Our Unique Approaches to Anime

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It sometimes amazes me just how many ways there are to approach a given creative medium or product. When we look at a piece of art or fiction (or non-fiction!), we bring with us all that we prioritize and seek in works. Even when the focus is on just anime and nothing else, the result is a plethora, possibly even a panoply of differing viewpoints, each with their own inherent sense of validity.

At Otakon 2009, Yamamoto Yutaka, director of Kannagi, mentioned his praise for Studio Ghibli’s Takahata Isao, and how Takahata’s classic TV series Anne of Green Gables is essentially the gold standard of how a long TV series should be. Yamamoto is also known for being an anime critic, though his opinion can be difficult to comprehend. But then you realize that he looks at anime from that director’s perspective, and that his priorities are less on the content or themes or story  of the work and more about how scenes move into one another, how well it all conveys the idea.

Narrowing the focus a bit brings forth the notion of watching anime for the animation, and Anipages is probably the best example I can think of for someone whose focus is mainly on the “moving image” aspect of anime. It affords him a perspective very different from that of most fans and enthusiasts, and nowhere is this more evident than in the fact that he will watch isolated episodes of Naruto because there is particularly good and creative animation in them. One look at his site and it’s clear that he is in no way a “Naruto Fan,” but that divide between people who love the series and those who consider it the worst showcase of anime is a battle in which he is simply not participating. Just like Kaiba, just like Macross: Do You Remember Love?, Naruto can be another vessel for delivering great animation.

That’s not to say of course that things such as characters aren’t or shouldn’t be important. While I don’t have any specific numbers to give, I think the vast majority of the current anime fandom focuses heavily on characters. We like to relate to characters, we talk about shows and characters as if we were violating Wikipedia’s rules of not having profiles that are primarily in-universe synopses. Even with characters there are divides, such as between those who want to see a story unfold from the characters, and those who want to see a story focus on the characters above all else. Wanting to see characters to whom you can relate is wonderfully human, I think.

However, relating to humans can go well beyond the characters themselves, especially when you factor in the people behind those characters. Here, you have fans who will watch shows based on following their favorite voice actors, something I have actually done on occasion myself. At first, it can seem like the most shallow reasoning for a person to watch even shows they personally admit as being terrible simply because their favorite voice actors are in them, but that is mainly if your priorities are on anime as a storytelling device. When you take the idea that anime is also a showcase for the actors in the roles, it starts to become a more exciting prospect. When following voice actors, it becomes about seeing how those actors take on their roles, how they own their characters, how they approach the challenge of not having a great script.

You can also watch anime for the mechanical or character designs. They’re two very different, yet similar categories, which is why I’m grouping them together. Again, like following shows based on seiyuu, the idea of watching something based on how the robots or the girls look can seem incredibly shallow, but that is another area you can follow in order to see how well certain elements are executed. There are plenty of people out there who won’t watch a show because it “looks old,” and while I lament this case, I understand that many people want to experience something that feels like the environment and era in which they’re currently living, the desire for the new over the old. And generally, I’ve found that this is more an issue with getting into a show. I’ve known friends who couldn’t watch a show because they disagreed with the mecha designs, and it has everything to do with that initial barrier. Still, anime is what’s given us all these great mechanical designs, so it’s kind of no wonder that there are people who will focus on such things.

And then for others still, characters and animation and actors and such hardly factor in at all, and the real meat of what they’re looking for is in the overarching themes of a given anime. Characters aren’t human so much as they are vehicles through which to express different concepts. Director Oshii Mamoru of Ghost in the Shell fame has increasingly focused on this idea over the years, and as such his works appeal to those who seek not a world which you can step into in order to experience it firsthand, but ideas you extract from a world and bring into your own reality.

