Mallus said:
I phrased that badly (shouldn't post right before bed). I should have left it at "Anime's best features are often character and (often radical) plot development. The kind of things you that you can't, by definition, get from viewing single episodes".
It may be Joyce, Mann and Milton rolled into one, but if I can't stand to watch the damn thing because of the style of animation and the vapid dialogue, then it doesn't really matter how cool the characters are or how twisty the plot is.
Mallus said:
I guess I just don't understand the "infantile" part, or rather, I don't see the difference netween anime and what's made here. I mean, isn't a lot science fiction and fantasy product essentially juvenile in nature?
Okay, first, I never made any attempt at a comparison between
anime and other animation styles, or
anime and other forms of adventure storytelling. My comments are strictly about my reactions to what I saw in the programs.
Second, infantilism is at the heart of
anime. Do you know why cartoon characters are drawn with big eyes? Because of a hard-wired response in the mammalian brain intended to protect juveniles from harm by adults - baby mammals have heads and eyes out of proportion to their bodies as a visual cue that they are to be nurtured, not competed with.
Anime takes this and applies it to what are ostensibly adult characters, and for me the juxtaposition of these features, these child-adults, is off-putting.
And don't get me started on the police robots with little girl voices. . . :\