Unpopular Opinions You Hold About Anime

[Avaitor]

Okay, here's one, but I don't think it's too unpopular of an opinion on here.

I don't believe in the belief that entertainment "manipulates emotions", since, well, that's why we read books, watch movies and TV, etc, to have our emotions tested. I don't understand it when people say that E.T. are specifically manipulative in that regard, because why wouldn't it be? It's a movie.

I do believe that certain slice of life series, like Kanon, are as close as there is to a piece of work that manipulates emotions.

[Dr. Insomniac]

I think it's the opposite, really. I mean, it's pretty easy to take a side character, give him the best jokes and most likability, then kill him off in an abrupt matter to make audiences feel bad. Joss Whedon managed to do that twice, after all.

[Avaitor]

Eh, yeah, there are some deaths which make me think otherwise. Again, I point to Rue from The Hunger Games.

But I still don't like the term.

[Foggle]

Jigen the Sixth to trade in his cigarette and Magnum for a lollipop and laser gun that drew no blood from its target.

[Nel_Annette]

Watching Brotherhood on Adult Swim the first time, all I could think was that I'd love the story even more than the first anime if they'd quit stopping every five minutes to make the audience laugh, even in serious situations. They both have their pros and cons. I like FMA's homunculus more than FMA:B, and I like the way they handled Hughes' death, but I prefer Father as a villain to Dante. I like the evil general dude and the version of Kimbley in FMA, not sure which Scar I like more, and I damn sure do not like the annoying little girl (Mei?) or that extra little group of characters in general. I enjoyed the final battle in FMA:B more, it had some pretty good "holy shit" moments, though sometimes it felt like too many. The final battle with Dante just kind of sucked, and the whole thing was derailed with the World War II thing and Ed getting stuck there.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

I'm sorry, but I don't. I thought it'd make as much sense to talk about anime in the regular animation thread, since anime is a form of animation.

But whatever.

Yet almost nobody but me was really talking about anime in that thread (and even I always felt hesitant to do so). I feel that anime discussion in that thread just didn't fit in with the majority of opinions people put up there.

I never claimed that anime was not part of general animation, but just like we have a different forum to express anime despite their being a "general animation" forum, I don't see the logic in lumping the unpopular opinions discussion for all animation into one thread, especially when people would have very distinct opinions on anime apart from other forms of animation.

If you don't like the idea of this thread being separate, though, then you're free to close it if you want.

[Avaitor]

I feel silly for my earlier post now that I reflect on it. This thread has already been gaining some traction, so I don't see a point in closing it.

[gunswordfist]

Watching Brotherhood on Adult Swim the first time, all I could think was that I'd love the story even more than the first anime if they'd quit stopping every five minutes to make the audience laugh, even in serious situations. They both have their pros and cons. I like FMA's homunculus more than FMA:B, and I like the way they handled Hughes' death, but I prefer Father as a villain to Dante. I like the evil general dude and the version of Kimbley in FMA, not sure which Scar I like more, and I damn sure do not like the annoying little girl (Mei?) or that extra little group of characters in general. I enjoyed the final battle in FMA:B more, it had some pretty good "holy shit" moments, though sometimes it felt like too many. The final battle with Dante just kind of sucked, and the whole thing was derailed with the World War II thing and Ed getting stuck there.

Woo, there's a load for me to say here. Spoiler alert:

As for the main villains, I don't really care for either, in fact most of both FMA's villains suck. Father is clearly better than Dante though. At least he got some setup. He doesn't have much of a personality and is pretty much just a power grabber though but Dante was like a last second thrown together villain. There's no way she has any fans at all. There's no reason to care for her at all.

While Japanese Prince Of Persia is passably, I don't like any of the generic anime characters. Also, they made it seem like Ed may go to Shing and learn Alchehistry (I know I fucked that spelling up) after his alchemy got shut off by Father in an attempt to beat him that way but nothing came of that so you got the people from Shing just being either annoying or pass-by-every-once-in-awhile characters.

Kimbley was underused in both shows. That last battle with Al...ugh. They built up Al not being a damsel in distress anymore (the end of the previous episode was beautiful) and I know it was impossible for him to beat Kimbley and a powered up Pride but him getting saved by nobody #245 just plain sucked. Oh and the animation in Al vs Kimbley and Pride was the ABSOLUTE worst in the series. That rock alchemy was just ugly. It's like that screwed over Al's big moment on purpose. As for Kimbley in FMA, he was about as good and the fight with Scar rocked and helped give Scar a good finale (Once I think about, it's sweet justice that he fucked up The Crimson Alchemist and dumped his body since he killed his brother and so many other Ishbalans (sp?)) I just wish Kimbley had more screentime overall.

