The Shrine

Give me your top five anime series.

Difficulty: No kids (or high school students) can be the star or supporting roles.

SineSwiper wrote:Difficulty: No kids (or high school students) can be the star or supporting roles.

Edit: Meh.

Berserk.

Uh...

...

Death Note doesn't count since L and Light are kids.

I guess that's it.

SineSwiper wrote:
Difficulty: No kids (or high school students) can be the star or supporting roles.

You just eliminated about 80% of anime, you know that right?

Come on now. You guys can't even name two?

1. Hellsing
2. Ghost in the Shell: SAC
3. Samurai Champloo (not sure if she's a kid or not)
4. Trigun
5. ....

Tessian wrote:You just eliminated about 80% of anime, you know that right?

Yeah, I know. It's kinda ridiculous, isn't it? I knew this already, but I really didn't get the full effect of this fact until I was looking at different summaries for anime shows on ANN. "A high school student" this and "A high school student" that. One after another in every summary.

Really...what is Japan's unhealthy obsession for this cliche? Aren't most of their anime shows viewed by adults, anyway? Even adult-like shows like Ergo Proxy or the Tachicomas in GitS have to have some kind of kiddie factor. I could easily name off a Top 25 list for US shows or movies that didn't have kids in it (as supporting roles) and be fine, but nobody can do even a Top 5 for anime under those same conditions.

I think for me, I really start out liking an anime series like GitS or Ergo Proxy or Hellsing, that start out with non-kiddie characters, because it's designed for a mature audience. The Japanese criticize us for being too Disney-fied in our cartoons, but in a way, they are hypocritical for doing the same thing with their characters.

Cowboy Bebop
Black Cat
AMG
GTO
Kenshin
Almost every Hong Kong manga

Though of these, only Cowboy Bebop I think is exceptionally good. Others are either passable or horrible.

But it's not really about 'kids' just because the characters are kids. It's more about the characters involved. If a character is a kid but doesn't act like one, then that character isn't a 'kids' character. Every character in Slam Dunk could be 10 years older for example and it'd be quite appropriate because the story was never intended to be about high school kids playing basketball. On the reverse just because you draw some guy having an apparent age of 18 doesn't mean it automatically has to be a developed character.

what about edward?

The main character of Cowboy Bebop is Spike, not Edward. If you mean 'can't have a kid at all' then I don't think you'd be able to find ANY anime that fits the description.

rules say supporting roles too.

Ruuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuules

EDIT

wow, my post is really annoying.

Don Wang wrote:Cowboy Bebop
Black Cat
AMG
GTO
Kenshin
Almost every Hong Kong manga

Though of these, only Cowboy Bebop I think is exceptionally good. Others are either passable or horrible.

But it's not really about 'kids' just because the characters are kids. It's more about the characters involved. If a character is a kid but doesn't act like one, then that character isn't a 'kids' character. Every character in Slam Dunk could be 10 years older for example and it'd be quite appropriate because the story was never intended to be about high school kids playing basketball. On the reverse just because you draw some guy having an apparent age of 18 doesn't mean it automatically has to be a developed character.

You liked Black Cat's anime?

Don Wang wrote:Cowboy Bebop
Black Cat
AMG
GTO
Kenshin
Almost every Hong Kong manga

Though of these, only Cowboy Bebop I think is exceptionally good. Others are either passable or horrible.

But it's not really about 'kids' just because the characters are kids. It's more about the characters involved. If a character is a kid but doesn't act like one, then that character isn't a 'kids' character. Every character in Slam Dunk could be 10 years older for example and it'd be quite appropriate because the story was never intended to be about high school kids playing basketball. On the reverse just because you draw some guy having an apparent age of 18 doesn't mean it automatically has to be a developed character.

GTO's MAIN character was a teacher-- but the rest of the supporting cast were all his students so this can't count


Cowboy Bebop
Hellsing
Gungrave
GitS
Rurouni Kenshin / s-cry-ed

Series without kids or high-school students? Impossible

GitS
08th MS Team
Macross Plus
Samurai Champloo
Record of Lodoss War

I win?

Barret wrote:I win?

Yeah, you actually found 5 anime series' that didn't have high-schoolers or kids.

I mean, Robotech/Macross, Neon Genesis, Gundam...all the mech stuff don't have kids or high-schoolers, no?

Zeus wrote:

Barret wrote:I win?

Yeah, you actually found 5 anime series' that didn't have high-schoolers or kids.

I mean, Robotech/Macross, Neon Genesis, Gundam...all the mech stuff don't have kids or high-schoolers, no?

08th MS team didn't.

Neither did Macross Plus.

The very pilots of the Evas are kids. No one is older than like 14 that piloted an Eva.

Most mech stuff are piloted by kids. In fact usually they can only be piloted by kids.

SineSwiper wrote:Give me your top five anime series.

...start with this

Sineswiper wrote: Difficulty: No kids (or high school students) can be the star or supporting roles.

...and end with that.

