Forum - View topic"Things to know before watching Anime" list.
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AnnaKadabra
Posts: 2 |
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I've dabbled in anime and manga for much of my life, but can't quite remember how I got immersed in it. However, a problem with this inconsistency is that I can never remember half the stuff every anime-watcher or manga-reader should know (basic Japanese words or customs constantly referred to, norms within anime culture, the differences in genre, what to expect, etc). I've always sort of wanted a go-to guide of this sort- What would you say if you were to make one? What are your anime and manga basics?
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Rick Dom
Posts: 18 |
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Anyone wanting to start anime or manga should know that it is an artform like film or theater and not a genre. There are romance anime, action anime, science fiction anime, and comedic anime. Some of those genres have more representation than others, so use your movie or television preferences and find anime or manga based off those.
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naninanino
 Posts: 680 |
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Bad idea, if you ask me. I started to get interested in anime precisely because it offered me a break from the live-action works I had been watching for 20 years or so. I'd also suggest against watching ongoing shows. They're poorly filtered and make it difficult to deal with backlog. At least keep it at the absolute minimum. |
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AnnaKadabra
Posts: 2 |
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I'd agree with that, and I'd say that it's certainly something anyone entering this particular world should understand. I was going more for things that you wish you'd known or understood faster/before you started watching/reading. For instance, I used to be so confused about the -senpai -sama -kun suffixes and ended up having to look it up and figure it out (I was something like 11, so it was weird back then on the ole' interweb). |
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TitanXL
 Posts: 4036 |
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...This is bad advice. I don't even know how this would even work. Anyway. -Anime is a medium, not a genre. -Likewise for shounen, shoujo, seinen, and josei. Shounen doesn't just mean Naruto/One Piece/FMA etc which people often mistake. Shounen can be romance series, comedy series, drama series, as well as action series. -Anime is stronger now than it was in the 90s. In the 90s you were luckily to have 20-30 shows be made a year.. now you have about 80-90 or so. -Japan does not care about the industry outside Japan. What the US or other markets want or reflects does to reflect what is going on in Japan.. -The brief description on the seasonal charts always, without fail, do a poor job of giving you an idea behind a show. It's always best to watch a few episodes and then judging. Same thing with reviews.. don't go off reviews, this applies to everything really, since reviews are a flawed concept by nature, but obviously everyone has their own likes and dislikes. Look no further than a show like K-ON. It gets cited as the most overrated anime and the most underrated anime. It gets cited as having the best main lead and the worst main lead. Anime is too polarizing to go off one person's subjective opinion. It's always a shame to see people not even try a show for themselves because some review or person told them it was bad. Basically, try a show for yourself and judge it on your own enjoyment. |
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naninanino
Posts: 680 |
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What is so hard to understand about it? Simply don't watch them. It's much better to invest your time on shows where you can do research on and can watch them at you own pace. Plus it is not good to keep up with too many storylines at once. Focused watching is simply better unless you think being part of some "community" is more important. |
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Melanchthon
 Posts: 550 Location: Northwest from Here |
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I would start with common aspects of Japanese culture that do not translate well.
