what kind of anime do you like?

Vashdaman

Vashdaman

Za Warudo
What kind of escapism do you prefer from your anime? Do you like you like fantasy to suspend disbelief for, yokai, and faries? Idealistic, chivalrous romances big on feel good factor? Pokemon and the like.

Or do you like a little more realism and modernism (not too sure what that word means) in your animation, some slices of life and stuff?

Sorry, now that I've typed this out this thread is kind of rubbish, most of the anime we like is probably a mashup of both, like credible fantasy (Gundam for example) or unrealistic slice of life (most slice of life). I started this thread basically wondering what the true joy of fiction is, but in this age of modernism that's it isn't it, making odd and new concoctions of the fantastic and the plausible.

What do you like? Do you get disappointed when you see animation that basically could be live action but just isn't? Or do you prefer it to having to watch painfully real anthropoids in your fictional dramas?

Have I asked too many questions for a single thread?

I do kind of think animation is superior fiction to live action, in the sense it's unsoiled by real humanity (crappy actors), I think many of us feel this way. But, bringing it full circle now, if anime is dealing with the stuff of real humanity for it's themes and content, is it already soiled?

I've discombobulated myself.
 
Well, you've sucessfully made me have a good old think there Vash. I think the first thing to address there is why I enjoy animation in the first place, which is art and artistic possibilities. I like a good live action film or TV series too, but there's something I just find naturally more artistic about animation, even if it's portraying mundane rather than fantastical things. It's like the difference between a photograph and a painting - Even a fantastically composed photograph can only depict what's physically there, a painting offers I think a greater insight into the thoughts and feelings of the artist - It doesn't even matter really whether that's some deep reflection on the nature of humanity or "I like cute girls and /or explosions" because I'm more than capable of appreciating both. Those ideals will shine through (and will be allowed to moreso than in live action, I think) in character design, environment design and animation style in a way live action simply isn't capable of. 3D animition, I'm kind of sad to say as a student of, does not seem to be anywhere near as artistically inclined and strives either for photorealism or sticks to a kind of "safe" formula which means a lot of things look very similar to each other (I think most 3D character design is just dire - The only remotely original 3D character design in recent years I can think of was Star Wars: The Clone Wars marrionette inspired characters and paintbrush stroke like texturing). 2D animation, despite a lot of people's (very wrong) preconceptions of how all anime looks the same has always been, and still is, incredibly varied.

So that's why I enjoy animation as a medium so much - As for escapism vs. allegory vs. social realism I think all have a place in any form of art or fiction. It always depresses me slightly when I see people railing against fantasy and escapism in media (which seems to be a bit of a trend at the moment) as though all media needs to be realistic and deal with important issues, because if it ignores them or depicts idealised characters and worlds it's part of the problem in real life. But how depressing would real life be if we didn't have the ability to dream and imagine characters, worlds and stories more fantastic than the real world? Some might even say if we can't imagine a better world how can we ever hope to create one, but that's probably a discussion for another time. Of course it's good to think and be made to think by our media, Ibut while I love Mamoru Oshii I wouldn't want everything I watched to be directed by him, I'd go insane. People need downtime from heavy thinking, so there's a place for the pleasant, comfortable slice of life of Azumanga Daioh and Strawberry Marshmallow in my life alongside more thoughtful shows that do give viewers pause for though about real life issues.

In fact some of my favourite shows straddle that divide between thoughtful contemplation and fantastical escapism - Haibane Renmei and Kino's Journey specifically leap to mind. They manage to raise questions about real life while also being compelling fantasy tales in their own right, and they do so without banging the viewer over the head with THIS IS AN ALLEGORY in the way a lot of western live action productions do and perhaps most importantly, without passing judgement and making the creator's own biases and opinions obvious. If there's one thing I really do enjoy in a story, it's when it makes people think but gets them to think for themselves and come to their own conclusions.
 
This is a hard question when I think about it, to which I can really only give a facetious answer. I like what I like. I like what I think is good.

I could give you a list of genres that I tend to avoid, even profess to hating, but then give you an example of a show in that genre that I love. I hate giant robot shows. I love Patlabor. I hate vampire shows. I love Shiki. I don't like Isekai. I was really into Grimgar. The harem comedy is dead, past its sell by date. I loved Monster Musume. The incest trope in anime makes my stomach turn. I thought season 1 of Oreimo was brilliant. I don't like horror. Another was pretty good.