I liked Scar more in FMA. He was in a tie for my favorite character in the show (Greed's the other one..and also noticeably worse in FMAB but that might be because they rushed that part to catch up to the manga. And no I'm not talking about Ling Greed. Fuck him)

I thought Ed vs Father wasn't that good. Everything before that, from the start of the attack on Central to them losing to Homunculus Father (you know, when he looks like Pride) was good. Overall it's better than FMA's. I do love Envy vs. Ed though.

I feel silly for my earlier post now that I reflect on it. This thread has already been gaining some traction, so I don't see a point in closing it.

Thanks grumpy old man.

[Pharass]

While we're on the subject of FMA villains, I did like Wrath better in the manga/Brotherhood than in the first anime. Sure, the f?hrer was pretty good as Pride too, but if each homunculi represents one of the seven deadly sins, I think the genocidal dictator who pretty much hates everyone is a better embodiment of wrath than a kid who I can't remember doing all that much other than trying to kill the heroes.

Kimblee I also liked better in Brotherhood. 2003 anime Kimblee was pretty much a generic psycho who liked to blow shit up. Brotherhood-Kimblee...well, he was also a psycho who liked to blow shit up, but he came of as being more creative and stylish about it.

On the other hand, Lust was a much more interesting character in the first anime. She came of as more complex and nuanced, whereas manga-Lust was pretty much seductive femme fatale #23405 and nothing more.

Finally, while Father was a better big bad, I've always liked Dante's theme music a lot. Been awhile since I listened to it, but I remember it sounding really haunting and sinister. Certainly a better theme than Dante deserved.

Damn, now I want to watch the first anime again.

[gunswordfist]

Shit, now you got Dante's theme music stuck in my head. Didn't really think of it as hers until now but it's clearly what you are talking about.

Hmm, once I think about it, Kimblee did have a decent part in Brotherhood. He was just a jobber in FMA.

Wrath in the first series is about the worst thing the franchise has ever had. I hate that thing.

As for The Fuhrer, Bradley is clearly better in Brotherhood. In the first series he's just a plot twist out of nowhere.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

-The first season of Full Metal Panic! is better than what most people give it credit for. Admittedly Gonzo didn't do the best job of adapting the source material, but it still had some good material and it still stands out with its perfect blend of both drama and comedy. And I don't get why some people say that the sci-fi elements feel forced when the whole story is built off of that sci-fi foundation from the start.

-Code Geass is just boring. I'm not even talking about the terrible R2 which even fans hate, but rather the series as a whole is just bland more than anything else. None of the main characters are interesting, the art design is really grating (especially with those stick-figure character models), and the overall writing just isn't that sharp.

-Zoids: Chaotic Century and Gaurdian Force are severely underrated anime and to me they make one truly great shonen/mecha series. Its so much more than just "Pokemon meets Gundam," which is what so many people seem to think.

-Digimon Tamers is the best season of Digimon. I know that I initially didn't like it as a kid, but now that I have re-watched it, I am convinced that it was really not meant for kids despite technically being a "kids" show. For a children's cartoon, it really does present some dark and disturbing themes, and has some pretty fucked up characters when you actually analyze some of them a little bit. It still has plenty of action and enough cheesy shonen goodness to probably be entertaining for kids, but there's really much more to it than that. I do still like Adventure and even its horribly flawed sequel, but I have to admit that I didn't give this one enough credit before.

Alright, here's an opinion of mine that will make everyone on this board hate me, but I might as well get it out:

