Getting Into Anime

The second column in my budding anime nerddom (ok, not budding, more like ever growing). First I defined what anime is. Now, I want to help newcomers get into anime by trying to point out the biggest obstacles newcomers face coming into anime.

First, if you ever say you don’t like any anime, I will have a very hard time believing you. I can believe you don’t want to start it because of the stylized form of animation and I can believe you don’t like the over-the-top reactions that are typical of your shōnen and shōjo shows. The thing is, you can watch anime and not watch those things. The over-the-top reactions are typical of the shōnen and shōjo shows, but most of the really good anime don’t have any of those reactions. In my list of the Top 15 Anime, only one out of those five has those over-the-top reactions (thanks Hellsing).

Another big problem people run into when watching anime are the cultural differences between us as Americans and them as Japanese. Well, my solution, again, is to watch anime which is cross-cultural. There’s a reason Spirited Away won an Academy Award and Summer Wars didn’t even get considered. Do you know what it is? [That’s a rhetorical question.] The reason is because Spirited Away could be placed in rural Iowa and have the same exact story! Summer Wars, on the other hand, relies heavily on a lot of Japanese idioms typical of anime (a few examples include relationships between family members and a card game called Koi-Koi that I still don’t know how it works, but it was damned dramatic). It’s the same with Howl’s Moving Castle. Really all of Studio Ghibli’s movies (Miyazaki’s in particular) are really good. A. They’re simply really good and B. They’re cross-cultural. People in Finland, France, Spain, America, and Japan can get the same content out of the same script. It doesn’t rely on anime idioms. [Author’s note: I might to an article further down the road about some of the cultural differences between America and Japan. I’d have to do more research first, though.]

The biggest cultural difference is the sexualization of seemingly pre-pubescent females. There are a lot of anime that are guilty of this. Lucky Star, Working!!, K-ON!, The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya…the list just goes on (and I don’t want to keep going). The thing with those shows (at least the good ones) is that they’re not trying to sexualize it. Sure, Chloe lying in the bale of hay with hay with her legs showing in the first episode of Spice and Wolf was clearly sexualizing Chloe. But that’s not what it’s usually doing. See, the Japanese in general have a fetish with cute things. It’s like how we’re obsessed with cats, but they like all cute things.

That doesn’t mean that there aren’t shows that try to oversexualize things for money. Because there are, and they’re bad. You know why they’re bad? Because they’re doing that. But it makes money for the production company. In most cases, they simply can’t afford to not make those shows because they need the profit. Kyoto Animation and Studio Ghibli are big exceptions because they have big name titles like K-ON! and Haruhi and have Hayao Miyazaki, respectively.

People often complain to me about the way anime structures its dialogue. Oftentimes, this has to do with the fact that you’re taking your examples from vague memories of when you were eight and watching anime on TV. Well, since then, they’ve improved dialogue. But it’s never going to be perfect. The Japanese have the luxury of animating to the voices. We in America have to voice to the animation. That restricts us a lot, but the scripts are only going to get better. Three out of the four anime on my Top 15 Anime list (Time of Eve is subtitled only) are considered to have a better dub than their subtitled counterpart. The fact remains that American dubs are only going to get better.

It’s not just that. It’s the extraneous expository dialogue that’s present in anime. I know lots of people love to listen to the Major speak in Hellsng, but they’re left wondering why. Well, the Japanese love their extraneous expository monologues or dialogues. We Americans prefer dialogue or voice over. I, as an anime fan and a fan of American TV and cinema, have gotten used to both styles of conveying information so I’m not bothered by it nearly as much as a casual viewer would be.

The reason why there is so much expository dialogue, in action scenes at least, is because the Japanese have more respect than we Americans do. What I mean by that is this: The Japanese have the respect to listen to their opponent speak to them if they so request (which they often do in anime). It also isn’t usually about “world domination” or “money” in anime. The villains actually have a purpose beyond “we’re trying to fuck your shit up” like they typically do in the high action American films. So in shows like Samurai Champloo and Cowboy Bebop, Spike and Mugen and Jin are willing to listen to Vicious and Kariya because they have respect. Americans want to blow shit up. Japanese want to listen to each other, they want to know why the villains are acting the way they are because, more often than not, the villains have a motive and a good motive.

But it is really hard to get past those scenes. I’ve been watching them since 1998, so I’ve gotten used to it and appreciate some introspective views we get on the characters. But it’s really hit or miss with these. There are a lot of dialogues that are really good that are just long masturbatory dialogues. But there are the Bleach and Naruto-type dialogues that can drag on for almost no reason. So you have to avoid the bad ones.

What you really have to get past is you. You have a preconceived notion of anime that doesn’t hold true to every anime out there. There are shows like Sailor Moon and Dragonball Z, but there are also shows like Mushishi and Death Note that have those long winded monologues but are good. There are also shows like Maken-Ki and Majikoi! Samurai Girls that give sexualization a bad name. Then there are shows like K-ON! and Gunslinger Girl which give sexualization a good name. They latter two are just good old fashioned cutesy things.

