thought provoking ??

[CrimsonRyu17]

i'm not sure if anyone else has noticed this but does anyone else think that some animes are thought provoking? i mean, ever since i got the first volume of Full Metal Alchemist and i've been watching Naruto alot too, that i've been thinking alot lately. i mean, i can get into these deep thoughts about things and i've been wanting alot of alone time. has anyone else noticed that anime can do that to you?? i guess its a good thing too, but just wondering ^ ^.

[Yumie]

Heck yes, anime and manga are generally so much deeper than American forms of entertainment, part of why I like 'em so much. I definitely agree with you.

[Eriana]

Me too. America is so far behind in animation. And here is the gulling part, American animationists get paid more than the Japanese people who are making good quality cartoons! The nerve! *wrips random papers up*

[Yeshua-Knight]

and this is why we have to be mindful of what we watch, whatever the shows that we watch make us think about has an effect on us, and we need to hold those topics against the standard of scripture and see how they hold up

[Arnobius]

A few are, not many. Most of them tend to be as shallow as the American ones. They just don't seem so because they have different taboos than american cartoons, and the novelty factor makes them seem creative. Once you watch too much (like I did), they tend to look alike and have cliches.

[Debitt]

I think that to some extent many anime series can be thought provoking - not neccessarily on a super philosophical way, but I often find myself speculating about my favorite characters, wondering about their pasts, dissecting the actions they take to determine what makes them tick, etc. I'm a bit of an English nerd, so I tend to analyze things, even when they really aren't meant to be analyzed.

In that way, I think anime is more thought provoking than US cartoons - honestly, how many people do you think theorize about what makes Spongebob Squarepants tick? (okay...for my sake, please don't answer that one)

XD; You'd know what I mean if you've heard some of my crazy Tactics/D. Gray-man fan theories.

[Eriana]

lol.
All Anime and cartoons have their "bad vibes" which is another reason why it is so very important to follow God and see what He tells you about things. the holy spirit is amazing. God created it. God created us and put the HS in us. We all have it. It's just that some of us don't acknowledge it. A lot of Anime's I wanted to see were quickly proven to be bad when I heard God telling me what it was actually like. Boy, I would probably be a lot different than I am now if I hadn't learned to listen to the holy spirit.

[Mr. SmartyPants]

OF COURSE! Dude.... shows like Full Metal Alchemist, Monster (especially Monster) and like... other stuff

[Eriana]

i'm not sure if anyone else has noticed this but does anyone else think that some animes are thought provoking? i mean, ever since i got the first volume of Full Metal Alchemist and i've been watching Naruto alot too, that i've been thinking alot lately. i mean, i can get into these deep thoughts about things and i've been wanting alot of alone time. has anyone else noticed that anime can do that to you?? i guess its a good thing too, but just wondering ^ ^.

Oh yeah. Especially cause I'm in the middle of Wolf's Rain for some reason I've been wanting to just lay around or act differently. I don't know why. Some Anime's have that effect on you. So strange isn't it?

[~Natsumi Lam~]

i like anime because it is more witty and more thought provoking that american cartoons. Also, it has twists and turns i would never think about.

~NL~

[Wild Eagle]

Yeah, anime can really get your mind thinking. After I watched Gundam SEED, I began to think about whether genetic engineering is right or not and about the path society is taking, currently.

[Eriana]

I just think about characters and what their pasts were like. I'm weird. I am really weird!
But I guess I just get like that, especially after seeing a series I've really wanted to see or continuing one I've really liked.

[Shepherdmoon]

I don't see how it is thought provoking some may be "deep" but on the most part it is somwhat shallow.

[Yeshua-Knight]

I don't see how it is thought provoking some may be "deep" but on the most part it is somwhat shallow.

i believe the deep you speak of is the same thing as what others refer to as "thought provoking" in the sense that the plot has more complexity to it than just beating up the bad guy or having whatever problem that is being dealth with resolved, that kind of thing

[Shepherdmoon]

In that sense I would call it "thought provoking".

[DaughterOfZion]

yes anime can be VERY thought provking some times in bad ways some times in good

and now for my rant: most american animation artists are cheap.now days if they're not using cg they're uses short cuts. like using the exact same animation for like a minute. like rocks rolling down a mountain. they draw it until the rocks go off the screen and then use that over and over and over again.

[Shepherdmoon]

I would not say very I would say some what,also I agree American animation is bad and there almost all comedy.(not that comedy is bad.)

[CrimsonRyu17]

um . . no i'm not spiritually troubled. i know whats right and whats wrong so you don't have to worry about that. i know better than to stray away from god because of something else ( not bragging or anything) but i'm just saying i've noticed alot of things that make me think alot more than i used too. like before i thought war was like a place where you became a hero and where youre friends could'nt possibly get killed or anything really deep happen to you except good , etc. i've noticed that war is not a good thing. it rips people apart ( spiritually and literally) and . . . . you have to keep going even though you can never return to some things that happened before in this life. like many things we can reach in our memory but somethings we forget or just simply loose. or when someone dies you just can't dwell on them forever and how sorry you feel about not being able to help them. i've had alot of friends have to deal with that problem but i guess the people that died are'nt gone forever. there in heaven (hopefully). but i'm just saying that anime like FMA and Naruto really made me realize that ^ ^. ( i know that sounds a little freakish )

[Arnobius]

and now for my rant: most american animation artists are cheap.now days if they're not using cg they're uses short cuts. like using the exact same animation for like a minute. like rocks rolling down a mountain. they draw it until the rocks go off the screen and then use that over and over and over again.

