The Top 5 Anime Of All-Time.

[seiya19]

outlawauron said:

seiya19 said:

Dodece said:
The second is that Anime ends up being defined as a genre itself. Which is actually not the case at all. It is an art form that encompasses a lot of genres.

By the way, I'm all for being open-minded but your words seemed to express disdain towards Shonen Jump and "mainstream" anime in general, which I would say it's an example of the opossite... Maybe (and hopefully) I'm just reading too much into your comments, but it wouldn't be the first time I find people complaining about this. Sometimes it seems that the division between what's "mainstream" and what isn't seems to be much bigger than usual among anime fans, and i'm of the opinion that popularity or concensus should never influence your personal opinion on said work.

I admit that I have yet to see many series mentioned here, as I haven't seen as much anime as I would've wanted to, for a variety of reasons. Still, I would say that my top 3 at least is quite consolidated, so I don't see it changing in the near future. But who knows...

See, this is where I have to agree with Dodece. Most shounen anime and popular shows are indeed terrible. I may somewhat enjoy some of the shows (Gintama and DBZ way back in the day), but I think it's ridiculous to consider them for these sorts of lists. It's the same with people that haven't been exposed to a lot of movies or games. Their top 'list' will show that they haven't seen very much. That doesn't mean that their opinion doesn't matter, its just that their lists may not be as refined like blacksaber or myself (who both watch far too much anime)

First of all, do you believe that Cowboy Bebop and Code Geass are popular ? I believe they're, and both of them are in your personal top 5... Assuming you agree, wouldn't this be enough to keep an open mind about popular anime, as opossed to being biased against them ?

Anyway... An opinion, no matter how "refined" it is, is still an opinion. It's still subjective, therefore not more valid than anyone else's. Not even concensus is enough to invalidate or diminish someone's opinion, as both things are perfectly capable of co-exist.

As I said before, being biased against a certain genre or "mainstream" anime in general is clearly not keeping an open mind, as you're letting these labels get in the way of truly evaluating the actual work. It's no different than those who stay away of non-mainstream anime because of equivalent reasons. There's a lot of elements that determine whether something becomes popular or not, many of them not having anything to do with the work itself. So, using this metric to prove that something is "good" or "bad" in terms of quality is ridiculous, no matter what side you're on. I'm sure we can all come up with examples of popular and unpopular works that we like, so why let popularity or lack of it influence our personal taste ?

Asking for others to keep an open mind and try new things when you're not willing to do so is an example of hypocrisy. If you're not willing to get out of your own "comfort zone" from time to time, no matter what it is, don't ask for others to do it. Personally, while I always try to keep an open mind, I do have my limits and favoritisms so I realize that I can't criticise others for the same thing, just express my views. Besides, you can't prove that a person who likes a certain work would change his mind if he had more experience. Maybe, maybe not, but there's no evidence either way.

By the way... While I surely can't claim that I have a lot of experience with anime (I've probably seen around 50, while being just informed of others), I can claim that I have a fairly relevant amount of experience with videogames, given that I started playing them in the NES era. And just like with anime, I don't believe this puts my opinion above others in any way, as it's also subjective. In addition, I still enjoy many games that I played when I was younger and didn't have as much experience, a few of them still being among my favorite games ever, even after playing them several times throughout the years. And I know many others do too.