Category Archives: trends

The Passive Protagonist

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I’ve learned that many, many people do not like passive protagonists. They are seen as weak-willed, indecisive, unpleasant to watch, and just plain too passive. There’s nothing I can do to stop people from feeling this way, but it makes me wonder why I, for example, like the passive protagonist whose life is changed by circumstances beyond his control.

The second most hated anime protagonist of all time is everyone’s favorite human male Evangelion pilot Ikari Shinji (thanks, Itou Makoto for taking the position of most hated). Shinji is a very passive protagonist who, while capable of taking action, only does so as a reaction to things happening around him. It’s not because he’s poorly written, or that he’s necessarily a surrogate for the viewer. Shinji is the way he is, and his passive nature is a direct result of the events in his life, as well as his inability to truly take action for himself.

I can’t fault Shinji for that. I can’t even fault him for never quite getting over it, just as I can’t really fault people for not liking Shinji’s character. But it makes me think of the sheer difference two lives can experience to the point that one person will connect to a character such as Shinji while the other will immediately reject him. And of course, one may turn into the other as we accumulate more experiences in our lives.

Put the all-character splash image at the end of openings to bed

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They appear to be some unusual obligation, and more often than not I feel like they make openings worse than they could have been if they had only ended the video prior to it. The number of shows that I could describe in this regard are probably more than I can count.

As an example of an opening which ends on a NOT-Splash Image and ends up being better for it, I present Rose of Versailles:

Where are all the fat chicks?

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In the works of anime and manga, that is.

Note: This isn’t a feminist or anti-feminist post or anything like that, so don’t expect a deep philosophical argument about the injustices of a male society/the overpowering feminazis.

I understand that society, be it Japanese, American, or otherwise, tend to have standards on beauty, and that there are even wildly differing opinions within each society, but I was reminded today by a figure drawing and anatomy book that there’s a strong emphasis on slender beauty. Not overly slender to the point of health problems as is is the case with supermodels, but an emphasis on remaining trim. I also understand that it’s an anatomy and figure drawing guide and probably wants to emphasize the musculature of characters as a guide to the reader, but my issue isn’t with how to draw books.

As much as I am fond of the anime ladies, I do not think that the styles associated with it are so static and impossible to adjust that overweight women cannot be portrayed as beautiful, which I think is clear is a common motivating factor for the appearance of female characters in any sort of entertainment. Perhaps my fondness for Ogiue, a thin female character, does not make it obvious, but everyday I see plenty of very attractive women with meat on their bones but don’t necessarily have the voluptuous hourglass figures of Ikkitousen or Witchblade, which some people will claim as being “close enough.” I also understand that overweight women, while present in Japan, are not as common as elsewhere, and that even the standards for being considered overweight can change drastically from culture to culture. My mother once told me that when she was young, she didn’t know people could ever become heavier than about 140 lbs.

I also cannot believe that all Japanese men prefer the thin woman to the thick one. I have no numbers to throw around, but probability (and the release of certain adult titles) suggest that there is a fanbase out there. More importantly though, even if there isn’t much of a contingent for this body type, anime and fanart in their ability to idealize the feminine form most certainly are able to make a larger woman attractive to otaku.

And I refuse to believe that the idealization involves simply making them thinner.

N-No Money…?

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There’s some blame placed on anime fans for driving the industry down with our bittorrent and illegal downloads and scanlations and all that.

There’s one thing I think that is being ignored, and that is that some of the people, including myself, may want to buy certain series, but we simply do not have the financial means to do so immediately after a new book or DVD comes out.

I understand that some people will use any excuse not to pay for their anime, but what I’m talking about is people such as myself who are willing to buy a series, but because they tend to be a rather hefty financial hit, we have to make sure that everything is okay. This is what I use fansubs for, to gauge if a series is worth buying, and though I may not have the money to pay for it immediately, I keep it in the back of my mind that yes, this is worthwhile and if everything aligns correctly I will be willing to buy it.

I just bought Sexy Voice and Robo, which arrived today. I’d been planning on getting it for about two years now, and it’s not like I didn’t want it, but the circumstances happened to be just right for me to purchase it now. In the case of the Zeta Gundam DVD Box, the lack of the proper openings and ending was a huge hit for me, because I love those themes. I did not go out of my way to find an excuse not to buy it. Rather, I did not want to shell out the $200 on a substantially less than perfect release. Further than that, I did not want to spend $200 on a flawed DVD set in order to maybe hope that they’ll some day release it with the proper openings. I really can’t afford to buy the same series multiple times, and I can’t help it.

We as fans are not bottomless money pits. Not all of us anyway.

(And yes, the title is an Ogiue reference).

Attention spans and anime

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We’ve all heard it before, I think: Anime fans and people in general have smaller attention spans nowadays. In American movies, individual scenes are significantly shorter than what they were 20-30 years ago.

I have to wonder, how much of an impact has this had on anime? Aside from the aged look of the artwork, is this a possible reason why older shows tend to be neglected? I haven’t bothered with a stopwatch, but just how long or short are individual scenes in theatrical anime films, anyway?

Please tell me, oh anime fans, what do you think of your own attention span, and how it may or may not affect the anime you choose to watch or keep watching.