You just described JP anime as well. If anything they tend to be cheaper than American anime... frequently using stills with one limb moving (See Lodoss TV for an example).

[Shepherdmoon]

Sad thing is the JPA crap costs more.

[ChristianKitsune]

You just described JP anime as well. If anything they tend to be cheaper than American anime... frequently using stills with one limb moving (See Lodoss TV for an example).

As much as I hate to admit this..it is true...-.-

though one thing I like about Anime' is that most of the time the catoonists will actually SHADE their cartoons... much of the shows on CN and Nickelodeon and other channels are like...flat...

However, I do find that watching anime alone isn't as fun as with a friend. I mean I love to watch anime..but sometimes it is nice to watch them with others. That way you can talk about what happened and all that jazz...or you can even guess together about what is going to happen.

Meh, I am a people person, even when it comes to anime.

[Eriana]

That's a good thing though! ^_~*
Yeah watching Anime is fun when you get to watch it with other people, I watch it with my brothers all the time. I just wish I could talk more during it sometimes. I am hushes to no end when I try to state my opinion or feelings during the show. lately I've been watching Wolf's Rain and I got really **** because during the ending my brothers kept talking and talking and talking and I love the ending so I had to get up and go sit by the speaker. I really hate talking during that song. Especially because I relate to it so much I want to be able to hear it and feel comforted. I probably sound really weird but that is just my opinion and feelings. I've always been like that.

[Wakarimashta!]

It's just like watching a good movie. Anime is made to attract a more broader audience than the cartoons produced here.

There are a few anime out there that are thought-provoking, such as Jin-Roh and Haibane Renmei. Such shows focus more on characters rather than flashiness.

[c_hunter]

Yeah, it's true..
thought provoking.
-_-

[ChristianKitsune]

Haibane Renmei is a GREAT example..

that entire show is about the creator's ideas of religion..interesting ne?

[uc pseudonym]

They certainly can be thought-provoking, but the implied question is if any anime has provoked thought in me personally. Off the top of my head, I can't say this has been my experience (with anime or with other mediums). There were some times in Ghost in the Shell that required further thought.

However, the reason I am posting in this thread is because I am slightly disturbed by the general anti-American trends I see here. They strike me as being primarily written out of ignorance, much the way some Americans bash all anime.

Initially, historically the actual animation quality of anime has been much lower. This is both in frames per second and in production. Reused animation, panning over stills, animation loops and unmoving characters are all in abundance. Needless to say, there are plenty of exceptions, and I do not mean to condemn the Japanese animation industry in this paragraph.

Also, it isn't fair to place series intended for completely different audiences alongside one another. I mean no offense, Kokoro Daisuke, but... Spongebob Squarepants? And to step to the other side of the table, though I have enjoyed D.Gray-man so far, I think it suffers from sub-par writing in almost all respects, especially characterization.

This having been said, I would appreciate if this thread focused primarily on what can be thought-provoking about anime instead of attempting to prove this by negative statements. Therefore I'd ask that no new lines on this subject be brought up, though you are free to respond to current ones (and I realize I may have just prolonged the discussion).

[Debitt]

It was just the first example I thought of off the top of my head. I really didn't mean anything "anti-American", because I agree that 1) they're targeted towards different audiences 2) Japanese animation has a lower framerate, and therefore could be considered lower quality. But for the first point - that's where the distinction really does lie. That IS why some people find anime more thought provoking - because it is targeted towards older audiences and therefore they do have more mature themes behind them.

Maybe I should have posted again in this thread or something - I didn't mean for my post to be taken the wrong way at all. I never meant in any way to bash US cartoons - I enjoy many of them in fact, though I gues that isn't terribly apparent from the way I post.

[CrimsonRyu17]

yeah i guess that's true. anime ( well most of it ) is targeted towards the older group. but still it makes me think a whole lot deeper and harder about things. like last night i was wrighting down some theorys i had about full metal alchemist while watching it. but i would'nt normally be writing down stuff about the normal cartoons. but some american cartons are still enjoyable like . . . . uumm . . . . . . . well i guess spongebob square pants is alright . . . every once and a while.

[DaughterOfZion]

*pulls out hair* EVEN HIGHSCHOOLERS ARE OBSESSED WITH SPONGE BOB!!!not all but there are quite a few who do

[Nate]

Well, it isn't like Spongebob is a BAD show. Just kind of brainless and doesn't appeal to everyone. The same could be said of, say, FLCL or Excel Saga...obviously these differ from Spongebob in the content area, but I meant them more in the example that they're just kind of brainless fun and content aside, it's not going to appeal to everyone. There's nothing wrong with highschoolers liking it.