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Aug 15, 2020 5:27 PM
#1
What I mean is the worst case of a show that's quantity over quality for its characters. A show that stuffs its main cast with loads and loads of characters, but doesn't compensate with proper focus on who's important or believable character development. A series where you could easily delete numerous cast members and lose nothing of value to the greater whole. For me, it's Tokyo Ghoul in every season beside the first. So many characters. Constantly shifting plot focus that's hard to keep track of. But nothing truly felt explored and no one got more than cursory looks before moving on to some other plot. |
Aug 15, 2020 5:30 PM
#2
"Mayoiga" is a classic example of an anime that was doomed from the start simply because it had too many characters for a 12 episode show. That and its dumbass story. |
Aug 15, 2020 5:31 PM
#3
Aug 15, 2020 5:46 PM
#4
Aug 15, 2020 6:07 PM
#5
Aug 15, 2020 6:19 PM
#6
Gundam 00 is the worst case. The Lost Village is the best case. |
その目だれの目? |
Aug 15, 2020 6:41 PM
#7
I think My Hero Academia is slowly falling into this category. Characters like Iida, Todoroki, Ochako just stopped developing thoughout the show. And there are just too many other heroes with names that I cannot remember. |
Aug 15, 2020 6:44 PM
#8
To Aru Majutsu no Index. Great anime, great story. Too many characters and too many arcs. You’d expect a character to disappear after an arc but they just keep coming with their backstories and it’s hard to implement/remember all that information into the current arc. New character? Welcome to the gang! Time to get confused. |
Aug 15, 2020 6:44 PM
#9
Angel Beats. Go watch the opening if you haven't, then keep in mind that it's a 13 episode series. A vast majority of the characters seen in that opening do not get development, and barely get a gimmick about them. We don't necessarily need all of them to have full on arcs, but geez that's a lot for how little most of them matter. |
You have shit taste, and then I have taste so shit it makes your taste look good |
Aug 15, 2020 6:47 PM
#10
My Hero Not every character has to have a purpose. It can help for worldbuild and introducing themes, which One Piece does majestically. None of the characters exist solely for the main storyline, although they tie in importantly and eventually. However, the problem lies in introducing tension without release. My Hero Academia's License arc is, to me, the worst example of this. The new schools basically didn't matter. There was so much buildup of tension at the start, and in the end, only sandguy and "Camie" ever does anything. I kinda feel like Class 1-A outside of the main three are there for fanservice, but that's just me. Thing is, unlike One Piece, most don't have their individual stories. Most of the time they are introduced with a flashy card, then something happens. For example, The Big Three were just introduced, but I feel like I had no attachment when something happened, because they were rushed into the Yakuza arc. I just never felt any attachment to the MHA characters, save for Deku and All Might. |
ChartTopper60Aug 15, 2020 6:51 PM
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Aug 15, 2020 6:47 PM
#11
DV_Wolf said: Lapis Re:Lights which is airing rn. I literally don't know shit about the characters cuz every episode they add like 5 more wtf. I'm only there for the idol music though lmao. But even in that department there's only been 2 songs in 6 eps. It's adapted from a mobile game, the creators assumed that you've played the game before watching the anime in most cases. It's a reoccurring issue in mobile adaptations. The worst handled case is Girlfriend (Kari). If you haven't played the game, then the anime feels soulless to you. |
Aug 15, 2020 6:50 PM
#12
quirkywolf said: To Aru Majutsu no Index. Great anime, great story. Too many characters and too many arcs. You’d expect a character to disappear after an arc but they just keep coming with their backstories and it’s hard to implement/remember all that information into the current arc. New character? Welcome to the gang! Time to get confused. This is making me want to drop the novels. Fans all say the series gets better, but I like it less and less with each new character. |
その目だれの目? |
Aug 15, 2020 6:52 PM
#13
jc9622 said: "Mayoiga" is a classic example of an anime that was doomed from the start simply because it had too many characters for a 12 episode show. That and its dumbass story. Mayoiga only have 4 main characters tho. And these characters were well developed enough. |
Aug 15, 2020 6:55 PM
#14
Baccano and Durarara have so many characters that if you want to perfectly track all their plots, you'll need to take notes while watching the series. Tsurezure Children also has too many couples that some of them feel repetitive. |
it's over | we're so back | don't take this too seriously |
Aug 15, 2020 7:11 PM
#15
