Or why I think it’s silly to harp on the past.
So, I was just minding my own business and hopping cheerily around a scenic garden with a group of bunny rabbits and frolicking deer, when “BAM!”, wildarmsheero launched a huge flaming fireball in my direction like one of those Undead Mages I had to fend off as a female Night Elf Rogue in World of Warcraft.
She is from the future!
He is hot and bothered mad about my choice of anime and blogging materials, particularly Gundam 00. It’s apparently because G00 is not “classic” enough for him. Although I do agree that G00 has more flaws than Michael Jackson‘s face, not being a “classic” is definitely not one of them.
Read his blog entry where he asserts that my blog “fucking sucks”, presumably because I blog about terrible shows that he hates with a zealous passion.
It’s the future!
Back in the Days…
First of all, wildarmheero makes the (bad) assumption that I am one of “those kids” who have never watched the original Gundam. This is how it always begins.
Personally, I like to think that I am pretty well acquainted with the franchise. Sure, I can’t rattle off the serial number of every bolt and nut on RX-78, but I did watch a good portion of the Gundam titles out there. I watched the original Mobile Suit Gundam and Zeta (which was supposed to be the best, or something?). I watched all the mini-series (0083, 0080, 08th, etcetera) and what not (e.g. Evolve), and I even enjoyed ∀, Wing and X.
After Zeta, I decided to give ZZ and V a pass. I’m sure they were all excellent and ground-breaking titles of their respective eras, but I can’t force myself to sit through them just to earn the right to boost about having watched every Gundam ever. Quite frankly, I thought the original Gundam was decently average but I didn’t like Zeta one bit. The mini-series are pretty awesome, though.
She’s not from the future. (But close enough.)
Again, I’m not saying that G00 is the greatest Gundam ever made. I wouldn’t even call it a “good” anime. I blog about it simply because I enjoy watching it. I love it just because it fills me with boyish glee every time it makes an allusion to real-life politics.
I don’t really give a damn about the actual Gundams at all. It’s like how I watched SEED (which wildarmsheero begrudgingly admits to have enjoyed) for the girls, and how people watch Wing (which wildarmsheero also enjoyed) for the fireworks.
Welcome to the world of tomorrow!
Selective Memory
Were things really better in the “good old days”? Do so-called “classics” really deserve the god-like status that fanboys like wildarmsheero bestow upon them? I don’t think so.
The original Mobile Suit Gundam was undeniably ahead of its time. But it is nowhere close to an Grade A anime by today’s standards. I can give it the respect that it deserves as a pioneering piece of work, but I honestly do not think that it can stand up to modern competitors. I definitely won’t recommend it to a friend. Certainly, Thomas Edison’s light bulb brought a new age upon humanity, but I prefer my compact fluorescent light, okay?
Space!
I think it’s very important to understand that the circumstances under which you first encounter a piece of work can pretty much determine how much you like it for the rest of your life. Paradigms shift; circumstances change. Medieval villagers would consider incandescent light bulbs to be witchery, 19th century folks considered them cutting edge science, and today we consider them technologically obsolete.
This is especially true for issues which are by definition subjective in nature. It’s futile to force people to see things your way when the opportunity to do so (i.e. the first impression) has long past.
I can’t wait till the future is here!
People tend to be biased about anime series from their early days as aspiring otakus. I do it too. I still hold Evangelion and Nadesico in high regards, but that doesn’t mean that I have to blog about them. (Exceptions made for remakes.) I have long come to the realization that most anime titles are pretty much shit in terms of literary value and the original Gundam certainly is no exception.
A Harmless Analogy
To put things in perspective… wildarmsheero spends an obscene amount of time talking about Kaede Fuyou, the absolute worst character (IMNSHO) from the PC-game-turn-anime SHUFFLE!. As someone who has purchased and played quite a few bishoujo games, I, DarkMirage, assert that SHUFFLE! is a terribly clichéd game and wildarmsheero “fucking sucks” for blogging about this horrible franchise which can’t hold even half a candle to the classics.
