Less than Noble Heroes / Loveable Villains
Richer content is not the only important difference between American and Japanese animation. There are many other aspects that me anime unique. The characters in anime are more complex than in American cartoons.
Shiro Lhadatt, first man in space.Anime villains can have understandable or even noble intentions and can even be likable. Hero can be less than perfect human beings as well. There is a good example of one of these less than perfect protagonists from the 1987 animated film The Wings of Honneamise1.
The film is set on an alternate earth and takes places in a country in the mist of a devastating cold war. The Royal Space Force (RSF) is largely viewed as a joke as well as a waste of precious money and resources. Astronaut Shiro Lhadatt is to become the first man in space, he and the RSF rush to complete the the world’s first orbital launch before their government is able to use the space launch as bait to start a war. When Shiro reaches space he uses the craft’s transmitter to send a message to the world to pray for peace instead of his government approved propaganda speech.
But Shiro isn’t a typical cartoon hero, earlier in the film he attempts to rape the young woman that took him into her home. The film clearly establishes Shiro Lhadatt as a heroic figure but many viewers are never able to forgive him even though the woman he tried to rape did.
Ryu Soma, double agent at Funeral.Many anime characters can’t fit into the familiar hero/villain cookie cutter mold no matter how far you try to bend it. The main character from a television series called Argento Soma2 is one of these. It is the year 2059 and earth has been under attack by aliens for several years. Takuto Kenishiro, a university student studying metallurgy, reluctantly agrees to help a scientist (that his girlfriend is working for) revive one of the giant aliens. During an experiment the alien reactivates, destroys the research center and kills everyone there except for Tukuto. Takuto wakes up in a hospital bed with his life in shambles, and his face disfigured.
Motivated by vengeance and heart break, Takuto accepts an offer from a mysterious stranger and receives a new identity as a ranking Funeral officer named Ryu Soma. Funeral is an organization which fights the aliens using their own reverse-engineered technology. In exchange for his new identity Ryu Soma spies on Funeral for the mysterious man. He also seeks revenge on the repaired alien which has now become an integral part of Funeral’s operations. The flawed heroes and noble villains in Japanese animation like these are essential to anime’s appeal.
In American culture heroes have to fight for a cause that is honest and pure, but the Japanese ideal hero doesn’t have that requirement. The ideal Japanese hero is defined my motivation. The typical Japanese hero isn’t just self-sacrificing and brave but also selfless, he must be uninterested in personal gain or survival. The cause really is not important. The hero’s dedication is what counts.
Winning also doesn’t count. Often it seems that the Japanese prefer a hero that loses. The hero’s lack over personal gain reinforces his selflessness. It’s quite possible in the Japanese media to celebrate a kamikaze pilot’s heroism with out endorsing Japan’s fascist policies during world war II.
Isoroku Yamamoto, commander of
Japanese fleet at Pearl Harbor.Most portrayals of Japanese leadership from the war are in fact very negative. For example in the classic film Tora, Tora, Tora3 American and Japanese film makers collaborated on the production of the film. The Japanese director portrayed the commander of Japanese forces during the attack on Pearl Harbor, Admiral Yamamoto, as a man who was against the war. But his loyalty to his homeland and to it’s government were so strong that he felt compelled to carry out the attack even though he thought it would eventually lead to Japan’s downfall.
Another example of Japanese heroism was the Shinsengumi, a force of samurai in the mid-nineteenth century that formed to resist the westernization of Japan. The members of the Shinsengumi are admired by the Japanese because they fought without any self interest. It doesn’t matter that if the Shinsengumi had been successful in preventing Japan’s modernization the county probably would have ended up as a European colony. In Japanese animation it really does not matter what a hero does as long as they do it whole-heartedly.
Footnotes:
1. GAINAX 1987, Director: Hiroyuki Yamaga
2. Bandai Entertainment 2001, Director: Kazuyoshi Katayama
3. 1970, Richard Fleischer & Kinji Fukasaku