An example of the opinion most people have of anime

beedee · Post by **beedee** » Tue Mar 22, 2005 4:02 am

I was reading the student magazine we have at Victoria University in New Zealand and I found this article in it by one of the satire columinists (abridged i'm not typing the whole damn thing out, also censored for those with weak constitutions):

CARTOON ANGST
"... Unfortunately, in recent years comics have started to suck the fat donkey balls of mediocrity. Remakes of old cartoons like Transformers and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles are just horrible and don't deserve to be mentioned even in Salient. Michaelangelo was a PARTY DUDE, motherf***ers! The main reason for this decline in quality is the glorious nation of Japan, which bounced back from getting nuked twice by the Forces of Freedom to unleash a horrifying vengeance on us all. It didn't take long for the Imperial High Command in Tokyo to realise that one of the advantages of cartoon women over real women was that cartoon women could be made to do things that real women wouldn't do because they were hilariously degrading or, in extreme cases, potentially lethal. Thus the dark art of ecchi sukebe hentai cartoon porn was born. All of the Japanese words in the previous sentence mean "perverted". Japan has a lot of words for "perverted". They say it a lot.

The evil Emperor decided to take his revenge on America by infiltrating their cartoon channels with his kawaii anime porn (kawaii literally means cute but is usually perverted anyway). Thus shows like Sailor Moon began to arrive on the screens of the West. Once parents had been de-sensitised
to the weird lesbian vibes which saturated this show (seriously, watch it again: It should be called Sailor Muff Diver) they suddenly found a whole range of new weird themes slipping into supposedly kid's shows: From campy gay supervillians, to the wholesale mass murder of entire planets, to whatever the f*** Dragon Ball Z was supposed to be about, Western children were picking up the bizarre ways of Japan at an alarming rate. Then came Pokemon, which took weirdness to whole new levels. Cross-dressing gay villains like James, the obviously closet homosexual Brock, the blatantly lesbian Misty, then transsexual Jigglypuff and whatever the f*** that "island full of men" episode was about, if there was ever a point that was Officially Too Far then Pokemon was probably standing over it buying used schoolgirl underwear from a Tokyo vending machine..."

quoted from Critical Critic column. Salient Issue 05 2005

It isn't an exactly a typical response but it does show you the kind of impression mass marketed rubbish like Pokemon can have on peoples opinions of anime

dokool · Post by **dokool** » Tue Mar 22, 2005 4:55 am

That's why it's 'satire'.

If you haven't noticed, manga and anime have gotten a lot of (fairly positive) ink in the press lately. However, some people don't (and won't) get it.

Does it really bother you that much?

beedee · Post by **beedee** » Tue Mar 22, 2005 9:37 am

Lets just say that considering New Zealand has the total population of what would be classed a town in most of the major countries in the world people usually overlook us when they are trying to promote anime and tend to just drop utter crap on us unless you can afford digital satellite TV (which by the way is quite a new thing here). So yes it does matter that much to me as this is just going to turn about 20,000 students off anime when there is no counter argumen (I intend to do something about that by the way).

Kai Stromler · Post by **Kai Stromler** » Tue Mar 22, 2005 9:43 am

beedee wrote:yes it does matter that much to me as this is just going to turn about 20,000 students off anime when there is no counter argumen (I intend to do something about that by the way).

dokool wrote:That's why it's 'SATIRE'.

Trust me, most people are going to look at this article, laugh at it, and get on with their lives. The only way it's going to turn people off anime is if you write in with a "counter-argument" and make it look like all anime fans are neurotic ponces who can't recognize, let alone take, a joke.

--K

bobbarker31 · Post by **bobbarker31** » Tue Mar 22, 2005 10:00 am

beedee wrote:Lets just say that considering New Zealand has the total population of what would be classed a town in most of the major countries in the world people usually overlook us when they are trying to promote anime and tend to just drop utter crap on us unless you can afford digital satellite TV (which by the way is quite a new thing here). So yes it does matter that much to me as this is just going to turn about 20,000 students off anime when there is no counter argumen (I intend to do something about that by the way).

New Zealand is going to turn on interest to anime in a big new way soon. WETA digital, the same effects house that did all of the special effects for Lord of the Rings, is now working on a live action Neon Genesis Evangelion. Now love it or hate it, the new live action movie will draw attention to the original anime and other anime in general. I am quite sure as big of a draw as Lord of the Rings was to New Zealand, Evangelion will be too.

oldwrench · Post by **oldwrench** » Tue Mar 22, 2005 10:03 am

And what great cartoons do our western animators have to brag about? Sea Lab, Aqua Teen Hunger Force, Harvey Birdman, and such trash, or is Family Guy a great cartoon? At least it has a little humor, not much, Futurama isn't anything very awsome either.

Tell them to try anime like Grave of the Fireflies, Then and There, Here and Now, Princess Mononoke or others of that type. Another excellent one is Millenium Actress, and for great plot and animation Cowboy Bebop or Last Exile. If they want an upbeat anime try Princess Nine, a fun story of a group of girls reaching for their dream.

None of these have sex or stupidity, just great stories and animation.

OmniStrata · Post by **OmniStrata** » Tue Mar 22, 2005 10:46 am

That was a HILARIOUS read. And as far as I'm concerned, I agree with the majority of it. What better way to conquer a country then subjecting it to kiddy porn? ^_^

At any rate, I had fun with it but I still like anime over 'conventional cartoons' as some would put it. You just get more!

Hentai
Hentai
er...
Action
Adventure
Danger
Badass women with big guns... ^_^ [with nice arses...]
Not this damsel in distress karp that make women look weak to me...
What better way to get out of a fix than to save yourself and look sexy doing it!
er...
hentai!

atrophiedXlungs · Post by **atrophiedXlungs** » Tue Mar 22, 2005 12:28 pm

Thread starter:

You said yourself it's satire. So your reaction to it is nothing less than iditotic.

Org Profile · Post by **Otohiko** » Tue Mar 22, 2005 1:08 pm

Yea, that was great.

And, really, ask yourself this: do you want people who will take that kind of 'opinion' seriously to become fans of anime?

Heero_Yuy84 · Post by **Heero_Yuy84** » Tue Mar 22, 2005 2:33 pm

I'd laugh harder if it wasn't for the fact I've actually seen people who DO think this quite seriously.