"It all looks the same."

T

theunderfiend

Brigade Leader
So I was talking to some people online the other day and somehow the topic moved onto Anime. So I admitted that I really liked it and watch as much as I can.

Immediately someone was horrified that I was wasting my time with "Japanese crap" because unlike western animation / comics "it all looks the same".

Serioulsy how blind, stupid and / or ignorant must you be to think that this is true?

So Perfect Blue is exactly the same as Pokemon which is just like Escaflowne which is the spitting image of Neon Genesis Evangelion? I don't think so.

I don't have a problem with people not liking anime (tho there is so many different shows out there I can't believe there isn't at least one they wouldn't enjoy) but to think it "all looks the same" is just....words fail me at the moment
 
I know that one, its just one of the things people say about animé really, these people being the ones whom usually either say that because A. they try to act cool by not liking it(i know a few who have done so) or B. Have no idea in actuality, they just say so after looking at one, or the shows which where more widely known here. It does annoy me, specially if you compare the art styles for example of serious series like Berserk and Perfect Blue as you mentioned, to the likes of more light hearted/kid friendly shows like Pokémon and..say..azumanga. Not only do they stand out between one another, they both are pretty obvious when you even seen snippets of them, which is what. Mind you, i guess you're always going to find the odd few who will always be like that no matter what, but thats that i s'pose.
 
Well if it all looks the same, i need a new excuse to not watching Gurren Lagen and Soul Eater, as my exuse is the drawing style isn't for me
 
My brother used to moan anime always had "big eyes" then go away and watch the Simpsons religiously ;)

I'm a fan of American comics too and if anything anime/manga definitely tends to have more diverse styles on the whole. You can't really judge the other's entire art style without giving it a proper look. Comparing Di Gi Charat to Hokuto No Ken should surely highlight the differences a little.

Crazy people...

R
 
Well, if he said something like that for animation in general I would have to agree, considering what becomes mainstream.

After all, western animation is always comedy, with very rare exceptions such as Waltz with bashir (Israel, Germany, France) or Persepolis (France).

I've might have been a bit unfair here, but you really need to look hard to find non comedy animation in the west in the last 10 years.
 
With the amount of readily available information on the internet, there's little excuse for that kind of misconception about anime and manga. If people claim that it all looks the same, or that it's all porn, or some other ********, then they're not even worth listening to.
 
Unfortunately,some people are much happier to stay in their own closed minded world with their own closed minded opinions than to actually think twice about actually checking to see if they have their facts straight.-_-
 
Its probably more likely they've seen stuff like Pokemon and Digimon, which do basically look the same.

Sure since we're all into Anime and Manga we know the difference but, Pokemon/Digimon, arent they the same thing? And then you have stuff like BeyBlade which is more of the same, and off of that? Monster Rancher... more of the same, and off of that? Medabots (or some **** like that), which is more of the same.

He's probably just been unlucky and seen these shows. I can see how you could think that from my above example.
 
Nearly posted about a similar incident myself. At Christmas a few folks I know started talking about Japanese comics and anime. Just a few things thrown up:

"It's so crude, and the treatment of women in them is appalling."

"The big eyes are so cheesy."

"Has no artistic merit."

"All done in the same style, lacks creativity."

"All those manga comics are style over substance."

When it came to the last of these I finally lost my patience and asked them if they'd ever bothered to read any manga. They hadn't.

Some people will always regard all Japanese animation and manga as being like Legend of the Overfiend. Still, condemning it all as being exactly the same is just an ignorant and lazy generalisation.
 
Wildcard said:
Nearly posted about a similar incident myself. At Christmas a few folks I know started talking about Japanese comics and anime. Just a few things thrown up:

"It's so crude, and the treatment of women in them is appalling."

"The big eyes are so cheesy."

"Has no artistic merit."

"All done in the same style, lacks creativity."

"All those manga comics are style over substance."

When it came to the last of these I finally lost my patience and asked them if they'd ever bothered to read any manga. They hadn't.

Some people will always regard all Japanese animation and manga as being like Legend of the Overfiend. Still, condemning it all as being exactly the same is just an ignorant and lazy generalisation.
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And You even bothered to discuss with people like that?

Most likely they were just trying to piss you.
 
chaos said:
And You even bothered to discuss with people like that?

