Nice Comment about how anime has gone "down hill" over the years

[Khael!]

I think a mega giant part of the problem is that companies are capitalizing on the whole collectable game thing. It all started with Pokemon. That game rocked. Hell, even the tv show wasn't intolerable for the forst 150 animals. But then came Beyblades. And Yu-gi-oh. And B-daman. And that other shiddy show that I can't even learn the name of because I have to leave to vomit first. These shows are secondary to the actual product, just meant to make the item look substantial enough for kids to want it. All of it's designed to cash in as a sellout and then disappear like Pogs.

Unfortunately, this is the shit we have to weed through to get to all the real series. Someone has to kill these commercial Animes - they're making the whole genre seem so low brow. Preferably with a machete.

[katsielyonz]

Most of the crappy Anime that they're airing on TV is targetted to either preteen or a teen audience. Think of Thundercats or Sailor Moon. When I was young I loved these shows, but now that I watch them when I get older I want to stab my eyeballs out. Kids are more willing to watch cartoons in general than older adults and are more willing to spend money on those cartoons. As the anime market expands, it's expanding from a niche clientel to a much broader one, from a few well rounded people to kids.

I am glad they are showing series like Wolf's Rain and Full Metal Alchemist, but those are usually only shown late night. Most of the Anime I watch I get on my own.

[Khael!]

Yes! Yes, yes! And Sailor Moon was hugely edited from the Japanese version because of certain censor requirements! Which probably screwed up the entire series! (If I were a girl, I'd probably be brave enough to watch a copy of the original with subtitles.... :shifty: )

[Majin Darshe]

Originally Posted by Khael Almighty

I think a mega giant part of the problem is that companies are capitalizing on the whole collectable game thing. It all started with Pokemon. That game rocked. Hell, even the tv show wasn't intolerable for the forst 150 animals. But then came Beyblades. And Yu-gi-oh. And B-daman. And that other shiddy show that I can't even learn the name of because I have to leave to vomit first. These shows are secondary to the actual product, just meant to make the item look substantial enough for kids to want it. All of it's designed to cash in as a sellout and then disappear like Pogs.

Unfortunately, this is the shit we have to weed through to get to all the real series. Someone has to kill these commercial Animes - they're making the whole genre seem so low brow. Preferably with a machete.

I do believe that the popularity of anime based on card games has dropped rather sharply in the last few years, in the states at least. And it's not like Beyblades was EVER that popular in the US for more than a week, so I honestly don't think you have too much to worry about there.

[Khael!]

True, it wasn't. I must be hitting re-runs... I am sure I exaggerrated that - In my defence though, I have to put up with these phases of crappy anime products longer: I have a nine year old brother who's friends insist on watching the garbage. The funny thing is, after they went home, my brother commented in depth on how whatever-it-was show lacks good story or any amount of art quality.

A lot of the teen oriented shows seem to lack some tiny spark of true originality... until later on at night.

Man, I wish bleach would air earlier than 12:30 AM. It drives me bonkers that all the good anime is available through moneyful rent and buying! I don't have enough time to watch it what with homework, school, art, music and this site!

Princess Mononoke, now that was an awesome movie.

[Aerozord]

if I may point something out, it appears most of the 'crap anime' people are citing tend to be the ones that were highly editied like yu-gi-oh.

Anime itself is not targetted at the preteen crowd, some are but some aren't. Anime is targetted at ages from 6 to 30 to entire families. Major problem is the US steriotype that cartoons are for kids. So even if an anime is originally targetted at 20+ crowd, it will most likely be highly editted so it is acceptable for the 13- crowd. Oddly enough its the mainstream US culture that makes it so hard to get good anime on TV.

[Eltargrim]

A bit high on the age range, Aerozord, but I'd generally concur. Early-mid twenties sounds more reasonable.

All in all, I prefer the shorter, 1-to-2 season series more. The style of plot development in the longer series just doesn't appeal to me.

And then, of course, you have Haruhi, which is 14 episodes of pure, undiluted orgasm

EDIT: Khael, I definately agree with you. Are you, by chance, living in the Central time zone in Canada? All the decent anime goes on from 11:30-1:00 (I'm sorry if this offends anyone, but all shows before 11:30 have too many fucking episodes), plus Ghost in the Shell.

Also, Mononoke-hime is win and god.

[Khael!]

Wait, what? Yu-gi-oh was edited profanely too?? It looked like it had a hint of hope, and then catastrophe. It got censor-slapped!? Wow, I wasn't aware that the 'age category' for cartoons in Japan was so much broader than North America.

Yeah, I live in Ontario/Quebec. Eastern time zone I think. Orphen was a good series, and only two seasons like you were saying. Didn't like the art in the second one nearly as much, but I'm picky. The story for the second season was a bit slow too, but it finally pulled every elegant strand together right at the intense-oh-my-ghods-never-expected-THAT end. I highly recommend at least season one to you guys if you haven't seen it already.

[Eltargrim]

I'll have to keep that in mind.

Yu-gi-oh, not edited profanely? Give the developers some credit. It's just that not many people take that subgenre terribly seriously, so we didn't get the outcry like when One Piece was defiled.

Oh yeah, the age range is so much bigger. You think Ghost in the Shell or Elfin Lied are intended for 10-year-olds?

[Aerozord]

Originally Posted by Khael Almighty

Wait, what? Yu-gi-oh was edited profanely too?? It looked like it had a hint of hope, and then catastrophe. It got censor-slapped!? Wow, I wasn't aware that the 'age category' for cartoons in Japan was so much broader than North America.

Yeah, I live in Ontario/Quebec. Eastern time zone I think. Orphen was a good series, and only two seasons like you were saying. Didn't like the art in the second one nearly as much, but I'm picky. The story for the second season was a bit slow too, but it finally pulled every elegant strand together right at the intense-oh-my-ghods-never-expected-THAT end. I highly recommend at least season one to you guys if you haven't seen it already.

In yugioh they cut out the entire first season because they found it to be too violent. Basically in the first season Yugi just went around killing people or mentally torturing them to the point that they want to die. All the violence and sex was removed, nearly every card edited, not to mention the swearing and blood.

In fact the card game is actually pretty minor. They just cut out pretty much everything else. The show was originally about an evil 5000 year old spirit called yu-gi-oh (roughly translating into king of games). Everytime someone wronged Yugi the spirit took over and challenged them to a game. When they lose they suffer a penalty game. These range from being set on fire, ever lasting illusions, death, being cut off from sight and sound, being eaten alive, ect. Want to know what really happened when Kiaba lost? Yugi made all the monsters in his deck come to life and devour him, he then regenerated and they did it again and again. I think it lasted a month. He litterally went insane from the pain.

Unfortunately the show went from that to a show about happy friendship and playing cards. Truth is just about every time someone lost to Yugi they were dead, or wishing they were. One of my faorites was Yugi trapped someones soul in a jar where it was devoured for 3 months by 25 dragons untill it no longer existed.

Yu-gi-oh is meant for high school age group, not ten year olds. And now you know why we all hate 4kids