Who else feels that if art (tv, anime, books, music, etc.) only has one meaning it's usually less interesting?!

[tonal]

My favorite anime (and favorite nearly everything for that matter) are the ones that leave it open at least a bit to wide open for the viewer to decide the true meaning behind the story or whatever it might be for themselves. Obviously like with anything sometimes it can be done much better than other times, but this it just my favorite device when it comes to nearly all things artistic. And things that just get me in the mood to ponder... I like's me some good pondering!

 

Examples of many of the things I liked that fit well enough to maybe better show what I'm getting at:

 

 

Anime: Evangelion, Serial Experiments Lain, Parnoia Agent, Ergo Proxy, Paprika, FLCL, Boogiepop Phantom, Gantz, Ghost in the Shell Innocence, Texhnolyze, Rahxephon, Utena, and I'm sure I coud continue on if I sat around longer.

 

Movies: All things David Lynch like Inland Empire, Mulhoulland Dr., Lost Highway, Twin Peaks, and all the rest. Most of the Coen Brothers stuff, Alejandro Jodorowsky's films, 2001, Eyes wide Shut, A Tale of Two Sisters, 8 1/2, lot of non-American made movies tend to be in general a little more open ended, many many more etc. etc. etc.

 

TV: Twin Peaks, Carnivale, blanking on others at the moment but there are quite a few... though the fact that it happend more often in anime was one of the biggist draws for me early on!

 

Just wandering if I'm a big minority when it comes to this? Since sometimes it seems like most people are very upset if everything isn't either spelled out or sowed up nicely in the end for example.

 

Also seems like they aren't making as many of these when it comes to anime these days... that or I'm just not seeing them as well. I probably know most of all of them, but welcome any suggestions just in case!!


..also going to post this in the Anime section if it's okay to repost here to see if I get more suggestions and very different responses in two different places! I planned to not reword much at all other than maybe the title, so if anyone knows if it's not okay please let me know!

 

Thanks! Looking forward to see what if anything comes up from this one!

[tonal]

I can't edit this now... but nevermind the question of reposting I guess. I completely changed it around in the Anime section... but maybe if I don't get much response here it might still be good to know if I can just change this a bit and put it in the "requests" section or something for more info and just to know how the forum works in cases like this too.

[† Emotional Outlet]

I actually think the two threads should swap places, since this one seems like it would spawn more in-depth conversation than the other, but that is dependent upon how people respond to these threads.

 

When it comes to entertainment, it depends. I do like fluff that doesn't have much of a deeper meaning to it, but I also enjoy deeper and more complicated stories. I think what's important to me is having those two aspects intermingle in a pleasing manner. If it's constant fluff and drivel, it better be really good or else I lose interest. If it's constant symbolism and alternate meanings and philosophical dissertations, I also lose interest because my brain can't be on all the time and it feels way too pretentious.

 

Ergo Proxy was lost on me because it piled on the philosophy too heavy. I might enjoy it a little better these days since it's been about five years since I've watched it, but I doubt it. Paprika had a better balance, but I think maybe the format might played into its favour? Like Ergo Proxy had 20-some episodes to build up to it whereas Paprika had less than two hours to do it.

 

I do like stories that leave the endings ambiguous, or otherwise don't wrap up everything nice and neat with a bow on top. It gets frustrating when creators don't leave any room for fan theories and go out of their way to explain everything explicitly.

[tonal]

I actually think the two threads should swap places, since this one seems like it would spawn more in-depth conversation than the other, but that is dependent upon how people respond to these threads.

Thanks, I'll see what comes of them and think about doing this then!

 

When it comes to entertainment, it depends. I do like fluff that doesn't have much of a deeper meaning to it, but I also enjoy deeper and more complicated stories. I think what's important to me is having those two aspects intermingle in a pleasing manner. If it's constant fluff and drivel, it better be really good or else I lose interest. If it's constant symbolism and alternate meanings and philosophical dissertations, I also lose interest because my brain can't be on all the time and it feels way too pretentious.

Absolutely, I can understand completely. Especially if the creator's way of making a particular piece doesn't gel with you well. Usually that's what seems to matter most when it comes to "non-fluff" style entertainment. Personally I don't tend to lose interest I think only because I'm just more geared toward that kind of stuff in general, but if other aspects are done poorly or if the style doesn't gel with me it's much harder to find it entertaining.

But don't get me wrong I do like "fluff" as well from time to time, mostly wild over the top crazy comedies, but I do enjoy slice of life style too since I'm interested in Japan and it culture in general. 

 

Ergo Proxy was lost on me because it piled on the philosophy too heavy. I might enjoy it a little better these days since it's been about five years since I've watched it, but I doubt it. Paprika had a better balance, but I think maybe the format might played into its favour? Like Ergo Proxy had 20-some episodes to build up to it whereas Paprika had less than two hours to do it.

Yeah, understandable for sure! Since it my type of thing just seems to energize me. Though some sort of balance as you say does usually work out in favor of most things.

 

I do like stories that leave the endings ambiguous, or otherwise don't wrap up everything nice and neat with a bow on top. It gets frustrating when creators don't leave any room for fan theories and go out of their way to explain everything explicitly.

100% Agreed!

Thanks so much for the time and effort "Emotional Outlet"... sound a bit strange in a sentence using that handle.

[hotdog88]

I also quite enjoy anime and movies that leave themselves open to interpretation and give the viewer the opportunity to figure out what is going on. I particularly enjoy the challenge of 'correctly' interpreting the story as the creators intended and then seeing how many plausible alternative interpretations I can come up with.

 

One of my favorite advantages of such an anime or movie is that if you figure out the intended interpretation of the story but you aren't happy or don't agree with it, then you can still reinterpret it to some degree until you are happy with it.

 

"SPOILER ALERT"

Off the top of my head, a (poor) example of such a situation would be the end of the original "Total Recall" movie where the last scene of the movie fades to white. Now according to the plot of the story it is highly likely that this indicates that the main character (Quaid) is being lobotimized and just 'dreamed' nearly the entire movie. However, since this interpretaton is left open to the audience, if you would prefer a happy ending then you can reinterpret the fade to white as just the end of the movie and nothing more, leaving you with a happy ending for the hero of Mars.