A complete Review On anime culture and its impact on the west West

Excellent Article and supports many of my thought on the medum

quote:

---

When Hayao Miyazaki announced his retirement from feature films last September, countless media outlets and fans around the world mourned the loss of a beloved filmmaker—Japan’s most famous since Akira Kurosawa—whose movies had brought gravitas to the country’s animation industry, long a niche interest in the West. Thanks to thought-provoking films like Akira, Ghost in the Shell, and of course, Miyazaki’s work, American interest in Japanese animation had exploded over the last three decades and made a huge cultural impact. Critical focus, however, has stayed largely on feature films, while anime—referring specifically to Japanese animated television series—has not earned the same kind of respect. An animator like Daisuke Nishio, for example, who directed the hit Dragon Ball and Dragon Ball Z series, is not considered an artist like Miyazaki, whose drawings have been displayed in museums in Paris. Related Story The 48 Japanese Schoolgirls Aiming to Take Over the World But while anime has always struggled to be taken seriously as an art form, one director might be able to make critics reconsider: Shinichiro Watanabe, director of Cowboy Bebop, whose new series Space Dandy is debuting on Cartoon Network’s Adult Swim on January 4. Japanese filmmakers first began experimenting with animation in the early 1900s, not long after animators in the West like Winsor McCay (Little Nemo in Slumberland), but it was not until the 1960s that the industry began to take shape under Osamu Tezuka, the artist whose large-eyed aesthetic is most associated with anime to this day. In 1963, Tezuka's Astro Boy was the country’s first popular televised animated series and was such a hit that it was the first anime broadcast overseas. Demand grew over the years and spread around the world, but despite its by-the-numbers popularity, anime remained a largely subcultural taste, not helped by the social outcast otaku image that persists, even in Japan. In general, animation is still widely considered children's entertainment, which has been difficult to overcome, and anime has added cultural boundaries to conquer. Another obstacle standing in the way of anime’s critical acceptance is the fact that it’s a highly commercial product, reportedly drawing more than $2 billion each year. Driven by industry demands, most directors faithfully adapt popular manga (comics) or stick to tried-and-true story lines. The shoujo (young girl) genre, for example, hits the same plot points (class field trip, hot springs vacation, Christmas party) in each version of the high school love story. Unsurprisingly, shows that have successfully infiltrated American pop culture, like Pokémon and Sailor Moon, are highly formulaic, mindless entertainment. Of course, there are directors who have worked against the studio system. In 1995, Hideaki Anno directed the highly controversial series Neon Genesis Evangelion, which was praised for its dark tone and post-modernist exploration of psychoanalytical, religious, and sexual themes. Evangelion has been credited with advancing a more serious study of anime in Japan, but thanks in part to its use of mecha (giant mobile robots piloted by humans; think Pacific Rim’s Jaegers), it was deemed too alienating and foreign for most Western audiences at the time, despite the fact that it subverted that mecha genre. Shortly after Evangelion ended, Watanabe entered the scene. Born in 1965 in Kyoto, Watanabe grew up during the golden days of Tezuka and the first anime boom. As an employee of Sunrise studio, he worked on storyboards and co-directed projects, before making his full directorial debut with Cowboy Bebop in 1998. The series, about a crew of space bounty hunters in the year 2071, referenced spaghetti westerns, film noir, and Hong Kong action movies, with each episode dedicated to a different style of music, like the titular bebop. It was a huge success, and the first anime series to show on Adult Swim when it launched in 2001. Critics loved the jazz and blues-inspired soundtrack, the elegant film noir style, and existential themes. Along with Evangelion, it’s been called one of the greatest anime series of all time, and it is arguably the single most popular “serious” anime among Americans. It’s not hard to imagine anime taking the same path to critical acceptance that live-action feature films did long ago. In 2004, Watanabe followed Bebop with Samurai Champloo, which mixed Japan’s Edo period (samurai) with hip-hop culture (graffiti artists, etc.). Aside from being another hit (the series aired in more than 13 countries and was licensed for distribution in the U.S. before it even showed in Japan), Champloo cemented Watanabe’s reputation for combining unexpected cultural influences to create his own referential style. “When you’re making anime, if you get all of your inspiration from anime . . . . it’s going to lack originality and creativity, so I try to get my inspiration from different genres.” Watanabe said at a press conference at Otakon 2013. (Unfortunately, due to scheduling conflicts, Watanabe was unable to complete an interview before press time.) Despite his success, Watanabe is still relatively unknown outside of anime circles—especially compared to other Japanese filmmakers like Kurosawa, who was posthumously named one of the top five Asians of the century by Asiaweek magazine and CNN. But while it might seem impossible for anime to ever break out, it’s not hard to