This post at Ogiue Maniax kind of threw me for a loop. Despite the fact I’m so deeply engrossed in Japanese animation, I have little interest in animation in general. I couldn’t even tell you what’s going on in the world of animation outside Japan today. Nor do I care to know.
Honestly, it’s not my style to so elitist about such things. My taste in music, for example, is pretty diverse. But, for some reason, I came to appreciate Japanese animation in a way I never appreciated, or even considered appreciating, Western animation. My standard explanation is that, having been interested in Japanese culture prior to truly discovering anime, and anime being one of Japan’s most visible cultural exports, it’s only natural that things turned out the way they did. And this explanation seems all the more plausible when you take my love for slice of life anime into consideration, seeing as it’s some of the most “Japanese” anime that anime has to offer.
Except, I could have just as well gotten hooked on Japanese film, or Japanese television, or Japanese literature, or Japanese video games, or whatever. And, while I have some level of interest in all of these things, none excite me quite so much as anime.
So, why anime, over all other things Japanese? And, why anime, over all other forms of animation? I don’t know. However, it’s worth noting that, growing up watching cartoons as a child, it was the localizations of Japanese anime that I loved most. Perhaps there’s just something about anime that appeals to me on a very basic level.
For me anime is just one thing of Japan that I really get excited for. I guess studying the language and the culture is the big thing for me.
I liked cartoons as a kid growing up but there is something about American cartoons now that aren’t the same as before. I don’t know what it is. Maybe they don’t appeal to me. I’d still watch cartoons from around here if they were as awesome as they used to be. Back when I was first getting into anime, I was drawn in by the action, story and music which I guess I didn’t really see in many cartoons from my own country.
Japanese animation just seems totally different from other cartoons I’ve seen. Like where else are you going to find a cute moe loli character with mecha gear holding a rocket launcher or something like that? You’d never see that in American animation. I think it’s just because American television has a different idea what animation is for and its audience.
I think I adore that picture.
(ahem)
Like where else are you going to find a cute moe loli character with mecha gear holding a rocket launcher or something like that? You’d never see that in American animation.
Go back and watch some Warner Brothers cartoons, Koji Oe… you’d be surprised what you’ll see. I do so want an Acme catalogue…
Ah, I never did like Warner Brothers stuff like Looney Toons even while growing up. Didn’t know they did stuff like that.
I watch plenty of wstern animation, and trust, me, you aren’t missing a damn thing =_=.
Some just say that the anime style is addictive - the way people are drawn - the way people ACT (esp the girls, I guess) - the way how ALMOST no Japanese character ever LOOKS Japanese… I like American animation studios - and European - but people think they’re never as Attractive as anime - also - like Koji Oe says - some of their wacked ideas are pretty brilliant. The Japanese are very good at taking American ideas (like stuff from Warner Brothers, for example) and making them twice as “better.”
It’s all about the aesthetics - all about the attractive personalities - all about the characters - seriously, you rarely see anime with animals as main characters become as popular - which is directly the opposite of American animations (think Disney)…
can’t wait for Wall E by PIXAR, btw
I honestly don’t know what attracts me to anime. I’ve talked it over and over with SDS over at aforementioned Ogiue Maniax, but I think you hit it on the head: there’s something just fundamentally appealing about anime to me. The shows I remember liking as a very young child, too, were anime in orgin (my mother tells me my favorite show as a child was The Little Prince, which was an anime based on the French children’s book by the same name).
I keep trying to get at the basic element of what attracts me, but it’s somewhat elusive. Whatever it is, I’m utterly obsessed with it to the point that it’s eclipsing and in some cases overtaking my lifelong love of reading. I think the best explanation for it has been “anime/manga uses complex emotions” and, unlike “complex emotions” in literary novels (which are ruined by overediting) it actually moves me.
