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 Posted: Wed Aug 16, 2006 4:08 pm
More Animated Than Life: By Sato Kenji(read this before going further) After I got through with this, I really got to thinking, are they really that hateful of their own appearance, that they would use animation to break away? Are the fantasies of anime more human, than the films that use actual humans in them? Is this a sign of Japan trying to reject it's own culture?
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Posted: Tue Aug 22, 2006 9:35 am
This was a very interesting article. I always thought that the popularity of animation among adults in Japan verses the unpopularity of it in America was due to American's strong association with animation as "kids stuff," but it never occured to me that maybe the Japanese reject live action the way American's reject animation aimed towards adults.
But I have to say, and there is no mention of this in the article, that Japan's love of the animated and the West's love of the realistic runs longer and deeper than the movie age. Just look at Japan's theater traditions. In Noh, the performers wear masks, in Kabuki, they wear gaudy unrealistic costumes and makeup that renders the actor unrecognizable, in Bunraku, the "actors" are puppets.
Then there's the visual art traditions. In the West, until only about 150 years ago, painting or sculpting something as close to reality as possible was the name of the game. A lot of people still don't like art unless it looks like something. In Japan, being "realistic" has always been secondary in visual art, and people in Japanese art are pretty much always flatly colored with black outlines.
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Posted: Tue Aug 22, 2006 9:41 am
Freakezette This was a very interesting article. I always thought that the popularity of animation among adults in Japan verses the unpopularity of it in America was due to American's strong association with animation as "kids stuff," but it never occured to me that maybe the Japanese reject live action the way American's reject animation aimed towards adults. But I have to say, and there is no mention of this in the article, that Japan's love of the animated and the West's love of the realistic runs longer and deeper than the movie age. Just look at Japan's theater traditions. In Noh, the performers wear masks, in Kabuki, they wear gaudy unrealistic costumes and makeup that renders the actor unrecognizable, in Bunraku, the "actors" are puppets. Then there's the visual art traditions. In the West, until only about 150 years ago, painting or sculpting something as close to reality as possible was the name of the game. A lot of people still don't like art unless it looks like something. In Japan, being "realistic" has always been secondary in visual art, and people in Japanese art are pretty much always flatly colored with black outlines. This is all very interesting to know. I wish I could look things up myself, but whenever I try, I can never find what I'm looking for. No matter what I put in. sweatdrop
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Posted: Tue Aug 22, 2006 2:13 pm
Somehow, I always have a hard time beliveing this sort of thing. A whole country that hates itself and wants to be Americans?
That rings false to me.
But then again, I've never been to Japan so I wouldn't really know.
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Posted: Tue Aug 22, 2006 6:11 pm
Of course not every Japanese wants to be American. That's just silly. I think a lot of Japanese are actually quite proud of their country's uniqueness.
Also, I thought I'd point out that while many of my coworkers used to watch anime when they were kids or teenagers, none of them are familiar with current anime or manga series... with the exception of Studio Ghibli films, because those are very popular. Very few working-class adults watch anime or read manga - I was expecting to see more people reading manga on the train, but I'm far more likely to see people using their cell phones or reading novels. This is based on two summers of experience of working at two different Japanese companies, by the way.
Of course, as Freakezette pointed out, American and Japanese art aesthetics are completely different. The cultures have developed in different ways. Oh, and might I add that the essay author was trying to prove a point, so it is by no means an objective article in the first place.
You do know that Titanic beat out Princess Mononoke as Japan's highest grossing film, right? I don't know much of anything about Japan's domestic film industry, but American films are ridiculously popular over here. Everyone was raving about Batman Begins when it came out a few weeks ago.
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