japan

Japan: Fans debate whether animation or a good story is better

Anime is undoubtedly one of the most consumed media by people from all over the world, especially in Japan, since the beautiful stories they tell, as well as the universes to which they transport us, are very important points for those who want to live experiences of all kinds. But now a debate has arisen from a renowned Japanese forum, as these fans began to comment on whether it is better to have an engaging story or a good animation that knows how to please the viewer with its visuals.

In Japan, anime fans debate between animation or history

Japón: Buena Animación Vs Buena Historia

Like fans in Japan, all of us have been wondering whether we prefer a good story over its animation and vice versa. Our Japanese compatriots have been giving their opinion about this, “I think content is the most important thing, but when I watch anime with good and bad animation, I realize that animation is critical.”

“If the story is interesting, I will watch crappy art, but it is rarely popular,” are some of the comments left and with which many fans in Japan agreed. They mention that nowadays people are very visual and that is why seeing an image or a trailer of a new work can catch our attention more quickly if its animation as well as its colors are eye-catching.

Sword Art Online

One of the series considered visually good, but lacking in story and character development, is Isekai Sword Art Online (SAO). This is very well known outside Japan, as we said before, but it has also been harshly criticized for its inconsistent plot and character development. On the other hand, the animation has been praised, its quality and fluidity in the action scenes are a beauty, so much so that they have managed to captivate their fans, attracting in turn new audiences.

We also have cases that are quite the opposite, an example of this is the series “Berserk“. Kentaro Miura’s work is known worldwide, people talk about its incredible drawing, its action-packed story, as well as the brutal development of not only its main character, but also the secondary characters have their time to shine. Although unfortunately it has never received a worthy adaptation, it could be said that the most remarkable one is the one made in 1997.

Berserk-Guts-Miniatura

And like those examples, we can mention many others that are quite famous outside of Japan. Let’s take advantage of the fact that One Piece is currently captivating people around the world thanks to the fact that Netflix mainly decided to add the anime series to its catalog and later release its Live Action series, which did great and we are excited for new news about its second season.

When One Piece premiered in Japan in 1999, it managed to touch the hearts of many viewers. But despite its interesting story, its characters full of charisma and its fantastic world full of strange creatures and pirates, the anime series has often been criticized for its irregular animation and some filler scenes that only lengthen the chapters and give the feeling that the plot does not advance.

In summary we can say that the quality of the animation can influence the experience of a person when watching a series and this can happen with fans outside Japan, we will continue to find cases where an anime has a very good story, but its animation leaves much to be desired. Likewise, we will come across series where the animation is far superior to the narrative. At the end of the day, both animation and story are subjective and may vary among different viewers.

One Piece