The Anime Problem

Ok, I'm not a big fan of anime. I'm not a fan of anime at all, in fact. That's because I see a fundamental flaw with anime: it never knows when to stop.

An anime starts out with a basic plot that the story generally follows, then it does a complete 180 & never really comes back. It's like Naruto; I began watching the tv show when it came on Cartoon Network. I kinda liked it, it had a nice solid plot. Naruto has to become the Fourth Hokage or whatever. So I watch it for a while, but the story begins dragging on & on & on & ON. It strays completely away from the original concept. It now has, probably, a ton of manga & a ton of different shows, none of which related to the original plot. It went from Naruto saying "I'll be the Fourth Hokage errrr" at least twice an episode to a bunch of random bs. Anime should END, not go on forever like it's being made up as the creators go along.

For example, I'll make my own anime: "Super Robot Quest"

A guy has to destroy an evil robot that wants to take over the world. The guy goes on a big journey trying to figure out how to destroy it, then does. The End.

Sure, it would be longer & have much more detail, but that's all an anime should consist of, with maybe a few sidetracks.

But instead, the creators would drag the story on forever:

"But the the evil robot's soul comes back & try to take over"
"They destroy that robot then his half brother tries to take over"
*A complete spin-off series completely unrelated to the main topic*
"They kill the new guy then an ancient evil robot awakens"

It's like a soap opera. That's what I don't like about anime, it doesn't know when to stop. Take Avatar: The Last Airbender for example (idk if you'd consider it an anime or not, but whatever); it had a definite story with a finite end. It had around 60 or 70 episodes, then ended. And it was a great series too. It would be perfectly acceptable if they wanted to create a new series now since they wrapped the original up.

I cringe when I see people continually watching anime when it drags on forever like that.

So, does anybody here agree with me?

Most animes are like actually not like Naruto. Naruto has filler episodes which are completely pointless to the plot and are only there to do like the name applies and take up time. The whole concept of a filler episode is not limited to anime however, you will find filler episodes in almost every show. Another way fillers are used is to take a break from the action of the plot and give the viewers a little break. Fillers are not always a bad thing though if they are used properly and sparingly.

Avatar the last air bender did in fact have fillers and but it was still a great show. Technically Avatar the last air bender is a cartoon not an anime but the premise is the same. I enjoyed watching Avatar and I enjoy watching Naruto but just because I watch Naruto does not mean I agree with or even like the way they use fillers. The sequel to Naruto, Naruto Shippuden was doing much better until about 15 episodes ago where they started to do fillers again.

Most animes use a very small amount of fill episodes, the one's that really abuse the fillers are the shonen jump animes. Just to name a few Bleach,Naruto,One Piece, etc. With those animes I completely agree with you about having to many fillers. The longer the show the greater chance there is that fillers will be in it.

Wow I typed a lot. I'm sorry if I appear to be condescending I'm not trying to be. I just feel that you might want to try some other animes out besides the Shonen Jump animes.

Anime is Japan's version of Cartoons (except drawn A LOT better.....and actually has a plot...*glares at Spongebob*), they will never end. Besides, Anime's usually go on for a long periods of time, not like Family Guy, The Simpsons, or even Spongebob, who will truly never stop..........it'll look like they're over, then "On an ALL NEW (Insert one of the three's names here)" XP.

I completely disagree with you, Coach.

First of all, I think you don't have a clear idea of what anime is. Anime is Japanese animation. Simple. Saying anime doesn't know when to end is like saying books or movies never know when to end either. You can't take a single example of the industry and say most of the others follow it, because that's simply not the case. In the same way you can't say music is awful because Lady Gaga is awful, you can't say anime always drags on because Naruto drags on.

As for the actual anime duration, I can't name more than ten series that last more than 100 episodes; however, I guarantee I can easily name over fifty that have less than 30. And even with the longest anime series, I don't see what's the big deal. The Simpsons and Family Dad go on and on and on without any sense of plot and I don't blame the entire industry for it. Like a person above has said, you need to break out of the usual Shonen Jump anime and see what's out there.

Like it's being made up as the creators go along.

