No, what's wrong with cute things?

>>32181
How are they manipulative? And in what context are you referring to "cute shit." In anime/media?

Very much the opposite. I adore cutness and what makes me sick and tired is living in a region that treats cuteness as something shameful and pathetic. I think "cute shit" is nice and sweet and what makes life worth living. I don't give two shits about sports or thug life crap or other normie pursuits that might be considered socially acceptable.

>normie
disgusting

>>32184
In some sense I've always felt that the cute friendships in anime are the truest/purest form of emotional attachment. The sort of "platonic ideal" if you will, that is very hard to realize in the real world. Attempts at interperson interaction in the real world will necessarily be dressed behind a subterfuge of social norms and often veiled in self-centered motives, because of the human instinct for self-preservation. On the other hand, free from those limitations and existing in the idealized world of fiction, the sort of friendships portrayed in anime can be of a raw, unadulterated nature.

Now granted, I sort of see OP's argument that the interactions in anime themselves only capture the intentions of the author and may be engineered to elicit emotional responses in order to drive sales – in effect "manipulating" the audience via their emotions in order to make a profit. However I'd counter that such a viewpoint is unnecessarily reductionist. Do we dismiss a piece of media solely because its author had partly profit seeking motives in writing it?

First, it's very easy to distinguish a piece of media that was created to be sold solely as a commodity from one that was an artistic expression of the author. For instance, see the difference between KF2 and KF1. Even if the piece only ever ultimately came to fruition with capitalistic intent (as all anime necessarily are, since no studio would embark on an endeavor without capital return), so long as that original artistic intent is faithfully preserved I don't see any reason why the story itself should be dismissed.

I also suggest that blindly attributing the inclusion of moe/cute elements as malicious acts of manipulation on the part of the author is unwarranted. It is true that the elements were intentionally included to evoke an emotional response (as in crafting a story every detail is a deliberate act), but I don't think is any more manipulative than a farmer "manipulating" you into buying his fruit by breeding the tastiest apples. The analogy can be extended: we voluntarily seek out such media to fill an emotional gap, and it is the author's goal to craft a story that portrays such emotions in a manner that can only be presented on the fictional plane. I don't think it can be considered manipulation if he has done his job well and succeeded in creating a compelling narrative that we readily absorb with that warm feeling of fondness.

Moreover, even if those newfound feelings that we have absorbed are supposedly "artificial" in nature, I don't think that makes them any less real than the supposedly "genuine" experiences that one would encounter in the real world. After all, experiences are ultimately subjective and it is our decision what we choose to accept. Can it really be considered manipulation if we – voluntarily seeking out those pieces of media – have found solace in such author's works?

No, I don't get tired of cute things. For the "endlessly manipulative" part, I would more associate that with popular dark/gritty media that you often see in games or movies. At times, with certain things, I've wondered if popular music, movies, and games have the themes they do to make people more depressed on purpose. Course that would only be theorizing and based on absolutely nothing, but I still think there are things wrong with it at times. Cute/moe things are something I truly enjoy, and at times it bothers me when others put it down and not instead let people enjoy what they enjoy, especially since the majority of things out there don't have very much cute in them.

Post edited on 29th Mar 2019, 2:49pm

>>32185
Just FYI, it's unclear if you're trying to quote somebody, as misusing that function is breaking rule 7.

>>32188
The post literally above me uses the word normie. It’s a direct quote

>>32187
>dark/gritty media that you often see in games or movies.
This is an interesting point. On the one hand one would argue that the dark and violent themes of popular media is a reflection of what the masses want, but I do have to wonder if what they want isn't in turn being defined by this popular media. Far as I know there's no demand in a place like Japan for dude bro shooters, and I'd say that's because people there haven't been conditioned to like such things. And yeah it bothers me that people would defend the more violent edgy stuff by saying "let people like what they want to like" yet many of those same people would likely bitch and complain about cute stuff and claim it pedo shit.
Personally, I come from a place where parent's couldn't care less if their kids are watching R rated movies and playing M rated games. But if they're kids were into cute moe moe stuff Those parents would think something is wrong with their kids. I feel like people have their priorities really out of wack when it's cool to watch someone get their skull bashed in or ripped limb from limb, but watching school friends try out new hair styles is for pathetic creeps and perma virgin losers. With how realistic and grapic the violence is in some of these movies it can blur the line between reality and fiction. If someone who had been living under a rock for the past few months was shown the video of the recent NZ shooter, they'd be forgiven for assuming it was some sort of low budget student film. To them it would look like the same sort of thing they've seen a million times each and every day. I could see picture a person finding that video boring and lame up until being told it's real, and I think that's wrong.

>>32190
>Far as I know there's no demand in a place like Japan for dude bro shooters

No, there is a massive demand for it. Just most of it comes from the west anyway, they do make some themselves though, airsoft is also absolutely massive in japan as are many other related things.

>>32191
I forgot all about airsoft and military otaku. My bad.

