Just what does Anime have that makes it different from American animation? Aside from the obvious artistic differences as covered on the What is Anime page, there is something quite unique about Anime. This page will explore the uniqueness of Anime and the influence of Japanese culture on Anime with a comparison and contrast with western culture.

In the Beginning: A Lesson about the Real World

The first Anime to be imported to the U.S. from Japan was the Astro Boy television series in 1963. It was cute cartoon television series that quickly became a hit in the U.S. But what made Astro Boy different from anything seen before in a children's television series? Beneath the facade of a fantasy story of a cute boy robot that could fly, there was a story that for the first time ever, offered to children a glimpse of the real world, a world which included sadism, prejudice, and even death. For those of you not familiar with the Astro Boy series, I want to emphasize that Astro Boy is not a dark story. I can recommend the Astro Boy series to any parent who is concerned about what their children watch. But to know the complete background of Astro Boy's story is to acknowledge that very bad things can happen to good people, a subject never touched by American children's television before.

The background of Astro Boy's story begins in the year 2000 when Dr. Boynton of the Institute of Science loses his son, Astor Boynton, in a tragic traffic accident. In his grief, he recreates a likeness of his son in the form of a robot, hence Astro Boy is born (Astor Boynton=Astro Boy). But his creation soon becomes his source of irritation as his realizes that this robot likeness of his son will never grow into manhood. As Dr. Boynton slips into gibbering madness, he sells his creation to a circus where Astro Boy is brutalized by the ringmaster. This is heavy stuff for a children's cartoon show in 1963! Astro Boy is rescued by the good Dr. Elefun and things start to look brighter for the flying robot boy.

At this time in American children's animation only Disney movies such as Snow White, Pinocchio, and Bambi, that were shown in movie theaters was the subject of sadism or death ever depicted. Now in the sixties children could tune-in on a regular basis to find out what would happen next to the robot boy with very human experiences.

Astro Boy was the first of several Animes to be imported from Japan to U.S. television. Its popularity opened the door for other Japanese Animes to follow such as 8th Man and Gigantor.

Robots in Our Own Image

Audiences discovered a special fascination with the robot, robot-human concept, a popular theme that goes on to live in other Anime creations for the next 30 years. American movie creators soon picked up on this popular theme with the 1968 movie 2001: A Space Odyssey, with the computer character HAL who exhibited the human emotion of self-awareness, and then later the cult-classic Blade Runner(1982), with robot/cyborgs who feared being "retired." What is the phenomena about robots in movies and television series that we enjoy seeing? Since Mary Shelley's novel Frankenstein first published in 1818, to as recent examples as Astro Boy (1963), The Terminator (1984), and Ghost in the Shell (1996), audiences and readers have had a special captivation with the concept of artificial life, whether it is horrifying or enchanting. Man's desire to create life in his own image has been an irresistible temptation reflected in both science fiction movies and Anime.

Anime ethics: A short primer in Buddhism

As if to trespass onto God's domain to create life, Anime may also appear to westerners as interpreting its own brand of morality. Expose children to death in a regular television series? (IE. Astro Boy) How dare they!

But why did it take a Japanese animated import to expose a dark side of the real world that American children's television refuses to touch? Western television for children portrays the universe as a moral place. People who do good things in Western culture, do so because of a sense of accountability to a higher being in the universe, God.

Now in contrast we have Japan. The two most dominate religions in Japan are Shinto and Buddhism. Shinto, the indigenous religion of Japan, celebrates life through a noisy traditional fanfare, but does not preach a moral code. Buddhism has a moral code, but it is not ramroded like the Judeo-Christian moral code as a key to salvation. Morality for the Japanese is purely a human social concept. For the Japanese one does moral acts for the approval of their social peers, their family, mom, dad, and long dead ancestors, the universe really has no bearing on morality, it does not care. The original basic doctrine of Buddhism teaches that understanding suffering and death is the first of Four Noble Truths. Therefore understanding that bad things are going to happen to good people, one is a step closer to breaking the cycle of eternal rebirth and reaching salvation, known as Nirvana. Now I must emphasize at this point that the practice and interpretation of Buddhism in Japan vary from sect to sect. Ask the average Japanese who calls oneself a Buddhist about the Four Noble Truths and you're likely to get some blank looks.

