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even in animated media, ANIMATION is not the top priority.

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Apr 12, 8:27 AM
#1
★★★

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Apr 2021
1253
okay let's talk -
animated media = anime or adult animation (from West)
animation is supposed to be a visual media (every media is visual ofc but some more than others) but despite not having "good enough" visuals - some shows just take the world over !!!
BoJack Horseman, South Park, Invincible, etc are some examples
same with some anime as well, like most SHOUJOS OF 2000s, PING PONG ANIMATION (don't kill me, i love the choppy aesthetic)

does that matter to you (visuals) or PLOT IS EVERYTHING ?

Apr 12, 8:31 AM
#2
🍅 Tomato 🍅

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Feb 2020
115940
Obviously the story and characters should be the most important thing.
Apr 12, 8:41 AM
#3
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Mar 2017
355
If the story and ending are good then animation isn’t top priority
And also if the show has really good visuals but ugly story then I will hate even its visuals lol
Apr 12, 8:55 AM
#4
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Jun 2022
108
for me what matters the most especially in anime is it's direction, it's extremely important even more than just sakuga quality because when the anime have poor/mediocore direction then beautiful sakuga scene can be still heavily under delivered because of that, and since not every episode won't look "movie quality" the best balance would be having very good direction and above avareage consistnent quality that makes everything flow very well. Perfect example is berserk 1997 even though it had power point like animation quality what it had good is good direction and storyboards that made the scenes really strong despite the animation quality being mediocore and many scenes were flowing really well with each other. Direction in anime community is so underapreciated and I wish this could have been talked more about just like animation.
Apr 12, 9:11 AM
#5

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Sep 2016
17503
Because animation is the most expensive part, and animated series usually don't have enough budget to make animation quality the top priority.
Apr 12, 9:16 AM
#6
Onimai? Read it!

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Sep 2024
76
I thought if the story is good the anime is also up there Visuals aren't everything but they do play a bigger role Like we're talking about The Beginning After the End I love the manhwa but ever since I saw the trailers the anime stayed on my "plan to watch" list instead of "watching"

‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎‎ ‎ ‎ ‎‎Onimai: I'm Now Your Sister!
‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ Not watched yet = peak/cntn missing ❗❗

Apr 12, 9:24 AM
#7
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Mar 2025
93
If it's an adaptation of some other media, than yes, it's important, because why not just experience the story with the source material.
But if you consider the anime as an ad, than congrats, you are the perfect consumer... actually worst than that, because you mindlessly consuming ads, and you're happy about it.
Apr 12, 10:33 AM
#8

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Jul 2021
3071
ame said:
BoJack Horseman, South Park, Invincible

I don't think those shows have "bad visuals"... (Haven't seen Invincible, though)

Those shows have a unique look to them that fits their story and their tone. People are free to dislike them, but it'd be unfair to call them failures or incompetent.

It's okay to hold animation as top priority, but I just wish people judged animation on a more case-by-case basis, instead of holding everything against the latest blockbusters.
Apr 12, 10:39 AM
#9

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Sep 2018
5040
There are three possibilities:
- writing carries the anime, animation doesn't matter much
- writing is fine but it needs good animation to be a good anime
- writing so bad that not even great animation can save the anime
Apr 12, 10:43 AM
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Feb 2025
323
It's all about how everything adds up together. Animation isn't everything, but sometimes excellent animation can compensate for lackluster storytelling. Or impressive stylization/concept can compensate for lower quality animation.

I guess it comes done to: Do I enjoy watching this show or not? And animation quality is not the only thing that my enjoyment depends on.
Apr 12, 10:46 AM

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Sep 2018
13257
I think good music can elevate anime a lot. A big reason why sailor moon and Pokemon were such a success.
Apr 12, 10:52 AM

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Jul 2013
9696
I disagree. I think animation is always the top priority in anime.
Apr 12, 11:16 AM
ranked 54 in FAL
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Mar 2018
1562
i mean, to each their own, for instance, in your final question you pitted visuals against plot, but i consider characters a lot more important than plot, and production quality (on the visuals side) to be more important than plot usually as well. but it can depend on what the show is going for, there is no absolute rule that one of these is generally more important than another.

i don't really agree with some of your examples of good enough either, a lot of those shows have a style that benefits their premise and is great. not having godly action sakuga is not the same as mediocrity or being just "good enough".

on another note, what do you mean by "every media is visual"? music is media, there are serialized radio shows, and also, you know... books, and text based media that can be accessed by non visual means such as touch or auditory experience so that was a strange remark.

Apr 12, 2:13 PM

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Sep 2021
75
I would agree animation isn't what I look for in animated media. if I had to roughly rank its importance, I would say: story < artstyle < characters < music < animation < voice acting. Great animation, however, can influence how I score an anime, such as Kill la Kill. Alternatively, bad or average animation usually won't knock how I rate anime.
Apr 12, 2:28 PM

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Oct 2024
479
Kinda depends on the show. Story is king, regardless of the medium, but I do love some high quality animation. If a show looks good but has minimalistic story, there's a good chance I'll enjoy it.

Also, waddaheck, Ping Pong the Animation not having quality animation? I thought the animation and unusual art style were one of the biggest draws to that anime.
Apr 12, 3:08 PM

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Jul 2013
9696
Does anyone even watch anime for the "plot"? You might as well read a book for the plot, rather than watch anime. Which usually has a weak plot.
Apr 12, 6:35 PM
ᕙ(⇀‸↼‶)ᕗ

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Aug 2014
8056
Well yes, it's money and occasionally, education. How important the visuals are depends on the individual(s) working on the proudction.
Apr 12, 6:51 PM
Nostalgia Rules!

