Some Bathroom Reading

[TaranT]

On the front page of the Online Christian Science Monitor: Anime-ted Japan

What began as a distinctly Japanese style of visual storytelling has gone global. As culture watchers from Tokyo to London point out, anime is far more than Pikachu and PowerPuff girls. The art form has achieved what no other indigenous cultural expression has managed to do: become widespread enough to challenge America's stranglehold on entertainment.

That last sentence is typical mainstream nonsense, but the article isn't too bad otherwise.

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The July issue of Wired magazine is what they're calling The Remix Issue (cover illustration of The Gorillaz). It has several short articles about mash-ups, fan fiction, hybrid cars, etc. If you don't want to pay for the mag, just wait a couple of weeks when the content goes online at their Web site.

CYA Declaration: this issue has an adult article (no pics), so...it's for older teens and up.

[EmilLang1000]

IIII'm not so sure the last statement is completely false; afterall, AMERICA used to set the trends for the rest of the world, effectively. Our music was copied around the world, as well as our fashion and our television shows.
Yet now you're beginning to see Anime everywhere, especially in Europe. America has a stranglehold on the motion picture industry still; music seems more universal, although America - due mainly to our size - has more international superstars than other countries; but Japan seems to becoming the dominant force of television worldwide.
Anime is replacing traditional cartooning styles, both on and off screen, probably because it's such a perfect blend of cartoonish-looking-styles and realistic styles.

[doughboy]

http://www.csmonitor.com/2005/0624/csmimg/p12a.jpg

Neat, I've been there.


People churn out articles like this every 3 months. They might as well directly copy previous articles, instead of researching it and ending up with the same info anyways.

[TaranT]

IIII'm not so sure the last statement is completely false; afterall, AMERICA used to set the trends for the rest of the world, effectively. Our music was copied around the world, as well as our fashion and our television shows....

The statement isn't false as much as misleading. Anime isn't strictly Japanese; it's Westernized Japanese, if you get my drift. You can start with the art design which some of the older, earlier directors say was inspired by Walt Disney. Then look at the emphasis on sci-fi themes which is more generally American than simply Western. Then add in the plot structure, character types, episodic TV series, movie-making technology, etc.

Anime builds from Western culture. It's that way because the Japanese wanted Western - and specifically, American - culture (at least in the early to middle 20th Century). I think it's fair to say that the popularity of anime in the USA is precisely because the themes are so accessible to the American mindset. And if that's true, then the worldwide popularity of anime simply says it is part of the tide of American culture sweeping the world, not its competition.

People churn out articles like this every 3 months. They might as well directly copy previous articles, instead of researching it and ending up with the same info anyways.

Believe it or not, that's exactly how many reporters do "research". They Lexis-Nexis other articles and wind up repeating the same old hash.

[EmilLang1000]

Ah, true - I'd kinda forgotten that Ozamu Tezuka orignally was copying Disney. Kinda funny though that now Anime is putting Disney's animation department out of business (that, and that idiot Mike Eisner)