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Why Is Anime Obsessed With Power Lines? (atlasobscura.com)
An anonymous reader shares a report: Why are there so many shots of power lines in Japanese anime cartoons? The Tumblr Power Lines in Anime is dedicated to appreciating the truly lovely and surprisingly ubiquitous depictions of mundane power lines that appear in a large number of Japanese animation series. The blog is run by Tumblr user whitequark, who first started to notice the trend while watching a romantic comedy anime. Anime series can cover any number of genres, including sports, high fantasy, office life, and, of course, science fiction, but no matter what it's about, it seems that if the story is set on modern-day Earth, it will contain some amazingly detailed images of power lines, telephone poles, and other wired infrastructure. While a number of anime series (and cartoons in general), opt for a style of hyper-detailed backgrounds before which relatively simpler characters can interact, power lines stand out for the detail and complexity required to illustrate them.
Sparks shooting out of some place or another?
With flooding the feed with irrelevant stories?
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would be too obvious.
The prevalence of power lines isn't on my top 10 list of "why?"
It's anime...
How else would you go over 9000!!?
About the tumblr that's just anime floppy discs
SEL is a 1998 anime. It is full of power line shots. I'd estimate that around 2-5 percent of the series consist of power lines. It would be interesting whether this was the start of the trend. Can someone please categorize this Tumblr thing into pre and post 1998, please?
Thatâ(TM)s why
I'd rather power lines than one of the other things the Japanese media are obsessed with.
"That's the way to do it" - Punch
Before WWII, outside Tokyo - rural Japan didn't have as many power lines as western countries.
With culture going back centuries... japanese perceived power lines as western encroachment and the loss of the authentic Japanese self.
And since nearly all power lines come from and go to "someplace else", they are by definition "invasive" to the local world.
And since power utilities are authoritative entities... they represent invasive authority.
nt
The more power lines and cool looking infrastructure there is the more futuristic shit looks.
How about some tech instead of pop culture?
I like it when the bridge computer has sparks shooting out and knocks out random ensign. You'd think the 24th century would be fly-by-wire and use optical or low-voltage control loops rather than high current conduits. I mean this stuff was around in the 1950s, significantly before the original series was filmed.
“Common sense is not so common.” — Voltaire
The artists picked a visual style to convey the esthetic impact they are trying to achieve and use it in their drawn backgrounds. Apparently this includes power lines.
Where I get where this basic artistic concept might be lost on a lot of folks reading Slashdot because we tend to be thinking about the technical nature of things, it's not that hard to understand.
BONUS: They pick the music in the background to drive an emotional impact of a movie, not just the visual images used. Try not to get lost in the enormity of the thought..
Double Bonus: Annime is NOT reality, regardless of how much you think it so. It's an animated cartoon and the stories are not real life.
Yes, this post should be read to be dripping with sarcasm.
"File to fit, pound to insert, paint to match" - Aircraft Maintenance 101
Take a look at street views in any Japanese city, everywhere you look there are masses of power lines, transformers and power poles! NOT having them in anime would seem less "real"!
Why are Slashdot editors obsessed with reposting stuff on Hacker News?
If you've ever been to Japan, especially iconic locations like Tokyo, you'd pretty quickly realize that, for how otherwise clean and tidy the Japanese are, the rats nests of power lines depicted in anime are basically true to life. Ubiquitous powerlines (even the type seemingly haphazardly strung between buildings like neglected spider webs) are a normal sight there, so when mirroring or representing reality, it isn't a surprising detail to include to give just that little extra grounding. For those on the outside looking in, it could seem exaggerated, but it is hardly the case.
Back in the documentary "Crumb", on underground commix icon Robert Crumb, R.C. demonstrated how he took a lot of photos and drew scenes from them rather from memory, because it's easy to mentally tune-out a lot of very big, annoying things about modern life: billboards, power lines, transformers. He didn't want to miss them when he drew, so he took photos to force himself to acknowledge them with photos.
Sure enough, once he pointed it out, I realized that was one of the things that made his work both very solid/real and also very gritty. When there's no panels with large swaths of empty, blue sky, it really forces you to acknowledge everything we've put in the way.
In anime, it could be similarly an attempt at heightened awareness/realism, or a form of social commentary, or a subtle nod that the characters are in the Ugly Real World and not the Sparking Virtual Reality or Romantic Past.
