Forum - View topicArt/animation and sound in anime: "fanservice is tl;dr."*
|
|
| Author | Message | ||
|---|---|---|---|
Akito Kinomoto
 Posts: 48 Location: Pretentious University |
|
||
|
Lately I've been musing over how much the technical strengths or weaknesses of an anime can influence how much we enjoy it. My like or dislike for a show used to be dictated more by its literary elements like characters or story than its appearance or audio. But in hindsight it's counterintuitive since anime is a visual medium; judging a work solely on its writing is better suited for a book (or light novels to keep with the context of the topic).
Of course, there needs to be a marriage between an anime's technical and literary parts. The problem is how some shows can seemingly remain intact on its writing alone when the art/animation and audio is removed while other shows fall apart without its technical support. Is the latter necessarily a worse show for not holding together without its appearance and sound or is it actually taking advantage of what can be done in a visual medium that cannot be accomplished in a book? What's your take on the subject? How much does art/animation and sound influence your enjoyment? *One day I was reading the Strawberry Panic! light novels when I thought wait a minute. Why am I wasting my time reading yuri when I can get my fix a thousand times faster by watching the anime? |
|||
|
|||
Vaisaga
 Posts: 13246 |
|
||
|
A good story is always nice, but yeah, some shows are fine just being simple and pleasent to look at. There certainly are some shows I only watched because I found the girls to be appealing. Such shows are commonly written off as trash, but one shouldn't underestimate the power of eye candy.
I'm pretty dumb when it comes to sound, but there are also shows I watched soley because it had a voice cast chalk full of my favourites. In the end what's important is finding something to enjoy. If you find that something in any particular show, even if other areas are lacking, then it's worth it. |
|||
|
|||
Knoepfchen
 Posts: 698 |
|
||
Great animation can add to my enjoyment a lot, but it cannot make me like (or watch more than a couple of episodes of) something that looks pretty but is poorly written. I can, on the other hand, enjoy something well written that's produced in a cheaper way. I'll take Trigun over K any day.  Needless to say, if great animation and a compelling story come in a package, that's the preferred choice.
The quality of the voice actors is actually more important to me than flashy animation, because, for me, bad acting gets in the way of taking the characters and their dramas seriously, while cheaper animation doesn't (at least not always). Sound design, effects and the like rank below animation quality for me. In cases where the animation/art style becomes a significant part of the nature of the story and the way it is told (like the witches' labyrinths in PMMM or the art style of Mononoke, for example), things are a bit different. If the creator's went for something ordinary here, the story/impact would suffer quite a bit. |
|||
|
|||
|
Ignatz
|
|
||
|
Writing is obviously the most important factor. Of course, art/animation can influence the enjoyment, but if the story is crap, then even the best animation ever won't save it. I can give two very good examples - Koi Kaze and Guilty Crown. One is perfectly written, but lacks a lot in background art, while the other has amazing graphics, but has a boring and empty story which just fails at making it a good show.
Last edited by Ignatz on Fri Mar 29, 2013 4:28 pm; edited 1 time in total |
|||
Cam0
 Posts: 4937 |
|
||
I think it's a bit unfair to compare a romance anime to an action anime. Obviously a romance (or comedy, slice-of-life) anime can do well without fancy animation. An action anime is much more dependent on animation. And for the record I enjoyed Guilty Crown more than I enjoyed Koi Kaze. |
|||
|
|||
|
Ignatz
|
|
||
I'm shocked. |
|||
Touma
 Posts: 2651 Location: Colorado, USA |
|
||
Very little, if at all. For me the most important part of any anime is the characters. That includes their personalities, what they do, and most importantly how they interact with other characters. The animation is just a vehicle for delivering the characters. The appearance of the character and how she moves are parts of the character, so art and animation are potentially important. It is possible that I might dislike the artistic style so much that I am not able to enjoy a show, but that has never happened yet. It is also possible that I might see animation so good that I enjoy the show even if I do not like the characters, but that has also not happened yet. So the art and animation could possibly influence my enjoyment of a show but so far they have not, at least not to any significant degree. The same thing can be said for sound, especially the voices, but that has never been an issue either. EDIT: I forgot to ask, what is the meaning of "fanservice is tl;dr." in the subject? Last edited by Touma on Tue Mar 19, 2013 9:52 am; edited 1 time in total |
|||
|
|||
danilo07
 Posts: 1580 |
|
||
|
Since nobody mentioned it I might say that directing to me always felt like it is the most important aspect of movies/animes/Tv series.Because it has the ability to take bad material and make it good or take a good material and make it bad.
For example there was once an attempt at making Jojo Phantom Blood movie which turned out to be massive piece of shit.And not only because it removed some great characters and moments,but because it was badly directed.Here you have a 10 minute piece from film(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QOUDdJRvn2Q).Notice around 10:15 how dog was kicked ,that moment was suppose to present cruelty and evilness of Dio but it completely failed.Why?Because the shot was distanced from target thus creating a distance between a viewer and that act,we couldn't also see what happened to the dog.I mean he was kicked,but did it hurt him,was his head damaged?There was nothing from that 10 second shot that we could tell.There was also that sound he made which seemed like he took a big poop.Compare it to shot from 2012 TV series and you will suddenly see the difference.Camera was really focused on his face,so that scene had more organic and shocking feel.We could clearly see his face was distorted and damaged,and background was painted in red which in our brains creates association with danger.All of these small things create big impact in our head. Another example of director using the visual medium excellently would be Shinichiro Watanabe and his Kids on the Slope anime,which was better than manga for that reason. For example in first volume of manga there was a scene with drums playing and sound of those drums made Kaoru feel liberated cause that is how most persons experience jazz music itself.In order to portray his psychological state in those moments,mangaka gave Kaoru monologue in which he described it for us,she did this because to there was no way for us to hear that music and experience music Kaoru did.Now when Watanabe was diecting this scene,he removed the monologue,he just made listen to that music.Also he focused on Kaorus eyes so we can see the sense of wonder in him,and in the same shot he showed us how Kaoru is moving his hands slightly from ears like he is being hypnotized by it.And for those reasons I thing that anime is better than manga. |
|||
|
|||
Kruszer
 Posts: 7995 Location: Minnesota, USA |
|
||
|
Art and Animation? Not much if any, they're like the decorations on the cake. The cake would still be delicious without them, but having them can add some extra flair. The plot of the story and the characters are the most important, and art and animation are some of the least important to me. I'm probably not going to be influenced by it unless it's incredibly fugly.
If you include a show's music in with "sound" that might be a different story. A good soundtrack, or at least one that seems to fit what's going on in the show, is essential and can definitely be an influence to me. The right music can enhance excitement for action scenes, make depressing scenes have more impact, or create an atmosphere for the setting. See any series using a Yuki Kajiura score for example. |
|||
|
|||
 |
All times are GMT - 5 Hours |
|
|
|
Powered by phpBB © 2001, 2005 phpBB Group