First: Apologies. This post wanders all over the place.
Hmm, I think I agree with your point. I don't know your background, though-- have you been raised on the Eastern literature and plots? If so, I'm guessing that the cultural difference plays a huge part in predictability. There are, of course, vastly different audiovisual cues, some largely dealing with personality-- as you expound upon in your earlier analysis of Code Geass and anime character design in general. I've managed to pick that up on my own through the years (yay), and I'd really like to see someone turn the "personality revealed by character design" on its head. Like having someone who looks like Little Miss Innocence be a doublecrosser, or something. Perhaps that's happened; I'm really behind in current anime/manga. (By a couple years. I've just been so busy...) I actually only got into Soul Eater because of your promotion of it. And I don't have oodles of time lately (woe) so I'm only about six episodes into the anime, and maybe 20 twenty chapters into the manga.
ANYWAY.
Another of my big problems comparing American or Western screenwriting to anime is that I don't have cable, and thus am limited to network TV... which has its ups and downs. This past season actually had two new series that out-wrote my on-the-fly plot analysis nearly every time: Eleventh Hour and, most of the time, The Mentalist. Though the leading man annoys me. Anyway, CSI is still decent; Gray's Anatomy got too much whiny drama going on for me to put up with it anymore, since I used to watch it for interesting medical stuff; for some reason I didn't see much of House this season, but it's usually interesting... ummm, what else... Most sitcoms make me tear my hair out because I hate the nearly omnipresent American generalization of families as consisting of a stupid, insensitive lout married to an otherwise intelligent woman who puts up with gross idiocy on an hourly basis. (Thus, I always want to chuck the TV through a window whenever Everybody Loves Raymond or King of Queens come on.) I wish I could compare the writing to Heroes or Lost or some other vastly popular show, but they just never grabbed my attention. So most of my comparisons are to horrible sitcoms, which totally skews my comparisons. Admittedly, there is much higher-quality fare on cable TV. I'd really like to see some of the HBO stuff. Especially Rome. That looks cool.
In comparison to network TV sitcoms, though, I'd really like to see some well-written, intelligent, not-as-simplistic fare. Something witty.
Let's see... Though the original would never fly on network TV due to the many many Japanese cultural references, I wish there was an English equivalent to Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei. Something like a macabre SNL with a unifying "plot," I guess, as much as SZS has a "plot." SZS makes me realize how many things that bother me are really absurd. For some reason, I think the closest we have to that is either The Simpsons or South Park. Though I haven't watched either in quite awhile, so I could be off.
Blood+ was an interesting twist on the typical vampire saga. (Also an instance of Anime First.) Several big "Wait, what--? NO WAY!" moments in that one. Interesting subplots, huge "world domination through manipulation of a government" conspiracy that is only fully revealed near the end... If it was live-action it would totally be an HBO show. Too much blood and moral squick (well, that ONE scene, for the most part) for network TV. I found it to be refreshingly well-written. I really adore subplots.
Another Anime First is Princess Tutu. It pretends to be formulaic. Well, really, it establishes itself as formulaic, then kicks you in the face with its second season.
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Hmm, I think I agree with your point. I don't know your background, though-- have you been raised on the Eastern literature and plots? If so, I'm guessing that the cultural difference plays a huge part in predictability. There are, of course, vastly different audiovisual cues, some largely dealing with personality-- as you expound upon in your earlier analysis of Code Geass and anime character design in general. I've managed to pick that up on my own through the years (yay), and I'd really like to see someone turn the "personality revealed by character design" on its head. Like having someone who looks like Little Miss Innocence be a doublecrosser, or something. Perhaps that's happened; I'm really behind in current anime/manga. (By a couple years. I've just been so busy...) I actually only got into Soul Eater because of your promotion of it. And I don't have oodles of time lately (woe) so I'm only about six episodes into the anime, and maybe 20 twenty chapters into the manga.
ANYWAY.
Another of my big problems comparing American or Western screenwriting to anime is that I don't have cable, and thus am limited to network TV... which has its ups and downs. This past season actually had two new series that out-wrote my on-the-fly plot analysis nearly every time: Eleventh Hour and, most of the time, The Mentalist. Though the leading man annoys me. Anyway, CSI is still decent; Gray's Anatomy got too much whiny drama going on for me to put up with it anymore, since I used to watch it for interesting medical stuff; for some reason I didn't see much of House this season, but it's usually interesting... ummm, what else... Most sitcoms make me tear my hair out because I hate the nearly omnipresent American generalization of families as consisting of a stupid, insensitive lout married to an otherwise intelligent woman who puts up with gross idiocy on an hourly basis. (Thus, I always want to chuck the TV through a window whenever Everybody Loves Raymond or King of Queens come on.) I wish I could compare the writing to Heroes or Lost or some other vastly popular show, but they just never grabbed my attention. So most of my comparisons are to horrible sitcoms, which totally skews my comparisons. Admittedly, there is much higher-quality fare on cable TV. I'd really like to see some of the HBO stuff. Especially Rome. That looks cool.
In comparison to network TV sitcoms, though, I'd really like to see some well-written, intelligent, not-as-simplistic fare. Something witty.
Let's see... Though the original would never fly on network TV due to the many many Japanese cultural references, I wish there was an English equivalent to Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei. Something like a macabre SNL with a unifying "plot," I guess, as much as SZS has a "plot." SZS makes me realize how many things that bother me are really absurd. For some reason, I think the closest we have to that is either The Simpsons or South Park. Though I haven't watched either in quite awhile, so I could be off.
Blood+ was an interesting twist on the typical vampire saga. (Also an instance of Anime First.) Several big "Wait, what--? NO WAY!" moments in that one. Interesting subplots, huge "world domination through manipulation of a government" conspiracy that is only fully revealed near the end... If it was live-action it would totally be an HBO show. Too much blood and moral squick (well, that ONE scene, for the most part) for network TV. I found it to be refreshingly well-written. I really adore subplots.
Another Anime First is Princess Tutu. It pretends to be formulaic. Well, really, it establishes itself as formulaic, then kicks you in the face with its second season.