Ever been to Japan ? - First time I went down the residential streets of Tokyo - I tought - this looks like like I'm in an anime.
Anime creators are just copying what they see outside their houses.
there are a lot of power lines in Japan you insensitive clod ! ^_^
Extra extra, read all about it! Tumblr Anime Nerd Notices Powerlines in Favorite Cartoons!
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Wholly shit man, Why don't you tell us how you REALLY feel?
But ya know what, if ya cleaned it up a bit, you would probably be on point more-so the the editors @ large here..
So Beau and msmash I have to ask, I bet others a are also thinking the same, but.....
How do UNIC's reproduce? What is your success rate "or lack thereof?"
How often do you subject your selves to the outside world?
how much did "daddy" pay for your JOBS?
Who's on top?
What the best detergent to use after an attempted sexual encounter like yours??
Twisted minds wanna know..
Above-ground power lines feature prominently in the Japanese streetscape. There are a variety of reasons why Japanese cities have been slow to move their power lines underground, but it's a particularly Japanese aesthetic. Artists representing how they see the world.
Wide screen formatting benefits from horizontal lines that tie a scene together. Once power lines are recognized for that utility, they then become a thing even where they are not serving that function. Falling leaves and other wind blown items are also a thing in anime. They add movement to otherwise visually mundane scenes.
Background artists enjoy a challenge and power lines aren't the easiest things in the world to portray convincingly.
Less serious answer: Because when you're watching schoolgirls be bribed into outdoor sex with their teachers the power lines in the background provide a symbolic background of the power struggle being portrayed before you.
In more modern animations, wind power turbines win out over power lines. https://www.youtube.com/watch?...
I should use this sig to advertise my book ISBN-13 : 978-1501515132.
Because they are a common site just about everywhere.
Perhaps anime has been influenced by Robert Crumb, the bizarre comic artist known for his bizarre drug and sex influenced work that was so popular in the 60s and 70s. Having never been a driver himself, at one point he had a friend or relative (his son?) drive him around taking pictures of power lines and utility poles that he would study so he could add authenticity to his drawings.
However the recurring imagery entered anime, once it became common, it became expected. People would feel cheated if they didn't get what they expected, so the artists made sure to deliver.
To a otaku like you this may be strange, but ppl do look at the windows into the streets. And what they often see is power lines.
Why is anyone obsessed with Anime?
Could care less about power lines in manga and anime. What's with doe eyes, pointy chins, and pastel hair? Are there any actual *normal humans* in manga/anime, rather than fetishized elves?
Why are video games obsessed with ripples in water, or the grittiness of concrete, or any of the other many thing that add approximately nothing to the actual gameplay?
He pulls the spitting high-tension wires down
Helpless people on subway trains
Scream, bug-eyed, as he looks in on them
Speaking of obvious ...
I am not your blowing wind, I am the lightning.
You need only look at Tokyo (capital of Japan) to see the mess of power lines that exist in real life.
Anons need not reply. Questions end with a question mark.
cauz msMasH is to busy stickin a strapon into bEaUhd.
Lucky Guy...
/ double checks Post Anonymously selected.
US flicks have fruit-stands as the go-to chaos focus. Nobody knows why, other than maybe "everyone else does it".
I always wanted to see a play on the concept where a massive fight breaks out around a fruit-stand, and everything else around it is flattened and smoldering, while the fruit-stand remains intact due to the acrobatic heroics of its ordinary-looking owner. Somebody fires a missile at the stand, and have it coincidentally pass through a tiny gap in stacked melons in slow motion.
After the fight ends, the owner starts to wheel the stand away from the quiet-but-smoldering mess, but stumbles on a road reflector bump, and the entire stand finally crashes down in glorious fruit spray.
When movie memes get too entrenched, it's time to mock them.
Similarly, a Japanese flick could have a monster fight that repeatedly ends up landing in power lines, but nothing happens with the lines: they bend a bit and then bend back to normal without drama. Have the antagonist get frustrated in that throwing his victim into them results in nothing. Finally he grabs a line, tears it in half, gets ready to zap his opponent, but just then his crime partner a few blocks away smashes another opponent into the power station, cutting off power to the line, rendering his zapping tool (torn cables) useless.
