Last night, I had the fortune of seeing the Blaxploitation Homage/Parody Black Dynamite, and it was fantastic. Despite not being familiar with blaxploitation films. The closest I’ve ever gotten to watching anything like that was The Last Dragon, which I’m kind of sure doesn’t even count. Anyway, fun was had by all, and for a good review you should read the one over at Subatomic Brainfreeze. And if you have the opportunity to go see it, go see it. Because you have the opportunity.
When I got home, Sub linked me to an interview with Scott Sanders and Michael Jai White, co-creators of Black Dynamite (with White playing the movie’s titular character), and something there caught my interest. In it, they said that their goal was not to make Black Dynamite representative of the apogee of blaxploitation cinema, but the films that were made when studios realized they had a successful formula on their hands, and sought to milk that cash cow for all it was worth. They wanted to celebrate the films which went through a checklist of items, from the rich white guy by the pool side, to the hot bitches, to the liberal application of kung fu, all wrapped in a packaging of shoddy cinematography and excessively expository dialogue. They wanted to celebrate the successful, yet mediocre blaxploitation films in all their film school-reject glory.
It’s an unusual idea I think, in any sort of media, to look fondly upon those works which were just kind of okay at best and weren’t terribly deep, but which sold and made names for themselves. Even in anime discussion, we usually celebrate the so-bad-it’s-good works while shunning the mediocre. And with anime the way it is now, people accuse it of running through checklists, utilizing excessively expository dialogue, and exploiting anime fans to make ultra-formulaic shows. Which they might be, but that doesn’t mean we can’t have fun with it.
From the bit of reading on blaxploitation I’ve done since yesterday (which obviously makes me an expert, right?), the genre came about when US movie studios, suffering the lowest revenues in about 20-30 years, realized that the African Americans were spending a large amount of money in the theaters and so decided to specifically target them by making movies for black people about black people. Much like Super Hero Comics fans and figure-buying moe fans, they became the target audience for relevant genres of entertainment media, for better or worse, because they had the money. Creativity aside, companies would like nothing more than for your dollars to go into their pockets so that they can keep making new works and continue to profit.
That’s the way things go, and much like how Black Dynamite really celebrates the genre of film it’s parodying, warts and all, I have to wonder how fans and creators in the future will regard the anime that comes out now. Maybe in ten to twenty years, we’ll be seeing throwbacks to those old shows of 2009. Not remakes, and not references to the ones that made you think, but the ones that told you, John Animefan, that there’s some kung fu and titties and nekomimi nurse maids in this show so why shouldn’t you watch it?
OGIUE MANIAX 
So, something like Seitokai no Ichizon, I suppose?
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Yeah, The Last Dragon doesn’t count. That film is a whole other kind of magic: a tale of the battle between the strongest black Asiaphiles in history.
(Guys, when SDS said he hadn’t seen The Last Dragon I said “whaaaaat” and we watched the end.)
I can’t think of an anime analog for exactly what Black Dynamite does, which is actually make a genuine example of what you’re spoofing. Only Gekiganger comes to mind as a remake in the style of the era, and I think even Gekiganger plays it too straight (as in it’s just directly cribbed from Getter Robo with some bits swapped around).
One of the things with giant robot anime is you can’t tell whether or not it’s playing it straight or a spoof.
They could probably make a good Pink Moemite. Hell, someone could make it right now, but nobody would be able to tell the difference.
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You’ve got that a little wrong. Last Dragon is one of the finest movies of my childhood, it was the OTHER people there who had never seen it.
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“One of the things with giant robot anime is you can’t tell whether or not it’s playing it straight or a spoof.”
Would Gaogaigar work in that sense briefly?
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Gaogaigar carries two guns: one to stop trouble, and one to make trouble.
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Perhaps in a couple decades we’ll all be complaining about the Hot New Moneymaking Trend in anime, waxing nostalgic about the halcyon days of anime (i.e. the 00s), and being bitter towards the fresh-faced young fans who still think that anime is the best thing ever yet also reflexively think that any anime older than 2025 is “hideous and old-fashioned”. And when we try to explain to them that, no, actually, there were good series back then, better series than this dreck we get in the future-current-day, we will be mocked relentlessly and be fed endless arguments about how much better written, more meaningful, and emotionally moving post-20205 anime is than pre-2025 anime, even thought clearly all post-2025 anime is exactly the same thing repeated over and over with little variation. The occasional throwback tribute to the 00s made to try to bait the older fans, but this tribute will be a pale shadow of the former greatness we were accustomed to.
Viewed in this light, I, personally, cannot wait for the future Yasuhiro Imagawa of Moe, as that’s sort-of the closest analogue I can think of for something vaguely Black Dynamite-ish, having not seen that movie yet.
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One thing that goes a long way in making Black Dynamite a success is that the quality of the picture itself is made to look like a 70s movie. Apparently they did this by actually getting an older camera and messing with it enough to achieve that quality from the start, rather than putting it in during post-production via after effects or somesuch.
I think if an anime tried to be like that today, they would have to do a lot to achieve the right look. Slayers Revolution kind of does this.
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Man, I love this blog.
You’re so right. Look at the number of people who celebrate cheesy old cartoons from the 1940’s.
And that’s fine. We can celebrate these things without holding them up as high art. They’re entertaining I’m their own ways.
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