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- Time-Saving-Tip: Anime is childish on a truly pathetic scale, and unless it results in photos of real-life Skimpy Chicks In Bikinis at conventions, is useless and its sale and consumption should be confined to those 12-years and under.
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- The cost of production is absurdedly low and while attractive for its accessibility, it attracts all manner of sad wannabe-“writers” who know nothing more than all the D&D spells ever used and how to draw a 12-year-old girl with a 36DD chest. Throwing a couple “adult” issues in it to legitimize it fails as the miserable attempt at engaging the adult mind as it is, somewhat similar to including 10,000 word articles on politics in porno magazines. Professing your interest in it to anyone in person is an embarrassment to everyone involved (if you realize it or not), provable by their sudden loss for words, as if they can’t decide to complement you on your Garanimals or not.
- Really, preserve what respect new aquaintences have for you and just keep it to yourself. Don’t brag about your vast knowledge of it, and for God’s sake, don’t invite adults to watch. - DougC
Must we have this argument again?
If you’ve been turned off of animé by really stupid shows, I would suggest you watch different animé. It would be easy to denounce on roughly the same grounds the US film industry by taking “Freddy Got Fingered” as a representative sample.
Start with Neon Genesis Evangelion, then try moving up to Serial Experiment Laine. Can’t account for Gundam Wing or Revolutionary Girl Utena yet, not having seen enough episodes thereof, but what I’ve seen so far is promising.
(Oh, and get the subbed version, not dubbed. There is no such thing as a useful English voice dubber for animé.)
In the meantime, if hearing animé discussed bothers you so much, feel free to move away and associate with those who are not interested in it. I do not discuss sports, because they do not interest me either. However, diatribes are unnecessary.
Dude, did you ever see Ghost in the Shell? That scene where her boobs were showing… that was awesome! Ok, ok, I actually thought GitS was a moderately decent story. I thought Akira was, shall we say, much more boring than I could have ever imagined until I saw Wings on Honnemaise (or whatever) and after Ninja Scroll I gave up on Anime entirely. That said, even for a rant I think you are judging anime fans more than anime itself. I wish there were more cartoon movies with engaging stories… the media truly deserves it.
I’d suggest getting a life and not whining about someone else’s hobbies, myself.
So, DougC, how many anime movies have you watched? You must have seen hundreds to be able to dismiss the entire genre as “childish on a truly pathetic scale.” You certainly wouldn’t be making a sweeping judgement like that based on seeing only one or two movies, right? Why, that would be like me taking this one post of your, out of the two thousand plus you’ve made on this board, and deciding you’re an antisocial fuckwit whose life is so pathetically empty that he gets on the internet just to insult large groups of people he has never met because they enjoy something that he doesn’t.
And doing that would just be wrong.
I agree with matt_mcl. Anime is like any other art form, it can be done well, and it can be done horribly. Most of the shows (with notable exceptions) that get syndicated in the united states are not representative of the art form as a whole, and often rearranged or edited heavily.
I’d recommend, for those who believe anime cannot offer a serious story, Perfect Blue. It’s a brilliant piece of filmmaking.
Mononoke Hime is one of my favorite films. It’s a fantasy with a very deep and complex plot, and absolutely beautiful animation. actually, Miyazaki’s work as a whole is very good.
I could mention some more, but I doubt I’ll change your mind. If you don’t like it, that’s fine. Please refrain from judging me solely because I happen to.
Around here we watch more series than movies, but I should have mentioned Adolescence of Utena. Deep and mysterious story, plus mindblowing animation that blows the socks off of any other I’ve seen.
Fine, I can understand that not everyone likes the same thing. But to insult everyone who likes anime? On the other hand I’m a fan of anime and I have to admit that I don’t think most of it is any good. For every Cowboy Bebop or Princess Mononoke you’ve got 5 bad titles like A Wind Named Amnesia or M.D. Geist.
Marc
Y’know what? Your exposure to anime is too limited. I don’t blame you, of course. North American audiences have been shamelessy short-changed by distributors who insist on diluting the subject matter to make it kid-worthy. After all, cartoons are for kids right? As a result, we get to see endless re-runs of Sailor Moon, Dragonball Z, Digimon, etc., etc., etc.
Chicks in bikinis? OK, they can accomdate that too. Afterall, obsessive fanboys are hardly exclusive to Japan (who would you rather fuck, Betty or Veronica?).
Sturgeon’s law really screws us over in this respect because us North Americans rarely get a chance to see the good 10% unless we’re actively searching for it (and willing to pay the money). So, on the off chance that you’re willing to broaden your horizons, here’s a few recommendations (most of which have already been mentioned):
Cowboy Bebop: It’s a great sci-fi action series based on classic American western bounty hunter movies. The animation is superb, but it’s also willing to spend time developing complex, multi-faceted characters who grow throughout a story arc that’s comic, tragic and satisfying.