It depends. It has to have something that grabs my interest and keeps me wanting more (I know that is a broad explanation but let me explain). For example, I loved Kiniro Mosaic because of the scenery, the music, and the story (or lack there of). On the other hand, I watched New Game and got bored of just watching cute girls doing the same mundane task everyday. If you are going to make a CGDCT series, you have to have more going for it than just cute girls.
>>32187
>dark/gritty media that you often see in games or movies
I actually quite enjoy some of that stuff. I love war movies and often find myself quoting Full Metal Jacket either online or even in meat space. And I also loved how they made The Dark Knight more dark and serious, especially when they turned the joker into a full blown terrorist. But I also love moe anime with a passion so I suppose that's my balance. Hell, my favorite anime of all time is Girls Last Tour, which, imo, combined dark, gritty themes and moe elements perfectly.
>>32190
>With how realistic and grapic the violence is in some of these movies it can blur the line between reality and fiction
Honestly, I think that hollywood and the western entertainment industry as a whole kind of hams up violence to make it more gory than it actually is. For example, the "No Russian" mission in MW2 had people being violently thrusted back by bullets and laying in pools of their own blood. The NZ shooting footage on the other hand, had none of that and that was one of the reasons it was so ominous. I remember seeing people ask if "that was it" and how the video was "underwhelming". Very disturbing.

>>32193
Interestingly I felt the exact opposite: I loved New Game because of the character interactions, their personalities, and how they all came together to struggle towards a goal. On the other hand I felt bored watching Kiniro Mosaic due to character's almost "static" personality and little meaningful inter-character development beside the surface level "Alice is so cute and foreign" that became sort of repetitive after the first episode.

>>32190
Go back to Reddit

>>32195
Would be nice if you at least give a little bit of a counter argument instead, I'm not that poster, but why?

>>32195
no u

>>32194
Well then I suppose my tastes aren't as "refined" as I thought they were. I guess I am just a sucker for cute girls.

>>32181
If you want butt-ugly, braindead media watch cartoons.

>>32201
King of the Hill was a great show though.

>>32201
Are you implying that anime often isn’t ugly or braindead?

>>32203
Watch it dubbed in Japanese bring it full circle: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Xy0w3DNwVs

>>32204
You never see intentionally ugly anime, ugliness in anime is the result of errors. Meanwhile, intentionally ugliness is the norm in western animation.

>>32206
Another anon here. While I agree with what you're saying in a general scope and have argued much the same, I wouldn't say you 'never' see it in anime. There 'are' intentionally ugly anime, and there 'are' good looking western animations. crude and ugly animation works well for comedies, which is why an anime like Kono suba was intentionally sloppy. You've also got stuff like one piece with it's distorted human physiology, the highly stylized Kaiji, and the artistic liberties taken with k-on. I'd also say most Jojo characters look like they were designed by a color blind 5 year old, Higurashi with it's bizarre body proportions, and let us not forget about Aku no Hana (as much as we may like to). This isn't really me harping on anime though, I actually think it's a good thing that we can see such a large range in styles which gives us a good variety, compared to the western side of things where most animated movies have a very similar pixar-esque cgi look to them. In TV meanwhile far too many cartoons adopt a Simpsons look, Steven's universe look, or sloppy super deformed and over simplified doodle look. That said there 'are' some good looking western animations to be fair. I've found that while your average cartoon is sloppy overly simplistic or ugly looking, the ones that aren't comedies (such as cap shit cartoons) tend to have slightly better looking art to reinforce the more comparatively serious tones. The previously mentioned king of the hill meanwhile is one of those very few decent looking western comedy cartoons. In film the west used to produce some great or even gorgeous looking cartoon movies, mainly coming out of Disney of course, and of course that was then this is now, now the art-form is practically dead to them. The anime industry moved away from hand drawn animation, but we've still got some incredible looking stuff to this day, when they aren't cutting corners with cgi at least.
This is all just nitpicking and pointing out exceptions though, as I said I do agree that overall western animation does tend to be more ugly. West focuses more on comedy with fluid high fps animation, the east tends to focus more on aesthetics and story telling in anime.

>>32207
>Steven's universe look, or sloppy super deformed and over simplified doodle look.
It seems like a lot of recent western cartoons seem to re-use the same stencil/template for character designs. Also the animation itself doesn't seem to be as fluid or expressive as older ones.
>In film the west used to produce some great or even gorgeous looking cartoon movies, mainly coming out of Disney of course
I fondly remember animaniacs as a good example of western comedy cartoons. It had the same snappiness and pacing as a comedy anime.

>>32181
Definitely, I can't believe "otakus" lap it up. I guess it's because they're incapable of realising that it's all just churned out, repetitive, unimaginative bullshit from corporations specifically designed to make money. Anime rarely strives to tell a story nowadays - sure, there were other forms of mass-marketed crap (mecha anime clones in the 80s/90s), but there new and unique premises too. The anime industry is deliberately selling them falsehoods because a lonely otaku is a goldmine for revenue.

>>32209
Your post is a load of fluff but by far the worst part of it is that you pluralized "otaku".

>>32209
Not nearly as bad as hollywood these days. Even worse are mainstream video games, the word 'manipulative' doesn't begin to describe the corrupt business practices perpetrated by that "industry."

>>32209
Compared to what exactly?

>>32209
Things are made to make money, this is new how? This fact does not make something inherently bad.

>>32209
All media is 'churned out, repetitive, unimaginative bullshit from corporations specifically designed to make money.' In fact anime could be said to be less so as the cost to make it is lower therefore they can afford to be more inventive and take more chances.

>>32207
Even Disney Renaissance movies from the early 90's don't look as good when compared side by side to modern Anime series, they look pretty mediocre honestly.

>>32223
It could use more detail sure, but I wouldn't say that looks all 'that' bad.

>>32224
They look much better when compared to TV cartoons from 2000's and on, but compared to Anime they do look kind of bad, they look a bit better in movement though.

Also why was my picture deleted but OP's one wasn't?

>>32225
One of the mods must not like Disney girls much.

>>32181
I want some of that now

>>32181
Cos violence makes children into adults, am I right?