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Why do you watch anime?
I watch it purely for the visuals. I love the look of good animation. Here's a collection of awesome scenes.
I watch it purely for the visuals. I love the look of good animation. Here's a collection of awesome scenes.
For the art.
Not necessarily for the still art or designs, though those are usually very good, but for the art of animation itself. If a scene is animated well enough, you don't even need words to complete a scene. And because animation is not reality, you can put more meaning and expression into a movement or expression.
Another thing about Anime is that it is very likely to have an excellent soundtrack, and I am very much a lover of music. There is just something amazing about Japanese music - it has its own "accent" on the language. And they also seem to explore and experiment with music more than Western composers do. Yuki Kajiura in particular somehow manages to fill her music with so much intent and meaning.
It's hard to believe it if you know me, but fantasy and science fiction are actually my favorite genres. But at the same time I hate the most common stuff in circulation - it seems everyone is just writing trope-filled stories by the numbers. And to be fair, that describes plenty of anime as well. It just seems that the better written gems seem to show up more regularly in Anime than anywhere else. The best example of what I am looking for is Violet Evergarden. It's in an SF/fantasy world, but the stories are all about the people who inhabit it. That's what I really want from these genres.
Anime is kinda like music or film: vast enough that it’s weird not to like at least some of it. There’s something for everyone.
Mostly because it's accessable and a lot of people are talking about it already. Also it's half an hour an episode, and when something catches my eye once a season, I'm only committed to 12 episodes and then I get some sort of ending, compared to the western style of seasons and renewals.
I watch anime because to me it's just another medium for us to consume a good story. As well the variety of emotions it can bring out of me. The anime movie A Silent Voice brought out some serious tears from me. I would put it at the same level as that one episode from The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, about Will's father. I feel like anime for a lot can be a way to relieve stress too. When the real world gives us a hard time we can relieve stress as we watch our favorite protagonist succeed, at least for myself that's true.
Hmmmm, this is an interesting question. For the same reason I watch anything? If the story looks good to me, the visuals look good to me, the music sounds good to me, and I find myself wanting to know more, then I'd probably watch it.
Anime in particular appeals to me because of the format: I like opening/endings (those 1:30 min credits and random montages at the start and end of every episode) . They're like little mini-promises where you get to see what kind of show the creators want to present and their level of animation skill. I like that there's an expectation that every anime needs to distill itself into 1:30 mins of style over substance. I usually decide whether to keep watching an anime on the basis of openings.
I like them more than trailers for reasons I'm not quite sure of yet. They're something that hasn't caught on in other media i've seen, at least not the way anime does it.
I have gotten to appreciate openings and endings for similar reasons too, but I will push back on the 'style over substance' premise. I think, for the best shows, you often can't really appreciate how good a job they've done with those sequences until you've watched the entire series and can then uncover additional layers of meaning in their details, or recognize how an opening that might seem an underwhelming advertisement at first watch might be perfectly apt in hindsight.
Don't watch the second video past the first three minutes if you have any interest in watching LotGH.
I agree with this absolutely! Apologies, now that I re-read my post, "style over substance" was the wrong term to use. I think I meant "a more stylized presentation of the anime as whole as compared to the meat of the episode".
I love that moment where little things in the opening/ending "click" for the viewer and especially when they make an effort to truly integrate it with the changes as the story goes on.
LotGH, Death Parade, and Cowboy Bebob.... those are all beautiful shows, although I never did get to finish LotGH. Mini shoutout to Baccano/Durarara as well for a more straightforward example of openings with interesting presentation.
Thanks for pointing this out and sharing some links. Thinking of picking up LotGH now while I'm in quarantine.
Along with what others have said, I really like that it's only ~20 minutes per episodes. I find that the 20 minute limitation per episodes has a pretty big effect on a show's pacing. I'm starting to see more and more live shows with that running time and I think it's great.
I'm going to provide a different opinion here and say that I mostly watch it because of the variety in settings and stories; and the interesting and crazy premises that one can find; I don't actually care about the animation part, in fact I'd rather have this stories as an English-spoken live series with real actors... but I guess making anime is just cheaper and it enables studios to make wild creations that would otherwise not be feasible.
For me it's largely because there is typically a lot more depth and diversity available in anime than western animated shows/movies. I also absolutely love scifi and fantasy, but live action shows/movies in those genres aren't as common as I'd like, probably due to the cost involved in making them, but I can always get my fill of them in anime due to their popularity in that medium. And finally, much like yourself, I really appreciate the artistry and aesthetics of anime, which is why I also enjoy graphic novels and manga as well. So there is much to love about anime, IMO. :)
I can see that. Anime is more creator bound, so while you get a lot more variety in quality, there are a lot more unique shows as well, which you just don't see in the modern era of prestige TV in the US.
Quoting a post of mine from a few months ago:
To be honest, this is also why I don't watch anime. I used a tracker some time ago and found that I have apparently watched 1% of all the titles in MAL's database. I'm very picky with what I decide to watch - I'm open to anything but I do a lot of research beforehand. I've taken more than a few gambles, on others' recommendation, that I didn't gain much by watching and I wouldn't have missed much by skipping. This tells me that literally 99% of anime is likely not worth my time.
That's a lot of anime. What did you like so much about Cowboy Bebop? The movement is very fluid.
I mean, what can I say about it that hasn't already been said? So many film references, so much subtlety in the details, such humanity in the storytelling, and so marvelously scored. The fight choreography is excellent, the voice acting is stellar, the world is richly fleshed out, the direction is stylish without going overboard. But it's more than the sum of its parts, and when you learn about the production process it makes sense. They did take something of a 'jam session' approach at times, and that synergy shines through in the final product. It's a show that has a definite, distinct voice, knows at all times what it wants to do, and delivers in spades.
Honestly, by this point I half wonder if I'm watching more to have something to practice some writing with than actually for enjoying the shows. I keep finding myself just not caring as much about the shows, and getting tired of seeing the same tropes and cliches over and over again and getting frustrated at short seasons that force the story to be rushed. But I'm enjoying writing about the shows afterward more. Maybe I should give anime a break for a season and just try some creative writing again, though I'd probably still miss the regularity of watching something weekly and go back to watching anime.
I've always loved the aesthetic/style of most anime and manga (don't even really care about any other styles, honestly), so I was immediately sold when I watched the Pokémon and Mega Man Battle Network (also huge MM fan) anime as a kid.
Didn't know that anime was actually a thing though, I just immediately picked out the style when I first saw it and was like "whoa, this is infinitely better than your average American cartoon". Eventually when I was like 11 or 12 I discovered it formally this time and decided to start watching stuff, been hooked on it ever since and never really changed (I'm 21 now).
I also never really engaged with live action media like most people do, so I have all the more focus on anime.
Anyhow, beyond that, I also love a lot of the general tropes in the medium (from the fanservice to the exaggerated expressions and stuff), the overall atmosphere, the variety of genres and styles, characters and stories tend to be great as well, etc. Also grew a huge love of Japanese music (well, more specifically j-pop and j-rock for the most part) through anime OPs and EDs.
Yeah, I love pretty much everything about it. Not to say that there aren't anime I dislike (there are a couple I have a deep seated hatred for), but like at least 95% I find really great.