Watching television as a kid, I never really worried too much about my Super Heros getting killed. They were "regulars" on the show, and they were not supposed to get killed, not so in Anime. Gokou of the Dragon Ball series starts off in the first episode as a little kid, then in later episodes he grows up, gets married and has a son, and gets killed! In the latter episodes Gokou watches his son Gohan from heaven as he experiences one challenging fight to the next. In the series Star Blazers (known in Japan as Uchu Senkan Yamato=Space Battleship Yamato), Derek Wildstar's (Susumu Kodai) younger brother Alex gets killed in the first episode. We then later learn and see through flashback, the tragic deaths of the Wildstar's parents, struck by a bomb while waiting at a bus stop. Making characters, no matter how good they are, heroic, or popular in a story appear mortal, adds a dynamic element to a story that makes it more appealing to children, and adults too.

 

 

A Dynamic Storyline: To be continued! (on and on, and . . .)

But there are other dynamics to Anime, besides death, that make it uniquely different and interesting. These dynamics can be seen in story development. For the most part the American tradition in television has been to present episodes that create a plot or a situation that was resolved by the main characters within that evening's 30 minute episode. The next episode presents a new plot for the characters which has no relation to the previous episode, and will certainly have no bearing on the next episode. I'm aware that there are some exceptions to this tradition in American animation, but when compared to Anime, the American animated television story is quite static. Compare this to the Anime series Ranma 1/2, a particular plot line can overlap into two or three episodes while introducing new characters, creating new rifts between old characters, adding sub plots to current plots and on and on.

This Japanese concept of story development in Anime also exists in the printed Manga, or comic book form. The long developed story line in Dragon Ball has resulted in volumes of books which chronicles Gokou's life from his childhood, his death, and onto his next generation. With the decline in sales of American comic books over the past 20 years, American authors may have taken an inspiration from their Japanese counterparts and made history when the trusty sidekick Robin of the Batman series gets killed, or when Superman finally marries Lois Lane after catching her eye sometime after . . . a . . . World War II.

Brave New Worlds: Look out!

Similar to American comics and movies, Japanese creators delve into the world of science fiction. But a common theme seen in Anime science fiction is the futuristic world of an unsettled society gone amok.

The first Anime movie to become a commercial success in the U.S. was Akira. Set in post nuclear holocaust Tokyo renamed Neo-Tokyo. Akira portrays a foreboding world of motorcycle gangs that roam the streets bashing the skulls of rival gangs, popping pills, and creating havoc in their wake. In this rather dark story we see a government that is falling apart at the seams as corrupt and power hungry politicians battle with subversives who are trying to uncover a secret government project called Akira. Akira soon became a cult classic for many first-time Anime fans. It presented a futuristic world that mirrored American culture of the sixties; Hell Angel's motorcycle movies, and riot control via police brutality (circa ‘68 Democratic Convention).

On the technological side we see a frighteningly structured world in the Anime movie Ghost in the Shell. In this story we are presented with a world of human looking robots (cyborgs) that resemble human identity only by the original organic brain contained in their titanium skulls. It is quite exceptional when one of the characters is noted to have "most of his original parts," meaning that he is 99% human. In this world everyone can be connected to the "net" directly by plugging in their brains via the sockets on the backs of their necks. The police have no need for walkie talkies or phones in this society. Everyone simply transmits directly from their built-in radios connected to their brain. In Ghost in the Shell things have gotten out of hand at the ole Information Highway. With much written about how the Internet will affect our lives, Ghost in the Shell foretells a future when the "net" won't be user friendly anymore. The characters find a new villain born from a world that can easily out pace mere human thought.