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Jun 2008
11130
Agreed! I know it's the generic answer, but it should come down to good character writing and story. The visuals are just the cherry on top of the Sunday if it has them.
Apr 12, 8:14 PM

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Jan 2018
38
You have to put the plot first. The priority of animation is to be able to convey the story, and if the story is somewhat lacking (or is bad), then there is something wrong with the show that the animation can't save.
Apr 12, 8:38 PM

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May 2020
1399
At least for me, Plot is everything, or at least 90% of the thing XD I mean if the art was MS-paint level and the animation was a powerpoint presentation, I would say we had gotten to a point where the animation was getting in the way of the plot (by being so bad it was breaking immersion) but this truly is very rare. Even animation that is painfully mediocre is more than enough to make something good if the story can carry the weight. Prime example, Ginga eiyuu densetsu. Say what you will about it, but it doesn't have good animation. The art direction is more than good enough, the frames themselves don't look bad, but there is so little motion and its so stiff its jarring (well, there are moments of expressive animation as well, I still remember that 3 second sequence of reinhard as an angel pulling Kirchieis up to the heavens or something). But, the story is still goated and the animation doesn't avert that.

For a less cherry picked example, how about spiral: suiri no kizuna. Very cheap animation, and yet, I don't know why, but I always liked this series. It managed to build mystery and atmosphere. Hell, in spiral, the story isn't even good, particularly the second half was anime-only and its borderline nonsense, and still it didn't make me hate it.

And we can also look at this the other way. Hollow story + amazing animation = mediocre anime for me. Kimi no na wa was hyped to me like it was the best thing since sliced bread. Controversial opinion, I know, but I thought it was supremely mid. The animation was commendable, great even, but there was no substance in the story (I mean it had some interesting ideas at least, but that's not enough for me). Or Hyouka. I don't know if it is really considered as "good animation" anymore, but the person who recommended it to me was of that opinion. Well, once again, the story put me in a coma so that didn't work. And even things I have not seen, like Redline, everyone and their mother has praised the animation, but for me, that alone does not entice me to watch it, I simply don't care if the plot isn't there.
Apr 12, 8:48 PM

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Feb 2025
188
I think the story is more important than animation
Apr 12, 9:03 PM

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Feb 2016
2772
Eh... Not Really, this depends on a lot of things, story and characters alone can't make something work like it's magic. Animation is still among the most important things for a vast amount of reasons, even above story and characters, but this really depends on what you have at hand.

I hard disagree with the people stating that the story and characters should be the priority, animation is meant to ENHANCE those very ideas. What's the point of animating something if you're not using the medium's strength to enhance it? (Plus animation is a broad term, it's not just how pretty the visuals can be, or how flashy you can get with Sakuga, there's much more to that, visual direction, art direction and attention to details)

Animation has a huge advantage that other media doesn't have, which is visual storytelling, there's much more freedom and a lot of value added to it, that animation itself IS the main contributor for what is presented. A good animated show can portray a lot of emotions on the characters, as well as relying on visual information to convey a message without explicitly stating it. When you look at it that way, you'll see how Animation is important to bring a good story to fruition, how important it is to portray character emotions, and much more.

If your show is emotional, but the animation don't quite grasp what's happening at the moment (or overdoes it to the point of feeling artificial), even if the material at work may be good, it can hinder it dramatically.

On the other hand, if you're going to watch a 1:1 slideshow of a manga, you may as well just read the source material instead of watching it, there's no point on watching something that goes by with the bare minimum.

With that being said, what really is the most important thing, is how everything is directed, and how well managed the resources are.
"We could make the world better, but it's easier to just shut our eyes."
~Blackwall
Apr 12, 9:21 PM

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Mar 2019
386
People who say animation doesn't matter are lying to themselves. If it didn't matter and you only cared about story, then you would only be reading manga and light novels. You wouldn't even bother with the anime.
Apr 12, 9:29 PM

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Aug 2016
4581
There are more reasons to use a visual animation medium rather than just make something visually appealing art style wise.

To get around live show censorship. You can get away with more shit animation wise. E.g. balls from South Park

Incredibly low budget startup. South Park as in your example started off with cardboard cutoffs and having to do the animation off of that. Then they need to propose their pilot episode which was a nightmare to animate and hope it gets picked up when the age of animation in the West wasn't a popular idea aside from the typical children channels. It wasn't until several seasons later where they finally got enough money and at that point, their designs were a staple (but still improved on season 1)

To make unique designs that are memorable and isn't a copy of an existing show (at least in the American animation). F is for Family is an example of people having actual meetings on the design and how it needed to be different. Beats the copy pasta that quite a bunch of anime shows share

Priority on smoothness of the animation. More detail in each frame costs significantly more to animate. Simplicity in designs help create better animation. Something like Family Guy fight scenes can be done quite well. I know the more simplistic designs were the focal point in animating BTAS well.

The message to the creators is more important. If it can be expressed or understood without the excessiveness, then there isn't a need to make any visual improvements, especially comedy since writing the jokes is the most important to actually fulfill its goal. Sometimes the simpler/"uglier" designs help the exaggeration of what its going for too.
MechKingKillbotApr 12, 9:37 PM

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It’s time to ditch the text file.
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