The main thesis of the article Cartoons from Another Planet: Japanese Animation as Cross-Cultural Communication in my opinion would be the American misunderstanding of anime as the same thing as a cartoon. The author defines anime as “a delightfully inventive reference manual into the world of Japanese symbols, folklore, religion, history, social musings and aesthetic traditions.” Anime and Manga (Japanese comics) are targeted to all audiences. The article talks about in Tokyo is not uncommon to see children, girls, and business men reading Manga on a subway train.
But what about the graphic violence and sexual imagery in some anime not geared toward children, tentacle love Hentai anyone? (please don’t google that) The author defines Anime again as “another form of escapism, a medium for those well-behaved Japanese to partake in unabashed bacchanalian excess through run away cleavage and in-your-face brutality.” Despite this mature anime Japan’s violence and sexual crime rate were both down significantly during the periods when manga and anime were the most popular.
I found the paragraph talking about the different Japanese symbolisms used in Anime to be very interesting. An example from the article is the use of a cherry blossom tree which means two things: 1) that it is spring, and 2) someone from the story is going to die. Another use of Japanese symbolism is when a male character notices a beautiful girl and their nose will start to bleed. It’s little things like this that I find fascinating about other cultures.
The only two animations from Japan I remember really getting into were Pokemon and Dragonball Z. When I was a kid cartoon network use to have an animation block running at midnight called Toonami. Some of the programs they aired were Sailor Moon, Robotech, Gundam Wing and of coarse Dragon Ball Z. Below is a clip from DBZ and for those of you who have never seen the show when a person’s hair grows straight up and turns yellow you become a Super Saiyan (translation- a total badass).
Like I said total badass.
“Excuse me, can I purchase these comic books with my dignity?”