imagine anime taking the same path to critical acceptance that live-action feature films did long ago. The first films produced at the turn of the 20th century were simple, static creations, like a straight-on recording of a performed play. D.W. Griffith was one of the first directors to open people’s eyes to the medium’s possibilities with his early shorts and controversial feature film, Birth of a Nation. By experimenting with camera angles, lighting, shots, and editing, he changed people’s perception of movies. Filmmakers like Alfred Hitchcock and Orson Welles would take those techniques and advance them to create one of the world’s most dominant industries and an accepted art form. In the past decade, studios like Pixar have used technology to further push the seeming limits of a truly limitless medium, but narratively and artistically speaking, anime has long been ahead of American animation. Anime critics like Trish Ledoux and Doug Ranney have written that early 1970s anime “absolutely overflow with tracking shots, long-view establishing shots, fancy pans, unusual point-of-view camera angles, and extreme close-ups.” In an interview with Anime News Network, Watanabe said that he finds today’s animation trends to be too toned down and wants to create animation that has never been seen before. “I feel like I want to make anime that destroys the norms, something that would be strong, even if it is unconventional,” he said. Additionally, early films were seen as cheap, low-class entertainment, so in order to legitimize film as an art form, directors and producers tried to bring the upper classes on board. Filmmakers began borrowing from literature, the stage, and other established art forms, hoping that audiences would learn to accept one through the other. This technique has been effective for animated works, too, in the past: Chuck Jones’s “What’s Opera Doc,” a Warner Brothers’ cartoon that was voted No. 1 in the book The 50 Greatest Cartoons, parodied Wagner’s operas. Cowboy Bebop, similarly, is dense with references to American films—particularly from the 1970s—music, and TV shows, from Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (one of Watanabe’s favorite films) to Cool Hand Luke to Batman: The Animated Series, essentially forming Watanabe’s love letter to American pop culture. American music—jazz, blues, early rock—and counterculture, like the Beat Generation, were also central to the show and created an atmosphere that was innately accessible to American audiences. Another point in Watanabe’s favor comes by way of the auteur theory, first written about by Francois Truffaut for Cahiers du Cinema in 1954 and again by Andrew Sarris in the U.S. in 1962. Auteur theory is the idea that a director’s personal vision or creative voice must come through a film to make it a work of art. According to Sarris, the second premise of auteur theory says, “Over a group of films, a director must exhibit certain recurrent characteristics of style, which serve as his signature.” Along with technique and interior meaning, the director’s style must come not out of a single work, but over the course of many films. Though the theory is controversial and far from perfect—Truffaut himself later disowned it—it can be a useful tool, especially when examining other mediums. This might explain the global appreciation of Miyazaki, who has a clear aesthetic and message that he has cultivated over decades of work, and clearly fits Sarris’s criterion for being an auteur. When audiences hear the words “Miyazaki film,” they know to expect airships, hand-drawn animation, and environmental and pacifist themes. He is an auteur, and thus an artist, so his work is taken seriously. Auteur theory holds that a director’s personal vision or creative voice must come through a film to make it a work of art. Watanabe is establishing his “recurrent characteristics of style,” as Sarris would say. With Space Dandy, his third major television series, Watanabe is in the process of building his own body of work, this time reuniting the entire creative team from Cowboy Bebop, notably screenwriter Keiko Nobumoto. A comedic series, Space Dandy follows the adventures of Dandy, an alien bounty hunter and self-perceived ladies’ man with an '80s-style pompadour. Dandy is essentially Watanabe’s ode to the 1980s, and parodies space operas (imagine the Star Wars: Episode IV poster spray-painted on the side of a van), older sci-fi movies like John Carpenter’s Dark Star, and anime from the 1970s and 1980s like the first Lupin III TV series, which Miyazaki worked on and had also influenced Bebop. Although Watanabe is establishing his “recurrent characteristics of style,” as Sarris would say (space, bounty hunting, pop-culture nostalgia), he’s also pushing his limits. Each episode of Space Dandy, which will take place on a different star, will feature a different art and directing style. “In Space Dandy, I’m trying to challenge myself and do stuff I haven’t done before,” Watanabe said to ANN. “I’m aiming for a really funny, cool, and crazy creation.” Cartoon Network has faith in Watanabe’s growing star power: In a first for any anime series, Space Dandy will be simulcast in the U.S., Korea, India, Europe, Oceania, and across Southeast Asia, with English audio or Japanese with subtitles. Ironically, Space Dandy’s campy style—there is a literal boob monster in one episode—begs to not be taken too seriously, but with his pop-culture sensibility and cinematic directing style, Watanabe may be anime’s greatest chance of getting the respect it deserves.

