Modern Anime Composition
Scene from The Big OThe use of color and shape in American cartoons is a direct descendant of seven minute Warner Brothers shorts. Bright primary and secondary colors, the same as from a small box of crayons. Objects have heavy black outlines. Bright contrasting colors, the same as on children’s’ toys. Every scene is filled with light even if it is taking place in a dark cave, and the camera angle is stuck in a perpetual three quarters view.
The simple shapes and simple colors are designed to appeal to the very young. It is designed to sell a product, like a bright colored cereal box. Japanese animation, in contrast, is not all produced for those who are still on their first set of teeth. Visual design and color schemes are wildly varied and custom tailored to suit the mood of the anime.
A “shining” example of how different style can be is the 1999 television series The Big O. The story is set in Paradigm City, the last remaining corner of organized civilization left in a post apocalyptic future.
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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.
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Western Influences in Anime
How could people from space possibly be
Japanese? That doesn’t make sense.Japanese animation (or anime) is very similar to Hello Kitty from a cultural perspective. Western fans expect anime to be all over the place when they visit Japan, but it is actually quite hard to find.
Some comic books can be bought at corner news stands but they kinds of things that anime fans want like DVDs, CDs, animation cells, posters, and trading cards require a great deal of work to find.
When I was in Kyoto on a study abroad tour to get to the Japanese animation store in the city I had to walk on block east to get on the subway, ride the subway from Ninth street to Third street, walk west three blocks, walk north halfway through a covered shopping area, go down an ally, up a set of stairs, and down a dark hallway. This store was the only anime store in the city we could find and it was only about the size of a 7-11.
Anime fandom in Japan can be described as a sub culture, and that’s the nicest possible description. Most often the Japanese call it an “Otaku” culture. Otaku is literally the Japanese word for house and it’s usage in this sense implies: “You’re such a loser that you sit around at their home all the time and watch anime.”
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Introduction
Belldandy from Ah! My GoddessWhen it comes to culture, for a long time after the end of WW II, the U.S. and Japan were like father and son. In the post WW II era Japanese culture was nurtured on a steady stream of American movies, animation, and comic books.
“All the American movies banned during wartime came back in a flood, both new ones and old ones. It would have been strange for me not to have overdosed on them. I must have been seeing something like 300 films a year.”*1
It was not uncommon for Japanese comic and animation creators to use Hollywood actors as characters in their creations or for them to translate stories from American science fiction magazines and sell them as original work. It was under this shadow of American culture that modern Japanese popular culture developed, and thanks to many creative pioneers Japanese animation has developed into an unique medium exported around the world.
“From pop music to consumer electronics, architecture to fashion, and animation to cuisine, Japan looks more like a cultural superpower today than it did in the 1980s, when it was an economic one.”*2
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