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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."
← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)
← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)
Many Americans find anime a lot more appealing than a lot of stuff on TV because anime isn't as constrained by the American Standard that effects many of the popular programming.
I watch anime constantly, always on top of the latest fansubbed releases, picking up the DVDs of series that are especially good and make it to North America. I support the full circle of anime, and all of the fruit it bears.
Of it all, I've met new people, made some good friends, and experience a whole culture that I would have otherwise been completely oblivious to. I find anime to be informative, entertaining, and especially enjoyable.
On a related note, here is a link for the Dutch Animation Festival that will be held the upcoming weekend.
www.haff.nl
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.
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
Mother is the best bet and don't let Satan draw you too fast.
My wife and I rented two adult anime videos some years ago. We watched 15 minutes on the first tape, before realizing how sick it was... what a heck, it might have been a bad anime... we watched 10 minutes of the second video, and it was even more weird and perverted than the first one. I guess we weren't enough pervs to get something out of it... 8P
Two comments and the link (and possibly an intercontinental internet pipe) has been slashdotted!
.MHT compressed file - there must be something else equivalant that works with all other browsers - hell, even make it a standard zip file with the .slash extention and associate that extension with a script or batch file that uncompresses and views when clicked on.
The question of a cache should not be met with a vague grumbling about "content owner permission" rights.
Stop being so damned irresponsible! Cache the complete first page of any linked articles!
Hell, this could even be done without slashdot footing the bill for the extra bandwidth. Before posting an article:
(1) compress the first page of every article link to a single file.
(2) share that through a peer-to-peer system such as bittorrent.
It would work. Everyone would win - slashdot readers and linked sites. AND it would be a Genuinely Good Use(tm) for the peer to peer tech.
----
Tech notes:
Internet Explorer can save complete pages as a single
Bittorrent: It's seriously underappreciated, and - the part I love - it ONLY shares the CURRENT FILE that you're downloading. As soon as you close the "file download" box when your download is done, you drop out of the peer to peer network that was made specifically for that file. It is neat.
"One should also note that Rei has blue hair and red eyes ?rather remarkable traits for a Japanese girl!!"
Uhm... unnatural hair colors like purple, blue, white and green look nice. That's it, they look nice. No need to think about *why* they chose that color, it just looks nice!
I think the author of the article is overanalyzing things.
is a derivate of the amount of comments posted on a story titled "The Significance of Anime". Based on a recent empirical study, the significance of Anime is just a bit less than that of a "Indiglo Clock Case Mod".
Emotional Content?
When I watch porn, I want to see acts of sex. If I wanted 'emotional content', I'd watch a soap opera.
K J #4 6 : M E D I A I N A S I A
©San and Ashitaka, Princess Mononoke
More Animated than Life
By Sato Kenji
Japan's animation boom began in the summer of l977, when the movie Uchu Senkan Yamato (Space Cruiser Yamato) captivated teenagers and young adults to emerge as a major box-office hit. The success of this sci-fi "anime" prompted a fundamental shift in the cultural status of animation.
Even before Space Cruiser Yamato, Japan had produced a considerable number of animated films, but they were generally regarded as children's fare or, at best, family entertainment; the few adult-oriented animated movies were not successful commercially. Space Cruiser Yamato was the first anime to demonstrate that the medium need not restrict itself to kiddie fare. Following suit, from the late l970s, Japan put out a steady stream of animated films geared to young adults, including Ginga Tetsudo 999 (Galaxy Express 999) and Kido Senshi Gandamu (Mobile Suit Gundam). Most of these were commercial successes as well, although critics dismissed these as exploitation films pandering to teenage tastes. The attitude of film critics changed abruptly, however, with the 1984 release of Kaze no Tani no Naushica (Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind), a film whose artistic quality was widely regarded as more than sufficient to hold the attention of adults. With this movie, writer-director Miyazaki Hayao overturned the conventional image of the anime director as a versatile hack, and was soon crowned as anime's first genuine auteur.
