I’ve noticed that a lot of the time the dub dumbs down the original dialogue and removes the nuances and allusions present in the original.
There are a number of threads on this board that you could review.
2011: Mature/Intelligent Anime
2010: Why is anime so popular in the West?
2012: What’s the Best Anime Series out there?
2010: I’ve read the manga, should I watch the anime?
2011: Recommend your favorite anime
2009:Looking for really good anime
I noticed the older threads tend to be more movie-heavy, probably because older TV anime isn’t as good. There are also more misses among the recommendations in these threads, IHMO:
2004: I’m looking for anime!
2002: Anime suggestions for near first time viewer. Despite the promising thread title a lot of the stuff mentioned is pre-1995 and not as good IMHO. Then again, I haven’t gotten around to watching most of it: I’ve never seen Maccros, Robotech, Gaiking, Dangard Ace (Planetary Robot Dangard Ace), Starvengers (Getter Robo G), Grandizer (UFO Robot Grendizer), Spaceketeers (Starzinger), Battle Of The Planets or even Gundam. Though I’m guessing that most of those from ed’s list are of the mecha varietal.
There’s a couple of new things out you may not have heard of:
The Internet Movie Database Don’t let the name fool ya. It has TV shows, too.
Amazon.com A huge on-line shopping service, where you may literally finde everything from soup-to-nuts.
The underlined words with the blue font are links; you may click (or double-click) on them to be taken to these new, interesting websites. The IMDB, being a database, is searchable; you type in the name of the actor or show you are interested in learning about, hit enter, and the information is displayed on your computer monitor.
Seriously, Cowboy Bebop original release is on a six-disk set, called “sessions,” numbered 1 thru 6.
It was re-released as a complete boxed set called “Remix.”
Then there’s the movie, “Stairway to Heaven,” that takes place bewteen eps. 22 & 23. The movie is not necessary to the series continuity, and may be skipped. It’s alright in and of itself.
I’m in basically the same boat as the OP, not a huge fan but certainly receptive. There’s some really good stuff out there.
I definitely agree with this. I think this may be the kind of series that a lot of North American consumers have seen and get their ideas of “what anime is like” from.
Oh, it started earlier than that. I was born in '66, so did most of my cartoon watching in the '70s. Even as a kid, watching shows like Superfriends, it dawned on me that the “good guys” were always fighting exactly the same “bad guys”. Not only that, but the good guys group seemed to exist purely to stop this specific group of bad guys, while the bad guys entire purpose seemed to be, not trying to take over the world or get rich, but trying to kill these specific good guys. I didn’t know the term “circular argument” when I was a kid, but I sure recognized it.
Really, I think the appeal of anime and the following improvement in American cartoons was rooted in the same change that happened to comic books. Simply put, the adult creators thought kids were too stupid to follow along across multiple issues/episodes. When comic books were new, the adults making them figured, “this is for kids”, and didn’t follow any kind of continuity. So stories would completely contradict other stories that had been published earlier, characters would have specific superpowers in one issue that were never seen again, peripheral characters’ names would change for no apparent reason. But who cares, kids will never notice. Except they did. Years later DC and Marvel (but mostly DC, since they’d been around much longer) were forced to straighten out continuity and try to plausibly explain away contradictions, which is what led to DC’s whole “multiple Earths” mess that they tried to clean up in the 1980s.
The Harry Potter books are another example of adult “experts” thinking they understand kids when they really don’t. According to a Cracked.com article:
I like good animation.
I’ve yet to see Japanese animation I’d consider good.
Bingo, this is me. I’ll also add: Lots of gasps. Shivering sweat. Open mouths with no teeth. Only three facial expressions. Running with their arms out sideways. Shitty pacing. No comic timing. Obsession with giant robots, monsters with tentacles, and small spaceships that fit together into a bigger spaceship.
If it only had one or two things I didn’t like I could get past it and enjoy it for what it is. But as there is almost nothing for me to like AT ALL, then they can all just bugger off.
Well that’s reasonable, as network TV shows typically didn’t have much cross-episode continuity. Soap operas were the exception that proves the rule: they invariably had long segments where the characters would stare off in space and give an awkward narration of what has happened. Anime doesn’t do that, except sometimes during a single recap episode preceding the finale, which may occur after multiple seasons. They figure that their audience can work things out on their own.
Drama is about change. TV is about things staying the same. So the relationship between the different characters is typically reset at the end of each US TV episode.
Once you permit cross-episode continuity then you have access to such innovations as beginning, middle and end. It’s really ok if a show you like ends or if your favorite character dies. You see, just because the character is offed doesn’t mean that the creators can’t make another show you like.
