Slashdot Mirror
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.
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?
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.
"News for nerds" includes anime nerds.
I personally don't care for stories on pretty much anything Apple does, but they still should be posted. Nobody is making you read them or comment on them.
Mr. Hu is not a ninja.
My Waifu says you're wrong, it's reality!
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 ! ^_^
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.
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.
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.
I would think power lines are a good sign of the time the story is based. Where it is to represent the present.
The near future normally would be wireless urban setting.
The past 100 years or so, we wouldn't have power-lines, as most lights were still gas in an urban environment.
Out of all other things, they can be drown without much animation.
Also power lines don't date quickly. So a scene with with them will look as reliant for 2017 as it would for 1967 so such shows wont date as quickly.
If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
The C4 that lines the inside of the Enterprise bridge consoles is essential for correct functioning.
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
Supposedly, their power transmission system is based on some sort of high-energy plasma being piped throughout the ship, and every piece of technology they have can be made more or less effective by simply funneling more power into it, even if you have to steal that power from things like lighting or life support. (For example, the computer calculates more quickly, shields become firmer, sensors extend their range and resolution, etc.)
So -- bearing in mind that "pipe more high-energy plasma from one part of the ship to a completely unrelated part" is default behavior in any crisis -- that in mind, it's amazing things don't blow up constantly.
As someone who watches a lot of anime i think this is an interesting question and i am interested in the article. But i still don't understand why it was posted on Slashdot.
But hey, as long as we're asking questions about weird anime stuff, why is it that in high school anime the classrooms are always oriented so that the windows are on the left? (From the students' perspective.) From what i understand this is generally the way real classrooms in Japan are, but that doesn't answer the more fundamental question.
This Space Intentionally Left Blank
Most students are right handed (or, in the past, were forced to write with their right hand), if the light comes from the left (light strips are relatively recent in the grand scheme of 'schools') the drop shadow of your writing hand doesn't obstruct your writing.