Table-ized A.I.
If you've never tried it, it's fascinating to do a Google Street View of Tokyo. The power infrastructure is cluttered AF:
Powerlines 1
Powerlines 2
Powerlines 3
I know this is supposed to be kinda tongue in cheek, but most animes have specific background artists that will be asked to portray some scenery as faithfully as possible, including stuff like worn down buildings, crusty old signs, overgrown lawns, faded out street signaling, corroded paintjobs... and yes, power lines.
There are lots of titles that are specifically tied to a city, or even a specific neighborhoods... well, much like several TV series and movies.
But picking half a dozen titles stretched over 2 decades or more that have power lines in them and saying it's an "obsession" has to be a joke right? Do people even realize hundreds of titles are released every year?
In any case, it's not an obsession by any means... apart from Lain because it's thematic (it symbolizes how everything is connected), for the vast majority of titles it is just a staple of urban environments. It's part of the scenery. From another perspective, obsessive behaviour would be trying to hide them when they are quite obviously there.
Really, this is nothing, google Tsundere Sharks.
I agree that it probably have been part of the view and the sounds of the city during the childhood of the people drawing and animating the cartoons. It must have been and probably still is the reality of urban living near the edges of the cities like Kyoto and Tokyo that span to the horizon.
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-TEJNEiwglyM/Up6abKRd7-I/AAAAAAAABbM/0Nlof_r2bcI/s1600/Failed+plan+to+electrocute+Godzilla.JPG
There are very few buried utilities because of earthquakes, so you have big concrete telephone poles with power/telephone/cable lines all over the place. They are even more ubiquitous than vending machines in Japan
Exactly... I used to wonder why there were so many images of vending machines in Anime, they are everywhere... it is not unusual to see scenes entirely lit by vending machines even in residential (non big city) scenes there would be vending machines everywhere... is it some kind of symbolism? I don't have vending machines on my suburban street.
Then I went to japan and realized that vending machines were actually everywhere, even in small towns and residential neighborhoods.... its just part of every day life there.
"In America, first you get the sugar, then you get the power, then you get the women..." -H. Simpson
Literally networks of power, whose center is somewhere else.
Modernity and (in their proliferation and sagging) the collapse/end/postscript/decay of modernity.
Consumerism, consumer technology, technological encroachment.
Utopian ideals (energy, artificial light) and their mundane failures to transform human life for the better.
The loss (as you point out) of the rural in the face of the urban.
Environmental destruction.
Utilitarianism and rational-instrumentalism at the expense of beauty.
Clutter and the "wreckage of history" that Walter Benjamin famously described.
Setting out to aspire to highs, inevitably sagging back down to lows.
The ravages of time.
Technological debt.
etc.
STOP . AMERICA . NOW
Japan has a MUCH bigger problem with earthquakes & tsunamis than hurricanes (Tokyo & northward is about the same climate as the Northeastern US & maritime Canada). Tsunamis bring saltwater inland (very, very bad for underground power lines). Earthquakes shear underground power lines apart (or stretch them & cause subtle, harder-to-troubleshoot flakiness).
Ctrl + f "tentacles"
Only 4 hits
Come on /., you're getting slow in your old age.
... Senpai finally noticed her!
My old pal, Pete Perkins, explained this to me when we first met in Akihabara in 1985.
Pete was a long time resident of Tokyo and had gone through many earthquakes. He warned me to never run out to the street during an earthquake. Tokyo puts almost none of its electrical infrastructure underground. There are tons of concrete poles, transformers, wire and GKW (god knows what) boxes overhead at all times. It's like a giant, surreal spider's web.
It's not something a typical tourist notices, but those of us with many years in Tokyo became well aware of this second "floating world".
Thanks for the 'heads-up', Pete! Hope you are well.
What about the schoolgirls in short skirts?
Open Source Network Inventory for the masses! Kuwaiba
Subject box?
I used to wonder, Hey Martha lookit all them power lines! until I noticed that
the windshield that was reflecting almost everything above it missed the usual curve-here-down-and-up-again sway of the power lines above it. I remembered that in The Empire strikes back it was pointed out that the snow speeders used to search for Luke did not cast shadows on the snow-covered terrain
It makes sense if you ever visit Japan. There cities a have very dense power line corridors. Where as in the US a standard power pole may have 1-2 cross beams. In Japan it seems like 3 is the minimum, with many having five. They dominate many streetscapes.
