Anime Reviews

I have gone to several different anime review sites, but I can't get a feel for some of their "insights" that many have. What I mean is do we anime cel collectors review anime differently?

I mean, I do in a way. I see character designs almost immediately before I see storyline =)
In fact, I will forgive some bad storylines if the character designs are awesome! Sounds absurd probably, but what is your (anime cel collectors)opinion on this?

I look at character development first! But, if the story line is a giant mish-mash of nothing....well who wants a cel/sketch? If the series is disappointing the players become secondary. I will however collect art from iffy series. Example E's Otherwise....horrible story! But the art and characters were worth the price!

Yes, I see your point very well, and also, the opposite for me is also very true. I really like some anime a lot, but I am not really attracted to the character designs enough to collect much from the series. To have both of course is a real joy, but it seldom seems to happen for me.

I guess what really changed me a bit was I had been an 'X' movie collector a few years ago. I started to recognize artists' works by name and style (Most notable, Nobuteru Yuki). I started to get attracted beyond story to the artist him/herself, and then the production company (Madhouse, for example). While the story (movie) wasn't exactly appealing to me when I saw the cels it was like "Wow!" these (X cels) are great, because of the detail and artwork from those were so nice.

Hmmm.... my anime reviews would be really depressing.

Here's one of the reasons why:

There are a disturbing few anime works that are both a) animation by choice, not by lack of budget for a live action movie and b) well-executed. The strength of the animation medium is abstraction. Anything that tries to mimic real-life too closely should always be suspect ("Whisper of the Heart": well-produced, but clearly weaker than other films in the Ghibli line). No real-life teenage actor playing Himura Kenshin would ever be able to have the same snap in his sword swings without drafting, say, the national high school kendo champion, giving him acting lessons, and adding an unhealthy dose of computer graphics.

The strength of anime specifically lies in concepts and exposition. Many fictional anime worlds have fantastic, deep, and beleivable worlds but really suffer in execution. (see Patlabor, Eva, or my all-time heartbreaking example of wasting a fantasy world, Haibane Renmei)

Anime creators, as a whole, seem to have an unhealthy and bizarre fetish with trying to spout freshman undergraduate philosophy through endless scenes of talking heads. These scenes are typically associated with the same campy gravity as the standard "Character Development" scene in all American buddy cop movies and the standard "If Only I Could Prevent This Horrible Tragedy" scene in all time travel movies. (Episode 14/15 of Key the Metal Idol, so cruel and destructive to a pretty darn fine show...) As the rule of thumb says, "Don't tell me. Show me."

Anime needs editors who can make hard decisions. Ones that don't care how hard it was to animate a particular sequence. Ones that can say, "I'm sorry, but this part is just bad/boring/self-indulgent."

Wow. It's not often I get to review an entire genre. Don't get me wrong, I still watch lots of anime. Every so often there's something that's expressed as anime that doesn't have an exact 1-1 mapping to anything else. Music + epic storytelling + voice acting + pure visual design is a really unique angle, when used in the right way. I'm critical because I like this stuff. Sure, I can enjoy a brainless fan-service show as often as the next guy, but those don't mentally stun you like Escaflowne or Maison Ikkoku or Nausicaa.

I just laugh when it take a turn for the awful... and this is all coming from a guy who has a significant collection of Lost Universe cels.

Some interesting points here guys. I think that because we have a good understanding of the (pre)production process we might view the end product a litle more aesthetically than a general reviewer. I'm sure most reviewers see dozens of anime shows/films every month and therefore don't become involved in the story/characters. Their review would be a little shallow.
Sure, one has to be objective when reviewing, but I think the best reviews come from those who have "been there, done that, got the t-shirt".

I think I could do a good review of an anime I've seen 10 times over only because I know the subject well (plus having a background in video production helps in terms of appreciateing sound, picture, scripting, editing etc).

From an visual perspective, which most of use have being at collectors, I'd consider the stylistic and movement aspects to be most important to us. The kinds of opinions we might typically have would be best suited to like-minded people and not the general anime viewers.