They are not from the future. (But they pwn Kaede.)
And in a similar fashion, it makes me very mad that wildarmsheero likes a messed-up character from a crappy series so much that he actually bought pillow covers of her. That’s right, it offends my sensibilities! We should all be blogging about awesome classics like Tokimeki Memorial and Sentimental Graffiti and hugging Shiori Fujisaki pillows instead! Oldies forever!!!…
…Doesn’t that sound awfully silly to you? Mr. Original Gundam Fan? ;) But that’s basically what UC purists are saying, except with less moé and more mecha.
Conclusion
I do in fact love SHUFFLE! a lot (just take a look at my posts tagged with “shuffleâ€). I enjoyed it in spite of its huge and glaring flaws, the same way I enjoy Gundam 00.
People should not be forced to limit what they like to the “best” or the “classics”, neither should classics be given special treatment just for being classics. The original Gundam is terrible when viewed today without a helpful dose of nostalgia to make up for its flaws.
Please get over this irrational obsession with the past. The old days only seem better after a makeover via selective memory. Stop judging every Gundam title based on how close it is to the original (or at least stop trying to convince me that there’s any logic to it). Thank you.
BAM! Your Gundam is dead!
It’s late now and you stay up to post, alright.
The only Gundam series I have watched are Gundam Wing, Seed and Seed Destiny. I think that Seed is awesome, the best from the 3 I have watched.
I have not watched Gundam00 yet, but I will soon.
Well to each his own I guess….. I admit that I have only watched Seed, SD, 00, Zeta and ZZ but I admit that most of these gundams have the same storyline.
As you have seen, there is bound to be a red/pink gundam, and the protagonist’s gundam is ALWAYS blue, the kid has to blow up his own gundam in order to get a better one, and of course, the love stories and the annoying cute round robot named Haro.
I would say that ZZ isn’t really worth watching, but Zeta is certainly the BEST of the entire series. I am not sure about 00 though, but I guess you should just ignore these kind of people.
The entire Gundam franchise simply just rocks, regardless of era and storyline. Period.
It’s the truth and anyone who says otherwise is full of himself. I tried watching Gundam Wing a year ago and I quit after the first episode. I just couldn’t stand how fugly Heero’s gf looked.
We read classic books for how they’re well written in language, their presentation in themes, characterization and maybe for the mass allusions lots of other books make of it (Bible). Language changes but never gets old, until we can communicate ideas telepathically without words.
We watch classic movies for their dialogue, their presentation in themes, characterization, and may even look at them as a reflection of their generation (well, this goes for books too).
However, we can’t do that for 99% of anime (the 1% I’m thinking of goes to Miyazaki and maybe GiTS). Admittedly, the dialogue in anime sucks balls. The stories and characters are so completely derivative of each other and not only that, their presentations are just terrible. Themes? If loser males end up with all the girls is a theme……..
Why do we watch anime? For the girls wearing skirts that would make you a grade-A hoe in real life. For the meido. For the unabashed fanservice. For the giant robots flying around blowing things up. For the emo facial contortions on 15 year old girls. Anime, pure and simply, is entertainment and how entertaining something is, is dependent on time. If you’re watching anime for other values, you’re just lying to yourself.
I can’t believe I just spent the last 30 minutes writing that.
Wait, I just don’t get it. I thought that if you’re a geek, you’re a fag by deafult, even if you love MANLY shows. Damn, that even makes you a bigger fag. If you’re manly, you should be watching shows like Clannad, you know, with cute girls that you should want to protect with your manly power.
…
Erm, srsly, I really think that some fans worry WAY TOO MUCH about being manly.
@Beowulf Lee’s last paragraph
If you think anime can’t be viewed for “higher” values, then all I can say is that you’re simply not watching the right shows. This year alone has seen an influx of such titles in Mononoke, Seirei no Moribito, Dennou Coil, Baccano!, etc.
