Tags
Chihayafuru, Fall Anime 2011, Fate/Zero, Mawaru Penguindrum, Mirai Nikki, Persona 4 The Animation
Fall Anime 2011 started with loads of good shows to choose from. I’m actually enjoying the list of anime that we have this season compared to the ones that we had last summer.
Now that I’m heading to my third season of aniblogging, I realized that visual sensation and perception are such important key factors whether I’m going to initially check out or ignore an anime. Honestly, in selecting which to follow, of all the possible ingredients of the show, art is something that I’m mostly concerned. Since anime is a viewing experience, it is only natural that I use animation and graphics as my first layer to filter my list. After all, anime’s is all about bringing words to life wherein the viewers can see and experience the movements and aesthetics of the characters and their platform.
Aside from the art, I strongly considered the type of genre that an anime has. Regular visitors of this site might have noticed that I’m a slice-of-life and psychological anime aficionado, and not really a mecha and ecchi fan—though, I would say that I don’t strictly rule these out of my list because I always give an exception. Genre is vital criterion because it defines the architecture of the world that I’m going to get into and the rhetorical situations that I’m going to experience. In addition, it situates me into different discourses that I would like to explore or to be part of. In fact, I extremely rely on this in figuring out the theme that I’m going to blog about or how I foresee my writing.
Further, it is also essential for me to have at least one character that I will enjoy to look at throughout the series. Let’s keep it real, you need an eyegasm to sense something—and it’s not just based on the looks, but also on the personality of the character. You’re going to follow an anime for three months or so, if you don’t have this special character, it’ll be like dinner with strangers wherein you’d rather be alone. Of course, it’s not necessary that you love the character. You can be a sadistic viewer who wants to see a character to be humiliated. Or, you can be an elitist viewer who has nothing to do but to mock and badmouth the show—this kind of viewers are what I don’t understand, they seem to have so much time to waste.
Lastly, plot. Indeed, this is the last thing that I always consider whenever I decide to screen an anime. I would like to enjoy first what I’m seeing before I invest my time analysing the show. As long as the other three conditions are satisfied, I only start minding the plot when I’m already on the fourth or fifth episode. On the other hand, plot and surprises are essential motivators for me to keep up with the show.
So what am I following this season? After watching the first episode…
- Fate/Zero – holy grail discussions, magical whatnots, and nicely done graphics allured me to follow this show.
- Chihayafuru – I have a soft spot for strong-willed, nerd, and weird bishojo. Seeing Chihaya, and even the teenage Taichi, is good enough for me to follow this show. Also, the second episode showed a lot of promise.
- Persona 4 The Animation – this is my most anticipated Fall anime, and its first episode didn’t fail to deliver. Also, Yuu and Chie are such eye-candies.
- Mirai Nikki – I don’t know who the characters are and I wasn’t charmed by its visuals. However, the first episode immensely surprised me with its mystery and psychoticness.
- Mawaru Penguindrum (from the last season) – how can I ever drop this? Its shock-factor continues to seduce me. It’s so predictable that it contains loads of surprises, but the eminence of the twist is so mindboggling.
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Blog Update:
- Aside from having a blog name, I just recently changed the layout. I’m still on the process of arranging it, but any criticisms and suggestions on how to improve it will be gladly appreciated.
Lemmas and Submodalities 
I think those are some pretty basic criteria that any anime should have to be deemed “watchable”. If an anime can’t even fulfill those criteria, then sadly, nobody would want to watch that show. Obviously personal opinions are different per individual, but the general opinion on each anime should be similar.
About the shows you’re watching
Chihayfuru: You have a soft spot for nerd and weird bishoujos? Hmm…I wonder where that comes from XD
Mirai Nikki: Again, personal opinions. While I’ve only seen some screencaps from the first eps, the art definitely appealed to me. At least it felt clean and not as cheap as some other shows
I like Chihayafuru because I like cute things. As for Mirai Nikki, I’m following it because of the plot.
I think Chihayafuru really adheres to the “shoujo” manga art style…if you get my drift, so maybe that’s why you find it “cute”~
As for Mirai Nikki, that yandere lover gets me going every time.
Cool! so you’re watching Mirai Nikki~
I’m following all of these so not much to say here. Good arguments here though I would put character as my top reason to watch a show over pretty graphics, but that’s just me. Anywho, glad to hear your perspective on what factors you focus on when choosing shows.