I became interested in animation because I was interested in science fiction, and this little show called Astroboy did science fiction in animated form in a way that was just right for the elementary-school kid that I was. I was never really that interested most mainstream US animation (though I watched a fair amount of it as a kid), but I was always interested in animation. When I was in college, there was a little cafe theater here called “Off the Wall” that presented programs of animated shorts — including a lot of stuff from the National Film Board of Canada, like the Norm McLaren piece that Ogiue Maniax links to. Once Off the Wall closed, that stuff became pretty hard to come by. For me, anime started as just the most accessible form of imported animation.
Anime has something else going for it: story. Most other imported animation consists of one-shot art-works, and those can be pretty hit-or-miss. They’re short-stories, not novels, sometimes they aren’t even short stories, but obscurantist poetry. Anime often gives one a bigger, more lasting story to chew on.
I’m still primarily interested in anime as a medium for science-fiction and fantasy. It took me several years to take a look at the more prosaic and mundane series like Maison Ikkoku, and I’m still not that great a fan of such series, unless they do something experimental visually (as Kare Kano did, and, more recently, ef: a tale of memories) — that is, take advantage of the medium.
Well, I’ve always liked cartoons, and as I grew up, the cartoons around me didn’t, so I turned to anime. That’s it, basically.
That’s a good way of putting it wildarmsheero.
That isn’t to say I still can’t enjoy cartoons from when I was a kid. I still adore the old Warner Bros. stuff, and could probably still have a good laugh at Dexter’s Lab.
I like anime because it’s sort of a “step up” from the cartoons of old, like Cow and Chicken or Dexter’s Lab, similar to wildarmsheero. Not only that, but it deals with a whole range of genres, topics, styles, and so on. There’s usually a show or two for everyone.
Here’s a weird analogy: when I was young, I played a lot of RPGs and adventure games on video game consoles. About half were translated from Japanese, and half were originally in English. I generally liked both. But then I discovered Teh IntarWeb and realized that, wow, there were a lot of people who really disliked American RPGs that they considered “weak imitations.”
Same thoughts about ‘toons and anime. If I had chosen not to listen to the Disney bashers, and the people who thought the Teen Titans TV series was a cynical attempt to give new life to an ailing franchise, then I probably wouldn’t have been an “authentic anime or bust!!!111″ fan.
For another perspective, see this article, unearthed from Anime Jump.
Well… personally, I do watch Western Animation as well. Notably, the Batman series, Transformers, Gargoyles, The League of Justice, Freakazoid, Animaniacs, Exo-Squad (this is like the Western version of a Tomino anime), etc…
The thing is… both sides of the coin have their duds and hits, more so if you take personal taste into account. I am never going to claim that either side is superior to the other, because that would just simply be an absurd stance.
Don’t want to watch Tom & Jerry? Well, nobody is forcing you to watch Pokemon either. Just like how different anime cater to different audiences, the same applies to Western Animation (henceforth w-anime).
No sane person watches every single anime every season. As individuals, we have our own discerning taste and reasons for selecting specific anime for watching. The same should apply to w-anime as well.
I just find it simply ludricrous on how some people (not referring to you here, JL) can so easily dismiss the entire spectrum of what w-anime can offer and toss tomatoes blindly at it while quipping vague, generalistic and simplistic vitriol.
And that’s just covering the series. If we delve into the movies, I can dig up some examples like “The Iron Giant”. Hot damn, that movie was like watching an Holy union between a Key sobfest and GAR mecha, done western style.
Not every w-anime movie is done by Disney after all… and even then, not all Disney movies are drecks.
Cheers.
“Well, I’ve always liked cartoons, and as I grew up, the cartoons around me didn’t, so I turned to anime. That’s it, basically.”
I think that’s it for me as well, though I think anime is far more reaching than just “cartoons for older people”. :3
I think anime is far more diverse and approaches topics that Western animation does not. That’s the main appeal of anime for me; when I’m in the mood for psychological stuff, I can get it with anime. Fan-servicey stuff, I can get it with anime. Slice of life? Anime. Sci-fi? Anime. Epic lulz? Anime.
