Issa-sa I do not disagree with you in that people can get into anime and like it for it and much like coburn adds we “get caught up in the overwhelming appeal of a specific element of an unsatisfactory whole.” Once again Dragonaut comes to mind in the conversation. What I am saying is that the anime industry capitalizes in our “seeking out” as coburn says of other forms of entertainment and has little incentive to provide us with something original or “good” in the greater sense with respect to all mediums of expression (writing, the visual arts, theater…)

I also add that quality cinematography or directing of scenes and frames is lacking in most animes because it is not something that is usually critiqued, but in the medium of moving pictures is a rather important aspect as far as meaning and quality is involved. I am also saying that enjoying bad anime is natural because every anime has a specific audience that it’s trying to please and if you’re it then it will do its hardest to “jerk you off” mentally. If you’re happy then you probably liked the anime.

However, just because you like it does not make it good. Kind of like enjoying pizza, but pizza is not really good for your health. That may be a good way to put it. Bad anime is like junk food: delicious to those who like it, but not really healthy in large doses and certainly not hot cuisine. I would also add that all mediums of expression are extraordinarily subjective and that anime is just another form that is a bit too rooted in commerce and pleasing the audience to achieve anything of greatness most of the time.

Giving you what you want is a bad way of achieving quality. Like a parent spoiling his child and then wondering why he/she turn out to be a useless jerk. The more you are content the less likely you are to think about it and wonder and in all form of expression the less time you spend examining the work the less its overall value to you is.

Issa-sa I do not disagree with you in that people can get into anime and like it for it and much like coburn adds we “get caught up in the overwhelming appeal of a specific element of an unsatisfactory whole.” Once again Dragonaut comes to mind in the conversation. What I am saying is that the anime industry capitalizes in our “seeking out” as coburn says of other forms of entertainment and has little incentive to provide us with something original or “good” in the greater sense with respect to all mediums of expression (writing, the visual arts, theater…)

I also add that quality cinematography or directing of scenes and frames is lacking in most animes because it is not something that is usually critiqued, but in the medium of moving pictures is a rather important aspect as far as meaning and quality is involved. I am also saying that enjoying bad anime is natural because every anime has a specific audience that it’s trying to please and if you’re it then it will do its hardest to “jerk you off” mentally. If you’re happy then you probably liked the anime.

However, just because you like it does not make it good. Kind of like enjoying pizza, but pizza is not really good for your health. That may be a good way to put it. Bad anime is like junk food: delicious to those who like it, but not really healthy in large doses and certainly not hot cuisine. I would also add that all mediums of expression are extraordinarily subjective and that anime is just another form that is a bit too rooted in commerce and pleasing the audience to achieve anything of greatness most of the time.

Giving you what you want is a bad way of achieving quality. Like a parent spoiling his child and then wondering why he/she turn out to be a useless jerk. The more you are content the less likely you are to think about it and wonder and in all form of expression the less time you spend examining the work the less its overall value to you is.

Anime is definitely an extraordinarily subjective medium

I think that’s the important point here. We tend to be embarrassed that we like shows that the majority of fans consider bad, and tend to over state series that the majority of fans think is good. And while we worry about doing those things, when we look at it, I don’t think it’s something that needs to be worried about as long as you get the enjoyment. But I’m a hypocrite about this anyway, so eh.

I reckon that the issue isn’t with anime, but with fans. So many of us only bother to seek out foreign cartoons on account of certain styles/tropes/fetishes. So we’re more likely to embrace subjective analysis, and to get caught up in the overwhelming appeal of a specific element of an unsatisfactory whole.

GSD is utter crap, but it had a decent soundtrack.

Then again, I really liked what I saw in Karin and I’m glad to say that Koihime isn’t too bad. But in the latter’s case, there was this sense of THIS IS NOT RIGHT. That and it was really silly.

Art, meaning, content, experimentation, and other risky fringe ideas will mostly be defeated by the comfort of good sales and gaining a foot in the market which is usually attained by hitting on your fancies like cute girls and good-guys-win stories. Dragonaut as you mentioned is mostly about the fan service and little else and perhaps the best example of the industry’s tap into your pleasure zone without much regard to other aspects is the harem genre which continues to use a proven formula almost dogmatically for acquiring a market. As for liking “bad” anime, well first off what is “good” anime? Much like in the film industry what constitutes a good movie varies for each person. As for me I would say 90% of anime is “bad” in the greater context of the expressive mediums.

Analyzing anime cinematographically, its nearest expressive medium, results in almost all of them being considered amateurish at best. As for good and bad within the anime medium well now we need to define an anime and what aspects need grading for quality. To make it simple the best indicator of quality is probably story since a good story will negate bad effects of graphics and any visual story telling aspects ( the equivalent of having a director) is usually ignored when grading anime (no one really considers the quality of scenes or frames in anime quality which is a shame.)

Good anime would therefore have an interesting, original, and perhaps more importantly a thought-provoking story. By such standard you would eliminate a good deal of anime since it mostly works to please you, not make you think (like a handjob vs. reading Gabriel Garcia Marquez.) If you believe that thought is not necessary and likability is just fine to create quality then anime falls a bit below legitimate expressive medium. a bit like porn.

@Baka-Raptor: Perfect example of this for me is Cowboy Bebop. Everyone says it’s brilliant, but I just find it average at best. It has some good fights and drama but the individual stories just aren’t that interesting.