Graphics is the most essential for me to. If it’s not fun to look at regardless of the good plot, I’m just going to ignore it.
Just finished watching Fate/Zero 03. I’m really digging how grandiose it’s being. It really owns being the supposed more glory and thunder kind of prequel as opposed to the discovery and wonder Fate/stay Night.
Of course I mention these modifiers in consideration of the heroic themes and horror content in the whole franchise.
I agree. And aside from the good plot and graphics, almost all of the characters are enjoying to watch. It’s apparent that this is a well-financed anime.
For me, the number one criteria for a series is that it has to feel like it has meaning. Like there`s something to be gained from watching it. If I think there’s nothing new to be gained in a show, or if it otherwise feels pointless, then I’ll usually avoid it.
Of course for me, “meaning” can mean a great number of things, including catharsis.
I find it hard to make sense of something that is not enjoying to look at that’s why I always initially judge an anime based on its graphics.
There are always exceptions, even with my own list of criterion. I wouldn’t want to miss a really good show just because it’s usually not my cup of tea.
My list is almost similar as yours except I decided not to watch Mirai Nikki and I have a lot more titles on my list. I have a feeling a few of them will be put on hold until the series completes. There are really a lot of good shows this season.
As for your blog layout, it looks good to me. =)
Indeed, there are so many anime to choose from. If only I have a lot of time, I would like to follow 7.
I’m not really planning to watch Mirai Nikki, but the first episode really compelled me. Plus, I enjoy how it’s a game of survival.
Btw, thanks for your feedback about my layout.
I’ll just watch 2-3 episodes of a series and decide afterward based on my feelings and interest toward the series.
No particular deep thinking here…:P
Same here, however, I don’t have high tolerance level that’s why if I don’t like an anime I drop it right. I just wrote this on my journal just to keep a record of my anime experience. ^^
I fully agree with you, actually. I also have a bad habit to judge by the shows opening.
Nowadays, there are a few studios that are a must watch. Shaft is almost always a reason to watch, the same with Kyoto Animation. Gainax and Brain’s Base are two other studios I have an eye on, though I tend to look up info about the show first then.
… and JC Staff. Still wonder why.
To be honest, I’m still not familiar with the different studio, the only one that I can recognize right away is Shaft.
It basically comes down to two factors: Story and hook. I give every series a shot by watching three eps. But if it can’t hook me with its story but then can’t hook me with something else to keep me from continuing, you can forget about me watching it.
But your list seems to be pretty darn good^^
But what exactly makes you hook already tells a lot of factors, right? ^^
I have so small list. I would like to follow seven, but I have to trim my list because I would like to finish everything as soon as the season ends.
For me, the most important thing is probably likeable characters. Even if the story and art are amazing, if I can’t stand the characters, then I can’t stand the show.
At the moment I’m most excited for Mirai Nikki and Fate/Zero. There are some promising slice-of-life shows again, too, though I don’t know if they’ll be able to top Natsume Yuujinchou or Ikoku Meiro no Croisee.
I’m really hoping Mirai Nikki will be a solid series, because I’m really loving the premise for that one–and I’m in the mood for a good, tense thriller.
Plotwise, I think Mirai Nikki has the strongest, second is Fate/Zero. If only Mirai Nikki has a much better art, it’ll attract more hype. And same here, I’m expecting good things from Mirai Nikki, however, it’s a manga adaptation, hopefully there wouldn’t be too much spoilers about it.
I don’t usually think deeply about choosing a series to watch. If it looks like it has the entertainment potential, then I can usually stick with it and accept all its flaws. I have never dropped any series so far once I’ve started watching it, so I can’t really comment much about it.
I keep forgetting to add this to my previous comments, but I’ll say that I really like your layout. It’s nicely laid out, and I do love your fonts!
It only seems like I thought deeply of this, but in fact I didn’t. I think I just really know what I wanted to see when picking an anime. As for dropping an anime, if it fails to impress me, I drop it easily depending on how many criteria it satisfies.
Btw, thanks for the feedback on my layout. I was thinking perhaps the font of this theme might be too small, but I’m glad for the positive feedback.