Serial Experiments: Lain: If David Lynch made animated movies he might come up with something like this surrealistic, techno-paranoid series. It’s sophisticated and, ultimately, infuriating. Don’t watch it expecting a linear storyline.
Perfect Blue: Surrealistic, psychological thriller. Think Brian DePalma circa Dressed to Kill mixed with Luis Buñuel. Highly disturbing.
Grave of the Fireflies: Catch me on the right day and I might just call this the best anti-war movie ever made. Words can’t describe the sheer impact this movie had on me. It’s one of the few movies that I had to own but could never bear to watch again. (Yes, I’ve seen Grand Illusion, Paths of Glory, Apocalypse Now, Platoon, Schindler’s List, etc.)
Also recommended is anything by the great Hayao Miyazaki such as Princess Mononoke. Also, Kiki’s Delivery Service is a far, far better movie than the recent Harry Potter snoozefest.
Gee Whiz! I think I just lost the respect of my new acquaintance DougC. How will I ever survive?
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- Baaa! Away, urchins! I suppose you’d object to me saying that every skunk stinks, unless I had lifted the tail of every last one. - DougC
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Well, you can get skunks’ scent glands removed. 
You’re bashing a media and its viewers based on some of its worst creations. That’d be like saying all movies suck based solely on the examples of porn/soft-core porn films and the crappiest sci-fi/fantasy films that are out there.
I kind of agree. Only about one of five anime titles is any good. Then again, I can say the same thing about movies, TV or … anything really.
Maybe you meant “Chicks In Skimpy Bikinis”? 
Wohoo, lets all play the generalization game! I have a couple…
Resolved: People interested in computer are pale, skinny geeks!
Resolved: All people interested in cars are ignorant redneck gearheads!
TV sucks!! I hate those smug, self-centred bastards on Friends. Radio sucks. Everything’s either trite kiddie-pop, trite punk-pop or trite rap-metal. Bah! And don’t get me started about books!! Fuck the mass-produced pablum of John Grisham and his unholy brethren. Movies? That’s a fucking joke. Fuck Ron Howard and his middle-brow wankage.
All celebrities are hereby invited to take a collective leap off a very high cliff. Except Nicole Kidman. Yum.
PS I really, really hate Friends
I always end up having to sit through an episode or two when visiting my best, er, friends. They’re good people, but own a Tivo–which is nifty technology, for something that encourages watching more tv. Friends is one of their inexplicable tastes.
I’ve realized something in my scattered exposure to the show. A few things, actually:
1: The series will never end until every permutation of each of the main characters fucking each other has played out. From what I’m told, the heterosexual pairings have been pretty much permuted through, so Hot Lesbian Sex™ is probably on the slate for coming seasons. That’s not a disturbing thing, just an observation on the show itself.
2: This is the point that’s always vaguely disturbed me, and I was only relatively recently able to put my finger on it. You know those spacious near-penthouse apartments that somehow the Friends afford rent on Starbucks wages? Nice places, right? But there’s something that just gave me a very bad vibe. A “something’s not right here” nagging warning twist in my guts. Then finally I realized: no bookshelves.
Chilling.
Oh, anime. Fandom of any stripe usually contains freaky elements. Not the genre’s fault.
Actually, the sad part is he’s probably seen a good deal of Anime. The problem is the fact that the vast majority of Anime is absolute crap, pumped out like a car on an assembly line. Very few people manage to find the really good Anime that’s out there, since it’s buried in a deluge of braindead bullshit.
That said, DougC, I would suggest finding a more down-to-Earth Anime fan - one who doesn’t get a boner when thinking about 12-year-olds in schoolgirl/sailor outfits - and find some nice suggestions of things to watch from him. And for Spam’s sake, stay the hell away from the shit that makes it onto the network TV channels here in the states!
See, that’s the thing, though. The same could be said about all facets of pop culture whether it’s TV, movies, music, etc. But, whereas we’re constantly bombarded by western pop culture, Anime is still very much on the fringes here. This makes it difficult to separate the wheat from the chaff. Actually, for me, part of the attraction is the thrill of finding the occasional hidden gem in a sea of crap. And anime at its best, e.g., Princess Mononoke, easily rivals or bests anything coming from Hollywood.
To give DougC some credit, some Otaku (anime geeks) can be downright creepy and are to be given a wide berth if you value your sanity.
Well, I’m a computer programmer and I’m a pale, fat geek.
So there goes that one.
I will agree with Buck the Diver, “skimpy chicks” would not be much of a draw. More people like to have abundant chicks around.
Anyway, chill, DougC. It’s just a media form, it can’t hurt ya.