Zach | Bluesky
Transcript
4 Panel Comic
Panel 1: an Apple Tree saying “The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree”
Panel 2: an Apple saying “Anime is trash”
Panel 3: the tree winds up…
Panel 4: …and throws the apple as far as possible with a FWOoOSH
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I mean most of it is, only the stuff I like is good.
Tree whipped that shit like it was the womping whillow
Huh. The apple does fall far from the tree
Speaking as a fan of anime. Anime is trash.
But boy howdy, do I love me a good dumpster fire.
Anime is trash and so am I.
You better give me something, so I dont cry
Some of the best shows are straight trash. Such as Domestic Girlfriend
Can we get some titles of gay trash?
That little apple is right.
And the shit is like bedbugs on Lemmy. There is no way to block it out.
I block accounts / communities that post anime too often. I see a whole lot less that way.
Mentally I scroll past without really paying it mind. Sure its annoying but no less annoying than insta, Facebook, or xitter even Reddit now. They have annoying content that can’t get blocked like right wing rage bait and an awful comments section.
Should cut the last panel.
A lot of it is unfortunately, you can only tolerate the repetitive cringey trope filled teenage focused shows for so long, and it seems those are most of the ones getting made, seinen and Josie anime seem to be much fewer, I’m kind done watching teen characters getting objectified and getting into battles that they win through the power of friendship.
Miyazaki was right when he complained that the only people getting in to the anime industry were people who only consumed anime/manga. The tropes got out of control.
You know, power of friendship is boring when it’s done stupidly and it becomes the only answer to every problem…
but to me the worst kind of shounen degeneracy is when they stop caring about the human aspects at all. And instead they just do endless power level fights where heroes keep winning by ass-pulling new strength from nowhere.
I’ve abandoned several series that I thought started well over that.
IMO the only show that does “the power of friendship” well is My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, and that’s because friendship is a literal magical superweapon being developed by the State in order to achieve geopolitical domination.
Yup just endless slide shows of character XYZ screams and does power blast repeated 10 times and then the episode is over
A lot of all entertainment media is garbage. Maybe anime has a lower barrier to entry, so the signal to noise ratio is worse, but then again, the big movie studios are so risk averse that they mostly pump out boring, focus-group-tested sequels and reboots. Wait maybe there’s a barrier-to-entry vs financial-risk sweet spot that produces the greatest share of good stuff? Hmmm…
What makes you think animation has low barrier to entry lol, it takes a large team of skilled artists to make, most of whom are underpaid and overworked, and it takes time to hone these skills. The reason most media is garbage is that studios want to make low cost low risk content, and they want to make lots off it in the hopes that if even one or two become viral hits then they can coast on the profit from that while taking losses on the others, instead of taking big bets on an anime that is beyond the cliched norms and that might cost more time and money to make.
A lot of the traditional anime tropes exist explicitly to lower the cost of production. The artists may be skilled, but there’s a reason you see a lot of still frames where only the character’s mouth moves and stuff like that. It was necessary in the 90’s. Now it’s what you expect from the genre.
When I say tropes I mean storytelling tropes not animation techniques, which I know a bunch of them are for cost and time saving purposes
Exactly; the issue is that writing and animating are separate concerns.
So if an anime studio wants to pump out 30 Isekai, they NEED 30 animators working 24/7. But a genius writer? Meh, that’s optional.
So he’s right that writing is low barrier - and then it sucks when I see fantastic indie animation work on YouTube and think “I almost think I could’ve written and VA’d this better by myself”.
You might like berserk, it is very wholesome anime about friendships. Happy Ending. Another wholesome one is Monster, was even considered for an HBO adaptation.
Do not cite the Deep Magic to me, Witch. I was there when it was written!
Most of it is, though. The best recommendations I’ve received over the years were from people who weren’t anime fans.
That makes sense tho. They would recommend stuff that’s more accessible, whereas anime fans might forget which ones have 2000 year old dragon children in them and that really needs a disclaimer or something
This goes for a lot of genres. Metalheads are like, “dude listen to this ultra black metaldeathcore album my favorite bad just dropped!” and it’s nails on a chalkboard, but also incredibly technically impressive with shifting time signatures and somehow if you play it backwards through a filter it sounds like Flight of the Valkyries. If you enjoy that, power to you, but most don’t.
Metal is also better when one gets outside the genre boundaries. Mamaleek play metal like nobody else, and hearing them was like discovering Music 2.
Now this is a memeable format if I’ve ever seen one. YoooOOOOOINK**!**
Correction, most anime is trash. Yes, even the one you’re thinking of. In fact, especially that one.
