So it goes the same for anime. Take the series that I’m watching now as an example -Ergo Proxy. I saw screen caps of Re-l and they were beautiful. So I gave it a watch and the story is not bad … so now I’m watching the whole series till the end. Want an example of anime that I turned down because I didn’t like the art or character design -Full Metal Panic. I seriously thought the character design for the heroine (I forgot her name) was VERY lacking in appeal. To put it bluntly -she’s ugly. If I have to see her face every episode I’d stop watching anime altogether. And I gave it a chance too -I watched 12 episodes before I dropped it. The story couldn’t save it.

So to answer your question, I prefer a balance between stimulation of the senses and of the mind.

I can see your point if you’re referring specifically to art styles instead of animation quality, but I’d have to disagree that this is a greater dividing line amongst fans than the stories and characters themselves. It appears to be easier to generalize acceptable “art” amongst anime fans than it is to generalize what constitutes a good story or a good character. And art can be discussed just as much as story; it’s just that people don’t seem to know as much about it. And personally, I would count art style as a subset of overall animation quality anyway…

And btw, when speaking of Haruhi, I was referring to animation quality, while you seem to be referring to art through character designs. Aren’t you the one who wanted to distinguish the two? >_>

Hmmm… I would say that while crappy animation/art style distaste would disappoint me a bit, it is secondary. And while an anime might have a good story, I wouldn’t pinpoint my appreciation of the show on just that.

For me, a show MUST posses (ideally all, almost always some, but sometimes only one(!)) of these factors: humor, cuteness, intrigue, or just appeal to my sense of what’s cool.

Thinking more on this… can both art and story potentially posses all of these qualities? I may be wrong, but I think they can. So I can appreciate them in which ever aspect of the show they manifest themselves.

So if the show can somehow get my attention on one or more of these factors, then I can watch any series, appreciate what I can find enjoyable in it, and I can be at peace with it’s other weaknesses.

If anything, I loose out on seeing a genuinely good anime (or an anime I might find genuinely good, yeah there’s a difference…), due to laziness.

As for Potemayo… I hadn’t really seen much of anything about it until I read about it on the ‘Anime on my Mind’ and ‘Hop Step Jump!’ blog. I decided to give the first ep a try and well… I loved it!

I found Potemayo and Guchuko’s antics, as well as Sunao’s little comments and well timed indifference hilarious, and I just had to cheer when the scythe wielding “moe blob” started firing it’s lazers .

And I really didn’t see that whole ’slaughtered pig on the table’ thing coming :O , really didn’t expect that from this show (although I guess I should have from the opening, but I think I must have slipped my mind after a few minutes of LMAO), but it was funny none the less.

But interesting observation anyway,

Same goes with fanservice, too much and I just click stop. This one I don’t regret too much.

@ Lupus: It’s interesting that you mentioned Le Chevalier d’Eon. I dropped it after episode 20 or so, not because it was boring, but because I quite simply do not like the character design or the animation. I may go back to watching it someday when I have the time.. but because of the art, it will never be ranked higher up on my scale.

The thing is, there is more than story in animation. It is the delivery as well as the substance that is important. Like in books, who would want to read a book even if it has great ideas if those ideas aren’t conveyed properly? Who would want to read a book full of grammatical mistakes and sentence fallacies? So what if it is Harry Potter; if J K Rowling didn’t know how to string a proper sentence together, the greatest idea in the world wouldn’t sell a single book.

Similarly, without art and animation, what kind of thing is an anime? The very fact that it’s called “anime” means that animation is an integral part of it. The difference between visual art like animes and written art like books is art and animation.

If I just want good story, I would go read a book (a properly written one, anyway). If I watch anime, I want more than a good story; I want good animation and art as well.

First impressions are the most important with visual content, imho.

You speak of animation, when I spoke of artwork, which IMO are two completely seperate things. You can have amazingly fluid animation with zero detail/toothpick character designs and background art. Inconsistency in artwork/chara designs throughout the episodes is also a whole other issue. This is easy to judge.

And since you don’t know any people who do not like character designs in most KyoAni shows so far, I can tell you there are such people.

As far as I’m concerned, animation will always be a factor in how much I like a show, just not THE determining factor. If I didn’t care about animation quality, then you can bet I’d rather be reading the many classic books whose stories easily dominate over any anime in existance. I can’t truthfully hide behind the statement that “story is all that matters to me”, because if that were so, then I should seriously pick up a new hobby besides anime.

On that note, I would also agree that good animation quality cannot save an otherwise horrible show. It should at least have some other redeeming qualities. Just like how not every single tall person is automatically good at basketball, but being tall would still help out.

kacpy: Actually, I’ve always felt that animation quality is LESS subjective than story quality. You can measure animation quality in a variety of determinable ways: frame usage, CGI blending, detailed backgrounds, fluid movement, etc. Stories are much harder to guage in this way. Just look at your own example: Suzumiya Haruhi. There are many people who are enamoured by the story and characters, while others decry it as trash. But pretty much no credible person has successfully argued that it has horrible animation quality.