The answer is simple and easy: effort into giving the fans what they want!
As much as I like to pick apart what makes an anime terrible and call your favorite series shit, I’m not a one-sided idiot who can’t see the other side of the coin when it counts. I wouldn’t be able to write my Tribute From a Hater stuff if I didn’t. I tend to only briefly focus on the positives when I bash something because it doesn’t flow well with the review, nor is it all that funny, when I try to shoehorn praise in. However, I do get the appeal. I’m just not the kind of person who digs into that kind of appeal, given my intolerance to anime that try to be grand whilst playing it safe at the same time.
To show I get the appeal, why I don’t talk about a few popular products in the Chinese cartoon industry?
First, let’s look at the most popular and well-loved (in a sense) anime of 2012, Sword Art Online. Almost everyone on the blogosphere hates this show, and if you’ve read my blog long enough, you’d know my feelings. Yet for some reason, it’s the most popular anime to come out of 2012 (aside from Fate/Zero and Nisemonogatari). Why? Well, that’s because it panders to the right audience. But pandering by itself isn’t enough to make SAO stand out amongst the crowd, as there are countless light novels out there that pander to the biggest demographics around. So what does it do?
I’ll let E. Minor speak for me for a bit.
So yes, the reason that SAO is so terrible, and yet so popular, isn’t just because it heavily panders to the audience. It’s because of how well-constructed that pandering is. Whilst the story is shit and feminism rights were set back 50 years thanks to what happened with Asuna and Suguha, the target audience won’t care because of one man: Kirito. He does everything teenage boys want to do in real life, but can never do, so they look to him as a symbol. And so much effort is put onto making him the perfect portrayal of wish-fulfillment from wearing black to injecting two years worth of semen into the hottest girl around that it’s no wonder why he’s got so many favorites on MAL. All that other stuff like world-building and shit that Dennou Coil did so much better? Just a backdrop to aid in that portrayal.
Don’t get me wrong, SAO is poorly-written. But it’s not so much that the author is lazy, as much as he keeps on focusing all his effort on the wrong things when it comes to his writing.
Going on to Key stuff, what appealed to many people about Clannad isn’t so much the fact that it comes from a company that focuses mostly on melodrama and sad girls. If that was the case, Da Capo wouldn’t be so hated amongst all sides of the anime community with hardly any fans to be found. What made Clannad popular was how well-constructed the drama was to the point that you could tell the writers knew what they were doing. Not once have I seen a negative review of Clannad that didn’t complain about the core premise itself. Yes, it involves a lot of retarded girls falling in love with a jackass with clever lines. Yes, it involves him saving them in a wish fulfillment manner. But that’s what the fans want and Clannad and its other Key counterparts achieve those goals far better than any other similar VN-based work because it isn’t lazy when it comes to its goals.
Okay, there are some complaints regarding how the translation from VN to anime format went, but otherwise, the only real problem most people have with Key in general is the kind of drama they choose to use (magic melodrama that isn’t relatable in the slightest). Otherwise they never try to do anything more than they can handle (most of the time), always make sure to put their all into making their stuff appeal to the fans, and execute it competently. In fact, Jun Maeda put so much effort into making his stories as well-writtenly sad as possible that he ended up suffering from depression himself to the point he barely contributes to Key anymore. And boy did that affect the sales when it came to Key’s newest game, Rewrite, which sold a measly 30-40K initially (Key stuff is usually in the 100K) because without Maeda around, they decided to tone down the melodrama and focus more on fantasy battles (yes, you heard me right). Yeah, cool stuff doesn’t sell when it’s not what the fans want. Fuck you fans! And this is coming from someone who doesn’t have much of a problem with Key.
On the opposite side of the coin, we have the Monogatari series, which is basically the polar opposite when it comes to Key in representing the harem genre. Instead of trying to window-dress its roots with niceness and moe, Monogatari flat-out exploits it. The girls are always finding excuses to be naked, but Shaft goes out of its way to not make the nudity as pathetic as Highschool DxD, Under the Innocent Sky (Oretachi for all you weeaboos), or Heaven’s Lost Property (no, exploding panties are not funny!) by using specific angles and cuts to just the right parts of the female skin we want to see. And of course, throw in smart wordplay and supernatural elements that are specifically used to enhance the harem angle whilst not being intrusive to anything else. Yes, it’s a smutty harem series. It just happens to be really clever in how the harem is formed, and it’s really good at making girls sexy and weird fetishes seem normal (yes I’ll admit the toothbrush scene was awesome). Whether you like it or not, you can’t deny that it knows its audience loves Senjougahara and cat girls.
Only real problem with the Monogatari series that doesn’t have to do with the concept and its wasted potential (at least according to Nekomonogatari) is that the stories are getting repetitive. Hey, Nision. Repeating the same story over and over dooms you, no matter how well-executed it is. You know that right? Hopefully, the next Monogatari series actually shakes things up. You know, besides introducing toothbrushes.
Not a fan of shoujo? Well you don’t have to be to understand why Kimi Ni Todoke is such a well-loved series. I’m not going to bother going into full detail about this one, as I only saw one episode of it. But if you read any positive review of it on MAL or ask a shoujo fan why Kimi Ni Todoke is so good, you’ll definitely get an earful. From what I gather, it’s because it pushes the shoujo buttons in all the right ways whilst adding a unique charm to it. So it’s like Maison Ikkoku except more girly? I can buy that. Although that doesn’t excuse those cost-saving scenes.
Want to see a yuri series that is more than just lazy jokes? Look no further than Simoun. It definitely has some interesting stuff beyond the standard cliches of the yuri genre and the animation is great, aside from those awful CG machines. Want to see religious stuff that speaks out to you? Watch a Happy Science movie. You may not like them, but you cannot deny the love that went into making them. Although I guess you could accuse them of trying too hard. And not making sense. But it converts people somehow, so what the fuck?
Do I really need to mention the Miyazaki movies? No? Okay.
As for Deadman Wonderland…well, it only got really popular when it aired on Adult Swim and hit them really hard with its mindless violence, rampant swearing, and all that other shit the AS audience loves. Otherwise, it was poorly-received in Japan because it didn’t put any effort into anything it tried to do. Seriously, I’ve seen live-action Japanese movies with more creativity than that! So don’t wish for a sequel, because it won’t happen.
Now I know what you guys are saying. Most of those anime you mentioned aren’t bad. Well I certainly think some of them are, but I’m just listing a bunch of really popular series with huge fan bases, personal views be damned. Besides, every single thing I’ve mentioned (with maybe the exception of Simoun, as I don’t hear much negativity for that one) has its share of haters. Hell, I’ve got a couple of “bad” anime in my favorites list that I think are legitimately good, but I can understand why people would be turned off by them. One man’s junk (get your minds out of the gutter) is another man’s treasure, you know?
Let’s end with this trailer of Makoto Shinkai’s newest film. Tell me that you’re not going to see this just based on how awesome it looks. As I’ve mentioned before, I’m not a big fan of Shinkai. Nevertheless, whilst I don’t consider him to be a great writer, I never consider him to be lazy. How can I say that about a man who works so hard to deliver high-quality art anime like this (who wants to bet he was the staff for most of this project as well)? How can anyone who’s into anime not appreciate that artwork? I’m not going into this movie expecting to like it, because this looks like another one of his love stories. But he’s popular for a reason, and as an anime fan, I must watch the film when it comes out regardless of my biases.
Besides it’s got Hana Kanazawa, who is currently voicing the moe-est of them all. That’s worth the price of admission alone (aka, that’s worth an illegal download that I don’t have to pay for).
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Stingers
- I’ll get the Rahxephon TBH out someday. Life’s been busy as hell lately.
- Yes, I know Maeda recently came out of his depression and is working on another game. Hopefully it’s that rumored Angel Beats game, because I really think he needs to stay away from future projects from now on, regardless of what the fans want.
- Simoun requires a post on its own to explain my problems with it, but first I’m going to have to rewatch it.
- I have no idea if Rewrite is a good fantasy story or not, so don’t get your hopes up for it (although it’s got to be better than the other Key stuff, right?)
Well the problem is that you’re not funny.
That’s why I always focus on criticism first and humor second. So if the humor fails, the criticism should stand.
This is something you see in fiction in general–e.g. there’s always a popular novel that critics at large will denounce as poorly-written, but the fact is it succeeds anyways because the author knows target audience. Sometimes all it takes is a character that readers/viewers really like, and they’ll overlook the terrible plot. Or maybe it’s just the setting or premise that fascinates people, and they won’t care that all the characters are as bland as can be.
Here’s my thoughts when it comes to this subject. All bloggers have their preferences when it comes to stories, but it’s worth thinking about the reasons why an anime doesn’t click with you. Is it because you feel the series is legitimately poorly-executed, or is it simply a matter of the series not being the sort of anime you like in the first place? (Of course, in some cases it may be both!)
For a random example, I remember trying out Ghost in the Shell SAC some years back. I recognized it as well-written, but it just wasn’t my thing. (Aside: I may give it another try one day; after all my tastes have changed over time.) The point being, I wouldn’t call it a bad series. I could tell that it wasn’t just pandering to a target audience–it was (as far as I could tell) a legitimately well-executed series. Though I didn’t enjoy the series, I could easily see how other people would.
On the flip side, I remember trying out a certain show called Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya. Reading the synopsis, it sounded like the exact sort of show I would enjoy. I was excited, and all my friends and every single person on the internet said it was a fabulous series. But in the end, I just couldn’t stand it. Every single second of all five episodes I sat through was just painful for me; the only reason I stuck around that long was because I was with friends and felt really awkward to just leave. If I were to write a blog post about it, I’d probably go on and on about just how unlikeable all the characters were to me, and how there was nothing else in the show that engaged me in the slightest. Obviously most anime fans would disagree with me on this, but I’m fine with that. Everyone has their shows they like and their shows they dislike, and regardless of what reasons you have to back up your viewpoint–it’s still just an opinion at the end of the day. But fortunately for blogs, this can lead to good discussion.
Maybe you should watch Haruhi dubbed, like I did. Because Crispin Freeman is fucking awesome.
Personally, I think that it’s much, much easier to butcher a Light Novel to Anime translation, than other mediums. Many Light Novels tend to execute their characterizations not by actions alone, but by the internal thought processes behind their actions. It get’s worst when the author is attempting to write an Introvert – and the anime adaptation pushes the adaptation of the internal narrative of their characters down to the bottom of their prioritization list.
If all you see are the actions of the characters, and not the internal narratives, then I can see where the charge of “shallowness” is coming from.
I’ve noticed that it’s Light Novel adaptations that tend to be lambasted for truly bad writing, yet somehow sell well.
Finally, a comment on Nekomonogatari. It’s actually a two part story called Nekomonogatri (Black) – which was animated at the beginning of this year. and Neknomonogatri (White). The first is more or less a bridge of sorts between Kizumonogatari (Kizu is far from “repetitive” IMO ) and Bakemonogatari. The second part, Nekomonogatari (White) shifts the First Person Point of View from the main male MC, to the main female protagonist of the Nekomonogatari arcs.
I suspect the adaptation is going to be quite butchered, unfortunately, as Nekomonogatari (White) is again, incredibly reliant on the Internal Narrative to drive development – from the first sentence onwards. And this is something I feel that the anime medium struggles to translate well – and given how much pandering goes into LNs itself, the Pandering Elements and fanservice tend to be highlighted above the Internal Narrative.
And yes, sadly the formula sells.
I’m aware of Kizumonogatari. It’s not subbed yet though, so I can’t judge it. Also, I’m pretty sure that if you took away the Shaft style from Monogatari, it wouldn’t get nearly as much love as it does now. LNs do have problems getting adapted due to the internal process failing to translate on screen, but that just means more creative liberties need to be taken. I’ve seen a few adaptations that benefitted from that.
IMO, I think SHAFT tries to sneak it some of that internal processes. Unfortunately, the fanservice drowns out most of it, and time adaptation axes and condenses large tracts of dialogue – I suspect that this is what compromises the quality of dialogues in many LN adapted animes – it’s not that the original dialogue is bad or trite, but it’s been so seriously condensed by the requirements of time, pacing and budget that it comes off as bad, or significantly more inferior than the original.
Secondly: regarding Creative Liberties. Given the overwhelming commercial success of SAO, I really doubt many studios will dare to take such creative liberties, in fear of producing bombs. And SAO was very, very bad at translating internal narratives from the LN to the Anime, which completely shot characterization down to the lowest circle of hell. If Anime studios are going to be rewarded without the risk of taking creative liberties, where is the incentive for them to take such liberties?
Actually, the Bad Writing- Good Sales paradigm has another even more nefarious counterpart: works that are well received and executed that flop commercially. It’s quite telling as to the state of the industry when the producers of Psycho Pass proclaims that their show would either bomb (for trying to minimize and eliminate every trace of Harem and Moe and Pandering from their show) or sell well (for trying to buck the trend).
Finally, I think the Second Season of Monogatari would be a pacing trainwreck – they seem to be aiming to cram Five Volumes (with lots of progression) into 24 episodes, when Nisemonogatari, a single volume got 13 full episodes. And, the Haremettes would begin crashing out of the running one by one, but then again, this is quite typical of longer running Harem Series- given the setting Monogatari is in though, those resolutions are hardly going to be peaceful – which produces the other alternate problem of over-dramatization when it comes to the adaptation.
Nekomonogatari is actually a tale of Child Abuse, and an exploration of the unrealism of “perfection”. The adaptation of Black didn’t really pull the latter off, because it was released before Kizumonogatari. The former was drowned out by visual fanservice.
Why the fuck was Nisemonogatari that long? Most of the running time was just pointlessness. I welcome the cramming, even if I don’t think I’m going to like that second season.
Neko being about child abuse failed because Hanekawa is a shit character.
Exploding panties may not be funny, but panties flying off in a flock was hilarious.
Anyway, nothing wrong with pandering by itself. The problem is obvious though – the more you pander, the more your audience gets desensitized to it. As a result, we get tons of harems that looks like they want to pander but kinda-don’t, as well as the occasional idiocy in terms of plot or just plain idiot characters [mm Clannad].
Since the more you have of it, the more of your audience will notice and end up bored, the shows try to mix things up with lots of other stuff as the main matter and fanservice [not necessarily erotic] spread out in small chunks – hence the huge amount of ecchi comedies (that also tend to feature fantasy battles). We still end up with stuff like SAO or Deadman Wonderland, shows that change the distraction-pandering ratio from 90-10 to 10-90, but I feel those shows only work for really new fans who haven’t yet been tempered in the endless stream of fanservice that pervades the medium.
What I’m trying to say is, it seems everyone can write a pandering scene (I probably can’t, but I’m no writer so I wouldn’t know). The problem is everything else – how do you build up, and how do you space the fanservice moments as far apart as possible – without getting your audience to leave bored, but also without letting them get desensitized to it? We’re all watching Spice and Wolf for the moments where Horo goes moe, but she does it so rarely it becomes character development and we end up cheering. But most writers don’t seem capable of making an entire arc of engaging medieval economy while keeping it free of distractions, the way the guy behind S&W does.
Yeah, that “pandering” thing and how you use it is part of the reason why the series I mentioned above still sell like hotcakes. SAO hasn’t run out of tricks yet…for better or worse.
Some people are simply inferior on a genetic level, and those people enjoy things like Bakemonogatari and Key adaptations. They can’t help who they are. The Gods made them that way. We can only pity them for their lot in life.
Who knows? Maybe that next Monogatari thing coming out in the summer/fall will be goo…bwahahaha, yeah I can’t say that with a straight face. And I maintain that the Clannad movie is solid.
P.S. Out of curiosity, whilst I know you don’t have a high opinion of Simoun, I’ve never seen you mention it before. What exactly happened regarding that one?
Watched the first episode of Simoun, found it pretty boring, and left it at that.
“… I’m not a big fan of Shinkai. Nevertheless, whilst I don’t consider him to be a great writer, I never consider him to be lazy.”
Makoto Shinkai is a director and designer, not a writer. He doesn’t write the plot for his movies, just like Miyazaki never wrote any of the stories he used for his movies.
As for the other things you wrote, bad anime tend to be bad overall. One can forget a series with bad plot if the execution is great and the opposite is also usually true. Series like SAO who are rotten to the core are those who should be called bad. Also series that focus only on moe without substance or animation (Bakemonogatari) tend to be complete garbage.
Also, about Clannad, if you really thing the series revolves around Tomoya saving a bunch of girls and making them part of his harem you clearly didn’t understand Clannad at all. You might want to read a few more positive reviews and try to understand what the series really is about before badmouthing it.
I’m pretty sure Shinkai wrote, directed, designed, storyboarded, and did practically everything with regards to his movies. And all on his laptop, at least in regards to Voices of a Distant Star. That’s why I respect the guy so much, even if his films tend to bore me.
Never said SAO wasn’t bad. I’m just saying why it’s popular. Also, Monogatari does not have moe. It has a lot of other bad things, but moe isn’t really one of them.
I did understand Clannad. It’s one of the few things on here that I like, despite my blogger buddies holding contrary opinions. But on the surface level, Tomoya did save a bunch of girls. It was a little different than the other Key stuff (and isn’t as bad as Monogatari) because he always had help (plus when he wasn’t directly involved, like the Sunohara arc, the show was pretty dull), but he was the catalyst for everything. There is a deeper meaning, but the surface level is still unchanged.
How the hell can you respect the man yet loathe his work so much? This entire blog laced with that type of goofy logic that is hard to take seriously you know that.
Just because I love how much work goes into something doesn’t mean I have to like the actual work. Animation is hard and what Shinkai accomplishes in regards to that is beyond what most people can do. As an anime fan, I respect that, even if I think 5 cm is a boring piece of tripe.
Once again man I have to say you sound fucking ridiculous. are you high right now?because that would explain your moronic opinions.
No, a high person would love Shinkai’s films. Just enjoy the pretty pictures, man.
That Shinkai movie looks gorgeous.
It’d probably be Oretsuba for the weeaboos, not Oretachi, just so you know. If you’re going to include it, might as well get it right.
As far as Rewrite goes, it’s definitely a departure from previous novels, at least when it comes to the overall message it tries to deliver, some of the character routes, and definitely the two true routes. There’s some extremely un-Key-like stuff in Rewrite, most notably the death and gore (graphic descriptions of people getting decapitated/their faces bashed in by the protag wielding brass knuckles) though I think a lot of that can be attributed to Romeo. There’s also considerably less nakige stuff, because the point of Rewrite definitely isn’t to make you cry.
If you ever have the time, consider reading it.
Eh, no one cares about Under the Innocent Sky anyways aside from those who like otaku-pandering crap (and a lazy one at that).
I don’t think I’m going to be playing Rewrite. Can’t stand the VN format. I think I’ll just wait until someone makes an anime out of it (not JC Staff, please!)
I love your point on how the writers aren’t lazy but they just focus on the wrong things. I swear this is so true especially with SAO and Key series and even with Kimi ni Todoke. I LOVE Kimi ni Todoke because it DOES push all the right Shoujo Buttons.
Even though you’re a hater, I really love your viewpoints.
Everyone wants to kill Mr. Flawfinder for hating their favorite anime!
I would say, I’m agree with you. No -offence for the lover of this series and the hater of this series.
Sao was good for the 1st 6-episodes. The rest it was turn into romance story, as a writer, I understand the story need “rising action” stage to reach climax, but romance is a bit off for me. Even me, -someone who loves romance story- (you’ll realized it if you dropped on my blog), didn’t like it.
I think people has their own typical kind of story they like, and SAO doesn’t really suit for them who loves battle-adventure manga, since it’s not all about adventure and battle.
So, I think now I understand why Oda-sensei doesn’t want to add any romance on his masterpiece. Just let the reader imagine it and run wild.
Yeah you’re actually right. I expecting SAO to be dot hack-ish but it’s completely 180 degree. Saharic amount of action almost dry my mood completely after several episodes and hit me at episode 10: “No, I couldn’t do it. I couldn’t bear watching this shitty cheesy country bumpkin style romance”. Just don’t want it if you don’t like overpowered imba handicapped main char and easy (no words can express this shitty feeling so I’ll just use easy) romance. SAO is really shit of the year.