This stuff really pi55es me off...

[Sherman Gill]

Don't be that way, babe (That's your new nickname ). He hates anime because it's pretty much the equivalent of inbred mutant rednecks, only it's a lot more popular.

[ndchristie]

the main reason he hates anime is legitimate, it's because it is most often barely animated (select works aside).  Most of the expressions and characters are stock poses and often multiple characters will share mouths, eyes, etc.  Usually when a character is talking, only the "mouth" moves!  Most of the oldies he's bringing up are much more interesting than that.  Still, he oversimplifies (it's a blog, not a novel!) in ways that might put people off......

as for colors, his annoyance is more with the indecisive rainbow vomit that can be put out.  even the Flintstones used quite a bit of purple.

my big trouble with his work is that many of the expressions he presents are unreadable, so i can't always see his point about the "acting" as it comes across in his examples.  He is better off sticking to using others.

[Froli]

Man, I dunno, I'm not very fond of JohnK's blog. He just disses about everything I like and tops it off with 'Flintstones is the only good show there ever was' kind of opinions.

Can someone please explain why I should try to wrap my head against this guy, me, who totally loves anime, pastel colours etc.?

.. And I absolutely loathe the flintstones

He admitted that the use of color palette/theory in anime is superior than how western cartoonist apply them. And as for his critics in Anime, there are still some exceptions like Gurren lagann or flcl etc..

I guess it's about being flexible. You can do both anime and theoretically correct human anatomy or proper animation.. Hell, I guess you can even merge all this stuff if you want to <easier said than done though>. But to me, it all boils down on doing what you love.

[sharprm]

Hope im not dragging things too OffT, but has anyone seen meet the Robinson's. When I was watching it, I found all their arm movements nausiating, they fling them around for no good reason. And when she picked up the baby it should have been really tender movements but it just looked clumsy. After reading that guys blog, think im more aware of how important poses are for animation.

Maybe the attack animation would benefit from stronger key frames.

[Helm]

Anime isn't all bad obviously. There's people innovating in that artistic field like anywhere else they just do it - as usual - against the grain. It's the 'churn them out we have a schedule to keep' anime that makes the whole field look bad. One should watch Mindgame, Cat Soup and such to see extremely innovative uses of animation in japan, they shouldn't only watch giant robots have sex with each other like most anime.

My problem with anime isn't so much with its animation as it is with the typified aesthetics of 'coolness' that they're spreading. In the end my problem is more with people - especially young artists - that buy into that sort of thing and end up drawing robots having sex with each other on deviant art to get 'favourited' for 10 years of their life instead of legitimately trying to become better for the own esoteric ambition. So it's not like if we eradicated anime it would be better since there'd be something else equally vacuous to fill its place.

[Jad]

Umm, yeah, well, about JohnK, I like what he writes, but then he posts pictures of disney characters while saying "These expressions aren't even remotely representing human emotions"

and I'm like, ok, I still think they do but sure, cool, I'm listening.

And then he posts some hideous oldamericanscreamonthetopofyourlungs/hanna barbera twisted garbled mess of a picture with a mind-bending posture and a face that I can't make out.

And then I kinda don't get it. Which is sad because the man knows how to put your thoughts down into text. I wish I shared most of it with him.


About anime, well, um, I think the average quality of anime is downright worthless, but hey, you've gotta be selective about that shit. (: I mean, evangelion is one of the reasons why japanese limited animation is not really a stinking piece of shit. And shows like ouran high school host club are just so well done that even if you hate the aesthetic, you can SEE that it's well made. (I happen to love it like a little girl, though, I don't know what's into me)

But Helm's point totally stands, though I think that most of these kids eventually learn how to think for themselves. It's more of a problem with people than a problem with anime.

Which is just what you said anyway :O

[big brother]

The biggest strike against the Disney characters is their bland, generic design and poor construction. The expressions are obviously not a conclusion from the study of an actual human but from an adaption of another cartoon interpretation. For instance, in Disney/Pixar/Dreamworks cartoons, you will see the artists use squash/stretch on the eyes and mouth, rather than refer to a real and specific expression (see caricature). Ironically, these are the high-budget, feature-length productions, but you can see a lot more creativity and artistic expertise in some of the uber-cheap Hanna-Barbara cartoons.

[Faktablad]

There's people innovating in that artistic field like anywhere else they just do it - as usual - against the grain. It's the 'churn them out we have a schedule to keep' anime that makes the whole field look bad.

I'm finding that to be true about any area of art.  (It's the same way in music:  for example, I generally disliked country music until I discovered that the majority of the country music I've been hearing is processed and formulaic.)  When a lot of love and commitment goes into creation, that's when you get works of art that really shine, and are beautiful, no matter what the type or style.  But any type of art and music that is commercially-driven with no artistic ingenuity or effort turns out to be soulless.

[Helm]

hm I'd say it's to be expected that like, 90% of what one is exposed to from a type of art is crap, 9% of that is worthwhile and 1% amazing. From the anime I've been exposed to (and it's been plenty, as I studied cartoons, comics and animation at school) it's more like 98% was worthles, 1.9% was worthwhile and 0.1% was excellent. It's that sort of percentile difference that makes me dislike anime more than I dislike other sorts of animation. Akira and Grave of the Fireflies and Cat Soup and whatnot are seriously islands in the ocean of feces that is churned out of studios there daily. The reason is simple: for them animation is a much more popular and wide-spread medium than for westerners. There's niche anime for everybody, literally millions of viewers. Most of them are idiots, and idiotic art suits them fine.

[Jad]

hm I'd say it's to be expected that like, 90% of what one is exposed to from a type of art is crap, 9% of that is worthwhile and 1% amazing. From the anime I've been exposed to (and it's been plenty, as I studied cartoons, comics and animation at school) it's more like 98% was worthles, 1.9% was worthwhile and 0.1% was excellent. It's that sort of percentile difference that makes me dislike anime more than I dislike other sorts of animation. Akira and Grave of the Fireflies and Cat Soup and whatnot are seriously islands in the ocean of feces that is churned out of studios there daily. The reason is simple: for them animation is a much more popular and wide-spread medium than for westerners. There's niche anime for everybody, literally millions of viewers. Most of them are idiots, and idiotic art suits them fine.

Or rather, there's niche MANGA for everybody.

And there's anime that caters to Nerds and Young people and sometimes Grown-up people as well as Families.

But there's no anime catering to the normal salaryman, there's no serious anime about foods, etc. Anime is mostly a medium catering to nerds in modern japan O:

Well, for me, the 90 - 9 - 1 scale totally works for anime, though.

I guess I just am like that (: Maybe it's more like this:

50% things I hate
40% things that just suck
9% worthwhile
1% awesome

(: