There are so many animé television series. Many are gems, but several just cannot maintain my interest or attention. I’ve noticed that after watching the first (infrequently the second) disc, I’ll decide to continue with or drop a series. Usually I get that feeling of Meh where I wind up finding the plots, characters or themes uninspired, annoying, or too traumatic for me to tolerate. Occasionally it’s an animation style that’s insipid or lackluster. (I tend to be a lot more tolerant of visual or auditory techniques in animation than I am of the actual content.)
Update: The Animé Blog, which I just stumbled upon today, published a thought-provoking article asking “What’s It Take For You To Drop An Anime?” Just to quickly spell out a few of my aversions, which are like alarm bells (rather than the aforementioned indifference towards the hackneyed, irritating or overly violent, which is more common):
- Excessive fan service. Especially when it becomes mean-spirited, too frequent, or no longer funny.
- The crazed sociopath personality. Bloodthirsty, lovin’ that torture, and screamin’ for more! Well, not for me. If that’s all there is to such a character, then they’re merely shallow and ultimately boring. And it usually crosses the “too much violence” line for me. Unsurprisingly, I abhor this particular set of traits in all media, whether in animation, films, books or comics.
- Repetition which doesn’t add value. Let’s repeat that fight scene, with either the same or different characters (e.g., Revolutionary Girl Utena, whose entirety I managed to wade through). Let’s repeat that argument or magical spell scene. Let’s repeat that AMAZING transform scene, complete with bad 1980s rock anthem or pseudo-opera soundtrack. Erm, let’s not.
- Incest (often between biological siblings) or rape portrayed as something deep, meaningful and romantic. (Such as Angel Sanctuary; argh, I heartily wish I didn’t bother watching all of the episodes, even if there were only three of them. My eyes still burn from the experience.) I might also add lolicon and shotacon, although to be honest I don’t think I’ve watched animé which featured those themes inordinately. Perhaps I’m unsophisticated here, and don’t appreciate the possibly fascinating cultural observations or metaphors involved when creators are so intent on focusing upon these particular sexual themes… But, hey, everyone has their limits, and this one makes my Revulso-Meter spike.
- Excessive propaganda, notably of the xenophobic variety. I don’t mind displays, dialog or topics that challenge my attitudes, my society; heck, sometimes it’s done well, and sometimes achieved hilariously. But again, some things do cross the line, by being too simplistic, or too narrow-minded. (Case in point, Kamichu! Teenage Goddess, wherein my jaw dropped several times in the manner of OMGWTF.) It doesn’t add merit, it’s just plain insulting.
The main point of this entry is to keep track, so as to avoid accidentally watching these again. I’ve left out even brief summaries or opinions, since I prefer to spend more of my time writing about animé series I do manage to complete.
Recently added, erm, dropped series are denoted with a (*).
- .hack/SIGN
- Angelic Layer
- Aquarian Age
- (*) Baccano!
- (*) Big O
- Bleach
- Blood+
- Blue Gender
- Blue Seed
- Elfen Lied
- Ergo Proxy
- Figure 17
- Galaxy Railways
- Ghost in the Machine: Stand Alone Complex
- Glass Fleet
- Green Legend Ran: Actually “feature”-length film based on the series; the recording I had lacked a menu and had only English dubbing (no subtitles).
- (*) Gurren Lagaan
- Inu-Yasha
- Kaze no Yojimbo
- Kujibiki Unbalance
- Kurau Phantom Memory
- Kyo Kara Maoh
- Madlax
- Magical Shopping Arcade Abenobashi
- Mars Daybreak
- Maison Ikkoku
- Nadia: Secret of the Blue Water
- Neon Genensis Evangelion
- Neo Ranga
- Ninja Nonsense: The Legend of Shinobu
- Noir
- Papuwa
- (*) Ragnarok: The Animation
- Red Garden
- Samurai Champloo
- s-CRY-ed
- Shadow Star Narutaru
- Shamanic Princess
- Sherlock Hound
- Shimoun (a.k.a., Simoun)
- Soultaker
- Speed Grapher
- Spiral
- Texhnolyze
- (*) Tweeny Witches
- Wolf’s Rain
- Yu Yu Hakusho
- Zaion
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