Of course, not all anime rose to the level of non-juvenile entertainment or art. In fact, in the late 1980s, with young adult anime showing signs of staleness, the focus began to revert to children's films. Nevertheless, the genre never relinquished the commercial foothold it had gained during the young adult anime craze; furthermore, Miyazaki began to enjoy a large degree of freedom in his filmmaking, as did several other directors who subsequently achieved the status of anime auteur. The results of those efforts, particularly the anime produced by Miyazaki's Studio Ghibli, are not simply movies with high box-office potential; they are in many instances artistically superior to the live-action films made in Japan, and they have won growing legions of fans overseas.
During the 1990s, animation, spearheaded by the work of a few anime auteurs, emerged as the face of Japanese film, positioning Japan as the world's undisputed "anime superpower." And in 1997 -- a full twenty years since anime took off -- animation's preeminence over live-action films in Japan was more apparent than ever. In a matter of months after its release, Mononoke-hime (Princess Mononoke), Miyazaki's latest film to date which was then alleged to be his last directorial effort, broke every box-office record to become the biggest domestic movie hit of all time in Japan. In the languishing field of young adult anime, the avant garde sci-fi work Shin Seiki Evangerion (Neon Genesis Evangelion) scored a major box-office hit and won a huge cult following. Moreover, children's anime are as popular as ever. In all, it appears that anime has taken center stage in the Japanese film industry, pushing live-action movies into the wings.
Fleshless reality
The simplest explanation for this reversal of fortune between animation and live-action is that the former has ridden to success on the coattails of its older cousin, Japanese comics, or manga, a medium that emerged as a main focus of Japanese popular culture after World War II, and has grown particularly pervasive since the 1970s. It is true that many successful anime were based on popular manga and anime have been heavily influenced by manga's pictorial conventions. Another important factor is cost. Hollywood has made successful live-action films based on such popular comics as Superman and Batman, but the need for expensive sets and special effects to create the necessary visual realism has resulted in extremely high production costs. Japan's film industry, with its much smaller market, cannot afford such high-budget pictures To put it another way, animation offers a means of producing slick, stylish films without spending much money.
Still, this ignores the fact that anime's very format has an inherent weakness. Because its characters are relatively small and simplified pictures painted on cels (thin pieces of plastic), they lack the fleshy presence of actors, nor can they rival the subtlety of good actors' performances. Compared with live-action films, their reality is literally two-dimensional, which is why animated films were for so long regarded as fit only for children's (or family) entertainment. The reason Hollywood elected to make live-action films out of Superman and Batman is that they could be counted on to attract wider audiences and larger profits, notwithstanding the much higher costs of production.
It may be that Japanese under a certain age, having been weaned on manga and anime, are not bothered by the lack of visual realism. But this begs the question: Why is the cultural status of animation so much higher in Japan than in America, the home of Walt Disney? To be sure, ever since the anime boom began animated films have sought ever greater realism in both form and content, refining the animation itself and looking to more serious subject matter. They have gone far beyond Disney films, which remain essentially animated musicals performed by conspicuously cartoonish characters. Films like Studio Ghibli's Mimi o Sumaseba (Whisper of the Heart) and Omoide Poroporo (Only Yesterday) portray Japan's urban and rural landscapes with a realism that puts many live-action movies to shame. Visually, however, Japanese anime by no means transcend the medium, even though viewers may find some of them remarkably realistic for animated features.
In any case, a growing number of people accustomed to animation's lack of visual realism cannot in itself explain why anime has come to represent Japanese cinema in toto. For animation to push aside live-action films, a growing number of people had to prefer the thin, insubstantial reality of animation to the flesh-and-blood world of live-action -- they had to be cool or even hostile to the real image. This, in fact, is precisely what began to occur in Japan in the 1990s.
Why, then, did the Japanese take a disliking to live-action? One reason is that most Japanese films are made on a low budget and look it, with low production values. Second, there is no denying that in theme and subject matter, some anime are more thoughtful and ambitious than their live-action counterparts. Miyazaki's Princess Mononoke, a fantasy-adventure set in medieval Japan, is a critique of modernity founded on a deep concern for the environment. Neon Genesis Evangelion describes an individual's existentialist search for identity, calling to mind Jean-Paul Sartre's famous desperate axiom: "Hell is other people." And Kido Keisatsu Patoreiba 2 (Patlabor 2: The Movie), released in 1992, lashes out at postwar society with its depiction of Tokyo under siege by urban terrorists -- a portrayal eerily prophetic of the Aum sect's 1995 poison gas attack on Tokyo subways.
