For the anime lovers, what is it about anime that makes you a fan? Is it the art direction? the stories? the characters? all of the above?

 

I have tried to get into it but usually fall asleep or change the channel. What am I missing? I usually have an open mind about these sort of things so I want to know what it is about anime that fans love so much.

 

Help a brother out.

I think the stories and the characters are the appeal for most people. In an era where American cartoons are reduced to stuff like Baby Looney Tunes, people who like grown-up cartoons turned to anime. Shows like Cowboy Bebop and Trigun had some of the best writing I've seen in most live action shows, let alone animation.

What Sek speaks is the truth. Most of the time I'll watch anime simply because it's written better than anything that American live-action has to offer. MiB knows that I'll gladly put Perfect Blue up next to anything you've seen lately, and I guarantee the story will blow whatever you choose out of the water. You want a series? Cowboy Bebop is good enough to be on prime time US television right now.

 

I basically grew up on anime. Some of my earliest memories are of seeing Galaxy Express 999 and episodes of Speed Racer. As a youth, I always preferred Robotech, Tranzor Z and Voltron (both incarnations) to Transformers, Masters of the Universe and G.I. Joe, the Holy Trinity of American afternoon cartoons. While everyone was playing Ninja Gaiden on their Super Nintendos, I was busy trying to solve Golgo 13. I was always a sucker for anything foreign (especially but not limited to, martial arts movies). I had copies of Shogun Assassin, The Killer, Hard-Boiled and the like back in '93, trying to educate my friends.

 

So, I guess for me, I can't really put my finger on what I like specifically. I've been hooked on it from the start just because it's different and in my opinion, better than what we're offered here on these shores.

 

In high school, I had a friend who I used to watch anime with. One day after watching a non-subtitled, non-dubbed VHS copy of M.D. Geist, I told myself I would (rather my DREAM was to) graduate, hop in my car and go straight to the airport with a one-way ticket to Japan in my grasp. My dream came true, but it took about a year and a half and a stint in the Marine Corps to make it happen.

 

I spent three years in Japan and during that time I educated myself. Dragonball Z and Dragonball GT were still airing original episodes, I saw Princess Mononoke in the theater and Neon Genesis Evangelion and Samurai X were taking the country by storm.

 

As far as renting things, I went through the classics as well as the absurd: Bubblegum Crisis, Gunsmith Cats, Cutey Honey, Battle Angel, Plastic Little, Dirty Pair, 8 Man After, 3x3 Eyes, Appleseed, New Dominion Tank Police, Patlabor, Vampire Hunter D, Riding Bean, Blue Seed, Devilman, Crying Freeman, Fist of the North Star, Ninja Scroll, Ranma 1/2, Lupin III, Akira, Ghost in the Shell, AD Police Files, Black Magic M-66, Wicked City...you name it, I watched it. I'd rent like four or five movies every week, regardless of how shitty I thought they may be simply because as an artist, I was hooked on the style and the certain little things in the culture that every anime touched on. I mean, I've seen all the Fatal Fury movies and everyone knows, most anime based on video games (like Tekken, Art of Fighting and Samurai Shodown) suck balls.

 

I'll be the first to tell you there are some things I can't get into. Sailor Moon and Gundam never did anything for me. I've kind of gotten away from anime lately, so I've missed out on things I've wanted to see like Hellsing, Noir, FLCL & Berserk. Most new anime hasn't done anything for me because I think my initial obsession with it is over. I might have overexposed myself.

 

Damn, you got me all nostalgic, I'm about to go watch Wicked City right damn now.

I'm in the same boat as GH. I hear all this buzz about anime, so I try and give something a chance, but more times than not, I can't get into it. I'm one for substance over style, so you'd figure anime would appeal to me. Perhaps I'm just not looking in the right place.

The thing about anime is you sometimes have to dig for the good stuff. Cartoon Network does a good job of offering a variety of anime, but like right now they're kind of in a holding pattern. They hyped up Witch Hunter Robin and Wolf's Rain for being made by the people who brought you Cowboy Bebop but all the constant Bebop comparisions hurt (IMO) and they both tanked in the ratings.

 

Personally, I've seen the whole run of Cowboy Bebop about a billion times but the last 3 episodes are so well done I still mark out every time. They just ran the last episode a few days ago and I was watching just as intently as the first time I saw it.

 

On top of everything CJ recommended, I'm also a big fan of Trigun and Blue Gender (which no one likes but me because Cartoon Network cut the fuck out of it). Hell I even like Inuyasha, despite having way too many filler episodes and a fanbase that should all be chemically castrated.

I hate anime. I always have. My brother is really big into it though. I just don't see the appeal. It comes off corny and cheesy to me.

 

I love Aqua Teen Hunger Force & The Venture Bros. so it's not because it's animated.

 

I liked Ninja Scroll and the Star Wars Clone Wars episodes. Do those count as anime? What about The Animatrix? That's about as far as I go.

 

I've watched Akira three times. Each time I tried to get into it. I went in with an open mind. After the first viewing, I was just confused. I watched it a second time to answer questions. After the third viewing, I just accepted that I thought it smoked donkey ass.

 

Also: CJ is the type of person that I go out of my way to avoid in life. Polar opposites. Everything he loves, I seem to despise. But you're the same cat the badmouthed Die Hard and said Hero was amazing, right?

It bugs me that it's called "anime", because it's a label that carries a certain amount of pretentiousness with it. Why not just call them "cartoons"? That said, I've enjoyed some anime and hated some. But I've always despised that the genre has to have its own name.

It bugs me that it's called "anime", because it's a label that carries a certain amount of pretentiousness with it. Why not just call them "cartoons"? That said, I've enjoyed some anime and hated some. But I've always despised that the genre has to have its own name.

