Video Version:
It's time to revive this dead series I started a while ago and post a discussion. Yeah, it's been a while since my last post, but I've been taking a break from the entire reviewing shtick for a while. Well, here's a post (and eventual video) about a topic that's not normally discussed, and that's popular but repetitive comparisons. Enjoy, and feel free to respond on Twitter or Hummingbird where the link is posted (if you comment on this post, it's very unlikely I'll reply, because I won't be notified). With that out of the way, let's get started.
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| Attack on Titan |
Something that’s been bothering me lately is how, when comparing anime, people tend to compare only two shows. A few popular examples would be Durarara!! / Baccano!, Kill la Kill / Gurren Lagann, Black Lagoon/ Jormungand, Attack on Titan / Black Bullet, Death Note / Code Geass, Sword Art Online / Log Horizon (and basically every video game anime that came after it, a la No Game, No Life and Overlord), Fairy Tail / Seven Deadly Sins, and finally, who could forget the Big Three arguments. Well, the latter is technically a battle between three shows, but that’s not the point.
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| One Piece, one of the "Big Three" |
My issue isn’t necessarily the comparisons themselves, since it’s always a natural occurrence for someone to compare two pieces of art. The main reason every anime we watch is great when we first get into the medium is because we have nothing to compare them to, and when we watch more anime, we develop standards based on the other shows we’ve seen beforehand. Heck, every scoring system is based on comparison when you think about it! For example, if I were recommending you a show like, say, Fullmetal Alchemist 2003, I’d say it’s the best compared to every other anime I’ve ever seen, which means that, when I compare FMA 2003 to every other anime, it comes out on top. The opposite applies to, say, Ranpo Kitan: Game of Laplace. The second episode was absolutely abysmal compared to all the good anime I’ve been watching recently.
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| Ranpo Kitan: Game of Laplace |
Nor is my issue the comparisons themselves. I’ll admit, while I was watching Durarara!! and Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood, I always compared them to their spiritual counterparts: Baccano! and FMA 2003. It helped me realize the flaws and strengths of each anime, since that’s what comparisons are supposed to do. However, my issue lies more in the repetition of the comparisons. Whenever I open a review of Durarara!!, Kill la Kill, or FMAB, I almost always see the author comparing them to the exact same three shows: Baccano!, Gurren Lagann, and FMA 2003 respectively. In fact, I’m pretty sure I don’t even have to put the “respectively” at the end of that sentence, because you’ll all recognize the comparisons easily, and that's exactly why I take issue with them. But, why is this? Why do people always consistently compare them to the same shows? Well, I have a couple theories.
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| Fullmetal Alchemist: 2003 |
One: the shows are made by the same people, and share many similarities. This idea is not new to anyone, as people constantly compare media to other media done by the same author. Jurassic World suffered from this because everyone kept on comparing it to the original Jurassic Park. Divergent was not received very well because of its many similarities to The Hunger Games. And, in a day and age where more remakes and sequels are coming out more than ever, it’s become harder to avoid comparisons between those movies. In fact, I bet people are going to compare Ant Man with every Marvel movie ever made, and chances are, it’s not going to end well. The same happens in anime: people say Psycho-Pass Season 2 is terrible compared to its first season, Jojo: Stardust Crusaders isn’t as good compared to Jojo 2012, and Fate/Stay Night falls flat in comparison to Fate/Zero.
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| Jojo's Bizarre Adventure: Battle Tendency |
Two: it’s what everyone else does. I’m not trying to call people sheep for comparing two shows that happen to be similar, but when everyone else does it, it’s difficult to not think of the comparison yourself. For example, say, if everyone began comparing Hellsing to Black Blood Brothers (which are two very similar shows by the way from what I can tell, and I haven’t even seen any version of Hellsing), I’m pretty sure people would continue to do it. In other words, when a particular comparison becomes popular enough, it becomes ingrained in your mind, just like with a whole lot of other popular opinions. Even people who try to be individuals can’t completely avoid falling victim to popular opinions, unless they totally separate themselves from the anime community, which I’m sure not many people really want to do. And, again, that's the issue. These popular comparisons make the viewer unconsciously feel like they have to compare the two shows, and therefore one show will always look worse because of it.
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| Hellsing |
So, what is there that can fix this problem? Well, I think the main solution is just to stop being so narrow-minded when comparing anime. Just because a comparison is popularly accepted doesn’t mean that you can’t compare one of those shows to other anime. No piece of media is so unique that there is only one other show it could be compared to. For example, you could compare Kill la Kill to Madoka Magica, since they’re both magical girl anime that deal with themes of sexism and the male gaze, and decide which show does it better. You could compare Hellsing with Vampire Knight since they’re both about vampires, and decide whether you like action-oriented or romance-oriented vampire stories. You could compare Baccano! to Black Lagoon, since both are high-octane action shows that fall under the rule-of-cool category. My point is, stop being so narrow-minded in your comparisons, and branch away from the publicly accepted comparisons every once in a while. You don’t have to stop comparing Baccano! to Durarara!!, or FMAB to FMA 2003, but maybe think about other shows that they’re similar to instead of basing your comparisons on one singular show. It’ll be fairer to both shows, and will help you gain a broader perspective on what makes a show function.
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| Durarara!! |
I hope you enjoyed that discussion, and whether you agree or disagree, feel free to share your opinion. I'll see you all in my next post!
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