---

__________________
Watch everything but only take the good things from it

Ask, think and learn. Because the more we know the more we grow.

Watching the wrong to happen is the same as commiting the wrong.

If it looks like things are forcing you to be creative, Then be creative.

its a uniquely Miyazaki film, one only he could make and its uniqueness places it beyond being easily critiqued.[About Porco Rosso]
taken from a quote of Saddletank and Orphic Okapi

I think this is mainly an article about Shinichiro Watanabe and his new series, rather than a complete review of the impact of anime culture on the West.

It was a good read, though.

__________________

"...thanks in part to its use of mecha (giant mobile robots piloted by humans; think Pacific Rim’s Jaegers), it was deemed too alienating and foreign for most Western audiences at the time..."

What's this reviewer talking about? Mecha anime is one of the genres that western audiences, mainly young male western audiences, identify with and enjoy the most.

Some other questionable and nonsensical conclusions and statements made by the writer as well. "Anime is a big money-making industry ergo it cannot have artistic value"

Huh?

I agree with Mush; this review is definitely not about "anime's cultural impact on the west," it even rambles off in irrelevant directions such as discussing early western live cinema directing techniques. Not even sure what points the reviewer is trying to make, the whole article is a rambling mess. If I were his editor I'd have thrown it out.

__________________
Isakaya High School Roleplaying Info

"An old man like me stands no chance fighting against a high school girl in her underwear" - Oshino Meme, Nekomonogatari (Kuro)

Post last edited by Saddletank on 01.12.2014, 09:06 PM.

I think almost all the big names have been touched in the article.

The article is about general audience. And it also talked about the otaku image of anime love home and abroad.

The title says if watanabe's new series will attract more audience but it says very little reviewing that.

somethings from the article that came to my attention

" Evangelion
has been credited
with advancing a
more serious study
of anime in Japan"

This is very true.

and

" He is an auteur, and
thus an artist, so his
work is taken
seriously. Auteur
theory holds that a
director’s personal
vision or creative
voice must come
through a film to
make it a work of
art. " (about miyazaki)

I agree too. actually this is what i mean by style

and your point saddle that
" Anime is a
big money-making industry
ergo it cannot have artistic
value" is not said in the article.

I think i have discussed it over and over that certain types of stories,characteristics and drawings are used over and over in anime. They ARE targeting people who like anime rather than general people. Its purely because of money. so i agree with this

" it’s a
highly commercial
product, reportedly
drawing more than
$2 billion each year.
Driven by industry
demands, most
directors faithfully
adapt popular
manga (comics) or
stick to tried-and-
true story lines "


It is true that the article is about random facts. That is why i gave that catchy heading. But very good article i my opinion. And the atlantic is a popular site. So.......

__________________
Watch everything but only take the good things from it

Ask, think and learn. Because the more we know the more we grow.

Watching the wrong to happen is the same as commiting the wrong.

If it looks like things are forcing you to be creative, Then be creative.

its a uniquely Miyazaki film, one only he could make and its uniqueness places it beyond being easily critiqued.[About Porco Rosso]
taken from a quote of Saddletank and Orphic Okapi

Post last edited by saviour2012 on 01.13.2014, 04:08 AM.

The focus here is definitely on Watanabe's new show, and really not about anime's influence in the west. The author has some decent questions, but I'm not sure the answers are much good. For example, the notion of Watanabe as auteur conveniently leaves out Sakamichi no Apollon, which was a manga adaptation and very different from his other works. If that were included, it would somewhat undermine the idea of Watanabe having a consistent style.