Reading your list, I couldn’t agree more. It’s much the same for me. Do I like it visually? Ok, I go on. Then does it have fanservice tits or shots? I most definately will look away. Then what about the summary? Does the plot sound interesting? If yes, I’ll check some episodes.That includes me checking motifs and genres. I can’t watch space battles. I tried it this morning actually for Macross F. AltoxSheryl appealed to me, but I couldn’t understand a thing and the battles were to me yawn-inducing. When the time comes, the opening song plays also a role of me approving the series or not. It’s the first impression after all; if it’s boring
this means that the studio didn’t want to promote that bad their product and didn’t care abou making the anime a thrilling/fun ride. Why should I care in that case? Although if the plot wins me… that’s it. Like in the case of Kaiba by Yuasa. The opposite end would be the fiasco with Hanasaku Iroha…
This season I’m definately watching Chihayafuru and also Sekaiitchi Hatsukoi. I need great graphics, fluff and a bit more sugar to lift me up. I know these series don’t have a great plot, but can carry out what they do pretty good.
I don’t really mind fanservice as long as it’s done artistically and with sense. However, if it’s just for mere mockery and exploitation, I will definitely drop it right away. I guess we pretty much value the basic aspects almost pretty the same. Yeah, big part of my first impression heavily relies on the visuals although an interesting plot can reverse that.
Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to watch Sekaiitchi Hatsukoi’s first season that’s why i’m not following it. But one of these days, it’s something that I would like to watch in marathon, just like what I did with Junjou Romantica.
After belatedly reading your interesting post, SnippetTee, I spent some thought about my own critera for choosing a show.
There are some genres which I avoid and others which I like (pretty much the same as you mention). Usually I don’t watch shows without cute female characters (which ruled out Kimi to Boku).
I rarely watch a show just for the animation quality. I think about dropping Guilty Crown because currently the animation is the only thing what keeps me following this show. On the other hand, Idolmaster at first didn’t interest me that much but I watched it just for the awesome production values.
In any case, the general aesthetics/ atmosphere of a show are important to me and can easily make up for lack of female characters (e.g. UN-GO which, however, does have at least one cute girl).
I completely agree with you that the plot is the least important part. I love those fluffy shows where the plot is basically the passing of time (Tamayura)!
Also I agree with you on Chihayafuru (great art! cute bishoujo!), on Mirai Nikki (excellent, complex characters!) and of course on Penguindrum which is just very rich in many aspects.
Some shows I watch because they are continuations of shows which I liked or I guess I would like (Last Exile, Fate/Zero). I’m also watching Shana III because I love Shana.
Oh, and I’m usually watching at least one show as a balance which is just as ridiculous as possible. Currently, Boku wa Tomodachi and Ben-to fall in this category.
So now I am stuck with far too many shows to follow through this season and can’t really decide which ones to drop!
After seeing Guilty Crown’s first episode, I thought that it has the best animation and design of the season (except for the robots). However, I didn’t follow that series because I’m only limited to 5 anime, and other anime weigh much more when all of the aspects are combined. As for idolm@ster, I decided to drop it because the first episode didn’t impress me. Now, I’m hearing good things about thebut it’s too late for me to catch up. I guess next time I will be more patient in deciding.
When I was writing this journal, I thought that readers might find it shallow how I ranked the elements. But I’m glad that few readers also share the same way of how I judge an anime. I definitely agree with your points too. I guess the only difference between you and I is you’re considering because they’re continuations of the anime that you had seen Unfortunately, I haven’t seen the Late Exile, neither Fate/Stay Night.
I also want to follow more anime like Boku wa Tdmodachi and Ben-to however my schedule plus my blogging can’t handle that much. Maybe if I’m not blogging I might be watching more.
Btw, I noticed that this is the first time you commented on my post, thank you for your visit! ^^
Thanks for the welcome! I’ve been following your blog for a while and find it well-made, beautifully illustrated and though-provoking. On this issue I simply had to post since I reflect my own choice criteria quite often! I wonder if it can tell me something about myself to figure out which shows I like and why I like anime in general.
Just as a sidenote, I didn’t watch Last Exile I or Fate/ Stay Night, either! I currently lack the time to catch up with the first seasons of continuations so I simply start with the continuation if it’s a franchise with a high reputation. In both cases this worked fine so far!
I really appreciate how you perceive my blog, thank you. ^^
Lately, I’m struggling to keep up with my lists as well but I’m still following Fate/Stay Night. However, as for Last Exile, I already dropped it. It really has wonderful CG’s but I can only take as much that’s why since it was released last, I just decided not to follow it.