lupercal
11-10-2005, 11:08 AM
I find I'm watching and buying more anime than I used to, and it struck me recently that part of the reason is that it's about the only place nowadays where I can find decent quality relief from the barrage of 3D films and even 3D TV series produced in the west.
There is a lot that is repetitious, annoying and even embarrassing about anime (I might note that the thing I probably like least about it are anime fans, who are often snobs, and seem to regard anything originiating outside of Japan as formulaic and juvenile, without realising the same traits staring them in the face in anime).
Fact is though, two or three of the last four or five animated anythings that really turned my crank were animes, and whereas there are far more that do little or nothing for me, it seems to be the most fruitful area for me to turn at the moment (except obscure old short movies and such things).
The one thing that frustrates me about anime, as I've observed numerous times, is that almost without exception, it's aimed at a pretty narrow demographic - basically teenagers, give or take a couple of years - but this is still more rewarding than watching endless mediocre kids TV.
Of course the best western animation for kids also has an adult track (see my post about 'Road Rovers'), but if tbere's much of that around nowadays I don't know what it is. Western TV animation seems to be breaking into camps that are made purely for adults or for children. It's nice to have some adult animation around, but most of my favourite animations of any sort have been ones which contain something for adults AND kids.
But that's meandering a bit. My point was that I do seem to be taking refuge somewhat in anime, because, even if it's annoyingly limited-frame TV animation, it still generally looks better than western tv animation, and there is so much of it, that it tosses up a diamond in the rough a couple of times a year. That and the fact that I really enjoy the NOVEL like approach of anime. i.e. it virtually always tells a linear story, usually spread over 26 episodes. Western animation still doesn't seem to want to try to do this, and prior to what we now know as anime becoming popular, about the only such things I can remember on western TV were 'Spartakus' and 'Mysterious Cities of Gold' (which were both mainly French). American shows, even the really good ones, are still stuck in a standalone episode format.
And lastly, I do feel - though perhaps it's just because I don't get exposed to as much of it as I once did - that American TV animation went through a golden era in the 90's (actually the whole of American TV did), and the number of truly great shows since 2000 has been minimal (it is tempting to point out that this trend coincides with a certain election, but I'm not sure I can concoct an explanation for that on such short notice)
So there, anyway. I'm not an anime fan. I don't go around learning Japanese phrases so I can annoy people by using them to show how much I understand Japanese culture and anime. I have been in Japan for probably a total of about 26 hours, and the depth of my knowledge of Japanese culture could probably be summarised in the observations, "the rooves are all blue, forest grows everywhere they haven't planted a building, the toilets are frightening, and I have never paid so much for a can of cold coffee in my life." In fact I have never paid anything at all for a can of cold coffee, other than in Japan.
However, a reasonable overall amount of intelligent, creative and even poignant animation is coming out of that country, and people seem still to be actually drawing much of it rather than rendering it, so I'm finding myself inreasingly looking around for an interesting sounding anime series, rather than waiting for the next Hollywood extruded-rubber 3D feature film.
Loop
There is a lot that is repetitious, annoying and even embarrassing about anime (I might note that the thing I probably like least about it are anime fans, who are often snobs, and seem to regard anything originiating outside of Japan as formulaic and juvenile, without realising the same traits staring them in the face in anime).
Fact is though, two or three of the last four or five animated anythings that really turned my crank were animes, and whereas there are far more that do little or nothing for me, it seems to be the most fruitful area for me to turn at the moment (except obscure old short movies and such things).
The one thing that frustrates me about anime, as I've observed numerous times, is that almost without exception, it's aimed at a pretty narrow demographic - basically teenagers, give or take a couple of years - but this is still more rewarding than watching endless mediocre kids TV.
Of course the best western animation for kids also has an adult track (see my post about 'Road Rovers'), but if tbere's much of that around nowadays I don't know what it is. Western TV animation seems to be breaking into camps that are made purely for adults or for children. It's nice to have some adult animation around, but most of my favourite animations of any sort have been ones which contain something for adults AND kids.
But that's meandering a bit. My point was that I do seem to be taking refuge somewhat in anime, because, even if it's annoyingly limited-frame TV animation, it still generally looks better than western tv animation, and there is so much of it, that it tosses up a diamond in the rough a couple of times a year. That and the fact that I really enjoy the NOVEL like approach of anime. i.e. it virtually always tells a linear story, usually spread over 26 episodes. Western animation still doesn't seem to want to try to do this, and prior to what we now know as anime becoming popular, about the only such things I can remember on western TV were 'Spartakus' and 'Mysterious Cities of Gold' (which were both mainly French). American shows, even the really good ones, are still stuck in a standalone episode format.
And lastly, I do feel - though perhaps it's just because I don't get exposed to as much of it as I once did - that American TV animation went through a golden era in the 90's (actually the whole of American TV did), and the number of truly great shows since 2000 has been minimal (it is tempting to point out that this trend coincides with a certain election, but I'm not sure I can concoct an explanation for that on such short notice)
So there, anyway. I'm not an anime fan. I don't go around learning Japanese phrases so I can annoy people by using them to show how much I understand Japanese culture and anime. I have been in Japan for probably a total of about 26 hours, and the depth of my knowledge of Japanese culture could probably be summarised in the observations, "the rooves are all blue, forest grows everywhere they haven't planted a building, the toilets are frightening, and I have never paid so much for a can of cold coffee in my life." In fact I have never paid anything at all for a can of cold coffee, other than in Japan.
However, a reasonable overall amount of intelligent, creative and even poignant animation is coming out of that country, and people seem still to be actually drawing much of it rather than rendering it, so I'm finding myself inreasingly looking around for an interesting sounding anime series, rather than waiting for the next Hollywood extruded-rubber 3D feature film.
Loop