Forum - View topicAnime in America: The Best (and Worst) of 2013
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Fencedude5609
 Posts: 5088 |
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"Worst series" really does need to be limited to something you suffered through at least most of yourself.
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Leebo
 Posts: 660 Location: Somerville, MA |
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Well, it's the concept they're judging, not the show itself. Really, you don't need to even watch it as long as you have an accurate understanding of the premise. |
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Fencedude5609
Posts: 5088 |
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Not really though? There are shows with terrible premises that are great, and shows with perfectly fine premises that are terrible. |
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Leebo
Posts: 660 Location: Somerville, MA |
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What does that have to do with it? They're not judging the shows. |
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Fencedude5609
Posts: 5088 |
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Then what are they judging? If they are judging "worst premise" then thats what the award should be called, and its definitely not the same thing as "worst series" If you are going to call something the "worst series" you need to back it up just as you would something you call the "best series". |
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Enternal
Posts: 14 |
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But that's the thing. Pet Girl of Sakurasou started out arguably "stupid". Yet by the second half of it, it got complex and serious about the implications of hard working vs talent AND talent but socially inept vs little talent but no problems socially. And the execution about this topic in society was very well addressed. So what you thought you understand about a show was clearly not what was actually there. Last edited by Enternal on Mon Jan 06, 2014 7:59 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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Leebo
Posts: 660 Location: Somerville, MA |
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Series concept and premise are the same thing. I'm not sure why they didn't call it "Worst Premise" but it doesn't really change the fact that it's not "Worst Series", it's "Worst Series Concept."
I'm not sure how to say this differently... the content of the show is irrelevant because they're not talking about the content of the show. |
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RyanSaotome
 Posts: 4210 Location: Towson, Maryland |
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Talking about series concepts, I can't see how anyone can think that video game systems turned into cute girls is anything but an amazing concept.
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rydia251
Posts: 169 |
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OK a couple analogies on good versus entertaining below.
RyanSaotome - I think your biggest problem is that from your perspective, good means the same as entertaining. Others define good and entertaining differently, including me. Try to understand the perspectives of others (a challenge sometimes for everyone in this fandom). Broccoli - good for you, has vitamins and fiber, but tastes bland unless doused in butter or something Cake (cake-ee?) - tastes great, bad for you, devoid of vitamins and fiber, but enjoyable as hell to eat Some people like to eat only broccoli since it is good for them. Some people like to eat both for balance. Some people, including RyanSaotome apparently, like to eat only cake because it is enjoyable. For me, I can acknowledge something as good without enjoying it. Anything by Satoshi Kon for example. Millennium Actress was brilliant, but I did not enjoy watching it because I did not feel a connection to the characters. A personal perspective. Makes it hard to rate when using a tracker like MAL. Conversely, I found Mad Bull 34 enjoyable as hell (like a big piece of cake), mainly due to the dub, but would hardly call it good (like a plate of nutritious broccoli). |
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Galap
Moderator
 Posts: 2354 |
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As for FoE, I don't have interest in it. Rotoscope isn't my favorite animation medium, nor is it my least favorite. We don't get much Rotoscope in general, so I'm glad something was made using it. The slow pace isn't inherently bad to me either, but it needs some interest to make up for it. I don't really care for stories about high schoolers pissing about. I took a look at it and it just didn't seem interesting. In general, I think that we should lose the whole 'high art, low art' thing, both explicitly and implicitly. What I do is I watch everything with the expectation that it could potentially have something deep and meaningful to say, and that means I can pick up on those things where others wouldn't because they a priori labeled the thing to be 'low art', and therefore aren't looking for thorough artistry or deep themes. Also, I don't like how things are often praised simply for being 'high art', and with it the notion that you're plebeian if you don't like them. I can't say how many times people say what their top whatever of whatever is and it's just what it feels like you're 'supposed' to say, or they only found the real themes in those things because they seemed to be or were hyped to be stuff that's "good" or "high art". Speaking of deep and meaningful, the best anime of 2013 for me is From the New World by an extremely wide margin. It's actually one of my favorite works of art and narrative. It's a very rich and nuanced piece of science fiction that reveals something intrinsic about the nature of life, and explores social and scientific concepts that I've never seen before, and ones that I feel are relevant and thematically meaningful to us and our lives today. I really enjoyed its passive rather than active development of its themes (I tend to like the passive stuff better than the active stuff), the thematic relevance of the setting and events, the scientific and philosophical concepts it introduced and developed, and its very even handed and external perspective. |
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Wyvern
 Posts: 1555 |
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A quick response to some of these awards:
Surprise of the Year I was surprised (ha!) not to see Gargantia on the Venderous Planet mentioned here. That was a series that spends half of its pilot episode tricking you into thinking you're in for a typical space mecha series, before slapping you with a twist that sends all its genre conventions completely out of whack. Instead, it's a smart, beautifully animated exercise in world building and cultural exchange. I certainly didn't except a show where the protagonist is basically Heero from Gundam Wing to revolve around a warm sense of family and community. Plus, it had some of the best background work and set design I saw all year. Definitely a very pleasant surprise. (moreso than Gatchaman at least, which felt less like a surprise and more like "let's slap a popular brand name unto this almost completely unrelated show." It was a good series, but calling it Gatchaman felt about as disconnected as creating a suburban family sitcom and calling it Star Trek because the dad of the family is named Kirk.) Opener of the year I guess I'm the only person who didn't like Watamote's opening? It just feels like a watered-down version of the second Death Note intro to me. It's got nothing unique, and is kind of boring: in other words, the complete opposite of the great show it introduces. Monster of the year I'd say the reason the Titans are so scary is BECAUSE they look like average people. Compare them to the humans on the show: everyone is an impossibly pretty anime-styled adolescent. The Titans, meanwhile, have all the physical flaws, blemishes, and body diversity of actual people (do we see a single human in AoT who doesn't have the same basic skinny build?) It's a stroke of genius to make the Titans look more like us than the humans we're meant to root for. It makes them deeply unsettling in a way that is hard to grasp. |
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jymmy
 Posts: 1244 |
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My series for the year was definitely Uchouten Kazoku. There were a few I enjoyed more, but that was the one I sat back after every week and thought, "Bloody hell, that was good."