I mean most any media is trash. Why is anime any different than, let’s say, TV shows? The medium doesn’t make it better or worse, it’s the actual quality of the particular series that’s important.
You’re right, on most media is trash, anime isn’t alone in this.
Though, anime’s generic trash genre is “cringey hyper sexualized teenagers and how they get their clothes off” and the rabid defenders of that trope leave a bad taste that amplifies how bad it feels.
Anime is much cheaper to produce than other types of media, so more low quality content gets approval than it might if it cost 5-10x more.
Anime? Cheap to produce? I’d love to live in that parallel world lmao
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I would like to introduce you to a genre of telefilms that in Spain is known as “after-lunch film”. Most of them are US productions and would put to shame even the cheapest anime.
Are they like “soap operas” in the US, or something?
We have also US soap operas (Beautiful rings a bell?), but these are not serialized. They are just standalone films. The genre is so bad that people joked about them being summed up in 3 different plots:
He kills her
He rapes her
He kidnapps her
Because it’s media for kids, which usually means that it’s significantly dumbed down or catered to emotionally developing people. For every Mr Roger’s or Arthur, there are 200 caillous
Animes are not only for kids; Introduce re:zero to a kid or try to ask them about what they think about Frieren meaning…
Anime is NOT for kids.
The Great Bride Magus, or Death Parade, or Psycho Pass, or Frieren: After the Journey’s End, or Steins:Gate, or Re:Zero, or Mushoku Tensei, or White Snow with Red Hair.
These aren’t definitely for kids.
Stop generalizing based on your shitty lack of knowledge.
Love Psycho-pass, Id add Vinland Saga, First season of One Punch Man, Mushishi, GITs SAC,
Though directed at children is such a weird idea, like is Terminator 2 directed at children? It’s themes are just as shallow if not moreso than Steins Gate Is Back to the Future directed at adults because it’s PG in the US? Blood gore and boobs does not an adult show make. I don’t know why anime has
3/4 of those are for early teens. Personally, I only go for real, mature adult anime like boku no pico and Elfen lied
In this thread you’ll find:
People falling over themselves trying to justify how material sourced from shōjo and shōnen magazines is actually intended for adults, presumably because they’re adults and they like it.
I couldn’t care less about adults consuming media primarily targeted toward teens and adolescents. I’m in my thirties and watch anime myself. At no point have I ever tried to convince anyone that teen and ‘young adult’ media is anything else. There’s no shame it enjoying it as an adult, but it does become increasingly less relevant with age.
Ehhh… No, they’re not. Their story and focus, also their themes, and even their declared demographic (although this one is not that precise, one can declare to be shounen because it’s going to serialize in a shounen magazine despite being seinen [that happened to Attack on Titan, for example, that’s more adult but was serialized on the Weekly Shounen Jump], or vice versa; and it’s the same for shoujo and josei).
Tell me which ones are “for kids”. I think you have a bias because some of these are from the fantasy genre or have some more light scenes here and there.
Some anime is for kids, but that’s only the kodomo (literally, children) demographic, and some shounen and shoujo (adolescent) can be really deep as well (such as Hataraku Maou-sama!, despite being principally comedy, it has a really good worldbuilding with great exploration of really important topics, or Log Horizon, that actually explores very well some things like identity, humanity, consciousness and the nature of the self).
Most media (especially mainstream media) is for emotionally developing people. Generally, if some media is not “for kids” is just because boobs or blood (or both). But let’s not pretend most mainstream media (including anime) has more depth than a puddle.
Aaaand stolen.
Nah, Cowboy Bebop is awesome, as is NG:E, Trigun, Hellsing, and Darling in the Franxx. But yeah, there’s so much that it’s basically just a lot, and it’s certainly reductive to just call it “trash.”
At least this year we are getting anime that is not trash, though a lot of people might not like it:
- Jimoto Saikou (crime and drugs)
- Chainsmoker cat (addiction)
- FX Kurumi (FX trading, mainly gambling) wallstreetbet the anime
- Mii-chan and Miss Yamada (murder of a disabled prostitute)
There’s also Shibou Yuugi de Meshi wo Kuu (Playing Death Games to Bring Food to the Table) or Needy Girl Overdose.
Well yeah. Tell someone to not think about ducks and where do their brains go? Duck boobs.
Of course I’m thinking about trash anime. It’s my favorite kind.
