Good Visuals, Bad Story

[Serial Experiments Nobue]

After seeing Dagger's thread on good stories with not-so-good art, I thought it might be interesting to start a thread for the inverse. What are those titles that you like the artwork for, but can't get into the story? And for this thread, try to avoid posting any spoilers, but use tags if you must. Also, the purpose of this thread is not to bash any particular title, but to just point out disappointments with something that looked great.

For me, it's the Rayearth OVA, and not because it's so different from the TV series (which I like quite a bit). I find the character designs, especially of Hikaru, Umi, and Fuu to be elegant, and I even prefer them to their TV counterparts. Rayearth looks fantastic, but I found the plot and characters to be light on development. I think Rayearth had much potential, but the script just couldn't deliver.

[banksie]

For me it is the new Appleseed movie. So very very pretty visually but the story, while keeping the general outline intact, is just so badly executed it ruins the film for me.

[Dagger]

Speaking of which, is the Rayearth OVA out of print? I've been having a hard time finding it. /images/graemlins/sweat000.gif

But as for the topic at hand, the X movie instantly leapt to mind. It's absolutely ravishing to look at--much more so than the series, which already has strong visuals for a TV show--but the story is just a mess. Characters are introduced and swept off stage haphazardly, and you aren't given any reason to care about their fates, much less the fate of the entire planet as portrayed in the film.

[ZenAmako]

Innocence. The animation had me drooling, but the script was very dry.

Karas. I didn't make it all the way though this one, so maybe it improves. I just couldn't get into the story, in spite of the dazzling visuals.

Howl's Moving Castle. Miyazaki's weakest film from a story standpoint also had some of the best animation.

[Suzaku Seikun]

I agree with the Rayearth OAV because I loved the art, but the story was rather boring. I never saw the TV series, but I read the manga.

Karas also had very good visuals, but the story failed to captivate me and I got a bit lost watching it.

[Ty]

One word: Gonzo. It's not fair to make such a sweeping accusation against them I suppose, but for the last couple of years it's been true save for a couple of exceptions like Gankutsuou. I've liked plenty of Gonzo shows over the years, but very few lately. They're all flash and no substance, and the flash stumbles at times too.

[Perfect_Cell]

[ QUOTE ]
Xcalibur said:
One word: Gonzo. It's not fair to make such a sweeping accusation against them I suppose, but for the last couple of years it's been true save for a couple of exceptions like Gankutsuou. I've liked plenty of Gonzo shows over the years, but very few lately. They're all flash and no substance, and the flash stumbles at times too.

[/ QUOTE ]

I can agree on that one for a certain series. Burst Angel had some nifty visuals esspecially near the end of the series but the story was pretty boring and I basically ignored it all together. I love the series only for the battles and nothing more. The characters were ok except for Meg obviously. Some characters could have developed better but it went straight down the gutter. /images/graemlins/depresse.gif

[cheezisgoooood]

There are far too many anime with good visuals but poorly executed plotlines to count. Having said that, Final Fantasy 7 Advent Children is my entry. Amazing graphics awful writing.

[Jumbo]

I am seeing a lot of similar feelings here, glad I'm not alone.

The Original GitS movie, Innocence, Appleseed, what I've seen of Karas, X the Movie to name a few. For me it always feels like the movies or OVA's tend to be the worst.

It's like a bigger budget means they have to spend it on flashy animation as opposed to a script that understands the time constraints of these type of formats. Thus unless you are already a big fan of teh work that it ends up basing itself on, it doesn't make sense and at the same time usually doesn't end up as good as the original work either. /images/graemlins/tongue.gif

[Natsume_Maya]

[ QUOTE ]
ZenAmako said:
Innocence. The animation had me drooling, but the script was very dry.

[/ QUOTE ]

Definitely.

Another movie that falls into this category of good visuals, bad story for me is the Oh My Goddess movie - beautiful but tedious. How many sealed memories can a goddess have?

[ QUOTE ]
Xcalibur said:
One word: Gonzo.

[/ QUOTE ]

I was wondering if someone was going to say that /images/graemlins/happy.gif I haven't watched too many Gonzo shows myself. I liked the designs by Murata in Last Exile, and the story started off well enough, but seemed rather average by the end.

[Puppet Master]

FF7 AC - Looked good animation wise but the story just seemed beyond pointless gives the impression that they just didn't give a damn.

[MrNice]

Air. Sure it looks pretty, but nothing really happens (at least before the last couple of episodes).

[itsuka]

For me, Soul Taker perfectly fits that category.

