40 Days of Anime: Day 2

[jennaria]

02: Has an anime ever made you cry?

Yes.

This isn't actually all that impressive? I cry easily. You can have the most blatantly obvious, string-pulling, 'At least I got to see you - one last time!' tear-jerking moment, and I'll still be there crying my eyes out.

Tangent! Among the reasons why it took me a Really Long Time to get into anime: back when I was in college - late 90s - one of my friends was talking about a movie/OVA, where they had gone in with the assumption that the characters on the front cover of the DVD would live, and instead every single one of 'em had died. This, combined with an attempt to show me anime which featured the last few episodes of the first season of MAGIC KNIGHT RAYEARTH (see the descriptions of episodes 17-20 on that link) and the first episode or two of KEY THE METAL IDOL - well, it left me with the impression that anime, as a genre, was hella depressing and why would I want to watch it. This impression did not get fixed for :ahem: a long time.

Comments

[akatonbo]

So was this late-90s everyone-dies movie by any chance X/1999?

[jennaria]

Possibly? My memory is that the characters had elf-ears, which would indicate something else, but it's also been about twenty years so I wouldn't swear to it.

[kalloway]

One of the questions my mother always used to ask, when I lived at home and we'd watch shows together, was why anime was so depressing. We were definitely watching a lot of stuff with bittersweet endings at the time, so yeaah... I can definitely see where that sort of impression would come from.

I've never figured out if I like Key or not, but I really should watch it again.

[jennaria]

It doesn't help that there's a definite anime trope - possibly existing elsewhere as well, but I've seen it most often in anime - where the first handful of episodes are Happy Fluffy Episodic, and then they start sneaking in the Plot! And by the end it's all ANGST AND DESPAIR, and you're like, where is the show I was promised by the beginning?

(I mean, to be fair, part of this is advertising. I don't know if you saw GOSICK? Advertising, and first few episodes: fluffy 1920s school mystery. By the end of the series: HOLY SHIT WHERE DID THE WORLD WAR COME FROM.)

I never went beyond the bit my college friend showed me, for KEY (or RAYEARTH, either). My tolerance for gratuitous angst is not actually that high - see also why the only CLAMP series I've ever read/watched all the way through was CARD CAPTOR SAKURA.

[kalloway]

I have been blindsided by PLOT so many times. ^^;; One of my favorites, Kiddy Grade, goes from fanservice-y action comedy to a freight-train of PLOT right in the face with almost no warning.

I definitely have to be in the mood for it, and it's one of the main reasons I prefer binge-watching over weekly-as-it-airs, because once the plot/drama hits, I end up chewing my fingers off while waiting for the next episode.