The are many examples of this dark vision of our future used in movie making, and by no means does Anime have a monopoly on it, for example movies such as The Road Warrior, The Terminator, or 12 Monkeys, all portray unsettling futures. Science fiction plays a lot with our future. The writer, whether one is writing for Anime or live actor movies, is afforded an unlimited palette in which to create an outrageous setting for his characters to thrive or flounder in.

The Anime Woman

But Anime writers are not just confined to just creating unique settings for their stories, Anime is also filled with unique characters. After viewing a half dozen Anime movies, one can notice a similar character type, hereinafter referred to as The Anime Woman. Japanese society is known for its stereotypical portrayal of Japanese women as submissive beings in a male dominant culture. But once someone takes the time to learn about the Japanese culture and the people, we can learn that the Japanese woman stereotype is more myth than reality.

Men like The Anime Woman for her sexy clothing, curvaceous body, and cute face. Women like The Anime Woman, because women are portrayed as characters who can really kick butt when they need to!

In Yawara, the Fashionable Judo Girl, young high school girl Yawara quickly dispatches a purse snatcher in the first episode with her Judo skills, but later on scares off a popular singer whom she has a terrible crush on by defending him from being beaten up by jealous school boys. She dreams to be like any other girl, but with the continual instigation of her proud grandfather, finds herself facing one Judo match after another.

In the series Ranma ½, Akane, the 16-year-old young lady who is betrothed to Ranma, can really hold her own in martial arts, but Ranma refuses to fight her because he "doesn't fight girls." On the other hand Ranma has the misfortune of being cursed, whenever he is doused with cold water, he transforms from male into a buxom female redhead who then has the opportunity of seeing how the other side of the gender gap lives while being pursued by a male rival who has crush on the female Ranma.

We find that The Anime Woman can also handle a variety of weapons and can handle them quite well. Masamune Shirow's creations Appleseed and Ghost in the Shell portray female characters who are quite at home blowing away bad guys with an assortment of weaponry. In Gunsmith Cats, Rally and Minnie are not only gunsmiths by profession they also use the tools of their trade with such ferocity a Rambo movie looks quite tame.

In the realm of gothic horror, Miyu of Vampire Princess Miyu, we never quite know if she is good or evil, but she knows what she wants. Miyu appears as a young girl of 13-years-old wearing traditional kimonos and hair styled in the traditional Japanese young girls style. But being a vampire, she maybe hundreds of years old. In the episode A Banquet of Marionettes, the eroticism of Miyu toward a handsome schoolboy whose soul is about to be devoured by an evil Shinma (a demon from the underworld), leaves us to wonder if Miyu is really trying to save this boy or is she saving him for herself. Her battle with the Shinma is accompanied by traditional Japanese music typical of the Japanese Noh (pronounced, NO) stage play.

A Final Word

In the American culture that I live in one of the toughest things that I have to deal with when I bring up the subject of Anime with someone who hearing about it for the first time is the paradigm of thought associated with animation. "Oh, you mean kid's cartoons," they would say or "Yea, I watched that stuff . . . when I was a kid." I really feel that Japanese Anime is far ahead of its time when compared with American culture. Viewed as an expressionistic form of art Anime is quite intriguing and also entertaining. Yet the Dutch painter Vincent VanGogh (1853-1890) was far ahead of his time with his expressionistic form of art, thus never sold a painting in his entire life. Alas, as with any genre of art there is that predictable controversial element that will always appear. I've noticed that a disproportional amount of Anime that has made it to this country is what we would call pure pornography. But I ask you, can you think of any art form that doesn't have a controversial side? For the reasons I've stated, I think it will be years to come before my American culture will appreciate Anime as it is appreciated in Japan. For now the Information Highway will be our biggest resource for Anime as it is for me.