Of course, the artistic success of each individual film is open to debate. (Evangelion, in particular, is so incoherent that it virtually defies any real comprehension.) But to my knowledge, Japan's live action films today offer nothing at all to compete with anime when it comes to tackling such ambitious themes. Suo Masayuki's Shall We Dance?, crowned as the best Japanese live-action film of 1996, is a lightweight comedy about a middle-aged office worker who finds release from his humdrum life through ballroom dancing. And the big hit of 1997, Shitsurakuen (Paradise Lost), is a melodrama about another middle-aged salaryman who is demoted at work and eventually commits suicide with his married lover.
Ethnic Bleaching
Still, there is a more alarming reason for moviegoers' rejection of live-action Japanese films. Their flight to anime is an inevitable result of the ethnic self-denial that has suffused Japanese society ever since the Meiji era, and especially since the end of World War II. Bent on achieving the goals of modernization and Westernization, the Japanese, in rejecting their own history and traditions, have sought to become Nihonjin-banare (de-Japanized) -- a generally complimentary term, implying that one looks and acts more like a Westerner or a Caucasian than the average Japanese. "Japaneseness-free" might convey the nuance of the term even better.
Take a look at the animated characters featured in anime. Physically they are "de-Japanized Japanese" -- a blend of Japanese and Caucasian characteristics. Given the setting of Princess Mononoke, it is obvious that the characters are intended to be pure Japanese (or at least Mongoloid), yet their features are nearly identical to the presumably Caucasian characters in Miyazaki's earlier work, Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind, a fantasy set in a future world suggestive of medieval Europe. (The heroine herself is named after the daughter of King Alcinous of Homer's The Odyssey). In Miyazaki's animation there is no physical distinction between Japanese and Caucasians. Evangelion features a Japanese girl, Rei, and Asuka, a girl who is one-quarter German and three-quarters Japanese. Apart from Asuka's Caucasian attributes of light brown hair and blue eyes, there are no significant differences in the facial features or physical development of the two girls. One should also note that Rei has blue hair and red eyes -- rather remarkable traits for a Japanese girl!
In short, the characters of anime show the Japanese -- who so aspire to Western traits -- as they would like to see themselves. It is an effect that cannot possibly be duplicated by live actors, who -- being alive -- can never really change the physical characteristics determined by their genetic makeup. They can dye their hair and even change their eye color with contact lenses, but they cannot fundamentally alter their skin color, facial features, or physique. And even if they tried, using special make-up effects or plastic surgery, the result would be unnatural.
Only anime, and its cousin manga, can convincingly meld Japanese and Caucasian attributes into a natural-looking human being. This is because the upside of these genres' inherent lack of realism is their unique ability to exploit the appeal of and fascination for the unreal. And that is why manga and anime have attained such a high status in the popular culture of Japan, compared to that of other countries. These are the only two media capable of portraying reality the way Japanese feel it should be. By comparison, live-action films sacrifice appeal from the outset simply because they feature Japanese actors. Fashion illustrator Nagasawa Setsu expressed the feelings of many Japanese in an essay he wrote in 1983 for the Japanese playbill of the British film Don't Look Now:
"With their sharp-featured faces and long-limbed bodies, Westerners (read Caucasians) are physically suited to the movie screen; everyone looks almost too beautiful, down to the minor characters . . . . Japanese are just the opposite. Even people who appear delicately beautiful in person look round and dumpy and totally unstylish on camera. The reason many people today say they dislike the "ugliness " of Japanese films -- content notwithstanding -- is that the looks of Japanese screen actors put domestic films at a crucial disadvantage. Period pieces at least allow one to cover up these failings with elaborate costumes. But when they take off their clothes for bedroom scenes, even the most glamorous Japanese actors and actresses look hopelessly unattractive -- which is why you can't pay me to watch Japanese porn." That Nagasawa is not alone in his preference is attested to by the growing number of animated pornographic videos that have been produced in Japan since the mid 1980s. Thus, the history of the past twenty years, during which anime has pushed live-action to the side and emerged as the face of Japanese cinema, has in essence been the history of "ethnic bleaching" in Japanese film. Incidentally, it was also during the last two decades that manga, originally regarded as kids' stuff, truly came into its own as adult entertainment.
