Cruel Angel's Thesis

[Fishalicious]

More people need to watch Loveless, to me. I'm not a big fan of either Naruto or Bleach. I'll watch it if it's on, but... Eh, otherwise, I'll just sort of watch cooking channels.

I don't want a full out anime war to start. That would be silly.

[Rev Rabies]

It has one of the most annoying catchphrases though, and WAY too many special abilities for the monsters.

actually all the abilities are accurate to the actual cards

[TP Zelda]

Eh? I got a Gaara card... I still have to read it. XDDD Ooh pretty sparkles...  :P

[darkphantomime]

Actually, by removing any competition one has a greater chance. With all the other good ones not being shown or being shown late, are new, or are 4KIDS, then Naruto had a much greater chance.

Naruto is crap. Why, in the old days, we didn't have to watch anime that was hundreds of episodes in length. We were just fine with 26 episodes and we would be familiar and know all the characters well enough for them to remain truly memorable!

The characters in NGE are quite messed up... But I think that helps you realize and relate with them better, because they're actually suffering, becoming shattered, disillusioned... suicidal.

[Commodore Axilon]

Naruto is crap. Why, in the old days, we didn't have to watch anime that was hundreds of episodes in length. We were just fine with 26 episodes and we would be familiar and know all the characters well enough for them to remain truly memorable!

[Rev Rabies]

it took me awhile to get that joke...

[Mysterious F.]

It took me about 2 seconds.

Wow, JQ, that was an own. :P

And if the only reason you hate Naruto is because it is over 26 episodes, then I have no reason for even arguing with you about Naruto, because you're simply hating it for being long and having an in depth plot.

And wait, aren't you a fan of Bleach, which is also over 26 episodes?

[darkphantomime]

Read: I DO NOT WATCH BLEACH!

I read the manga, and that's that. No need to go for something that's little more than a carbon copy.

ANd besides, Naruto = drawn-out plot, not in-depth. If you want in-depth, you should try a compressed anime that has so much stuff going on in so little time, you'll have trouble figuring out what happened. Animes with a challenge are pretty good!

[Mysterious F.]

No, Naruto does have an in depth plot, you only assume it doesn't because it is longer than the animes you like. There are alot of unanswered questions in the series (Itachi and Kabuto's goals, the identity of the akatsuki Leader, the history of Yondaime, etc.), and there is a large number of protagonists (Akatsuki, Orochimaru and Kabuto, Gato Syndicate, etc.). Naruto has a small yet in depth past for most of the characters (Tenten, being useless, is an exception) and each are given very distinctive personalities. There are many things that give the characters goals, and the plot usually switches from one thing to another, which leaves a mystery as to what's happening somewhere else.

[darkphantomime]

'Mystery' as in, goes un-developped. If something is in mystery, then it has not yet been developped so the character can be really fleshed out. He just remains in the shadows and...

You realize of course, with an anime with so many characters, there allows for little full fleshed character development for some of the more 'mysterious' characters.

[Mysterious F.]

Might I redirect your attention to a character with only a few appearances named Itachi Uchiha, who remains almost entirely a mystery. His goals, personality, and the full extent to his abilities are unknown, although his history has been deeply discovered.

Another minor character, the Akatsuki Leader, has had a handful of appearances so far as a hologram and a real one where we saw the lower half of his face. Only one of those hologram appearances actually count because during the rest he was simply being there doing leader stuff, the only one that counts being when he explained the goals of Akatsuki to the newest members Hidan and Tobi.

[darkphantomime]

Hey, why don't YOU try to watch something that's less than 100 episodes? If his motivations and why he is are unknown or a mystery, then who he is as a person goes undevelopped. What's his place in the overall plot? People like that are picked up for atmosphere, but just as easily become forgotten.

[DW]

Hehe, trust me, Itachi is anything but forgotten.

[Mysterious F.]

Itachi's one of the main protagonists of the series, but besides his history and general fighting style we know very little about him. His younger brother, Sasuke, is always trying to improve so he can kill Itachi, so much so he went to Orochimaru to gain power, even knowing that Orochimaru was just going to use Sasuke as his next body. Even the closest person to Itachi, his partner Kisame, doesn't seem to know his goals. Even currently he's being chased by just about everyone opposing him (Sasuke, Naruto, etc.).

And I have, in case you forgot, MAR. Fillers don't count, so that removes about 30 episodes.

[Fishalicious]

I'm not going to say anything about Naruto or Bleach or anything, but... Loveless is mysterious. It's a whole twelve episodes. I still have no idea what's going on. The characters are well-developed, but they're still mysterious.

So, character development can happen while being mysterious. A show can be short and good, long and good, medium and good... it's all about what your preferences are. I'm not going to say anything like "LULZ NARUTARDS SUX BCOZ THE SHOW IS LONG" or "THERE IZ NO DEVELOPMENT LULZ" because it's all opinionated.

And, for example:

We know about Seimei's death, family, fighter unit, how he's obsessive compulsive, etc., but we don't actually know much about him.

It's a way of building suspense and developing other characters.