Post
by rose4emily » Mon Jun 07, 2004 8:47 pm
There's definately some good Western television. There's an unbelievable amount of crap - but, among the thousand variations of "real-world: some lame 'extreme' location" there are a few shows like "West Wing" and "Gilmour Girls" to keep that last spark of intellect burning bright in the vast expanse of murky darkness.
American television animation is definately done with a different aim from most anime. I love shows like South Park, Family Guy, and (setting aside hatred of MTV) Daria. They don't have the kind of depth or incredible artwork that my favorite anime have, but they do have a different virtue: you can sit down and watch any given episode and get a nice, quick laugh along with a bit of social commentary - and you don't have to worry about whether you're skipping over parts of the story or not understanding things because you missed what happened last week. They are to animation what Tetris and Galaga are to video games - something easy to grasp that's great for simple enjoyment and can be picked up and left off at any time. There are also, I should note, some anime that fit very well into this same paradigm - like Azumanga Daioh or You're Under Arrest. You can get more out of them if you see them in order to follow the larger story, but any single episode is also enjoyable in itself.
Anime, because it usually does follow a continuous storyline and often works on the "it'll all make sense eventually" premise, is able to dig far deeper into the nuances of the story and psyches of the characters than is possible for most Western series and films. That's not a result of what country it comes from so much as the format it is designed to fit within. There are some Western stories I can think of with the same sort of depth or detail - like Tolkein's "Lord of the Rings" or Orson Scot Card's "Ender" books, but they don't tend to show up on television because most American audiences don't want to come home from work to digest a complex epic with its own world and intricate details. I honestly couldn't imagine trying to follow something like Evangelion or Haibane Renmei if it was regularly scheduled TV - miss one episode and you are left with a huge gaping hole in the net you need to catch the details in what's coming up.
Films are another matter. Both the East and the West have some awesome films - and, I'm sure, some horrible ones. Don't forget that the West has produced, even in the tasteless culture of recent(ish) years, some real gems like the first Matrix film, Schindler's List, I am Sam, Requiem for a Dream, Edward Scissorhands, As Good as it Gets, and Almost Famous. Not to mention some older classics like Breakfast at Tiffany's and 2001. Then there are some great Eastern films like Kurosawa's Seven Samauri and adaptation of Macbeth, or animated films like Grave of the Fireflies or Mononoke Hime. Can't forget those old Hong-Kong action films that are being so heavily borrowed off of by bigger-budget Western action flicks. Problem is, I think we've been tricked into watching some real crap from wherever it is we live that makes us think our home nation is inherently artisticly inferior. Imagine if you only watched films that won Oscars and remain, after years, as classics or cult favorites. Your perspective would change quite a bit, would it not? That's what we get with anime, the best of an art form that is uncannily diverse in both theme and quality.
May all of it come together to amuse, awe, and inspire you in the manner each piece best fits.
may seeds of dreams fall from my hands -
and by yours be pressed into the ground.
so of course that automatically makes it win..duh.
By any chance are you new to anime? Or maybe you watch anime only on Fox or Cartoon Network?