And conversely I can give you examples of my favourite genres that fell flat.
 
I would say the same thing as Passing Through without the hate for the genres. fantasy genres aren't my favourite, I'm more into sci-fi, horror, psychological thrillers, things of that nature, but one of my favourites anime/manga is claymore, which is very shallow on scifi, heavier on fantasy and horror. I don't often like magical girl shows but kill la kill and madoka magica have me hooked.
In general I tend to like something that can make me laugh, or something that has a quite dark turn, where the characters have some reason to be how they are (like they are trying to change the world for the better, by any means necessary, because a world where their loved ones die isn't a fair one or something like that)
I have put in the viewing journal that I've seen magical girl site and while it ticks some of my boxes of having a dark series with a supernatural twist, I just don't get the sense that most of the characters have a reason to lash out
 
Romance and slice of life...nothing beats a good Alice of life anime to put you in a good mood but on the other hand after watching your lie in April...it really got to me man seriously been thinking about it all day after watching it last night...may take a break from watching anything for a few days
 
For me personally I love a good supernatural, or fantasy anime.

I love dark versions, and absolutely love vampire anime (when it isn't just aimed at fujoshi (I'm looking at you servamp))
 
I love fantasy, history and historical fantasy. However, I don’t love the many identical light novel based fantasy shows about some ordinary nobody falling into a fantasy world (or worse, being in one in the first place but still having no personality deeper than ‘average schoolboy’, the worst of both worlds). I like strong characters and warlords and powerful magicians and female characters who aren’t just there to look pretty and fall over their own feet. Weak characters are fine if they have potential to grow; Grimgar is a good shout for something which managed to achieve that kind of quality.

In terms of genre I’m willing to try absolutely anything from sports to mecha, though harem titles played usually straight do nothing for me and if I never see another fetishised little sister character it will be a good thing.

The most important thing for me is probably the characters. I was thinking about this the other day when watching Tada Never Falls In Love (hopefully the correct English name). It’s trying hard to be like Monthly Girls Nozaki-kun, but where it falls over for me is that I just don’t care about the characters, whereas with Nozaki-kun I adored every single one of them right from their first appearances. Well, except Waka. He was annoying.

But if the characters are decent, I am happy to watch them doing absolutely anything. If they’re spineless or grating then they could be in the coolest high fantasy show ever and I won’t care what they do.

On 3D anime, when the characters are organic people the medium generally makes them come across as soulless robots. So I like it best when it’s used for sci-fi, if it must be used at all. But I love Miraculous Ladybug. And going back to anime, Inuyashiki did a great job of matching its style with the premise of the series; the CG in that didn’t bother me at all after the first episode. A pleasant change from Berserk, which was watchable in spite of the CG rather than because of it.

R
 
I seem to get on with most anime genres but lean towards action, SoL, comedy and Sci-Fi. Recently been watching more sports anime (Haikyu!! Free!) as well.

Love a bit of fantasy as well, and darker series' if they don't go too OTT and flesh out the reasons behind the world and characters being the way they are.
 
Hmm.

I kinda like a mixture of most things, I guess. Primarily I like comedy/SoL/Romance stuff which might be a shock given my avatar lol. Stuff like Air and Kanon right up my ally, and for pure comedy/SoL Konohana Kitan was the perfect show for me a flawless 10/10. Love love love that show.

I do love the likes DB and Fairy Tail and they fulfill my action quota other then that I don't really seek out action much, like I just watched Trinity Seven and it got a bit too action-y for my tastes. I'm not really that big into the other main shonen OP and Naruto.

I also like horror/thriller/mystery anime, Gosick to me again was just amazing it gave me everything I would have wanted from thay genre.

And lastly gotta love the harem/fan service anime. Sometimes you don't wanna get too invested into a show and just wanna see some jiggly boobs on screen and it also leaves you feeling less guilty watching these types of anime then straight up hentai.

I don't like video game anime, magical girls (expect CCS), idol anime or sports anime much (like I even haven't seen Keijo past the first episode).

As for animation question, surprisingly I'm okay with iffy art/animation as long as the plot and importanly characters keep me invested. I'm fairly easily to please in that regard give me good characters and I am all in!