But the thing is I only just watched first Gundam in its entirety (via the movie trilogy) and Zeta Gundam over the past 2 years, and over the past year have only just watched Space Battleship Yamato, Arcadia of My Youth and a bunch of a other classics. If I was truly blinded by nostalgia I’d be going on about how Pokemon and DBZ are fucking awesome, as they defined /my/ youth.
I kinda used to be a dumb Seed fanboy. Back when I was like 15 or something I did honestly think it was a good show. Then I decided that I’d finally finish the original by way of the movies, so I did. After I was done with movie three (which is probably one of the greatest anime films ever) I wondered what I even saw in Seed. I think the originals still stand up well today in terms of writing and themes, only falling short when it comes to animation (and that’s mostly First, Zeta Gundam looks better than a lot of modern anime I find.) I guess it’s just up to whether or not you like stuff made for REAL MEN or stuff made for pussy treehugging teenagers.
Also leave my wife out of this. She ain’t done nothin’ to you >:(
Darkmirage, you may remember me from my previous comments on the Nyooro debacle, but anyways here’s my 2 cents on this issue:
I posted on wildarmsheero and you can take a look at what I wrote.
My point is quite simple, darkmirage has his own way of enjoying GundamOO. So what’s wrong with that? Why is wildarmsheero making such a big fuss out of it? There’s no set way of enjoying an anime, and bloggers can blog an anime for all sorts of different reasons ranging from the seiyuu, to a particular character, or graphics or just even genres etc. I like different opinions, different viewpoints.
Simple analogy: Let’s say someone gets a nice sports car. Person “A” might like to just chill and cruise along and be very happy whilst Person “B” might like to drive it hard and fast. DIFFERENT PEOPLE, DIFFERENT VIEW POINTS, DIFFERENT REASONS AND WAYS TO ENJOY THE SHOW.
In the end, this whole debacle just makes wildarmsheero look very immature. Being an oldschool anime fan doesnt’ make you have a higher status. It just means you started watching anime for a long long time and have more exposure. But that doesn’t mean it gives you the right to criticize other anime blogger’s way of appreciating the anime.
Oh sorry and by the way, wildarmsheero can’t be considered old school anime watcher since he started watching Wing Gundam in 2000.
Darkmirage, just don’t waste too much time on other unappreciative bloggers like wildarmsheero. It’s good to respond, but he’s not worth any more extra attention.
You bastardized my “car enthusiast” analogy. For shame.
sorry sagacious, I am a car enthusiast myself. I’m active around e90post.com/forums also. didn’t mean to. just wanted to put the message across that there are different ways to enjoy a certain medium.
Actually it is good that he is willing to respond, it shows that he is constantly on the watch for current affairs (yes there are also current affairs in the otaku world, with the Great War started by Odex a few months ago).
Well I would say that DM has done a fine job in bringing his opinion and discontent across without the usage of expletives, which in turn shows his mental maturity and tolerance for others. Keep it up kiddo, you just surpassed me in terms of age. xD
I became open about my obsession with anime, J-culture and hentai recently when my friend got odexed. If such lambasting is going to take place, otakus will be stereotyped as immature kiddies with no life and condemned in society the way homosexuals are. Let’s try to show some tolerance for each other and if we want to say something about someone else, do it critically and not use extremities such as death threats or expletives. Save the word “f*ck” for your hentai fansubs, I am sure it would help more in bringing across the point in an ecchi scene rather than in places like this.
wildarmheero’s post was just rude for me. I really can’t see what is wrong with Gundam 00. I entirely enjoy watching it (please excuse my english).
I find that there are way too many “OMFG YOU WATCH THIS THEREFORE YOU=FAG MUNCH!!!!!” problems these days. Seriously. Wildarmsheero reminds me of hitler condemning others cuz they don’t think like him or w/e. Just because i hate Kaede and shuffle in general doesn’t mean i would burn you at the stake( no i don’t hate it). I find what wildarmsheero is doing is just plain stupid and a waste of time. Just cuz you like “old school” anime doesn’t make you the overlord of others. Go back into your hole and watch some classic m’kay?
