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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.
Whenever you try and get an article from the NYT and are presented with that pesky registration screen, just replace the "www" in the URL window at the top of your browser with "archives" and hit return. Works every time.
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forma3
..it's cool to see a mainstream source talk up something that was so much subculture just a few years ago.
Is it? I hate to be elitist or something, no wait, I do like to be elitist. Why can't the mainstream get its own subculture? It seems to me that OFTEN when a subculture goes mainstream it becomes BORING..
Ah well, the Counter Culture always seems to become the Over-the-counter Culture.
Starsucks
...but there is an anime showing today here in Vancouver BC, Canada at the main Douglas College campus (a block away from New Westminster Skytrain) at 2:00 pm. Admission is $3 and the following are playing:
1. Neia Under 7 #1, 2
2. Inu-yasha #1,2
3. Big-O #1,2
4. Hand Maid May #1,2,3
break (30 min)
5. Initial D #1,2,3
6. G-Savior
/end of off-topic.
A while back Roger Ebert did an article on various anime and it seems that he actually likes it after all (considering he seems a bit hard to please from my view-point). As well, an article in my local paper depicted that "Astro-boy," our atomic little friend from the 60s, is returning to DVD.
Where Western animators struggle to create a convincing illusion of life, Japanese animators are more interested in capturing single expressive gestures, or in evoking a particular mood through the careful use of color.
I think this is the real difference between anime and western animation. While disney spends millions of dollars on computer animation, going for the "almost lifelike" feeling, anime such as "Graveyard of the Fireflies" spends far more time conveying the overall feeling of sadness (and no annoying musical numbers either).
I think that anime in general can be far more emotional than western animation will ever be.
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/htx/nyt/20020120/en/ani me_japanese_cinema_s_second_golden_age_1.html
Sig: What Happened To The Censorware Project (censorware.org)
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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I'm getting a little sick of people complaining every time an anime topic appears that this isn't "news for nerds". I mean, have you BEEN to an anime con? Have you SEEN the hardcore anime fans? About as nerdy as you can get! ;)
(It's all jokes, people.)
Seriously though, a large number of geeks are also interested in anime -- this is certainly true at UAlberta, I've found, where it seems every other comp.sci. is either a closet or a not-so-closet anime.. fan.
So whether YOU like anime or not, remember that many other geeks do, and realize that there are just as many who don't particularly care about music, or linux, or any other of the topics we have on Slashdot (topics which are provided, I meant mention, to facilitate the filtering out of stories you aren't interested in).
Actually a pretty good article, but it reads like it has been sitting on the the shelf for ~18 months. Mentions Mononoke as Miyazaki's newest work (no mention of Sen to Chiro) and the comments on Astro Boy reflect that he must have recently seen the (semi) restored original pilot episode. Actually sounds like he was in the room at the Long Beach, CA film fest in ... late 1999?
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I must agree with CmdrTaco that it's great to see Japanese Anime get some major press. However, it's going to take more than that to get people to understand what's so great about Anime. It's going to take all of us to continue sharing the art with our friends, and for studios to put up more money/risk to promote it.
Roger Ebert can talk all day about how Miyazaki has awesome films and give 2 thumbs up to "Princess Mononoke," but if Disney/Miramax think that a "blockbuster opening weekend" can be realized from opening "Mononoke" in 8 theatres US-wide, they are highly mistaken. (as you can imagine, it only made $144k in its opening week) At its height, "Mononoke" was showing in 129 screens -- a far cry from the 3000+ screens that a major movie like "Harry Potter." While "Mononoke" made over 100 million in Japan, its final US gross was under 3 million (both US dollars)
What went wrong? Well, first off, the art of Anime is definitely not as well accepted or understood in the U.S. due to historical differences in culture. In Japan, mature themes of politics, war, and tales of the human experience are spoken and told of through comics and anime. In the U.S., "animated feature" = "Bambi" Hrm...
If the studios who push Japanese Anime want to make it worth their time/money, they're going to have an uphill battle, as they're going to have to convince everyone in the US to go see the film on opening night, and promote the hell out of the film... (eg, money) Ultimately, they have to try to change the culture of a nation, and it's probably not going to happen overnight.
Solution? Keep making money off of $30 DVD's with 4 episodes of "Cowboy Bebop" and "Evangelion" -- one day, the sales will reach a high enough point that statistically -- it'll be worth bringing to the theatres... Until then... the safest thing is to keep selling those pricey DVD's... And... keep sharing them with your friends who have no idea what anime is...
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.
It seems like everytime a "mainstream" source picks up on something that was a "sub-culture", all that anyone who enjoyed the subject of the "sub-culture" has to look forward to is the dumbing down and commercialization of what they previously enjoyed.
if i could speak out on the constant repetition and yimmer-yammering on the need for free registration at the ny times site:
/. didn't warn me about this!" i vote to drop the warning.
first, it is stated here so often that all but the most infrequent users must be, as i am, sick to death of hearing that the nyt requires free registration. we are grown-ups and can handle it if our browser directs us to something that we might have to give a fake email address to. "dammit, those bastards at
second, if the free registration bothers everyone so much that it must be stated, why is it that so many stories here are referenced from there? i mean, the stories come from us. does this not imply that the nyt is a valuable tool? so why do we complain about the free reg if so many of us use it?
third, why can't we get around the idea that the new york times isn't going to just give away its hard work for nothing? the feeling that i get when i read that free registration is required is that it shouldn't be, that it should all be free free free. i, for one, can handle a meaningless free registration for the excellent content they provide. it is not as if they come knocking on my door when i hit the submit button.
drop the free registration warning!
my peace.
