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.

Comments

Not a huge anime fan, but...

[instinctdesign]

Hayao Miyazaki's "Princess Mononoke" was released by Miramax in 1999 in a dubbed version, featuring the voices of Claire Danes, Gillian Anderson and Minnie Driver...

I'm not a huge anime fan, but if you want a good introduction to the genre, see Princess Mononoke. However, what the NYTimes article fails to mention is the issue with dubbing (unless I missed it), stay away if you can. Even the well known cast that Disney was able to get for Princess Mononoke pales in comparison to the original Japanese with English subtitles. It took a significant effort on the part of the fans for Disney to finally decide to include the original dialog, and it was well worth their effort.

Re:Not a huge anime fan, but...

[John_Booty]

Also, by watching a fair amount of Japanese movies/tv you'll begin to pick up on certain bits of the language anyway,

Very true. A good example of this are the honorifics added to character's names... -chan, -sama, -san, -kun, -senpai, etc. These can often sum up the relationship between two characters in a word, and are an important part of Japanese.

There's no direct translation for them into English though, so they're usually just left out of the dub/sub job. This is a good example of something you're missing even when watching a well-done translation job.

In my experience, whether or not you like subtitles often (not always, but usually) comes down to how fast you can read. I read really quickly; therefore I don't feel like reading subtitles takes away from my enjoyment of the animation.

It also depends on how much you're interested in Japanese culture and sticking close to the original script, rather than just seeing robots and people exploding. It also depends on whether or not you sit down to watch a movie, or just have them on in the background while you're doing something else...

And another NY Times article

[tb3]

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,

Re:A counterpoint:

[Lothar 0]

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.

NY Times Missed a few important things

[drinkypoo]

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."

Re:Anime enjoyed due to great storytelling

[MtViewGuy]

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. :-/

Re:anime rejiggered for a western audience

[MsGeek]

Your correct in your assumptions, anime has been really pg-ified for the american audience, however why do the cable and sateliette networks feel that the demographics of anime watchers ar limited to 5-13 -- a little iffy at that.

You've got to hand it to Cartoon Network's Adult Swim bloc...they showed Cowboy Bebop with minimal cutting. They refused to show a few episodes so soon after 9/11 because they were about terrorists, but better NOT to show them than to show them cut to ribbons.

I look forward to seeing the whole of CowBe without the cuts and in subbed, rather than dubbed format, but according to reports the dub actually was pretty good and faithful to the original.

Actually I can think of one dub that is actually BETTER than the sub..."Shineman" is supposedly way better dubbed than subbed. The people who wrote the dubscript for "Shineman" basically were very funny people who took the absurdity of the story and cranked it up even further. "Shineman" is a complete satire on the "Sentai" live-action hero shows...think Power Rangers. It also pokes fun at Japanese corporate culture. Definitely worth a look.