As for anime as a medium I agree it beats live action television 100% in the general sense (like they will obviously be quality live action shows but on the whole I've been enjoying anime more as a medium larely). I used to watch a tonne of live action TV and now I only watch Supernatural and Riverdale. Speaking of Supernatural one of the producers said wayyyyyy back that when they were doing the SPN anime it was a great opportunity because they got to do things they otherwise couldn't in live action.

Anime rocks.
 
Baggie_Saiyan said:
And lastly gotta love the harem/fan service anime. Sometimes you don't wanna get too invested into a show and just wanna see some jiggly boobs on screen and it also leaves you feeling less guilty watching these types of anime then straight up hentai.
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-.- hentai? Guilty? I would say echhi/fanservice stuff does intentionally have dumb plotlines and are mainly comedy, but hentai, yea it's porn no one is expecting a riveting story (unless your dirty mind changes that last statement around) it is pervy, but if you're watching something like that I wouldn't call it guilt.

Baggie_Saiyan said:
Anime rocks
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Yup it does ^.^ I feel like I'm burning out on anime some days as there's not a lot of live action shows I get excited looking forward to these days. I've missed most of the walking dead, thrones aint on and my Amazon video is filling with the stuff I watch, I do let family members use it but I've noticed none of the things I thought they'd watch come up on my cue of shows someone watches, and I only ever watch Lucifer on that
 
I like a variety of anime but my favorties are
Fantasy, action, Romance, comedy and sci-fy . I love action romance it its rarley done well in anime. I also like trashy Ecchi shows though it's hard to find decent ecchi at the moment.

The only types of anime I activly avoid are sports, Music and Soujo. Im not a huge fan of Yuri either.
 
Great! Posts! I had thought my Introductory post had fluffed it.

I also like such a variety of shows. from the thinkers to the fluffy, or perhaps best shows that somehow manage to be both at the same time. Not that I'm opposed to pure fluff though. But I do like to feel something, even if that something is just a tickled funny bone or a warm glowey feeling. I completely agree with Rui that 'average school kids' tend to make me feel nothing. I don't mind shows with schools kids, not at all, the problem is the average part. Presumably the creators of these dullards are either creatively bankrupt to the core or think it's more relatable, which is rubbish because who in reality is 'average'? The world is chock full of complete mentalists to varying degrees. Thankfully anime is also good at providing metalists.

Interesting to think about 3D animation like that and how it's generally being used in pursuit of realism. Kind of defeats the purpose of animation doesn't it. Because I was thinking about the 'realistic' anime that aren't at all fantastical, but usually the animation, and maybe other anime conventions too, prevents them from ever really being realistic. And I mean that in a good way. It seems kind of strange that we're still aspiring to ape reality as closely as possible in a literal way, the closer we get to it the more soulless the result usually is as Rui says. And as you say @ayase the more expressionistic style of less 'realistic' animation probably gives us a greater dose of human reality in a weird kind of way.

@ayase I definitely agree with you on idealistic worlds not being a bad thing. That's kind of what I had in mind when I was writing that first post actually, I was thinking how much I do actually like an idealised bit of fantasy on occasion and I suppose a part of me was actually almost feeling guilty about it. But yes, I suppose the whole debate on the pros and cons of idealisation is a separate debate.
 
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Captaaainuniverse said:
-.- hentai? Guilty? I would say echhi/fanservice stuff does intentionally have dumb plotlines and are mainly comedy, but hentai, yea it's porn no one is expecting a riveting story (unless your dirty mind changes that last statement around) it is pervy, but if you're watching something like that I wouldn't call it guilt.


Yup it does ^.^ I feel like I'm burning out on anime some days as there's not a lot of live action shows I get excited looking forward to these days. I've missed most of the walking dead, thrones aint on and my Amazon video is filling with the stuff I watch, I do let family members use it but I've noticed none of the things I thought they'd watch come up on my cue of shows someone watches, and I only ever watch Lucifer on that
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I had a massive burn out on anime a few years ago and even left the forum for like a year or so and now the opposite is happening with comic book related stuff while I was under anime burn out I was all over that, movies tv shows and the actual comics but now I am not excited or into any of them anymore hell I ain't even that excited for Avengers this month.
 
