Anime Christmas - Week 0
The bad rap that Anime gets from western culture is undeserved. To those who are unacquainted with the genre, two opinions form: 1 - that Anime is 'just cartoon' and therefore only for kids, or 2 - that Anime just serves fanboys with oversexualised depictions of women (of all ages) and fantastical, high concept situations.
The first sentiment represents a significant cultural misunderstanding. Western, English speaking cartoons have existed mostly for the entertainment of children. Cartoons were meant to be light hearted, no frills and mostly fun form of entertainment. The two major cartoon production companies in America, Warner Bros. and Disney, made damn well sure that this was the case for about 50 years.
In Japan, though, Anime and 'cartoon' media have always been treated as a legitimate form of art and expression. So much so that their Anime market is not only one of their most successful entertainment-based exports, but also dominant in their media. On our television screens and in our movie theaters, we see the opposite happening with cartoons not being given nearly as much money or attention as 'live action' films and television shows.
In Japan, though, Anime and 'cartoon' media have always been treated as a legitimate form of art and expression. So much so that their Anime market is not only one of their most successful entertainment-based exports, but also dominant in their media. On our television screens and in our movie theaters, we see the opposite happening with cartoons not being given nearly as much money or attention as 'live action' films and television shows.
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The differences in the evolution of media in both societies has bred differences of gut reactions when considering this particular genre. People who grew up watching English speaking television see animation as a kids thing - non serious and funny. But before fobbing off Anime as 'just another cartoon', we need to consider that Anime is a serious form of expression for a lot of Japanese storytelling and art. More money, attention and love have been put into Anime than has ever been put into a Disney or Warner Bros cartoon.
Anime does have its downfalls. On the second point I raised earlier, I concede that about 98 percent of the visual and (less so) character depictions of women in Anime are doing no favour for feminism. Women, irregardless of age, are almost always impossibly buxom and wear form fitting and very revealing outfits (googling the character of Miu from History's Strongest Disciple: Kenichi will raise some very alarming questions about appropriateness, considering Miu's age).
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| Motoko Kusanagi (Left) - one of the most well developed but most poorly dressed female characters in Anime. At least Batou (right) is grinning as he gets a good view. |
However, Hollywood is able to fail in many of the same way that people see Anime to fail. As there are a multitude of seemingly trashy Anime, there are also trashy Hollywood films. Such films exist solely for the exploitation of explosion effects and sexualising women. And the proportion of Hollywood films whose story lack substance would easily equal that of the proportion of Anime that are considered unsophisticated or poor.
What a fair number of people don't realise, though, is that Anime is exploiting an opportunity unique to animation: storytelling for a drastically reduced cost. Animation costs, though not insignificant, represent a notable saving on having to build props or render a complex background from a green-screen. With this, many Japanese (and some American and English) storytellers have been able to tell some truly breathtaking and amazing stories. Such stories would not make it to the cut of a big budget Hollywood film or the cutthroat American television industry - without having to sacrifice artistic vision for what would be a good investment for the ratings.
That said, Anime does have the same woes in regard to 'audience pandering' as American Telvision or film does. But the low cost and high (local) demand for Anime makes the form extremely prolific. This proliferation allows for a much more varied and creative set of works to be made. Without it, some quite unique and beautiful storytelling would not occur. Exemplars of this phenomenon are listed below.
That said, Anime does have the same woes in regard to 'audience pandering' as American Telvision or film does. But the low cost and high (local) demand for Anime makes the form extremely prolific. This proliferation allows for a much more varied and creative set of works to be made. Without it, some quite unique and beautiful storytelling would not occur. Exemplars of this phenomenon are listed below.
To celebrate my staying with this blog until now, I've decided to declare December an Anime Christmas. For each week left of 2012 I'll be writing articles about my four favourite anime (aside from Cowboy Bebop, which I've already covered). They are
I hope you have as much fun reading about them as I do revisiting them.
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