I think also that talking about directors in this context isn't really fair. When we talk about western TV series, how often do we talk about who the director is? We simply don't, except where it's a director who usually works in feature films. There will be mentions of the creator, or sometimes the showrunner, but TV series are generally not thought of as the vision of a director in the west. The implication is that anime is somehow not the same as other television, which isn't really true. Just like anything else you can see on TV, there is some which is valuable and deserves awards, but there's also plenty of crap.

I don't agree that anime is all about money, even when talking about series. And actually, that isn't really implied in the article.

What they do suggest is that most of the anime that makes headway outside of Japan is "mindless entertainment". I'm not so comfortable with this idea. For one, I'm sure many Sailor Moon fans would seriously object to that insinuation, and also, I think that we actually don't get most of the rubbish. Long-running shows eventually make their way to the US, simply because they're already a phenomenon in their home country, but most of the really "mindless" stuff doesn't get anywhere because most people aren't interested in importing something that isn't any good.

__________________

Most American TV shows have multiple directors who divide the work by episode, with a group of producers and/or creators responsible for maintaining artistic integrity across the whole show. So the auteur theory doesn't really apply at all.

It actually makes way more sense to apply the auteur theory to anime, where at least in many cases, you have a single director heading the project. I don't think it's crazy to think of Watanabe as an auteur, considering Sakamichi no Apollon is all about young jazz musicians. All of his works seem to revolve around music in one way or another.

Other directors you could probably view as auteurs: Kunihiko Ikuhara, Masaaki Yuasa, certainly Satoshi Kon (although he only directed one series, but it fits nicely alongside his films), possibly Isao Takahata (didn't he direct a bunch of TV when he was younger?)

__________________
I like tea!

Like Mush said, it was a good read. I personally feel that it doesn't go beyond that, though. The arguments were shallow and almost narcissistic and, to be honest, reeks of fanboyism.

Meh.

__________________
I am me.
I am who I am.
I am Roarkiller.
No one else is me.

Roarkiller.net
Isakaya High RPG Site

quote:

---

Originally posted by fenkashi
Screw your opinions, they are not relevant ^^.

---

I think arren you are missing the point.

sailor moon fans are anime lover/animax watcher

in mainstream i think exceptionally few people know about the directors orphic mentioned. because they ARE serious and is NOT entertainment very much.

Even Hayao Miyazaki is less known. OR studio ghibli/IG production/MAD house/Sunrise/[..put a name of a great anime studio]
and some of their most important works.

Such as Sunrise's latest highest rated work was Code Geass. The story was definitely good even to some extent philosophically. But they totally applied anime recipe at fullest. It was because of the worldwide reach. So even it has potential it WILL be considered mindless entertainment to everyone except us.same can be said to pokemon too. But pay attention Doraemon is not considered mindless entertainment. Kids in my country soo much involved in this that my country literally banned the channels[disney channel and disney xd]. Parents said that children learned to lie and do some other bad from the series.[i dont agree, and i have a little sister of age 10 who watched it and did not get any side-effects].it is even considered to be a mascot of japan sometimes. And the show really did not earn much money when it was launched. But now the new one are very different.That is because of the worldwide acceptance

Anime characteristics is present and that is done for money. why else would they use it? i do not have any answer. and you guys never provided any artistic reasons to use it.


Now only one way we can consider it. that is by just admitting total anime characteristics somewhat creative/artistic/good/bla bla bla.

I dont agree with this idea.

__________________
Watch everything but only take the good things from it

Ask, think and learn. Because the more we know the more we grow.

Watching the wrong to happen is the same as commiting the wrong.

If it looks like things are forcing you to be creative, Then be creative.

its a uniquely Miyazaki film, one only he could make and its uniqueness places it beyond being easily critiqued.[About Porco Rosso]
taken from a quote of Saddletank and Orphic Okapi

Post last edited by saviour2012 on 01.13.2014, 07:30 AM.

quote:

---

Originally posted by saviour2012
Anime characteristics is present and that is done for money. why else would they use it? i do not have any answer. and you guys never provided any artistic reasons to use it.

---

__________________
Isakaya High School Roleplaying Info

"An old man like me stands no chance fighting against a high school girl in her underwear" - Oshino Meme, Nekomonogatari (Kuro)

Post last edited by Saddletank on 01.13.2014, 08:12 AM.