I'm not quite sure what's intended by this line:
Fleurs of Aku had near-perfect visual and musical direction, but I couldn't consider the story of characters of the same standard. Kyousougiga was great, and I agree with what Key says on it. It's hard for me to consider Wolf Children a 2013 anime, seeing as I saw it in the year it came out, but I wouldn't contest it. I still have to see Colorful, although Wikipedia tells me it's a 2010 film. I agree totally on Tomoko as character of the year (and her voice actress's performance basically made the show and secured its worth as an adaptation, along with the consistently inventive visuals), but my duo would be Kaika and Senjougahara from Monogatari Series Second Season. Their interactions were fantastic, and their shared backstory was interesting. They even had a duet. I'd definitely agree with Watamote's OP, although if we were going for song alone, the only choice in my mind is the shitty, utterly forgettable Zettai Bouei Leviathan's fantastic Hajimari no Resolution. It's a shame it was attached to such a lousy show; there's easily more worth in its excellent three and a half minutes of music than in Leviathan's anime's entire runtime. I agree with Carl's pick for ED, though my personal favourite was Kaminai's Owaranai Melody o Utaidashimashita. My guilty pleasure was Fantasista Doll. It was a generic, shitty show about produced as a tie-in to some cards game, but it was so cheesy and fun and stupid and damn I wanted to have moe girls project themselves onto windows and the surface of my desk. I couldn't wring a drop of enjoyment out of Dog and Scissors, never saw what was entertaining about High School DxD and Valvrave got too dark during its second half for me to enjoy its insanity the same way I did in the first. I thought Aura was pretty good. Nothing on Jintai, though, to use Key's comparison. I disagree on how good Oreimo was and how bad it became. I still see no reason not to take it at face value: spoiler[they felt there was no future in pursuing their relationship (for the time being), so they were honest with their feelings and set themselves a time limit to indulge their feelings]. The writing wasn't great, but then it never was; I don't see that there's a huge difference from the awkward drama that's been there from the start and reared its head at the end of each arc.
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KLAC
Exempt from Grammar Rules
 Posts: 1121 |
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hmm well give series of 2013 anime quite some good, bit hmm, & well it's a long story.
new batch 2013 maou-sama was big watch sure from demon lord to mcdonald worker. kotoura really big sleeper good hit. vividred aka strike witches meet power rangers. Fantasista Dolls remind of ONORE DECADE & MEGAFORCE rangers. muromi mermaid really too much ha ha. blood lad aka vampire otaku. fate illya card version magical illya. watamote give hmm still mix-bag. Ecstatic Family quite a show give sorta watch mam noto's ben 10 need a spin-off series. senran ninja yea ninja doobi time. maoyu the plot, biz talks, & hero & demon queen. kiniro japan & uk together oh well it a ok. mutli-choice yea pick your option. c3-bu give nice to fall & rise of redemption air gun shots. ore kanojo yea give bit ok. sekai wrestling YES YES YES this is my series to watch. s2 series boku next aka rise of rika & fall or yozora dxd s2 give 1st half of it was still known as kiba show yet series did fine of sorts. rokyubu s2 hurray for little girl basketball. symphogear s2 well singing madoka is back. freezing s2 sure alaska & "detour" in middle door open for s3? yea quite batch of 2013 new anime spoiler[in a while update on my dub view of 2013] |
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Fencedude5609
Posts: 5088 |
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Oops, oh well. I still think thats a silly category though. |
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spoony
 Posts: 117 Location: Illinois, US |
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Interesting ideas! I also was trying to figure out why the Titans are so creepy when they have the feature of a normal person. My sister suggested it was because their expressions don't change. Their faces are pretty much frozen in a wide-eyed leer no matter what. We got a lot of all-around creepiness in 2013, didn't we? Is this the new trend? |
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