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What aspects do you look for in anime?




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IchigoK90



Joined: 13 Aug 2005
Posts: 1634
Location: Scarborough, Ontario
PostPosted: Sat Oct 29, 2005 4:27 pm Reply with quote
I've been wondering lately but what do people on the forums look for in an anime.

Do you look for:

    Story/Plot
    Characters
    Animation
    Action
    Romance
    Comedy
    Drama
    Conflicting Ideals
    Music
    Voice Acting


Those are just some things if people could add any other things that they look for then go ahead and tell.

Well for me what I loof for in an anime are the characters. For me characters is what makes an anime enjoyable for me. If there are no characters that I find really enjoying to watch then my experience while watching that series is greatly diminished.

Also if you could name an anime or two that has the aspect that you enjoy the most.

For me anime that have great characters that are enjoyable to watch are:

    Air
    Bleach
    Flame Of Recca
    Honey & Clover
    Inuyasha
    Mai-HiME
    Naruto
    Rurouni Kenshin
    Trigun
    Vision Of Escaflowne


I know I like alot of Shounen titles.

This is just a little edit but could you name one anime where you didn't find what you were looking for and it just ruined the experience for you?

One such anime where I was looking for good characters but came up with nothing would be X/1999 the movie. Had some of the worst characters ever!

"I'll take Anal Bum Cover for 400" - Sean Connery (on Saturday Night Live's Celebrity Jeopardy)(the actual category was An Album Cover).

"Believe it!"

- IchigoK90


Last edited by IchigoK90 on Sat Oct 29, 2005 4:43 pm; edited 1 time in total
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Kyle Smyth



Joined: 29 Sep 2005
Posts: 157
Location: Ontario, Canda
PostPosted: Sat Oct 29, 2005 4:36 pm Reply with quote
Before I pruchase an anime I always extensively research the stroyline and what people have to say about it. I think that the story line is the most part of anime because if it were not for a good storyline then the anime would suck. For instance Neon Genesis Evangelion had one of the most planned plots as well as characters and settings. It is my favourite and in my opinion the best anime ever. Also I enjoy certain genres to others. For instance I would take sci-fi over romance any day.
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Llamaentity



Joined: 29 Oct 2005
Posts: 4
PostPosted: Sat Oct 29, 2005 7:45 pm Reply with quote
Here's what I look for, basically in this order:

Story
Characters
Conflict

I usually prefer anime with some sort of conflict. I like anime series from all genres, and I have favorites that are romantic as well as favorites that are full of action and adventure.

(I actually liked X TV, by the way Very Happy )

Overall, though, as long as it's enjoyable, I like it, and I've been known to like some anime series that have rather poor plots and flat characters (for instance, I enjoyed Battle Programmer Shirase quite a bit.) Generally, though, the anime series that are truly special for me have great stories and characters, as well as some ongoing conflicts.

Here are some of my favorites:

Full Moon wo Sagashite (great character development and a touching story)
Berserk (awesome characters that are a lot deeper than they at first seem, with many ongoing conflicts and an intriguing story (I'm including the manga here))
GunGrave (amazing development of the main characters and their relationships with each other)
Wolf's Rain (tons of adventure and conflict; lots of character and relationship development)
School Rumble (the characters did it, here. The overall story isn't focused on as much as the incredibly humorous characters and situations.)
GetBackers (a great example of well-mixed action, comedy, and drama. The characters made this possible, even if the story wasn't necessarily focused.)
Trigun (Vash is one of the most awesome characters I know of. He's incredibly deep and drives the story forward strongly, especially in the first half of the anime series.)

Currently watching: Air, Yu Yu Hakusho, Bleach, Fushigi Yuugi

*my first post on the ANN forums, yay*
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SuperOnizuka



Joined: 24 Oct 2003
Posts: 421
Location: When I look At the World- New Jersey
PostPosted: Sat Oct 29, 2005 7:52 pm Reply with quote
For me to want to see a show it has to consist of a strong plot, strong character music, MUSIC, artwork, and a great central theme.

Well, the only exception to that rule is if Yoko Kanno composes the music than it is get without looking for any other quality. Anime smallmouth
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Kouji



Joined: 01 Oct 2005
Posts: 978
PostPosted: Sat Oct 29, 2005 8:25 pm Reply with quote
What I look for in anime is storyline and characters. I'll like almost any genre of anime as long as the plot and characters are interesting to me. Having good animation and music is a plus too, but to me that's more like the icing on the cake. An anime will also get major brownie points from me if it has lots of good plot twists. I just love trying to predict what's going to happen next in an anime and then the anime will completely surprise me with something totally unexpected. Some anime that have satisified what I was looking for in it include Cardcaptor Sakura, X TV, and Magic Knight Rayearth. Cardcaptor Sakura isn't very action-packed or anything like that, but the series is more about the characters and their relationships with each other, and the characters are just all really interesting to me.