I'll give anything a go if it sounds interesting. At the moment, apart from the seasonal stuff, I seem to be mostly on a SOL bent at the moment:
"I have to watch that edgy sci-fi X, or cool samurai Y, or isekai Z1, Z2, Z3, etc, etc....
Ooo, CGDCT about the most mundane thing ever, I'll think I'll watch that instead" 😄
 
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I’ll personally give pretty much anything a go, seem to prefer things that have a darker storyline but what seals the deal for me is feeling the characters and enjoying their interactions. I could be watching what others describe as “the best thing since sliced bread” but unless I dig the characters I’ll lrobably be bored out of my mind.
 
Patient-X said:
Big robots and boobies....that is all :p

Seriously though, anime for me is just like movies, I'll pretty much watch anything.
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Lambadelta said:
well booby anime is always a guilty pleasure if its not too OTT
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you guys really care for the narrative, the clandestine story telling, and above all, the plot
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Unlike most anime fans, I definitely have a very limited preference of anime. Even though I love anime, I'm generally only interested in the more serious seinen type of anime - often the stuff a younger crowd classifies as slow, bland, boring, poorly-paced, or just uninteresting. The most common and popular genres of anime are all major turnoffs for me - comedy, chibi, CGDCT, Idol, fanservice, giant robot, battle shounen, harem, Yuri/Yaoi, and sports-themed series are all genres I have zero interest in and avoid as much as possible.

I hate being spoon-fed a plot, I love anime that makes you think, with complex layers that forces you to figure out for yourself what the end game is, even if it's not until the very end. Historical, Political, Philosophical, Military, Scifi, Outer Space, Mystery, Drama, Fantasy, Adventure, serious Romance and Josei are the types of anime mostly of interest me. I actually prefer reverse harems because they're usually written more maturely than harems, without all the boobies and pantsu and mindless juvenile antics aimed directly at adolescent boys and their unfulfilled pubescent fantasies (see animated GIF above). :rolleyes:

My very most favorite anime series of the past few years are series like ACCA 13, Ajin, Ancient Magus' Bride, Death Parade, Hakata Tonkotsu Ramens, Joker Game, Psycho Pass, and Violet Evergarden. Older top favorites are series like Ghost in the Shell, Garden of Sinners, Space Battleship Yamato 2199, Black Lagoon, Noir, Requiem for the Phantom, Blood+, Flag, Darker than Black - you get what I mean. I've only seen the first 3-4 episodes of Legend of the Galactic Heroes, but I can tell from just those few episodes that it will be right down my alley, and I basically blind-bought Sentai's $800 Deluxe box set with no hesitation whatsoever.
 
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When I first got into anime some 20 years ago, it was mostly sci-fi/mecha stuff, but soon discovered stuff aimed at young women and girls, magical girl shows, fantasy stuff like Lodoss War. A lot of my all time favourites are in the mecha (robot) and sci-fi genre, with a some magical girl, shoujo, josei, kuuki-kei (slice of life), a lot of action orientated stuff and fantasy epics. In recent years I have gravitated towards kuuki-kei stuff, a lot of school based shows, a lot of idol related material and only mecha from the Gundam and Macross franchises.

But if the story's good, I generally go for it. Most recent titles I've liked are stuff like outside those genres are Yuri on Ice and Flip Flappers. Another thing I find interesting is family/children's films such as Stormy Night and the more commercial fare which gets released in cinemas in the west. Sports stuff I don't mind, as long as it avoids the usual cliches. Something I started collecting about a decade ago was anime music video compilations, such as Macross Flashback 2012 or Mospeada Love Live Alive. They were pretty popular in the 1980's and 1990's but fallen out of favour in recent times, maybe due to music rights issues.

For older material that's released on BD and DVD, I usually go for mecha shows and classics like Tomorrow's Joe and Rose of Versailles. There's little I don't enjoy; I do get tired of the cliches in stuff based on shonen manga, the ecchi stuff (especially harem), yaoi stuff mainly because a lot of it really poorly written (the OVAs based on Zetsuai 1989 are brilliant though), ditto for gyaku harem. The only genre I really dislike is ero anime (hentai). It's either absurd or grotesque, not at all erotic to me.
 
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