Most likely they were just trying to piss you.
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I wouldn't mind if that were the case, but no this is what they actually thought.

and no, I didn't bother discussing it with them in the end - it was like banging my head against a brick wall. I'm not out to change peoples opinions, even when they are so ill founded, I just left the room before it started getting ugly.

Is out of here said:
I suggest you lock these people in a room with a copy of end of evangelion on repeat play.
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If only that were enough :roll: someday I'll make them sit through Monster..
 
Well, Pokemon, Digimon and Bayblade run under the same label: Shonen anime. DUH! Of course they'll have similarities!

You just have to pick up stuff from different artists, distributor or genres/audience, and you'll immediately find a different in the style. And a style of art would not be the same style if they didn't have some similarities (like everything in Art Nouveau or Symbolism). That's how they're grouped as "manga."

But like already mentioned, not everything does look the same. You wouldn't give a serious thriller anime the wacky art of One Piece or Gurren Lagan. So they had to change it to make it more serious looking.

In summary, the people who say things like "It all looks the same," or "Lacks creativity," are ignorant and/or have no merit themselves in the knowledge of anime/manga. Watching 1 episode doesn't count for jack all in terms of experience.
 
Is out of here said:
I suggest you lock these people in a room with a copy of end of evangelion on repeat play.
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I'd suggest the room but with 5 Centimeter's Per Second. It pretty much smashes every point they tried to make.
 
Chaz said:
Well, Pokemon, Digimon and Bayblade run under the same label: Shonen anime. DUH! Of course they'll have similarities!
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But thats basically all that was shown on TV. What im saying is they probably hold that opinion because it was ALL Pokemon, Digimon and Beyblade on TV.

You cant blame them if thats the case.
 
All it takes is to type "japanese animation" into Wikipedia. Anyone who dismisses anime on the basis of a few children's TV shows, or an article about tentacle rape that they read in the Daily Mail in 1993, is a bit of a knob.
 
It is very easy to grab a whole selection of anime/manga and show each has it's own style. The only problem is many of these people may only have seen some of the shonen shows that hit the TV in West, and unfortunately many of these shows do have a certain similarity. As always some people let the press tell them what their opinion should be.

As long term watchers I am sure we all at some stage have sat and watched a show and done the whole bit of "I have seen all these characters before", then sit there reeling off names from other shows.
 
Oh and the other thing I forgot to mention was that he admitted to never watching anime or reading manga... so he obviously has a vast wealth of knowledge from which to draw his "it all looks the same" conclusion

Spyro201 said:
But thats basically all that was shown on TV. What im saying is they probably hold that opinion because it was ALL Pokemon, Digimon and Beyblade on TV.

You cant blame them if thats the case.
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Actually a lot more than that has been shown on tv (and quite recently), such as Cowboy Bepop, Ghost in the Shell SAC, Bleach and many more...well untill Anime Central stopped airing that is.

edit: Just remembered (and checked) Anime Central does still air but now instead of being its own channel it is a 3 / 4 hour block on ShowcaseTV. Tonight they are showing GITS-SAC and Cowboy Bepop.

Plus this friend actually lives in America where I think they get even more anime shows than we do so really he has no excuse for being so narrow minded and ignorant about anime

Dracos said:
It is very easy to grab a whole selection of anime/manga and show each has it's own style. The only problem is many of these people may only have seen some of the shonen shows that hit the TV in West, and unfortunately many of these shows do have a certain similarity. As always some people let the press tell them what their opinion should be.

As long term watchers I am sure we all at some stage have sat and watched a show and done the whole bit of "I have seen all these characters before", then sit there reeling off names from other shows.
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This is also very true but there is a big difference between able to see similarities between certain shows seeing as there are so many and saying that it ALL looks the same.
 
Spyro201 said:
Chaz said:
Well, Pokemon, Digimon and Bayblade run under the same label: Shonen anime. DUH! Of course they'll have similarities!
Click to expand...

But thats basically all that was shown on TV. What im saying is they probably hold that opinion because it was ALL Pokemon, Digimon and Beyblade on TV.

You cant blame them if thats the case.
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Actually, we can.

I don't like the majority of sitcoms because almost all of the ones on TV right now are ****. However, I don't believe that they are all ****. If people go and make sweeping statements like the anime haters do, they're ignorant.
 
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