>>all these EVA reqs>>>/m/ is over there you faggots, we're talking about real movies not navel-gazing brown bunny tier bullshit.
>>1669Anyway, this guy has it right. Anime has piss-poor plotting/pacing because the japanese studios are skill-focused. US directors come up from running the camera or editing the films. Japanese directors tend to move up from being sound/music/stage design etc. Their studios and fans respond better to
technical mastery.
Also I think Miyazaki got stuck in a rut after Laputa and Nausicaa, everything since then has been one of those repainted for the next generation. Still pretty as fuck to look at, but they seem a tad 'emptier' than what he started his career with
(also why mangas always seem like the best source/adaption material. Japanese are shite at pacing and filler, but you don't need to explain between-panel events)
>>1688It's the Mouse's connections yo. Even before they signed an official deal, people always called Miyazaki "The Eastern Disney"
This pre-sets your mindset a bit, making you more able to consume it uncritically.
anyway 95% of the time, you can be sure of one of two things. Anime movies are either excessively drawn out with a few mindblowing crafted parts (Patlabor movie is a good example, with lengthy directionless dialogues that are Japan's cure for insomnia, including one Dada-tier 10 minute conversation in a car where nobody moves anything but their mouths.) or they botch the ending with some crazy fast sudden resolution, either deus ex machina (Miyazaki does this a bunch, Akira as well) or crazy action stunts, usually performed by a hero who just 'leveled up' and figured out SSJ5. (Locke the Superman, Genocyber, Wicked City, Darkside Blues, their endings are all really sudden)
I notice that a lot of things that start off great do the 'random descent into gore in the last ten minutes.'
This is probably some weird cultural thing I'm not aware of. It feels like they read too much Hamlet and think killing off everyone is the best way to cap it off.
Hell, sometimes it actually surprises you. You're getting into that shit, and then it ends. And you see there staring at the credits like "What? That was it? But what about/what happened to…"
And then you look around and find either the manga ended even weirder, or that really
is as much as they've ever done with the work.
I can understand how weebs are born from that, actually, because their art/genre-embracing films leave you feeling like you just ate a big plate of chinese food. "What the fuck? Where's the payoff? That's the end? I FEEL CHEATED!"
So the weebs gravitate to things that never end, or shows that rely on boorish WAFF to make the audience feel better about being cheated.
I rate essentially all anime as 'guilty pleasure' for that reason, because there are always some critical flaws that would never be allowed to pass in the west, or it's just an exceptional above-par hero worship story (Giant Robo). If you watch some old samurai movies or read some old literature, it's crazy how much of it is descended from the story path choices those first created. I'm sure someone out there has made a list,
When they try to be artsy in a more western direction though (the so-called 'mindfuck animes') they tend to be spectacular failures, though entertaining to watch implode.
>>2160 Never seen it, but it only makes sense as it isn't constrained by a time limit.
>>3663Gonna go with everyone else and say Innocence is much better.
Original GitS to me always felt more like a 'tech demo,' both in setting and in animation. It was kinda like the difference between Doom and Strife, with Strife being the finished product.
>>it's distinctively Japanese, and if your idiosyncracies generally pull you away from that, then it's probably not for you.Yeah, also this. There's an inherent oddness to us feeble gaijin about how they go about viewing spirituality.
I mean they get up to some
weird shit. It's after all, a culture which believes unused/unloved household items will eventually become angry and possessed and attack you. (which is pretty amusing considering how materialistic they've been in recent generations)
anyway I've never really been entrenched in or against any genre so I wouldn't have a clue as to what's a 'decent starter.'
If you don't mind a whole bunch of shorts you can always go with Robot Carnival.
Which by the way has one of the most ridiculous openings ever.
If you don't mind a complete misunderstanding of period science and feel like a 'middle-brow popcorn kids movie' there's always Steamboy, as well. It doesn't rely on Deus, and I felt the pacing was perfect. Now if only I could get that in a movie meant for grownups.
(People rec'd me Metropolis, but I say Metropolis is junk, it relies on everyone except Rock being retarded for the plot to function. According to wikipedo it's two separate works stitched together, that's probably why.)