ignatovlovebot said: i'm a slut for pretty bishies, but enstars clearly overdid it. apparently they tried to please the entire player base by giving every character screen time, and the result was just tragic. I absolutely love enstars and still gave it a 10 out of personal bias, but I have to agree that enstars was certainly one of the worst cases of too many characters lol. They should have focused on only some of them instead or have multiple seasons; trying to introduce 43 characters from scratch in 24 episodes is just stupid. To new viewers with 0 background knowledge it's just confusing as hell and you won't even feel attached to any of the characters. |
Aug 15, 2020 7:12 PM
#16
My Hero Academia. It starts to become a major flaw in season 4. |
Aug 15, 2020 7:15 PM
#17
Right now, Food Wars most definitely. Especially the last couple seasons.... |
Aug 15, 2020 7:28 PM
#18
Aug 15, 2020 8:06 PM
#19
I swear, haven't we had a similar thread before not too long ago... |
Aug 15, 2020 8:13 PM
#20
Madoka Magica, Baccano, Tower of God. |
Imagine how boring this world would be without Japan - a comment at youtube |
Aug 15, 2020 8:35 PM
#21
I believe it has never been a case for me. More characters just make the story more believable in some sense. Just look outside at the real world, you will realize that "too many characters" is an ordinary thing. You don't care about most of them, but nothing really surprising if in some point they will do something substantial to your life or the world around you. I prefer more "characters" than more "mooks" any day. |
"The Slave is the have-not, the oppressed one with nothing to spare. But because the Slave is in that despairing situation, having nothing, it can kill the Emperor !" |
Aug 15, 2020 8:42 PM
#22
Aug 15, 2020 8:52 PM
#23
God i love haikyuu, and some may disagree, but i had a tough time keeping up with most of the characters since we were introduced to so many and sometimes not give much dialogue at all but still active in the games. |
✧・゚: *✧・゚:* 愛してる *:・゚✧*:・゚✧ |
Aug 15, 2020 9:00 PM
#24
Naruto and My Hero Academia. Both are great examples of how to not make a cast. Everything starts cool and dandy and after 20 episodes only 5 or less are actually worth or powerful enough to keep with the MC. Specially within the MC´s "generation". |
Aug 15, 2020 9:11 PM
#25
Jim_Heart said: I believe it has never been a case for me. More characters just make the story more believable in some sense. Just look outside at the real world, you will realize that "too many characters" is an ordinary thing. You don't care about most of them, but nothing really surprising if in some point they will do something substantial to your life or the world around you. I prefer more "characters" than more "mooks" any day. I agree. In fact, some of my favorite shows ever (FMAB, LotGH, Gurren Lagann, etc) have incredibly well-written ensembles with tons of characters. Including casts of strong villains. The catch is that with poor focusing and not having strong enough development for the big cast..........you end up with quantity over quality bloat, so I was curious which show is undermined the most by its cast size. |
Aug 15, 2020 9:13 PM
#26
Aug 15, 2020 9:17 PM
#27
Lucifrost said: quirkywolf said: To Aru Majutsu no Index. Great anime, great story. Too many characters and too many arcs. You’d expect a character to disappear after an arc but they just keep coming with their backstories and it’s hard to implement/remember all that information into the current arc. New character? Welcome to the gang! Time to get confused. This is making me want to drop the novels. Fans all say the series gets better, but I like it less and less with each new character. What do you mean? In NT there's just one character that'll stay beside Kamijou like Index. Yes I do agree that there are too many arcs but the characters of those arcs will stay temporarily, once the arc is done they will disappear. Maybe I'm just huge fan and is very invested the series but I remember most of them. |
Aug 15, 2020 9:19 PM
#28
Definitely MHA goes in this discussion. Trying to make all 20 students count in anime was too much for both author and animation company to handle. That resulted some of the students like the tail guy, sugar guy, octopus looking guy, and some others that I can't even remember their names(o yeah animal guy and invisible girl). Other one I would like to include is Tensei Slime. At first, it introduces a slime and a dragon. Then it introduces some named goblins like Rigur and Rigurd, along with Rangar the tempest wolf. Then 4 dwarves, and a dwarf king, and 6 ogres, and orc king and some lizardmen and blah blah blah. Oh yeah and we even forgot to include demon lords, who would be around 10 in total. If we also include students it would probably be too many to count. But the actual story only revolves around overpowered main character, making others look useless. |
Even if I'm alone, I'll go, even if I want to die. I can hear your voice, saying I shouldn't die. Even if it's difficult, even if I cry from loneliness I can feel warmth from deep inside my heart. Going round-and-round and flowing, time is ever-changing. I can't remember what happened anymore, but If I try and close my eyes, I can hear someone's laughing voice For some reason, now, that is My Most Precious Treasure. from Ichiban no Takaramono, by LiSA |
Aug 16, 2020 12:11 AM
#29