@ Somethingleft
Godwin’s law.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Godwin's_law)
I think it’s still too early to judge gundam 00 as a crap show. I have been enjoying it so far. It’s not great, but not terrible either. I’ll give it like probably 8 more episodes before i even start judging it.
>>>This year alone has seen an influx of such titles in Mononoke, Seirei no Moribito, Dennou Coil, Baccano!, etc.
OK. Watch them 50 years from now and let’s see if can sit through 5 episodes.
Well it’s nice to see a civilised response by wildarmsheero above… (well, I’ve seen worse)
I thought only old hags complain about the present and glorify the future? But anyway, most of you are lucky not to be blogging about football. The general fanbase in football is stingy and rotten and 80% of text written about football oin the internet is all about flaming.
Again, we talk about perspective, and how much people want to change others’ and replace it with theirs. We’ll never have agreements with another human, because we have opinions. And I’m not gonna take that boring proverb “if everyone was the same, the world would be boring” thing out. Oh look, I did…
I like Kaede.
But I like all the girls from Shuffle, so…
>> OK. Watch them 50 years from now and let’s see if can sit through 5 episodes.
I’m not sure what your point is.
You implied that anime can’t be taken for anything beyond base pleasures (i.e., fanservice). I countered by providing examples of anime that exemplify solid storytelling, well-written dialogue, appropriate construction of themes, keen art direction, etc.
Now, how does re-watching them 50 years from now change all that? Even if something comes along that’s better, it still doesn’t entail that the titles now aren’t indeed quality in those respects.
@Sagacious
My point is that anime does not stand the test of time because they do not have depth of those points that literature and movies have evolved. I assure you that you can watch those 50, no not even, 10 years from now and you’ll be thinking “what the hell was I thinking?”. As DM said, nostalgia blinds.
So you are not blinded by nostalgia. That makes your taste even more questionable, but it’s your personal choice so I shall not make a blog post whining about it.
Perhaps nostalgia is a bad choice of word for your case. But clearly when you watched Mobile Suit Gundam, you had not received enough exposure to anime yet. In a way, it opened your eyes just like when it opened the eyes of first-generation fans in the 70s. You thus have emotional attachments to the series. This acts in the same manner as nostalgia.
Interestingly, I did the same thing. Except that I came to the conclusion that the original Gundam had a terrible storyboard and people like you are just barking mad. But it’s your choice so whatever.
SHUFFLE! is made for real men, right?
Get off your pedestal, it’s not like Gundam 00 has done anything to you either.
Pingback: Serious internet Gundam talk « Towards our Memories
Very contradicting….
>My point is that anime does not stand the test of time because they do not have depth of those points that literature and movies have evolved. I assure you that you can watch those 50, no not even, 10 years from now and you’ll be thinking “what the hell was I thinking?â€.
If I may interject here, what exactly are you talking about? Basically you’re taking a shit on anime, which makes me curious as to why you’re reading anime blogs in the first place. Anime doesn’t have depth like books and movies? Are you even reading what you write before you post it? Jackass. And it’s fun how you make assumptions. Look, I can do it too: I “assure” you that I could re-watch my favorite anime series 50 years later and still enjoy them because, and this may sound crazy, I like anime.
Hm, I just read your first post. The one where you say 99% of anime is crap, and then continue on to make generalizations about it and the people who watch it. Just because you watch it for the fanservice doesn’t mean the rest of us do.
@Beowulf Lee
Care to explain why? My perspective may change and my whether I’ll still like those certain titles may change, but the quality of the story-telling, the direction, the art, will not. It’s a property of the anime, permanent and stationary through time. They’re observational facts, similar to “my desk is made of wood”, “my TV is black”, etc.
