Ask John: What Makes an Anime Good?

Question:
Anime like Sailor Moon and Evangelion can be recognized all over the world, so they are obviously good anime. What makes an anime “good”?

Answer:
Anime is a form of cinema and fiction. As such, it adheres to the same rules as all cinematic fiction, and should be judged by the same characteristics applied to critique of all film. These factors are several, but tantamount to them is a singular condition that supersedes all others. Ultimately, the question a viewer must answer is whether or not an anime is appealing. Regardless of an anime’s technical merits, it’s good if you enjoy it. With this in mind, even the worst anime can still have redeeming value to certain viewers. In a more objective sense, though, the quality of anime should be determined by consideration of technical competence in storytelling, suspension of disbelief, writing, direction, and animation quality.

Regardless of whether it’s total fantasy or adaptation of historical fact, anime is storytelling. The purpose of anime is to create an impression in the viewer. Typical anime tell a straightforward story and make the viewer care about the lives of the characters on screen. Esoteric anime like 1,001 Nights don’t so much tell a linear story as evoke a sense of wonder and fascination in the viewer. Anime that cannot express itself to a viewer and cannot evoke a reaction in a viewer fundamentally fails its essential purpose. For example, I may not like Gundam, but I can objectively recognize that it effectively conveys story and meaning. Therefore, regardless of whether or not it appeals to me personally, it achieves its primary goal. The extent to which it achieves this primary goal is a measure of quality. Studio Ghibli movies, for example, are considered masterpieces because they draw in the viewer and make the viewer care about what’s happening on screen. Virtually regardless of viewer age, race, gender or culture, the Ghibli movies tell universal stories that all viewers can relate to and believe in. These stories create a complete sense of immersion and empathy in the viewer that’s one sign of great film.

In order for viewers to accept and believe in what they see on screen, film must create “suspension of disbelief.” At a subconscious level, in order to watch anime we must accept that what we see on screen is not just colored, moving shapes but people and places and things. We have to accept that the depictions on screen are representations of people. That is the foundation of suspension of disbelief. The second layer of suspension of disbelief lies in the ability of the film to convince us of what we see. How well does the anime make us believe that we’re watching real people behaving naturally in a real world? We know that giant robots don’t exist, and real humans can’t jump 20 feet into the air, but good anime will make us set aside those beliefs for a while. Anime needs to be believable and rational within its own system of rules. If it’s not, the exceptions are distracting and distancing and counteractive to the viewer’s total immersion into the film.

A large part of what convinces viewers to believe that what they see is real is writing. Characters need to be believable. We need not like them, but we need to believe that they are living individual personalities and not just fictional constructs. Their actions and spoken dialogue must always be in character and seem natural. The best anime creates characters that are truly living and perhaps sometimes even do unexpected things because their actions stem from their personalities, and not just as a means to move a story forward. Locations and settings likewise need to be realistic within themselves. We know that there are no space colonies in real life, but as long as the anime presents consistent and logical settings, we accept space colonies because we’re willing to temporarily suspend our disbelief. The best anime create worlds, then put people in them instead of creating characters then building settings around them. Finally, stories need to progress in a compelling manner. Regardless of whether the story is linear or filled with flashbacks and leaps in time and distance, the viewer should always want to know what’s happening and what’s going to happen next.

Direction takes primary responsibility for convincing a viewer to believe in and accept the story on screen. A director makes certain that audio and visual elements compliment each other to create a singular impact. Character voices need to sound like the character speaking naturally. If the viewer sees a character but hears an actor playing a part, the voice dubbing is a failure because it’s not believable. If the background music is distracting, it’s counterproductive because it doesn’t heighten the mood the anime creates, it distances the viewer. A director also makes sure that the anime is appealing and interesting by choosing proper camera angles and knowing how to edit scenes for maximum efficiency, placing cuts and scenes and events in a sequence that keeps the viewer’s attention and presents enough information for the viewer to follow what’s going on. The best direction will present something unusual, or something commonplace in an unusual way which creates a reaction of astonishment and fascination and interest in the viewer. Sudden leaps in logic or setting, though, aren’t mysterious; they’re confusing and distracting and ruin the mood the anime is trying to create.

Finally, least yet still important is animation quality, by which I mean both frame rate and artistic quality. Anime is primarily a visual medium. To be successful, it must be interesting to look at. The more frames of animation an anime uses, the smoother and more natural movements look. This fluid motion is necessary to trick the eye into believing that what it sees is real people and things in motion. But limited animation quality can be overcome. Classic shows like Astroboy and Lupin the 3rd and Mobile Suit Gundam made 20 or more years ago don’t have the brilliant animation quality of contemporary anime, but they make up for this shortcoming by excelling in other areas. Films like the X movie that are weak in the realms of writing and storytelling still achieve a measure of brilliance by excelling in animation quality. Anime must also be attractive. Lush, detailed animation may not make up for weak writing and poor direction, but poor art is harsh on the eye and distracting and may distance viewers from even a strong story.

Success in any one of these areas may be enough to qualify an anime as “good.” A masterpiece is defined by excellence in several of these areas simultaneously. The Studio Ghibli films are considered masterpiece quality anime because of their competence in all of these areas. Anime like Astroboy, with its limited black & white animation, and more recent series like Evangelion and The Violinist of Hameln with their limited animation, are still excellent because of their competence in conveying story and character and theme to the viewer in spite of their limitations. Films like X and Five Star Stories can still be considered exceptional, in spite of their convoluted stories and hampered characterizations, because their animation quality is simply breathtaking. Ultimately, what makes an anime “good” is its ability to overwhelm and inspire its audience. Whether the anime frightens you, or makes you cry, or laugh or smile, or makes you ponder, or strikes awe with its visual impact, if it accomplishes this feat without compromise, without making you say, “Yes, but…” then it’s a “good” anime.