Dismantling the Cultural Framework
The tendency of Japanese to reject their own history and traditions in favor of a Western ideal has undermined live-action film also by affecting the performances of Japanese screen actors. An obvious example is the inability of today's younger actors to portray Japanese of earlier eras with authenticity. A live-action version of Princess Mononoke, for example, would be impossible to produce even if one could overcome budget constraints and the difficulty of its special effects. There are simply no young actors in Japan today who can wear the traditional clothing, duel with swords, or shoot arrows on horseback as convincingly as the animated characters in Miyazaki's film.
It is not only in period pieces, however, that the rejection of our country's history and tradition robs actors' performances of authenticity. In postwar Japan's cultural climate, it is exceedingly difficult for actors in any type of role to convincingly express complex, deep or intense emotion -- in fact, any dramatic emotion at all. To appear real, this sort of emotional expression demands exactly the right modulation and combination of subtle elements, including not only choice of words and facial expression, but also posture, gesture, tone of voice, direction of gaze, and distance from other actors. And the "right" modulation and combination differs from culture to culture. Every culture has its own framework of expressive conventions from which actors must draw in order to express emotion that will strike their audience as authentic. As long as Japanese actors refuse to work within the framework of emotional expression stipulated by Japanese culture, they cannot express dramatic emotion in a convincing manner. The famed Meiji-era novelist Natsume Soseki once taught his students that the true Japanese translation for "I love you" is "Tsuki ga tottemo aoi na" (The moon is so blue tonight); what he meant was that to express within the Japanese cultural framework the same emotion expressed in English by "I love you," one must choose words like "The moon is so blue tonight."
Since every culture evolves naturally over time, the cultural framework for emotional expression is by no means immutable. But in post-war Japan the process of change has been unnatural and rushed. Regarding their traditional modes of expression as archaic and feudalistic, and eager to Westernize, the Japanese have attempted to adopt the Western (more specifically, the American) expressive framework wholesale. Yet given that they continue to use the Japanese language as their vehicle for verbal expression, any attempt to affect a "de-Japanized" manner at this level is half-baked. Today, one might say, a Japanese person is unable to convincingly express passion for another either by the English "I love you" or by the Japanese "The moon is so blue tonight." This may be why, since the 1980s, young people in Japan have increasingly disdained the expression of serious or dramatic emotion as kusai, or corny, and prized the appearance of emotional detachment as kakko-ii, or cool.
In terms of dramatic expression, then, the Japanese film labors under a heavy burden. If it portrays emotion within the traditional Japanese framework, it may achieve authenticity, but the effect is antiquated. If it portrays emotion within the Western framework, it comes across as meretricious and unconvincing. Films that try to blend the two modes often end up antiquated and unconvincing. Yet in animation, which lacks visual realism and features de-Japanized characters to begin with, the expression of emotion paradoxically takes on a more convincing sense of reality. This may explain why most of the serious and ambitious film efforts have used the vehicle of anime. Given the serious dramatic deficiency, Japanese live-action films can no longer tackle any serious or profound subject matter.
In the context of contemporary Japanese film, then, anime often conveys a greater sense of reality than live-action films. The thin, insubstantial reality of animated film, that is to say, is more alive -- literally, more animated -- than the flesh-and-blood reality. And if anime is perceived as more real (i.e, closer to physical reality) than live-action, this means that, increasingly, anime embodies the Japanese consciousness of reality. The Japanese conception of reality is undergoing a process of animation.
The rise of anime as well as manga, is a cultural by-product of modern Japan's tendency to promote modernization and Westernization while rejecting its history and traditions. A medium that fuses elements of East and West, and lacks a clear national identity, could be considered international in a certain sense, and this is doubtless a major reason why anime has so many fans overseas. But the current state of affairs, in which anime represents the mainstream of Japanese cinema, is by no means desirable, inasmuch as it signifies an ever-widening gap between physical reality and people's conception of it.