To give the subject box some purpose. The subject box is like the Edge browser having no real purpose.
The history of art is the history of any activity or product made by humans in a visual form for aesthetical or communicative purposes, expressing ideas, emotions or, in general, a worldview. Over time visual art has been classified in diverse ways, from the medieval distinction between liberal arts and mechanical arts, http://badtameezdill.online/
http://amishamerica.com/do-amish-use-electricity/
Obviously this pays homage to the Roadrunner cartoons, which seemed to have a large amount of power lines for such a deserted place. They also made nice twangy sounds when Wile E. Coyote ended up being catapulted by them.
Tesla. https://www.wikipedia.org/wiki...
That has to be the lamest attempt at a reply. Seriously? Wireless Power Transmission... LOL -- Seriously, if you're going to post something that low level in thought of reply, do it as an AC.
Wireless power transmission is great on short ranges, like inductive coils and pickups.. It's not going to be sending the equivalent of transmission line level work at anytime in the near future.
“The fact that it controls us.
I don’t know why all people aren’t fascinated with it. It makes beautiful sounds, and it makes a lot of times some incredible light. It runs many things in our world and it’s beautiful. It’s sometimes dangerous, but it’s magical. It’s such a power and it can make some beautiful images and sounds.”
“I don’t understand it either There are things that come into the home, you know things that are built or created outside the house, which all speak about the time and about the life. And then if something goes wrong with those things, or if they’re not in good working order, it can mean something else too.”
“[S]cientists don’t understand electricity. They say, “It’s moving electrons.” But there’s a certain point where they say, “We don’t know why that happens.” I’m not a scientist, and I haven’t talked to these guys that are into electricity, but it is a force. When electrons run down a wire— do they have that power. It’s amazing. How did a plug or an outlet get to be shaped that way? And lightbulbs: I can feel these random electrons, you know, hitting me. It’s like when you go under power lines. If you were blindfolded and drove down a highway under those power lines, and really concentrated, you could tell when they occurred. There’s something very disturbing about that amount of electricity—they know these things now. A tumor grows in the head. Just because you can’t see it doesn’t mean it’s not, you know, whacking you.”
In his works it seems to represent creation, destruction, and the very concept of being and doing.
Twinstiq, game news
. You don't get it, this is the future. Lines on lines, one pole every 2 meters. The sky will look like spaghetti, I'll have one substation on top of another!
I will rain heavy transformers down on you, and you will drown in them
You can often see it in anime dubs: the dubbed version often adds noise and talk where there was none.
It seems that for Americans there must always be action or talk, or they think the viewer will get bored, and in Japan they have a more contemplative mood and it's perfectly normal to have a character be silent and thoughtful for a few moments and just look at the clouds, powerlines, or some other random element nearby. So powerlines show up because that's the kind of thing people just stare at randomly when there's nothing much going on.
If you pay attention to it, you can notice quite a lot of this kind of thing. Ranma 1/2 for instance (from memory) has people lying on the roof and looking at the sky, powerlines, blinking fluorescent lamps, people relaxing in a bath, etc.
I think the question isn't "why are they there?" so much as as "why are they usually in focus, even though they're a background detail?"
TFA blames Evangelion, and while I won't try to say they're wrong I'd go a bit further and suggest that its a common theme in dystopic universes everywhere. Perhaps Japanese artists think their country (OK lets face it, city since something like 90% of anime is made in the Tokyo region) is more dystopian than we do. Or maybe its just "the way things are done" and nothing to see here beyond tradition because that's what viewers expect to see.
Also keep in mind that most anime is derived from manga, and the animators are pretty good at keeping the art style fairly consistent with the book in most cases. So you're starting with a (mostly) black and white medium where hard black lines are generally used to signify motion and now you need to draw a hard black line that stands out as not signifying motion. Then when you translate it to full color, in order to keep the same aesthetic you still have to keep those power lines strong even though artistically its not nearly as important.
Anyway I'm just throwing out some thoughts. I'm not an art critic by any stretch of the imagination so maybe I'm way off base but seems like some solid excuses for the phenomena to me!
