I disagree about the characters having depth. Maybe they had a bit more substance to them before the ghostwriters, maybe not. I think you'd have to be looking pretty hard to notice the difference though. Mostly, I feel like the characters are animated tropes: warrior, conflicted leader, voice of peace, comic relief, emo introspection. Marco was the only one who really ever felt like much of a real character to me. That's not to say that this kind of thing didn't work within the series. I feel that it gave the authors ways to voice various philosophies and arguments of logic and morality. For the age group the books are mostly written for, and for the age I was when I read them, those thoughts are pretty deep. I read them for that sort of mental stretching and pondering feeling as much as for the exciting story. And of course, being that young, flat characters bothered me not at all. I fell in love with the destructive, attractive, burning girl-power that is pretty much Rachel's character.
The books don't stand up quite as well for the re-read because now I really do expect strong and developing characters, and the points of deep thought no longer seem quite so deep.
wow, i was going to write something long and involved, but you sort of did it for me. Thanks! This is almost exactly how i feel.
This is something i thought about a lot on the re-read. i still got shivers, still felt emotion, and still emphasized, but looking at it from a craft and lit perspective i have to be critical and say that there are better written stories, even for the age group.
That being said, i think i'd push these on a kid before almost anything else. Animorphs effected my life in a way that was monumental (i can sort of trace the "me" from the first book Ani book i read) and as a kid the subject matters are very striking. They pushed me to places that adults don't think i should go, past the black and white. And, i actually think that they cover some issues in ways that make adults think. i wrote a paper about it ages ago in my intro to critical literature class.
I wouldn't be on this forum if they didn't mean something to me