To elaborate, the story for DBZ sucks. It sucked back when it first came out, and it still sucks to this day. It will always suck. Why? Because it’s poorly constructed, repetitive, vulnerable to numerous plot holes (if you want to call those series of events a “plot” in the first place), relies on deus ex machina gimmicks, and could’ve been written by a grade school kid.
However, I enjoyed the story back when I was in grade school and hate it now. Does that mean the quality of the story changed? No. It was always the same story…the only thing different is my perspective. Back then, I didn’t judge the quality on analytical merits, but merely because it satisfied my ADHD needs.
So let’s bring it all back to the here and now: Your point is two-fold: (1) anime is nothing but base entertainment and pleasure (along the lines of a Michael Bay creation), incapable of higher qualities of, say, Schindler’s List. My retort: Watch Grave of the Fireflies. (2) You claim that whatever example I offer up will be knocked back down by the flawed “come back to me in 10-years” ploy. My retort: Watch GotF, and refer to my previous rant as to why the “test of time” theory is flawed.
I think it’s hillarious the whole “oh, I was young and 15 when I liked the heathen Gundam Seed”. As opposed to a wizened 18? Seed wasn’t that long ago…
Speaking as someone who’s read this blog for quite a few years now (and someone who’s watched anime for 25+ years), I’ve always enjoyed your commentary even if I didn’t agree with it all. Don’t mind what this guy is saying and keep doing a good job in your blogging and translating.
This wildarmhero guy is taking things way too seriously. As much as I love anime and even Gundam (I even blogged all of the crappy crappy GSD) most people honestly just watch it because it’s entertaining. That said, Gundam 00 has the best visuals of any weekly anime series ever in the history of anime, very high production values, and solid direction (especially in it’s use of innovative camera angles and editing to show battles which are very clear and easy to follow) that it deserves attention.
The fact is, most of anime is nothing more than just pure entertainment, but gems exist and continue to be produced. While people will frequently talk about all these supposedly ‘classic’ shows as if nothing of value has been made in the last 15 years, we can easily point to such shows as Legend of the Galactic Heroes (finished in the late 90s), Juuni Kokki, NGE, GITS, Haruhi and Death Note which will most likely still be considered great shows 20 years from now by any fan of anime. Not to mention shows that deal with more complex themes such as Koi Kaze and Zipang to name just two which never would have been made 20 years ago.
So please ignore this guy and continue to blog and sub this show, we’re counting on your good translations!
> That said, Gundam 00 has the best visuals of any weekly anime series ever in the history of anime, very high production values, and solid direction (especially in it’s use of innovative camera angles and editing to show battles which are very clear and easy to follow) that it deserves attention.
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I’d just like to point out for those reading the comments that Beowulf Lee is the epitome of retarded for saying that
because anime is a medium, and you’re trying to claim that every bit of “literature and movies” have more depth by virtue of it being in a non-anime medium, which makes 0 sense. So tell me, since Gedo Senki was an adaptation from Ursula K. Le Guin’s Earthsea works will it stand the time or won’t it? Or what about the recent Les Misérables: Shoujo Cosette anime adaptation?
Maybe heeding your own advice would be good, Lee, because
while your first comment in the thread agrees with DM about his post, you ironically commit the exact same reasoning fallacy that DM is accusing wildarmsheero of — only with you it’s the medium, not chronology. Again, anime is just a medium, and it is value-free. The story told through the medium is what should be weighed, not the medium itself.
Another obvious point that Sagacious C was probably too polite to bring up is that unless you happen to be from the future and have seen the anime of 50 years from now, or have the ability to time-leap, saying that “Watch them 50 years from now and let’s see if can sit through 5 episodes.” shows how little thought you’ve put into your comments.
Oh, and great post, DM. Fans and bloggers alike who constantly harp on the “superior value” of old anime don’t exactly make sense when you realise that they also rave about shit shows themselves (new or old), bringing into light their questionable and selective taste, or have convenient blind spots when it comes to knowing “the best”. Thanks for stating the obvious and pointing out the hypocrisy, someone had to say it.
