| While "show don't tell" is preferred, there are times when just flat-out explaining exactly what had happened to the audience makes understanding motivations and plot points easier to digest. What are your thoughts on narration in general? Should there be more or less? Is getting rid of it entirely in favor of "showing" the right choice? Do you have examples of bad/good narration that would undoubtedly change the anime drastically without it? Do you know any good narrators? |
  Rarity is Best Pony! |
| There's no golden thing. Show don't tell works until something is shown and no one still understands what it is. That is when explanations are needed. Then you go into tell don't show, but then stuff you don't need to have explained is told. So the solution to this, like every question, is that it's subjective. Good anime are going to do it right, and bad anime are going to do it wrong. >thoughts on narration I don't mind it. Too little and too much is bad. >Should the amount change No. >should we get rid of it Like stated above, no. >examples that would change the series Concrete Revolutio lacks narration due to it's structure, and does not need narration. It displays what it's about easily and is not hard to understand. The Chimera Ant arc in Hunter x Hunter, probably had too much narration. For some scenes, it fit, but for other scenes it was painfully obvious what was happening and the narration was not needed. |
| every single one of my forum posts is dumb and invalid except for 1, I don't claim them it was a different person it was all fake |
| I quite like the narration in Hunter x Hunter 2011 and Fairy Tail. It's relaxing to listen to and it explains the situation well. It seems to work well in longer running shows that are kind of adventurous. I wouldn't want to see it in the regular 12 episode shows though. Doesn't seem necessary. |
QABJAB said: I feel like this is something they teach you in high school, and everyone just spews it out without any real thought. Conceptually it sounds wise and common sense, but I think from a storytelling perspective I think it's impact on how much you like something is often overstated.While "show don't tell" is preferred |
Yudina said: It should be Show and tell IMO......QABJAB said: I feel like this is something they teach you in high school, and everyone just spews it out without any real thought. Conceptually it sounds wise and common sense, but I think from a storytelling perspective I think it's impact on how much you like something is often overstated.While "show don't tell" is preferred |
| Sup... |
| There are always better ways to explain something without outright narration and unnatural dialogue. I don't mind ambiguity and I tend to judge 'narration' pretty harshly. |
| When talking about anime narration, you gotta mention Hunter x Hunter (2011)...it's notorious for it! Although, with how the manga is written (almost like a novel at times) it's hardly surprising that it's translated across to anime form in that way. From what I've heard, a lot of people absolutely loathe the narrator in HxH, especially during the Chimera Ant arc...but I really loved it. The guy's voice was pretty soothing to listen to & provided a perfect juxtaposition amidst all that chaos. It also makes it feel like I'm tuning into some sort of fable or some old epic adventure tale! For some reason narrators in anything make me feel kinda nostalgic, so I have a soft spot for 'em....it's prolly cuz everything I used to watch as a kid had narrators XD |
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| Your title makes no sense. You are imply exposition can only be carried out by narration, which is obviously not true. There is not a case of not enough narration as much as it's counterpart because narration is not that important or a fundamental of a literary device like exposition. |
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| Not sure how I feel about narration in general, but the best narrators are the ones that get actively involved dialogue wise in the show. Ie. The narrator in Space Dandy especially the last episode, or the narrator in Bobobo-bo Bo-bobo. Basically comedy anime where it's played off as another character or for some solid 4th wall break humor is extremely appealing to me. But yeah as some people mentioned above I'm very much in favor that the "show and tell" mentality is drastically better imo. As such I can't say I want more or less but I would like to see them have fun with it. But certainly not getting rid of it entirely. |
| I prefer the protagonist also be the narrator (Like Kyon from Haruhi Suzumiya) rather than a 3rd person omniscient narrator. |
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| I think anime does it too much. Not enough is shown or told creatively through the theming and context. I'd rather have more info than not enough but there are usually classier ways of delivering it. |
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| Narration tends to be heavily out-of-place. You're in a visual medium that's all about showing. Why tell? That's just laziness. If you have really good writing and acting it may provide psychological insight to the characters, but narration mostly screams laziness. |
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| Perhaps my favorite use of narration is in Bartender, as it's using narration in a theatrical sense, constantly jumping back and forth over stage lines to speak to characters, the audience, and the characters again. I can't say anime in general would benefit from more or less, but I will admit it does help to let the audience figure stuff out themselves. It's fine as a tool to restate important points, recap on past events that may have been forgotten, or to give that feeling of experiencing a grand tale, but it's otherwise a hard tool to really use correctly, especially in shorter titles. It's still a necessary tool that shouldn't be eliminated, but it shouldn't be used as a crutch to explain points that could have been communicated through character actions or by simply watching the show. |
| just remember that brevity is wit so massive dialouge infodumps and longwinded exposition scenes probably arent preferred options |
 Freddy Nicholas said: have control, be yourself, god is dead |
| What are your thoughts on narration in general? Shit Should there be more or less? Less Is getting rid of it entirely in favor of "showing" the right choice? Yes Do you have examples of bad/good narration that would undoubtedly change the anime drastically without it? bad : chimera ant arc Do you know any good narrators? No |
tragedydesuJul 27, 2016 2:07 AM
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| What are your thoughts on narration in general? Don't really like it, if you want to tell me what's happening, tell me using visual clues or characters, not a fourth wall breaking narrator Should there be more or less? Less Is getting rid of it entirely in favor of "showing" the right choice? We shouldn't get rid of it entirely, it does have its use occasionally Do you have examples of bad/good narration that would undoubtedly change the anime drastically without it? Bad narration: Hunter x hunter's chimera ant arc. I spent a lot of that arc just pointing out bad narration and how they could have used other methods to portray information Do you know any good narrators? No |
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