Meanwhile, ever since the huge international box office success of Star Wars (released, coincidentally, in 1977, the same year as Space Cruiser Yamato), a growing number of Hollywood blockbusters might best be described as "live-action anime." Kathleen his girlfriend Terasawa Shinko shouting, "I love Terasawa Shinko! I love her, I do!" Ide reveals the script originally had him yelling , "I hate Terasawa Shinko! I hate her, I do!"
Of course, this is simply an example of reverse psychology at work. Everyone knows Rokusuke is in love with Shinko. However, such rewrite kills the nuance conveyed by the original line, namely that Rokusuke is trying (rather transparently) to conceal his emotional vulnerability. How, then, did "I hate you" become "I love you"? Ide describes how the revision came about.
In those days we had to translate scripts and have them reviewed by GHQ (the Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers). The young censor, a second-generation Japanese-American, said to me, "Your script is very interesting and democratic. The only thing that bothers me is why do Japanese say they hate someone when they should be saying they love them? If you love someone, isn't it better to come right out and say so?" Completely overwhelmed by this epiphany, I said, "You're absolutely right. Thank you," and then and there rewrote the line to read, "I love Terasawa Shinko! I love her, I do!" (Shogen no Showa-shi7: Wanman saisho funto su (The Showa Era Speaks, Volume 7: Prime Minister Yoshida Soldiers On], Gakken, 1982) Unable to trust his own intuitive judgement as to the most genuine Japanese-style expression of emotion, Ide went along with a foreigner's opinion and turned the line on its head. Bowing to the idea that an American-style, forthright mode of expression was more suitable to the new "democratic" Japan, he made his character say something that went counter to his own Japanese impulse. Under the circumstances, one could hardly expect the actor to come up with a convincing performance. And indeed, film director Oshima Nagisa recalls going to see Green Hills when he was in high school and finding the last scene "so embarrassingly awkward that I could hardly bear to watch." (Taikenteki sengo eizo ron [Imagery of Postwar Japan: A Personal Recollection], Asahi Shimbun, 1982)
The problem is that these days it would seem just as false to say "I hate you" in such a scene. How, then, is an actor to perform? This is precisely the problem Aoi Yoji confronts when he criticizes Japanese dramatists for reeling off "line after self-satisfied line that actors are viscerally unable to make their own, justifying it by saying 'that's my style.'" Aoi complains with good reson that actors are forever struggling with dialogue that has "little style and even less substance, and since they have to render the material in some way, they have no choice but to resort to cheap theatrics."
The idea of ethnichat even with a ghost as a main character, a program in which tatami appears is simply not fanciful enough for anime. Tomino's reaction to tatami mats -- an integral element of the traditional Japanese house -- is a clear indication of the deep-rooted presumption that a typically Japanese setting precludes the qualities of fancy and wonder.
Then there is the story told by Ide Toshiro, who co-wrote the script for the movie Aoi sanmyaku (The Green Hills of Youth, directed by Imai Tadashi), an enormous hit in 1949, during the Allied Occupation. Speaking of the movie's last scene, where the high school hero Rokosuke walks along the shore with his girlfriend Terasawa Shinko shouting, "I love Terasawa Shinko! I love her, I do!" Ide reveals the script originally had him yelling , "I hate Terasawa Shinko! I hate her, I do!"
Of course, this is simply an example of reverse psychology at work. Everyone knows Rokusuke is in love with Shinko. However, such rewrite kills the nuance conveyed by the original line, namely that Rokusuke is trying (rather tranthe first animated movie in history that was as realistic as live action. Inasmuch as Star Wars Episode 1 is fundamentally a live-action movie, saying it could also be called an animated movie with all the realism of live action not only places animation on a par with live action but also implies that there are live-action movies without the realism of live action.
By ignoring the difference between reality pretending to be cartoons and cartoons pretending to be reality, McCallum's words eloquently attest to the fact that the gap between live action and animation is closing in the West as well. It would seem that Japan is not the only country where people's vision of reality is undergoing a process of animation.
