Final Research Essay: Anime (Includes Survey Analysis)

Anime is the most diverse form of media on the face of this planet. Any genre that you could possibly think of from any movie, book, television series, or even video game has at least been portrayed once or in even thousands of anime series. Anime creators have even made adaptations of the specific media they share these genres with. For example, in 1979, Nippon Animation of Japan made a fifty episode long series called “Akage no Anne” based on Anne of Green Gables by Lucy Maud Montgomery. Because anime falls into so many different categories, it is intended for people of all ages and both genders, even for men and women over forty. Most ignorant young American adults fascinated by sports and other types of entertainment may overlook this vast form of media and will often think it is childish or stupid. I found quite a few of my classmates in high school and co-workers to have a similar opinion. However, many of the people that have not overlooked this amazing form of media, the actual fans of anime, are normally young adults. In my survey of sixty individuals from a various scope of the University of Michigan Dearborn Anime Club, the Animetalk forums, the Youmacon forums, and a few of my personal friends, 38 (63.3%) of them were young adults between the ages of 18 and 22. The rest were split evenly between the teenage years of 13 and 17, and adults between the ages of 23 and 39. These people in my survey also said that they most often watch anime in the Seinen (young men) demographic and were most willing to watch anime rated PG-13 and R-17+. It is also a stereotype that most people believe that only, or mostly, men watch and are fans of anime. I found in my survey that only 31 (51.7%) of the people were male, and the rest were female, making it almost an even split of the two genders. Out of these sixty people, only one was still in middle school, twelve in high school, thirty-eight in an undergraduate school in college, and three in graduate school. Fourteen of them were employed with a wages job and six of them were employed in a salary job. These results yield that anime is certainly not just for children, and most certainly not just for men. People that say otherwise usually have not even seen much or any real anime themselves and probably don’t have much proof to back up their claims.

Anime is also a very elaborate art form. It is not just strung together like any old American cartoon. Japanese animation usually consists of a more detailed and intricate style of art not seen in any other types of media other than its book form counterpart, manga. This style is reminiscent of Japan’s woodblock printing that was most prominent in the Edo Period (1603-1867) and even of paintings from Japan as far back as before the twelfth century. This style has come a long way from the prints of the Edo era and has manifested itself in many different styles since 1917, when anime came to exist with Junichi Kouchi’s “Namakura Gatana”. Two great examples of where the quality of art in anime is now are “5 Centimeters Per Second” by Shinkai Makoto and “Eden of The East” from Production I.G. and FUNimation Entertainment. The landscapes and backgrounds, along with all the objects shown in these series are highly detailed and sometimes almost photo-realistic. Animation in anime is also very fast paced, much more than in American cartoons, in action anime and other sequences of other genres of anime. “Baccano!” from Aniplex, Brains Base, and FUNimation Entertainment is one of the series of anime that shows this feature the best. It is full of many fast-paced action sequences portraying organized crime in Chicago and New York in the 1930s accompanied by some fast-paced music making it a wonderful, fast flowing work of art. The high quality voice acting in most anime series also contributes to the art of the anime along with the beauty of the Japanese language. Thirty-one out of fifty people (62%) who took the survey said they would rather watch anime with the original Japanese audio with English subtitles. All these amazing works of art shown through these anime series show that anime is an art form and not just a cartoon for mild entertainment purposes.

With anime being a very diverse form of media and art from many different genres, it comes with many intellectual and narrative themes you could find in higher-end intellectual books and movies, but also ranging from all ends of the spectrum. Anime is highly influenced by culture and history and has come to have a culture and history of its own. Some of the most prominent themes resulting from this influence are war and political rebellion, global cultural influence, philosophy and science, and culture and daily life in Japan.

