27Apr, 2007
The Anime Blog Poll: Are You an Anime Visualist or Literaist?
Posted by: Rachel In: Polls
The net is such a great place for invention. Everyday I see new words and phrases pop up, get accepted into the culture and become a part of daily use. This is true even for the anime subcultures. Gar is a good one to use as an example of this. In a recent Anime Argument (patent pending), David and I “discussed†our many differences in terms of anime compatibility which led to the birth of two made up new terms as applied to anime personalities.
This latest AA led us to finally come to an understanding of sorts as to why our views are so wildly different at times on anime.
My background is one grounded firmly in literature. I grew up with books, I have my weekly servings of literature and I write as often as I can. A good story is all important to me in anime. No story= no good for me. I didn’t watch a helluva lot of TV growing up when an anthology was handy.
David has a background in film and special effects. He grew up watching movie classics and is able to comprehend the art of visual storytelling; something which I’ve slowly learned from him in the eleven years we’ve been together. While David does read, and reads as often as he can, he’s not the book devourer I am.
Watching an unfinished, un-reviewed, therefore, unnamed series together last month brought our two backgrounds together with very loud results. My take on the series was that it was too plagiarizing, too unoriginal, too inconsistent and all together too crappy to be considered good. David on the other hand found it highly entertaining, albeit, highly plagiarizing. He also found so many positives with the series I had to do a double take to see if we were watching the same thing.
Why would we differ so much in our opinions? Being me, I had to push this issue to the end result: David thought the character designs, action sequences, layout, color schemes, and overall visual appeal were top notch. I had to agree with him there. This series is gorgeous and over the top. Too damn bad the story sucks beyond redemption.
In the end it came down to this: “Hi, my name’s Rachel and I’m an anime literaist.” I don’t think that awesome choreographed fight scenes, beautiful animation and superb voice acting counts worth shit if there’s no story. Literaists aren’t wowed by detailed CG, delicious character designs, or gratuitous eye candy unless used in tangent with a good story. They rely on sound plot lines, good pacing, and in depth character development to be able to get the most from a series.
I’m now outing David; he’s an anime visualist. Visualists go for the visual aspects of anime and highly regard a series based mostly on what they’re seeing. These folks can get the story through the characters use of emotions and how they interact with their environments as opposed to getting the story primarily from the plot. Color schemes, character designs and subtle visual cues enable visualists to read between the lines to get more from a series visually, than can anime literaists.
There is, naturally, a middle ground for literaists and visualists. Most people have a bit of both in ‘em and don’t get into to too many arguments since they’re so internally balanced in this regard. Of course, both visuals and plots are important in order to have a great series.
David and I, however, find ourselves firmly entrenched in our respective camps of Visualist and Literaist. These hardcore stances are responsible for our lack of harmonious anime viewing. We’re the Yin and Yang of anime types; pity we didn’t discover this earlier.
What kind of anime fan are you? Do you really “get†an anime when they break out the visuals? Or do you understand the story better through your interpretation of the plot? Is there harmony in your anime community or is there a reason you watch anime alone? What are your thoughts on the matter folks? Let your voices be heard!
