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starseven
Joined: 04 May 2007
Posts: 35
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Posted: Fri Aug 10, 2007 2:22 pm
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I've seen a lot of anime. I've also seen my share of anime that I could predict the outcomes of certain events. The plot lines were to formulaic or as I like to say cookie cutter. The first one like this I would say is Pokemon. The story seems to use the same episode structures over and over again. Some other series that seemed to repeat quite often were Dragonball Z and Inu Yasha. Dragonball Z to begin with wasn't quite like that but the further into the series I got the more I noticed the story progression was very much like some of the previous sagas. Inu Yasha was similar in the fact that it started well but eventually became quite predictable.
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KyuuA4
Joined: 28 Sep 2006
Posts: 1361
Location: America, where anime and manga can be made
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Posted: Fri Aug 10, 2007 2:30 pm
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We call these cliches. All art forms are susceptible to these cliches. These usually start when someone creates something "new" (method of animation, storytelling, etc.) -- and then everyone else follows that trend. Eventually, it'll get to the point where it does get repetitive. It's natural.
Because of this predictability, I find Spoilers to some -- and certain series, like Bleach -- to be irrelevant. It just becomes that easy to guess that the "event" described in a spoiler is actually expected and unsurprising.
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GlassShadow
Joined: 10 Aug 2007
Posts: 50
Location: State of Confusion
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Posted: Fri Aug 10, 2007 3:16 pm
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Yes. But all animes more or less get repetitive at one point or another despite their subjects (E.g. Naruto, Deathnote). Especially the ones with lengthy plots, they tend to keep events at a rather slow pace. Though, most people still choose to finish the series hoping for a suprising outbreak. As a result, makers drag on the episodes farther still to obtain commerce benefit ( Kind of like movie trilogy).
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Viga_of_stars
Joined: 17 Aug 2006
Posts: 1240
Location: Washington D.C. in the Anime Atelier
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Posted: Fri Aug 10, 2007 5:56 pm
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GlassShadow wrote: | (E.g. Naruto, Deathnote). |
I haven't seen any huge obvious cliches in deathnote. Either that or I just don't notice them because they're less obvious. Now things like Naruto, Bleach, Air Gear, etc. ARE noticable off the bat.
Even some shojo is guitly of the cliche characters and plot. Girl falls in love and can't say it, Guy likes girl he can't get, etc. The only thing that helps the storyline is a twist like. OMG! The girl is a demon or OMG! that girl is an alien. OMG this is a magical girl!
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Xenofan 29A
Joined: 09 Aug 2007
Posts: 378
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Posted: Fri Aug 10, 2007 6:19 pm
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Viga_of_stars wrote: | Even some shojo is guitly of the cliche characters and plot. Girl falls in love and can't say it, Guy likes girl he can't get, etc. The only thing that helps the storyline is a twist like. OMG! The girl is a demon or OMG! that girl is an alien. OMG this is a magical girl! |
Although I don't watch tons of shojo, I think Honey and Clover (I know it's technically josei) surpasses some of its cliches by its great animation, scriptwriting, and sense of humor. The same things apply to shows for other demographics as well; a shonen show can be very enjoyable if it's well formed at a basic level.
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Ryvius213
Joined: 03 Aug 2006
Posts: 291
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Posted: Fri Aug 10, 2007 6:22 pm
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Viga_of_stars wrote: |
GlassShadow wrote: | (E.g. Naruto, Deathnote). |
I haven't seen any huge obvious cliches in deathnote. |
GlassShadow was talking about how it eventually begins to repeat itself in some way.(with the whole chase after Kira and everyone outsmarting one another over and over again)
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GlassShadow
Joined: 10 Aug 2007
Posts: 50
Location: State of Confusion
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Posted: Fri Aug 10, 2007 7:09 pm
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I'm not really a big fun of shojo. FruitsBasket is probably the only one I consider decent; in fact, I think it's one of the most nonrepetitive anime ever made.
From the overall view, it seems like shojo is still less repetitive than shonen one way or another. But then again, you can't really blame shonen for being repetitive, the plotlines are just too long and not to mention excessive fillers.
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frentymon
Forums Superstar
Joined: 27 Nov 2005
Posts: 2362
Location: San Francisco
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Posted: Fri Aug 10, 2007 7:20 pm
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GlassShadow wrote: | But then again, you can't really blame shonen for being repetitive, the plotlines are just too long and not to mention excessive fillers. |
You're forgetting that shonen isn't limited to just long-running, mainstream titles like Naruto or DBZ.
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GlassShadow
Joined: 10 Aug 2007
Posts: 50
Location: State of Confusion
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Posted: Fri Aug 10, 2007 7:27 pm
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frentymon wrote: | You're forgetting that shonen isn't limited to just long-running, mainstream titles like Naruto or DBZ. |
Well, I meant most. It's partly what makes shonen addictive. I don't know, maybe I haven't watched enough, but the ones that are VERY shonen seem to be at a length.
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starseven
Joined: 04 May 2007
Posts: 35
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Posted: Fri Aug 10, 2007 8:59 pm
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I agree that some repetitive anime can be somewhat addictive. I've watched almost 80 episodes of Bleach, over 150 episodes of Naruto, and almost all of DBZ. It seems to get old after a while just constantly using the same plot over and over. I've grown to respect series that are very unique. They don't fall into your normal plot or stereo type. I would say a few series I would classify as unique would be Wolf's Rain, R.O.D. TV, Elemental Gelade, and plenty of other series.
