Unpopular Opinions You Hold About Anime

[Foggle]

So is this topic for unpopular opinions compared to AR folks or from the general anime populace?

Both, I suppose.

[Angus]

DBZ's one of those benchmark anime shows for me. I did like "marathon mode" for the Dragonball Z boxset, and playing parts of it at 2x speed; that helped cure some of the redundancy of the series.

[Angus]

So is this topic for unpopular opinions compared to AR folks or from the general anime populace?

Both, I suppose.

OK, good, I still wanted to reclaim my "I like Kanon" statement 

[talonmalon333]

So is this topic for unpopular opinions compared to AR folks or from the general anime populace?

Both, I suppose.

Thought I was the only one who did that.

[talonmalon333]

- My favorite part of Hunter x Hunter was the Hunter exams... Now I know that this probably isn't as written well as some of the later parts. And if I rewatched this show, I'd probably come to realize that quickly. However, I just have a soft spot for the exams part in the first section of the show because that's when I got hooked on the show. If I rewatch it, I imagine I'll still love it, but it will no longer be the best part to me.

- I like the Death Note anime equally as much as the manga... I know they jumped over half of the second arc. But I think they made up for that with some phenomenal stylistic choices. I like the artwork, particularly in specific moments where the colors get really weird and reflect the current emotional level or something. And the soundtrack is great. Also... to be honest, I think that the second arc serves better as an epilogue anyway. Because while it's good, it could never be on the same level as the battle between Light and L. I see it as more of Death Note's equivalent to Godfather Part III (or at least from I hear about that movie, I honestly haven't seen it yet), in that it serves as more of an epilogue that shows the downfall of Light. That was the focus, not necessarily Near and Mello. Those two characters essentially just serve to help push said downfall. But with all that said, I do remember the anime's decision to rush the second arc caused some important story and character elements to be forgotten, and that is indeed not forgivable because some of them could've been taken care of in less than a minute.

- I dislike Botan in YYH. Well, she's good in the first season. But in the Dark Tournament onward, I just want to put a gun to myself and pull the trigger everytime she speaks. Actually, none of the four female moral support characters are particularly well written or special, except for maybe Kuwabara's sister who is fun and animated (and not in the ditzy "kawai" way like Botan). Kayko and Yukina are okay but they really aren't much of characters. Actually, I think the referee Koto is a better character than all four of them. And of course Genkai is, too.

- I think Cowboy Bebop is a bit overrated... Don't get me wrong, it's definitely a great show. I put it on my top 10 anime list recently. However, it seems like so many people consider it the absolute best there is. And I just don't see what makes it that good. Maybe I need to rewatch it.

[gunswordfist]

I love the Hunter Exam arc. It's what got me into the show as well. If anyone thinks it's too slow or whatever, then I disagree. I basically think of it as like Genkai's Tournament but overall with better characters and much much more adventure. YYH never really had an adventure arc so seeing Togashi do that is wonderful.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

I always liked the Hunter Exams arc. I don't agree that it's better than York New City, though.

My unpopular opinion regarding this series, though, is that fans need to stop praising the Chimera Ant arc out the wazoo, and actually look at it more critically to see that it does in fact have many flaws. Don't get me wrong, I still really like the majority of this arc, but there are some things about it that really piss me off, especially since so many fans seem to completely excuse those problems.

[LumRanmaYasha]

Y'know, the internet is the only place where I can find anime fans who don't like Naruto. Everyone I've encountered in real life does. It's especially true with female anime fans for some reason (and I've encountered more female anime fans in real life than male ones.)

It's also seriously hard to find people who don't like K-On too (today this girl in my class said it was the funniest anime she'd ever seen).

AND it's hard to find people who prefer Cowboy Bebop to Samurai Champloo. This one I don't mind as much, but most people I've met seem to like the latter more.

Looking back in this thread, I've only ever posted one unpopular opinion, so...

