06-02-2007, 07:36 AM
Most anime is trash. There are two rules to play by when you're looking for anime.
1) it must not be an animated version of a manga. Manga is simply more organic, so it has a natural advantage as a story-telling medium over anime. There are many specific reasons for this, like how the dialog is changed. It's not just profanity (which is mostly intact) but manga dialog can be whatever the writer wants it to be, whereas anime has to fill up time slots which means things are occasionally added or left out. So, anime that is made from a manga is usually trash, while anime that was originally intended to be anime has a better chance (but not always) at telling the story properly.
2) it must be short (one season). Long anime series tend to be filled with junk. Sometimes it's just that certain parts of an episode are done by second-string animators to save money, or sometimes entire episodes are done by second-string animators for the same reason. Even situations where character movement should be spastic like combat can be dulled down to three-frame repeating loops, which is stupid. Shorter series that don't waste time tend to have better overall animation and environment quality, which makes it a better visual experience all-around. This is a more general rule which has a few exceptions, but it's a rule because it's generally true.
Examples: Cowboy Bebop, Samurai Champloo, Afro Samurai.
1) it must not be an animated version of a manga. Manga is simply more organic, so it has a natural advantage as a story-telling medium over anime. There are many specific reasons for this, like how the dialog is changed. It's not just profanity (which is mostly intact) but manga dialog can be whatever the writer wants it to be, whereas anime has to fill up time slots which means things are occasionally added or left out. So, anime that is made from a manga is usually trash, while anime that was originally intended to be anime has a better chance (but not always) at telling the story properly.
2) it must be short (one season). Long anime series tend to be filled with junk. Sometimes it's just that certain parts of an episode are done by second-string animators to save money, or sometimes entire episodes are done by second-string animators for the same reason. Even situations where character movement should be spastic like combat can be dulled down to three-frame repeating loops, which is stupid. Shorter series that don't waste time tend to have better overall animation and environment quality, which makes it a better visual experience all-around. This is a more general rule which has a few exceptions, but it's a rule because it's generally true.
Examples: Cowboy Bebop, Samurai Champloo, Afro Samurai.