-- Onee-chan/Onii-chan. While technically they translate to Big Sister/Big Brother, they are used by the Japanese to refer to anybody that is not too much older that the speaker, regardless of relation. People too much older will be labeled Oba/Oji for aunt and uncle. -- Name order. Japanese is clan name first, given name second. Simple enough, but in Japanese culture, only close relations refer to each other by their given name. So this means there it is a big deal when the characters in budding romances start calling each other by their given names. -- Personal pronouns. There are a number of personal prounouns in Japanese, from gender neutral to male only and female only. This is very useful when watching shows like Utena, who refers to herself with the male pronoun 'boku'. Also, it is common for younger children to use the third person instead of the first person, and you will sometimes see the third person replace the second person, even if there are only two people talking. Once the basics are down, I would point the prospective fan over to AniDB (no offense to this site, but a lot of shows get horribly overrated in the encyclopedia). It gives a pretty good way to search for shows by content and genre, has a generally good grading system, has user reviews for many titles (including some written by yours truly) and will tell you which groups have subbed the title, if legality is not a big issue. Then I would give them a handful of titles I consider good and accessible, and point them out the door. |
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marie-antoinette
 Posts: 4136 Location: Ottawa, Canada |
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Um ... it sounds like you are calling those mediums which they are definitely not. They are demographics. They just tend to be more openly discussed than demographics of Western television/movies (at least most of the time). Anyway, I agree that knowing the basics when it comes to addressing people, be it someone else or themselves, is really a big thing when it comes to anime and manga, which is why the manga companies eventually stopped translating the honourifics. It's one of the more subtle cues about a relationship. Other than that, I would recommend watching out for shows that have very cultural humour, at least until you have watched a few other shows. Examples of this would be Azumanga Daioh which is great fun but very Japanese. |
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hipnox
 Posts: 143 |
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not really a "thing to know" but.
-Be open-minded. A lot of animes do/show things and tell stories that other mediums like western animation/films don't. Animes have the potential to turn ridiculous premises into enjoyable and even believable shows (*looks at Saikano DVD case*) while other mediums don't even bother trying. |
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Konopan
Posts: 400 |
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Subtitles that include honorifics are poorly localized.
Dubs that include honorifics are just plain horrifying.
The statement before that one is "don't use the term 'genre' for this" Pretty sure the point being made was that people talk about demographics as though they are set genres all the time. |
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EireformContinent
 Posts: 977 Location: Łódź/Poland (The Promised Land) |
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Pfff... How dare you to appear here without passing all exams for proper anime fan? No essay about influence of Nouveau Art on Utena's graphic? Comparison of all Kimba's series? Don't know all important dates by heart?
In fact there's one thing you must know. Do you enjoy it?
How did you get that device from Harry Potter that gives you extra time when it's needed? There's no need to see everything. Watch with your own pace,don't panic that you have seen so little when your "plan to watch" list is growing to irresponsible size. Enjoy the fact that you have everything before you
Reviews are good for people knowing how to read. We don't have to enjoy or dislike the same elements that reviewer does or doesn't, but just mentioning them can give us a point to wonder how could it be for us. The other nice thing is reading them after watching the show that let us compare opinion. There are some reviewers that has so god style that I read them just for fun of reading. Nobody here can tell you what you must know or do to be anime fan. That's a fun, not exam. Just flow- discuss it or not, specialise or choose series by "random anime" button, be inspired by one word, graphic or melody. If something bothers you google it or ask. All knowledge will be get sooner or latter just by the way. |
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Dessa
 Posts: 4438 |
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I strongly disagree. There is so much you learn about a character from their use of honorifics (or lack thereof), the same as if a character is using family or given name for someone else. I generally don't watch dubs, but if the subs are lacking honorifics, that's definitely a knock against them. Dubs may or may not be localized. I prefer when they're not. But subtitles, IMO, should never be localized. Subtitles are supposed to simply be translating what's being said, not changing it so it fits a different culture. |
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EireformContinent
Posts: 977 Location: Łódź/Poland (The Promised Land) |
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Oh, I forgot
Discussions about -Principles in translating -Pirating -Dubs -Subs -Superiority of... -Inferiority -II- are always end with disaster. |
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Aylinn
 Posts: 1684 |
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Part of the fun of watching/reading some shows comes from the possibility to talk about them later on, to theorize what will happen in future episodes/chapters or to try to solve mysteries surrounding certain events.  Part of my love for Pandora Hearts comes from this possibility to exchange my opinions and theories with others. Besides, it makes it easier not to get lost. Others' theories sometimes remind me of certain things/events that were mentioned/took place earlier in the manga.
Last edited by Aylinn on Thu Nov 17, 2011 3:53 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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Kruszer
 Posts: 7995 Location: Minnesota, USA |
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I'd also say this isn't a good idea. Unless you don't mind being constantly behind everyone else, and out of the loop. I know I would mind. |
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