It’s obvious to me, looking at all of these examples, how some heated arguments can start. People approach works from so many different angles that people can be arguing from entirely separate universes, and frustration sets in when the other does not “understand.” On a much broader level though, interest in anime can simply be derived from wanting to laugh, wanting to cry, wanting to smile, wanting to be aroused, and all of the previously mentioned focuses, from technical direction to themes, are in a sense all there to deliver to us the emotions we want.

As for me, I’m actually not entirely sure what my approach is. Perhaps this whole blog has been me trying to find it.

Robotech Pens, Steaks, Etc.

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What do you know, just as I think it’s over I have another anime-related dream. For now this is the last one, but who knows how the subconscious works?

So I’m standing there in some kind of nerd hobby store where the most prominent display is a giant banner welcoming fans of Robotech. And there the Robotechfans stood, gathered in the same area, talking about Mospeada or possibly Southern Cross, I don’t remember exactly, and which arc it correlates to.

A nice, roughly middle-aged lady asks if I speak Japanese and I respond in Japanese and we have a good laugh. I look for something to purchase, and I spot some Robotech-themed pens. I don’t know, apparently I really wanted to buy something Robotech-related. But I don’t pick them up quite yet.

I also spot some Nintendo keychains, grabbing a Wario one, and then decide to grab seven Robotech pens, only to realize that if I’m going to the steakhouse(?!) I’d better watch my wallet and not spend so much. I try to pare it down to get a 3 for $5 deal, but then realize I got rid of 1 too many and only have two pens left. But then I remember I have the Wario keychain and it all evens out, because apparently keychains are part of the deal.

The two Robotech pens are very “nice” in two distinctly different ways. One of them features Lisa Hayes and you can hardly tell it’s a Robotech pen. Why, for all we know that could be Misa instead. The other is very clearly a Robotech product, as the character designs look nothing like the show and it’s apparently merchandise for some novel or comic spinoff. It also has some generic tie-in name you’d expect from Robotech, like “Fortress Chronicles” or something equally generic.

I make my purchase, but then for some reason am given a Giratina keychain instead of the Wario one. I ask the clerk if I can exchange it and she says okay, but I have to give the Giratina box back. I think it’s odd, but agree to do this.

Then I realize I was in the store for so long that I cannot make it to the steakhouse. Resigned in defeat, I pass by a new Pokemon movie starring Mewtwo. Actually I’m not sure if it was supposed to be a movie or if I was actually seeing real Pokemon, but the creatures were being sucked into a chamber to fight Mewtwo (though at first I assumed it was Darkrai). The movie is in Japanese. Mewtwo, actually a victim in all of this, flies around and goes to the other side. A Geodude tries to Rock Throw Mewtwo but Mewtwo reflects the rocks back at Geodude and hits two other Pokemon in the process while also saying, “Tsutometa!” In the context of the dream it’s supposed to mean something like, “I see through you,” but in actual Japanese means, “I worked.” The movie is really, really well-animated and a joy to watch. Though I don’t know how it ends because that’s when I wake up.

Conflating Fists and Faces

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Continuing on from yesterday’s post about an anime-related dream, here’s another one I had recently. It’s actually longer than this overall but most of it makes no sense, so I decided to just focus on the anime-related aspect of it. Let’s just say it involved a gangster who wanted to propose to his girlfriend by singing the rap/reggae opening from some video game.

I was at some anime convention that  had Tange Sakura (voice of Kinomoto Sakura)  as a guest. We were in an auditorium and we somehow convinced her to speak in her Sakura voice (which was way different from her normal voice), but then I decided I wanted to take a picture of her. At first I realized I had no camera, but then remembered my cell phone. When I took the picture Tange Sakura exclaimed for me not to, but it was too late.

On my phone there ended up being three pictures. Two of them had her mid-expression so she looked ugly in them, the kind of thing that happens when you photograph someone while their eyes are blinking and such. The last picture I thought turned out well, until I realized that her “face” was a digitized and pixelated black and white fist of Ken from Street Fighter doing a shoryuken from a poster behind her. She said that camera phones were different in Japan and that in Japan if people were making funny faces at each other you knew that they were about to take pictures of each other but America was different. I said, “Ah forget it,” and just shook hands with her. It was a very satisfying handshake and I told her I’m a big fan.

