The Infinite "Bleh" of Long Animes

Lol, just as I thought. "Naruto" and "Bleach" have huge, active topics here as with any other anime "community collection". Well, I wrote this little 'rant' some time ago, but the forum I posted in is still a little too inactive to give me the feedback I'm looking for, so I share it here (mostly unedited cause copy/paste is so easy) in the hopes on some responses:

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When it comes to anime, few can top the favor and success of Naruto, but is it really the best anime to ever be made? Not really.

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Now, to be honest, I did at one time like to watch Naruto. When I came across the dubs on TV, I watched them all and continued to until you get the dreaded "we've fallen behind on dubbing to play reruns for 2 months". Lucky for me, I just figured out how to use torrents and I found the good people at DB and got into the subs. Flying through the episodes, I found myself in the muck that was fillers. >_> Upon waiting long enough, Shipu. came out and here we go again! Happy ninja action? Not really.

And why is that? The characters are alright, the voicing is fine, the art is watchable, so then what is the problem? It lies in the most important element to an anime, the story. It's simply too damn long.

Here's what I've noticed, the longer something runs, the worse off it tends to be. Much like an actual runner, it get worse the more it tries to apply it itself, getting tired and repetitive. Get mission > leave town > meet adversary > fail to beat adversary > take a break > fight adversary again > win with new found power/ability/bodily-function > cry > return home to sleep/learn-new-techniques/chase-the-person-you-like/Ramen/etc/etc/etc. Seriously, every arc tends to follow this plot line or something really similar (Ooo, a people attack the village so they don

One Piece is the perfect example of the epicness of a long on-going anime of a shonen style. Great story, great fights and its getting better and better as longer it goes.

Naruto and Bleach are way too much fan service, thats why these 2 are more popular, than One Piece, their co shonen jump manga release.

Or the majority of teenage youth, love emo personalities :P

Also, no one can completely cut out repetitive scenarios in a longer than 1-2 episode anime. In an action anime, almost in every episode there will be a fight scene.

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a little too inactive to give me the feedback I'm looking for

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That phrase is a big fat "lol"

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Originally Posted by RaySiilu

One Piece is the perfect example of the epicness of a long on-going anime of a shonen style. Great story, great fights and its getting better and better as longer it goes.

Naruto and Bleach are way too much fan service, thats why these 2 are more popular, than One Piece, their co shonen jump manga release.

Also, no one can completely cut out repetitive scenarios in a longer than 1-2 episode anime. In an action anime, almost in every episode there will be a fight scene.

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Sure, elements like dialog and fights are almost impossible not to repeat, if they're varied well enough and aren't the same all the time. That being said, unless you have a poor story writer, this is only likely to happen when an anime runs long enough that there is simply no "original" ideas left. When that happens, you either have to try and wrap it up best you can (that being if you're "goal" for the anime is length, which should not be the primary focus) or keep on going with more or less recycled material (which is stupid imo).

While I refuse to touch One Piece (and for all I know, it could the golden grail to defeat my views, but the scars are too great for me to even look into it...), I've seen this already in Naruto/Bleach and have stopped watching them both. >_<

Put simply, fan-service and length should not be the (primary) goal of an anime (or at least one I'd normally like to see), it should be conveying a story with a good, planned ending and not be taking ages to find closure.

And your feedback tells me you think I'm a idiot for thinking this is at all a "serious" issue? Personally, it's others input that help me refine my views and give me more ideas/examples to use. (I'm working towards making a more refined version of the rant to "officially post" somewhere in the future, and if the vagueness of that reason makes me sound noob-ish, I don't care. It's the truth. ;3)

Long length animes I find do fail at maintaining that which originally would draw you in. Naruto clearly wants to stretch their story out for fame no questions asked. Bleach on the other hand in the animes view it just loves getting too close to the manga way to often so they have to put in fillers. If all the fillers were removed I think that the show wouldn't be as bad as people try to declare it to be. (Naruto would still fail after 100 episodes in the non-shippuden)

As for One Piece, I'd rather watch smaller animes inside that 400 instead of watching the same anime for all of that 400 it would just get boring seeing the same characters with no end.
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Code geass is 51 episodes, prime example. Elfen Lied is 13. Toradora is 25 Shakugan No Shana is 23. Eureka 7 is 50. In 162 episodes I've watched 5 good animes which I wouldn't really want to not watch due to only one anime with possible flaws. One Piece I would not watch because I can almost watch those five animes over twice after finishing it once before I'd catch up.

Length does make the series drag on and become boring, but i think most importantly, like you said, is the storyline behind it. If its a long, yet creative, suspenseful and exiting storyline with carefully developed characters, the anime can still be capturing and good to watch.

Like you, i used to like watching Naruto, it was cool to watch until fillers came in. Sure, they were funny sometimes, but in the end, it kinda gets boring seeing the same things happening again.

I agree, creators should just end long series with a satisfying ending and go create something else (just out of the blue: Code geass ending was epic, sad, and caught most people off guard). I think creators should really plan out the ENTIRE series w/ an appropriate ending before animating their creation.

