Why is it everywhere I look all I see is anime. Anime, anime, anime, anime, anime, anime, anime, anime, anime, anime, anime, anime, anime, anime, anime, anime, anime, anime, anime, anime, anime, anime, anime, anime, anime... It drives me mad to no end! Yes, there is good quality anime. I've watched many, but honestly people it's not more than a median. There is just as much none-anime stuff out there that is awesome and fun then there is anime. I only know one artist in my grade who doesn't do anime, and personally I think his work is the best as he does diverse stuff. Now I'm not a visual artsy guy, but I do know what looks good and what doesn't. Maybe it's just the social circles I'm in (RPing, and other nerdyness) but it seems everywhere I look anime is taking over. It's alread consumed two of my good friends and several of my not-so-good buddies! All they do is sit around and play Japanese video games, watch Japanese tv, listen to Japanese music, and pretend like they are learning to speak Japanese! So would someone please tell me: is there something I am missing or is the whole world crazy?

You're on a MUD forum. Posting about Anime. I think you definitely are missing something.

It's a fad in a sense. I watch more anime than most people, but I don't pretend I know Japanese. I have no interest in TV period, and I actually prefer American art to Japanese art in many cases. As far as music goes I have eclectic taste...as long as it's not rap, country, or pop, I'll give it a shot.

Japan's plan to take over the world economically and culturally is slowly succeeding...

Dude...There's magic the gathering thread. Nothing wrong with posting something about anime.

And sadly no everyone is like that...I know I'm not. I like anime. And, sadly, I'm into rather odd and very bloody anime at that.

Yes...anime is taking over the world. Why? because it can, and it's awesome like that.

And maybe it's the cirlces you with, but I don't think so. Just be opened minded is all.

Mind you, this is simply advice. To anyone.

"There is just as much none-anime stuff out there that is awesome and fun then there is anime." The same can be applied to quite a few people who play Lusternia, or video games. Opinion is what counts. My mom dislikes Imperian and Lusternia because it consumes my time with the family. Same with my sister and her boyfriend. All in the opinion and the taste.

Obviously, you fail to realize how the Japanese are taking over the world! Nippon 4eva.

Don't worry. I speak a lot of Japanese and it is freakin difficult to understand on some of the weirder anime. Hell, I have this one movie where the main character talks BACKWARDS in japanese. It is subtitled backwards too

The main thing about anime, is that you don't need to look as far to find QUALITY instead of QUANTITY, though in truth it does excel at both. Look at the list off stuff Hollywood has produced lately - there have been so many flops on the level of Catwoman and Aeon Flux that its just not funny, because they are just churning out the same unoriginal stuff constantly. In normal tv shows, there are only a few that I enjoy - Numb3rs, House, Lost, Battlestar Galactica, The Ghost Whisperer, Boston Legal, NCIS (Abby is hawt) and American Chopper.

Omg, I love boston legal.

I always felt like a crappy artist because I could never do anime style properly. Thank you for making me feel better.

Backwards?!

I like mostly how anime series will mostly stop after a few seasons, before it starts to suck. As opposed to American series, which go until the last cent is squeezed from them, so you get shows that were good 10 years ago, but not any more.

It's because literature cannot survive on american television. American television is aimed at the american masses, and I have little in common with the american masses in terms of taste. I can't stand sitcoms, or standup comedy, or reality shows, or the news, or any of that overdone, boring crap. If a good show exists, american TV does all it can to kill it and bury it and never speak of it again (remember Firefly?) The only piece of literature EVER to make it through american television was Babylon 5 - everything else worthwhile was either ruined by the networks changing it to appeal to the masses, or killed long before it told what it tried to tell.

Anime runs until it's over, and then? It's over. Well, anime that I watch. I don't get those people who like the Naruto/Dragonball Z/Bleach/One Piece junk, which is anime for the masses, rambling tales with no end in sight. But even with those series, they have progression, character development, and the like - they have stories, not just episodic slices of comedy, which America is so fond of.

The really good anime incorporates myths, legends, color, sound, metaphor - everything it can to tell its story ( RahXephon). I have never seen an american TV show ever do such a thing.

Historical anime is interesting - just look at Kenshin: Trust and Betrayal, the classic example of samurai anime - every character except Kenshin and his lover existed, and the events that occured actually happened, during the Meijun Restoration in Japan in the early 19th century. Kenshin himself is strongly based on a legend of an assassin during those years.

Educational anime is awesome - some of the best stories told in anime was done in educational anime, in my opinion. Hikaru no Go and Twin Spica are two of my favourite stories, even though they are designed to be educational above all else. Hikaru no Go was a shameless attempt by the Go Institute of Japan to popularize Go among the current generation of young japanese, and they did it by making the most well written and interesting sports drama I have ever seen. Twin Spica is just... beautiful, even as it illustrates what it takes to be an astronaut.

Yes, anime is just a medium, but it is an audio-visual medium that is used well. American television is certainly not in my eyes, and movies can be good, but so few are. Most are about giant explosions, and some gun fights, and that's about it. The only worthwhile movies I have seen that were more than just pretty, that touched me on some intellectual and emotional level, are Donnie Darko and Fight Club. I'm a sci-fi geek, but I'm a literature nerd first and foremost. Anime as a whole tells much better stories than any other version of the medium. Yes, books are in general better than anime when it comes to content, but I like the method of presentation audio-visual mediums give. And I can't read a book with a friend, but I can watch something with a friend.

It all depends on what you're looking for. If you want something with a good, strong, arching story, that can be found in anime much, much easier than any other version of the audio-visual medium. If you want something that's episodic and slapstick comedy, or if you enjoy being a voyeur into some loser's life, then american tv is better. If you like large pretty explosions, american movies are better.

I thought Shiri said you were drinking bleach, Shorlen. Don't do that, it burns. My arm will testify to that.

Shiri's yelling at me for dissing Bleach I'll admit it's much better than other excessively long anime that will never end, but it's still excessively long anime that will never end.

Give me my 26 episode long stories, and I will be happy.

Okay maybe this is just me, but yeah, Bleach is different to the other three you named.

EDIT: Actually that's too embarrassing to post publically, let me just say that Bleach is better than the other three, and One Piece is not bad.

One Piece is my favourite at the moment... Mainly because of character development. Bleach deserves to be called above average, Naruto is so-so.

Yeah, but Kenshin rocks. I watched the whole thing a few times over already. (it just happened to be on tv. I swear!)

I can't really stick up for why I like One Piece more than the others But Bleach is just good yeah.

And I need to see Trust and Betrayal. The only Kenshin I saw was 26 IDENTICAL FREAKING EPISODES of Rurouni Kenshin the anime. UUUUGH. >_<

Oops, I read wrong. I was actually watching what you just called total crud, not something cool and unheard of. I'm such a friggin' no-life...

Well, Shorlen's dissing what we both watched, so let's just chalk it up to different tastes.

Ugh... I'm not saying Anime is bad. Indeed there be a few I watch myself, Chrno Crusade comes to mind(Nothing more than what was in the movies Dogma, or Constantine though, and waaay less symbolic then Dogma) but it seems like, at least my friends, will think something is much better than it is just because it is anime. Then they go an emerse themselves in it, and continually show me boring anime. Yes, I play Lusternia a fair bit, but no, I don't have my friends come over and play the game with them. And there's plenty of series on American TV that end. 24 comes to mind, and I don't think Lost will squeeze every last cent.