[KomoriKiri]

[ QUOTE ]
Xcalibur said:
One word: Gonzo.

[/ QUOTE ]

Agreed, but not quite as much as Bee Train...

Wraith
I have not yet begun to procrastinate

[Lego]

I'd have to go with Blue Sub Six. At the time, I loved the visuals. From the CG enemies to the nice animation quality. But then the story hit me, ugh. I enjoy the show today(still), but more as a nostalgic piece for when I first saw it on CN.

[SpoilerHappy]

[ QUOTE ]
Dagger said:
Speaking of which, is the Rayearth OVA out of print? I've been having a hard time finding it. /images/graemlins/sweat000.gif

[/ QUOTE ]

FYI, yes, I'm pretty sure it's out of print....

[Rolancehack]

[ QUOTE ]
Howl's Moving Castle. Miyazaki's weakest film from a story standpoint also had some of the best animation.

[/ QUOTE ]

I read the book it was based on, Miyazaki improved the story. That should say something.

I've found it sort of a recent trend, with the way computer improved the art quality overall, which means for cheaper you can make better looking programing. Too bad they're hording the money they save instead of hiring better writers.

As for my picks:

Jing: King of Bandits: Great look, but the overall episodes they picked were some of the weaker ones, and the anime-only episodes were really weak when compared to the stories they left off from the Manga, Seventh Heaven, The Jail, and most of the Twilight Tales stories would have been much better to show (especially the King of Southern Comfort).

Gundam Wing: Nice look, horrendous story. Endless Waltz really only hurts the overall story.

[Dagger]

[ QUOTE ]
Rolan Cehack said:
[ QUOTE ]
Howl's Moving Castle. Miyazaki's weakest film from a story standpoint also had some of the best animation.

[/ QUOTE ]

I read the book it was based on, Miyazaki improved the story. That should say something.

[/ QUOTE ]
Blasphemy! /images/graemlins/stunned0.gif

I like the movie quite a bit, but as a huge fan of the book, I probably shouldn't have liked it as much as I did. If that makes any sense. /images/graemlins/tongue.gif

One thing I found interesting: the dub adds a line toward the beginning <span style='color:#dddddd;background:#dddddd'>(a background character talking about the missing foreign prince)</span> which is totally absent from the Japanese version. I felt oddly cheated when I watched the movie with subs, because the absence of that line makes the <span style='color:#dddddd;background:#dddddd'>scarecrow</span> plot element come even more out of left field.

[Helschadenfreude]

[ QUOTE ]
Dagger said:
[ QUOTE ]
Rolan Cehack said:
[ QUOTE ]
Howl's Moving Castle. Miyazaki's weakest film from a story standpoint also had some of the best animation.

[/ QUOTE ]

I read the book it was based on, Miyazaki improved the story. That should say something.

[/ QUOTE ]
Blasphemy! /images/graemlins/stunned0.gif

I like the movie quite a bit, but as a huge fan of the book, I probably shouldn't have liked it as much as I did. If that makes any sense. /images/graemlins/tongue.gif

One thing I found interesting: the dub adds a line toward the beginning <span style='color:#dddddd;background:#dddddd'>(a background character talking about the missing foreign prince)</span> which is totally absent from the Japanese version. I felt oddly cheated when I watched the movie with subs, because the absence of that line makes the <span style='color:#dddddd;background:#dddddd'>scarecrow</span> plot element come even more out of left field.

[/ QUOTE ]

/images/graemlins/sweat200.gif And here I"m thinking that reading the book kinda made the movie make more sense in a bit.. but the book did have its confusing moments as well. It's strange as well because my friends preferred Spirited Away and Princess Mononoke animation to Howl's Moving Castle.

I agree about the Bee Train statement, Meine Liebe was pretty... but.. was... so...predictable and stupid.... Kiddy Grade was also pretty.. the plot is still WTF in my head....of course I haven't watched it all.

[vanfanel]

[ QUOTE ]
Puppet Master said:
FF7 AC - Looked good animation wise but the story just seemed beyond pointless...

[/ QUOTE ]

I actually enjoyed Advent Children on second viewing...up to the point where the fighting in the big town square begins. At that point, the movie is thrown over to endless, tedious, increasingly-ridiculous action. And then I liked the ending. If they do this again, something smaller, quieter would be appreciated. Not that I expect it.

Other pretty-art/bad story anime for me include:

* Escaflowne movie
* X movie
* Ah! Megamisama (movie, OVA, probably everything)
* You're Under Arrest OVA
* Brave Story

And lest I seem biased against new stuff...