May as well stab someone in the leg and ask them to win the 100M dash in the Olympics!

Yes, I know, but I felt that I had to point out how insane that is. I think I would enjoy anime and RPGs more if it didn't have kids as the star. After all, games like:

Bioshock
Half-Life 1/2
Resident Evil series
Devil May Cty series
Digital Devil Saga
KotR
Mass Effect
etc.

All good stories and no kids.

So started watching Gantz (eps 1-10) and i like the story and premise of the show. I like more serious/adult anime, but this one just goes over the top with the nudity and boobs. They do it just to do it, it doesnt have to be in there whatsoever, so its more annoying than cool.

The show moves slow, too, and there are only 2 eps per disk, which is ridiculous. HBO can fit 3, sometimes 4, one hour eps of Six Feet Under on a disk, but this anime company can only put two 20 min eps on a disk? This is why i'll never buy anime, it would cost an arm and a leg to get the whole series.

SineSwiper wrote:Give me your top five anime series.

Difficulty: No kids (or high school students) can be the star or supporting roles.

Do the same for North American cartoons.

SineSwiper wrote:I could easily name off a Top 25 list for US shows or movies that didn't have kids in it (as supporting roles) and be fine, but nobody can do even a Top 5 for anime under those same conditions.

Really? Since it's so easy, list off your top 25 animated shows in North America with no kids or teenagers in them.

I watch essentially three animated shows: Simpsons, Family Guy, and South Park, all of which have kids as main characters. I guess the makers of these shows must be sick?

Is it just me or is Family Guy now Simpsons-ized? I've watch a couple of eps this year and it seems more like they're building the ep around some jokes rather than having the jokes come out of the ep/situation. That's what's plagued Simpsons in the last 9 years and it seems Family Guy is the same now....it just took far less time to reach that point.

Zeus wrote:I've watch a couple of eps this year and it seems more like they're building the ep around some jokes rather than having the jokes come out of the ep/situation.

How is this different from every episode of Family Guy?


Peter: This is worse than the time we had Moby Dick staying at the house.

Moby Dick: Got any Raisin Bran?
Peter: No, we have Total. you could put some raisins in that. It'd be like the same thing.
Moby Dick: Sigh...








......ARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRGHHH!!!! Not Comedy!




Don't get me wrong, I like Family Guy most of the time.

They go a little too far with the tangents now, too. They were more compact and just funnier in the first three seasons

Dutch wrote:

SineSwiper wrote:I could easily name off a Top 25 list for US shows or movies that didn't have kids in it (as supporting roles) and be fine, but nobody can do even a Top 5 for anime under those same conditions.

Really? Since it's so easy, list off your top 25 animated shows in North America with no kids or teenagers in them.

I didn't say cartoons on purpose: cartoons in America are only for kids. Anime in Japan is quite a different medium. Half of their shows are anime, so it's just a medium for telling a story, instead of being an actual definition of what audience the story should be.

My key point is that many many adults watch anime, and yet, there are still kids being the focus on most of the anme out there.

SineSwiper wrote: there are still PEDOS being the focus on most of the anme out there.

I've seen way too many grown men on message boards using this garbage as their avatars/sigs. I suspect the amount of doujin based on this "Lucky Star" series is astronomical.

Are you some regular on 4chan or something?

SineSwiper wrote:Are you some regular on 4chan or something?

no, he just fuckin' loves coloring bitch

SineSwiper wrote:Are you some regular on 4chan or something?

Hahaha... gross. No. But a lot of the 4chan influence filters into other places. I am a big fan of Pedobear.

I have never heard of the series in question. The presence of underaged girls in Anime has been around since forever. Though if you look at fan favorites, usually the most popular girls are at least are in their midteens.

Edit: I did some research and it looks like a version of Sergeant Keroro with girls being the main character as opposed to starring a race of killer frogs from outer space.

So, I guess "older women" in this case is anybody in their 20's?

SineSwiper wrote:So, I guess "older women" in this case is anybody in their 20's?

Gross.

No one's ever older than 30 years in Anime unless it's some ancient wise person, but even those guys usually look like they're 10 years ago because these guys usually don't age in the first place.

SineSwiper wrote:

Dutch wrote:

SineSwiper wrote:I could easily name off a Top 25 list for US shows or movies that didn't have kids in it (as supporting roles) and be fine, but nobody can do even a Top 5 for anime under those same conditions.

Really? Since it's so easy, list off your top 25 animated shows in North America with no kids or teenagers in them.

I didn't say cartoons on purpose: cartoons in America are only for kids. Anime in Japan is quite a different medium. Half of their shows are anime, so it's just a medium for telling a story, instead of being an actual definition of what audience the story should be.

My key point is that many many adults watch anime, and yet, there are still kids being the focus on most of the anme out there.

Actually, anime is not really a mainstream form of entertainment even in Japan. The bulk of anime in Japan is shown during 12pm to 3am (late night anime slot) or early morning/evening weekend (aka the kiddy slot).

