Anime Cute Characters Suck!

Okay, so I guess anime makers these days are inserting all these "cute" characters in their films to supposedly get younger viewers to rent/buy their brands. This is waaay different from the days when I was a youngster as we had cool shows like Battleship Yamato (Star Blazers); GI Joe; Transformers; and Robotech to keep us happy. All these great anime lacked the cute-huge- head-talking-stuff-toyed-animal/kid characters that today's anime seems to love....and they TOTALLY ROCKED!

So why the change? I guess the start of this "trend" was with Speed Racer (another cartoon I occassionaly watched in reruns from ages 8-11). I was young, I liked stuffed toys too, but what I really HATED about the series was the young kid with the big head and his totally stupid monkey friend that, for some reason, HAD to have equal time in the show. I just wanted to see Speed Racer and Racer X get into adventures.

Anyway, this trend continued with He-Man in the 1980s (a totally gay and forgetable anime series). There, if you could stomach the totally inane plots, you had the cutsey fuzzy wuzzy character Orko; who, if He-Man wasn't totally gay already, managed to bring the intellectual value of the series down to negative 1000.

So, how did anime turn into the piece of crap that it is now? Why does EVERY anime have to have these cute characters, or a schoolgirl, or an "over-the-top" little kid character?

Poochey wants to know!

 

To each their own i suppose. I think that the oversized features are a comedy releave for the shows (that i usually like, as long as it doesn't go over the top). And i think that these features are what makes anime anime. Most people will associate these features with anime and thats what the megium is best known for.
I guess these things can make anime it's own enemy, as people will see these things as childish, however being a kid at heart i find alot of these funny anyway , and may turn people off of anime. But i think that with the anime industry growing, producers will want to put certain things in their projects that are usually whats expected from anime (i.e. oversized features).

 

HEY!!! I liked He-man! (not the guy, DOH - the series). Anyway do you have anything wrong with comic sidekicks? [EDIT]Notice my CUUUUUTE avatar! :3 [/EDIT]

Altho I support you in the speed-racer stuff. The whole visuals of that series sucked. And yes, I hate extra-round extra-cute-with-giant-eyes characters. Actually, weren't the powerpuff girls a parody of this trend?

 

Hey, I have a great idea for you. Just don't watch shows that have cutesy characters. I figured it was a reasonably obvious solution, given the large number of serious anime (such as the ones Izzy suggested), but apparently it wasn't.

If you're too lazy to do some research, here are some more suggestions, free of cutesy characters: Ghost in the Shell, Appleseed, Macross (if you're a Robotech fan at all you'll know the full relationship it has), in particular Macross Plus and Macross Zero, Patlabor, Akira, Berserk, Wicked City, Gasaraki... the list goes on and on.

Now don't post about this subject again until you go beyond saturday morning cartoons.

 

ahhhhhh, the message board nazis! They still pay you guys by the hour?

Duh. I was just commenting on the fact that many a decent anime concept has been ruined by cutsey characters that current "anime" producers constantly say is for the benefit of younger viewers. I was using my own childhood memories of such characters as an example of how that is completly untrue. We couldn't get as much anime back then, so all my memories are regulated to what was shown on U.S. television.

My further point is that it now seems that all anime is "tainted" with these characters. It wasn't like that before, why is it like that now?

As for "luvweaver": You liked He-Man! Good Lord!

Yes, I already mentioned Robotech, EVERYONE knows that Akira is good, seen Ghost in the Shell and thought it was boooring. Patlabor blows, Wicked City is for fags, etc.

Which brings me to another point, if I see a new anime title on the shelf it is either:
1. Cutesy Wutsi
2. Pervert/Satanic

I guess if one were a conspiracy theorists, the point of this distribution method could be seen as a plot to form a dissociative conciousness in the mind of the careless-indiscriminate anime watcher. Wherein the anime viewer grows up watching Cutesy Wutsi anime, eventually becomes bored with it due to its lack of intellectual value, watches the pervert/satanic anime thinking it is more "adult", becomes disgusted by it, goes back to cutsey wutsi, goes back to pervert/satanic, and finally ends up joining a cult or becoming a pedophile.