- Fairy Tail is currently the worst shonen series out there. Granted, I say this out of disgust for recent chapters of the manga than what the anime has covered so far, but the series turns to shit after Edolas and has just gotten worse and worse since. Now the series is basically an excuse for fan-service on a plot and erotic level, which disgusts me. While, like Bleach and Naruto, I used to legitimately like/tolerate the early parts of the series, the anime is so lazy and cheap that it ruins any goodwill I could ever grant it. And like those series, I can't even stand the "good" parts of it even in manga form now. I honestly think it represents everything wrong in bad shonen anime and manga series right now. Yes, moreso than Bleach, and that's saying a lot considering how awful that became.

- I just want to clarify that I think the Toriko manga is awesome, one of my favorite currently-running manga, and I'd recommend it to anyone looking for a bloody fun and over the top action adventure read. The anime, however, is something I loathe with a passion because Toei fucks everything that makes it so great by toning down the violence in 4kids-level butchering, dragging out the arcs and fights way longer than they should be, adding obnoxious, superfluous filler where it is not needed, and overall just lazily animating the whole thing. I wish Madhouse or a studio who knows how to give a series a good adaption had made the anime, cause then it'd be fun to watch, and maybe even more popular in the U.S. But no, it went to Toei. The anime is on par with InuYasha as my least favorite adaption of any manga ever.

- I think the Ranma 1/2 anime actually gets funnier as it goes on. A few people say that they lose interest in the series at the half-way point because it gets into a rut of formulas. I can't say I agree, though I can see where they are coming from, since the middle stretch of episodes (season 4) is the weakest in the series in my opinion as well. However, seasons 5-7 are actually all on the same level of quality to me and I think they are much funnier than the early episodes. The show starts to embrace more absurd and bizarre concepts, and mix-in more slice-of-life scenarios alongside the wacky martial arts antics as well. In fact, I think some of the most creative and diverse episodes in the show come from past the half-way point, and some of the most memorable episodes (Pantyhose Taro, Ukyo's Secret Sauce, Shishi Hokodan, etc.) are in there.

- Urusei Yatsura is more inconsistent as an anime adaption than Ranma 1/2. I still love the series, but it tones down the wackiness of Takahashi's manga, and replaces it with quieter humor. It works for the most part, but it feels tonally different from the manga at several points, and removing the frenetic nature of the series makes it a bit less laugh-out loud funny to me compared to it. Episodes focusing on Jariten are especially victim to this, though that may also be because I find Jariten's voice to be a bit annoying too. I will say though that the anime is pretty interesting for the risks it takes and the diversity in it's episodes. I think the Ranma anime turns out funnier, and a lot of that is because it's closer in tone to Takahashi's original plus the fact that Viz's excellent dub makes it even better. Of course, Urusei Yatsura still puts to shame most of modern anime comedies that were influenced by it (aka 99% of them) and the manga is still one of the best manga comedies there is period.

- I didn't think the final two episodes of Evangelion weird or confusing. Granted, I'm not the kind of person who sees things as being weird or not, which explains why I like a lot of bizarre anime comedies. But the final episodes of Evangelion are pretty straight forward. Hell, they even tell you what is going on. I think most people just get caught up in how non-traditional those episodes were and then end up missing all the important stuff. Those episodes move fast and you have to actually pay attention to the dialogue (I notice most people only half-pay attention to tv shows most of the time), and even then they repeat the same things enough times that it becomes almost laughable. While I like Evangelion a whole lot, it's mainly because of the second half of the series and those final few episodes. The first half of the show is still good, but it's more of a normal giant robot series and not anything that unique. I also don't think Evangelion is that hard to understand or necessarily that deep or philosophical. I love it for being an excellent character study series, dissecting the warped psyches of the main cast. It's the way the series exploits genre tropes and stock characters and turns them on it's head for those character analyses is what makes it brilliant to me. I still don't think it's that hard to understand nor do I think it's deep, so in that sense I think there are a lot of people who overate it.

- On that note, the only anime to date that I've ever felt was confusing at times was Lain. To date that's the only anime and was the only tv series in general before I started watching The Wire where I've had to pause, re-wind, and re-watch scenes and episodes in order to really understand what was going on. I'd say it's the only piece of animation I've seen to date that has ever challenged me in terms of analyzing and interpreting it.

