What is the most important quality an anime should have?

[† RazorDan]

Title is pretty self explanatory! what's the most important thing an anime should have? a great plot? great characters? epic art? In my opinion, the story/plot is the most important thing an anime has to have. What about you guys? Do you prefer if an anime can make you laugh? or if it has a character you wish you could be? Leave you replies!

[Nero D. Ace]

It really ends up depending on the genre of what I'm watching. ex.

 

Code Geass, a really character driven show needs to have complex personalities in the characters.

The protagonist is constantly shown as kind of an evil guy but with a motive behind everything he does. He focuses more on the bigger picture even if he has to sacrifice his own humanity for it.

The deuteragonist wants to constantly do the right thing in the short term and ends up being an idiot (my term, i really hated that dumbass) trying to do so.

The plot and overall arc is important as well but without the charm present in the characters as it is, it would've fallen apart.

 

Gintama, is a comedy show with some drama now and then. All I wanna do when watching this show is laugh and have a good time. As such, I don't particularly care much for deep character development and wanna have some good cheesy dialogues and kansai voice acting.

 

Hunter X Hunter, Dragon Ball, Bleach - I watch them for the bad assery. I watch them to watch Ichigo go Bankai, Goku turn Super Saiyan and Gon beat shit up. What I don't want is annoying weak characters being given 3 episodes while they recount their sad story tales about how they used to be repressed in a flashback, DELAYING the action. WTF, yo?! I don't care about your dog, Pain! 

 

And if you're Fooly Cooly, I want all the animators to get as high as they can and animate the shit out of the show!

[lemmingllama]

I would probably say entertainment value. Other stuff is nice, but if it isn't entertaining then it isn't very good in my books.

 

And if that was too ambiguous for the thread, typically good characters are the next most important thing. Good characters drive the story along better than any plot and make it better to watch.

[Drake]

I wanted to say characters, but then why am I still watching Naruto and Pokemon?

 

So I'd say the content. I guess genre-dependence is a good answer. For comedies I just want to laugh and switch off my brain. Throwing in some ecchi is never a bad thing. For others I want my mind blown or just to stay captive (and of course, some ecchi never hurts).

 

But most important is that it should make sense. Those messed-up random anime that noone has a clue whats happening in them (ergo proxy, paranoia agent, etc.) don't work for me at all.

[† Emotional Outlet]

Although it's been a while since I've seen Ergo Proxy, and I did watch the whole thing under a haze of obligation and hatred--even under those conditions I didn't find it especially difficult to comprehend. It was just exceptionally pretentious, haha.

 

Anyway, I agree it depends on the series. Some series can get away with weaker character development, others can get away with not having a very compelling plot, and others yet can apparently get away with not having much of anything besides the fact it managed to wrangle you in and now you're trapped in a series with hundreds of episodes and even more characters.

 

I guess the important thing for me is how cohesive of a product it is. If the different aspects don't add up into some comprehensive and/or attractive manner, it's not going to keep my attention for long. So it's okay if a series is lacking in some aspect as long as it feels complete otherwise.

[Pav]

A good anime need to have good art work that's why i watch anime because of the beautiful animation, the plot and the characters are also important but i think the best quality of an anime would be the art that's my opinion.

[Drake]

A good anime need to have good art work that's why i watch anime because of the beautiful animation, the plot and the characters are also important but i think the best quality of an anime would be the art that's my opinion.

 Do you mean art given the era? Eg, do you like anime from the 80s or only the most recent ones?

[Pav]

 

A good anime need to have good art work that's why i watch anime because of the beautiful animation, the plot and the characters are also important but i think the best quality of an anime would be the art that's my opinion.

 Do you mean art given the era? Eg, do you like anime from the 80s or only the most recent ones?

 

I don't think iv seen any 80s anime so yea it would be more recent ones I guess.

[zexxar]

To me the most important are the characters if there're no good characters I like, I can easily lose the interest.

