…Yep. We’re gonna talk about anime in this post.
I don’t blame you if
you want to start running. I’ll even
give you a head start. I’ll give you a
full five seconds before I start up a little discu-
TOO LATE! Ha ha!
Now you’re obligated by law to hit the jump and read on! You FOOL!
So apparently, the
internet was abuzz for about a week over the supposed “revival” of Toonami --
the much-adored programming block that introduced children of the 90s and 2000s
to the sprawling world of “Japanimation.”
As far as I can tell, that’s just part of an elaborate April Fool’s
joke; that won’t stop people all over the States to keep hoping for an
honest-to-God resurrection. If Cartoon
Network’s bigwigs decide to bring it back, I won’t complain; it’s certainly a
much more appreciable motion than trying to resurrect that weak-ass
Miguzi.
Better known as the poor man's Toonami.
A professor once asked
me how anime got its start in the U.S.
How a media type could enthrall so many people, and influence them so
thoroughly. My answer? Pokémon. The one-two punch of games and TV, running at
the same time, and bolstered by the movie release had to get people in on the
action. Because of Pokémon, I’d argue that Digimon
came around as a means to rival Pokémon
(and steal some of its thunder/money).
And of course, Digimon
preceded Medabots, and there was Mon Colle Knights, and then another
season of Digimon and Cyber Six (for like two weeks)…combine
that with the slow but steady rise of the internet, and suddenly you’ve got
pandemic levels of popularity.
There were two things I
should have mentioned, in retrospect.
The first is that anime was already around -- albeit in scattered,
distilled, and virtually obscured form -- well before the release of Pokemon.
Thinking back (and to my surprise), the first anime I ever saw was The Noozles, which aired on Nick Jr. for
some reason. I say for some reason
because apparently, it was weird as hell.
Beyond that, there was still G-Force
and Voltron and Speed Racer, with a dash of Sailor
Moon; Power Rangers was
indoctrinating people on the ways of over-the-top action for years. The breakout of anime was like a flowerpot
watering the seeds planted in the sub-consciousness of children -- and letting
those plants bloom as they may.
The second? Toonami.
It introduced children to shonen and mecha anime by way of Dragon Ball Z and Gundam Wing, respectively. It
showed us how to bat down electric lake monsters via Big O, and how to go head-to-head with arm-equipped spaceships via Outlaw Star. It taught us how even an idiot prone to
getting bopped on the head could double as the greatest reformed killer ever to
walk Japan in Rurouni Kenshin, and
how to handle life with five beautiful alien women (and one cute alien girl) in
Tenchi Muyo. There was a metric shit-ton of stuff to like
about Toonami, no matter what your persuasion.
Just as I’ve known girls who merrily discussed the next episode of Dragon Ball Z, I’ve known boys who liked
the frills and sparkles of Cardcaptors or
Sailor Moon.
Long story short, those boys were me.
I honestly believe that
if more people watched anime, there’d be fewer wars, fewer political debates,
and we’d be on the road to world peace…if only because we’re so busy streaming Kamisama Dolls on Crunchyroll that we
don’t want to do anything else.
Regardless, I wish that more people were willing to give anime a chance,
and not just think of the shows as “two angry dudes screaming” or
“tentacle-tastic close encounters.” And
to that end, I figure it’s time for me to make a list -- a multi-point argument
as to why people like anime so much.
To be fair, I want to
make a quick distinction: just because anime CAN be good doesn’t mean it always
is. Quite the contrary; just as there’s
a lot of amazing video games out there, there’s plenty of schlock in the medium. So while I’ll probably say something like “Yo
man, anime is X,” that doesn’t necessarily mean it’s ALWAYS X. Just that, when executed correctly, it CAN be
X.
So hey, why not stick
around? You might learn something.
5) Anime is weird.
Any reason to use this picture...
If you take five
minutes to describe any fantasy-based fiction in the past…oh, hundred years or
so to someone without any prior knowledge, you’re bound to get some weird
looks. Maybe even a head tilt. For example, The Hunger Games:
“Children are forced
into gladiatorial combat by their districts and Lady Gaga knockoffs while their
actions are broadcast all over the world, American
Idol style.”
How about Harry Potter?
“An orphan mistreated
by his adoptive uncle and aunt is whisked away to a castle/school full of young
wizards and witches, where he is routinely forced to save the day from a
snake-faced lord of black arts.”