I think anime has finally become mainstream because we are getting a deluge of releases here in the USA that are either officially licensed (CPM, ADV Films, AnimEigo) or brought over by the production company themselves (Bandai).
Because of these official releases, we're getting most importantly uncut anime, which reveals some truly astonishing storytelling, to say the least. Who would have thought that Saber Marionette J would be way better than anyone anticipated? Or the groundbreaking Neon Genesis Evangelion? Or be beautifully-animated The Vision of Escaflowne? Or the much-liked Gundam Wing? Or the serio-comic adventures of the three Slayers series?
Even Sailor Moon can be surprisingly good storytelling if you can get the uncut versions. We're very fortunate that Pioneer is bringing over the third season (Sailor Moon S(uper)), perhaps the best season of the series with very top-notch storytelling.
In short, Americans are discovering why anime can be quite good--they use superior storytelling to compensate for somewhat subpar animation.
Maybe just so they can get the email addresses of people who are too stupid to give them a fake one, and sell their email to spammers? What the heck else can free registration accomplish?
Just remember: Whenever any registration asks for personal info, just lie for the sake of screwing up the bastards' database. Like the mp3 by Three Dead Trolls in a Baggie. here Oh, dammit, there's free registration required. Just tell them your name is Homer Simpson and your email is nospam@FuckSpammers.com
Repeal the DMCA!
I am not a huge anime fan. I've seen Akira, Ghost in the Shell, but thats about it. Over the past couple years I've been getting into it more because, in the bay area, KTEH pbs channel 54 (broadcast, dunno for cable) shows pretty good anime on Sunday nights at 9 or 9:30pm. All unedited, they've shown Evangelion, some Dirty Pair series and another one I can't remember.
Anyways, if you are in the Bay Area and want to get into Anime this is a pretty cool place to start.
-Sean
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.'"
If that is the case, why did Disney feel it necessary to rip off from Kimba the White Lion?
Also ignored is the fact that Disney recycles the same "Princess" and "Prince" characters over and over again in their movies.
Just an observation.
This guy is going out of his way to say that if you watch anime, you'll end up like the Comic Book Guy on the Simpsons. Sure, there are those people
who have their whole life revolve around anime.
Then again, there are also hard core Disney fanatics out there who are the same way.
"You spoony bard!" -Tellah
Avatar: from your name, you suggest that you work for ADVision.
My question: what are you going to do with All-Purpose Cultural Catgirl Nuku Nuku?
Last year, The Right Stuf blew out their remaining copies of Nuku Nuku OAV on VHS. I grabbed a set, thanking the gods of Anime that I got them before they were gone. Nuku Nuku OAV does not show up on the list of what you currently are working on bringing to DVD.
There are two other Nuku Nuku series that have yet to make it to America in anything other than very incomplete fansubs. They are Nuku Nuku TV, which from the two episodes I have seen is absolutely hilarious, and Nuku Nuku DASH! which is more serious and not as interesting to me as the former.
I know that "comedy" anime isn't as popular as space anime or shoujo or Giant Robot anime, but some of us enjoy the funny stuff. Nuku Nuku TV is to anime what Police Squad! was to American cop shows.
If you still have an in with King Music, please see what you can do about Nuku Nuku. If you put the TV series out as DVD (hell, if you put the first OAV out as DVD!) I will be very happy to buy it.
Take care,
Ms. Geek
Knowledge is power. Knowledge shared is power multiplied.
There are several reasons why the orgional soundtrack may be better then a Dub:
1) the most obvious, a dub may be done cheaply with lower quality actors.
2) What they say may sound wierd in english. By reading rather then hearing you may not notice the poor translation
3) The mouth will actualy move with the audio
autopr0n is like, down and stuff.
After reading the article, I downloaded La Blue Girl off the local collage LAN. But what I have doesn't seem to match the description on the site at all, which described the film as a high quality thriller about a child actress becoming an actor. What I got was a retarded tentacle rape Hentai.
Does anyone know what show the author actually meant?
autopr0n is like, down and stuff.
from the nyt article :
At times, anime figures look strikingly like the sexualized children created by the Chicago outsider artist Henry Darger.
not having heard of henry darger i went and did a quick google search
some info from here
His landlord was cleaning out his room after his death and came across a startling discovery: alone in his room, Darger had created a beautiful and violent fantasy world, primarily embodied in a 15,000 page epic narrative, "The Story of the Vivian Girls, in What is known as the Realms of the Unreal, of the Glandeco-Angelinnian War Storm, Caused by the Child Slave Rebellion."
several illustrations from this huge work shown on this site
after viewing these images i would question th nyt's use of th word sexualised - and on another matter, th nyt article suggests anime is a corruption of th english word animation - i had always understood it to be from th french word animé
Another really cool anime by the guys who made Lain is "Nia under 7" which is really bizare and kind of a strange comedy, but still really cool
autopr0n is like, down and stuff.
Anime is a medium, not a genre.
Don't get me wrong, I like Ranma, but the animated version is kinda crappy.
"Reactionaries must be deprived of the right to voice their opinions; only the people have that right." - Mao
You are comparing apples and oranges.
Bruce Lee was in some great martial-arts films, but the films were just vehicles for showing Lee's amazing fight scenes. Plot? Character development? No budget for that.
The Kung Fu TV series didn't have any great fight scenes. It did have real actors, plots with some depth, and good production values. So what if Carradine was not a martial-arts expert, that wasn't the point of the series, despite the title.
What made "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" so successful, is that it was not the stereotypical chop-socky film. Most martial-arts films remind me of Western opera. The plot is secondary to the music and singing.
Mea navis aericumbens anguillis abundat