This essay was previously published in KJ#41, but unfortunately at that time approximately one paragraph was deleted in production (following the pivotal example of Natsume Soseki's translation "The moon is so blue tonight...") We are pleased to present the essay here in entirety, with a new afterword. It has also been reprinted in Japan Echo's anthology Years of Trial: Japan in the 1990s (ed. Masazoe Yoichi).
Sato Kenji graduated from the University of Tokyo, where he majored in international relations. He is the author of Chingu: Kankoku no yojin (Chingu: a Korean Friend), Gojira to Yamato to bokura no minshushugi (Godzillanian Democracy: Ideological Subtexts of Japanese Popular Culture) Genmetsu no Jidai no yoake (Dawn of Disillusionment) and most recently a forthcoming collection of essays entitled Mirai soshitsu (Future Lost).
©Illustrations used with permission.
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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
Does anything matter at Slashdot? BTW, here's a Google cache and a PDF version of the article.
OLPC Australia
Anyway, kudos for the recommend on Spirited! See it now while it's still on the big screen!
-Fantastic Lad
And speaking from a Japanese viewpoint, let me clarify one thing.
Miyazaki's works are not the norm.
Its uniqueness, yet similarities to real life is what makes Studio Ghibli's works such blockbuster hits. However, other animations also do rake in cash for studios.
Every spring, when kids get out of school for spring break, the movie studios release several animated features, much like Disney.
Doraemon, an anime about a futuristic cat-like robot helping out a puny kid, is seen every week on television. In its extended movie version, the group goes on a journey to unique lands.
Each flick (which has been released every spring for the past two decades) brings in about $20 mil (2bil yen). Not too shabby, considering it's a domestic release.
Another is Detective Conan - a high school sleuth is turned into a boy and solves crimes.
Noticing a trend here? Childrens' films - those that are despised by anime freaks in the US - are those that gain the most popularity. Keep in mind that it's not only the kids who like them, as opposed to the popularity of Pokemon in the states.
"Classics" such as Cowboy Bebop and other mature-themed anime exist in large numbers, but they do not gain the widespread acknowledgement that kid-oriented shows do.
On the other hand, comic books (mangas) are split in half between the kids and the adults. The mature-themed manga is a booming industry, mostly focusing on modern themes such as corporations and sports. The unique few get turned into anime, and end up in the hands of American viewers who think that what they're watching reflects the Japanese phyche.
Bottom line: The Japanese animation industry is hardly different from the Disney of America - child-oriented shows sell. Mature anime are not the norm, and do not reflect the culture of Japan. For that, you need to watch television programs, domestic films (not Godzilla), fiction books.. and so on.
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.
Human nature is the same everywhere; the modes only are different. -- Earl of Chesterfield
Well, I'm used to read such nonsense from people which don't know a thing about anime. It's really sad. : :) :) :) And then I read nonsense about asians not beinat advantages on screens : very sad to read such stupid things...
The article is seriously stupid, and the author doesn't know a thing !
Point by point
- Yes, Yamato was a shift in anime, but it didn't cause a boom : the boom was a long time before 1977, and that's why Yamato came. The major thing Yamato changed, was in the songs used in anime. Before Yamato, there were 5 assigned singers (3 men, 2 women) for anime (I remember some names like Mizuki Ichirou, Kooro Gi, and of course the great Horie Mitsuko). Since the Yamato film, which used pop artists, every anime started to use people whose it was the job to sing
- A lot of anime were indeed adult and successful before 1977, Yamato being one of them. The guy is sickening now...
- Nausicaa was NOT a big success ! Nausicaa was renowned among anime fans, that's true. Miyazaki didn't overturn anything. Toei made more bucks with his films than those of Miyazaki, until Mononoke. Miyazaki started to be a success in Japan since Mononoke Hime, when more money was put on ads. Only anime fans reverred Miyazaki well before that time.
- The gold years of anime where the 80s, NOT 90s ! 90s where the decline, and then, the end of cellulo. It seems to be going back nowadays.