Just my 2 cents!

P.S. Is FMP a good anime to watch? I'm at ep.2 and it seems more of a comedy/romantic story as of now

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Originally Posted by IcedTea

P.S. Is FMP a good anime to watch? I'm at ep.2 and it seems more of a comedy/romantic story as of now

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You thought its similar to FMA ?:P:

The length doesn't much matter, if behind it, is a creative mastermind, which are few.

Again like most people tend to say " if you don't like, then don't watch ". Also another reason why long animes tend to go wrong/boring( aka loose fanbase ) is that at 1 point, the fanbase gets too attached, and their expectation so high, aka hype way too much or get attached to certain characters at a idol stage and then, if the writer actually does something opposite or different, than what the watchers made up, they get dissapointed.

I say keep watching those 26 ep and less animes, and you'll be happy. There aren't so many uber long animes anyway, to give the feeling that you'd been left out.

And before trying to give long animes in general a bad name, primarly cuz Bleach and Naruto, watch some other too like One Piece.

Don't think of me somr noob uber otaku of One Piece, thats its god or something. Naruto and Bleach both were interesting when they started, but One Piece has maintained itself strongly through out the whole 400+ epis. Though of course One Piece aint perfect, but it has only few " meh; boring" ( which is very arquable, as i've liked and enjoyed many moments, that most people find bored ) moments than the other 2.

Closing moments:

In the end, you can't please everyone, some will love and some will hate.

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Originally Posted by RaySiilu

You thought its similar to FMA ?:P:

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Is that a yes or a no?

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Originally Posted by IcedTea

Is that a yes or a no?

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Hmm.
http://animenfo.com/animetitle,710,z...etal_pani.html

It has a pretty good rating, perhaps it's worth watching. I wouldn't say it's anything relatively like FMA thought considering
1. Mechs
2. Guy-Girl relationship, not siblings.

i watch naruto since the first episodes but its getting too much boring... why?

you need to watch 4 or 5 episodes to the anime take a step and sometimes this is a month or even more, also, im pretty sure that after all these boring episodes theyll launch a uber cool 4 month filler saga to make fans happy.

It's all about $$$, popularity, exposure and of course they will need to continue on satisfying costumers, because "Don't fix, what isn't broken." right?

You typed too much in the post, it was simply too damn long. It wasn't enough to entertain me. Naruto, and Bleach both entertain me even though they are "simply too damn long." It's all personal preference.

How long are they then?
how much episodes?

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Originally Posted by ®ajito™

How long are they then?
how much episodes?

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I'll say a average of 150 episodes is where you can count them as a long anime...and thats where they usually start to have some bleh moments.

eyeshield 21 nuff said go and watch it homos xD


sidenote epic BAMP nubz

i think that one piece is a great anime and a bad manga. from the fight naruto vs pain im thinking that naruto is finaly bringing some action in it. and i like how naruto matured and how he thinks now.

If you think Bleach's anime doesn't get anywhere, FOR THE LOVE OF GOD. Don't read the manga!! A chapter of the manga is equivalent of a scene of the anime! It's MUNDANE!!!! At least naruto gets somewhere with its manga chapters.

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Originally Posted by LightWarrior

If you think Bleach's anime doesn't get anywhere, FOR THE LOVE OF GOD. Don't read the manga!! A chapter of the manga is equivalent of a scene of the anime! It's MUNDANE!!!! At least naruto gets somewhere with its manga chapters.

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This actually seems to be a reletivley recent trend in manga, it happened to both naruto and bleach as well as fullmetal alchemist and load of other titles, for some reason weekly chapters are getting shorter and shorter to the point where as you said it becomes the equivalent to a single scene in an anime.

It's really quite irritating tbh.

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Originally Posted by LightWarrior

A chapter of the manga is equivalent of a scene of the anime! It's MUNDANE!!!! At least naruto gets somewhere with its manga chapters.

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That is why I watch it rather than reading the manga.

---------- Post added at 05:36 PM ---------- Previous post was at 05:32 PM ----------

Because the end is near, they're extending it, to gain more money. Oh well, that's business

Gintama is long, now at 210 episode, but well, it never gets boring.

That is why most of the 12-24 episode animes are so good and people request second/third seasons.

The longer it gets the more "boring" it tends to be.

and why the bla bla fillers
and the bla bla bla talking
just stick to the main story and fights
u will get relatively amusing anime

like bleach after more than 200 episodes and more than 100 episodes of fighting Aizen
Aizen died by single hit !!! it was so frustrating

honestly i dont care how long an anime is, as long as its entertaining and not just full of stupid fillers or boring episodes where nothing else happens but flashbacks...

For all those who aren't giving One Piece a try..you should really try it. C:
It won't disappoint you like Naruto or One Piece.
Every episode is worth it!
And one of the most important about it is that you really do fall in love with the characters!
It's such an emotional Anime.
Plus nearly no filler expect for like 4 episodes in the whole 500 Episodes