I don't know about the movie version of X since I haven't seen it yet, but the TV series had a really good plot. It was very engaging and had very unexpected moments in it, too. Plus, it had a likeable cast of characters in it. And Magic Knight Rayearth is a prime example of an anime with exiciting plot twists. The ending to the first season is one of my favorite anime endings of all time. It's just so unexpecting and very creative. An anime that I saw that didn't have what I was looking for in it was Naruto. I wanted to watch the anime to see what all the hype about it was but the plot seemed too cliched and the characters didn't interest me any at all. Maybe it gets better later or maybe the manga is better than the anime, since I've only seen the first episode of it, but it just disappointed me with its story and characters from what I did see of it.
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shirokiryuu



Joined: 11 May 2005
Posts: 714
Location: Northern California (SF Bay Area)
PostPosted: Sat Oct 29, 2005 10:33 pm Reply with quote
SuperOnizuka wrote:
For me to want to see a show it has to consist of a strong plot, strong character music, MUSIC, artwork, and a great central theme.

Well, the only exception to that rule is if Yoko Kanno composes the music than it is get without looking for any other quality. Anime smallmouth


I like to have good music but sometimes i can't just depend on it..
like i watched noir and yuki kaijiura does a good job on the music.. but i feel like something is missing
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Kruszer



Joined: 19 Nov 2004
Posts: 7992
Location: Minnesota, USA
PostPosted: Sat Oct 29, 2005 10:59 pm Reply with quote
When I'm initially looking into a series it's the plot that I'm most concerned with. If it doesn't sound interesting I'll probabally pass on the series. Once I'm into it, sometimes other things can carry a series for me like the characters or some romance if the story isn't all that great.
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smoochy



Joined: 30 Oct 2005
Posts: 367
Location: Texas
PostPosted: Sun Oct 30, 2005 1:40 am Reply with quote
Story, if an anime has an uninspired, uninteresting story, I see no point to viewing it. Then characters, there are few thing better than someone who you can connect with, with that, the anime feels better. Music, a good score is essential, and you notice all the best anime have one.
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hentai4me



Joined: 25 Oct 2005
Posts: 1313
Location: England. Robin is so Cute!
PostPosted: Sun Oct 30, 2005 5:40 am Reply with quote
decent looking characters...

but if not a hentai title:-

story, simply because if its old, done before etc then its likely to be dull

characters, and most importantly development, if they dont seem to change throughout the series then its just a series of events that happen.

animation doesn't have to be great but the characters have to nice to look at, not necessarily attractive but well drawn(FMA for example has a large cast of well done characters...and Sceisca is attractive...)

romance is important, even if its not the main story, with a large cast you should expect some of them to have feeling for one another, deep or not, and I'm a big softy at heart.

Drama...as long as its not overdone melodrama(enough of that rubbish on British TV as is...) I dont mind, but I hardly go looking for it.

action is again secondary, while good to have some to prevent the series stagnating and to break up heavy dramatic moments I dont mind if its left out altogether.

comedy, is dependant on the feel of the series and the source, if the character is routinely done as uptight and sober I dont go looking for the conedy from them. But I dson think comedy is far more important than ot and out action, for example episode 37 of FMA when Colonel Mustang bonds with his men is great, nothing actually happens in the episode but it is well placed in the series to keep things lively.

conflicting ideals I dont much care about, there should be a reason for the story and if this is the reason for it then fine, but any decent reason will do.

music is of no consequence, if it is really bad music then I'll just watch it subbed(if thats availabe on disc) and turn off the speakers.

I usually dont like a dub and will often listen to it in the original Japanese with subs but good voice acting I will listen to, but it hardly dictates my choices.
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IchigoK90



Joined: 13 Aug 2005
Posts: 1634
Location: Scarborough, Ontario
PostPosted: Sun Oct 30, 2005 11:54 am Reply with quote
I'd like to point out that story doesn't really apply for anime of the "slice of life" genre.
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dormcat
Encyclopedia Editor


Joined: 08 Dec 2003
Posts: 9902
Location: New Taipei City, Taiwan, ROC
PostPosted: Sun Oct 30, 2005 2:15 pm Reply with quote
IchigoK90 wrote:
I'd like to point out that story doesn't really apply for anime of the "slice of life" genre.

Centralized plot, no; story, yes. Any "slice of life" titles tends to have a more independent / episodic story but it doesn't mean that its story is not as important as a title with more centralized and continuous plot. Within the stories of those "slice of life" titles often contain hidden gems. Sometimes even a single episode is enough to make a grown man cry; few non-slice of life titles are as powerful.
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Llamaentity



Joined: 29 Oct 2005
Posts: 4
PostPosted: Sun Oct 30, 2005 2:40 pm Reply with quote
dormcat wrote:
Within the stories of those "slice of life" titles often contain hidden gems. Sometimes even a single episode is enough to make a grown man cry; few non-slice of life titles are as powerful.


A perfect example of this for me would be Mahou Tsukai ni Taisetsu na Koto. It's a 'slice-of-life' drama series. The series as a whole, I found, wasn't particularly spectacular, but within it were several very good episodes. One of these even brought me to tears, whereas none of the others did, simply because that one episode had such a touching story.

Is PlanetES considered 'slice-of-life'? It feels like it for a while, but then it ties together a lot of its seemingly unrelated parts and brings them together marvelously as the series progresses, thus creating an ongoing plot part-way through the series.
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