Do ugly anime characters turn you off to a good anime?

Kusoyaro · Post by **Kusoyaro** » Wed Apr 06, 2005 2:09 pm

Actually, that's one reason that I haven't really been able to get into Full Metal Alchemist...the main guy just looks like a dick

Flammen_Tier · Post by **Flammen_Tier** » Wed Apr 06, 2005 3:37 pm

its all about the story and how fast i can get into it...

Kaivy · Post by **Kaivy** » Wed Apr 06, 2005 3:48 pm

i used to base it on how it looks, but now i give them a chance with how the story is.

DTJB · Post by **DTJB** » Wed Apr 06, 2005 4:24 pm

I always judge an anime on how well the plot is, never on the looks of a character. Anyone who judges on looks is just yet another clueless fanboy/girl.

x_rex30 · Post by **x_rex30** » Wed Apr 06, 2005 4:45 pm

DTJB wrote:I always judge an anime on how well the plot is, never on the looks of a character. Anyone who judges on looks is just yet another clueless fanboy/girl.

BULL SHIT!!

I'm no fanboy and I care a lot about story, but I also care a lot about the art/animation. It's like liking a song because it has good lyrics, but the vocalist SUCKS!!! Srry ain't buying it. People go "but, but the lyrics!!!", and I go "If ya like music based off basic repetitive beats, and some lyric buster who sucks as a vocalist, then maybe you should just start reading poetry, and have a basic tempo demo on a piano playing in the background as you read it". lol, that's a lot of reasons I don't like a lot of rap. If you ignore the lyrics and actually listen to the song, the song sounds like crap. Music is the art of sound, not the art of lyrics. lol, OK, I'm startin' to drift off topic here!

[/ramble]

supersayian313 · Post by **supersayian313** » Wed Apr 06, 2005 9:33 pm

well luckily kuwabarra didnt ruin yu yu hakusho for me. so i guess it dosnt bother me so much. he has the voice to match his looks too.

inuyasha_girl_1 · Post by **inuyasha_girl_1** » Wed Apr 06, 2005 10:24 pm

sesomaru

scars the HECK out of me

srocketa · Post by **srocketa** » Thu Apr 07, 2005 9:09 am

Whether I like an anime or not depends on if the story grips me, and if the characters are interesting enough you want to know more about them. 'Ugly' characters can be interesting. But I have to admit good looking characters do help A LOT *bishonen obsessive*

But just good looking characters alone are not enough to make an anime work, I mean i 'Meine Liebe'...all the characters are really attractive in my opinion, but the story...*falls asleep*

Kusoyaro wrote:Actually, that's one reason that I haven't really been able to get into Full Metal Alchemist...the main guy just looks like a dick

One of the reasons I liked FMA is because of how the main character looks lol! but it's only one reason, the main reason I like FMA is that I think it has an excellent story. And plot just gets more complex.

OtakuMan22 · Post by **OtakuMan22** » Thu Apr 07, 2005 9:17 am

BULL SHIT!! I'm no fanboy and I care a lot about story, but I also care a lot about the art/animation.

AH! You fell into a misconception trap!

Art/Animation IS important into making an anime good. Hacknyed half-ass animation, such as when hair changes color for no good reason, or when something looks like it's moving in just two frames, will make an anime bad no matter what. It's hard to sit through an anime when it just looks sloppy, like they just didn't care.

But that isn't the issue. THE CHARACTER DESIGN is! Take Perfect Blue by Satoshi Kon or Ghost in the Shell movies 1 and 2 directed by Mamoru Oshii. The character designs in these anime are not the typical wide-eyed, big mouthed forms we all know and love from series such as Love Hina, or Azumanga Daioh. Yet, the background art, the animation, and visuals are all fluid, stunning, and gourgeous... but with fugly people.

I'm talking characters that are INTENTIONALLY ugly!

Now the thing is that the anime referenced above are masterpieces in terms of story-telling and drawing a viewer in.

BUT, I'm under the impression that many young, and naieve, anime fans will dismiss these movies, and other anime series, films, etc., without even a passing glance because they don't like the character design.

The webcomic Something Positive put it best when they ask you to spay your cat girl. Little teeny bopper fanboys and fangirls that get so wrapped up in the popular series and super cute characters that they never realize what makes anime great and superior over other animation.

I intend to do my part to enlighten the new and the young that anime does not have to be "cute", "Bishoujo", "Bishounen", "Super-deformed" to be good. If they stick to only liking what they see on the outside, then they will never reach the state where they will come to like what is on the inside. The REAL good stuff.

Oh yeah, and to sum up my earlier point: Bad art/animation does NOT equal ugly anime characters.

~Otaku-Man

OzzieAlThor79 · Post by **OzzieAlThor79** » Thu Apr 07, 2005 11:29 am

x_rex30 wrote:
DTJB wrote:I always judge an anime on how well the plot is, never on the looks of a character. Anyone who judges on looks is just yet another clueless fanboy/girl.
BULL SHIT!! I'm no fanboy and I care a lot about story, but I also care a lot about the art/animation. It's like liking a song because it has good lyrics, but the vocalist SUCKS!!! Srry ain't buying it. People go "but, but the lyrics!!!", and I go "If ya like music based off basic repetitive beats, and some lyric buster who sucks as a vocalist, then maybe you should just start reading poetry, and have a basic tempo demo on a piano playing in the background as you read it".

Bob Dylan is one of the greatest musicians ever and he doesn't exactly have an operatic voice. He was a music pioneer and if you don't own one of his greatest hits albums you are missin out. You don't have to be some perfect voiced guy to have music that is classic.

OtakuMan22 wrote:

Oh yeah, and to sum up my earlier point: Bad art/animation does NOT equal ugly anime characters.

~Otaku-Man

Bingo. Seriously folks, look back in the history of Anime. Show's like Utena, Sailor moon, Evangelion, etc. Jagged edges on the face (seriously, the characters on those shows could pop baloons with their noses), the fact that in a few of the shows I mentioned you could still see a person's face even if it was covered with hair, etc., it all is tacky looking comapered to show's coming out here in the 21st century.

The question shouldn't be: "Is character design important?"

The question should be: "Does the character design fit the series animation and storyline goals?"

Look at the "Getbackers". It routinely goes back and forth between crisp, clean looking characters to slightly deformed to way out of whack and plain old ugly. It WORKS with that show. It's the vibe of the show and the characters that they are a bit emotional and over react to both good and bad things.

Doing something like that in shows like Evangelion, Beserk, Rahxephon, Perfect Blue, Akira, etc. simply wouldn't make sense.

Don't be a graphic-whore is all I ask. Give every show a chance or your just being silly.