A sizeable portion of anime fans seems to be prejudiced against a certain kind of anime which they consider to "take itself too seriously" in their own words (some even go as far as labelling some of it as 'anime for people who do not like anime'). For them, it seems that anime is but mere entertainment and that it needs little artistic justification beyond the established canons of the genre and its popularity.
As a non-Japanese individual who only got well acquainted with Japanese animation at a relatively late stage in his life (early twenties), I can only reject and disagree with the aforementioned stance.
I am well aware of the target audience of said industry in Japan and how it translates to the rest of the world, but I think nonetheless that mature, intelligent anime should prevail and be recognised as the quality product it is in contrast with the more juvenile over-the-top stuff that seems to inundate the market. Animation, be it Japanese or "Western", is an awesome channel to communicate and tell a story, it shouldn't be regarded as inherently inferior respect to live-action cinema nor should it be a straight-up ripoff of manga or comics both formally and thematically speaking (don't get me wrong, the latter are two amazing formats in their own right).
Miyazaki and the Ghibli studio shone a light on the huge possibiliies anime had to carry some symbolism without necessarily resorting to complicated plots or long TV series. Satoshi Kon taught us that surrealism and the oneiric were not incompatible with anime. Ishiguro proved that one can create an excellent long anime from a series of novels, without the sempiternal manga as the reference.
Well-crafted Japanese animation can be awesome and has not much to envy to "serious" films with real actors and deep plots, the problem is the constant catering to the mindless, low-rewarding escapist stuff in the industry.
>search archive
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>he actually typed all that himself
Not my favorite anime? It's shit.
I get the feeling you used the fedora image because you know that's how 99% of users replying are going to see this as.
I completely agree though, that is pretty spot on as to how I feel about anime and why I don't go on /a/ or similar anime discussion forums very often. The people just bother me too much and don't really look at anime the same way I do.
If there was a place full of tryhards I could go to discuss the nuances of my cartoons without getting spammed with fedora images I would go there.
You should have consulted an editor before posting, OP.
>>144166931
>>144166931
Post what you consider mature, intelligent anime then you fucking fag.
>art
Art isn't art until someone calls it art, tell me why anime can be considered relevant and you got me.
>>144166931
I actually agree. The mindless fun anime have their place as well, but anime that tries to go deeper or have its own visual bend is pretty neat too. I wouldn't want to abolish one in favor of the other, but "mature" anime are incredibly overrepresented.
And the few "mature" ones that are produced often fuck themselves over by trying to appeal to plebs by randomly introducing a loli-ninja or a tsundere or some other tired archetype that doesn't really belong.
>>144167803
He did, he posted some names of directors/animators that he liked.
No need to get so angry dude.
TV anime is always going to have a lot of schlock for the masses. Same with western TV.
If you only look for anime films/movies the type of anime that most people would much more consider 'mature and intelligent' is way more heavily represented. Unfortunately for anime the TV/movie divide isn't clearly separated as much as it is elsewhere, so you end up having Satoshi Kon films lumped in the same pile with the less intellectually sound works as just 'anime'. With it like this it's way harder for people to be introduced to the other side of the medium and ultimately figure out that anime actually has a lot to offer outside of cute girls and teens with big swords.
How do you define "mature and intelligent"? Psychological? Adult characters? Social commentary?
If so, you really need to expand your views, as intelligent anime doesn't have to fit in those categories.
For example, K-On is about the importance of having friends. It doesn't show you this by showing what would happen if you didn't have friends, on the contrary it shows you how wonderful it is to have friends. How is that no intelligent?
Hyouka is about the burdens of expectations. It shows how heavy it can be whether it's placed on yourself by yourself or from others, and then it tells you that you shouldn't be afraid of failing expectations to the point where you avoid them entirely. Once again, it does this by not showing the ugly side of what happens if you fail to take this message to heart, rather it shows you how liberating it is to accept them. How is this not mature?
Well loved mature, intelligent anime is all around us. You just have to look.
Part of the problem is, the consumer that likes intelligent shows, lives outside of Japan and is hard to get revenue from. Local gooks are beyond saving. Lack of talented directors and writers does not help.