Agree. Miyazaki, though…
Hey, I was talking about anime, not magnum opus: the filmography
I thought the magnum opus was that one that ended up just being hours of anime food footage
When I was in 8th-9th grade I was obsessed with anime. Used to get the fansub VHS mailed to my house to watch them. These were the days of 28.8 and 56k modems. You weren’t watching full episodes of any quality. LOVED anime. Now I can’t stand it. It’s unbelievably cringey to me. I’m 43 but I feel like it’s been very difficult to watch for a long time. I remember in college people were watching Naruto and I was just bored to tears. Voice Acting, writing, etc really is trash for the most part. There’s some exceptions, Studio Ghibli, Akira, maybe a movie or two. But just can’t get into it these days. Anyway that’s my story, tune in next time on old man rant.
Edit: so exceptions supposed to be some exceptions
Sturgeon’s Law is always in effect.
The vast majority of anime is aimed at minors, not a huge surprise that you aren’t as interested anymore at 43. It also seems pretty repetitive nowadays, though IDK whether that was already an issue 30 years ago.
I’ve only recently realized how weird a lot of anime is when you think about it. Slavery, child soldiers, pedophilia by proxy of being reborn, racism, anime is filled with so many morally questionable tropes that you sometimes don’t really think about because it’s presented in an entertaining and comedic way most of the time…
Overlord is an anime I enjoy, but if that regime existed in real life they’d be comparable to the NAZIs with the amount of death and destruction they bring
Weird to think about, still enjoy watching anime though
I just started overlord S2 and ouch, they fucking invaded the lizardmen tribe then made them their vassals after killing their chiefs…and brought one back?? I cannot and will not explain it will but it felt very much what a fascist would do lol, i will end the season in the hope that it gets better but…
I pirated it anyway so at least i don’t give 'em money if it’s in a bad faith :P
That speech he gives to that Prince before he destroys their land was such bullshit considering they manufactured the whole situation in the first place. It only really works as a fascist power fantasy. The thing I’m not sure about is whether Momonko was deliberately written as a loser being propped up by an overpowered character and guild or if the writers are on his side and themselves admire and aspire to be like that character.
But it feels like fascist propaganda.
Pokémon is basically just cockfighting.
Oh definitely, there’s a ton of questionable stuff. Though at least some of those are pretty much only because a series aimed at school children will have school-aged protagonists, like most of the child soldiers.
I feel like the industry as a whole refuses to innovate and modernize and is just stuck in a rut of appealing to 15 year olds with slide deck level animated content and dated and frankly in 2026 offending characteristics, forgetting all of us 30+ people with disposable income who want stories with depth and animation with quality. One thing I always liked about Ghibli is that even if the protagonist of a movie is a young kid it, they never made the movie itself childish or pandering to a younger audience, if anything they were willing to take the risk of gently exposing adult and even difficult topics in such movies like Totoro for example, that one scene of the big sister coming across her little sisters shoe by the pond is seared in my memory.
This isn’t a problem with anime so much as it is with localization. Most of what makes it out of Japan is shonen, stuff aimed at boys aged about 12-18. There’s also shojo (same age group, but girls), seinen (adult men), josei (adult women), and kodomomuke (under 12s of both genders). Seinen in particular has an absurdly broad range of genres. For example, Ghost in the Shell is a foundational cyberpunk work, but Spice & Wolf is a slow burn romance about medieval barter economics.
Yes but I feel the industry churns out for more shonen compared to sienen
I’m close to 40 and I have some modern, mature, suggestions if you’re open to it.
Sure but I don’t want overwhelming options. Maybe one or two. Something where they act like humans might actually act, and no underage grossness please.
‘Oruchuban Ebichu’. Peak adult anime, you don’t need anything else. It’s also short and to the point.
And of course, ‘Ghost in the Shell’ is an all-time classic.
Not sure what your style is but my most recent suggestion has been Dorohedoro. Sorcerers rule one side of the world, and shove non sorcerers into The Hole. They hop in and out of The Hole whenever they want, experimenting on people as they wish. Main character doesn’t know why he has a lizard head, and is immune to Sorcerer magic. Gritty, unpredictable, great world building.
Another: Under Ninja. Japan is full of ninjas, and of course undercover ninjas as well, hence the title. Can’t say much without spoiling it, but the main character is in a high school trying to out ninja a rival clan that is undercover. Surprisingly serious, great animation, and a few gags.
In both, IMO, the characters are fairly grounded and act like real people would.
I thought I’d seen dorohedoro and that is not what I remember at all. Gonna have to watch it (again?) I guess
There’s a LOT in the show, I binged season 1 and came in right when season 2 started and ended this year. 2-3 years between seasons is going to be ROUGH to keep up with, but the world itself has so many layers it kind of reminds me of Fifth Element.