[† RazorDan]

Hmm I'm relieved at the replies, exactly the kind I was looking for when I made the thread. Does anybody consider voice acting as an important factor? No one's really mentioned it so far.

[† Emotional Outlet]

I don't really care much about voice acting, haha.

 

There are times when I hear little bits of acting that catch my ear, but I'm pretty easy to please in that regard. If it's terrible, I either switch the language or laugh a lot. If it's mediocre, it's mediocre, who cares. Eventually I'll get used to it and it won't matter any more.

 

Granted, I watch very little anime and tend to stick to ones that are in that 12-24 episode range. If I watched long-runners, terrible voice acting would likely be more of a factor.

[Dreamwalker]

Imagine it like a house of cards: I think it's the cooperation of all these things that make a good anime. An anime can have a brilliant story, but if the characters are flat or the action part comes to short the whole house collapse

[Enigmo]

Well yeah, a great plot is key. But in my opinion, character appearances, and just their personality needs to be of a really high level too.

[LTJG RIO]

It's hard to say, because I used to think animation made a big difference but, then I watched Panty and Stocking so then I guess character's but I usually dislike just about every character in Gundam but that's my favorite series purely because of the epic mech battles. It really is hard to say. I guess when it comes right down to it I've tried watching sitcoms like Everybody Loves Raymond and Big Bang Theory but, they were never even as close to funny as Haruhi Suzumiya or Hidamari Sketch and I have no idea why. About the only sitcom I ever did like was Frasier. I don't know why Kelsey Grammer just makes me laugh. I guess maybe in a very sad way I grew up with anime and once I turned 20 I just decided to never let it go.

[hellzism]

I'm gonna say it has to do with the genre of the story that depends on the quality.

[nomadhooker]

I'd have to agree that it depends on the genre. I remember watching Robotech and thinking in some episodes just get on with the space battles! Other times I end up watching a series because I connect with the characters and want to see what happens to them or how they overcome a situation. I guess character development is important unless is an epic battle series, then it's the animation and the intensity of the scenes. Although the story line is important I've seen some so-so story lines that I couldn't stop watching because of the characters.

[shadowtheman]

I gues there isn't much I could say.  It never seems like one element alone could hold a show together.  I can imagine haveing a catch like a theme or a charicter as a corner stone can help draw in the audience.  Yet the show needs more than that.  A straight man, an antagonist or even a trope like the pipe layer.  These things help build up the show.  Not to mention the tropes used in stroy.  Yes we can play with the al mighty Mcguffen or Dues ex.  lol. 

 

I can imagine what makes a bad show vs a good one vs a great one is how well all these things fall together when it comes to the authers and chirecters.

 

goofy dogs lol.  

Edited July 5, 2013 by shadowtheman

[Kyle_Dimetri]

Uncliched plots even if the anime has cliched characters (example One Piece/Death Note) or just a refreshing way of doing things (example Fairy Tail)

[TheAnimeXplorer]

The most important quality to an anime for me is character relationships and interacting. The characters can be good alone but they need to be good at interacting with other characters and how well they can show relationships.

[Kageshiro]

In other words, what makes an anime good in one's own perspective. Well, it needs to have good compisition with the music. Lip synching is an important factor for me, bc it can kill the mood if it happens to catch too much of my attention. Character developement, and their back stories, being detailed, but not too long, as to take up too many episodes, unless it happens to be a device.

 

As far as animation goes, it doesn't have to be epic to catch my eye. As an anime reviewer, I can whole heartedly say, the story is absolutely essential bc, if you have a bad story with excellent characters, and good music. What have you really?! The characters serve to base/build the story, and the music, is the other most important element. I think just about everyone can agree, or at least not argue on the fact that these two elements, along with timing, are tantamount to the success, or, failure of anything, not just anime.

 

Yes interesting characters do help. But, most people don't watch the anime for the characters alone. I guess one more element that isn't necessary, but helps tremedously (if done right) would be Use of the environment that is there. As stated above. solid coagulation is definitely needed.