Forum - View topicWhy can't anime come up with something more original?
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XXghostface
Posts: 35 |
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I watch a lot of anime I petty munch know what it's going to be about some spikey hair guy. I never like male lead with a lot a girls and who are either neko cat girl or maid girls,lolicon,dumb moe crap or tsundere don't forget ecchi fan service pop in with it's as well most of all the anime seem to always take places in high school or middle school I think overused already I get now what school life is like in japan I don need to see it's every anime. Plus there a lot of perverts asshole and a lot harem anime which is basically a guy living with hot chick in his house I for one would like to see something more creative and original in anime something band new and fresh storyline. I'm sick of seeing high school student I would like to see a plot about office worker and there life I don't know how about a story about old people or a family man something that take places in outer space throw in aliens hey I would like to see animal as main characters like a fable I like to see a anime take places in united states but oh well I will keep watching anime no matter how unoriginal it's is. It just the more anime I watch just keep getting more and more generic just recycled trash with the whole the school setting. So what is it japan too afraid or hard come out with something original and not set in high school, no moe or lolicon generic harem or generic ecchi show?
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Brent Allison
 Posts: 2444 Location: Athens-Clarke County, GA, USA |
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I really don't want to come across as snarky because that's not the kind of person I am, but I'm afraid that the ideas in your post aren't very original either. This forum's membership routinely complains about these issues, and the discussion usually ends with one of these ideas gaining consensus:
1) Anime is a profit-driven industry that operates in a fragile economy, and formulaic shows have a better chance of earning a profit than more avante-guard fare. 2) Don't hate the industry, become the industry and make your own cartoons (or comics, or novels) if you can do better. 3) We're just in a dry spell. Creativity in anime will pick up with the global economy. 4) There's lots of creative anime out already. You're just not looking hard enough. 5) The industry is doomed, anime will die in five years, I'm going back to watch my shows from the 1970s/80s/90s/00s. Did I miss any other consensus points? |
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Han Solo
 Posts: 57 Location: Great Britain |
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Who is anime? Is anime the person coming up with these story lines? Is anime the manatees who pick up idea balls in their tank which comes up with these stories? Why don't you read stuff on the encyclopedia? Not all anime shows are the same. I can't help but feel that you've based this judgement on a few shows. There are plenty of anime that doesn't use this "high school guy meets girl" forumla Outlaw Star? Cowboy bebop? Bubblegum Crisis? Samurai Champloo? Maybe give us names of the anime you've been watching because it seems you have deemed all anime the same after subjecting yourself to the images you have seen. EDIT: I only just understood that this is your impression of recent anime. I couldn't understand because your post was written so inadequately I couldn't understand it. Seriously, just be paitent or just watch something else or like Brent Alison said...look harder there is alot of creative anime. Some anime use the same or similar plot with the same archetypes. But it depends how it's written, the dialogue, how good the characters are which ultimately gives it it's own uniqueness. I wouldn't bash anime as all the same, give more a chance and maybe start off by looking at the list of different genres on wikipedia. I tend to look out for seinen to avoid all the type of anime I don't like. |
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vashfanatic
 Posts: 3492 Location: Back stateside |
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Go read Hiroki Azuma's Otaku: Japan's Database Animals. The answer is that the people who buy the most merchandise in Japan no longer care about originality or world-building, they want more of what they've always gotten in perhaps a slightly novel arrangement. Supply and demand, anime stops bothering with original plots for the majority of its shows. It is a business.
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Kruszer
 Posts: 7991 Location: Minnesota, USA |
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Originality is dead; everything is just a reworking of something else. Truthfully, I couldn't care less about it either since I don't require constantly new and original things to entertain myself like some people seemingly do. What worked once will work again, though it doesn't hurt to try new combinations either.
In fact, this post wasn't even original. I copied it from myself posted somewhere else, because I was too lazy to write what should have been the obvious response, but you still read it anyway and it got it's point across. Same goes for anime. Being similar to something else doesn't necessarily disqualify it from being entertaining. |
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ikillchicken
 Posts: 7272 Location: Vancouver |
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We don't see as much creativity in anime these days because...
1) Money is extremely tight. Studios often don't feel they can afford to risk experimenting with something original. While the potential rewards are greater, so are the risks if it flops. Hence, it's safer to put out garbage with a nice predictable profit margin. 2) The industry is painfully inbred. Catering too heavily to their small core of otaku has created a sort of feedback loop. What was successful was what appealed to the otaku and so shows increasingly became more geared at otaku which further alienated non otaku which made it all the more necessary to cater to the otaku. 3) Japanese Otaku are wretched creatures. They don't want originality. It's not even that they just don't care about it. They actually don't want it. They want is to be spoon-fed the exact same wish-fulfillment archetypes over and over again in the same identical way that is already familiar to them. So, since as I mentioned above, the industry caters to these otaku, this is what we get. 4) Years of outsourcing and treating employees poorly have created a massive lack of talent in the industry. Hence, even when someone is afforded the opportunity to try and do something original, it has become more frequently the case that they simply don't really have the talent to do so. P.S. Check out the noitaminA block. It's one of the areas in anime that still strives to (and often succeeds in) creating original and creative works. |
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Megiddo
 Posts: 8360 Location: IL |
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Check out Yuasa Masaaki's stuff.
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rojse
 Posts: 234 |
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Perhaps we could help the OP maker by putting up some suggestions for original and interesting shows, preferrably something that is fairly new, to help prove that anime isn't entirely creatively and intellectually bankrupt.