Also, this particular passage caught my attention. That is the case. 99 percent of the anime series are based off of mangas, and mangas are released by chapters. The whole story is only published once the chapters have been released - and, in the meantime, anime episodes are also coming out. Of course that's what it feels like, that's exactly what happens.

I agree with Vasco here.
Only a few animes are getting dragged out to name a few would be Bleach, Naruto, and One Piece. That's actually all I know of currently. There are 100's of animes with less than 50 episodes. Basing anime in general by Naruto or Bleach is a terrible mistake. Both of those are very long and full of fillers; the second one is a terrible example because... well it just sucks.

Anime should END, not go on forever like it's being made up as the creators go along.

As said above, most of the time it is being made up along the way. Most of the time anime is based off a manga that is already in the writing. Sometimes of course they are based off of already finished pieces. Such as Deltora Quest which was based off of a finished book series. And some are being made along the way.

Fillers are in almost all animes. Longer they are means more fillers. Alot of animes end when they should, they don't keep adding things along the way, changing the plot. Code Geass (my personal favorite) was around 50 episodes total and had a good ending. Though I would have liked it to explain a bit more of what happened to Lelouch. Also Naruto still has the same plot. It hasn't added anything or changed at all, its just telling a story of him becoming stronger and overcoming challenges on his way to his dream.

i have to say here that coach is making a judgement without knowing the facts.

as you said, coach, you are not a fan of anime. this right here is the problem: you don't know enough about the genre to know how it actually works. yes, there are some anime series that drag on and on, naruto being a prime example, but there are many more anime that last for a definite number of episodes that have an ongoing plot with some filler episodes (like chobits or cowboy bebop, for example)

so, coach, watch more anime and get the idea of how it really is before you start saying what is wrong with it.

I think you're being a little too damning.

Now, granted, Naruto goes on and on needlessly, and as a Pok�mon fan I'm in the uncomfortable position of not having any interest in the anime due to the bad job of dubbing that 4Kids used to do and the tendency to baulk whenever Ash is about to come of age. However, there are a few solid anime series out there, notably the Dragonball shows — which I'm surprised hasn't been brought up yet — which follows the entire genealogy of Goku and Gohan in the fashion of Coronation Street or Days of our Lives and actually grasps the viewer's interest. (Alas, like Pok�mon, it's in the uncomfortable position itself of having a gimmicky and semantically irrelevant movie associated with it — only worse in this case.)

The point is that you shouldn't just take one look at an anime series and conclude that every one of them is one and the same; it'd be like saying CSI is the same as General Hospital.

The irony here is that the animes that do this (Naruto, Bleach, One Piece. Yu-Gi-Oh! and Digimon to some extent) are adaptations of mangas, the japanese version of comic books. Keep mind that several American comic books have been going on for fourty to seventy years. Also note American animated programmes such as The Simpsons, currently at over 400 episodes.

Most anime series only last about thirteen to twenty-six episodes, give or take an episode or two. Its all about the fan demand that fuels the likelihood of more episodes (the above-listed filler arcs, Haruhi getting a second series, movie and two net animations, K-On! getting a double-length second series and now a movie) or cut things short (Baccano's length was cut in half before getting three DVD-exclusive episodes later on).

As has already been mentioned, japanese animation goes (mostly) more for a consistant, ongoing plot, something that is rather rare in american animation. The stories can be fairly mature and give some insight in to the economy of the past (Spice and Wolf), current politics (Eden of the East) or possible futures (Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex). Some that many might criticise don't have a plot still have a large focus on character development, in contrast to animercan shows which can't do that to such an extent due to having to keep status quo. That's not to say that anime doesn't go for 'stand alone' episodes, but some of these still tend to give some information that ties in to the plot at some point. Take Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex, which I'll put in to spoiler tags due to possible plot spoilers.

Spoiler:

In short; something that doesn't seem like much pays off at the end.

I personally find that anime makes better use of music than its western counterpart as well. While both will have themes that are reguarly played during particular moments, anime is the series more likely to have themes catered to one specific moment, which can really help create a moment. To once again slip in to spoiler territory reguarding one example of Toradora...

Spoiler:

It's something that very rarely happens in american animation.

