Thread: What makes an ordinary anime or a classic anime?

Originally Posted by Master_badger

Everybody. What are you doing? Hope good things. . .

Ok, to the point. Reading about classic anime series i can't to identify the elements about that anime is a classic. Some series have a lot of chapters (Dagron Ball, Macross) and another don't (Evangelion). Some series have funny elements and another sad elements. The time is another variable. Is the time one of the elements?

On my opinion i think the characters is one of the elements. Why? The main character is the "movil" of the story and make an anime fun or bored. Of course, with the help of the second characters. An anime without lovely main characters don't have that "feeling". Haruhi Suzumiya Melancholy or Cards Captor Sakura have main characters with "angel" and both are great animes. And both are "recent" series.

What do you think? What elements do you think one anime must have to evolve on a classic anime? The time is one of them or not? An anime with 5 years can be a classic or need wait 15 years to win the tittle?



I wait for your replies.

well lets see y iz sailor moon a classic its i think the main criteria

A classic is NGE a great anime a classic its one because its been loved by a huge group i mean all around the world people have loved it it made anime get popular its one that no matter how old it is it well still have fans every where it will still be known one like Full Metal Alchemist its my fav anime but america and japan are the real fan groups you hear it was a great anime but the stanard of classic is not in it inuyasha in the other hand will go down as a classic it has what it needs to be a classic.

there's a lot of elements that can evolve an ordinary anime into a classic one like "Plot" this's one of the most important elements because with no plot there's nothing makes you addicted to continue watching the anime series but there's exceptions some animes are very great and without a plot because they substitute the "plot" factor with other factors like "drawing and characters designs"(that makes you interested in that anime - sad the character is or hilarious - depends on the watcher's taste)and the "music" of the anime is a great factor aswell ,i doubt there is an anime on earth that had all the previous factors and considered not great .... "The Vision of Escaflowne ,Chrno Crusade ,Full Metal Alchemist and Trigun" are good examples of what i'm talking about in my opinion ,and there's also the animes that had no plot but great with other substituted factors like "You're Under Arrest and Ah! My goddess season one and two" ,and i don't think the time is an effective factor .... that's my opinion

A classic anime could be a number of things:

• It has stood the test of time and still has a fan following (Evangelion, Sailor Moon, Astroboy, and pretty much anything that Miyazaki has made)
• It heavily influenced or changed the Genre or anime itself (Evangelion, Astroboy [for being the first Anime], Kimba the white lion [for being the first Anime in color], Excel Saga [Because its just so damn funny])
• It has a large fan base who love it, and a large group of people who love to hate it (Dragon Ball Z, Inuyasha, Gundam [Wing, SEED, and what ever other variation], Pokemon, Yu Gi Oh!, Naruto [I lovingly call fans of this series Narutards , just look at the photos below in the spoiler])

I could go on for several more points, but you get the picture.

 click to show spoiler

The main reason for something being called a classic is that the subject matter ages well. For instance things like akira and Fist of the north star are set in not too distant futures, which are brought on by things which any generation after the cold war can relate to, nuclear attack or similar things science gone awry. now another thing that does it are characters whose lot in life and personal plight re easily related to by the audience. A good example of this would be tetsuro from galaxy express 999, whose loss of his mother and need for revenge easily stirs raw emotions from deep within the viewer. and finally the big deciding factor is whether its entertaining or not, there are tons of anime which are being put out but not all of them have elements which make them entertaining and "pop" if you will to wherepeople will notice them amongst all the tripe.

I think what makes and ordinary anime a classic anime is when it really isn't well known or mainstream. To me mainstream anime's aren't really classic because of the fact that alot of the things put into it is a story that can be easily shown as reptitive and boring. Bleach and Naruto in my eyes could never be a classic anime because of the fact that they are indeed reptitive and boring ,and they both have the simuliarties in there story lines.

endurance over time...

In the end, that's all that makes a "classic" of anything. The quality of a work doesn't necesarily have anything to do with it... it's how long people continue to remember, recommend, support and be nostalgic about a film, book, or tv show that ultimately determines "classic" status.