- this guy clearly doesn't know a thing about animation : the biggest mistake he makes is the same 99% of people do. He takes it all backwards, thinking anime is a subset of live movie. But it's the other way : live movie is the simplest and less powerful animation : it's limited to still images of reality, and not even perfect images at that. That's why there was always the need to blend special effects or other forms of animation (like CG) in live action films, because it's too limited. On the other hand, drawn animation is the most powerful of animation (the only limit is your imagination and skills), but as such, the most difficult to master. Some people I know who study animation don't even know when live animation started to be predominant, but I think one of the reason was that it looked more real ! Remember the Frères Lumières and their first show
- The only thing that made people think that animation is for children is Dysney !!!! Animation, in the start, was NOT considered for children !!! It was for adults, were presented in theater, and even served as propaganda during war ! Sone like this guy saying anime was for children principally is a cretin which doesn't even know history... And to add to the bad things Dysney have done, they shut down every other animation (be it japanese or from east Europe), threatening festivals were they were broadcasted, from the start until now. But I guess a lot of people do not know that, taht was the goal. They even continue nowadays.
- Anime can be as, even more convincing than live. But a lot of the performance is dependent on the voice actors. The "fleshy presence" is a nonsense. Anime can be more powerful than any live. You can't dismiss the power of pictures because they are not taken from "reality". Sone tell this guy that horror or porn in anime can not be shown to small kids : even without "flesh" presence, the subjective power is still stronger than anything. Imagination has always been more powerful than reality.
- The guy is stuck on "visual realism". That is, he can't even understand animation, as "visual realism" is only one feature of live animation. You can not judge anime by "visual realism", that's not one of it's features, though you can put such pictures in anime (it has even been done already). The purpose of anime is to present sth, not to be "realist".
- Another common pitfall. The author himself falls in it without even knowing. One of the power of anime, is that you can more easily identify yourself to a character. I mean, a japanese, looking at an anime character, will see a japanese. And an european will see an european, an american will see an american (except if it's too "realistic"). That's why the guy doesn't see a japanese in the characters. And the eyes have nothing to do with nationality : look at Tintin !
Or think that nobody has so wide round open eyes as you can see sometimes, or has blue or pink hairs
- The author apparently comes from the "caste" of people which rejects Japan history. All japanese are not among this group, and there is conflict, even in manga, on the subject. This turns into politics after that, and I'm tired already of this guy. Surely, I don't love all japanese (and surely not this one)...
I'm not the only one who's annoyed; IMDB ran this story:
Stupid job ads, weird spam, occasional insight at
Of course, everything else in the culture is pretty severe too, but at the same time very people-oriented. In times gone past, massive rounds of layoffs due to poor stock performance was unheard of. I don't know if this is still the case; Western values might be creeping in and causing the companies to treat their people more like the robotic drones as most western companies do.
I think that of all the cultures and people on the planet, the one least likely to ever be understood by any American (including myself) are the Japanese. Even if you spend your whole life among them, I think that from time to time something will happen that will surprise and befuddle you. But that depth of culture is also what makes them so cool, so it's OK.
I'm trying to teach myself to set people on fire with my mind... Is it hot in here?
At least we'd know why they really called General McClellan "Little Mac".
"You're never ready, just less unprepared."
"what he meant was that to express within the Japanese cultural framework the same emotion expressed in English by 'I love you,' one must choose words like 'The moon is so blue tonight.'"
Does this mean that for Japanese to truly express the emotion behind, "You're so hot, I can't stand it!" they have to resort to phrases like, "My twin moons are so blue for you tonight."?
The State of Anime Fandom in Japan
Regarding some of the general comments people are making, they seem a bit extreme on both ends, which I guess is to be expected.....both the people saying "anime sucks, it's all porn" and the people who say that "anime rules, it's the only thing that has real plot and characterization and isn't tainted by commercialization like American stuff is" are both equally ridiculous statements. Anime in fact isn't all porn, and like any other medium it has had its share of good stuff as well as a lot of bad shows. And of course, the notion some extreme anime fans have that anime is good because it isn't commercialized is ridiculous, as anime is heavily commercialized, and many shows are made solely based on how well they will sell, which is why you often see a lot of recycled plots, character designs and story concepts.
