Why do you like anime? - And why is it popular

[The Last Stand]

I've watched a couple episodes of Sailor Moon, thanks @Cosmos, and noticed that a few Kiwis have anime profile pictures. I wonder, why do you watch or like anime, manga, etc? The cultural differences in animation, tradition, customs? Hearing another language? The character exaggeration?

I love animation, and anime is very different from Western animation. Almost indistinguishable. If there is already a thread of this, apologies. Just curious.

 

[Lone MacReady]

Tits are Life, there is no thinking involved, I just watch.

 

[REGENDarySumanai]

Cultural differences, traditions, and customs. I like scouring everywhere for media from different cultures (I've recently dipped my toes into classic Chinese literature, which has given us our fair share of Japanese media). Honestly, if I wasn't in the IT field, I'd probably be a scholar of some sort.

 

[Webby's Boyfriend]

Who is "you"? Anybody on this site? Surely not, because I hate and despise anime, but I love American animation, though some Eurofag stuff is okay too. My favourite franchise is the Disney Duck universe.

Anime is just retarded and anime profile pics are for politispergs.

Tits are Life, there is no thinking involved, I just watch.

To me, that is really creepy, because most animefags are adult men while those characters to whom they fap off are often underage school girls.

 

[Absolutego]

In my experience a lot of what draws people into anime is that animation targeted at teens and up remains very niche in western countries. Anime just supplied a demand that wasn't being addressed by western animation studios.

 

[Jeanne d'Arc]

Mainly character design, original stories, and choice.

There's so much anime (20-40 series every three-odd months) that you're bound to find some set of characters and the stories surrounding them and really fall in love with them, a huge reason why I think waifu culture is so popular right now.

A lot of studios try to do different shit (Kyoto Animation likes cutesy but realistic stuff, Trigger likes over-the-top shit, Ghibli likes more folktale-like/humanizing stories) and it's refreshing compared to the western market where "CALarts" is the favored style by a long shot. Samurai Jack was the last western animated show I really enjoyed, and I'll admit certain episodes of Adventure Time were rather nice. I think the western animation market needs more originality is all, give us more Tartakovskys and Wards and fewer pandering shows like Steven Universe.

 

[Clop]

I don't personally like most of that stuff, I prefer the occasional series that put some effort into the plot, but I can wager a a guess on why a lot of it is popular; It's very honest entertainment. It's catering to pure escapism, it's not trying to preach to you, you can just tune out and stare at colorful shit and fan service.

It's apparently starting to overcome western entertainment, and that's not exactly a surprise to me considering you can't watch or read anything without a feminist screaming about your eyes wandering around a pair of tits I mean how fucking dare you stare at titties, what the fuck are you staring at titties for yoU FUCKING SICK BASTARD REEEEEEEEE--

It's not all titties and panties, either. You want wholesome comedy, you read Azuma Kiyohiko's stuff. You want wholesome fantasy, you watch Studio Ghibli's works. Just like video games, I trust the actual consumers of the medium to know how to avoid the shit that journos love to bitch about.

To me, that is really creepy, because most animefags are adult men while those characters to whom they fap off are often underage school girls.

Someone's definitely fapping to Webby somewhere right now, and I'm betting she's not old enough to ride a fucking roller coaster. It's best not to think about it.

 

[Frank D'arbo]

They have more balls than most American productions.

 

[saisegeha]

I grew up reading and watching Naruto and Dragon Ball with a friend who moved away later on, grew out of anime, learned he killed himself and then picked I it back up for nostalgic reasons and to sort of remember him. These days I find myself enjoying seinen anime like Mushi-Shi and Texhnolyze, but since I don't have much time to sit through a lot of episodes I started to prefer manga a while ago, mainly Bokurano and Shigurui type stuff. I also enjoy seeing Japanese culture, but know for damn sure that if I'll ever visit Japan I won't be acting like an autistic weeb and rather learn the basics of their language and try to see the things they're proud of.

 

[The Last Stand]

They have more balls than most American productions.

Something I noticed with "dubbed versions", often scenes would be omitted or edited on Western syndication. Dialogue, plot threads, references, violence to name a few. How does that make some of you feel?

 

[Frank D'arbo]

Something I noticed with "dubbed versions", often scenes would be omitted or edited on Western syndication. Dialogue, plot threads, references, violence to name a few. How does that make some of you feel?

then I don't watch that version

 

[UE 558]

Because Jojo taught me that I’m gay

Spoiler

 

[Webby's Boyfriend]

In my experience a lot of what draws people into anime is that animation targeted at teens and up remains very niche in western countries. Anime just supplied a demand that wasn't being addressed by western animation studios.

Many "kids'" animated shows, like Disney, feature believable characters with gripping storylines, while "adult" animation usually is autistic reeing about celebrities, politics, sex and profanity.

a huge reason why I think waifu culture is so popular right now.

To me, and probably most psychologists, that is just very very sad. Can there be anything more depressing than people wasting their love on fictional drawings?