-Baccano! is....OK. I have watched through the series once and then recently tried re-watching it, but I can't find the motivation to do so. I'll say this: it has terrific art-style, SOME characters that are memorable and truly interesting to analyze, great musical scores, superb animation (for the most part), a great dub (thanks to FUNimation), and really strong writing in certain places. By all means, its the recipe for an amazing show and I can respect that for most people it is. For me, though, it doesn't add up to be quite what it should be, mainly because I feel the actual package is not very well put together and not well executed. The people who made this anime were trying to make a smart show, which is fine, and they also wanted to make one of those stories with multiple characters who have vague relations to one another and may cross paths at certain points in the series but for the most part have their own story arc. They use a classic technique of trying to switch back and forth between different stories and also go back and forth through time. The thing is that this kind of story-telling is very hard to nail down right and if its not done properly the pacing really suffers, and for me at least I feel as though this anime falls victim to that. The general idea is to get out as much as possible of one particular story-line just enough to really get the viewer interested in invested in that character or set of characters to see what happens to them next, and then leave them hanging by switching over or back to another ongoing plot-line featuring other characters. In this case, though, the transitions don't usually flow smoothly in that vein, and instead a lot of the times the transitions feel more random than anything else, as though the writers just do it only because they can, and not for any meaningful reason. I also feel that about half the cast isn't really all that interesting, so I especially get aggravated when I go from watching characters that I'm invested in to seeing a couple of characters that I just don't give 2 shits about.

I realize that I'm in the minority opinion here and I do do still respect the show for what it is, but for whatever reason the overall execution of it mostly just falls flat for me, personally. I'd still probably recommend it to anyone who wanted to watch an intelligent and somewhat interesting to analyze anime, though, especially since its really short.

[Nel_Annette]

It's funny seeing all this praise for Eureka 7 now that it's re-airing. I don't remember this much of a positive reaction all those years ago, and personally I'm finding it as unbearable as I did back then. It has some nice animation to be sure, but these characters are generally unlikeable.

...And I'm finding Samurai 7 boring too. 

[gunswordfist]

^I find both of those series boring too. Eureka 7 is just painful for me to look it. I can just tell it wouldn't be for me.

Wonder if those are the two Zoids series I like. (Assuming they are) I need to watch more of them, especially the sports one since I've seen like 5 episodes of it but either way, behind Big O, they should be considered the greatest giant robot anime. I like how all three shows have giant robots that actually seem to weigh as much as they do instead of mechs they buzz around like psychedelic cockroaches. So hating those kinds of anime and have these 3 what I'd consider to be the top 3 best would by my unpopular opinions there.

I don't recognize the subtitles for Digimons, I just go by seasons, but the 4th one will always be my favorite. I love it so much.

[gunswordfist]

Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood is the greatest anime of all time.

Fullmetal Alchemist is the 2nd greatest.

Lupin Secret Of Mamo  of the greatest classic anime movie.

Lupin Castle Of Cagliostro is the 2nd greatest and isn't as good as Secret Of Mamo.

Yugi-Oh 4Kids version is good.

[Spark Of Spirit]

Going back a bit here:

I think it's the opposite, really. I mean, it's pretty easy to take a side character, give him the best jokes and most likability, then kill him off in an abrupt matter to make audiences feel bad. Joss Whedon managed to do that twice, after all.

Hence why I don't tend to enjoy those sorts of things, without foreshadowing an emotion or event or closure of a character arc, when a death comes out of left field it totally feels like a forced grab for drama. 'Forced reactions' is a better term than 'manipulate' as all stories are meant to touch deeper emotions of the souls watching, even ones with an underlying subtext. It's the ones that try to force a viewer to feel a certain way about a certain character or situation without leaving any wiggle room for interpretation that feels off, since the story should just present the situation organically.

In other news:

I've never had an issue with the anime Death Note ending. The anime focused on how one push down the wrong road can lead your life to ruins, while the manga was more interested in pointing out that evil, no matter how wicked, is not as strong as good which will always triumph in the end. They're both legit takes on the story.

I know that I pick on Miyazaki a lot, but I respect the guy so I'll leave his grand lifetime works as a whole alone. I will however single out one title:

-Princess Mononoke: Even among Miyazaki/Ghibli films, this one gets absurd amounts of praise, and I honestly just don't get what's so appealing about it. Yeah, its a very adult and mature story, but I never saw anything about it that made it very interesting to watch and I couldn't identify with any of the characters (as is typical of any Miyazaki film for me, really). Maybe I'm missing the point entirely, but I just don't see the appeal in this one, whereas I can at least get why something like Spirited Away is so well loved.

IT DOES?!?

I've fought on numerous message boards back in the day defending this film. Most were Miyazaki fans screaming things like "It doesn't represent his best work!' to the point where I just accepted that people didn't like it.

I mean, it's not like Satoshi Kon where I've literally been called stupid for 'not getting it' (despite that not being the point, but it makes them feel smarter so whatever) when I've said outside of a few works I just don't care for his work.