As she left, she told me that the one problem she had with the con was that the genders were not separated in the hotel. I told her that it was indeed a problem with American cons and that the staff would try to fix it.

Of Course They’d Be Yakuza

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I’ve been dreaming anime dreams recently, and this one might be one of the best by far.

I was playing mahjong with a bunch of Yakuza guys, looking like they came straight out of a Fukumoto manga. I get a hand, and it’s a really good hand. I could probably get into tenpai in one or two tiles. I think, “Yeah I can definitely win with this.”

Then suddenly the guy on my right gets up. He then comes over, puts a scoop of chocolate ice cream on my plate, and looks at my tiles.

“Hey!” I say to him. But then I see his confident look, and realize that those are the rules. Then I look at my plate and realize that aside from the chocolate I just got, I also have strawberry and vanilla on my plate (as well as some orange sherbert on the side). There I thought, “My Neopolitan Combination is ready. Just you wait!”

So yeah, ice cream mahjong. I think it’ll be big.

Yes I Am Quoting Myself

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For the Reverse Thieves’ second Speakeasy Podcast they compared Gurren-Lagann and Shin Mazinger, discussing why the former has a much more universal appeal among current anime fans than the latter. One of the topics that interested me was the false assumption that if a person likes Gurren-Lagann then the next step is Shin Mazinger, or similarly that if a person likes Gundam W that they will like the original Gundam as well. I thought of an analogous situation which I think sums up this problem quite well, and I wanted to have it on-hand and on-blog.

So consider, if you will, the following hypothetical conversation.

“Hey, what’s your favorite cereal?”

“Frosted Flakes!”

“Well if you like Frosted Flakes, I think you’ll enjoy CORN FLAKES! It’s the ORIGIN of Frosted Flakes!”

The person recommending Corn Flakes has his heart in the right place, but doesn’t realize that the reason why the other person likes Frosted Flakes so much might be mainly because of the sugar frosting, i.e. everything that Frosted Flakes have that Corn Flakes do not.

Reducing things down is not the answer for everyone, and just like Frosted Flakes vs Corn Flakes, I think people enjoy the total package of Gurren-Lagann, making it difficult to sell some fans on the idea of Gurren-Lagann stripped down to its bare essentials.

The Divide of Time, Space, and Imagination: A Look At the Concept of Nostalgic Merchandise

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A few days ago, when I wrote about the direction giant robot designs have taken over the years, I received a comment pointing out to me the “Master Grade RX-78-2 Gundam 2.0,” which was a new model kit version of the iconic original Gundam, only designed to more closely resemble the mobile suit as it appeared in anime. When compared to previous RX-78-2 model kits, this means less details, different proportions, and a more “cartoonish” look overall.

Interested in how hobbyists took to this version of the classic Gundam, I looked at reviews of the kit. Any time its aesthetics were criticized, it was largely because the model was not as detailed as they liked. Being “anime accurate” was not a positive trait, and they would point out other kits, notably the “One Year War” version with a higher level of grittiness and detail, as a preferred alternative. In response to all this, I made my own comment, which was to point out that these fans appeared to be saying, “I don’t want the RX-78-2 to resemble the robot in the show, I want it to resemble the robot in my imagination!”

Then today, I saw the Toy Fair 2010 GI Joe toys. These action figures were designed based on the 80s version of GI Joe, the 3 inch figures instead of the giant doll-like ones. The only thing is, they are much more detailed and gritty than the 80s toys they were based on! It was also made clear that these toys are there partially for GI Joe collectors, adult men who look back fondly on their childhood toys, and I think it is all the more apparent that, like the One Year War RX-78-2, these GI Joes are trying to fill the gap between the actual toy and the collectors’ memories of what the toys were like as children, memories fueled by the power of childhood imagination. And there, in the attempts to make up for the loss of childhood creativity and thinking with skilled craftsmanship, lies the foundation of the nostalgic toy.