Pretty much the only one watching the late nights stuff are the Otaku population and those that watch the weekend stuff are kids.

What is being shown a lot on Japanese TV station is variety shows... Tons and tons of them.

Lucky Star, which was brought up in this thread is shown at 1:30am Tuesday, aka targeted towards otakus.

As most of you know, the otaku population are a weird bunch and anything with moe/pedo/cross dressing/blah blah blah characters will interest them.

The other time slot, which is tuned towards kids obviously has kids as main characters.

There are time slot which shows anime that are tuned to a mature/normal audience but they aren't that common. One of them is the Noitamina time slot (9-10pm Fridays) on Fuji Channel.

I'll give some rough description of some of the anime shown during this slot. Search Wikipedia or something else for better description, I'm a bit bad at this.

Honey and Clover - Ignoring Hagu (She's 18 but don't look her part), rest are in their 20s. It's about a bunch of arts students graduating from their college/looking for work etc...

怪～ayakashi～ Japanese Classic Horror - As you can tell from the title, tells 2 classic japanese horror story. Contains 3 separate story arcs, Yotsuya Kaidan (Sadako from ring was sort of inspired by Oiwa from this story), Tenshu Monogatari and Bake Neko. First 2 arcs are on the dull side but the last one is great. Last arc is about a man exorcising a monstrous cat that was formed from a certain grudge.

Jyu Oh Sei - Set in the future, two twins were thrown into a savage planet and have to survive. No special power/eye laser etc involved. Plot is somewhat Digital Devil Saga like. Twins starts as children though.

Hataraki Man - About a woman in her late 20s working as an editor at a magazine company and how she juggle her personal and work life.

Nodame Cantabile - About a man trying to fulfill his dream of becoming a composer. At the start of the series, he encountered a talented but messy girl and he try to get her straighten up. Main female character is actually not pretty looking.

Mononoke - Spin off from the Bake Neko arc of Ayakashi. Featuring the exorcist from Bake Neko.

Nana - Not really part of Noitamina but might as well be. Story of two girls with the same name and how the deal with their life. One wishes to work her way to being a rock singer, the other idly dreams of getting married.

I can probably dig out more stuff if I waste more time searching for stuff other than those from Noitamina.

BTW, Ergo Proxy was shown during the early evenings IIRC and GiTS was shown an hour or so before the late night anime slot.

In short, if you are looking for a more mature anime, take note of what time they are being shown.

My God he lives!!!!!

This is Seeker by the way, my old account is inactive so I had to hijack this one.

Broken Carcass wrote:My God he lives!!!!!

This is Seeker by the way, my old account is inactive so I had to hijack this one.

Why is it inactive?

Man, hello again, Garford. Been forever. What the hell have you been up to?

I changed my email address

Well, then you have shows like Bleach/Naruto that show on 7:27PM, right smack in the prime time slot. I knew that Japanese watched a lot of variety shows, but I had no idea that it was everything else.

The only anime I have enjoyed with no qualifications is Cowboy Bebop. I think it's not a coincidence it also does not star kids or high school students.

I also just realized it has some similarities to Firefly. Hmm.

You do have Ed in there for the "cute kid" factor.

Ed was not a character who had any appeal for being cute. Aside from the way she talked (obligatory cute girl voice, not like there's any actors for the non-cute version of a girl in Japan), and the fact she's a girl (which is hard to tell), she's pretty much the antithesis of a cute girl in Anime.

Ahhh how I miss Cowboy Bebop.

Cowboy Bebop 2 where are you.

Eric wrote:Ahhh how I miss Cowboy Bebop.

Cowboy Bebop 2 where are you.

How can they have a sequel? You forget how it ended?

He's just resting!!

I remember my friend was saying how can they have Arc the Lad 3 if Arc the Lad is dead in Arc the Lad 2, but apparently that didn't stop them.

Tessian wrote:

Eric wrote:Ahhh how I miss Cowboy Bebop.

Cowboy Bebop 2 where are you.

How can they have a sequel? You forget how it ended?

Pfft, if you read the interviews the guy who made it specifically says he never officially killed said character in question. :0

Aw man, now I have no reason to play through Arc the Lad 2! Dammit!

Eric wrote:

Tessian wrote:

Eric wrote:Ahhh how I miss Cowboy Bebop.

Cowboy Bebop 2 where are you.

How can they have a sequel? You forget how it ended?

Pfft, if you read the interviews the guy who made it specifically says he never officially killed said character in question. :0

Omega spoilers.

As much as I would like it, Cowboy Bebop shouldn't have a sequel. As it is, it is the pinnacle of Anime--the best the entire genre has to offer, bar none. It's been a downhill slide from there, interrupted only briefly by jabs of Wolf's Rain and Samurai Champloo.

Also, does Wolf's Rain have kids in it? I think there was a 15 year old boy, but the others were all 19-20+, weren't they?

Same for Samurai Champloo. I think the creator is good at making series that don't have kids, and conversely, don't suck. Maybe more people in Japan should follow this trend.