It's not just Nintendo fans that dislike anime style. Lots of people hate anime style games. Which is a shame, because there are a ton of great games that are anime style. Not every anime game is like Xenoblade or Tales Of.
-
Ever wanted an RSS feed of all your favorite gaming news sites? Go check out our new Gaming Headlines feed! Read more about it here.
-
We have made minor adjustments to how the search bar works on ResetEra. You can read about the changes here.
"Anime games" being sort of controversial among Nintendo fans is ridiculous
- Thread starter Oscarzx n
- Start date
Much like a ton of people on this forum defend using the word boomer as "it just means old now" and not its actual meaning, anime has similarly evolved to mean more than it's original meaning, especially outside of Japan and online.
When I say "fucking ANIME" I don't mean general anime, I mean anime for perverts.
When I say "fucking ANIME" I don't mean general anime, I mean anime for perverts.
I wouldn't even go that far. I totally get completely dismissing a game because of its artstyle. But "completely" in my opinion should probably come with ignoring it and not engaging with discussion, especially if that engagement is derailing every thread in existence with a game with a semi-related artstyle.
Uh. If you're going to re-define what otaku is, it's best to just use another word. Berserk is one of the most otaku things around. It has a very geeky/nerdy fanbase, it also has an extremely male dominated fanbase. It's a manga about gore, violence, goes into things like rape, etc. Something like Berserk is way more otaku than Naruto, One piece, etc.
In Japan, the average fan of Berserk is much more likely to be your stereotypical otaku man than other series brought up.
People write off games for all sorts of reasons, nothing wrong with not bothering with a game mainly because you don't like how it looks. I just did that with the new Bravely Default game lol
I don't see the issue with it. I know people that don't like a lot of the Sony games with very realistic styles, which in fine. As long you respect anything people like and don't like, it's just preference.
You can't just say the meaning of a word has changed to defend your ignorant xenophobic use of it.
This is my problem when people generalize anime by a specific category tbh. There's more to anime than Otaku bait like you are seemingly alluding to. There's actually more variety than ever tbh.
One of the best anime out there called Shōwa Genroku Rakugo Shinjū was made and it didn't need to look like those anime you mentioned.
Just any entertainment has their baggage, but it seems like some people specifically have an issue with anime and start to dismiss. Thankfully it has gotten better over the years.
Edit: Also you mention Berserk but even that series has some questionable stuff in it lol
I've been recently coming to terms with how much gaming is really a series of overlapping fandoms. I'm a Nintendo fan and a JRPG fan (among other things), so I've also been confused by how intense the criticism of "anime sword boys" in Smash can get from people who are the former but not the latter. Sometimes it feels like the criticisms of sexualization are made in bad faith, by people who just don't like anime-ish games. After all, I have seen far fewer complaints about, say, Bayonetta or Zero Suit Samus.
But, I do think that Pyra and Mythra are pretty egregious examples of sexualized character design. It is definitely not my intention to shut down that criticism by saying, "well, it's just anime, so you wouldn't understand." I think that both can be true: some Nintendo fans are especially vocal in their criticism of anything anime-ish AND Pyra and Mythra are bad character designs, and we deserve better.
But, I do think that Pyra and Mythra are pretty egregious examples of sexualized character design. It is definitely not my intention to shut down that criticism by saying, "well, it's just anime, so you wouldn't understand." I think that both can be true: some Nintendo fans are especially vocal in their criticism of anything anime-ish AND Pyra and Mythra are bad character designs, and we deserve better.
I honestly think it's also good to bring up how generalized different games/genres/companies can be grouped up as. Like I've seen tons and tons of people call all Sony games "sad dad oscarbait" in some of those threads that have come up the last couple weeks. Which I honestly think is just ridiculous. No different to if you just group up all Nintendo games as anime/kiddie or Microsoft as all dudebro games.
There's something to be said for the 'RPG' argument, it's more accurate than 'anime' for a start. For me it's more that I played two Falcom games back-to-back (YS VIII and Trails of Cold Steel 3) and both have, at the start of the game, 'young male character's introduction to female lead is all a misunderstanding where he gets called a pervert'. Which happens in CS1. Which happens in Valkyria Chronicles 4. And in Xenoblade 2. It's the same skit redone again and again. I like JRPGs, I play tons of them, but there are repeated, tired ideas in them (like many genres). Much of it is down to teen casts and a way of setting up some tension in the party that can be easily resolved later, but it is a tired cliche, not just in its overuse but in the way it pigeonholes both the young woman as quick to anger and the young man as hapless but innocent and unfairly accused. It's a bit like with other JRPG cliches like the character archetypes of 'generic action hero guy and healer/science/academic girl', which is something than everything from genre fiction and film to comics struggles with too. I think the discussion of them can be a lot more accurate than 'anime games' though. They might borrow stuff from popular trends in the medium (including artists and animators for the lead visuals), but JRPGs have been around for 35 years and, even stepping aside from the much-discussed topic of objectification here, they have a huge pile of their own tropes in storytelling and characterisation too, some way more tired than others.
