No no no Taka is right.
Another is so badly written and overly serious that it loops over to comedy.
They’re simply completely silly, even if brutal.
I wouldn’t say it’s quite that badly written. It’s not exactly a shining example in its field but it’s not terrible either. Although regarding its writing, wouldn’t that just be a problem of its adaption into anime form? (I haven’t read the book, yet, so I can’t speak for the original material.)
From a certain perspective, you could say that’s true for all “horror” since the concepts explored are usually too out there to be taken seriously. In that case it would be a problem of the genre rather than the work.
I haven’t seen other horror anime like Another (I guess Hell Girl could be construed as horror, but I don’t consider it to be), so if anybody has a recommendation for something they felt was done better I’d like to check it out. 
I don’t think there are any “horror” anime that can really be considered horror. At a stretch, the only name I could say is Ghost Hunt, and even then it’s not very effective.
You either get stuff like Higurashi and Elfen Lied which are just violence, or things like Tokyo Ghoul and Parasyte which only get labeled as horror because they have monsters in.
Sometimes you get things like Shiki or Ghost Hound, but even they aren’t scary. Just slightly atmospheric at times.
Fear doesn’t seem to really work in anime.
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ARIA seems a lot like a story I’ve considered writing; a slice of life in a very alien setting. I should give it a watch some time.
Same with Lain, I’ve had my eyes on that for a while.
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Not sure how many of you guys are interested, but this is the first preview I’ve seen of Nagato Yuki’s anime:
Found by accident.
The difference between the animation studios is, of course, pretty obvious here. Still, it doesn’t look bad to me.
It’s going to be a good anime year for me. (Anyone else?) Yuki’s anime… Charlotte… Some really interesting sounding animes posted in the top ten non-key anime thread that I’ll have to check out too. I haven’t seen, but am now interested in: Bounen no Xamdou, Guilty Crown, Mawaru Penguindrum (potentially), Mirai Nikki, Planetes, Zegapain. I have a lot to get caught up on…
I depends on the kind of horror we are talking about here as far as jump scare horror goes no I’ve never watched an anime that makes me flinch. But if we move over into what is one of my favorite genres which is pysch-horror I think we have a different story.
Higurashi is by far and away one of my favorite series ever (I’m talking whole package VN,manga,anime) and a large reason for that is the hook that caught me and kept me there for the ride. Yes the later part of Higurashi does have its copious amounts of violence; however, you can’t ignore the early setting of the story. The first arc is still possibly my favorite arc, the atmosphere alone hooked me in, and the horror comes into play shortly there after. I don’t know what you would consider horror, but the idea of finding yourself all of a sudden in a small town removed from the most part from society at large, and it has become obvious that the town has a secret that it is hiding and you haven’t gotten too close to it, and you can’t trust anyone especially not your friends…that is horror to me Higurashi plays it perfectly.
I’m kind of weird when it comes to horror I guess I don’t find most horror movies scary Paranormal Activity for example might as well have been a comedy I laughed through most of the movie. I’m much bigger on realistic atmospheric tension to create fear, which there are anime that can pull this off. Ignoring the writing Another did do a good job of building an atmosphere early in the show (granted they moved away from it at the end and basically turned it into a kill fest) but every episode had a very recognizable amount of tension that bound them together much the same way the final destination movies do. You know everywhere is dangerous and no one is safe, but have no clue where is will come from next.
I think the tension management of Another was pretty much perfect. Maybe it’s just because I’m not very experienced with the horror genre (I did watch several versions of Ju-on, though, so don’t look down on me), but Another always kept me on edge from the moment I opened the folder to watch the next episode to the preview of the episode after that. The atmosphere was just that good. The pale skin of the characters. The obscure sound of the opening, the lack of movement. Those moments where nobody was doing anything, just staring at the main character. And from a certain point onward, you’d just sit there nervously, knowing that you’ll be seeing another brutal death anytime soon.
Oh yeah, Shiki and Ghost Hound then.
That was so bad that it annoyed me.
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Huh, isn’t SAO one of the most loved? More people know SAO than see anime as a hobby. It’s a good gateway anime for a large audience, and I don’t think anyone could really deny that.
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It’s certainly one of the most loved, but quite a few of the people who dislike it are very vocal about it.
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That post was supposed to be deleted. I posted it because when I saw @Aspirety’s comment I thought everyone could nominate two animes now, but I think it wasn’t that, was it? Anyway, why wasn’t it deleted? I can’t delete it.
When I say one of the most hated, I don’t mean most people dislike it. It just mean it has a big hatedom (people who do everything they can to promote the idea that SAO is shit).
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There are 2 kinds of people that are talking about SAO, Lovers about how its awesome and best, and then haters which cant or dont want to get the point of SAO itself (or just simply dont like it). Therefore promoting it’s very content as “shit”.
It certainly is one of the most loved, but you can also see a large group of people that are anti-SAO. To be honest It’s one of the animes that has a lot of haters. I dont know much animes that gets that much hate to be honest. (maybe its due to my lack of watched popular animes).
I agree with @Takafumi here that its a good gateway, but I have come across a case that if people arent familiar with RPG system they might not get some stuff.
