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NY Times on Anime
An anonymous reader submitted a NY Times story (you know what that means: annoying free registration required) about anime as Japanese Film's 2nd Golden Age. It covers a lot of ground, as
well as a lot of really amazing films including (obviously) Miyazaki's
work, but also stuff like Ranma 1/2, Perfect Blue, Cowboy Bebop and Evangelion to pick a handful of my favorites. In short, it's a good piece with its share of criticisms and commentary, but it's cool to see a mainstream source talk up something that was so much subculture just a few years
ago.
forma3
Also in this morning's Times, an article about how "Cardcaptor Sakura" was changed to "Cardcaptors" for the American audience. Interesting article, it reads like it was written by an otaku,
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Although purists cast disdain upon the 'disposable' series *Sailor Moon*, I am nevertheless a fan and found it actually quite fascinating to see how the show had been edited to be suitable for the Western teenybopper demographic.
There's a lot of latent sexual subtext (homoerotic or otherwise) which is glossed over in the NA dubbing. For example one of the villains, Zoesite (sic), who is actually an effeminate male in the Japanese version, is presented (and dubbed correspondingly) as a female, in the NA dubbing. Similarly, when in civilian clothes, Sailor Uranus seems to be an effeminate man in love with Sailor Neptune. In costume she's female. The ambiguity isn't really dealt with.
As well, there are occasional violent scenes which are cut out or slightly abbreviated. Presumably this is not judged suitable for the desired NA demographic.
But you can still catch the odd scene or bit of dialog that's left in where you say to yourself, "what?!" That is, the sexuality of the characters is somewhat ambiguous.
While I'm on the topic of ambiguous sexuality in anime, this site has some brief overviews of homosexuality and transgenderism (don't know if that's a word, but you know what I mean) in anime.
The piece was interesting, not for it's insights in to anime (it had none for an anime fan), but for it's insights in to the author's own cultural biases. For instance, the author claims that the main character in Ghost in the Shell questions whether she is "man, woman or even human." The major never questioned her gender, only her status as human. Basically, I'm saying that you shouldn't put too much stock in this article (other than the overall message that anime can be good, too), because the author was heavily influenced by his/her biases.
I've always aid that great art is great not because a person can read it, but because it can read a person. You can tell a lot about a person and his/her basic assumptions by how they interpret a work of art. It just goes to show that anime can be great art, too.
BlackGriffen
A counterpoint to the counterpoint, especially in the Appendix on American anime culture. Susan Napier's bias in favor of anime fan subculture is much more academic and lacks the axe to grind that the anti-anime webmaster seems intent to wield.
"Anonymous Coward" is for whistleblowers, not unpopular opinions.
In their quest to (briefly) examine the cultural significance of anime, they completely failed to note the "cultural training" aspect of anime, perhaps culturally one of those most significant things that anime has to show us - As anthropologists, of course. Any anime otaku knows that the most significant thing it has to show us is shower scenes.
What I find most interesting about anime, on an intellectual level, is what children's shows especially (like Ranma 1/2) but really a great deal of anime has to say about Japanese cultural roles. While re-re-rewatching Ranma 1/2 OVA I could only laugh about the characters attempting to pigeonhole each other into their respective gender roles, especially in the case of Akane and her cooking. There is a great contrast between Akane's character actually in her element, where she is a strong fighter, and the kitchen, where they keep putting her. That's fine in the sense of comedic relief, but both she and the other characters (including her father) treat her as if she's useless simply because she can't cook.
It's also quite interesting (and also unexplored in the article) what's in kids' anime in Japan - Shower scenes, gratuitous breast shots, et cetera. While I agree that it's not such a big deal, it would be less questionable if the naked girls in question didn't universally posess pornstar figures. How many girls in Japan have a willow-thin body and DD-cup breasts? Especially at the age of 16 or so? Not too bloody many.
This is just a typical fluff piece by the NY times. It's good to see someone so mainstream doing a piece on the cultural significance of anime, but they're several years too late (This would have been timely three years ago when anime was just starting to gain massive cultural acceptance with the rapidly flowering social and economic maturity of the so-called "Generation X") and they aren't examining enough of the things which really make anime special. Someone in charge over at NYT basically just said "Give me a couple thousand words on the significance of Anime and we'll tuck it in here to make more slashdotters complain about required registration."
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
Then, switch over, and watch Blue Submarine, Grave of the Fireflies, or Serial Experiments Lain. We're talking serious eyecandy here. Anime took its inspiration from Disney films, but in true Japanese fashion, has improved upon the original to a great degree.
:-/
I've seen these anime you've mentioned and they are intended for a much older audience than the anime you normally see on television in Japan. I believe that Serial Experiments Lain was originally shown on a late night slot when it first aired in Japan some years ago.
Tell me, are you sure in regards to Sailor Moon you're watching the original uncut episodes shown in Japan or the hacked-up episodes that DiC did back in the middle 1990's? The original episodes have a tone often quite a bit more adult than you imagine. Indeed, the end of the first season caused major controversy in Japan because the main characters actually died, something not normally seen for anime aimed at the 8-14 female audience.
I still remember when Neon Genesis Evangelion was first shown in Japan--it was extremely controversial, to say the least. The last two episodes of that show just drove everyone nuts, forcing the producers at GAINAX to make the Evangelion movies, which was just as controversial! Or watch all 39 episodes of Revolution Girl Utena--the phrase mind fuck (pardon my French! ^_^;; ) definitely applies here because trying to figure out this series makes you want to reach for the painkiller in very short order.
More so than in any other type of artform, I just feel overjoyed by the overall mood of most anime... hard to explain... Cowboy Bebop is probably the best current example...
You know the feeling that a great piece of architecture gives you? It's kind of like that.
--
Power to the Peaceful