I was thinking about this while playing Bravely Default 2 today. That the cast really isn't anything mindblowing or original in terms of shipwrecked generic hero guy, dedicated, selfless princess, comic relief gregarious guy and witty mercenary who puts him in his place. But what they are is quietly heroic. There's no weird skits like I mentioned above, and what little characterisation there is happens gently through party chat and sidequests, rather than wedge in a load of skits that just feel unnecessary and more of a checklist. It's like a 'less is more' thing, where if the next Falcom game I play just repeats the same list of cliches again, I'll just shelve it the way I did CS3 when Rean started smirking about history repeating itself, Falcom having its cake and eating it as it recycled the same skit yet again.
Last edited:
Yes, that's what I'm doing.
Grrr hate japan! I should throw all my anime and manga in the garbage because I hate them! I wasn't watching Gaki while eating dinner! Grrrrr bad Japan. It's not like there's a huge issue with straight up disgusting depictions of women all over this shit that people don't like for some WEIRD reason.
Not to say people don't lump anime all together and dismiss it, cause they do. Just like nerds lump sports together and dismiss it, or whatever other million examples of that you want to come up with.
I'm guessing you haven't seen the discourse around the Pokemon Pearl & Diamond remakes, lol
I really really like Xenoblade Chronicles 2 (like, top 10 favorite games ever category probably?) but I'm actually grateful for the exceedingly loud criticism around it because I don't want to have to ever again have a game I love so much have so many shitty unnecessary character designs and gross male gazey shit. Torna was already a lot better and I hope whatever comes next shows they really listened to the reception around how awful some of this was.
It's unfortunate that there's so much of the fanbase that refuses to accept criticism of it, though. Looking up stuff for the post-game recently I've come across conversations of it on Twitter, gamefaqs, and reddit and it's some cringey god damned shit. I used to think it l conversation around the game was pretty unbearable on here because it was so hard to escape the discussion of the character designs, but I realized going the opposite way leads to a bunch of horny weeb alt righters and incels, so uh, no thanks to that environment.
It's unfortunate that there's so much of the fanbase that refuses to accept criticism of it, though. Looking up stuff for the post-game recently I've come across conversations of it on Twitter, gamefaqs, and reddit and it's some cringey god damned shit. I used to think it l conversation around the game was pretty unbearable on here because it was so hard to escape the discussion of the character designs, but I realized going the opposite way leads to a bunch of horny weeb alt righters and incels, so uh, no thanks to that environment.
If you really wanna know why this is a thing, it's because it's the internet and people are looking to dunk on something like they always have been. As someone in this thread mentioned though, the haters are very much in the minority and even places like this that may seethingly hate something with a burning passion are definitely in that minority group whether we admit it or not.
Ya know I've always had the same problem when people try and generalize all anime as the same. People try and say anime is a genre, but it's totally not as something like cowboy bebop is entirely different than hetalia, and hell I'm not even a fan of the definition that anime is strictly Japanese animation as IIRC The Tigger Movie was animated entirely in Japan and like, is that anime then? I don't think so. Anime is more like a specific art style IMO
Lol, seems like objectification of women and Otako baits can be overlooked if the art style is appealing enough.
So I've been looking through the thread and I just wanna say using Fire Emblem seems like, the worst example to use for "but you liked these kind of games in the past!" purposes
Like you just need to imagine someone whose last favourite Fire Emblem game was one of the Tellus games, and then for whatever reason, the first recent FE they ended up playing was Fates, and it shouldn't be very hard to imagine some of the phrases that are going be coming out of their mouth.
(Yes Three Houses was better on that front , and I imagine part of that was because Fates and the resulting reactions to certain parts of it happened.)
Like you just need to imagine someone whose last favourite Fire Emblem game was one of the Tellus games, and then for whatever reason, the first recent FE they ended up playing was Fates, and it shouldn't be very hard to imagine some of the phrases that are going be coming out of their mouth.
(Yes Three Houses was better on that front , and I imagine part of that was because Fates and the resulting reactions to certain parts of it happened.)
Nintendo games are too Japanimation, Sony games are too movie... nothing is safe anymore.
I don't have a problem with "anime"-like art styles as a rule. My problem is the over sexualization of female characters and the lame tropes that usually come with that style. I don't have a problem with some sexualization, especially if it's done such that both traditionally male and female bodies get sexualized a bit for "eye candy". But c'mon. Do I need to post that disgusting snow cat bunny or whatever from Xenoblade 2?
You can pretend otherwise if you like, but the fact remains that there are notable "anime"-like games in Nintendo platforms that have those issues and should be called out on it.
You can pretend otherwise if you like, but the fact remains that there are notable "anime"-like games in Nintendo platforms that have those issues and should be called out on it.
lmfao i'm sorry but "if more anime looked like THE MOST POPULAR SEINEN IN THE WORLD" is an incredible take to have in this of all threads
Look but hopefuly you don't mean that anime should be like those series (well except for 20th Century Boys). If someone tells me about Bebop they can just right look at Faye who even has a XC2 like design lol
I mean, I consider myself a fan of Nintendo and I'm not crazy for disliking the loli soft porn characters from Xenoblade Chronicles 2.