Well circuit breakers and fuses aren't effective when you're on a war vessel under fire. Even 1950's computer technology could be built that way.
“Common sense is not so common.” — Voltaire
They like drawing actual places and power lines are rarely in the ground.
Hence, the love is pure, and uncorrupted by modern things.
Also why they use old style rooming houses with baths, instead of modern ones.
-- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
Things like power lines add a sense of perspective and scale to the artwork without involving a huge amount of animation. Power lines make for really nice leading lines and can draw the viewers eyes to where the artist intends, on a budget.
Also I guess there is a sense of modernity that power lines and electrical infrastructure imply.
Though what do I know, I've never really gotten into anime.
It spreads quickly, because it is great to make fun of tards like you.
Patient zero might have been one of you. But that's it.
... that are present in the scripts of average new Hollywood movies. Don't you know that producers put great effort into not confusing average Joe Viewer with new ideas?
If you wanted yours to be turned into a movie, you'd have to leave for France and befriend some Art House director to produce your movie (in black and white, of course), financed by "ministry of culture" grants.
It's the most common fucking thing you see everywhere you look. That's like asking why cartoons set in the Egypt always show shots of the sand.
Apparently they 'can't' bury them like every other country does.
... are all ingredients of urban romantic sujets. I also could imagine that open, manually strung powerlines are very common in Japan, just as are top-down built wooden houses - for traditional reasons. And perhaps because of earthquakes, difficult landscape and easy maintainability.
"5 centimeters per second" has elaborate and long short of urban and suburban settings, including details such as crooked modern lamp posts, bulding sites, modern urban life, and yes, powerlines, etc. The best shots in Ghost in the Shell are run-down urban sujets with strong Hong-Kong shanty town quoting built in. The Gits helicopter ride to the tune of Gits "Nightstalker" is cyberpunk romanticism / film noir poetry at its peak, as are the rainy sujet/mood shots in Gits. Quite close to key scenes in Bladerunner and Casablanca IMHO.
These shots and settings are all basically visual versions of a type A Simon & Garfunkel song. Take Sounds of Silence as an example if that's the only one you know. The japanese are a cultivated modern traditional and romantic folk, so they are quite into this. ... It's basically half of what anime is all about. The other half being a kind-of soft-of Star Trek style techno-romanticism, as in NGE.
Let's not forget that many anime are for grown-ups. Film noir / contemporary arthous style and/or cyberpunk is more or less the western version of it. And quite a bit is quoted by the japanese. They also quote franco-belgian comics a lot, quite a few of which use a similar nuanced style and language. ... Unlike U.S. americans the japanse are a little more broader minded and are actually aware that franco-belgian comics exist and that the richest body of western comics and graphic novels has absolutely nothing to do with superheroes. (Sorry, I had to squeeze that in here.)
My 2 cents.
We suffer more in our imagination than in reality. - Seneca
You've never been to Japan have you. They're all over the fucking place.
Maybe something about subjugated natural powers (electricity)?
You know, like caging a Raijuu https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raij%C5%AB
It tries to free itself, as can be hear from the humming sound (they have both 50 and 60Hz, region wise).
Sometimes it frees itself, with a cascade of sparks, and once it is out it can run along the cables in search of something to ignite (classic homes were made of wood and paper back in time, see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fires_in_Edo ).
In short, it can represent the natural world harnessed by technology, but also the "calm before the storm".
just my 2€
CYA
Watch any anime, these guys are the best at capturing things, be it the movement of a dog or the steam off a bowl of noodles. Most anime food is incredibly detailed.
They just like capturing this stuff and it captures our eyes when watching. I hate to have become that cliche guy but over years of consuming the select good stuff, it's really good stuff to consume. Often whimsical and fun.
Go watch the opening 15 minutes of Redline, that should make anyones day.
The real question is why it is seemingly obsessed with objectifying women and sexualizing young girls in particular. It is disgusting.
Then I went to japan and realized that vending machines were actually everywhere, even in small towns and residential neighborhoods.... its just part of every day life there.
The real question you should ask yourself: Why can Japan have vending machines everywhere like this, and not have them destroyed almost immediately by thuggish little shits.
Do not call anime a "cartoon". A cartoon means it has no story and is a comedy.