* Arion: I love Yoshikazu Yasuhiko's work to death. This one looks great, but just falls apart near the end, starting with the most hilariously awful call-to-arms ever...
* One of the Saint Seiya movies. It started out well, then a guy got knocked up into the air, then he fell down and landed on his head with an expression of utter agony on his face. And then this sequence repeated itself with various other characters 20 or 30 times, until they pulled some new power out of a hat to end the thing. Not sure which movie I just described...hope it isn't all of them.

[StudioZEL]

[ QUOTE ]
Other pretty-art/bad story anime for me include:

* Escaflowne movie
* X movie
* Ah! Megamisama (movie, OVA, probably everything)
* You're Under Arrest OVA
* Brave Story

[/ QUOTE ]

o.O Ah! Megamisama and You're Under Arrest have awesome stories! XD

[TAS]

Real Bout High School. A couple of the episodes are ok as stand-alone but over all? What story?

Amazing Nurse Nanako. The trailer sold me the first volume, looked like fun. Turned out to be a steaming turd, if there was a story I could not find it. One of the few disks I've sold (and felt guilty about the guy that bought it).

This Ugly Yet Beautiful World. Great opening, good first episode then ?
If you skip the fanservice (both boobs and pointless battles) you could write what's left of a story on a post-it note.

[graphite]

[ QUOTE ]
vanfanel said:
[ QUOTE ]
Puppet Master said:
FF7 AC - Looked good animation wise but the story just seemed beyond pointless...

[/ QUOTE ]

I actually enjoyed Advent Children on second viewing...up to the point where the fighting in the big town square begins. At that point, the movie is thrown over to endless, tedious, increasingly-ridiculous action. And then I liked the ending. . .

[/ QUOTE ]

FF7 Advent children had an excellent story, so it doesn't belong in this thread. (Actually, I'd like to say "In my opinion" or "I think", but since everyone else is speaking in absolute terms, I thought I should as well). Strangley enough, I usually find heavy amounts of action to be pretty boring, but the clever story and pacing kept me engaged.

But I, too, think that movies based on TV series usually do fall in this catagory. An interesting exception is the Cowboy Beebop movie, because it is based on a story for an episode that wasn't produced for the series. Unfortunately this is because Cowboy Beebop is an "episode" based series, which I consider inferior to the "mini-series" structure of past anime. (Sorry, I don't know the correct terms for these types of series) Ironically, I did not notice any significant improvements in the animation quality, though.

[vanfanel]

[ QUOTE ]
StudioZEL said:
o.O Ah! Megamisama and You're Under Arrest have awesome stories! XD

[/ QUOTE ]

I like slice-of-life as much as anyone, but Kosuke Fujishima's works always manage to elicit an "is that all there is to it?" reaction from me. I know his stuff works for a lot of people; just not me. If I were an animator, though, I would want those YUA OVAs around for reference.

[Pelianth]

[ QUOTE ]
PsychoIdiot said:
I agree about the Bee Train statement, Meine Liebe was pretty... but.. was... so...predictable and stupid.... Kiddy Grade was also pretty.. the plot is still WTF in my head....of course I haven't watched it all.

[/ QUOTE ]
Meine Liebe was predictable? I thought you needed to actually have a story for that.

[Tomcat]

[ QUOTE ]
vanfanel said:
* Ah! Megamisama (movie, OVA, probably everything)
* You're Under Arrest OVA

[/ QUOTE ]
*Hiss* *boo*

You clearly don't know how to appriciate a good story if you list these two. Sure, the Ah! Megamisama movie and OVA were weak compared to the manga stories, but good none the less.

-TC

[AbeChinchilla]

[ QUOTE ]
TAS said:
Real Bout High School. A couple of the episodes are ok as stand-alone but over all? What story?

Amazing Nurse Nanako. The trailer sold me the first volume, looked like fun. Turned out to be a steaming turd, if there was a story I could not find it. One of the few disks I've sold (and felt guilty about the guy that bought it).

[/ QUOTE ]

I don't know how people think Real Bout High School's animation even looks great... probably my least favorite of (gasp) Keiji Goto's character designs. They rely heavily on some badly animated battles, but the story is definitely terrible. I'm 3 volumes into the 6 volume manga, and there has been NOTHING about a stupid necklace that transports Ryoko to another world. It's RIDICULOUS.

The manga is much more beautiful, and it's even more enjoyable than the show was.