Dorohedoro is such a breath of fresh air compared to the typical cookie cutter anime, both its art and story and characters feel unique to itself, the only issue is how complicated the storyline is, but I just tune in for the ride even if I can’t keep track of the plot
No-one recommended Frieren or To Your Eternity? Those are two off the top of my head that seem aimed at a more mature audience, and avoid most tropes. Extremely high quality animes with great writing and storytelling. Even the elves act more human than most other animes.
Re:Zero is also good, but has a moderate amount of “underage grossness” in there you have to ignore.
This is a wildcard recommendation, but I initially thought Jobless Reincarnation was going to be garbage for the exact reasons you said. I actually ended up enjoying it a lot, though; from someone’s identical recommendation on this very site. But it’s hard to explain why you might like it without spoiling anything. Even though the MC is horrible at the start, I’d say he acts the most like a real human, especially in regards to growth and character development.
Another suggestion if you’re are open to it is Monster.
I know the 2000s feel like they were like 5 years ago max but sadly I don’t think anything from it counts as modern anymore.
I keep chasing that feeling from watching as a kid and nothing delivers.
I’m in the same boat. I still watch one or other anime show that I find interesting like DoroHeDoro or Heavenly Delusion. Also, every year I look up the best anime movies released last year and watch a couple of them. Tried to watch Made in Abyss a couple of months ago but didn’t connect, it feel cringe and the art style looks like for 5 year old kids.
The apple is not wrong.
I like to think I’m pretty open minded, especially when it comes to media preferences. I’ve found something I enjoy in pretty much every genre there is, whether that was video games, movies, TV shows, music, books, etc. but I have never seen an anime that I could stand to watch for more than a couple of episodes. Maybe I haven’t gotten far enough in to get hooked or maybe I’ve just been recommended some shows that don’t fit my tastes but I’m pretty confident it’s just not my thing.
That’s perfectly fine of course. I don’t care if people enjoy different things than me. I just find it odd that with most other things I can at least see the appeal even if it isn’t something I enjoy, but with anime I don’t at all. It’s an outlier in that respect.
What genres do you like? I might have good suggestions
I tend to watch comedies, action, and sci-fi / fantasy the most. I like unpredictability so anything that is formulaic probably won’t appeal to me, but I’m unfamiliar enough with anime that I’m not sure the tropes of that particular genre would be recognizable to me.
The last anime I was recommended was Demon Slayer. I might have enjoyed it if I kept with it but I found the first few episodes boring and overly childish, as if young teenagers and older children were the target audience.
I suggest Re:Zero to make it short:
possible spoiler IG
it’s this teen who get transported in this other world and discover that when he dies he get’s back to a check point, he still remember all the pain endured during death and also retain the memories
The first season may appear boring for the first few episodes though, as someone who is watching the last season, i can say that’s worth it (i also did not find it boring but compared to the people i usually interact it, i’d say i have a longer attention span…
The other is Frieren, it’s the story of this elf whom after the defeat of the demon lord watches her companions die out and we explore a lot of tematics, it’s very slow paced , it has some action and sometimes comedy though
I love Japanese animation, there’s some very good stuff, however, the absolute majority of “anime”, and the anime/otaku culture per se, ouch, I cringe hard at it
I enjoyed some anime when I was younger. But that sentiment started changing maybe 15 to 20 years ago? Tried a few things here and there (I don’t recall what) that were recommended to me but didn’t enjoy any of it. So I gave up on it. And that’s fine.
I was probably around 30 the first time I watched something that would be considered anime, although I did watch some of the original Pokemon show when I was young which I believe falls into that category. It seems to be more popular with younger people though so maybe that is the explanation. My preferences were already set by the time I gave it a real chance. It certainly feels a bit like an old man’s reaction to media they don’t understand.
Maybe. I wasn’t intending to infer it was related to age groups. More that my tastes happened to have changed as I aged.
That said and in thinking about it, I don’t recall any of my friends that I know have enjoyed anime showing interest in anime in recent years either.
Doesn’t mean one can’t be older and still enjoy them, but my anecdotal evidence based on a tiny sample size suggests less appeal to an older audience.
How about trying Monster? It has no super powers or anything of the like. There was even talk of an HBO adaptation, but it went into limbo.
In skimming over a synopsis of the show, it does sound interesting and like it skips tropes that I’m familiar with. Not opposed to checking it out. Will I remember by the time I’m looking for something to watch? I’d give it about a 15% chance.
True tough.
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