Will we see a rise in Animation in the near-future?

Eh, Castlevania at least (can’t speak for the others having not seen them and having no interest in their franchises) follows the typical braindead Hollywood route of mistaking gore and swearing for maturity. I’ve been a fan of Castlevania since I was like 6 or 7 and feel like the first season was a complete waste of my time. If I wanted to watch Vampire Hunter D, I prefer to do it without a teenage redditor’s hot takes on religion.

But I’ve become especially weary of extreme violence in popular media in the past few years. I’m at a point in my life where I really don’t need that, and my only option is just to avoid that media completely.

The only point I would be willing to argue against is that Warren Ellis, the writer/showrunner of Castlevania, is anything but braindead. I believe it is probably for the best to just agree that we have very different tastes in storytelling and ideas of what is sophisticated and mature, and leave it at that.

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No idea who Warren Ellis is (unless it’s the same person as the musician that plays with Nick Cave?), but Castlevania sure left a bad impression on me.

I apologize if I kind of flew off the handle, that Castlevania series is just
a big sore spot for me and just thinking about it kind of makes my blood boil.

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I don’t what will happen, but it would be nice to see some more quality animation. I think most here would agree that Warner Bros Animation mostly does a good job with their DC properties and would like to see more of it. I have also been rewatching Star Wars Clone Wars on Disney plus and I’ve been reminded how good it is. Static Shock is another show I’ve been watching and, I must say, I’m surprised at the emotional resonance some of the episodes have. (Wouldn’t it be nice to have Static headline a show again?)

I think there’s more of a market for animation aimed for adults than conventional wisdom suggests and the successful runs of shows like Bob’s Burgers and King of the Hill show that it doesn’t need to be raunchy.

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Warren Ellis writes/wrote some of the better Marvel and DC titles of the last 25 years. Moon Knight, Thunderbolts, Transmetropolitan, Authority, WildStorm, and Hellblazer (to name a few).

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I would like to see some animation shows, just finished watching Justice League Action, and was disappointed when it ended because I wanted to see more. While some of the episodes contained stories that would have been better throughout the entire time slot, it was a great way to spotlight different heroes from time to time.

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Not sure I’ve even heard of any of those, so it’s not a real surprise I don’t know his work I guess.

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No apologies necessary. This is all subjective, of course. I could list a hundred reasons why I loved the series and you could list a hundred reasons why you hated it, neither of us would be “right” or “wrong” in our feelings, and we would not be able to change the other’s mind on the matter.
I’m no stranger to being in your shoes in this situation, either. I personally thought that the universally beloved Avengers: Endgame was one of the worst films I have ever sat through. I’m also one of the rare breed that loved BvS (especially the director’s cut), Justice League and Rise of the Skywalker.
I think it is perfectly fine to be upset with something that you had high expectations for and left you disappointed, if you remember that what you might consider to be trash, someone else might consider a treasure?

@TRMerc I loved Justice League Action and felt the same way when I finished! The art style, the character work, the sense of humor were all wonderful, plenty of references and winks for the long time DC fan. I agree that some of the stories suffered from the condensed time frame - I used to watch one of the 12 minute episodes before starting another “full-length” show, kind of like a teaser before the feature presentation (I used to do that with Adventure Time as well).

@john.21795 I really need to start Clone Wars already. I love Rebels, I would safely say that it is my favorite Star Wars property that is not Empire Strikes Back. I’m going to give Static Shock a shot too, I always wondered if it was any good.
Funny that you mention King of the Hill, we recently started rewatching the series and the show holds up incredibly well. I’ve been living in Texas for nearly ten years now, and it does a great job of portraying what life can be like here.

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I mean all media is subjective and we all bring our own expectations, biases, what have you to them. It’s interesting that you mention Avengers: Endgame- I spent several years out of the pop culture loop and Endgame was my first film coming back to it. While not impossible to follow I really would have liked to know ahead of time that the MCU’s films were supposed to be watched as serials and without that knowledge, the big battle at the end was enormously confusing. I ended up spending like the next four months slowly going through the movies, and my opinions on them generally don’t match most people’s (I thought Winter Soldier and Thor: Ragnarok were dull and really liked the Ant-Man movies).

My critical views on things are entirely my own and there are things that will bother me that will bother no one else. I’m used to that by now. Still need to see the DCEU movies outside of Wonder Woman. I’ve been burnt out on Star Wars for a good decade now, though, ROS will have to wait longer.

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I like him. He’s a good writer. Can’t speak for Castlevania.

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I really enjoy King of the Hill (and about anything Mike Judge does- his recent Tales from the Tour Bus is really cool if you’re interested in popular music history). What I find interesting in a meta sense is how much more grounded and “real” the show feels compared to a lot of live action sitcoms. It gets less believable in later seasons and arguably there are a few out there plots but it definitely plays more “real” than most laugh-track comedies.

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Have you read his novella Crooked Little Vein? It’s a dark weird detective novel. It led me to read a lot of his comic work actually.

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I love Mike Judge and his work. I remember him saying in a podcast that he was very deliberate in not wanting to have the usual animation tropes with King of the Hill, to stay from the more absurd stuff that the Simpsons was popular for at the time. I think that really adds to the longevity of the series and why it holds up so well. Bobs Burgers is in the same vein I think too.

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It’s all good. My comic reading has always been really sporadic, so there’s plenty of creators I’ve just never come across because my interests at the time don’t intersect with their work.

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Nah, man. I’ll look into it. Thanks!

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I really hope they bring back Justice League Action, it was a fun series that didn’t feel the need to take itself to seriously.

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As for what people like, this is perfectly true. Plenty of things I like other people loathe and vice versatility. To each their own.

Critical analysis can be applied with the framework of styles, genres, and etc and how well it fits into what it claims to be. In that, just as with art history, those critical analysis elements can be deconstructed which can say within its genre, style, etc where those various elements fall along a critical and historical scale.

With that said, such analysis still doesn’t validate or invalidate someone’s personal opinion of if they like it or not. I have seen movies, that will admit, from an objective analysis are trash, but I still love them none the less. By the same token, there are films that objective analysis are great, but I loathe them.

IMO, FWIW. I think Clone Wars is the best thing in the Star Wars universe only behind the original trilogy. It doesn’t suffer from the prequel/sequel issues that plague the other films. The format, both of animation and series, really helped. It allowed them to develop a lot of existing characters we knew little about and their own new characters. I just finished binging it myself, through about the 6th episode of season 5. Highly recommended.

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I’ve heard people recommend it and praise it but I’ve never been able to get into it. The voices sound wrong, the tone is uneven, and the whole thing looks like a PS2 cutscene. I don’t understand why people love it, unless they grew up with it and have nostalgia for it. I can only guess that this is one of those cases like Star Trek TNG where it only gets good later, but my patience is a bit thin to sit through bad episodes to wait for a show to get good anymore. Or, it may just be a victim of its own hype where everyone praises it and I’ve built it up in my head to be something it’s not.

That and the aforementioned Star Wars fatigue that predates even the sequel trilogy. I get the feeling nothing Star Wars is ever gonna grab me like the originals did when I was 4 or 5 watching them on tape.