Having its own name sounds elitist, but to most people in America cartoons = Looney Tunes and Scooby Doo = shows for little kids, which anime is decidedly not.

Also: CJ is the type of person that I go out of my way to avoid in life. Polar opposites. Everything he loves, I seem to despise. But you're the same cat the badmouthed Die Hard and said Hero was amazing, right?

I never badmouthed Die Hard. Ninja Scroll is definitely anime, the Clone Wars I wouldn't consider anime.

 

I don't think you'd find me the type of person you'd avoid. I find that as I go through life, a lot of things I tend to enjoy I have ZERO in common with the other people, the core fanbase, that also likes those things.

 

I used to collect comics, ocassionally still pick up the odd one. I hated going to comic shops and dealing with the geeks. If you saw me in a shop, I'd stick out like a sore thumb.

 

We all like wrestling. I despise wrestling fans. The people who casually watch wrestling and get into discussions about it in public, I wouldn't waste my time associating with.

 

So I guess the same can be said about anime. When I think of anime fans, I think of a more sophisticated, more intelligent geek, but a geek just the same. America has necessitized (is that a word?) a term like anime because like Sek said, to call them simply cartoons would indicate that it's okay for kids, which they are not. The term anime does carry a certain pretentiousness to it but only because of the type of fan that watches it. It's like puro is just wrestling, but it still has it's own label and yes, it's fan have afforded it a certain pretentiousness, as well.

 

Rest assured, like all of the above freaks I discussed, I am not one of those fans.

 

Our friend Wally called me a "half-breed" the other night. Half cool guy, half nerd. I guess that'd be an acceptable term, except I way more than half cool and the nerd stuff resides completely on the inside, as I tend to keep my interests private and conduct them in the same fashion, privately.

To be perfectly honest, and I know this sounds weird, but I don't like cartoons. I just can't get into them. The only exceptions to that rule are Family Guy, King of the Hill, and South Park. Any cartoon television show and is not supposed to be a comedy, I absolutely cannot sit there and watch. As for movies, I won't watch any of them, except South Park. I don't even go for those new computer animated ones. The only anime movie I saw and enjoyed was Spirited Away.

I've watched Akira three times. Each time I tried to get into it. I went in with an open mind. After the first viewing, I was just confused. I watched it a second time to answer questions. After the third viewing, I just accepted that I thought it smoked donkey ass.

I don't like much anime either, and honestly, I blame Akira.

 

I saw the movie when I was like, maybe 10. It made no sense, felt like it was about a thousand hours long, and it disgusted me. I've only seen little bits of anime since then, and none of it has really interested me.

 

Though I did like Astroboy a lot as a kid; I don't think that counts though, because I never even realized it was a Japanese cartoon. I just thought the animators sucked and couldn't make their mouths match up to what was being said.

I've found that I also have little in common with most of the people who enjoy the same things I do. I've had three friends in my entire life that I actually liked to talk wrestling. Even then, we all had other things in common other than the wrestling fixation.

 

Most wrestling fans I've met in "real life" have annoyed the hell out of me to the point where I'm embarrassed to admit I've ever liked it. Most of the vocal fans are total marks that make anyone who enjoys wrestling seem like an oddity with issues.

The same thing goes for people who like anime, comics,...basically any fringe sub-culture. There are video game enthusiasts that make me cringe. It seems like anyone who plays anything outside of sports games has to be a wierdo worthy of being on a future episode of America's Most Wanted.

 

They all come off as such socially inept idiot savant recluses it is borderline embarassing to say you enjoy the same thing these date rapists and serial killers-in-training like. Obessive geeky fans give the normal guys, those of us who can separate fantasy from reality (or at least know when to give it a rest and take a break) a bad name.

 

Who on Earth would want to be associated with that?

So true. I hate to sound like an echo, but I experience the same things all the time. Being on the school newspaper, I've dealt with these sorts of people first-hand. I remember the first meeting I had to attend, I was maybe one of three people at the table not pissing their pants over some new BETA of some new video game. It honestly made me reconsider even being on the staff. I mean, how could I work there if I didn't understand what the fuck these people were babbling on about. Thankfully, most of them were staff writers that either stopped coming or made rare appearances.

 

I've never really been able to get in anything but sports video games, myself. I just can't sit there and dedicate hours upon hours completing some mystical journey that's going to make me sound like a loser if I discuss it with most people afterwards.

Who on Earth would want to be associated with that?

I've been living a video game free life for a long time now. They're right down there with cartoons in my book. But I know what you mean with the people that get all obssessed with it. The ones that are pale as all hell because they haven't left their dark basements in years. People like that scare me, because I don't understand how a person could be so into sitting alone in the dark playing video games for 18 hours a day. And now with the use of the internet hookups so they could talk to other videogame nutjobs at 5 in the morning. I don't see much hope for the future.

You know, I think we are all in the same boat. we don't talk about wrestling in public. Whatever the case may be, it is ultimately why we come to nest at these message boards. First, we go to a board like the Smarks or TSM or wherever... eventually tire of those communities and branch off into little subdivisions with people you care to discuss this stuff with. NMB allows us to talk about our hobbies without the fear of being ostracized or having to know the people in real life because we are not bound by society rules. If I didn't have the message boards, i could just imagine how a conversation about wrestling would go with my wife...

 

Me: Damn, that was a beautiful sequence.

Wife: ...

 

Or with my wife's markish cousin's husband...

 

Me: Man, that HHH match was horrible.

Wife's Markish Cousin's Husband: Is he really married to stephanie McMahon?

Me: ...