Say sanyen, with a preference like that, it’s pretty hard to find a good movie eh?

It’s true that story plays an important role, but sometimes stories exist with visuals that don’t represent its magnificence. Of course, that’s just me, that’s why I can’t read novels. I believe I have never completed a novel of more than 50 pages in my entire life. In order for me to enjoy a story, I need to be immersed in another person’s visual world, not my own in my head (syok sendiri? haha). Colour me uncultured, but that’s how I live my life hehe

Before I joined a design studio, all I thought about was the story actually. As long as it had average visuals, I’m ok… or so I thought. I guess working life does change you in some way or another.

Seriously, anime nowadays stick so much into moe and fanservice that it’s creeping me out. Admittedly a certain level of moe is nice even, and I have a high tolerance level than most people I know, but it’s getting way out of hand. I mean, if it came with good storytelling (for me, Hidamari Sketch is a good example, albeit a slice-of-life show) then I wouldn’t mind. Looking at the winter selection alone, you can see 80% of its crap shoved into your face like never before. It’s a really sad state and could result in the anime bubble burst in no time flat.

Your insight is duly noted. Thanks for taking the time to write it!

Visual entertainment for me whether its anime, film etc… are based on what logically defined as a lie but psychologically is a truth. So at the crux of it all I want to believe in what is basically a lie. But isn’t that what entertainment is all about? And for me to accept the ‘lie’ as ‘truth’, it boils down to several factors:

Story:
• I reckon the story itself forms a major part of the whole experience. True, other factors do play important part, but for me, if there is no story or plot than you can say goodbye to the whole thing. The story itself is the core which other factor will latch to, thus completing the whole darn thing.
• The story itself be fleshed out, having a decent plot. We want to conflict thrown in as well, something that propels the story along. And when the story finish, there should be a sense of completion.
• There must also be a significant charge by the end of the story. Nothing more I hate than seeing the status quo remain the same and I was left in the same state as when the story began, without change and all.
• The story must also be emotional satisfying to me. To me this is most important part of the whole equation. One might go on about visual or audio but in the end it boils down to one own heart enjoying the satisfaction and/or founding empathy within the story.

Visual:
• Visual, I reckon, do play a part in determining if we enjoy the entertainment we see. But the thing is, it is now become way too overrated and overuse in the wrong way. Yes, it’s nice to see thing go KABOMMM!!! (*cough* transformer*cough*), or seeing fanservice 24/7 (insert any moe anime title you hate here) but fer god sakes let there be a half decent story propping all of that up. Visual alone does not make the ‘truth’.
• Having said the above, nothing I found more irritating in finding inconsistency within the visual part (especially in anime). Seriously, who wants a remainder that because some bright spark(s) cause the whole thing to go haywire (due to budget, art direction), I have to put with a work that is plague by dodgy-ness. Remember Evangelion episode 26 (-__-). That was horrible, in my estimation.

Audio:
• If you can pull it off it’s awesome. Mess it up and it turn into a freaking disaster.

But then integration suck, then the whole thing a disaster then.

So yeah, that my two cent opinion on the whole thing. It does somewhat skew towards storyline, but hey, I’m heavy on those.

Are you kidding? Daim would likely reject most animated shorts, but most definitely not Pixar’s. He is BIG on Pixar stuff, he’s a major fan of their works ;) He’s like the Pixar dictionary or something lol

I still think that no matter how solid a story is, unfitting visuals, music and sound effects can ruin the mood and in turn, ruin the story. Oh and btw I hate novels :P Tried my best to read them, but I need visuals. I’m no imagineer, that’s for sure.

Did you finish the awards for 2008?

Sadly, a lot of entertainment medias fall short in the art of story. In terms of games, we are even further behind in this regard. Only a handful of games really can push the boundaries of “interactive” story telling than just telling a good story. As for animated shorts, there are quite a few of them that are entertaining. Although the presentation is no where near the quality of Pixar or whatnot, the main purpose of the short is show the animation and story telling skills. I’d suggest you and Daim to check out some of the Pixar animated shorts :)

Having said that though, there are some things that are subjective and effect people enjoyment of films. To sum it up…I strongly believe if the story is rock solid, whether the film is independant or big-budget it will automatically “immerse” and “entertain” you ;)