That is not to say of course that adults are incapable of having strong imaginations. Fiction as a whole would be incredibly boring if that were the case. Nor am I lumping everyone in as wanting more “realism” in their toys, as the original commenter I referred to above was all in favor of more toys like the MG RX-78-2 2.0. Instead, the issue is simply that the mind of an adult is simply different from the mind of a child. I am reminded of this fact whenever I look at drawings from my childhood and compare them to what I have done as an adult or even as a teenager.

When I previously touched on the subject of childhood imagination as it applies to animation, I talked about how children tend to ignore significant errors in animation and make up for these deficiencies through their imagination. But now when looking at a similar topic, that of toys and model kits, I realize that it’s not just a matter of childhood imagination “filling in the gaps,” but that childhood imagination, unlike adult imagination, cares little about “structure.”

If you look at the Soul of Chogokin series of toys, you will find everything I’ve been talking about, with its more solid and realistic redesigns of classic mecha targeted towards adult buyers, but if you want to really see what I mean by adults caring about structure, take a look not at the Soul of Chogokin line, but the original-style Chogokin toys, or rather, reviews of them by collectors. You will find that the way the reviewers talk about the features of the toy, about what is good and what is bad, is almost inevitably a very “adult-minded” way of looking at the toy, giving words to topics such as “points of articulation” and what-not. Even when referring to the nostalgia factor this happens, whether the topic is Chogokin, Jumbo Machinders, or Generation 1 Transformers.

It’s common knowledge among collectors, but the first generation of Mobile Suit Gundam toys, resembling the “neat gadgets”-style Chogokin toys that preceded it, were a marketing failure, as the toys did not really match up with what was on the screen. It really wasn’t until the concept of the giant robot “model kit” revolutionized giant robot figures that Gundam merchandise became the monster that it still is today, and people claim that this has to do with the fact that the audience for Gundam was skewing older than giant robot shows had in the past. I may be jumping the gun here, but what it looks like to me is that the older audience of younger and older teens were looking for more structure and accuracy in their toys, and that is what they got. As soon as Gundam hit that older demographic, I believe the Chogokin-style toys were dealt a serious blow, even putting aside the shoddy designs and inaccuracies of the original toyline. I think that the attitudes towards the 2.0 MG RX-78-2 are actually an extension of this over time and international waters.

Actually, more than even Chogokin reviews, if you really, really want to see the difference between child and adult mindsets and creativity, take a look at the webcomic Axe Cop. Promoted as being written by a 5 year old and drawn by his 29 year old brother, the artist admits to the story not being truly written by his significantly younger sibling, but that he asks the young child questions about the setting and events that occur, and then builds a story around it. The adult adds structure to the boundless imagination of the child, structure that is necessary to keep it all together, even if it doesn’t make sense entirely.

The child’s imagination says, “This is what happens.”

The adult’s imagination asks, “Why?”

But when it comes to reality, the child and adult’s responses reverse.

Wide So Serious?

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The above screenshot is taken from the final episode of Mobile Fighter G Gundam during the climactic battle against the Devil Gundam. The shot is done in a sort of cinematic, widescreen format, though G Gundam itself is a standard pre-digital 4:3 aspect ratio. While the way the image is framed would still make it too wide to fit perfectly within the now-standard 16:9 video format, it got me thinking about just how much the art of television is possibly changing now that widescreen is the standard.

“It’s just a little extra space!” you might say, or perhaps, “It’s just a little less space!” But framing the shot is one of the most fundamentally important aspects of any video or cinema, and now you literally have a point at which the game is changing, where there is a definite dividing point between “then” and “now.” Even now you can see it in the way anime is being made. Shows that have gone on for multiple seasons during this transitional period have older episodes as standard definition but newer ones as widescreen.

