Is the Future of Anime in Discussion, Literally?
|I wonder if we’re slowly entering a new era of dialogue heavy anime. In recent years Kurenai, Mouryou no Hako, Sayonara Zetsubou-sensei, Bakemonogatari, Katanagatari, and now Yojuhan Shinwa Taikei have been particularly dialogue heavy, relying on dialogue, monologue, and literally language itself to provide the onus of the shows. At the same time, enui anime including World of Golden Eggs, Little Village People, Peeping Life, and Himitsu Kessha Taka no Tsume have burst onto the anime scene and flourished on the strength of dialogue and conversation rather than animation quality or action. The moé trend shows no sign of evaporating, but it does feel like its steamroller momentum is slowing. I don’t believe anime has ever before moved through a period characterized by especially wordy shows, so witty, intriguing talking heads series may provide a new novelty for otaku viewers. The number of anime productions adapted from light novels seems to be greater now than at any time in the past. And, as Bakemonogatari has amply proven, heavily rhetorical shows with limited (read: inexpensive) animation are still capable of becoming tremendously successful and profitable hits. So we can expect to see Japanese producers encourage the production of more anime that are inexpensive to animate yet still have tremendous audience and profit potential.
I certainly don’t expect to see anime of the future dominated by shows that prioritize rapid and ceaseless banter. In fact, I, for one, don’t want that to occur. I like seeing animated breathtaking action, captivating romance, and outrageous slapstick comedy. However, I’m not opposed to a minority trend of anime that replace action with conversation. I don’t know if the number of such shows that have already appeared constitute a loose collection of similarly styled productions or the beginning ripples of an approaching larger wave, but the mere fact that I can pose the question itself intrigues me.
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Agree anime is becoming boring as ever….
It seems to be a era of heavy dialog and less animation. but it is simply because Anime industry start adopting more from Novels since they have used enough resourses from Manga, and Light novels which are easily able to animate such as Haruhi etc. Dialog heavy anime series you mentioned above are All adoptation from (light) Novels apart from Zetsubo Sensei. in fact, Nisioisin’s work has actual novel style rather than Light novel and Mouryono Hako and Yojohan are not Lihgt novel at all. Anime industry will keep digging into new possible media so they will change their style when time comes. I do not think Anime changed their Anime style because viewers changed thier taste.
I wouldn’t characterize Bakemonogatari and Suzumiya Haruhi as cheap productions though, even if they’re not loaded with really obvious, Studio Bones-like exhibition battles and chases. Even Yojuhan Shinwa Taikei (“Tatami Galaxy”), being from Yuasa, still feels like a highly visual animator-centric show despite its sheer dialogue density. I don’t think Yuasa is a close follower of mainstream anime trends anyway.
Katanagatari is the one that sticks out for me. With its highly redundant exposition, different from Bakemonogatari’s dream-logic banter which helped to enhance its surreal feel, it feels like every episode of Katanagatari is artificially inflated to twice its “natural” length with little payoff.
I think for typical moe anime (the low-end, cookie-cutter stuff in that category), dialogue density has been ramped up to cheaply enhance the entertainment value of a show already planned to be cheap. The use of frivolous dialogue and exposition has been a recognizable part of Japan’s “limited animation” bag of tricks since forever–
Side character: “Inuyasha’s drawing his sword!”
Side character #2: “… He’s drawing his sword!”
[later on]
“H… how did you evade my attack??”
“Well let pop tape 1 (of 7) of my lecture series entitled, Why Your Attack Failed. It’s all very complicated.”
Even Bones, the premiere studio for lavish fights & battles, does that all the time in their television material when they can’t afford to do an unbroken, un-fluffed-up fight exhibition a la Sword of the Stranger.
I mean all this is pretty obvious, and I’m not saying anything that anyone didn’t know, but I don’t think the dialogue density trend is going to particularly destroy anime, or that it’s displacing production value that would’ve otherwise been there.
Like any style, some shows will use it creatively or to their advantage to serve the energy of the show (Bakemonogatari, Tatami Galaxy), and others will use it out of intellectual laziness– as simple padding (Katanagatari) or to follow a trend “just because”
Interesting. During one of the extras on Section23’s release of MARIA+HOLIC, Asami Sanada (“Kanako”) commented that it often felt as if she had “80% of the dialogue” — and looking back, I can certainly see what she meant by it.