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NY Times on Anime

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the art-at-just-short-of-24-fps dept.

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.

8 of 182 comments (clear)

  1. Not a huge anime fan, but... by instinctdesign · · Score: 4, Interesting
    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.
    --
    forma3
    1. Re:Not a huge anime fan, but... by iluvpr0n · · Score: 4, Informative

      If you don't speak Japanese, then watching it in the original language is pointless. Especially if you miss the entire visual aspect of the movie because you're too busy keeping up with the english subtitles.

      If you've ever watched a dub while reading the subtitles you'll note the huge difference you'll find in most animé translations. They tend to make the dub easily understood by your average 8 year old (even in a non-kids show), while the subtitle translation is usually a more literal translation (occasionally some half-assed companies release "dubtitles" that just uses the watered-down dub script, which is fairly annoying).

      Also, by watching a fair amount of Japanese movies/tv you'll begin to pick up on certain bits of the language anyway, which can help you understand the various intonations and techniques employed by the voice actors, which helps you understand the characters/plot/motivations better.

      Also, some of the dubs are done without much care at all, so yes, it may be in English and you can understand what they're saying, but if they picked up Joe Six-Pack down the street from the recording studio to dub it, you'll find that there isn't much skill in the acting job. There are exceptions (Cowboy Bebop I will admit has a decent dub), but in general the Japanese actors are more experienced and more care is taken in the production of voice acting.

      iluvpr0n.

  2. Mainstream/Subculture by ShaniaTwain · · Score: 4, Funny

    ..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
    1. Re:Mainstream/Subculture by rgmoore · · Score: 4, Insightful

      It seems to me that there's much less risk of anime becoming boring than other things that go mainstream. After all, anime already is fairly mainstream- in Japan. That means that even if anime becomes modestly popular in the U.S., the Japanese market is still going to be the thing that drives the industry, which should help to keep it from getting sucked down.

      If anything, I'm very happy that anime is becoming more popular. I find that the movies show up much better on the big screen than on video, so increasing popularity means that I get more chances to see the stuff as it was meant to be seen. Next Friday, for instance, I'll get the chance to pick between two anime that are being released that day: Metropolis (the movie that triggered the article) and Escaflowne: A Girl in Gaia. Last year I was able to see a bunch of anime on the big screen, and its increased popularity obviously had a lot to do with that. That sounds like something to celebrate, not to complain about.

      --

      There's no point in questioning authority if you aren't going to listen to the answers.

  3. Thats the real artistry... by Brightest+Light · · Score: 4, Insightful

    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.

  4. No-reg-required link to article from Yahoo by Seth+Finkelstein · · Score: 4, Informative
    The article is available on Yahoo, with no registration required, at:

    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)

  5. not a bad piece, but... by Sodakar · · Score: 5, Insightful

    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...

  6. Why is this a Good Thing(tm)? by TargetBoy · · Score: 4, Insightful

    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.