Which do you prefer: characters or plot?

[Fishmonster]

For me it is clearly character driven story, cus if i dont like the characters it will ruin the anime, but if the characters are enjoyable to watch i can get by with no plot. But i would just like to give a four different combinations of plot/character-driven anime just to add my view of things:

 

1. Cowboy Bebop is an amazing anime, but i feel the plot is lakking, but it still works great because of the good characters with awesome personalities.
2. Samurai Champloo has almost no plot, but the characters are extreemly enjoyable even tho two of them doesnt really have any personality (Jin and Fuu). As long as the characters are good/enjoyable they dont really need a personality.
3. Attack on Titan is an anime with an amazing plot, but two of the three main characters was either a complete A**hole or a crying whimp. this is an example of characters with bad personalities which is the reason i didn't really enjoy the series as much as i could have done.
4. Sword Art Online: If we look away from the total crash of the plot in the mid-half of the first anime, it was a good plot-driven anime (the first 12ish episodes had good plot). Kirito had basically no personality which in turn made me not care what happend to him. But since there wasnt really anything wrong with the character (except for maybe beeing to O.P) it didn't ruin anything. It's just that the anime would be better with a character with a good personality instead of the allmighty-no-personality-God Kirito

So this isnt really the question but I feel that a character can be flat but still good as long as it woks for the anime(e.g. Samrai champloo). And anime can also be good with a good plot and a character with flat personality(e.g. first half of SAO), but not with characters which are unlikable(e.g. Attack on titan). But all in all if you get characters with great personalities and that are enjoyable you dont need any plot (e.g Cowboy Bebop).

 

Edited September 6, 2016 by Fishmonster

[ani-me]

For me absolutely both.....also, depends on the genre sometimes....but I still can't really pick one..nor can I think of any of my favorites that had one but not the other..

Also..both are too subjective imo..

[Dab is a Cunt]

Characters no question. Look at Looney Tunes, specifically Chuck Amuck. Even in erasing Daffy all the way down to nothing but his duck bill and voice Daffy's one of the most distinctive characters around.

[pinkmattered]

The results are 50/50 and I'm honestly not surprised, but I tend to give up on shows if I hate the characters, and can sit through hours of trash if the characters are well developed so character-driven is the most important for me

[Tails]

Plot always comes first. It's better to have a series with a good story and reasonably decent looking characters than a series without a story with a moral/point.

[thefarmboy]

I can put up with a sub-par plot if there are great characters but I find the reverse much less enjoyable. So I'm going to go with Character driven stories.

[tomnook123]

I've watched enough poorly written anime to say that story trumps the characters. I don't care if the anime treats the characters like Game of Thrones characters and kills them all off. I want a good story.

[thefarmboy]

20 hours ago, tomnook123 said:

I've watched enough poorly written anime to say that story trumps the characters. I don't care if the anime treats the characters like Game of Thrones characters and kills them all off. I want a good story.

 

Haha, I am just the opposite and couldn't get into Game of Thrones for that very reason. Stopped watching after season 1, poor Sean Bean... Just goes to show that everyone enjoys different things. I enjoy a good story but when I don't like any of the characters the story alone can't keep me coming back.

[Nardlen]

I prefer characters. You can create the most boring plot imaginable, but if you have great characters, it makes the overall story entertaining and interesting.

[BurgerTime]

Characters.
A really good plot populated with trash tier characters is really difficult to enjoy, but stupid plots can be made bearable if not enjoyable with good enough characters.