They’ll net you some
confusion, I’d wager. So when somebody
describes anime to you, it shouldn’t be that big of a hump, right? Like, say, Naruto.
“A boy with a demon fox
sealed inside his body campaigns to become the king of ninjas, cooperating with
fellow young ninjas to unravel the mysteries and conspiracies that grip his
world.”
First rule of anime: don't bother asking about hair colors.
Pretty simple, right? At a base level, that’s what anime is: a
simple premise, with a few…er, embellishments.
For example, you’ve got one ninja who puffs up into a ball of fat and
rolls over his opponents like the boulder from Indiana Jones. There’s
another ninja that can fuse with his dog to become a giant two-headed wolf, and
they spin towards you like a drill (but can only do so if the dog pees first,
so it can use its nose to know its surroundings). And there’s an alternate dimension full of
talking frogs, and giant frogs/snakes/slugs can be summoned at will if you
sacrifice some of your blood. Also,
frequent references to an in-universe series called “Make-Out Paradise.”
Naruto is actually one of the more sedate anime franchises out
there, I think. If you want real balls-to-the-wall
insanity, know this: there is a series out there called Panty and Stocking with Garterbelt.
In it, there’s a character named Panty who takes off her panties and
turns them into a gun, and there’s a character named Stocking who takes off her
stockings and turns them into swords, and they’re angels that fight monsters
made of poop and transform to the beat of some vaguely sexual techno
music. Also, for 90% of the show they
look like this:
Second rule of anime: don't try making sense of it. You'll only slow yourself down.
Why is this good, you
ask? Think about it. Originality is the blessing of the muses;
it’s proof of a person or team’s creative potential. The ability to be weird allows for branching
out into levels of entertainment and surprise that no normal man or woman would
ever see coming. Anime encapsulates that
with almost eerie regularity -- as if making a story about robots that come outof children’s heads or suicidal teachers and their psychopathic students is as
simple as pouring a cup of orange juice in the morning. Anime lends itself to unpredictability; part
of the enjoyment is just seeing how many times you can go “what the hell is
that?” in a single episode.
A Prime Example: Nichijou
A principal suplexes a
deer. In a show about schoolgirls living
out their normal lives. There are no
words.
4) Anime is cool.
Anime (and manga, its
comic equivalent) is a visual medium. It
has to appeal to people, or face obscurity and failure. How do you get that appeal? How do you make yourself stick out from the
masses? Easy: be as cool as possible.
Assuming you haven’t
Googled it already, the shonen genre is a fine example on how to make cool
stuff happen. See, shonen is -- as its
name in Japanese suggests -- directed at young boys; fourteen and younger, as I
recall, albeit with some different demographics getting in on the mix. More on that in a bit; for now, all you need
to know is that in order to get those sweet child-dollars, the creators have to
give them a reason to go “Oooh” and “Ahhh” and “Woooah!”
Let’s go back to Naruto again. Remember how I mentioned that kid who turned
into a ball of fat? Well, that’s not all
he can do. Under normal circumstances,
he looks like this:
And after meeting
certain conditions, he looks like this:
And this is what he can
do:
In anime, anyone and
everyone has the potential to start off as a loser, but by story’s end -- even
by episode’s end -- find enough hidden potential to freeze professionalassassins, or perhaps save the universe through the power of rock. Anything can happen in an anime, but you can
bet that something bombastic, flashy, and positively dazzling is bound to
happen. It’s for the sake of seeing
moments like those that anime endures today -- and shall endure for years to
come.
A Prime Example: Sengoku Basara
Sengoku Basara does not give a SHIT if you don’t understand
it. Nearly everything that happens in
that series is for the sake of looking awesome.
Main character Date Masamune gallivants about with a horse/motorbike,
swings six swords at once, and regularly nukes battlefields with his presence
alone. His rival Yukimura can pretty
much do the same, and swings around two spears and fire like a common street
performer. There’s a pirate who surfs on
a flying anchor, several ninjas, a 12-foot-tall cyborg, and a general who rides
two horses at once while standing up and
scaling a castle wall. But the
coolness factor goes into overdrive whenever Hideyoshi Toyotomi takes to the
field.
