Why does anyone watch anime

[The Yugoslavian]

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Most of it is crap IMO but there is some good stuff out there, e.g. "Princess Mononoke."

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Are you serious or kidding?

In other words, do I have to go watch Princess Mononoke or do I need to get more sleep?

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Yugoslav

[astroglide]

because they're JAPANESE and ANIMATED. NO DOY.

who cares about content if you've got those boxes checked?

[Macdaddy Warsaw]

In general, Miyazaki films (Princess Mononoke is one of them) tend to be strong. I prefer Spirited Away, but both are very good.

Akira is also another fantastic anime movie.

In terms of series, Cowboy Bebop and Trigun are fantastic.

[Blarg]

A lot of people are drawn to it just because it's being non-American seems exotic, I think. A great deal is such crap that it's amazing anyone would really get into it at all, much less get into a sort of idolization of it.

But there is some that is really good. Animation has always been the place where imagination has the greatest chance to show itself off, and that alone makes me hopeful about anything animated -- there's a chance to see things there you can see nowhere else, and sometimes great creativity.

Some guys, like Miyazaki, are consistently very good, and his films are at least as good as anything Hollywood puts out, live or animated, and usually better. Then there's the rare thundering classic like Graveyard of the Fireflies, or really good series, like Full Metal Alchemist or Cowboy Bebop.

There's always great potential in animation, and anime can be much more artful and adult than the kiddie stuff it is in the U.S. Animation's potential is too big for the art form to be condemened to only entertain young children, as it's treated in America. I think it's the hope that it can be something better, and the knowledge that it occasionally IS something better, that keeps my interest up despite how terrible a lot of it is, and how happily so much of it inhabits the creative gutters.

After all, it's not as if the alternative -- live action -- doesn't generally stink too.

But I'm not on board for liking anything that's animated just because it's animated. 95% of everything is crap, and being animated doesn't make things that suck, suck any less.