Well, I’ve always liked cartoons, and as I grew up, the cartoons around me didn’t, so I turned to anime.
Ditto, with the caveat that a chunk of my mind never did grow up (or regressed), so that I still love Warner Brothers/Bugs Bunny and can’t understand why people say that today’s cartoons are funny (except Animaniacs).
It’s an age thing, I understand that.
/now get off my lawn, you whippersnappers with your “Cow & Chicken” and your “ATHF”…
I like good meaningful stories with interesting themes and character development. The show that got me back into watching anime, Haibane Renmei is a very good representation of what I’m talking about. It’s very intriguing to watch a character grow and mature (or sink into depravity) a little bit each episode. Obviously not all anime shows have these elements. I have a hard time watching shows longer than two seasons worth as the characters don’t appear to change a whole lot and whatever development they go through gets diluted by filler. Most of American cartoons lack the elements I’m looking for. Even the anime shows that are broadcast on American TV are there purely for their entertainment and marketing value. But entertainment only gets me so far. I need to be able to care about what’s going on to keep interested. And it’s really overgeneralizing and probably not even half-true, but IMHO there is a real sense that Anime studios actually care about their shows moreso than the American studios.
One thing I did notice while mulling over this topic was that Anime actually benefited from going digital. Animation became more fluid, colors more vibrant, and the vision of the direction came through much more clearly. I am eagerly anticipating the studios to start regularly releasing shows in Blu-Ray. However, I can’t say the same for Western Animation. Watching the shows on CN these days feels like sloughing through the worst of flash videos on Newgrounds.
Just to echo the popular thought in the comments: anime aged really well, whereas western cartoons did not. What happend to the rather progressive shows like Batman Beyond and Recess? The only shows that push the envelope are of the crude variety (South Park, Family Guy) and there’s no real Western animated drama out there (beyond Avatar). Anime, on the other hand, has an overabundant amount of almost every genre, making it much easier to find shows to love.
As far as other elements of Japanese culture are concerned, I’m at a loss as well. I am not a big fan of Japanese live action, with the exception of Nana which I loved infinitely more than the anime. 99% of the Japanese music I listen to is anime-related. And I’m constantly frustrated at how after watching anime for so long I have been unable to discipline myself to learn enough Japanese to be able to watch anime without waiting for fansubs.
One reason for this lopsided appreciation of Japanese culture might be that anime is not at its core an accurate representation of Japanese culture as a whole. Even the most Japanese of slice-of-life anime dramatizes what life is like in the land of the rising sun. How many times have we been told by our Japan-residing friends that Japan is nothing like in anime? Even manga and anime themselves often make references to this fact. So while anime is definitely a product of Japanese culture, it is not Japanese culture itself.
And maybe anime just happens to be more accessible than the other elements of the culture. I can watch anime TV on my own television, whereas I usually have to read about Japanese design/architecture or wait much longer for localized movies and video games. I’m pretty sure I’d have to move to Japan for several years to really start to really appreciate all these other elements of the culture.
Obviously there many people that don’t make this distinction and become avid fans of the entire culture along with anime (or sometimes without). More power to them; I myself am satisfied with anime alone. And the occasional OP/ED & OST. And video game…
I was having a conversation with my brother the other day, and I said, “Saying I like anime is like saying I like movies. It’s not very meaningful.”
The thing is, anime, unlike cartoons, has grown and achieved a varied and diverse landscape, such that anime no longer can be clearly defined with that word alone.
Cartoons, unfortunately, are typically aimed at a younger audience, and I think most fans of anime appreciate the fact that here’s a type of media production that is targetted at them. One of the biggest draws, for me, is how can I enjoy a diverse range of types of shows in anime, without having to reach very far. Unlike sitcoms, or even cartoons like the Simpons, anime have a serial nature that allows you to follow the progress of a crafted and focused story. In some cases, these stories even delve into subjects that other media would not dare touch.
I believe those looking in from the outside, and see anime as “japanese cartoons” or simply as a type of animation is missing a lot of what makes up anime today.