- Silver Spoon is better than Fullmetal Alchemist. And I'm one of the few here who still likes the franchise. But It's almost on a whole other level at how likable and well-characterized SS's cast is, not to mention one of the most addicting slice of life anime I've ever watched. And it's actually a slice of life grounded in actual reality, as in a lot stuff that happens in it do or can happen in real life, and I find the problems of the characters are thus more relatable and sympathetic to me. I found the latest episode particularly, and that ending was one of the most effective dark ending I've seen because it hits home with reality. I'm very excited to see where the series goes, and really have to get on catching up with the manga, sometime.

- I think Attack on Titan is an enjoyable anime, but overrated. I don't think anyone will deny that the characters are stuff we've seen before, but my specific problem with them is that they become uninteresting or stop developing after certain points in the series. Since I care mostly about characters and story in shows and comics, this is a problem for me. As it stands the thing that sets the series apart is it's over the top action and occasional moments of bleakness which mostly function (to me at least) as dark humor. That's all well and good, but the way everyone (and I mean almost EVERYONE) hypes the series as the best thing ever has started to irritate me a bit. As it stands, between the two modern high-selling and popular shonen manga/anime in Japan (behind One Piece), I prefer Magi, which I find has more interesting characters, story, themes, and villains. Not only that, while I think Magi has gotten better as it's gone on, I've found Attack on Titan to have gotten less interesting, despite all the twists and turns that have made the series so popular and perpetuate every other chapter in the manga still. That said, the anime itself is a good show, makes quite a few improvements on the source material, and covers the best parts of the manga to date, so I don't have a problem with people liking it, but I do think people overrate it as something darker or more fleshed out than it is.

- On the subject of Magi, while it's still great stuff, so far I think the anime's version of the Magnostadt arc is not quite as good as the manga's. A lot of that has to do with the directing and placing of some scenes, though I admit to being particularly bothered by a completely inappropriate use of the ending theme in Mogamett's backstory which near ruins the impact of a moment and scene. There's still 7 episodes left, of course, so maybe they can hit it out of the park with the remainder, but I still find it a shame my favorite arc in the manga feels lacking in the anime.

- People who say Naraku is a calculating mastermind who always wins are wrong. The whole point of his character is that he is pure id and doesn't even know what he actually wants beyond a compulsion to get rid of his inner humanity. That's also why his plans go awry, because he can't account for any other variables and is only focused on his own satisfaction. The only calculated plan of his that completely worked was manipulating the Infant into creating Moryomaru, betraying him, and later absorbing him after the latter stole the abilities of various demons, and that doesn't pay off until volume 45 of the manga and episode 6 of The Final Act. Otherwise he has victories where he had a plan where stuff did go well, but they weren't totally full-proof affairs and never went as he thought they would. So while Naraku's not exactly the best written antagonist there is, I can't say I'd agree to put him on the level as Bleach's Aizen and Young Justice's The Light, who are villains who legitimately do seem to be able to predict everything and win no matter what.

- I want to write a whole goddamn character study on this sometime, but to be brief; the whole point of Johan's character was not that he was some divine monster, but a human being who did monstrous things. He didn't have to be a monster, he chose to me. Nina could have been the monster if Bonaparta didn't tell her "humans can become anything;" they can choose how they live, make decisions for themselves, be what the way they choose to. Over the course of the series Urasawa showed many good people who did terrible things and many bad people who did good things, who lived by and were defined by those choices they made. Human nature isn't black and white, morality isn't always just right and wrong, and while there is good and evil, a human being cannot be lumped as solely one or another. People choose how they want to live, they live with the choices they make. Johan chose to be a monster out of the delusion he was one, brought about by his traumatic childhood experiences. When Nina told him the truth, that he wasn't the one sent to the Red Rose Mansion, that's when he realized what he chose to do with his life had been under false assumptions over who he was, which is why he went to commit the perfect suicide in Ruenheim, taking with him as many people as he can in order to punish Bonaparta, who he holds responsible for ruining his life, as well as to push Tenma into killing him, to corrupt his innocent nature by spilling blood on his hands. If Johan was a demon, a perfect being of evil, he would have succeeded. He didn't. The ending may seem like a cop-out, but it was to show that Johan, for all his mystique, was really just a human being, just as fragile and flawed as anyone. And in the end, when he leaves the hospital, it isn't supposed to be a frightening scene intending "here we go again." No, it means "the monster is gone." The mystique of Johan was shattered, the "monster "in him died the second time he was shot and the second time Tenma saved him. The ending implies that the ordeal is over, there are no real monsters, and that Johan has left to presumably live a happier life on his own terms, not dictated by the expectations that used to manipulate him. It's a perfect ending that fully pays off on the themes of choices and right and wrong that were built up constantly throughout the series. I may have flubbed a bit in the explanation there, but I really think that people who still saw Johan as some perfect, inhuman monster by the end of the series really misinterpreted the character, not to mention totally miss the point of the ending.