So, I’m gonna look like a complete idiot for asking this, but just how the hell did you do that “quote” feature?…or bolds and italics, for that matter.
Sagacious C: It’s okay. Many people have tried and failed. I occasionally edit comments to add them in. Use <blockquote> and </blockquote> to markup quotations. :)
On another note, Owen S got my point exactly right. :)
That is the whole reason why I brought up wildarmsheero’s obsession with Kaede. It’s not a personal attack.
I really do hate Kaede, but there are tons of people who like her and there’s no reason for me to get mad just because I disagree with their taste.
I’m a UC purist…but am taking a liking to GOO because of the realism. Not just in terms of the political drama, but the mechanics and science of this series look pretty plausible. I love Tieren the most.
And from what I’ve seen so far, GOO is true to Yoshiyuki Tomino’s (though not as much as the right wing Robert Heinlein) vision without being formulaic.
Wha? What’s wrong with Kaede? Emo-bitches rule!!!
I also have my share of buying and playing bishoujo games and indeed Shuffle is a terribly clichéd game (along with the hundreds of other titles on the market now). But Kaede still kicks ass.
Sorry DM, I can never agree with you on this one point.
But Nerine still beats Kaede anyday! Huge Racks FTW!!! 巨乳最高!!!
Seriously, the original Gundam is considered as an vintage. It’s a matter of “likes” anyway. One anime can’t cater to all but to most, yes. That’s what happens when East meets West if you get my drift. Nice conclusion btw, DM.
(Please get over this irrational obsession with the past.)
heh, your blog sucks, but it’s way more popular than his, isn’t that odd. ;P
I guess he would tell you that it’s because majority of the anime fans suck and can’t appreciate the classics that he blogs about.
Or maybe they were just turned away by his incoherent fanboying. Only Haruhi knows for sure. ;)
Anyway I realized that I should have ignored his ranting and wrote an independent article instead. All those awesome pictures are wasted on him.
Tough luck dude… seems like everyone with a blog wants a piece of you. Anyway, personally think that everyone’s got different anime taste. Wildarmsheero should just stick to blogging about the anime he doesn’t like and leave the other fans out of this. Everyone’s got his/her own preferences, that doesn’t make you any much better just cos you have been watching the “classics”.
By the way I’ve been watching anime for a good 19 years, watched most of the “classics” and lotsa other crap as well. That doesn’t make me any much holier/ wiser than thou….
Hang in there DM. Anyway, seems like you can more than fend for yourself :-)
Personally I think the internet is serious business.
Regardless, I disagree with Darkmirage on that the original Gundam sucks. MSG, at least in the movie compilation, is one of the greatest anime series of all time. It was epic, it had meaning, and it created the real robot genre. While I do disagree with Wildarms putting on such a high pedistool (that place is reserved for Zeta Gundam), as a fan of contemporary anime you should repsect it.
Regardless, I must reiterate my firm belief that the internet is serious business.
Puzzling statement because I didn’t say that Gundam sucks. I said that it deserves respect but that does not mean that I have to like it.
So what if it was epic? I didn’t even watch Lord of the Rings.
So what if it had meaning? Tons of anime try to have meaning these days, many of them succeed at it better than Gundam. Why should I continue to obsess over 0079?
So what if it created a genre? Do you watch and enjoy Tetsuwan Atom?
Respect for the past doesn’t mean we have to dwell on it.
OMG, 2 pages of deep and heavy discussion on this matter which really has been blown out of proportion.
Different people have different tastes, what meaning is there trying to force someone to like what you like?
DM like Gundam 00 so leave him be, its DM’s own opinions and preferences. Yeesh, ODEX goes silent and the local blog wars start again.
The Comedy doesn’t end does it? -.-;;
Wtf does he even care what you blog? It’s not like you are forcing people to read it…
And Gundam is strange anyway. When I watch Seed i constantly think “man, FMP is so much better here and there” or “tahat’s kinda cliché” and animes like Death Note kick the hell out of Gundam.