What subtle psychological effects on the human mind might this all have in the years to come?

In the future, if you tell a child to draw a TV, will they draw the screens roughly 16:9?

Will some shows purposely use a 4:3 aspect ratio to give the image a “retro” appearance? Will it be a tool used like the G Gundam screenshot at the beginning of this post?

I think we are going to see a subtle shift in the art of television, and by extension animation. The effects won’t be entirely immediate, but in time we will realize its profound impact on the way we look at the screen.

Giant Robots, Growth, and Evolution (or Lack Thereof)

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Anyone who knows me knows that I’m a fan of big ol’ robots (a technical term). I love the genre and nearly all that it entails. That said, I am not without criticisms towards my beloved mecha. When I look back at how giant robot designs in anime and manga have progressed since their inception, I get the feeling that robot designs have grown too much without evolving enough.

There was a time when giant robots in anime were mainly known for having cylinders for limbs and looking more like superheroes than weapons of war. As the years went by, however, the robot designs became more and more detailed, to the point that today when you think “giant robots” or “mecha,” complexity in design is something that comes to mind.

It was really an inevitability. Even as far back as the mid 70’s, we could see that Daitarn 3 looked a little more detailed and structured than Combattler V, and Combattler featured more complex design features than Mazinger Z. And it’s not a bad thing either; in many ways it shows how far along mecha design has come since Tetsujin 28. At the same time though I can’t help but lament that the giant robot fandom seems unable to reverse gears and bring itself back to those simpler times.

“But giant robot fans love Mazinger!” you might say. Yes, they might, and they might even refer to its design as “classic” or even “enormously influential,” but as the mecha fanbase has grown older and more concentrated, their heyday of being the go-to shows for marketing to kids having passed, the idea of presenting an old-fashioned robot design as a modern one is something that I think simply would not fly. All recent attempts to create super robot series, remakes aside, still do not match the level of simplicity in robot design that once existed.

So what I mean by mecha designs growing without evolving is that the giant robots of today aren’t that different from those of yesterday in basic design, and that the major developments in mecha design that have persisted over the years have mainly had to do with how to make robots look sleeker and more detailed, whether it’s with the more angular robots of the 80s or the muscle-like excess of the 90s. Compare this with character design development, which people can criticize as being worse today than it was previously, but it still feels like character design trends moved a certain direction.

I can’t entirely fault giant robots for the direction they took over time. Like I said earlier, it was practically inevitable, as one show tries to top another, which then inspires another. It’s just that I think a lot more people might get into designing robots if “robot design” wasn’t the massive undertaking it’s perceived to be because of expectation as to what a giant robot is “supposed” to be.

My Pursuit of Harsh Coaches and Fashion Sense

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Back when I was first really getting into anime, the thing I was into that a lot of other guys weren’t was shoujo. Sure you had your Sailor Moon fans and all, but it was the genre I truly enjoyed, even if others might make fun of me for it, and I was dedicated to finding more. I considered myself an aficionado of shoujo.

But that was years ago. When I looked back recently, I realized that my knowledge and experience with shoujo had been far outstripped by those areas in other genres. When I look at my manga collection now, the majority of it is seinen, and there are just a lot of titles and authors in shoujo that are unknown to me. What happened to the kid who loved his Cardcaptor Sakura?

That’s why as of late I’ve been upping my shoujo manga intake from all genres. Whether it’s newer stuff like Gakuen Alice and Penguin Revolution, or old classics like Attack No. 1, Swan, and Candy Candy, I’ve set a loose goal of bringing myself up to speed and having people say, “There’s a guy who knows a lot about shoujo manga!”

And of course I’m enjoying myself along the way.

Holiday Combo Finish

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Also, make sure to check out my Top 10 Favorite Confessions in Anime and Manga over at Otaku Crush.