Know that anime is a medium If you say you don’t like anime, to me it’s like saying you don’t like movies. Sure there are movie buffs and snobs that’ll never see the new movies coming out, and say they hate movies, but they’ll still watch and love Casablanca.

I guess what I’m really saying here is that there is at least one anime for everyone. That’s what Studio Ghibli movies are for. Hell, a few of those movies are even based off of western books. It’s just stylized in the anime form. Sure, anime has its faults, but so does every medium. I’m here to say that if there isn’t something you like about anime, there are shows without that something. So, people, this is me saying that I don’t want to justify the faults of anime. I just want to point them out, and say there are shows without those faults.

But I’m not going to tell you what to start off with. Everyone has their likes and dislikes and starter shows aren’t universal. I will say that two great shows to start off with, if you’re looking to get into anime, are: Cowboy Bebop and Neon Genesis Evangelion. But you might not like those shows. So next time, I’m going to publish my Top 15 Anime list. It goes in-depth on 15 shows that are good for beginners and are simply good.

What Is Anime?

What is anime? Simply put, its Japanese animation. For those of you who don’t know, anime is actually short for Japanese animation. But that doesn’t tell you much. If you want to go in-depth about how to define whether an animated television show is anime or not, check out this article: http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/the-mike-toole-show/2011-10-23

What I’m going to do is define anime by demographic, because it really is defined by demographic. At least, that’s how I define it. There are five big demographics in Japanese animation: children’s shows, shōnen, shōjo, seinen, and josei.

Children’s shows are about the same in Japan as they are over here. The only difference being in the animation style and jokes made. It’s culturally relevant to Japan, so they’re not going to make fun of George Bush. I haven’t explored much children’s anime, but big name titles include: My Neighbor Totoro and Ponyo. Most of the children’s anime aren’t something I’d start a newcomer off with (the exceptions being Ghibli movies), but they’re great fun once you get the proverbial anime ball rolling.

Arguably the biggest demographic in anime and manga is the shonen demographic. The shōnen demographic targets males from the ages of 13-17, but of course they can spread out much further. The typical shōnen shows include things like Dragonball Z, One Piece, Naruto, Bleach, and Fairy Tail. But it’ll also include shows like the beginning part of Trigun, Gunslinger Girl, and, yes, even Death Note. In shows like the Big 3 (One Piece, Naruto, and Bleach), there’s a pretty formulaic style, but it goes outside the box with their stories. One Piece is about a 17 year old kid who wants to become King of the Pirates, Naruto is about a 13 year old kid who wants to become Hokage, and Bleach is about Ichigo Kurosaki, the substitute Soul Reaper, trying to save his friends (who are always in constant peril). The great thing about most of these shows is that they’re accessible to most audiences and they’re generally great to show to incoming anime audiences.

Shōjo anime is the next big demographic. Shōjo refers to anime that target females from the ages of 13-17. This is where all your magical girl shows usually are. Sailor Moon and Cardcaptor Sakura are the shows I turn to when I think magical girl (and now Madoka Magica, but that’s shōnen, oddly enough). But it stretches beyond the magical girl. Shows like His and Her Circumstances, Kodocha, and Fruits Basket are also shōjo. The demographic stretches beyond just the magical girl, but typical shōjo shows have the same basic elements. Usually, they’re about a teenage girl. And the teenage girl will often fall in love with a boy (gosh, why would teenage girls like this stuff?). The boy is usually a bishōnen, or pretty boy. The differences are in how the story is structured. Usually shōjo shows will have an element to fantasy to them (His and Her Circumstances and Kodocha being two big exceptions). Something to separate them from the rest of the pack. That’s what makes them unique. 

Seinen shows are above and beyond the pack. This is where most of the really good shows some from. That’s because they’re targeted at the 18-35 male demographic. They can do the things shōnen show can’t do because of age restrictions. Ghost in the Shell, Hellsing, and Mushishi are all seinen shows. The thing that appeals to most about seinen shows is that they can deal with more adult topics. Like, I’d never see the complexity like that of The Laughing Man story arc in One Piece. But I don’t expect it out of One Piece and I sort of expect it out of a seinen show. That’s what great about seinen shows. They tackle some mature topics and some complex topics. I would never show a movie like Tokyo Godfathers to my child, but it is an amazing watch for anyone remotely interested in character relationship. Seinen shows allow for the stylized form of art that is anime while still having complex topics explored. I’ll love One Piece to my grave, but I’ll love Baccano! that much more. 

Josei shows have the same relationship that shōnen shows do to seinen shows. Josei shows are shows that are targeted at a 18-35 female demographic and thus they can do a lot more complex things that shōjo shows don’t have the freedom to do. Now, I’m going to admit that Usagi Drop is really the only josei show that I’ve seen, so I can’t effectively speak for the demographic. But if you don’t like shōjo shows for their simplicity, but don’t like seinen shows for the level of testosterone, then josei is the way to go. And Usagi Drop is a great place to start. 

Next up is how to get a newcomer into anime.