I could give more examples of both spoiler-marked examples above, as well as others, but I feel I might be ranting a bit too much now, so I should probably cut it short here. To summarise, look past the anime that hogs all of the attention and you can find some absolute gold out there.

well done, cervantes, i couldn't have said it better myself.

another good example of an anime series with an ongoing plot is elfin lied. it was a short 12 episodes but left it open to do more. another good one is englic layer, which ran for i think 26 episodes, which could also possibly be continued. but then there are ones that have already been mentioned, like naturo, pokemon, bleach, and even--which nobody has mentioned uet--inuyasha. i will admit that i like inuyasha, but it does drag on like the other series mentioned.

in short, you can't judge all anime from just a few. there are more series that follow an ongoing plot than there are series that drag on and on.

LazyNoob said:

Most animes are like actually not like Naruto. Naruto has filler episodes which are completely pointless to the plot and are only there to do like the name applies and take up time. The whole concept of a filler episode is not limited to anime however, you will find filler episodes in almost every show. Another way fillers are used is to take a break from the action of the plot and give the viewers a little break. Fillers are not always a bad thing though if they are used properly and sparingly.

Avatar the last air bender did in fact have fillers and but it was still a great show. Technically Avatar the last air bender is a cartoon not an anime but the premise is the same. I enjoyed watching Avatar and I enjoy watching Naruto but just because I watch Naruto does not mean I agree with or even like the way they use fillers. The sequel to Naruto, Naruto Shippuden was doing much better until about 15 episodes ago where they started to do fillers again.

Most animes use a very small amount of fill episodes, the one's that really abuse the fillers are the shonen jump animes. Just to name a few Bleach,Naruto,One Piece, etc. With those animes I completely agree with you about having to many fillers. The longer the show the greater chance there is that fillers will be in it.

Wow I typed a lot. I'm sorry if I appear to be condescending I'm not trying to be. I just feel that you might want to try some other animes out besides the Shonen Jump animes.

are you kidding? those fillers are terrible!

Wow. There are a lot of people here arguing why fillers shouldn't be called "mainstream" in the Anim�. Lol. But I agree.

I watch a lot of Anim� and read tons of manga as well. And most of the time, the only shows that have fillers are (as LazyNoob says)

the one's that really abuse the fillers are the shonen jump animes.

I completely agree with this and it is the case now that the Shounen Jump manga has no started putting fillers in there as well. Although, I guess they do relate to the main story in a way but this can be shown near the end rather than in the middle.

But unlike the Anim� equivalent, it is done sparingly and properly. A break was needed from of the situations in the manga but a break can only last so long.

Some examples of Anim� that don't have fillers or use them sparingly are: (These are from my personal favourites)

Clannad Series
Onegai Teacher/Twins
Hikaru no Go
Mashiro-iro Symphony: The Color of Lovers
Toradora!

One last point, Avatar: The Last Airbender was a cartoon, not an Anim�. (Cartoons are Modern-Western variety(America/UK) while Anim� are Modern-Eastern Variety (Japan/Korea).
And Avatar: The Last Airbender was based on the original comic series - that's why it was only 60-70 episodes long.

Anim� usually only lasts 7-35 episodes - Most are 12-24 episodes . Only the ones that get a good review from viewers last longer.

Most animes are 13 to 24 or 27 episodes. Some like Fullmetal Alchemist: Botherhood are considerably longer, but have next to 0 filler episodes and never stray from the original plot.
The animes which drag on & on like Bleach, Pok�mon, Naruto, etc. are just simply money making machines. The whole purpose to keep them going is that a lot of people in a lot of places are crazy for the merchandise, the DVDs, BluRays, etc. They'd be stupid not to milk the Franchise for as long as possible. When you scrutinize Bleach closely, only a few arcs are actually enjoyable. The rest are mainly filler arcs. Same with the others. Nowadays, if you say "I love Bleach!" or "Bleach is awesome" on any anime discussion board, you are pretty likely to get quite a few friend requests. Especially if you like a popular character.
Of course this is based on what I think, so it is biased a bit, in the fact that I don't like Bleach, and I liked the Johto saga in Pok�mon, even Naruto for a bit.