Too much anime?

H

harkins

Adventurer
This might sound like an odd question to pose as we are pretty much all delighted with the significant increase in anime series getting a UK release. But it was while reading the Black Cat thread that I was thinking to myself; I enjoyed it but was it really a quality anime? Probably not.

In fact it would join a fair list of series I’ve seen in the last few months that I’ve enjoyed but hand on heart have not been overly impressed by. Burst Angel is another one of those.

So are the anime producers churning out so many shows that the really good productions are being lost in a see of mediocrity? And are the western licensees releasing everything they can get their hands on without any thought to worthiness?

Or, even if this is all true, does it matter? Is it a good thing that we have such a huge choice and is it just up to us as individuals to make sure we avoid the weaker efforts?

And one other point that is related to this; how does the massive volume of anime effect this forum? I can’t figure out whether the more anime that there is results in more chat on here or less. I get the feeling that if there were a few less series we might not have so many threads about individual anime that die a quick death as a result of so few people having seen the title being discussed.
 
The simple answer is no and no. There is not significantly more anime being produced than there ever was and US licensors are not licensing everything they can for the hell of it. It is true that we are seeing more series being released than many years ago but with only so many series and movies being truly groundbreaking, such as Haruhi or Eva, there appears to be a lot of fluff holding everything together. Series often work in cycles, regurgitating old ideas and series in new formats and styles for a modern audience.

Burst Angel, for instance, borrowed a lot of its ideas from Bubblegum Crisis and presented them with modern animation techniques and storytelling. This worked for an audience who hadn't seen the original and less so for those who had.

Every once in a while you will get something truly original (or at least different enough that it appears so) that breaks out and creates a genre and style of its own but most work on a tried and tested formula since it is ofttimes created for an audience who has not seen that particular format before. You also have to consider that writers are often heavily influenced by what they themselves have seen and enjoyed and will attempt to, consciously or otherwise, attempt to emulate that.

I think the wonderful thing about anime is the diversity of things that the medium can and does convey so I don't complain about it myself.
 
Yes and no. There's a lot of derivative anime for the reason mentioned elsewhere, but being derivative doesn't necessarily make it bad - if you like mecha, then you'll watch mecha. The thing is, there is enough variety between the various sub-genres to find something that you like. In which case, there isn't too much.

I would however prefer to see a little bit less of 'Shonen Jump' stories and a bit more innovative works animated (or even original works). But then again, that might make the 'so few people have seen it' situation even worse.

Hmm. Trickiness.
 
Slightly different from Gawyn's response but similar, Yes and No. Yes there is too much anime for one person to watch and like all of it. Some will be good, some will be mediocre and some will be a steaming pile of money droppings. But that is that one persons opinion, and that is where the crunch comes.
Taking Burst Angel as an example you said is was mediocre anime, 7/10 maybe? Well taking a look at ANN about 150 people would agree with you. Good, but nothing special. 10 people however wouldn't give it shelf space as they thought is was awful or the worst eva. 51 thought it was a masterpiece though.
Should we deny those that thought it was masterpiece just cause you thought it was so-so? You've got to put the stuff out there and let people make thier own minds up about it.
 
I don't really believe there is too much anime, the quantity of anime getting at least a US license now is great, albeit not all of it will be to everyone's liking and it will be 'mediocre at best' to a fair few, but i seriously doubt that its really effecting the number of brilliant series you could find, really because to each person a brilliant series will be different. If i was to say a few i think are brilliant series that have been licensed of late, i would say Code Geass and Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann are some good examples.
 
As long as we still get series that keep you hooked and are in my mind superb quality I am happy to have to forego the lesser quality ones. Especially when you find some mixed among them that blow you away.

At the moment I can't tear myself away from series like 'Lovely Complex', 'Kenichi' and 'Bleach'.

However I do hate it when companies drop series after the first season to pursue other projects, at the moment I am desparate for more series of Initial D and Airgear. But once again there are times when they still suprise us and release more eps of brilliant series like Genshiken which is getting more eps coming out soon :D
 
The market isn't saturated, its just they won't make money just from a couple of good shows. Anime market is just growing over here in Europe whereas in Japan its cartoons for them.

So when you look at our cartoons you can see that some of them aren't really that good but some people like them because they just have a different personality.

Sure who watches those programs about house decorations? Yet if you look at your TV listing each station at least has one variation and it doesn't seem to end because it seems to have some popularity.

Sure if they didn't release it you'd be asking why they didn't release it.
 
WTFDaveMustaine said:
Haruhi is groundbreaking?
Click to expand...

I was wondering about that aswell. I would never put it in the same sentence as Evangelion. Even if i was saying how different they were. Its a big No No.
 
The only way i think there is to much stuff is finding what to watch next. As long as people Buy and enjoy some medicore series they will be sold, supply and demand and all that.
 
So I think we can say categorically that there isn’t too much anime being produced nor is there too much of it being released in the west.

There is definitely a pleasure in finding a gem amongst those enjoyable but run of the mill series that come out. And as several of you said, one mans meat is another mans poison (that sounds dodgy). I’m one of those people that pretty much enjoy most of what I watch. I really liked both Noir and Madlax and that’s a fine example of rehashing the same ideas.

As for 51 people thinking that Burst Angel is a masterpiece; I think some people must be stark raving mad! No matter how positively I look at that series I couldn’t possibly describe it as a ‘masterpiece’.
 
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