What I was getting at mainly was that I find the article is rather aimless and comes up with things only to not really back them up. While anime does have different trends and styles compared to western TV, the author of this seems to view it as some completely different format, and expects something special of it.

My complaint about "mindless entertainment" was the "mindless" portion. TV series are generally made for entertainment, because a lot of time and money goes into them and they have to make that money back. That doesn't mean they can't have any other value though, because a TV show is just as capable of depth as any film or book. And as Saddles says, of course money is important, because this is many people's jobs as part of an industry. But something can be of good quality and artistic merit and still make money.

Anime has its own trends and cliches, just as western animation does. There are many reasons why these can recur, for example: familiarity, parody, satire, homage. The article talked about the history of film, and how early developments paved the road for how later films would be made. In the same way, TV anime (and manga, as it's closely related) builds upon previous works and genres, using recognisable styles, techniques and archetypes to convey what the creators want to convey. It's not simply that people slap familiar aspects in to unrelated works to make a quick buck (not that this never happens, as in any artistic medium), but by appealing to the audience's existing knowledge, meaning is created. Is that an artistic enough reason?

__________________

two very good post from arren and saddle.

the points made are really great

quote:

---

The article talked about the history of film, and how early developments paved the road for how later films would be made. In the same way, TV anime (and manga, as it's closely related) builds upon previous works and genres, using recognisable styles, techniques and archetypes to convey what the creators want to convey. It's not simply that people slap familiar aspects in to unrelated works to make a quick buck (not that this never happens, as in any artistic medium), but by appealing to the audience's existing knowledge, meaning is created. Is that an artistic enough reason?

---

__________________
Watch everything but only take the good things from it

Ask, think and learn. Because the more we know the more we grow.

Watching the wrong to happen is the same as commiting the wrong.

If it looks like things are forcing you to be creative, Then be creative.

its a uniquely Miyazaki film, one only he could make and its uniqueness places it beyond being easily critiqued.[About Porco Rosso]
taken from a quote of Saddletank and Orphic Okapi

Post last edited by saviour2012 on 01.13.2014, 09:55 AM.

Anime is most definitely a medium. In Japanese, it refers to all animation, wherever it comes from, and in English it means specifically Japanese animation. We think of it separately from other animation due to its unique development and industry. However, whether or not you group it together with all other animation, the term does not refer to a genre. Anime certainly contains genres, many of which are specific to anime and manga, but I think it's a misunderstanding to consider it a genre in itself.

I would argue also that any animated work could be called a "cartoon", and that the tendency to avoid using this word for more serious or adult-oriented works is simply because of long-lasting negative attitudes towards animation as an art form. The point that you made about western animation rarely being considered art reflects this. Because animation is seen as less legitimate, there is less chance to make artistic statements with it, particularly in the west.

On the other hand, because the anime industry is rather different and has its own distinct history, there is a greater tendency for anime series and films to be made with a more varied audience and grander ambitions in mind. It is this same history that allowed the development of anime-specific tropes that you see often, and I think the presence of these tropes doesn't necessarily prevent anime from having artistic merit.

__________________

quote:

---

Originally posted by arren18
We think of it separately from other animation due to its unique development and industry. However, whether or not you group it together with all other animation, the term does not refer to a genre. Anime certainly contains genres, many of which are specific to anime and manga, but I think it's a misunderstanding to consider it a genre in itself.

---

__________________
Watch everything but only take the good things from it

Ask, think and learn. Because the more we know the more we grow.

Watching the wrong to happen is the same as commiting the wrong.

If it looks like things are forcing you to be creative, Then be creative.

its a uniquely Miyazaki film, one only he could make and its uniqueness places it beyond being easily critiqued.[About Porco Rosso]
taken from a quote of Saddletank and Orphic Okapi

Post last edited by saviour2012 on 01.13.2014, 10:24 AM.

quote:

---

Originally posted by saviour2012 but then i come across the question that are you considering anime to be a medium.

i consider animation to be a medium and anime to be a genre. just like cartoon is a genre

---

__________________
Isakaya High School Roleplaying Info

"An old man like me stands no chance fighting against a high school girl in her underwear" - Oshino Meme, Nekomonogatari (Kuro)

Post last edited by Saddletank on 01.13.2014, 11:52 AM.

a good discussion overall. i can end my understanding quoting two points

quote:

---

Originally posted by Saddletank

1.You cannot directly equate words like "animation" and "cartoon" to the anime industry because of cultural differences.