MaskOfIce said: Angel Beats. Go watch the opening if you haven't, then keep in mind that it's a 13 episode series. A vast majority of the characters seen in that opening do not get development, and barely get a gimmick about them. We don't necessarily need all of them to have full on arcs, but geez that's a lot for how little most of them matter. I thought it was easy to keep track of the characters but maybe thats just me? If you have a class you can't expect all of them to have arcs. There were enough arcs to satisfy me tbh. |
Aug 16, 2020 12:13 AM
#30
There are so many. I'd argue Boku No Hero Academia b/c I've watched Katekyo Hitman Reborn... Which might also be my avoidance/meh about watching entire shonen series in general. |
Aug 16, 2020 12:31 AM
#31
p much almost all idol anime but I guess enstars and idolmaster sidem the worst. Oh and tsukipro the animation. i mean, tsukiuta introduced 12 characters too, but yea |
» My art » My translation » Doujinshi collection » Favorite Kurobas doujinshi BISHIES X RAP |
Aug 16, 2020 12:35 AM
#32
Each new season of tenchi muyo ryo ohki grows the space family tree to the point it becomes confusing. |
MEA·MENTVLA·INGENS·EST |
Aug 16, 2020 12:41 AM
#33
Free!: Dive to the Future Le Studio: Lets cram all the pretty boys we can come up with into one season of anime. |
Aug 16, 2020 1:04 AM
#34
ignatovlovebot said: i'm a slut for pretty bishies, but enstars clearly overdid it. apparently they tried to please the entire player base by giving every character screen time, and the result was just tragic. Agree, the confusing pacing was one of the main reasons I couldn't enjoy the Enstars anime. Overstuffing the cast seems to be the case with a lot of other mobage anime adaptations as well. |
Aug 16, 2020 1:17 AM
#35
Most obvious case is Baccano. Just too many characters for such a short run. It didn't work. |
Aug 16, 2020 3:32 AM
#36
Classroom of the Elite and the Otome isekai |
Aug 16, 2020 3:54 AM
#37
+1 for Baccano! For Madoka Magica, I think the original series is OK, but the spin-off Magia Record: Mahou Shoujo Madoka☆Magica Gaiden exceeded my storage capacity for Magical Girl backstories instantly. Too many of them to care for any. |
Aug 16, 2020 4:03 AM
#38
inim said: +1 for Baccano! For Madoka Magica, I think the original series is OK, but the spin-off Magia Record: Mahou Shoujo Madoka☆Magica Gaiden exceeded my storage capacity for Magical Girl backstories instantly. Too many of them to care for any. I dropped magia record for that exact reason,I struggled to care about all these random self contained tragic backstories that they introduced.At least madoka magica had a clear goal it was working towards. |
Aug 16, 2020 4:19 AM
#39
I usually don't mind a bigger cast, but one of the reasons I dropped the Bleach manga was because they introduced character after character without giving me time to get to know them between the endless battles. I couldn't even remember half of the names and tbh, most of them were not interesting to me at all. |
Aug 16, 2020 4:19 AM
#40
A lot of game based shows, such as Azur Lane or Lapis Re: Lights have a huge cast due to the nature of the source material. This can sometimes cause things to get a bit confusing with every character vying for attention and screen time. But on the other hand it gives you a wide range of beautiful character design and everyone has their particular favourite. Strike Witches is another show with a lot of characters, but for me it only enhances the show. |
Aug 16, 2020 4:27 AM
#41
Yeah Index is probably one of the worst in there, simply because the characters just keep on coming without really bringing anything on the long run for more than half of the additions. They just come and go because the author is struggling so much to reuse most of them for his next books. A good example of usage of a large cast would be novels like horizon on the middle of nowhere, where the large cast has a clear purpose and they're reused a lot with success. |
Aug 16, 2020 4:32 AM
#42
My hero, it has too much characters and Horikoshi always ditch the characters after a hot minute without developing them. For example CAMIE. |
just wanna feel wanted by someone other than the police 😫 |
Aug 16, 2020 4:55 AM
#43
My most recent problem with this is MHA. S4 suffered the worst from this, especially because a lot of familiar characters were swept aside for these new, and now suddenly relevant characters that were thrown straight into what was supposed to be the meat of the story for that season. All would be forgiven if Hatsume got an arc to herself tho. |
AttackonfillerAug 16, 2020 5:26 AM
Aug 16, 2020 4:56 AM
#44
Aug 16, 2020 5:07 AM
#45
Fairy tail. I think characters are better stay dead in this series because their significance decreases drastically while being alive. Anything but that. |
Aug 16, 2020 5:18 AM
#46
Shokugeki no Souma especially the later seasons. It's just one time cook-off with the main cast.All are there just to fill space and act as stepping stones for the main.This becomes worse in s5 where they chuck everyone they built over four seasons out for some KKK clowns aka "NOIR".Their entire purpose is to get beaten the crap out by Souma.They have zero personality and are just to pad episodes for the epic finale between Asahi and Souma. |
Aug 16, 2020 5:29 AM
#47