It's like I haven't watched all the way through all the Gundam series. I've noticed a lot of similarities between certain Gundam series. I've watched Gundam Wing start to finish. The other Gundam series seem very similar in plot. I've heard that some of them rehash stories from prior Gundam series. I haven't seen enough to say whether that's completely true. I would have to watch them all start to finish to know if they rehash previous story plots.
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omar235
Joined: 02 Apr 2006
Posts: 1572
Location: Florida, Jacksonvile
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Posted: Fri Aug 10, 2007 10:28 pm
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I guess what makes a good anime is its ability to present cliches in an entertaining way eh. If a show is done well you may not notice the repetitivness. As for Gundam, well they all get a bit repetitive because they are stories about wars and eventually the endless battles seem repetitive, and the plots are similar as well as they usally deal with the postions of two warring factions. Really there is ALOT of anime with repetitive or perdictable plots...again it is just many are able to present the show regardless in an interesting way and hide its repetitiveness and predictablity. Eh those were just my random thoughts on anime with repetitive or predictable plot.
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LuckySleven
Joined: 13 Mar 2007
Posts: 426
Location: Refer to page 2
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Posted: Fri Aug 10, 2007 10:58 pm
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omar235 wrote: | I guess what makes a good anime is its ability to present cliches in an entertaining way eh. If a show is done well you may not notice the repetitivness. |
Yeah Death Note did that for me. The constant mind bashing between Light and L kept getting more interesting and intense especially how events came up that favored Light. But it basically ended when L died. That was pretty much it for me until the cool looking Mikami showed up but then they just pissed his coolness away at the end.
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Vortextk
Joined: 10 Jan 2006
Posts: 892
Location: Orlando, Fl
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Posted: Fri Aug 10, 2007 11:00 pm
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As far as cliche's go, I loved the episode in welcome to NHK where(middle of the show, or so, slight spoilers)
They're trying to come up with a heroine for their pc game and end up making like a maid robot alien vampire cat girl etc etc thing. One character spitting out those ideas and the other drawing it in amazement, until you see the outcome. I really laughed at how over the top that part was and how SO many anime seem to fall back on things like that
It's about the same as any other media though. Most things are pretty predictable. Video games are some of the worst. Almost every video game with a story is good guy beating bad guy, assuming you can beat the game =P. Predictably is not bad, it just comes with the territory. I mean, spider-man could've died in the first movie, THAT would be unpredictable. But...we need him for the movie, so he has to survive. Even in all the action and when he gets beaten up, you know he's going to make it through.
I love my predictable action anime, shows and movies asmuch as anyone else but throwing in some unpredictability, especially with major plot points, is definitely a hook for me.
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Aylinn
Joined: 18 Nov 2006
Posts: 1684
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Posted: Sat Aug 11, 2007 12:03 am
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GlassShadow wrote: | I'm not really a big fun of shojo. FruitsBasket is probably the only one I consider decent; in fact, I think it's one of the most nonrepetitive anime ever made.
From the overall view, it seems like shojo is still less repetitive than shonen one way or another. But then again, you can't really blame shonen for being repetitive, the plotlines are just too long and not to mention excessive fillers. |
HUH? FruitsBasket is nonrepetitive? Did I watch different FruitsBasket?
Are we talking about anime when the story looks like that:
1. Tohru meets Sohma
2. Tohru discover that the Sohma she met has tragic past [usually this tragic past is that the Sohma has awful parent/s so Tohru can act like his/her (the Sohma) mother]
3. Tohru gives the Sohma a hug and/or warm words.
4. Problem solved and the Sohma start changing into new better/stronger person. Next person.
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KyuuA4
Joined: 28 Sep 2006
Posts: 1361
Location: America, where anime and manga can be made
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Posted: Sat Aug 11, 2007 12:16 am
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GlassShadow wrote: | Yes. But all animes more or less get repetitive at one point or another despite their subjects (E.g. Naruto, Deathnote). Especially the ones with lengthy plots, they tend to keep events at a rather slow pace. Though, most people still choose to finish the series hoping for a suprising outbreak. As a result, makers drag on the episodes farther still to obtain commerce benefit ( Kind of like movie trilogy). |
Ohhhhh. You mean anime repetitive with itself. Particularly for the very long series -- 52 episodes or more -- it's really one methodology to keeping the anime running longer.
No example is more prevalent than Pokemon -- in which -- I am led to believe Ash suffers for Alzheimer's , Team Rocket is mentally retarded (at all levels), somehow the entire world isn't fully explored because new species of Pokemon are found on a semi-regular basis (yet they're archived in the Pokedex), and so on so forth.
To draw that conclusion, I only needed to watch one season of Pokemon (when it was new); and then random episode of the rest. Heck, I tuned this series out 4-5 years ago -- then I checked an episode on Cartoon Network -- and it's all the same thing all over again.
Anyways. This repetitiveness within a long series is meant to prolong the life of the series. After all, concluded plotlines are -- well -- concluded.
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