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What makes an Anime good?
Chef:
Of course techincally all cartoons and animes are drawings, and they could techincally be completely interchangable, but if a person says 'Do you want to watch an anime?' or 'Do you want to watch a cartoon?' You know anime refers exclusively to Japan, whereas cartoon is pretty much used by all nations except Japan.
Cartoons are not just directed at children. That's misinformed. Even though this is getting really off-topic, I will give a few examples to make my point. Totally Spies: Canadian/French orgin, art style exactly like Japan. What would anyone call it? A cartoon, because it's on teletoon (Canada's Cartoon Network), and because it's in English (and French). Undergrads: American cartoon. Who is it directed at? Young adults. Simpsons: All ages. Clone High: Young adults. A number of other shows I don't remember the name of, but were on late night Teletoon because they had very adult, very not appropriate for children themes. Even though the characters did not have normal size eyes, and had at least a few anime cliche art styles, they would without a doubt be considered cartoons by your average guy on the street. You might get away with calling Spirited Away a cartoon, just because it's English dub is so good, but if the person knows it's from Japan they probably call it an anime.
In any case, it's semantics and I feel a bit silly for being so thorough... The real point I'm getting at is that even if you think there's a visible difference in style between cartoons and animes, there are so many darkhorses and weird art styles within both realms that they won't apply to anything you might typically think of when imagining either art style. If you say there is, you're basically denying Kaiba and Kemonozume are animes, and they clearly are.
ZeroZero65:
Good story, beautiful artwork, good background music.
Shirow:
After bluntly staring at all these enormous posts, I wondered: "What's the big deal? ZeroZero65's post sums it up just fine". But after a few moments of thinking, I must say the story is a bit deeper.
As we all know, anime production is layered and very complex. And there are billions of factors that affect the outcome. It starts with a bright (well, let's assume this) idea, and then everything must be done right in order to ensure the implementation will remain as bright. Producers must call up brilliant director, which must gather all the staff. And the staff is what makes anime good, if we've taken a materialistic approach. Every person's work is imporant, as well as every frame in anime.
Creators are obliged to put their hearts, pieces of their souls into anime (or whatever else actually) if they want an impressive result. And that is what matters to us.
But I guess this is obvious.
If to think the other way...
Good anime affects my mind and my heart. It makes me think and it makes me cry or laugh. That's what matters most to me. If anime is catchy on the inside, I will ignore it outside flaws (if any). If it is catchy only on the outside and has nothing else to offer - I will ignore the title itself.
That's how it is for me, and I think it's useless to list all the epithets for good anime here.
Chef:
--- Quote ---As we all know, anime production is layered and very complex. And there are billions of factors that affect the outcome. It starts with a bright (well, let's assume this) idea, and then everything must be done right in order to ensure the implementation will remain as bright. Producers must call up brilliant director, which must gather all the staff. And the staff is what makes anime good, if we've taken a materialistic approach. Every person's work is imporant, as well as every frame in anime.
--- End quote ---
Isn't anime usually/almost always taken from a manga? I mean, thinking just about story, that gives the author a lot of control, which is something nice I think. It gives a coheasiveness and control that you don't get when there's a room full of 20 mediocre writers trying to pump out the next episode. I can't say for sure how true animes are to the mangas though, because I don't read manga. I did read some of the Death Note manga, and it seemed very faithful.
I just wanted to bring that up, because that's something that might contrast significantly with American produced television shows, which were mostly just scripts written by some hopeful, bought, then mutilated into something that would just sell as well as possible to a mainstream audience, without regard to initial vision. That's changing the question a bit from "what makes an anime good" to "what makes anime good" but I think it's interesting.
--- Quote ---That's how it is for me, and I think it's useless to list all the epithets for good anime here.
--- End quote ---
I think if you simplify things too much, yes, the discussion is pretty worthless. But for aspiring artists reading and posting on this forum, it is nice to think about these things if you get very specific and develop ideas for WHY we like things, not just WHAT we like. Of course we all like an anime that plays with our emotions and gets us involved... But how is that done? It's like when being interviewed... it's very boring to give 'yes' or 'no' answers... Or when you write an essay, it's not enough to just make a list of bullet points... Thoughts need to be elaborated and complicated to be worthwhile. One has to think "what would a stranger get from reading this?" So for example, if it's mundane to just say "I like anime that pulls my heart strings" maybe we can think about specific, but common elements that do this for you... To scratch only the surface, we might imagine long, detailed character development is needed to get your sympathy for their emotions, and thus an anime is good when it only asks you to care about characters it's properly presented to you (rather than perhaps the main characters mother dying at the very beginning of the show, leaving you feeling 'uh okay... I don't really have any attachment so I don't care and this is just needlessly dramatic').
Another thing is proper use (and absence of use) of music to effectively provoke emotion. An anime is good when it knows how to use silence to make the audience reflect or feel alone. Obviously appropriate music is good, but how about specially composed music? For an audience never to have heard a track before can make an anime truly engaging, because we don't get caught up in a routine of cliche songs that we know how we're supposed to feel to... We actually have to analyse and think and concentrate on the music which can be a very powerful tool for engaging your audience, or at very least animes that use music that is too cliche might be hurting themselves because of this.
I think there is a lot to say on this topic if only one is willing to really ponder it :)
Shirow:
Chef, of course in most cases the origin of anime is manga, this fact is so well-known that I didn't even mention it.
But manga is being just a shell, mostly. Or rather starting point, base, whatever you call it.
And director decides what to build on this substructure. Another but is... what you said about the story is quite right. And I also do not read manga, at all.
North American cinematograph is industry in first place, exactly. Keyword there is 'production'. Not 'creation'. What we get is products (as a rule but not always). I don't want this. I want to enjoy the art. Because of that I love European cinematograph and anime. Although I see no difference between modern anime and Hollywood. Really. It's like they're selling out. It's painful to see, but it seems just like that to me. Most things that make anime good are no more.
Aw, you're so strict; although thoughts need to be polished, that's right.
If to get closer to topic and push it further... Character's presentation is a stand out point. First impressions last forever. So if creators are able to make you love the character right away - it's great, you'll be instantly sticked to the screen. On the other hand, creator can bring watcher to character's true face only through detailed exploration of personality and depiction of deeds; so, there are different methods to manipulate watcher's engaging in the show.
Other things is what scriptwriters put into character's mouth. These words better find a responce in our hearts. For example, saying something like "Hey! Tell me your real name! How will we become friends, if I don't know your name?" will pull a tear from my eyes, and thus leaving me satisfied.
Voicing is what makes anime good, and there are no doubts to that, voice is one of the most impressive features of anime. Seiyū do their work superbly, showcasing the palette of feelings and emotions that hardly will leave somebody untouched.
--- Quote from: Chef on April 01, 2010, 10:12:43 PM ---...for aspiring artists reading and posting on this forum...
--- End quote ---
What kind of artists?
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