Disdain for new fantasy

[DonTadow]

And it's an art style that doesn't grab everyone. As noted, most of my dislikes of it actually stem from the art style as much as the plot elements. It's like if 4th Edition were to use Salvador Dali surrealist pieces as their main source of art, I'd probably be turned off to the rules in the book, even if they were good. Art (or lack of it) can heavily influence ones' impressions of the rest of a work.

Anime is not a "consistant" art style. And outside of the ethnic heritage of the characters shares the same plot lines and stories you find in regular fiction. I fail to see any real "anime" qualities in any of the 4e artwork I have seen. You show me an overboobed girl and I"ll believe u.

Other than that, I hardly see the supposed "hatred" of anime, other than false blame because 4e, as 3.5 did, is modernizing their artwork. It's not anime style, its how fantasy is pretty much drawn these days. Sure, we can dig up some 70s and 80s artists but the newer fantasy lovers would hate it and the old ones would still stay away because they love their 1e.

 

[Nifft]

Have you seen the kind of people who are into RPGs?

Let's just say the Internet is a wonderful invention, because it allows intelligent communication between geeks of all body types and odors.

Off to shower (again), -- N

 

[Desdichado]

Anime is not a "consistant" art style.

And the claim that anime styles are too broad and diverse to define is somewhat disingenious, IMO. If I say, "I don't like that piece of art; it's too anime-looking" then everyone will know what I mean, but a handful of anime fans will attempt to dogpile me with pedantry regardless, citing obscure titles that no one else recognizes.

I mean, I see your point, but at the same time, if you can't see his, IMO, you're purposefully trying not to.

 

[RFisher]

What I disliked the most in 3e new style was not stuff I perceived as "anime" (or rather "manga") but comics... From my point of view, comics art style is as "alien" as manga art style. And both of them seems related.

Some of my favorite D&D art is the Bill Willingham stuff from the old Basic & Expert sets. Not only was it very comic-book style, he's since become an honest-to-goodness comic-book artist. Those books also had lots of Jeff "Villians & Vigilantes" Dee stuff, some of which I like just as much as Willingham's stuff.

Perhaps it's the influence of pulp fiction on both the adventure comic & D&D that makes them seem like a natural fit to me.

 

[Lonely Tylenol]

And the claim that anime styles are too broad and diverse to define is somewhat disingenious, IMO. If I say, "I don't like that piece of art; it's too anime-looking" then everyone will know what I mean

You don't suppose that they'll know what you mean because most people have the same limited experience with anime, and so when they say "anime," what they mean is "the anime that people who don't watch anime are likely to have been tangentially exposed to"? In that case, it's not much of an argument against DonTadow's pont.

 

[WayneLigon]

edit: I'm not really attempting to suggest that if you don't like anime, you just haven't watched enough, or the right ones. I just feel like I have a duty to point out when an entire culture's worth of art and literature is being mischaracterized because the representative works aren't really representative of anything but a particular genre. It's like fantasy novels. If all you've read is Terry Brooks, you're not going to imagine China Meiville is sitting on the shelf further down.

I think that's a very good way of putting it. Usually when people say 'I despise anime' they go on to mention the cheaper early anime that hit the American shores, usually on network television; almost all of it was heavily, heavily edited for violence and more adult themes (if you ever watch Science Ninja Team Gatchaman and compare it to the American showings of 'Battle of the Planets' or 'G Force' you'll think you're watching two utterly seperate shows and in a sense you'd be correct). If all you're exposed to is the cheap edited stuff, then no wonder some people have such a terrible adverse reaction to it.

 

[Hairfoot]

if you ever watch Science Ninja Team Gatchaman...

No. You must be making that up.

 

[RFisher]

You don't suppose that they'll know what you mean because most people have the same limited experience with anime, and so when they say "anime," what they mean is "the anime that people who don't watch anime are likely to have been tangentially exposed to"? In that case, it's not much of an argument against DonTadow's pont.

Well, I never assumed that people who don't watch anime have all been exposed to roughly the same subset of it. I don't think that's generally been my experience.

But then, it used to be that you pretty much had to go out of your way to see any anime. Perhaps these days there is such a common subset.

 

[TwinBahamut]

No. You must be making that up.

Science Ninja Team Gatchaman... The origin of all sentai (read: Power Rangers) series ever. I saw one of the edited versions as a kid (G-Force, I think), but never got a chance to see the real thing. I should look into fixing that.

 

[Cadfan]

No. You must be making that up.

Proper nouns translate really, really badly.

Think of it this way. Whenever japanese people watch an american movie that has, maybe, a mystical sword with a japanese name that americans think sounds really cool, they're rolling in their seats laughing: "They named the sword The Pointy Poker of Mustard Yellow Demon-Pigs? Are they insane???"