Idk, all the shows people mention here did not really pose a problem for me with their cast size. A lot of them are shows with hundreds of episodes which gradually introduced more characters without it ever being an issue. With that many episodes you need many characters and I can't relate to it ever being a problem in shows like One Piece, Gintama, Hero Academia, Diamond no Ace or even Fairy Tail. Heck, the large cast size is one of the biggest strengths of OP and Gintama & co and a lot of shows from the battle shounen and sports genres rely on it and the respective shows would just not work or be much worse if they drastically limited cast size for them. So these answers don't make sense to me. And people saying Baccano didn't 'work' or they needed to take notes to keep up with it - I didn't have that problem at all. Baccano and Durarara are two of the best examples of how to do a big ensemble cast right (They learned from Guy Ritchie, one of the best at it) and just make it work effortlessly and if their storytelling is too confusing for people, then a lot of stuff would probably be too confusing for them... Anyway, the only show that really comes to mind for me is this piece of barely comprehensible garbage: https://myanimelist.net/anime/10456/Kyoukaisenjou_no_Horizon It perfectly showcases how NOT to do a huge cast by making every mistake possible, especially trying to skip the introduction phase, throw the entire cast at us without any explanations in episode one, not introduce the characters individually. It was so bad that I'm 90% sure if was intentional and they just didn't give a fuck about the viewers who didn't already know the source material by heart. There was zero effort put into making any of it more comprehensible for regular viewers and season felt like a second season because of that, like you were already supposed to know every characters and the story just continues without any delay for character introductions. I don't think it can be done much worse than in this show. The comparison showcases how good of a job shows like Baccano or Durarara did. |
I probably regret this post by now. |
Aug 16, 2020 5:33 AM
#48
I won't mention mobile game adaptations since they require you to have atleast played the game, and it's a major issue if you just watch their anime adaptation. Their sole purpose is to promote the game. The story is generally there, but you have to look beyond the anime for that. Coming to long running series, it's definitely MHA. Generally more characters is not an issue since the few main characters are more interesting than side characters. But in MHA, side characters seem more intresting since MC is meh. I didn't find motivation to watch its movies or the new season. At this point I don't remember anything about the characters, and the only thing that distinguishes them are their perks. |
Aug 16, 2020 5:48 AM
#49
I'm not going to mention obvious cases like Fairy Tail or Slime but some of them are: Bad case of "too many characters": Boku no Hero Academia and One Piece I don't mind with Boku no Hero having a lot of characters but most of them are useless after or forced to be killed for no reason except for shock value especially in season 4. One Piece make the same mistake as Boku no Hero but much worse. Oda hopes we care about them in their arc and then serve as a plot device later for Luffy and the rest. It doesn't help that most of them -if I remember correctly and im talking for side characters- are just purely good or generic and there is no gray area. This is more subjective, the new designs of many new characters in Wano are awful and its weird since I generally appreciate Oda's drawing style. It's very annoying how a lot of characters in One Piece treat Luffy as God. Bad case of "too many characters": Magia Record: Puella Magi Madoka Magica Side Story Special mention to Magia Record: Puella Magi Madoka Magica Side Story, while Madoka Magica has an excellent balance of characters and a small cast, this spin-off does the same as many generic series that do, they not know what they do with so many characters. It doesn't help that they have personality either or their characterization is rushed. Good case of "too many characters": Index franchise I'm surprised that people mentioned Toaru Majutsu no Index, yes, the Index franchise has a lot of characters but Kamachi makes (most of) them important when they are needed and they are not copies of each other with different designs. What I like the most is that they feel organic and although there are some crazy people there, they are quite entertaining. Plus, the show is not 100% sucking the dick to the protagonist and we have different perspectives with more characters. The amount of interactions between different characters in the Index franchise is something One Piece did years ago but Oda lost the essence while Kamachi is getting better and better. What I like the most is how he used them again later, feeling that they are there as characters and not because the plot or the main character demanded. |
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Aug 16, 2020 5:54 AM
#50
definitely not Gintama atleast in my opinion |
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