But I still watched it about 4 or 5 times…just wanna
Why do you guys keep defending DM when the entry wasn’t even about him. I just made an offhanded reference (paired with awesome insult) to him as your typical idiotic anime blogger.
I mean, I wanted to use this guy (http://www.last.fm/user/November11/) but he doesn’t have a blog.
Also I knew DM would broadcast my message to the aniblogging community if I choose him, so there’s that part of it as well. Honestly, most of you fags need a kick in the balls.
@wildarms
Who’s defending him? You’re just another typical idiotic anime blogger yourself. Anime blogging is just a more elaborate way of posting crap on the internet.
Pft, I missed the good old days of anime fansubbing when dalnet was still around. People weren’t so full of shit last time.
Looks like you forgot to add the message.
People sure can be cranky. I still have trouble understanding why he would go so far out of his way to intentionally piss off random strangers. Who knows…maybe it’s actually pretty fun. I’ll have to remember to give it a shot some time.
It’s very fun. This is almost as good as when SA banned me.
> When I watch Seed i constantly think “man, FMP is so much better here and there†or “tahat’s kinda cliché†and animes like Death Note kick the hell out of Gundam.
Death Note is the only anime like Death Note, so I don’t see what that’s supposed to mean.
(comparing SEED to any other show? i think you might have missed the point)
Hey guys! Doesn’t it just stink when someone digresses? Would you take an anime figurine out of its package for display or would you just keep it in its package?
As compensation for my intrusion, let me contribute by saying that it is just a matter of preference. Life would be much easier if everyone could cultivate more tolerance for each other. There is not such a thing as a typical idiotic anime fanboy, just different people with varying preferences. If you insult/flame/rant/mock someone, sooner or later karma will bite you in the ass in the form of having someone attacking you with accusations.
Two men look through the same prison bars; one sees the mud, the other sees the stars. That is all there is to it.
P.S I really need advice on the handling of the figurine! I am quite bothered by this matter! Cheers.
I just had to go on a tangential rant here, sorry.
Whoa, what? Last I checked, genre fiction, pulp fiction, and comic books could be and are considered to contain literary value. I know this point has been raised before in these comments, but seriously, what the hell? There isn’t an anime version of Gravity’s Rainbow yet (thank god), but that doesn’t mean that anime and manga are intrinsically lacking in “literary value”. “Literary value” itself is a very nebulous concept that really can’t be defined; I assume you refer to the common usage of the phrase as “complex, meaningful plot” or something along those lines. That certainly isn’t the be-all and end-all of “literary merit”, though.
You posted images of Crest of the Stars and PLANETES, which are examples of anime which I would consider to have literary merit. Those are easy examples, however. I believe that any work can contain literary value, no matter how “trashy” and escapist it is–in fact, some works have value precisely BECAUSE they are “trashy” and escapist. Literary or artistic merit is not merely contingent on whether or not it has a complex and meaningful plot. The style the authors choose to imbue their work with also counts, and even an otherwise terrible “trashy” show can be made interesting when the creators take an unusual stylistic approach–see just about any Akiyuki Shinbo show ever. And even failing stylistic approaches, interesting characters can make a show a hell of a lot more interesting. Just because something doesn’t make you think hard about life or some other topic, doesn’t mean that the work doesn’t have literary merit.
I said most, not all.
I mean, if we are all going to limit our selection of anime to titles like Seikai and PLANETES, we won’t be blogging about anime because there won’t be enough to talk about.
What you have said is exactly what I mean. It’s stupid to not watch something just because it’s not as good as what you think is the best. (In wildarmsheero’s case, that’s Gundam 0079.) Different series can be enjoyable in different ways if you bother to give it a try.
I’m not saying that a lack of literary merit is a bad thing, It’s just part and parcel of being an anime fan.