I tried to bring it back. I tried.
More like "if anime didn't all use the same stylistic tropes that are probably more distinguishable to people who live and breathe that stuff than the kind of person who'd describe a series as "too anime" maybe this conversation wouldn't happen all the time."
Yeah but she's not like literally 15?
The word hasn't changed it's meaning in such a way as prominent usage of the word still revolves around the medium/artistic styling instead of a gross generalization. Your usage is a devaluation of the artistic merits of an entire medium, industry, and creators belonging to it.
There is merit to the discussion of the prominence of problematic elements in popular works, as well as the promotion, inclusion and acceptance of those works in the industry and greater fandom. But to do that, nuance needs to be allowed over generalizing a grand word.
For example, due to some people using the word anime like you do, many people will be put off from an entire medium of art and will never experience truly great works, irrespective of the medium, like Sarazanmai or Tatami Galaxy.
"wait, it's all anime?"
"always has been"
It's all "anime" and yet it manages to be more versatile and interesting than western art styles tbh.
It isn't the people avoiding Xenoblade 2 with boners. The game's art style is over sexualization and objectification to an extreme, and it's frankly amazing the lengths that people will go to diminish the concerns that people have over that.
If a person is going to be turned off Japanese cartoons (and that ain't a medium, animation is a medium. Anime is just cartoons from another country; we don't have a special word to describe cartoons made in France) because of a single forum post they probably weren't ever going to watch one anyway.
Every Xenoblade 2 fan knows this, but if they obfuscate the issue then they can play their anime tiddy game and ignore the legit grievances someone could have for the characters and how they look.
I don't know how much you know about japanimation culture (I'm an expert)
Since you are nicely replying to my garbage - I don't actually talk about anime anywhere and only joke about it in a single thread on this forum. I'm sorry you wasted your time replying to me in an intelligent way.
So what about Ed who has also been sexualized? Berserk is really questionable. Have you read Berserk the past few years? Elfhelm? I know where you are coming from, but there are better series to choose from.
got some bad news for you about the tropes people in this thread are complaining about vis a vis cowboy bebop and berserk
Some people will just hate everything that's not Mario, Zelda or other 2 older franchises. A lot of people also hates indie stuff in a indie direct because there was no big Nintendo announcement on it :p
They probably wouldn't give a shit if there was a BotW 2 trailer in the last one tho.
They probably wouldn't give a shit if there was a BotW 2 trailer in the last one tho.
...Is she? I admit it's been a minute since I've seen Cowboy Bebop but I don't think they do.
I mean if Cowboy Bebop's fucked up too then realtalk I am gonna start saying shit like "all anime is trash" because god that's depressing.
Exactly.
I hate anime stuff. It's so boring and samey (From what I've seen) and usually over sexualised that I'd be quite happy if it just disappeared from gaming altogether.
Isn't that just excusing people that conflate all similar looking anime as cut from the same cloth and will fly off the handle at five randomly chosen seconds of Sweetness and Lightning because the one of the main characters is a kindergartener?
It's really just a case of people whining about not getting what they want. This happens everywhere but with Nintendo I think there is a strong encouragement to identify with some key pillar series they are known for. Many characters are used like mascots and creates the image of what Nintendo "should" be like. The behaviour of vocal Nintendo fan minorities feels like it gets highlighted quite often compared to others as well. The argument over sexualisation in this thread is more certain people adding their own spin on the issue but not really representative of the whole phenomenon that I believe OP is talking about.
It's always funny when people complain about certain tropes then cite series that feature them "but it's okay because this one is cool to like", though.
Basically. The inmates are running the asylum now as far as anime production is concerned so you have an infinite feedback loop of otaku making stuff for otaku, which then makes the younger otaku grow up and want to make the stuff THEY liked when they were younger, and so on and so on and so on.
I doubt Nintendo fans in general dislike "anime games", many of Nintendo's most popular series use an anime artstyle for decades already. I definitely noticed an aversion to anime style games on Era though and I guess Era Nintendo fans. In many cases imo rightfully so, because many anime games are full of dumb tropes and gratuitous sexualization of women and girls, in other cases I find it over the top and sometimes quite hypocritical, because some anime games are raked over coals here constantly, while others that are equally guilty, or even more so, get off much easier.
I didn't mean a single post, I implied if it was the persevering meaning and general use of the word.
I also think anime isn't limited to cartoons made in Japan, but that's a discussion worth more energy than I have at the moment.
This thread pretty much went the way I thought.
I do not mind playing anime style games. Most of the complaining comes from those not getting what they wanted out of the direct and anime games are an easy target to dunk on.
I do not mind playing anime style games. Most of the complaining comes from those not getting what they wanted out of the direct and anime games are an easy target to dunk on.