What city do not have power lines? It is like saying "Why is anime obsessed with people having to eat and drink?" Should anime simply not draw any power lines? Power gets to the houses by magic?
Childhood? Have been? Are you kidding? They don't bury power lines! Even new developments have them above ground.
60's underground comic artist R. Crumb put a lot of power lines, poles, transformers etc. in his work. Because in reality they really there urban USA.
See the movie Crumb (1994). Highly recommended. In one section they show him going over books of drawing he made when he was in his teens and 20s, page after page of variations on noses, eyes, power poles clogged with lines.
I wonder if this is a case of 'separate' invention? But I suspect more than one anime artist is familiar with Crumb's work.
In western media, we use a tight shot on the character, then show the environment they're in by using a wide shot that includes both the character and the rest of the scene.
In Japan, they use a tight shot on the character, then show the environment they're in by showing the environment they're in, from the character's perspective (or similar)
If you're in a built-up area of Japan, then any "environment" shot is going to include power lines.
But if you're used to western media, then you see those power lines as not just an establishment of the environment the scene is taking place in, but as clearly being a character in themselves. They are the most complex things seen in many shots, and so that is what is focused on. "Why are we seeing shots of power lines?" you're not. You're seeing power lines because that is what the character would see around them.
What a silly question.
It's because that's how power lines are in Japan. They are not put systematically underground like in the US.
Because Japan uses overhead powerlines a lot in not completely urban areas to power their homes?
Just google "japan overhead powerlines" for extensive explanations.
Crivens! I kicked meself in me own heid!
It's fun to spot when animators get localisation slightly wrong and put a bunch of power lines and vending machines in, say, England. Or strap-on air conditioner units.
I may need a hobby.
I remember reading years ago some article discussing the differences between western and eastern "comics" and animation and one thing it called out is how backgrounds tended to be much more detailed in eastern ones.
Having lived in Japan - from Tokyo to out on a farm. Those lines are everywhere. Those line are all services, power, communication and misc.
You can't bury them as they'd be broken by earthquakes rather often. They are an eyesore as much as what make Tokyo magical.
No pavements/ sidewalks is whats odd about Japanese roads. Just a painted line and hoping not to be hit by a van wing mirror. must happen lots.
Clearly someone hasn't seen Lain then.
Having been to rural Japan three times in the last decade, if you go there you'd understand why. Unlike here in America where the lines are linear with the minimal amount of crossing, in Japan wires are strung up like a crazy web. Especially in small towns the power and telecommunication wires are just run every which way to Sunday. They are extreamily intrusive to the eye so as an artist it's not really something you would gloss over... Because it's a very prevalent part of the landscape. As an artist I would almost always keep a picket fence or birdhouse in a landscape painting. In Japan they keep the power lines and use the interplay on how all those wires alter the visual landscape.
Are power lines strung up on utility poles any more resilient to earthquakes than conduits buried underground?
The real question you should ask yourself: Why can Japan have vending machines everywhere like this, and not have them destroyed almost immediately by thuggish little shits.
Or, why does one "culture" include lots of thuggish little shits.
Personally, I was more surprised by the extreme variety of vending machines in Japan when reported by a friend, never having been there myself. In Finland, we have almost perfected the nanny state so something like tobacco vending machines would be unimaginable. And I'm not sure what to think about the machines for buying used panties.
Escher was the first MC and Giger invented the HR department.
Pfft. This is the Internet, where Nikola Tesla is a god whose every idea is a beacon of brilliance, unrealized in a contemporary utopia only due to the machinations of the evil Edison.
Meanwhile, in the real world...
Because George Crumb did it.
Same reason that the lampposts look the same in comics.
- because that's the lamp post outside the window of the office.
They see it out the window, so it'll be included a lot.
Ever been to Asia? They have power lines everywhere. Often easy to touch, next to walkways. Same for telephone, CATV, and other sorts of cable lines.
Spend 10 minutes in Tokyo, Bangkok, Seoul, Hong Kong, Kowloon, and most other cities there, you'll see cables almost everywhere you look.
With 1 exception. Singapore. Singapore seems to have avoided much of the above ground cabling - except for govt run video cams, which are everywhere.
I have some amazing photos of powerlines making an otherwise "nice place" look cheap. I wouldn't be surprised if 50% of those connections were illegal.