discardia

Some people love anime. I can’t blame them, some of it is pretty cool.

But then again, most of it sucks. I mean seriously. It must lose a lot in the translation, because to your standard imprint carbon unit geek (like moi), a lot of it is silly, pedantic, crapola or made for pervs.

I give you example 1: The “greatest” battle anime of all time, Dragonball Z. I call it the “greatest” battle anime because every character spends 20 mins grunting and glowing and giving every 8 year old that is watching a little stiffy. Selfish, selfish, selfish anime playing to every kids dream of having super powers and beating the living hell out of everything. And plus, it makes no sense. So might as well check your mind at the door.

And there is a lot of grunting and floating in the air.

A lot of grunting.

So that series (all ten million of them) sucks.

I give you example 2: Naruto. All I have to say there is WTF? I mean seriously. WTF? Repeat of number 1, but now everyone is a ninja, at a school, for ninjas? Ummmm. That makes no sense, either. Not as much grunting, though, so that’s a plus.

Granted, I know you are thinking that those series are made for kids, so of course they are going to be childish.

Ok. Let’s kick it up a notch.

I loved Cowboy Bebop. I don’t know why. The characterization was there, the stories were there, the voice acting was damn good, and it was worth watching (time and time again). It was not lost in translation, at all.

It kicks ass.

Samurai Champloo (by the same director of Bebop, no less) is also awesome. Perhaps not quite as good as Bebop, but close. And it is enjoyable to watch. Again - good series.

And now you want to watch something new.

So you flip through amazon, or netflix, or the billion fansites out there for what you should watch next, and 1 out of 10 anime series will be complete and utter wastes of time. Wrong target audience (for kids), too much grunting (the 10 min stare-down), or toooooooo much characterization (also called lazy animation), or too much exposition (Ghost in the Shell: SAC 1&2 for example), or just too flipping crazy (culture barrier issues).

Sooooo, loving anime is hard to do. You have to be willing to wade through a bunch of crap to find the good stuff, or have a friend that has it done it all for you. No wonder most people think anime is either for little kids or horny old men. Because the good stuff is glossed over far too often by that crap to shine through.

But you find the good stuff and the love affair continues.