Did I mention that
these are supposed to be loose interpretations of real Japanese warriors? See, this is the kind of stuff America just
doesn’t have, but should. I would gladly drop seventy million-thousand
dollars on a franchise featuring a flying George Washington.
3) Anime is hot.
I feel dirty for even
thinking this, but I’d be remiss if I didn’t at least acknowledge the
fact. Anime is…well, it’s adept at including fanservice in its
package.
What’s fanservice, you
ask? It’s exactly how it sounds --
giving the fans something appealing, be it a reference to some other franchise,
or something a bit more…steamy.
Ma'am, your...your, um...your shirt is...I have to go.
Back to Naruto.
The very first episode features the title character -- a twelve-year-old
boy, mind you -- displaying one of his ninja skills: transforming into a nude
teenage girl, with little more than smoke covering her no-no parts. Keep in mind that this is a franchise aimed
at young boys. Granted, things work a
little differently in Japan than they do here, but still…can you imagine the
outcry you’d hear from parents if Cheetara showed so much as her shoulder? And let’s not forget that one of Naruto’s most important characters --
the president of ninjas, to put it in layman’s terms -- is directly stated to
have a 106-centimeter bust (in an attempt to make it plot-relevant, no
less). I know the phrase “improbably
buxom” gets thrown out a lot on this blog, but I suspect that even that descriptor’s
a bit of a misnomer in this case.
This isn't even her at her biggest.
Why is this a good
thing, you ask? I tend to be indifferent
to fanservice at best and facepalm at worst, but I know there’s a subset of
fans that lap it up. Consider hat anime hug
pillows are things that actually exist, and you realize that certain characters sell very well. But it goes beyond that; for better or worse,
anime characters have massive appeal, and embed themselves in the consciousness
of fans. Like I’ve said before, I don’t hate fanservice-y characters just
because of the way they look; I just have a problem when characters are
fanservice and nothing else. And you’d
be surprised how often that’s not a problem in anime; even the hottest of
ladies can have thoughts, opinions, tragic pasts, and the ultra-sexy character
development that gets me salivating.
A Prime Example: Bleach
Bleach creator Tite Kubo has a monopoly
on improbably buxom females -- almost to the point where if you started trying
to count them off, you’d run out of fingers.
However, in spite of being created by a (presumably) heterosexual man,
there is an absolute deluge of handsome men.
Just one of many, many, many examples.
Dapper, ritzy
clothes. Perfect proportions, all lean
and mean. A bad habit of male characters
going shirtless for hours on end. Bleach is just one of dozens of examples
where men and women alike are celebrated for their attractiveness (and by
“celebrated” I mean a hair’s distance away from being whored out). Of course, there are hundreds of examples
that make the men only total hunkslices, while the women are comparatively
average…if they appear at all.
Obviously there's more scandalous stuff out there, but I'd like to entertain the idea that this blog is PG-13, so no more for you. Although, minor tangent: never
Google anything related to any anime ever, unless you know about its wiki, know
exactly what you want/are looking for, and are in your room alone. This is the internet we’re talking about;
porn is its lifeblood.
2) Anime is “deep.”
Notice that I used “deep”
in quotation marks. I did that for a number of reasons.
First, I want to have
this item do triple-duty. Anime is (at
times) deep in the conventional sense, as in it makes you think or has layers
of meanings and interpretations. In
addition, anime can also be deeply, deeply
affecting. Emotional moments are regular
occurrences, even in -- or perhaps, more regularly in -- the weirdest of
shows. Remember a while back when I
mentioned Nichijou, the show with the
wrestling principal? There are odd
moments like that posted all over YouTube…and then there are moments where two
friends come to love and respect each other even further. Heartwarming stuff indeed.
Second, I want to
assert that the depth of a series is debatable.
There’s a difference between, say, shoehorning in Judeo-Christian symbolism
and exploring the human condition through the lens of fantastic adversity (with
added Jungian interpretation). One way,
you look like you actually know what you’re talking about, and can engage in a
lengthy discussion with your fans. The
other way, you look like you just pulled names off of Wikipedia. It’s one thing to have names and references,
but another to use them meaningfully and in
a means relatable to your fans. Some anime
fails at this; others excel.
Hope you know the Bible from cover-to-cover.