As for Nanako, I gotta agree! I bought it because the trailer was awesome (and is basically the only good thing about the story). The visuals are great, IMO. They must have just started doing CG animation, because it looked horrible on the DVDs. Now... does the Nanako Secret Collection box set + Secret Collection Catalog count as a "good visual?" /images/graemlins/wink.gif

[Rolancehack]

That Necklace stuff isn't in the Manga, it totally takes place in the real world.

[AbeChinchilla]

[ QUOTE ]
Rolan Cehack said:
That Necklace stuff isn't in the Manga, it totally takes place in the real world.

[/ QUOTE ]

Thank god. More reason to go with the manga, for sure.

Still gotta get vol. 4-6...

[pianocello]

[ QUOTE ]
Perss said:
FF7 Advent children had an excellent story, so it doesn't belong in this thread.

[/ QUOTE ]

In your opinion, you mean. The ones who enjoy this one are mostly people who have played the game. The rest of us (many of us anyway) happen to find the storyline mundane despite the gorgeous visuals.

[cheezisgoooood]

[ QUOTE ]
Perss said:
FF7 Advent children had an excellent story, so it doesn't belong in this thread. (Actually, I'd like to say "In my opinion" or "I think", but since everyone else is speaking in absolute terms, I thought I should as well). Strangley enough, I usually find heavy amounts of action to be pretty boring, but the clever story and pacing kept me engaged.

[/ QUOTE ]

What was so clever about FF7 AC's story? They practically could've left out all script elements in the movie and still had essentially the same movie; a made-for-fans movie that brings back nostalgia and old characters to exhilarate the viewers as well as bring a long string of ridiculous fight scenes into the mix with impressive visuals. The film was made for those reasons alone, not to put emphasis on any underlying story that might intrigue newcomers to the Final Fantasy franchise to play the games.

[Lumberjack]

Not really a popular series, but I would nominate Mars Daybreak. I had somewhat high hopes for this series after watching Bones's Fullmetal Alchemist and Wolf's Rain, but the story was really predictable and bland for me.

[Ty]

[ QUOTE ]
Wraith said:
[ QUOTE ]
Xcalibur said:
One word: Gonzo.

[/ QUOTE ]

Agreed, but not quite as much as Bee Train...

Wraith
I have not yet begun to procrastinate

[/ QUOTE ]

*smacks self* How could I forget about Bee Train? I'm not even one of the forum's Gonzo haters, but I do harbor an intense dislike of Bee Train these days.

[mrjk]

Yes! A second on Soul Taker - that was the show that immediately popped into mind since the visuals and the structure of the visuals was so good and instead of using this for something cool it is wasted on an extremely stupid story line and characters. The colored glass motif all through the show was neat but the plot, yuck.

[Puppet Master]

After seeing Soul Taker mentioned numerous times another one came to mind Le Portrait de Petit Cossette. Has an interesting art style but fails storywise.

[Tokachan]

For me the prize goes to Final Fantasy 7: Advent Children and Petite Cossette. FF7: AC had an average and fairly jumpy story, whereas the one in Petite Cossette didn't seem to know what kind of story it wanted to tell (it didn't help that I found the characters to be very unlikable). Both had very beautiful visuals otherwise.

[evilarrex]

Movies:
X/1999 - Stunning visuals. Pity about the story.

Gonzo's Hollow Donuts:
Kiddy (Donut) Grade
Full Metal Panic: Season One (lost the plot half way in and although it was intermittently entertaining after that - it was bad)

[Serial Experiments Nobue]

[ QUOTE ]
Lego said:
I'd have to go with Blue Sub Six. At the time, I loved the visuals. From the CG enemies to the nice animation quality. But then the story hit me, ugh. I enjoy the show today(still), but more as a nostalgic piece for when I first saw it on CN.

[/ QUOTE ]

I just finished watching this tonight, and sadly I have to second this. It looks great, and had potential, but there are so many parts of the story that are barely touched on or left unresolved.

For a series about submarines, it wasn't very deep. (Sorry, I had to say it. /images/graemlins/tongue.gif )

[MeggieMay]

[ QUOTE ]
mrjk said:
Yes! A second on Soul Taker - that was the show that immediately popped into mind since the visuals and the structure of the visuals was so good and instead of using this for something cool it is wasted on an extremely stupid story line and characters. The colored glass motif all through the show was neat but the plot, yuck.

[/ QUOTE ]
Soul Taker has a plot?! /images/graemlins/knowital.gif /images/graemlins/sweat000.gif

hehehe - I'm sorry, I just couldn't resist (I don't think I've ever felt sorrier for, or admired as much, a bunch of English VA's for making it through a show as much as I did with that show) /images/graemlins/sdsmiley.gif