I'm going to start by suggesting "Monster". It's about a remorseless serial killer loose in mid-nineties Germany, after the fall of the Berlin wall and Communist Russia, and only one man is able to stop him. The premise and back story of the show is built upon slowly and deliberately, little pieces slowly revealed, without feeling overly padded, and uses both suspense and tension quite well, and there are some very deep and dark themes and ideas present that don’t get examined often in anime. |
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Scormio
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I happen to like most of that. Maybe you could just watch something else? I don't know what anime-rock you live under, but believe it or not, there's other stuff out there, if you're not too lazy to look. Edit: If you want a "good" (by your standards) show that's ongoing, go watch Fractale. |
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Sanosuke_Inara
 Posts: 1662 |
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Anyway, TC, I think you need to lay off the romcom ecchi harem stuff, because it seems like that's the only shit you're watching. There are plenty of original anime out there to be found--you're simply not dig very deep, apparently. And let's not just try and stick this seeemingly "unoriginal" label on anime. Practically every form of media suffers from some trouble on churning out original stuff on a normal basis, but they all have great works out there that are fresh. It's just a shame that "original" isn't the norm these days. |
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the Rancorous
 Posts: 2248 Location: Hunting the Dragon in Gransys |
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Or not digging at all, apparently. 
And what's with all this complaining about ecchi shows? They're very easy to spot and avoid given that you're actually trying to avoid them and aren't watching them even though you claim you don't like them. Personally, I find non-sense super-mecha and typical shounen 'let's explain everything that is going on on the screen during every fight scene even though it's obvious to anyone with eyesight in every episode!' stuff to be just as tiring and "unoriginal".
Exactly. Case in point: Hollywood. How many American movies are practically the same thing, different title? You just have to sift through for the few great ones while enjoying the much more in number good ones and leave the bleh ones alone. |
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Unicorn_Blade
 Posts: 1153 Location: UK |
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Originality is not dead; you can still use exploited subjects and show something new. A non-anime example: a Korean film called Memories of Murded. Twree cops looking for a serial killer of young women. How many times have you seen that? Im pretty sure Angelina Jolie chased up serial killers at least 10 times in her films. And yet, the film Korean film was creative, different and yes, original.
The same goes with anime. There is a number of original shows, but their number is far smaller than the 'unoriginal' ones. It might take more effort to find them. Keep on looking rather than dooming the whole industry 
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DuskyPredator
 Posts: 15546 Location: Brisbane, Australia |
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Look around and you can find what you might be looking for.
Heroman and possibly Panty and Stocking are examples of anime set in the US, problem is that it can be pretty hard for them to accuratly do a setting of another country.
Might have some pressure in makeing that interesting, I seem to remember some in parts of Honey and Clover, an episode of Panty and Stocking, parts of Arawawa Under the Bridge.
So you want to watch a bunch of retiries for some reason, the problem might be that it becomes hard to relate to characters, some shows have them as large mentor like characters like in Moon Phase.
Clannad After Stories has it's moments where it shines, I also like to think Hanamaru Kindergarten had a really nice family feel.
Cowboy Bebop is good, though arguably there are no aliens, but Level E has been proving to be good with it's aliens.
Guess you have me there, guess the closest I can think of is Hamtaro, as for fables the one that comes to mind is Ookami-san which also has characters resemble the animals of different fables. True there are a lot of school life, they really mostly like to use it to be able to have characters of various personality types to be forced to interact and also so plot is not just about some person working from 9 to 5. And yes harems do seem to bunch up, but there alternatives, watch a shounen, samurai, naturel disaster/appocolyptic, economic focus, or even a primarily once gendered series. I do still get surprised in things appearing in anime that I have not seen anywhere before, so originality can not be dead. |
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ShinobiX
 Posts: 889 Location: NY |
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Skimmed ur block post too. Think I got gist. Anyhow, the reason why more anime has little girls in tight skirts and harems is because: 1. Mostly males watch anime (primary target/ girls are secondary which is determined via sales so its not sexist, the way it is) 2. What sells and all they care about(very few artists, like Miyazaki, ever get to produce what they really want. Kinda like the music industry) 3. What is popular 4. Most important. Anime forgot about West and they cater only to their largest market aka Japan. It's not mere coincidence why 9.9 out of 10 times, the anime's setting is located somewhere in Japan. The rest of the world is just an oddity or externality. Overall, that is how Japan views the West. Hence, the problem (lack of variety). Meaning, the majority of animes you'll see will only be a reflection of Japanese culture. Often, only Japan's tastes and likes are taken into consideration. If you notice, those types of isolated animes don't do well in America for a reason. We don't like them and thus we don't buy them. Only on a forum like this will you see anime lovers of all genres including the notorious moe, lolicon, harem, etc. As for the other stuff/answer to ur question: Well the answer is obvious and simple. Arguably, 1 can say that anime has stretched mankind's imagination to it's limits. No? Think of something wacky, stupid, or out of this world. Pretty sure u'll find an anime that matches what u thought of. It is only natural to run out of ideas. Especially after 50 years. Now the real question should be, "Why is there no variety in anime?" Sounds like to me, that is what you are complaining about. Again, just look at numbers 3 and 4. Anyway other genres exist. Just have to look harder. Again, just like with our music today. |
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naninanino
 Posts: 680 |
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Because anime mostly copies itself. There are still more "original" shows, but they mostly go under the radar for even the most seasoned fans. Seriously, how many watches stuff like, let's say Les Miserables that aired a couple of years ago? It's not like the western fans are not quilty of eating up the exact same shows that the Japanese ones.
Go watch Ginga Nagareboshi Gin. Oh yes, and Chi's Sweet Home. Now you already have three animal centric shows to watch taking into account the previous post. |
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