Winter 2011 Anime “Least Original Ever” “Just Rehashes”
- Categories: Anime, News
- Date: Jan 10, 2011 18:59 JST
- Tags: Character Design, Comparison, Freezing, Infinite Stratos, Oppai, Otaku, Yumekui Merry
Anime fans are complaining that the latest season of anime comprises little more than a series of painfully derivative rehashes of overworked themes coupled with rigid adherence to genre templates.
The diagram below accuses Gosick, Infinite Stratos, Freezing and Merry of being rehashes based on three near identical elements – “a harsh heroine, lame protagonist, and a school setting”:
Other disgruntled anime fans complain that all anime of any quality now merely focus on the “three pillars” of anime – “battle, romance and school.”
Fans unkindly speculate that the popularity of these inescapable elements is based on “a need to compensate for miserable otaku childhoods.”
Add to this “moeblob,” “slice of life” and “incest” and a fairly complete picture of contemporary anime is arrived at (a few other equally staid tertiary genres, such as mahou shoujo, mecha and harem also continue to be regurgitated).
Whatever their exasperation at being endlessly presented with the same formulaic drivel season after season, unfortunately it seems few fans actually bother to buy anything original when it does get made, rather suggesting a significant portion of anime fans may merely be reluctant to admit their endless hunger for schoolgirl dating fantasies and imouto fetish material.
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“a need to compensate for miserable otaku childhoods.”
Oh C'mon you fans, I had a cool and nice childood, yet, I like to watch animes with those elements.
Anyways, the same kind of shounen animes always have something in common.
Don't brag some of us (points to self) had miserable otaku childhoods. Growing up was hell and damaged me for life.
Cuz featuring about aging heroines, balding protagonists in a working reality is much better what we have now......pffff
...and this is why I don't watch newer anime.
making something better or more realistic than repetitive, boring reality doesn't mean creating something different that repeats itself into infinity.
Darkrockslizer, if it was realistic, it would be boring as hell.
Better--- as in a more varied mixture of the basic elements, would be welcome.
If moeblobs, harems, and incest animes sell, then what's a commercial company going to do? Make more of what sells. Until anime fans start making mega-successes out of the "non-mainstream" "cookie cutter" animes, the market isn't going to change.
I do have to admit, it gets very repetitive & they don't really try hard enough to make anything all that original imo...
I do not however agree with that disgraceful statement about why that may be however...miserable otaku childhood, fucking idiots...
If you have enough nerve to self-commiserate in a public comment and enough money to actually afford an otaku childhood, you're just a spoiled brat. (and he wasn't bragging)
I think you're the only one who imagines that otaku childhood means anime and gunpla, that's relatively rich nerd childhood. I and probably others understand otaku childhood as series of events that turn one into a shutin, something that I've just recently started to get over thanks to my love for cars and actually driving one which forces me to interact with people on the road, in gas stations, various stores and so on. I have even befriended two of my neighbors. And despite all that I have started watching and liking even more anime than before (I only discovered the fun in Initial D and Wangan Midnight around the time I started learning to drive) and my fear and distrust for people I don't know has decreased only a little and probably thanks to the fact that I'm now a bit more self confident and armed with pepper spray (more effective deterrents are illegal here).
Dang, wanted to refute you but ended up talking about myself, anyhow, otaku childhood is nothing nice and I still haven't fully gotten over it, and probably even if i ever do I'll keep on watching anime.
Once an otaku, always one.
Are you talking otaku as in Japanese usage or otaku in "Western" usage--- as that means "nerd (anime)" outsside Japan. Nerd upbringing can be good or miserable, just like anything else. But I don't see how a CHILD in Japan can really be an ANIME OTAKU. Unless their parents support them doing it, they aren't going to have any money to be a true otaku (collecting all the extras, going to see the voice talent and the creation talents, etc). So I would think anime otaku doesn't start until one is working to have the money to then start collecting all the otaku aimed stuff.
Doesn't mean they can't wish they could, but if you don't have the money, I just don't see how you could live the associated lifestyle. It isn't like being a train otaku, where you just need a camera and a train pass to go spotting.
Agreed... I had one hell of a childhood cuz I liked anime back when America was still looking at anime and going "WTF is this shit?"
Don't drag down that fictional male protag in GOTHIC (aint writing that lame ARSE "correct" title) as I like to point out that he climbed up something like 20 TWENTY 20 floors almost on a daily routine!
