Anime news and stuff
(An Essay
—by Eri Izawa)
The stereotype image of Japanese anime
and manga has
lately gotten worse. Once upon a time, for
those who knew,
Japanese animation meant KIMBA THE WHITE
LION, or BATTLE
OF THE PLANETS, and SPEED RACER. It meant
(to us who
were kids at the time) some of the best
and most
addictive shows on
TV, animated or otherwise. Once upon a time,
a TV reporter
would report on the sales of transforming
robot toys in
Japan, and not even mention the animated TV
shows that
spawned them.
Now, TV has picked up anime. Now, the WWW
is filled
with anime pages. Now, reporters show us
sensational
footage of anime fans in anime-postered
seclusion, apparent
victims of a new mental disease from Japan.
And what is the new stereotype of anime in
this suddenly
anime-aware age? Things have gone beyond the
"big-eyes and
big-hair" stereotypes. For today's
pigeonhole, try the
phrase "big-breasted women, mechs, and lots
of gore," and
see if that doesn't sound familiar.
For example, look at CNN: "...the
standard for the
cartoon
genre in Japan ... usually involves a series
of
blood-and-guts battle scenes in futuristic
space settings."
Battles in space? Sure, some anime have
that—but the
majority don't.
Even beyond big-chested women is the
implication of
sex. Take a US mailorder catalog
characterizing RANMA 1/2:
they called it a "sex comedy." Action
adventure romance,
yes. Occasional nudity, yes. Sex? There
wasn't a single sex
scene in the entire series. Our main
characters don't even
kiss each other—except for once in a school
play, where a
layer of sticky tape covered our hero's lips.
Perhaps the biggest irony is that the
"big-chested women,
mechs, and lots of gore" stereotype seems to
be largely a
product of the US market itself. The market
drives most
business decisions, and perhaps the fact that
every anime
in the US seems to have lots of large busts,
mecha, and
blood-n-guts may have something to do with
the demand
(or the perceived demand) on this side
of the
Pacific. Before
anyone points a patronizing finger at Japan,
perhaps a good
look at ourselves is warranted.
How True Are the Stereotypes?
First off the bat: Many series do contain
some nudity
and scenes of some sort of sexually-tinged
embarrassment
(both male and female), but with some
exceptions,
the
incidences are occasional, and are generally
not central to
the story. As for large-chested women: they
are probably
just as ubiquitous in American superhero
comics as in
Japanese manga. In fact, it might be argued
that the
American stereotypical style—ridiculously
muscular men and
ridiculously curvaceous women—is one of the
influences that
increased anime women's bust sizes (and
anime mens'
biceps).
What of the blood-n-guts and techie
stereotype? Japan
has had anime for decades now, and a sampling
of the shows
might produce the follow: a baseball anime,
an anime for
little girls about some friends with magical
powers, a
plain old comedy anime, and yes, one techno
fantasy with
guts and gore.
Let's look at a sampling of a weekly compiled
comic book
for even one of the most
violence-and-sex-fascinated group,
boys. Let's take a fairly recent (1997
issue 15) SHONEN
SUNDAY, one of the more popular manga
magazines in
circulation. With a rough analysis, and
excluding the
short-format gag cartoons (which are
usually not story
based), we find two general themes
present in most
stories:
some sort of action/adventure or sports
theme, and some
sort of character growth and/or romance
theme.
Bluntly put, action/adventure/sports doesn't
necessarily
mean blood-n-guts. Often, it simply means
tension at a
crucial moment in a ballgame, or scenes of
our hero (or
heroine) hitting a golf ball. These
scenes have all the
gore of a tennis match.
Common Aspects of Anime and Manga Most People
Don't See
The other category should give more pause.
Romance as a
category is fairly understandable, but
character growth?
One might ask what that really means.