2.This is a function of human nature. If only a small proportion of anime is used to convey deep messages and for artistic purposes then it follows that the majority does not (e.g. Naruto). If a huge market like America is going to be exposed to a whole new industry (anime) then logic tells us that more people will become aware of the majority of the work produced, and the minority of the work produced which is of high artistic merit is not going to become well known to the mass of the audience.

Fine art will always only appeal or be well known to a minority. How many average British people in the street could name 20 artists whose works hang in our National Gallery? Very few I would hazard. Likewise, given 100 anime fans, what percentage would enjoy watching Serial Experiments Lain, Paranoia Agent or Nausicaa over Naruto, Bleach or (shudder) Queens Blade?

I'd go so far to suggest that because the west equates animation with children's entertainment that fewer mature viewers take anime seriously as an entertainment medium in which they see it worthwhile to invest their time. If that trend is true then it would help explain the large numbers of Naruto and Queens Blade fans and the relatively smaller number of Nausicaa fans.

Likewise many more humans will go and watch a football match than will go to an art gallery and study a painting. Many people (for whatever reasons) are not drawn to have a strong interest in art. I think the pressures of the contemporary world are making this situation worse.

---

__________________
Watch everything but only take the good things from it

Ask, think and learn. Because the more we know the more we grow.

Watching the wrong to happen is the same as commiting the wrong.

If it looks like things are forcing you to be creative, Then be creative.

its a uniquely Miyazaki film, one only he could make and its uniqueness places it beyond being easily critiqued.[About Porco Rosso]
taken from a quote of Saddletank and Orphic Okapi

The symbol

=/=

Means "does not equal". I think you might have thought it means "does equal" which could explain the confusion.

Does that help?

__________________
Isakaya High School Roleplaying Info

"An old man like me stands no chance fighting against a high school girl in her underwear" - Oshino Meme, Nekomonogatari (Kuro)

i meant a show for money=not very good most of the time=/=rubbish[a rubbish show is not watchable]

__________________
Watch everything but only take the good things from it

Ask, think and learn. Because the more we know the more we grow.

Watching the wrong to happen is the same as commiting the wrong.

If it looks like things are forcing you to be creative, Then be creative.

its a uniquely Miyazaki film, one only he could make and its uniqueness places it beyond being easily critiqued.[About Porco Rosso]
taken from a quote of Saddletank and Orphic Okapi

I just want to mention that using Studio Ghibli as an indicator of trends in anime perception in Japan is a bit misleading. Studio Ghibli is an exception in many ways, including its perception by the Japanese audiences.

Post last edited by Theowne on 01.14.2014, 01:10 AM.

quote:

---

Originally posted by Theowne
I just want to mention that using Studio Ghibli as an indicator of trends in the anime industry or anime perception in Japan is a bit misleading. Studio Ghibli is an exception in many ways, including its perception by the Japanese audiences.

---

__________________
Watch everything but only take the good things from it

Ask, think and learn. Because the more we know the more we grow.

Watching the wrong to happen is the same as commiting the wrong.

If it looks like things are forcing you to be creative, Then be creative.

its a uniquely Miyazaki film, one only he could make and its uniqueness places it beyond being easily critiqued.[About Porco Rosso]
taken from a quote of Saddletank and Orphic Okapi

Post last edited by saviour2012 on 01.14.2014, 12:37 AM.

I guesswhat I mean is that invoking Studio Ghibli in a discussion about whether Japan treats anime more seriously than the West is a tricky thing to do, because Ghibli and Miyazaki occupy a rather distinct place in the industry and in the culture.

I suppose it's Saddletank's sentence here that I was thinking of when I said that:

quote:

---

In Japan however the anime industry has always had a far wider target audience than animation had in the west. While some anime is aimed at young people, far more is aimed at young adults and older adults. A six year old who would be happy watching Scooby Doo could also watch and enjoy Princess Mononoke, but they would probably not identify the deeper ecological message Miyazaki was expressing in that work.

---

Post last edited by Theowne on 01.14.2014, 01:54 AM.