Just in general, anime is way too broad for I think many of the comments being made here to be very relevant....it has its share of crap and its share of brilliant work. I could say the same thing about movies, television, books, comic books, etc.......take almost any of the comments being made in this thread and replace "anime" with "movies", "television", "books", "comic books" etc. and perhaps this will give you a better indication of how ridiculous some of the statements are.
Anime is not all stale and recycled plots, and it is not all the same big eye style of animation......a few shows that wouldn't fit this mold would include Boogiepop Phantom, Niea_7, Now And Then Here And There, etc. If I had to guess I would say that a lot of the negative comments are being made by people with a very limited exposure to only certain kinds of anime, which would be about on par with making a value judgement on "movies" after watching some pornography tapes.
Tom
Anime porn has more emotional content, better plots, etc. Plus you can really dive into darker things like domination, shame, without creating a snuff film. That can make things more exciting and makes topics available for self-examination without actually watching a real person get beat up or whatever.
You have done a very good job of explaining why people like hentai films. Allow me to elaborate...
I watch American porn because the women are really sexy. But you're right that there is no plot to speak of and the acting is rediculous. There is no way around it: porn is full of stupid white trash. And there's a limit as to how exciting that can be, especially when it's all the same. The most important organ in sexual arousal is the brain. When I see some sexy female ninja or spaceship captain in a hentai flick, I feel attracted to her in a much different way than I do to the bimbos in American porn. This hentai woman actually has skills and capabilites. She's compatent! And her face and body is at least as sexy as those of real women. For me, that's a great combination. I'd rather fuck hentai girls than the sluts in American porn.
The other advantage hentai has over real-life porn is the ability to display some real hardcore stuff. It's just not very much fun watching a real woman being raped. Even if you know it's just a movie, it's hard to get around the fact that it looks an awful lot like what happens in real life. However, the non-consentual scenes in hentai are so over-the-top and rediculous that it's very clear this is not realistic at all. When you watch some sexy 19 year old girl with green hair and 38DDs being attacked by a monster with tentacles, it's very, very clearly an absurd bondage fantasy. It's something that could never, ever happen. And it's something that you're certainly never going to experience. So it's exciting. There are some live-action japanese porn films where they try to do the tentacle thing and it just doesn't work.
American Hardcore porn lacks any real emotion or acting or plot. American softcore porn lacks any hardcore action.
Exactly right. The hardcore stuff is actually kind of boring. You're just watching some stupid guy screw some stupid chick. You know that these people are pathetic. There's a limit how much fun you can have watching these losers fuck each other. The softcore stuff you find on Cinemax and such can be much more exciting because there is actually a story and motivation for the characters to screw. But you don't get to see the goods. Hentai provides the best of both worlds, plus it also shows some stuff that is too hardcore for American hardcore films. The Onion had an interview with (porn producer) Ron Jeremy once where he admitted that American porn is so tame that they can't sell their stuff overseas. Everyone else thinks it's boring. Of course, they can't make it any more hardcore than it is now or the feminists will scream bloody murder. So if you want to see something really kinky and naughty, hentai anime is for you!
GMD
watch this
Many of your complaints seem to be about differences of style, rather than differences of skill.
As far as animation techniques go, don't you think it's a little naive to compare CG studios like Pixar to manual and mixed-media studios?
I'll admit that there's a lot of ass "anime" out there--just like there's a lot of ass "cartoons" out there (seen the new He-Man recently?). Compare the majority of the two animation genres (American and Japanese), and it feels like you're juding a competition for the worst animation ever.
On the other hand, if you look at the high end of manual and mixed-media Japanese animation, you get things like Akira, Ghost, Lain, Metropolis, and Princess Mononoke. All of these compare favorably with the best American and European works, not just in story, but also in animation techniques and and artistic merit. I can't do anything about your style complaints, but if the biggest problem you have with anime is that "everybody's drawn funny", then anime at least has The Simpsons for company.
Any sufficiently well-organized community is indistinguishable from Government.
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.)
All the creatures will die, And all the things will be broken. That's the law of samurai. (Jubai, 1605)