Because he asked so nicely: Help a guy fulfill his anime-themed Master’s Thesis

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In my previous post, I got a comment from a guy named Dirk, who said,

“Hi, my name is Dirk, I live in Brussels, Europe, and I am doing a research to get my degree in psychological studies. I am in my last year at the “Université Libre de Bruxelles” ( U.L.B.). My research is about the look we people bring upon Japanese animation, depending on the culture we live in.

To be able to do this study, I will need the help of people and anime sites out of Europe, so I can compare these populations. I am asking you here if it would be possible for me to add a link on your site, where people will be linked to a site (in English) were they will see an extract of a Japanese animation, and then they will be asked to respond to a questionnaire. Do you think this could be possible? If “yes”, how should this link look like (for instance, what size should it have?)

I already got like 140 European responses, but only like 8 Asian ones, which is close, but not quiet enough for a research…;o) I hope you can help me to improve this :o)

If you want to have a look at the website, the address is : http://www.toba.lu/memoire”

So here it is. I’m all for people researching anime and trying to find out real information about it, and this post is to give it a little more visibility.

Go, take the poll. Let us find out more about the anime fandom.

Popularity on the internet vs Popularity at cons

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I’m always caught a little off guard by the disparity between popular anime on the internet and at conventions. Shows I thought would garner more cosplay, Gurren-Lagann, Rozen Maiden, among others, are always on the backburner compared to the stalwarts such as Naruto and Bleach. I mean, it’s obvious why, with Naruto and Bleach being enormously popular, but back at Otakon 2007 one series that surprised me with its popularity was Ouran High School Host Club.  Is it because the manga was released here? Did the fansubs just manage to reach an audience which normally wouldn’t have bothered too much with it?

I’m a fan of Ouran myself (Fujioka is the superior Haruhi), but I wonder if there’s a way for me to truly sense the pulse of the anime fandom.

I’d probably have a lucrative job if I could.

Persepolis and Japanese Animation

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I saw the french animated film Persepolis today. Based off a comic book of the same name, Persepolis is the tale of a young girl named Marjane living in war-torn Iran and its religious transformation during the 1980s. We as the audience get to see Marjane grow from girl into woman, making mistakes along the way, and constantly re-evaluating what’s important in her life. It’s a really powerful film and I recommend anyone who has the opportunity to watch it to do so.

I came out of Persepolis with one prominent thought in my mind: It’s been a long long time since I’ve seen a Japanese animation like it.

Stylistically, there’s no anime like Persepolis, but that’s not what I’m focusing on (though I might in a later time. It’s really quite powerful visually). What I’m talking about is how Persepolis addresses the small scale issues regarding relationships and emotions, as well the large scale issues with the backdrop of warfare. Recent anime, when it’s good, tends to be very good at one or the other, but not both. On the occasions that it does manage to address both, it tends to add a certain fantastic element to it which pushes the whole animation slightly to the left of reality, as in the case of Gundam 00.

Now this is hardly the case for the history of anime. Japanese animation and manga rose out of World War II, and many people have tackled and re-tackled the setting. Grave of the Fireflies, Barefoot Gen, even more romantic series such as Rose of Versailles all manage to portray the large and small stuff with a great deal of poignancy.

So what’s happened? Has anime become too much of a comfort zone, perhaps?

Now, I realize that I’m comparing a ton of Japanese animation to just one French animation, and that Persepolis may very well be an exception to the rule even in French animation, but this is the feeling I got from seeing this movie as it pertains to the thing I love called anime.

Please make it happen

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I propose that whenever anyone speaks about Gundam 00, particularly in real life, they should call it “Gundam Ooooooh.”

If Moe is to Survive, Compromises Must be Made

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Moe is associated with lolicon largely because Moe is about weakness, and little helpless girls are about the easiest way of conveying moe.  We’ve seen this trend before in American comics, only it was about gruff manliness and it was called 90s EXTREEEEEEME.  What better way to show that someone is a real man’s man than giving him 8 guns and arms the size of a buick with veins everywhere?  What better way to show a girl has her weak side than by making her weak physically AND emotionally?

When you take a girl and make her defining traits just her weak points, that becomes her whole character.  It is easy, yes, but I would dare call it lazy.  Why bother actually creating character flaws when you can just make someone pure and perfect and helpless?   As with 90s extreme, I feel moe, as it continues to exaggerate certain specific features, as more try to take advantage of it with half-hearted attempts, will receive a backlash.  Some might welcome the backlash, that’s okay.  But for those of you who do like moe, you’re going to have to accept that certain changes have to take place.   Rather than the moe character, we must have the character with moe traits.

We already have these characters among us.  They are the ones who we CAN see as competent, but as with all humans they are not perfect.  They have emotional problems, doubts, and fears.  I believe people like moe in the first place because it allows us to relate to a character on a very emotional level, that our feelings are understood by others, and manifested in characters.  I believe it is a common fear among otaku and dorks in general that those in normal society are “perfect” and never have to deal with the same issues that they themselves face constantly.  Moe characters if they are too extreme are too far-removed from reality, and thus lose their significant impact.  If instead a moe anime uses more “normal” characters, but show that they have the same issues that otaku face, then we have more than just a marketing tool, we have something that can motivate otaku to move forward, to come to a greater understanding of others.