Someone's definitely fapping to Webby somewhere right now, and I'm betting she's not old enough to ride a fucking roller coaster. It's best not to think about it.

Yeah, you do that, Dutch Hitler bird who calls himself "Clop". En groeten uit Duckstad, Dolf!

 

[dreamworks face]

With anime, you can imagine a venn diagram with three bubbles.

a) Obviously for children
b) Creepy
c) Good

The surface level, "obviously for children", is a lot of what airs on TV. It's usually shounen crap, involves tournaments, powering up, and people punching each other. The americanized dub voices are annoying and the animation is shitty. I'd characterize stuff like Sailor Moon and Ronin Warriors and Naruto and Dragon Ball Z etc. into this category. This is generally the normie opinion on anime.

Then there is creepy - there are a ton of tropes like "girl who looks like a 10 year old is really 1000 years olds so it's ok to fuck her", "every male in the series tries to peep in the mixed bath", "harems",. "stealing panties and wearing them on your face is played for a laugh", "little sister really wants to fuck oniisan", "characters stick fingers up other characters butts for laughs." This is the bitter nerd opinion on anime, and almost any anime show you watch will have one of the tropes above guaranteed.

Then you have the third category, Good (which might be 1% of all anime if that). Every so often there's a cool show like Cowboy Bebop, Attack on Titan, Kakegurui, Konosuba, Death Note, Neon Genesis Evangelion - there is just so much anime that by law of large numbers, some of it ends up good. Keep in mind Sturgeon's law - 90% of everything is crap.

Western animated shows aimed at adults are pretty much just animated sitcoms - South Park/Simpsons/Family Guy/Rick and Morty/Archer are all fundamentally the same shit different box. That is changing a little - I did like Castlevania, but you know, anime is anime even if it's not drawn by Japanese people. Maybe one day we'll routinely get western animation that doesn't have a moron character making jokes about jews to make anti-antisemitism seem dated, who knows.

 

[left arm]

For me, it's I find the majority of adult cartoons in the west tend to just be adult cartoons because a draw to it seems to be, "Oh man, these characters are doing RAUNCHY things, and this is a cartoon! Cartoons were for kids, but not anymore!"

Obviously, there are exceptions, and that isn't to say that having raunchy humor in anything devalues its worth, but sometimes I just want something that's geared towards adults and the cartoony style is more of a backdrop, which is usually easier for me to find with anime.

Granted, my opinion should be taken with salt, because if I have the option of reading a manga over watching an anime, I absolutely will do that, and this is entirely because I do my best to avoid shounen-shit, isekai, ecchi, and whatever's popular because of shipping, which is what 90% of anime tends to be nowadays. Plus, I almost never bother with anything ongoing as well, because I inevitably stop caring.

 

[lobotomy juice]

I have already seen all good normie shows and new ones are almost always shit except maybe one good new show or a season every year. Besides that anime is just different and thus interesting although I would imagine that fading away once I have seen more than just a few shows. I watch movies and shows pretty rarely and mainly for escapist reasons when I want to take my mind off of work or other real life stuff and anime does it better than most recent shows with big brain political takes or other immersion breaking shit.

 

[Sprig of Parsley]

It's fun.

Do I need another reason?

 

[BoingoTango]

>Deepthoughts

This should be in Multimedia section well, sure whatever. But I guess since it's anime it just gets a pass. Hooray for weeb hugbox.

I hate the vast majority of anime. I hate the annoying over-sexualized tropes. I hate the high school tropes. I hate cutesy animes. I hate fan service. What I like are a few select shows that fall into the anime category, and it is usually despite it being an anime, certainly not because of it like a lot weeb faggots.

Things like Dragon Ball and One Piece are great. Dragon Ball has a lot of interesting concepts, but they are (somewhat unfortunately) not delved too far into, but the badass action and the general satisfying nature of watching Goku whoop the breaks off people never fails to entertain. I can't speak too hard for One Piece because I'm not super far into it (They are on a prehistoric island and there are two giants fighting currently, not sure of arc names), but it has a similar feel, while also offering a VERY unique cast of characters, power, and scenery.

I even like SOME of the more wholesome cutesy stuff. I like My Neighbor Totoro for instance, but it's really hard to compare Miyazaki to what anime is today.

Anyone who says that they just like "anime" is a faggot. You wouldn't go around telling everyone you just love "cartoons". You would have specific shows that you enjoy. Though, I guess since the majority of the shit the chinks in Japan shell out is more-or-less the same thing shoved out over and over again, I suppose it isn't TOO inaccurate

 

[Professional iPad Hoarder]

Usually they have a great (or at least better than chickflix's series) plot and no sjw bullshit, also there is a huge variety in anime topics/styles to choose.

 

[Overcast]

I guess for me, they provide me with something western cartoons aren't really able to provide. Sure, there's a load of degenerate garbage made to pander to high schoolers and creepers, but underneath all of that is stuff that resonates with me in a lot of ways. Like Fullmetal Alchemist (both series) Wolf Children, Castle in the Sky, Welcome to the NHK, Oyasumi Punpun, ect.