_
When I was younger I visited a Lighthouse and climbed to the top. I had to stop halfway, because -most likely(I delude myself)- I've been walking for hours before I got there. That was at best 6 stories! And I only did it ONCE
_
The only lame asses here are all the 2ch otakus who's only exercise is Right arm jerking, and finger smashings on keyboards to get their fictional dream girl of questionable age to "climax"~
good point. none of the heroes in these stories are really lame, well I haven't seen freezing yet. Infinite stratos is more like a copy of that tenchi muyo oda about his little brother. It's more closely related to original harem comedy not the types made from "this loser is you" heroes. They where originally about a hero who happens to be one of the worlds greatest warriors and often happen to be a prince or from some special lineage. Originally, harem comedy was about a hero with status and skill, the kinda person who would have women swarming after them in real life, who happens to want a normal life. This is what it is.
Side note: chances are if you think something is original it is just unfamiliar to you. original things can suck to so just make it interesting even if it's familiar.
Actually, some of the far more interesting series are just rehashes of a story format. Naruto, One Piece, and Bleach all have elements of DragonBall Z, (the fight-happy protagonist, anyone), but its what they do DIFFERENTLY that makes them stand out. It's not that the Winter 2011 anime season is the "least original", it just has a lightly lower range in quality of animes from the prior seasons. Honestly, I'd expect this with all the crap that's happened with the anti-otaku bill, because companies are trying to make the "safest profit" rather than going out of their way to spend mass amounts of money when a dry spell of spending could be immanent, and, if you look at the gaming industry, a "safe profit" is a product that has the biggest market, even at the cost of originality.
Same here Kyon. I don't pity these slovenly, pathetic Otaku though. It's their own fault they are penniless virgin wretches with no life.
They just need to snap the **** out of it and realize everyone has hard times, not just them.
That being said, the new episode cracked me up. Gachi pink is a tubby one, ain't she?
I'm getting sick and tired of people saying these are just copies of other anime. The anime/movie industry is running out of ideas so of course they'd be in school life, a certain heroine, lame protagonist, blah blah blah; I don't care if u say I'm trolling I still say these anime are A-OKAY every genre has already been done so you can't blame them blame urself for blaming them. I only have one thing to say its those anti-anime/manga people doing all this saying its already done trying to worsen anime/manga.
I really do not believe for an instant that people are running out of ideas. I just think that the power$ that be would rather play it safe by making simulacrum of previous successful shows.
I keep looking back to what brought me into anime. Inspired works like Cowboy Bebop were written with inspiration and courage.
I look at Eva. See, people flock and fap to the latest sexy little thing in the latest anime, but the fine ladies from Eva are timeless. And it really isn't about them it's about the story that they helped to shape. That quality is why they are timeless.
No amount of cheap pantsu can get close to the sheer quality of the inspired old shows.
We need new writers who are inspired! Catering to the lowest common denominator will just continue to push the entire genre deeper and deeper into a niche until it's no longer able to sustain itself!
Omg, Anonymous for once speaks the truth!
Is this the end of the world?
Well if we were to consider the state of the manga industry in Japan as it currently is (at least in Tokyo), then yes the end of the world is coming.
Inspiration + Originality != Quality
Everything is fine for me, if anime/manga producers keep doing the stuff they like to do.
...and it's that exact attitude, the 'It hardens my dick so it's coo' attitude that has lead to this.
We had Panty & Stocking as an inspired show this week. They got al the cliches possible (moe girl, lame protagonist, panty shots, highschool queens etc etc etc) and pulled them beyond the impossible.
I thought that its courage is why this show has NOT appeared in any "best of" list of 2010.
Too bad Ishithara gonna ban even anime on the level of Eva (gore, blood, unstable teens, seducing plugsuits?? BANHAMMER!!), so...yea.
Okay,
who needs originality as long as it is good
that sort of thinking made world cries
It is easy to see WHY these animes are popular. Anime industry is playing to its audience. It's audience is giving them money for that attention. When the audience supports something different, more different things will be made.
Most anime is aimed at the school aged or just out of school (hence, SCHOOL is dominant), the shy or less confident (hence, why the male protags are so wimpy and lack confidence) and the lonely or less experienced (hence, harem).
Anime is an escape, and most are just offering an easy and well trampled path--- being important/special, surrounded by many beautiful girls, and a better or more interesting life than the viewers.
It sounds like you would prefer more storytelling centered animes and less common fantasy escapism.
So, some are starting to get bored of these three genres.
I think it's not the genre themselves that are bad, just that the anime companies don't make any effort to get out of the pre-established formula. It's possible to make something that stands out using the same previous elements, but they just think they can get people with the same generic thing.
just make a Jojo manga already
All these from one episode.