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I’d say I’m in the middle. I liked the first arc of SAO and last arc of SAO II, hated the second of SAO and was indifferent for first arc of SAO II. I wouldn’t call any of them shit though or say any are the best thing ever.
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Anything overhyped or overrated, generally the gateway anime. SAO, AOT, Guilty Crown, KlK, and to some extent, things like Fate, Madoka, Clannad, although the hate for them has lessened over time. The more recent gateways get the most hate.
I think it’s the opposite. The SAO anime is a pretty bad portrayal of an RPG. RPG fans should see something like Log Horizon, or if familiar with the games, .Hack//
Personally I think SAO is terribly written up until MR, which I don’t really have any strong opinion of. The first two Alicization books are great, but it starts to fall downhill again. Some parts of the first arc in the anime were well-done though. Good use of music and animation, and it got pretty hype.
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I didn’t know AOT was that hated. But I think it’s highly overrated. I was expecting to see something excellent because of the reviews (I don’t recall seeing any negative review) , but I was disappointed. It had so much action and death it was hard to breath. I know it was a pretty tense atmosphere, but it’s tiresome to see just fighting and death every time. And the plot was really confusing, with big flashbacks mixing with the story. I didn’t enjoy it at all, it was very boring.
Why do you think is SAO terribly written? Are you talking about the characters or the plot, or both?
@IkaCZ, I don’t like games or RPGs, but I could understand the gaming stuff pretty well because of the context.
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I would say SAO is okay. I don’t think it’s the greatest show ever made but at the same time I don’t think it’s the worst thing that ever happen to mankind. There is stuff to like in SAO, like the animation, the fight scenes, and the music. The second half is pretty bad imo but that doesn’t mean the entire show is immediately terrible.
Not to mention as a former anime reviewer, the SAO hate people give is tiresome and it doesn’t help that the people who hate the show act tyrannical to even those who like the show but can see the show’s misgivings. X__X
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I read a bit of the manga ages ago, and my big problem with it was that the only time something actually happened was once early on, and once at the end of an arc.
An immune cast surrounded by throwaway characters.
Pages and pages dedicated to conversation and bad political drama.
Flashbacks and story hints that never lead to anything.
An annoying male power-play protagonist who gives the same “emotional” speech every chapter with no real meaning.
An obsessive protagonist who juxtaposes her OPness with a complete reliance on the male power-play protag.
A “smart” guy who is scared 24/7 and doesn’t really provide enough for how much focus he gets.
There’s a bunch of things… and honestly, I forgive it for most of those things, because I expect them from an actioney shounen manga. The fact that it became immensely popular, clouded anime ranking with too many 10/10 scores from people who’ve only watched 5 shows, and that I can’t go to a convention without someone in that ugly brown shirt winning a cosplay content, made me dislike the show.
It’s not special, but it does what it set out to do. There’s so much out there that deserves popularity, but AOT… I don’t know why it ever did.
The writer was inexperienced. That’s all. I still enjoyed them.
The first book was essentially just a bad .Hack//. It had minimal development, and jumped a lot of hurdles. It was well-timed though, and it got some expansions in further books. The anime really messed up the pacing though. Aincrad shouldn’t have been that long.
The second book abandoned past development, relied heavily on out-dated tropes and plot devices, and it just didn’t have many engaging events take place.
The third dedicated too much time to repetitive exposition, and it slowed down the pacing of the story. The excitement factor wasn’t really there, and the newly introduced character wasn’t given enough attention to become someone to care for.
The others are hard to talk about without going into spoiler territory.
I still read them all though.
But yeah, these shows aren’t bad at all. They do what they want to do very well. They are shounen stories with a powerplay protagonist, like Mahouka or NGNL, or one of the many other examples.
They are just incredibly overrated for what they are.
A show that people consider “overrated” (whether you agree with those people or not) crops up most years, and it always gets hate.
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I could never understand this, too. I think it’s because of the annoying fujoshis. My main problem with it, it’s that it was boring. If its purpose was to make the reader (I read the manga too) curious to know about the mysteries, it wasn’t successful for me.
But I read World Trigger manga (which is an action shounen too) and I like it, except for the unnecessary amount of characters that is kinda confusing. And I think it’s way better than AOT.
And there are people who still complain that Aincrad should’ve got a whole 2-cour anime, lol.
Despite everyone complaing about the 2nd arc, I still liked it. I think I got so attached to the characters in the 1st arc, that I couldn’t avoid to like it.
Here is my first part review of the Non Non Biyori anime:
http://silly-littlemelody.tumblr.com/post/114503511018/non-non-biyori-first-part-review
I decided to do it in an episodical format. Every day I wrote my impressions on the previous day’s episode. So, I could write with a refreshed memory.
I had to address this because I 100% agree, the cinematography in both seasons is exquisite. I especially agree that Shaft really pushed the medium to its limit to create a piece that could only be told through hand-drawn animation.
I also thought the soundtrack had some really incredible pieces, while I did find some (like some of the scenes in the show) to be a bit too far past overly melodramatic, compositions like ‘less than 45 seconds’ are great examples of the beautiful, understated tracks I always look for when watching anime.
What were your favourite tracks @Aspirety?
