The exhaustability of anime

TL;DR (too long; didn't read) - warning! Even though I think (and hope) that most mikomi users don't know that word ;)

So, I'm an "average anime consumer", watching about 60 episodes monthly. Last week I finished Sora no Woto. I read the reviews and it was pretty spot on as always. This link especially was kind of funny but sad at the same time:

"...this outrageous proposal (at Sankakucomplex) that suggests that the characters of Sora No Woto are actually composite characters from Strike Witches and K-On."

http://anime.mikomi.org/episode/2208/Char.html

This was just the brightest example. Even I, though not being a hardcore consumer, find lots of similarities in almost every anime title within their own category.

Has anyone else ever wondered how long it might take until all the variations are used up? When chopping the average anime title down to figures, you get values and attributes like

-amount of characters -their age and sex -setting and theme -time and place -art and style, x variations in shape, size, and colors -etc

A good side example would be to think about songs in general. You got the average popular format, 1-4 minutes, x amount of notes ranging from y-z. Then you just rearrange them and play around with combinations to get something that would be enjoyable, memorable and not forgetting out beloved record companies; profitable.

We can rule out unpopular or plain stupid and silly combinations, such as playing a single one note in a loop.

In anime this could be a close up shot of a boy and girl, going: she: "boy-san... (sigh)" he: "girl-chan... (sigh)"

This works, but only when used very few times during the whole series. Same goes for songs. Any singe note, or sequence / combination works fine, iiiiiiiiiiiif.... used at the right time, the right place, the right way, the right amount.

I'm trying to figure out why I'm getting bored so quickly with slice of life, high school and drama titles (I can't stand 'cute magic girl' and other 'overly silly/ cute themes', so no thanks for any suggestions towards that section). Does anyone else feel like how much out of the same mold most titles are made of?

Still havent found a title that would have 1: waken my interest, make me really like it and want to watch it and... 2: be ORIGINAL enough not to ring a bell in my head every 20 seconds because it's reminding me of another title, like the way characters look or sound or behave, or most of all, events and themes that reoccur in every title.

Such as token summer holidays with the beach house, trips, festivals, which would all be fine with me, if they were used as ignition for something, instead of being forced in a self perpetuating way. Though on the other hand I have to forgive them for I do know that, especially in SoL titles, these events are ment to get a lot of meaningless attention, allowing the viewer to enjoy those 'casual moments of life' without stress, action, or perhaps a complex brain bashing storyline.

Here's a some questions, so this wouldn't be all about my semi-rant:

(( A )) Do you think that the anime industry would be in big financial trouble, if a complete "anime generator" would be released?

Let me explain a bit. This piece of software would have a full animeWiki database with all sound and 3D/2D art features one could imagine, simple commands, clear time/event line with auto director features to add the finishing touch for camera control options and other effects, etc.

This would pretty much spawn infinite amounts of titles made by fan communities, acting as general review and "quality checkers" at the same time to ensure trolls and other titles with absolutely obscure, sick, or child pornographic content definition would get thumbed down to hell and deleted.

So, do you think if a proper software like this would allow fans and amateurs to create their own anime fast and with quality, that people would stop investing in "real" studio produced titles?

(( B )) How long do you think is it going to take until there is no more content for anime, like every time you watch something, even though it's brnad new, it's 99% recycled, making you sigh "seen that... and that too" like a mantra every minute?

Just a bunch of random thoughts and stuff, add your opinion if you feel like it, waiting for it!

It's your birthday, you're 6 years old, you rush downstairs to see what your parents got you. You run up to them and ask them what you got. they got you a freaking european minican, a full sized minivan with the steering wheel on the right. while you're standing there thinking "WTF?!" they go back to bed. What just happened? you got overwhelmed in so much foreign territory and you have no idea what just happened. Now imagine this scenario twisted to fit anime standards. it would go like this:

Average guy wakes up from alarm (normal enough)
goes downstaris, too late, flying swordfish w/ a monocle.
now in afterlife, looks like a rpg
meets lost sister, falls in love
shi*! she's a cyborg! run coward, run!
realizes where he had once had a leg was replaced by a very angry and confused bowl of pistachios.
now in after-afterlife.

^that wouldn't work no matter how hard the industry tried, not that they ever would try on something like that. despite how fuc*ed up that was, the mold is there for a reason, and the mold for drama, slice of life, school life is probably the mold that can't osculate from it's shape the most because the title itself simply doesn't have room to change or else it changes genre, if you add horror to school life, it becomes psychological, add action and it simply becomes action, add mystery and it usually combines action and psychological. It's not that drama and the others you listed are plain, it's just that they are only drama, school life, ect.

Now anyways moving onto the main question you asked (I think it is). I'm assuming this would be like the vocaloid or UTUA of anime, Even though I think (and hope) that you know those words ;). Vocaloid has existed for quite some time, and it has several hardcore fans out there that swear by its' usefulness. If a program like that existed, then there's no doubt people would get sucked into it. but if users really had the ability to do something like that then they would have the ability to create the entire anime on its own, which has happened several, no multiple times in the past. this way they could make money and get credit for what they did, instead of some patchwork show that's content is limited only to the content that is online. Ultimately it would end up with shows that are more similiar than any show that exists today, because the most popular clips of that programs are going to be used in repetition over and over again, which would annoy me to no end.

To finish this off, if you don't like those genres, go into other genres, theres something for everyone in the world of anime.

Edited on 11/02/2010 06:50 PM.

(Despite Western belief that "cartoons are for kids",) anime isn't a content, its a presentation form. One of its purposes (besides allowing their creators to make money) is telling a story (excluding action, silly-funny, and ecchi/hentai stuff that serve other purposes). So your question should be equivalent to "When will all stories have been told?". Books, games, real movies should all have the same problem as anime in this aspect.

Having said this, anime do use archetypes for characters, both in terms of visualization and characters. There's even some kind of mapping between these two, such as certain hair styles or visible teeth indicating certain character traits (I have a playground for collecting Hair Colors in anime). Overusing archetypes can make things repetitive, but they can also save time by sending implicit signals to the (experienced) audience.

It's hard to find anime you like unless you know what you like, for which you need to have watched a significant amount of anime from various genres; if that's the case then checking for a combination of your preferred categories while excluding those you hate would be a good method to locate your sub-space within the anime universe, and that's why categorizing anime and tagging them with keywords might be as important as reviewing them (perhaps even more important, because tagging is less spoiler-prone than reviewing).
It's easier to find anime that tell unique stories; if this is what you're looking for then the keyword Acquired Taste might be a good indicator to start from.

Edited on 11/03/2010 03:29 PM.