The Significance of Anime

angkor writes "'More Animated than Life' - Fascinating article discussing the significance of animation to the Japanese and why it is not what Westerners expect."

Comments

Spirited Away

[rufusdufus]

Let me recommend "Spirited Away" to everyone. This is not your typical jerky graphics, guns blazing loud obnoxious Anime film. The graphics are great. But more important is the story line and the pacing. Its slow and methodical and completely enthralling. Groundbreaking even.

Great movie even for people who don't appreciate Anime.

Fascinating article????

[Dot.Com.CEO]

I am pretty sure the person who submitted the article either did not read it thoroughly or did not really understand it. It is more of an insight into why Japanese people like anime rather than why Westerners do not.

If anything, it analyses why anime tends to reject Japanese characters and ideals in favor of Western ones.

By the way, since the server is completely /.ed, here is the google cache

Re:Overanalyzation

[Graspee_Leemoor]

The reason for different hair colours was originally to make it easier for the audience to tell different characters apart.

(I claim my +5 informative!)

Nowadays not many anime use hair colour for this reason. Sometimes a certain hair colour is used because it associated with a certain character stereotype.

graspee

Some recommendations

[Graspee_Leemoor]

Yawn- yet another article that praises "worthy" anime like Mononoke Hime and Spirited Away, and ignores the massive diversity of popular TV series and OAVs.

Here is a mini-guide to some slightly more obscure anime to watch for fans of certain series that are well known:

If you like Ed in Cowboy Bebop then you will like the title character in NieA Under 7.

If you like Tenshi, you will probably like Love Hina and Happy Lesson TV.

If you like Oh My Goddess, you will probably like Chobits.

If you like anime with lots of fighting action then take a look at Beserk, Noir, Scryed, Hellsing.

Other good romantic comedy animes are: Onegai Teacher, I my me Strawberry Eggs, Ai Yori Aoshi, Hanaukyo Maids.

There are many more than this. Most of the ones I mentioned came out in the last year or two.

graspee

Re:Some recommendations

[CynicTheHedgehog]

I don't really know where to put these in relation to other anime, but I'd also recommend:

Trigun - Kind of like Slayers meets Cowbody Bebop

Saber Marionette J - I don't know how to describe it really, but Megumi Hayashabara does the voice of the main heroine, Lime (she plays Haruka in Love Hina)

All-Purpose Cultural Cat Girl Nuku Nuku - Another one for Megumi fans (this one reminded me of Urusei Yatsura if you like that one)

My Dear Marie - 3 episode OAV, similar to Hand-Maid May

Witch Hunter Robin - A "goth" Cowboy Bebop I guess

Serial Experiment Lain - If you like Neon Genesis Evangelion you'll probably like this one

Re:Slashdot.org

[The Original Yama]

Does anything matter at Slashdot? BTW, here's a Google cache and a PDF version of the article.

And then watch Kiki's. . .

[Fantastic Lad]

One of my other favorite films of all time, (animated or otherwise.) Zero violence, yet plenty of story stresses and growth. That scene where Kiki and the painter were talking, (where Kiki was losing her magic), really blew me away. It's not often when I'm struck to the quick like that! And it also struck me that the artist was somehow aware, (at least on her level), of the various realities which Miyazaki visits with each of his films. (They're nearly all telling a version of the same story; of different lives where different choices were made and different levels of awareness are ripe). --The painting of the winged horse and the Kiki/Nausicaa/Princess Mononoke/etc., on its back was like a window connecting all the various realities. And I don't know if Miyazaki meant it this way, but I bet the stunned moment Kiki experienced in looking at that painting of her was partly due to her feeling a connection with all those other lives. (At least, I would have had that in the back of my mind if I were Miyazaki!) A very powerful scene, nonetheless, which worked on many levels!

Anyway, kudos for the recommend on Spirited! See it now while it's still on the big screen!

-Fantastic Lad

Re:tentacles

[DragonMagic]

It is illegal in Japan to show uncensored penises, but it is legal to show uncensored tentacles. This is why you often see them with a little mushroom tip, as well...

More than just symbolic, it's a way to bypass certain laws.

I'd love to see Spirited Away, but ...

[Lumpish Scholar]

... I just wish they had shown it, even once, anywhere near my house. I would have had to go into New York City to see it; maybe worth the trip for me, but how many of my nearby friends and family would bother?

I'm not the only one who's annoyed; IMDB ran this story:

Is Year's Best-Reviewed Film the Worst Marketed?: New York Daily News film critic Jack Mathews has chided Walt Disney Studios Chairman Dick Cook for rolling out Hayao Miyazaki's animated Spirited Away "as if it were some experimental gruel from Cremoria." Noting that the film received nearly unanimous rave reviews when it was released, Mathews asks in an "open letter" to Cook appearing in today's (Thursday) [October 24, 2002] edition of the newspaper: "Why didn't you treat it like any other Disney animated feature, with a wide release and a big-bucks ad campaign?" Instead, Mathews noted, the film, which opened in 26 theaters on Sept. 20, is now showing on only 151. He concludes: "I hate to say it, Dick, but you had a tap-in putt here and you blew it."

Missing Something...

[ronfar]

Hmm, what is missing in the article is the way Japanese and American society diverged on the subject of comic books due to the intervention of the State. Back in the 1950's (the time of the Cold War, the Korean War, Joe McCarthy and the like) American comic books were being squarely aimed at older teenagers and young adults. They were becoming very popular and experiencing tremendous growth. Popular titles dealt with War, Crime, Horror and Science Fiction.

What happened? Well, a status seeking psychologist by the name of Frederick Wertham wrote a book called Seduction of the Inncoent and the Senate Subcommitee on juvenile deliquancy decided to hold hearings. Certain comic book companies were practically blacklisted (E. C. Comics ended up with only Mad Magazine being available, and even that was often watched by the F.B.I.). It was a bad time to be a comic artist or writer.

The effects of this assault on comics as an art form can still be felt today in the United States, and as far as I can tell a similar crackdown did not occur in Japan at any point in recent history. (At any rate, I haven't read anything in the history of manga that would suggest it.)