Anyway what I’m trying to say is that my point of comparison isn’t He-Man and the Masters of the Universe. It’s your typical TV sitcom. For me -and this is a personal preference- I find even the good ones somewhat tiresome. What character development exists is a matter of millimeters or occasionally a twist between whole seasons.
Here’s a decent example. Spice and Wolf. Yeah, the main character’s eyes are large: it’s thought to be expressive. Deal with it. The show is about the adventures of a young medieval merchant and the once local goddess who he escorts back to her old homeland. The show touches on medieval economics, religious and guild politics and of course an emerging romance. I’d watch maybe 4 episodes at a time: in between DVD rentals it gave me things to think about because, you know, the plot advanced and I could reasonably wonder what would happen next. More generally I tried to work out how the heroine could be so bitchy yet somehow attractive at the same time. Not my favorite show actually, but one I liked.
One of the happy conveniences of being an adult is that we don’t have to “deal with” something we don’t like. We can just call it crap and write it off.
“Crocodile” Dundee: “Oh, yeah—I remember television from way back. I saw it at a buddy’s house one time.”
[turns on the set and sees an “oldies re-run” of an “I Love Lucy” show pop up on the screen]
“Yup…that’s what I saw that time.”
[turns TV off]
I’d like to back peddle a bit, because I agree with your point. Like I said upthread, both Hollywood and Japan have odd conventions. I can’t really say that the latter are better as a whole, only that I overdosed on the former long ago. I’m the odd egg here, which is ok: Hollywood’s formulas are astonishingly successful. I confess that I suspect that if I was born in Japan I’d get sick of their stuff after a while and look abroad. Sort of embarrassing, really.
Like GuanoLad said there’s a lot to adapt to when watching a work from a land with different traditions. But for me that’s what gives it a jolt. Wiring.
Since I have the podium, I’ll note that I can’t comment on Bryan Ekers’ criticism of Japanese animation in post 26, as I don’t know what he considers good animation. Cinderella? The Simpson’s? Wallace and Grommit? All have their strong points (and I’m fond of the latter 2) but their virtues are pretty diverse.
Well, my specific objections with the uniform style of Japanimation (as I still enjoy calling it) as it generally finds its way to the west have already been touched on by other users - lousy movement, on-off mouth syncing (i.e. “talking” being just rapidly alternating between character-mouth-open and character-mouth-closed), starkly limited character design…
I’m fully prepared to buy that other styles exist in Japan and are simply not being exported, but so far it’s like I can pick a random Japanese toon from 2005 and another random Japanese toon from 1994 and the characters will look and move identically, albeit one might have green hair and one might have blue hair.
Plus there’s way too much sheer incomprehensibility, but I’m willing to write that off as 30 years of consistently poor translation. I guess that’s really the turn-off for me, since I’m okay with even poor animation if the writing is good. If one were to update The Real Ghostbusters, for example, I’d say fix the (Japanese-influenced) animation but for the most part, leave the scripts alone except to excise Slimer with extreme prejudice.
Well, here’s one from 2004 and one from 1995. How’s that for ya…? Hey! And no blue hair, even! 
To everyone who says all japanese animation looks the same:
modestmango: im sorry but when people say all... - Tumbl'n with Kt
I seem to have been a fan of Japanese Animation when I was between three and seven years old, as I have strong memories of Gigantor and Speed Racer on the TV during the ‘60s.
I was very young when I saw Speed Racer so I didn’t understand at the time what I found off-putting. Now I recognize it as aspects of Japanese animation style.
Because most people are quick to judge, see one or two things from a huge pool of material, pick on a couple of similarities than they don’t like, and write off the entire medium (MEDIUM. Not Genre. Japanese Animation spans just about every genre you can imagine and some that you probably can’t.)
I think all the suggestions that “it all looks the same” have been refuted by now without me needing to contribute any examples.
also, super kudos to Ranchoth for an extremely deft Crocodile Dundee reference. 
Point of order – The animated movie “Akira” (1988) was dubbed first and drawn afterwards, indeed adjusting mouth movements to the pre-recorded soundtrack. Some post-1987 or so Japanese animated works have gone this way, others haven’t (most likely due to budget considerations).
There is a lot of variety in the art styles and the genres of anime. Someone who says they dislike anime across the board has probably never been exposed to much of it or maybe they are not open to giving ANY animated material, that is outside the mainstream, a chance.
Really? Someone says they want to know some good animes the start with and *this *is how you respond?
Apparently so.