outlawauron said:
Of course Bebop and Geass popular, they're huge (honestly, every show in my top 5 is pretty popular with KnK and Nodame being primarily in Japan). I'm not sure how I ever said I didn't have an open mind about other popular shows (especially considering how many of them I've seen!). Just because something is popular doesn't mean I start to dislike it, a hipster I am not. Second part, I disagree wholeheartedly. It's like a movie critic, would you take Roger Ebert's word on a movie over user comments on fandango.com? The users view aren't worthless, but I believe the critique or view of more versed person, in whatever the topic of interest is, is far more valuable than your average opinion. While that is a rather big strecth to compare someone like Ebert to our discussion, I do believe it helps make my point. While it is mostly anecdotal and personal experience, I disagree with the bolded. As you said, there's no evidence we can grasp upon, but I think it works a lot like nostalgia. I refuse to watch DBZ again as I have fond memories and do not wish to lose those fond memories. To the last part, due to you playing games over many years, I would value your opinion far more than someone who just started gaming and when they do, they only play Halo or the new Call of Duty. Doesn't make their opinion worthless or somehow bad, it's just that they have really expanded beyond whatever their 'comfort zone' is. |
Well, when someone claims that "most popular shows are indeed terrible" I take it as a sign that said person is biased against them... Specially when the same person is arguing that some popular shows are only included here because of a lack of knowledge from those that chose them. But ok, if you don't believe there's a relation between popularity and quality, then we agree.
As for the second part, I guess we'll have to agree to disagree. I don't think the opinion of any critic on a certain work is more valid than anyone else's, as long as they both have experienced it, of course. While the critic or more experienced person might be able to recognize certain elements or their origin that the average person wouldn't, I don't believe this makes their opinion more valid. As I mentioned before, the evaluation of whatever information you have is still subjective, so it really only applies to your personal views. If we were arguing about an objective topic, it would obviously be a different story. For example, Roger Ebert's opinion would be very valuable if I wanted to make a documental about the history of cinema.
Furthermore, I would argue that experience can be a double-edge sword when it comes to the evaluation of an artistic work. The more experience you have, the bigger the risk of being influenced by it... Keeping an open mind is not just about trying new things, but also about trying to see things from different and new perspectives, which is easier to do when you don't have that much experience to begin with. This is arguable of course, and a long discussion by itself, but you get the point.
While it is mostly anecdotal and personal experience, I disagree with the bolded.
I don't understand why you disagreed with the bolded when all I said was that you can't prove it, which you agreed to. Anyway, you're obviously free to believe that it's just nostalgia, but in the end it's just that, a belief. The way I see it, nostalgia can only get you so far, and when you re-experience the same work after a long time and still believe it's one of the best, then that alone proves it's not just that to me. I could name several examples of this, but of course, I can't prove them to you unless you could get into my head... So, either you take my word for it or you don't. In any case, this kind of arguments could be used the other way around, like for example claiming that you only like a recent show so much because it's still fresh to you and you haven't given it enough time to properly evaluate its importance. And I for one believe that the test of time is the biggest test that an artistic work can face, as it's much more difficult to stay relevant after long periods of time than being the best only the moment you appear. On a related note, I'm currently watching Dragon Ball Z on Cartoon Network... (the Latin American version is not edited like the US one though)
And about the last part, keep in mind that there's a difference between having a sizeable amount of experience and the variety of said experience. If someone has seen 100 anime but they're all shoujo while another person has seen only 50 but from different genres, who has more anime experience ? It's certainly arguable, right ?