Third, I want to extend
the meaning of “depth” to include “character depth.” In all but a few instances, characters need
to have arcs, and transform over the course of a story. It’s here where anime routinely -- routinely -- excels. It goes beyond just “X used to only be able
to make clones of himself, now he can summon a giant frog”; in the face of the
plot, the characters act and react, and come out stronger or more learned
because of it.
Let’s (again…) head
back to Naruto, even though I just
referenced it in those last few lines.
Yes, this is a series that features fart jokes and pee jokes, and makes
light of two boys kissing, and slapstick comedy that would make The Three Stooges groan. But in the same breath, you’ll have
characters -- children, mind you -- deal with the death and defection of
friends, clashes with society and loyalty, and try to define their worldviews
-- their nindo, or “ninja way” -- in the face of a world teetering on the brink
of a war. Japanese culture and legends
weave their way through many of its nuances, from The Tale of the Gallant Jiraiya to symbolism provided via a
character’s very name. You have the
pleasure of watching children, fresh and untested and woefully weaker than the
adults, grow up into tacticians, powerhouses, support units, and most of all
the heralds of the next generation of shinobi.
Angry men screaming, my
ass.
A Prime Example: Fullmetal Alchemist
Fullmetal Alchemist more than fulfills my proposed triple-threat of
depth. Alchemy and its entails are on
the forefront of course, but so are historical implications, and an examination
of the power (and threats) that “science” can give to mortal men…and the
consequences therein. The main
characters evolve, and evolve, and evolve again as they go toe-to-toe with
enemies of the present and sins of the past.
And emotion-wise? Watch this video.
If you watched that and
say you didn’t feel anything -- that you didn’t even mist up a bit -- then I
don’t know what to do with you. I’d say
you’re a damn liar, but I’d wager it’s unwise to insult the audience. So I’ll take the high ground and just throw
some sauerkraut at you should we ever meet in real life.
Punishment for the soulless.
1) Anime is passionate.
I won’t speak for anyone else, but when I
think of anime, I think of -- or should I say, prefer -- shows overflowing with
hot-blooded gusto. It’s this element
that anime taps more than any other medium out there, I think (barring a few
outliers here and there). Characters
speak with so much teeth-clenched conviction that you become a quivering mass
in the face of their proclamations.
Rousing speeches are made on the spot, making you wonder if the speakers
have files and files of material memorized beforehand. Themes like “never give up” and “believe in
your friends” are regularly weaponized; beating a villain can be as simple as
getting a character hyped enough to unleash a universe-shattering attack.
And before you ask, no,
Naruto isn’t immune to this. Fan favorite Rock Lee is built on passion; it’s his only saving grace, because he kind of
sucks at being a ninja.
You would too if your eyes were painted on.
He can’t use
ninja magic or ninja illusions; he doesn’t have any inherited abilities or
skills. All he can do is punch
things.
Rock Lee is very, very good at punching things.
Passion = power in
anime, and in more ways than one. You
feel the heat radiating from each character when they’re at their best; be it
in a fighting series like Naruto or
something a little bit more grounded, it’s hard not to feel some emotional osmosis
whenever a character goes full blast. Moreover,
it’s in anime where you feel the creators’ passion bursting through every
instance, and every incarnation. Games,
TV, comic, even (and often especially) the music -- it’s an assault on the senses
that can, and will, leave you breathless.
Given that, it’s no wonder why people want Toonami back so dearly. Not just to relive the glory days of their
childhood, oh no; it’s because anime makes them -- makes you -- feel something that few other mediums and franchises have.
A Prime Example: Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann
There are two things
you need to see before you do anything else.
The first is this: just one of many hot-blooded instances in the series
proper.
The second is this
song.
What’s so special about it? Well, have a look at this YouTube comment.
“There was a girl I
liked. Didn't even really know I had feelings for her, and things were awkward,
when we hung out.
Then one day, I was
about to drop her off. My radio had been stoled from my car a long time ago,
and I have my ipod as a replacement. In that ipod, is this song. Well needless
to say, when I gave her a hug to say goodbye this song started to play, my
heart swelled with courage, and I kissed her.
We've been dating for 3
years now.”
THAT’S the power of a
good story. It not only entertains, but
inspires just as readily. It’s something
that writers strive for, and what we as story-consumers look for. And, more often than not, it’s what anime
provides dutifully.
There. Now that wasn't so bad, was it?
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