Oedo 1 - 3, Devilman 1 & 2 and Doomed Megalopolis 1 - 4 and Legend of the Dragon king.

I also remember seeing Porco Rosso on one of the Sky movie channel late on night.

My early memory of anime on the Sci-fi channel includes Tenchi Muyo, Guyver, Macross Plus, Giant Robo, Dominion Tank Police, Devilman
Roujin Z, Gunbuster - Aim for the Top! and Castle of Cagliostro.
 
mangaman74 said:
Don't forget the late night anime that channel 4 used to show in the mid 1990s.

While BBC 2 introduced me to films like Akira and Royal Space Force - Wings of Honneamise, Channel 4 showed late night anime series such as Tokyo Babylon 1 & 2, Cyber City Oedo 1 - 3, Devilman 1 & 2 and Doomed Megalopolis 1 - 4 and Legend of the Dragon king.

I also remember seeing Porco Rosso on one of the Sky movie channel late on night.

My early memory of anime on the Sci-fi channel includes Tenchi Muyo, Guyver, Macross Plus, Giant Robo, Dominion Tank Police, Devilman
Roujin Z, Gunbuster - Aim for the Top! and Castle of Cagliostro.
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I think thats how most of the UK got into watching anime, and at the time manga pushed out alot of shocking stuff for its day. I remember when i was younger seeing VHS taps of Urotsukidoji or Ghost in the shell and the general census was that all these 'Manga' videos were the extreme (or so thats what the media taught me to think!) which contained grotesque sex and violence.
Also channels like Sci-fi showed similar stuff but that's another story for another day.

Point is, i think that we gained the perception that Anime was science fiction and i'm sure up until a few years ago you would find anime dvds in the science fiction section of your local HMV or dvd shop! I personally love all the classics, but now that the industry seems more mainstream its honestly broadened what i watch, and now i'm a bit of a moe/mecha fag (two ends of the spectrem i know!)
Its good to know other people than myself got into things this early and had the same experience as me and we can all reminisce over things!
 
afoia said:
I personally love all the classics, but now that the industry seems more mainstream its honestly broadened what i watch, and now i'm a bit of a moe/mecha fag (two ends of the spectrem i know!)
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I'm somewhat the same myself. However, I best enjoy the two tropes when apart from each other; I don't know how well I'd receive a production which attempts to combine the settings, character traits and plot devices from both of such types of show.
 
Yep, I completely agree with you guys. I remember the first 'manga' film I watched was Akira, which I believe was shown on the sci-fi channel. What a film to start with and it completely blew me away. I seem to remember watching it with my dad and even he was hooked for a while. But yeah, I remember it on channel 4 and the most recent was BBC 2 but even that was a long time ago now.

As afoia said, with the popularity of anime these days and the emergence of the internet, it's made it possible for us to broaden our tastes and that's the great thing about anime. There's pretty much a genre for every mood.

I'm glad I'm not the only one who got hooked on the manga classics.
 
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