Strictly MKULTRA type stuff of course.

Good Day! :dizzy2:

 

Hardly anyone watches anime for cute girls, we like anime for wt is it.
If u really want to talking about cute girls in tv, u should start talking at the music videos, tv shows, those show feathur way more stuff than anime.. besides any one know sex sells, u turn on a tv it's there, the cute girls in advertisements, the cute girls in music.

Where did u get perveted from???
there is hardly any in shows, the only things i can think of is like Miroku in inuyasha, besides he is put in for fun. and besides do we watch inuyasha just because kagome is cute or miroku like to feel girls butts .......... NO we watch it becuase we like the shows.

and if ur really talking about perverted those part of anime is hentai and ecchi
those are mostly doujinshi which hardly counts as a real anime

and just wt are the animes ur talking about, and wt store are u talking about??? and just wt is perverted about them???? list some examples


some shows do have cute charaters.. for example chobits.... but if chii wasn't that cute the charater role just won't fit... she had to look that cute to fit the personality. and besides the shows with cute girls is just as popular to guys as it is to girls.... for example chobits

 

Well, given that a mod DID encourage me to flame you...

No, it pretty much was always like this. Trust me on this.

It was like this before, believe me. Look into a lot of older anime and you WILL see cutesy characters.

Ah, the five minute attention span sort. Figures.

...Though now that I think about it Robotech did have cutesy characters. Mint, for example. Interesting you didn't bother replying to Macross, Berserk or Gasaraki. Also, Robotech and Macross are NOT the same series. As you apparently thought I was mentioning Robotech when I said Macross, you fail at Robotech Fandom. Begone.

Fixed it for you.

Because there's nothing like heterosexual sex to catch a gay persons interest.

Those two appeal to the mainstream. Shop elsewhere.

 

I think cute characters started with Osamu Tezuka - specially Tetsuwan Atom (aka Astro Boy). That was the first anime ever. Kimba the White Lion was the same way too. Cute characters didn't prevent tragedy, though.

And perversion shows up in cute things these days, too. Kannadzuki no Miko for the current rave on the one side, Gravitation for the other...

But the atmosphere in this thread's getting really suspicious. Be careful, ve are vatching you.

 

Nothing more can be said. I just wanted to attach a picture.

 

Looking at things from a business point of view, the reasons you see these series that are "cutsy" is simply because that is what people want to see. Not many people are going to make something that isn't going to make them money. What's the point?

If people want to see "cutsy" anime, as you put it, then that is what's going to get made/licensced. Why spend money on something that won't pay for itself?

Of course, your viewpoint could change. If you look, I mean, really look, you'll find the type of series you're looking for. I couldn't tell you what to look for, but I'd suggest you start here. If you can't find the kind of anime you're looking for there, then I can't help you.

Conversely, if you can't stand these newer series, why not go back to the old? Why not go back and watch Speed Racer, or Transformers, or Robotech? Just go back and live in the past?

 

What can I say? It irks me to no end when someone comes on, acts like a typical Internet Tough Guy, then apparently doesn't even know his own favourite show. I'm a huge Robotech fan. I own the dvds, the games, several figures (including some from the 80s), all of the RPG books save one, artbooks, I had all the comics (THANK YOU VERY MUCH CRASHING HARD DRIVE), all the novels, was one of the first people to sign up for robotech.com, played a lot of the mod for Freespace 2, tried to get the mod for Starcraft working, ran a Robotech RPG game that went for 3 years before ending (and only because I chose to bring the storyline to a close), owned a copy of The Sentinels on tape, and this is only what I can think of after having a few.

OH YEAH! I also physically own all the new comics too.

Anyway, the point of this is - I am a true Robotech fan. I dislike pretenders to the throne. Having responded "I already mentioned Robotech" when I mentioned Macross, and hence proving himself ignorant of the actual relationship between the two, I find this fellow irksome.