Let's look at FUSHIGI YUUGI. This
manga and anime,
whose
target audience appears to be junior high
school girls,
follows the adventures of a normal schoolgirl
named Miaka
who winds up in a magical version of ancient
China. Sure,
she has adventures, meets deadly enemies, and
even makes
out with her boyfriend (quite a bit in
fact). But
the
climax of this series, as steeped in
grandiose good-evil
battle action as it is, is one of the heart
and soul. Our
heroine, once a student overwhelmed with
school worries and
fears, has found more important things in
life. She has
found that caring for others and being cared
for by others
are stronger than adversity. She has found
that she has the
strength and ability to make a difference—as
long as she
doesn't give up. These realizations—more
convictions,
really—are what gives her the strength to
conquer evil and
(yes) save the world.
Let's look at a boy's manga. One of the more
popular manga
currently running in SHONEN SUNDAY is ME
GUMI NO
DAIGO.
Daigo is a young firefighter who has an
uncanny ability to
find and rescue people who are in trouble.
While the series
naturally has lots of action and some
nail-biting
cliffhangers, there is no combat. There is
blood, but only
on those injured in fires and accidents.
There is no
sex—only a troubled, vague romance between
Daigo and a
teacher who thinks
he's putting himself in too much risk. There
is no mecha or
space scenes; this is everyday Japan. There
is no weird
science fiction or magical sorcery; the
strangest it gets
is Daigo's mysterious impulses, which
practically drag him
into dangerous situations to rescue and save
lives. There
is, however, plenty of internal emotional
drama within our
hero, as he at first tries to exorcise the
strange impulses
that pulls him to those in danger, and then
later comes to
understand more and more about himself.
Finally, let's look at the 1997
much-trumpeted Sony
Playstation game, FINAL FANTASY VII.
It contains our
stereotypical elements: action, combat,
mecha, yes, even
large-chested women. Yet to just focus on
those elements
would be an insult to the entire game. It
would be missing
the point. The game's events revolve around
the character
of the hero, Cloud, his relationships with
others, and his
thoughts, desires, fears—and his growth. He
starts off
outwardly a cold, almost heartless young
man—yet inwardly
small and frightened. We don't see it at
first, but his
worst failures are largely a result of his
own inner
hypocrisy and fear. But with the progression
of the
game—through the help of his friends and his
help to
them—he grows into what he really wanted to
be: a hero,
able to selflessly care for others, and with
enough courage
to look within himself and admit to what is
there and
overcome it. He has to first conquer himself,
before he can
truly succeed in his mission. That internal
growth is the
pivot-point of FINAL FANTASY VII, the
inner flame
that
gives meaning to the (yes,
stereotypical) story
about
people trying to save the world from evil. It
is what makes
the story real, the people sympathetic, the
attempt to save
the world worthwhile.
Conclusion
Aren't these aspects of the universal
story of human
progression and human personal growth? Most
people, at some
point or other, wonder who they are. Some of
us get lost
sometimes, putting up masks of one sort of
other, covering
up the most vulnerable feelings within. And
some of us
forget the mask isn't us at all. We make
mistakes, we hurt
others, we fail our own expectations. Yet
throughout
history, the happiest—truly happy—have been
those who have
had the courage to shed the mask and look
within; they have
tried to live true to the vulnerable ideals
from deep down;
they strove to accept their mistakes and
learn from them.
They dared to care, dared to strive, and
dared to never
give up.
This story, this message, is hardly rare
in the
manga/anime world. Look closely—you'll see
this story is
repeated over and over and over. So much so
we can add this
to our stereotype list: big eyes, big hair,
big busts, big
machines, blood-n-guts—and deep, personal,
spiritual
growth.
The other stereotypes are often there
too, and yes,
they can be enjoyable and entertaining, or
they can be
overdone and irritating. But to look only at
those—to talk
about only those, to promote only those—is to
cling to the
shallow picture. For many who know manga and
anime beyond
the stereotype, there is that common but
little-recognized
element that draws us in too, something
somehow profound
that reminds us of more important
things.
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