That's all I've got for now. There's probably more I could rant write, but this takes care of what's really been bugging me recently. 

[gunswordfist]

What? Everyone loves Samurai Champloo more than Cowboy Bebop. (Well, except me and Grave, of course)

[LumRanmaYasha]

Jeff Harris tweeted that he considers Cowboy Bebop to be a shojo. I told him only the manga is considered shojo, and then replied by listing all the qualities Bebop has in common with shojo series. Fine, but that still doesn't make the anime shojo. Why? Because the anime was not intended for pre-teen girls, but for adult men. I don't know why they decided to publish the manga as a shojo, but that doesn't mean the original work wasn't seinin.

Bu really, I just have to roll my eyes at how much anime/manga fans care about this whole seinin/shonen label thing. Not that I don't think there's similar bias among fans in japan, but really, these categories are not genres, they are demographics. A shonen series is aimed at pre-teen to 18 year old boys. That's it. Sure, there are cliches and tropes common amongst several similar titles aimed at a demographic, but those are not inherent characteristics, they are plays on the kinds of stuff that are popular with the demographic. But really, in terms of stories and possibilities, a series aimed at a particular demographic doesn't have to adapt it's conventions just because. That's why there is a diversity of series one can consider "shonen" or "seinin" and are completely different and have little in common Yotsuba and Death Note or Maison Ikkoku and Berserk. It's because they aren't genres, but demographics, and like here in the U.S., series made for a particular demographic often adopt conventions their creators believe will appeal to their audiences, and so are only limiting themselves and what kinds of series can be created for an audience by doing so, but as several properties show, this does not have to be the case. Just because a series has characteristics one might expect more from a series intended for another demographic, that does not make it any less intended, acceptable, and entertaining for the demographic it's actually aiming for.

I think fans so obsessed with "shonen" and "seinin" classifications should just realize, "hey, what the hell does it matter?" A good series is a good series, no matter who the original intended audience is, and so are bad ones. Cliches in series aimed at particular demographics is nothing new and is a problem with series in the U.S. as well though less point it out. People should just care about whether a series is good or entertaining to them rather than judging them on standards of "kids series" or "adult series," rather than caring about who a series was originally intended for.

[Spark Of Spirit]

*Walks into thread*

Jeff Harris tweeted that he considers Cowboy Bebop to be a shojo.

*Walks out of thread*

[LumRanmaYasha]

Well, the Cowboy Bebop manga is actually a shojo, which is probably why he thinks, by extension, the anime was too.

And again, the real problem here is that people keep trying to attribute these specific characteristics to shonen, shojo, seinin, and josei series when really, those are just labels for series intended for particular demographics, and do not reflect the variety of content in every work intended for those audiences.

[Spark Of Spirit]

Some fans just need to nitpick semantics and try to stir the pot, I guess.

