Year 2008, Astro added Animax to their list of shows. And my twin and I were so excited, we kept checking the tv everyday, hoping that we could start watching anime already. My first encounter with anime was Naruto,
Yeap, this one, was there any doubt it would be anything else?
I started with the anime, not the manga, and I'd have to thank my brother for introducing it to me, it really was that GOOD! So anyways, we finally got to watch animax, and it didn't matter what was one, we'd watch it first, then decide whether we liked it.
An accurate depiction (well not really cause we were bigger and had curly hair and stuff...)
And we did find a quite a few we liked, Law of Ueki, Ranma 1/2, Honey and Clover, Fullmetal Alchemist, Girl From Hell and so on (I watched Dragon Ball but we all know that doesn't count), you get the picture. It was like giving kids a ton of candy they've never tasted, sure they'll be happy, sure they'll hate some but then they'll find a couple they would really like. Same thing here. It carried on until I was in university with animes like Angel Beats, Clannad and Shangri-La. I also followed my old time favourite animes like Naruto, Bleach and even started watching Fairy Tail.
But then two things happened, going to university meant I couldn't really watch tv so the discovery aspect was gone and I started realizing a few key similarities between animes:
The popular ones are really, really, really long! Like reallllly LONG!!! (I would go on to emphasize how long it is but I actually care about my readers (not that I have any) and I last thing I want is people taking 500 frickin hours to read all the really's)
Unfortunately, the creators are not that understanding, I'm looking at you Bleach, Naruto and Fairy Tail.
Nope, if you think these faces are hard to remember, bad idea watching this anime, the guy introduces characters like he pours cereal into a bowl
Oh how naive and innocent they look, especially you sasuke, especially you... (sighs)
Little did I know those smiling faces were actually because of the hours I've wasted watching them, not that I hate them for it, I just got tired
"Look at that guy, he actually thinks things will get better"
"Look at how much he's watching our anime over choosing to sleep!"
"I pity the guy, he's waiting for a happy ending where there's no evil person threatening to destroy the world"
*group laughs*
1. They Are So Fricking Long
They were sooooo fricking long, and I didn't have the capacity to continue on watching (I really admire the fans that do though). Plus if I stop watching for a semester, I'd have a billion episodes to catch up on just to get back on track. And Fairy Tail's cliffhanger where they were all trapped in time and their guild deteriorated and they had to start over was the last straw. I just spent 50+ hours and you choose to start over?
2. There Is Always Someone Better
It's one thing when you get a villain that's stronger than you. It's another when they're always stronger than the main character, to ridiculous proportions. I get that he's the new villain and you want to introduce this thing where the audience will go like "omg how is he ever going to beat that >insert new antagonist name here<" But when you start adding characters that can just tear the planet apart you know you've gone to far! I mean realistically, if the main character manages to beat that antagonist, how can he not pat a person on the back without making a hole in it? Or he wouldn't be able to open doors without breaking them. SERIOUSLY?
The biggest offender so far, I hope no one tops him, for the fictional world's sake
Could they not think of another way to make the villain better than the protagonist besides making it a struggle of power?
3. The Main Character Manages To Beat So And So Because "WILLPOWER"
If you think never ending villains that could destroy the world were bad enough, imagine their disbelief when the main character's secret weapon was willpower. Yeap Cell, you got beaten by Gohan because he had "WILLPOWER" (and also because he apparently shouted louder than Cell did). The main character manages to defy all odds, broken bones? Don't matter, willpower fixes that. Bleeding head to toe? A drop of willpower and everything's better!
There has to be certain extents, and I just can't stand it when there are none. Like come on! You have some many other characters travelling with the protagonist that you could easily just use to make them triumphing over that more powerful enemy but the end must always be a power struggle between the main character and antagonist. ALWAYS!
4. The Main Character Is Somehow The Love Interest Of Every Girl
So after being done with all that too long and power struggle thingimajigs, I thought I'd settle for some short and sweet anime about life and not world domination. Stuff like Clannad and Angel Beats. Yea, those will be fine right? WRONG! After watching a few, I became like this:
Did all the girls HAVE to like the main character? Like is there seriously no one else you probably might like? That smart guy? The shy wallflower? The guy that actually cares about you? Nope, I only have my eyes set on that one guy! (a wonderful depiction of real life actually, I can't complain) But could you at least make it more believable? Cause if girls literally throw themselves at you (literally, for fan service) how come I don't have girlfriend yet? (shameless self promotion)
5. Filler Episodes And Fan Service
I get that its a thing in Japan and fan service is really welcome, but when you make an entire episode just for that, I'll just think you're running out of ideas. On top of that it makes me hate it more cause it makes the series longer and if I have to sit through half an hour of them "going to the beach", I might as well do something else, plus they also use it to show how all the girls seem to just swoon at the main character while he, doesn't have a clue about what's going on. (Sorry guys no memes on this one, I'd like to keep this post clean)
In the end though, this turns out to be more of a rant on how I want anime to have more content and not just reusing old formulas to come up with the next big series. I love anime and would love to watch some really good ones, the thing is there is a vast collection of anime and I don't have the time to dedicate to all of them to find good ones. And finding good ones ain't easy, it's easier finding good american tv series to watch online than it is finding anime. I did find a few I liked though like Fullmetal Alchemist, Shangri-La and Angel Beats as well as Girl From Hell to name a few.
As an end note, have a blast and keep watching anime, if you think it's really good, feel free to recommend it to me! =D
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