Whoever these people are they sure have a heck load of insight.
yeah. just beeing said, if you look at merry, less than a minute of the episode was in school. gosick had also less than two minutes of time in the classroom, and you cant really call a garden that used to be the "love room" of a former king of that country up in the library "school".
I am seriously "wat." here. Especially about Gosick.
school life genre to me is like rice or potatoes, seen all the time, but never getting sick of it
I'm the other way around.
Once I've seen the SAME basic plot, I can't stand watching it again. I get bothered by how similar it is.
Whoa, someone (anime fans?) complaining about "battle, romance and school" scheme? Thats something new.
Maybe finally they will produce something appealing to others, not only hardcore otaku.
(my advice: just double noitaminA slot)
This is a totally useless post. No sources, and examples of only the first episode from each series, etc.
Also, older anime fans may have seen all this stuff before, but there are also newer fans. I'm sure anime fans transitioning from the 80s to the 90s also experienced an "overload."
Yep, how many mecha animes were there about a group of kids riding robots to combat aliens back in the 70-90's? Hard to count. The only difference are back then people just watched and enjoyed almost every shows as usual.... plus there were no internet and that much stuff where people think they can roleplay as Nostalgia Critic, Ramsey or Cowell.
An anime's genre is defined even before said anime airs. The post just reports an ongoing critique of anime rehashing the same old genres and, even more notably, the same "features", like a harsh female and apparently useless male (who will probably kick ass in an anticlimactic manner later on in the show).
These are all facts, antithetic to what is most desirable in any work of art: originality, personality, depth.
Tertiary, Macross? Fuck off, weaboos and whiners.
and?
i'm still waiting for a REAL complaint.
What has been will be again,
what has been done will be done again;
there is nothing new under the sun. -Ecclesiastes 1:9
Associating a deep religious metaphor to a seasonal creative business... brilliant.
“Originality is the one thing which unoriginal minds cannot feel the use of.” J.S.Mill
if that was really true we would still be using horses as transportation.
what makes you believe that people STILL don't use horses as transportation lol.
It's because of these complaints that Japanese entertainment will be destroyed by 21 December 2012. LOL
I don't mind as long as the storyline isn't "exactly" the same. These are the things that make up an anime, or any story actually. You can address these very same complaints to the hollywood movies as well.
And if they want to see a "better" anime, why don't they come up with one themselves? I can't see how it can get any better tbh.
I plan to follow all 4 anime in the pic above.
I always wonder "what if you put a male protagonist on strike witches?" and voila, there goes Infinite Stratos. At least we're not going to see a close up of Ichika flying around wearing shimapan~
i'm totally ok with it. sometimes it's best to stick with what you know and don't put you nose in to the unexplored. watched first episode of IS and it's good nothing new but nothing is wrong too.
They forgot the fourth pillar: game and toy merchandising tie-ins.
If you start comparing with prominent past animes then there is no way they can beat that. Look it as it is and it does shine by itself. And yet again judging with just 1 episode will be the worst evaluation ever.
Those three elements are all good but the lame male leads point is true enough.
Originality is overrated, execution is underrated.
I will take a cliché-filled mecha, harem or battle anime with good story/characters/animation any day in the week over a oh so original anime with crappy story and uninteresting characters.
ps. If I judged Evangelion from only it's first episode, I'd say that Eva also looked like your generic mecha anime... and oh so wrong I would've been.
That doesn't count cause Evangelion was one of THE mecha animes that set the genre.
If you think Evangelion was about Mecha then you missed the point.
he said "if i judged from the first episode". because thats what the ones talking about "leats original anime season" are doing right now. what anime can you judge by its first episode? less than 10% of anime can be judged just by its first epsode. iron man (its bad and you can see that right in the ifrst episode), code geass (you can see the greatness ight in the first episode), are few examples. but most juts CANT be judged from their first episode!
Originality =/= Good Show
You can come up with the most original idea no mankind have ever think off in all human history but if you give it to a director who's going to butcher the balance, turn all the supposed-to-be-great characters into lifeless moving objects, turn the full motion animation into boring slideshows; it'll still end up as a trainwreck.
You can always tell when someone's IQ is around 100 when they cannot fathom that there is no such thing as "originality". The concept of "originality" goes hand in hand with "ignorance". If you think something is original, then you are merely showing your ignorance to what came before. As they say, ignorance is bliss.
...although, having 100 IQ isn't that bad. It is, afterall, the average IQ. The problem I have with it is I have to endure people's endless need to complain about a "lack" of originality.
My above comment wan't directed at Anon 19:36's comment per se, as the comment shows your intelligence is already above the average person by noticing that something is off with "originality". My comment was just in addendum.
You are way too hung up on intelligence, man.