It's a good series, and I'd rather leave it at that.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Unpopular Opinion:

-I think that it's a good thing for anime adaptations to make some changes to the source material if they think it's for the better. Even if I don't always like the anime better, I always appreciate it when they throw in something a bit different to keep it interesting for people who have already read the manga, while still being faithful to the source material. Occasionally we have complete changes like the first FMA anime or Trigun, and those can vary in quality depending on who you ask. Personally I love Trigun, though admittedly I haven't read too much of the manga so I don't have a strong attachment to the source material. But then there are adaptations that take some liberties from the source material while still sticking to the same general story, and in some cases can be better for it. I know a lot of people love the new HXH anime more than the old one, and while I enjoy the current one just fine, it saddens me that a simple copy/paste job is seen as better than a version that tries to add a bit of flavor to the story. To me, the 1999 anime is superior to the 2011 anime because its superior to the manga for the parts that it adapts. It's music is more inspired and it adds in some scenes to flesh out the characters more than the manga cared to. While this doesn't always work, the effort really pays off in many instances. Hell, Yu Yu Hakusho is arguably the best example of an anime that does this right. It is by far superior to the manga in every way, IMO, and at the same time it's still faithful to the source material, but also takes the time to enhance it and further flesh out the characters and world. And both anime for Ashita no Joe are excellent in many of the liberties they take from the source material, while still staying true to the most important parts of it. While I still prefer the manga to either version on the whole, Ashita no Joe 2 in particular comes really close in that many of its changes or additions can be seen as improvements. And it's funnym because there are A LOT of differences between the manga and the anime, and yet the anime at the end of the day still tells the same story as the manga. It just takes creative liberties in getting there, and once again, while not all of them work, more often then not it makes this version worth experiencing even if you've read the manga. Or, in this case, vice versa, since even though I've finished the anime, I can still appreciate the manga for what each version does differently, which personally I'm greatful for.

Yes, I will always love stuff like Monster and other similar anime adaptations for being as faithful as they are, but it's also a missed opportunity for a creative director to give their interesting yet still faithful interpretation of a manga or light novel or wht have you, rather than just give you the same exact experience except with color and voice-acting (basically a glorified motion comic).

[Spark Of Spirit]

Unpopular Opinion:

-I think that it's a good thing for anime adaptations to make some changes to the source material if they think it's for the better. Even if I don't always like the anime better, I always appreciate it when they throw in something a bit different to keep it interesting for people who have already read the manga, while still being faithful to the source material. Occasionally we have complete changes like the first FMA anime or Trigun, and those can vary in quality depending on who you ask. Personally I love Trigun, though admittedly I haven't read too much of the manga so I don't have a strong attachment to the source material. But then there are adaptations that take some liberties from the source material while still sticking to the same general story, and in some cases can be better for it. I know a lot of people love the new HXH anime more than the old one, and while I enjoy the current one just fine, it saddens me that a simple copy/paste job is seen as better than a version that tries to add a bit of flavor to the story. To me, the 1999 anime is superior to the 2011 anime because its superior to the manga for the parts that it adapts. It's music is more inspired and it adds in some scenes to flesh out the characters more than the manga cared to. While this doesn't always work, the effort really pays off in many instances. Hell, Yu Yu Hakusho is arguably the best example of an anime that does this right. It is by far superior to the manga in every ways, IMO, and at the same time it's still faithful to the source material, but also takes the time to enhance it and further flesh out the characters and world. And both anime for Ashita no Joe are excellent in many of the liberties they take from the source material, while still staying true to the most important parts of it. While I still prefer the manga to either version on the whole, Ashita no Joe 2 in particular comes really close in that many of its changes or additions can be seen as improvements. And it's funnym because there are A LOT of differences between the manga and the anime, and yet the anime at the end of the day still tells the same story as the manga. It just takes creative liberties in getting there, and once again, while not all of them work, more often then not it makes this version worth experiencing even if you've read the manga. Or, in this case, vice versa, since even though I've finished the anime, I can still appreciate the manga for what each version does differently, which personally I'm greatful for.

Yes, I will always love stuff like Monster and other similar anime adaptations for being as faithful as they are, but it's also a missed opportunity for a creative director to give their interesting yet still faithful interpretation of a manga or light novel or wht have you, rather than just give you the same exact experience except with color and voice-acting (basically a glorified motion comic).

To bounce off your point: I entirely agree which is why I dislike filler arcs.

If you're going to have all that new material that builds on everything that made the series great in the first place, then you have to make the filler mean something or its all worthless. Who cares what character or plot device you introduce if you can't even use them in the actual story so the elements actually matter?

It's always too much of a missed opportunity to me.