Strong images of war and political rebellion can best be seen in the anime “Code Geass: Hangyaku no Lelouch” from Bandai entertainment and CLAMP and also in its sequel, “Code Geass: Hangyaku no Lelouch R2” from the same producers. In this series, Britannia is an unmatched Celtic super power in a slightly alternate universe of our world in the near future controlling a third of the world. The highly racist leader, Charles di Britannia, has named all countries under his control by numbers, with Japan as Area 11 with the Japanese called “elevens”. Japanese civilians of numbers trying to call themselves Japanese are often shown being beaten by Britannians living in Area 11. A Britannian youth by the name of Lelouch vi Britannia, who voluntarily stripped himself of the position of 17^th in line for the throne when his father, the emperor Charles, did nothing about his mother’s death and sister’s injuries after an attack on his home. He was sent to Japan, and later witnessed its sacking by Britannia making him vow to start a rebellion and defeat Britannia. Under the guise of a mysterious masked figure by the name of Zero, Lelouch, now 17 years old, put forth an elaborate rebellion against Britannia, eventually killing his father. Then Lelouch used the master plan of “Zero Requiem” to become the emperor himself and turn the entire world’s hatred onto him, becoming a brutal dictator over the entire world, and then having his best friend, Suzaku who opposed him throughout his rebellion, dress up as Zero and kill him in front of everyone during an honorary Britannian parade, halting all war and bringing happiness to all the people of the world. This anime series portrayed a highly developed story of a revolutionary who successfully started a rebellion and righted the wrongs of the world. Thirty-one of the people interviewed in my survey had seen this show, and eleven of them called it one of their favorite series. Twenty-two had seen the sequel, and twelve of them called it one of their favorite series.

Images of a personal rebellion against the real corrupted world of hatred and crime can be seen in the anime “Death Note” from Madhouse Studios. A senior high school student in Japan finds a notebook dropped from the Death God world into the human world outside his school. He reads the instructions in the front of the notebook and tests it out. He realizes that he can actually kill people instantly just by writing their names down in the notebook while imagining their faces. He uses this “Death Note” to eliminate criminals worldwide and all police and other forces that try to stand in his way. He believes he can become God of a new bright and idealistic world. This series shows how someone trying to change the world with initially good intentions can turn evil from having too much power and trying to play God, ultimately leading to your downfall. Forty-one of the people interviewed in my survey had seen this series, and twenty of them called it one of their favorite series.

Global cultural influence can be seen in the before mentioned “Akage no Anne”, but can also best be seen in the anime “Romeo x Juliet” from Gonzo. This is an anime based on the basic structure and plotline of Englishman William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. This anime is a great cultural reference to Shakespearian times and plays through references to clothing and living styles of the time, along with plays such as Othello, As You Like It, Much Ado About Nothing Hamlet, and Macbeth. Othello posters are hung on walls of Neo Verona, Juliet dresses up as a male as the Red Whirlwind making a reference to the swashbuckler film The Mask of Zorro and also as Odin, her male disguise like Rosalind in As You Like It, has a character named after Conrad from Much Ado About Nothing, a guardian character named after the guard Francisco from Hamlet, and an intertwined plot of Macbeth with Lord Montague, the Duke of Neo Verona who had murdered lord Capulet to become a dictator of the lands, following what Macbeth did to King Duncan in the play Macbeth.

A fictional, although highly intricate philosophy of God and existence can be seen in the anime series, “The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya” from Kyoto Animation (Kyoani). In this series, an average high school girl named Haruhi Suzumiya is unknowingly God and she created the world three years ago, yet she is sixteen years old. Tim is philosophized in this anime as nonexistent or rather just a figment of the human imagination that can occur in multiple orders, be manipulated, or single periods of time that can be repeated thousands of times before continuing on the illusion of “time”. In its first run, the anime’s episodes were aired out of order to farther show that time does not matter and does not exist. Time travel has also been made possible which is shown through characters from the future interacting with the present. Scientists have made this possible by realizing time is not linear, therefore you can just insert yourself onto any page of the flipbook in the plane of “time”. Haruhi’s will is the reason for the creation of the world shown in the anime and the time travelers, aliens, and espers (psychics) that she encounters throughout the series. Twenty nine of the people that took my survey have experienced this strange philosophy, and eight of them called it one of their favorite series.

All mecha anime, such as the “Gundam” franchise of almost 30 series from Bandai and Sunrise, “Code Geass” from Bandai and CLAMP, and “Eureka Seven” show advanced technology, known as Mobile Suits in the Gundam universe, and mechs or mecha everywhere else, are giant robots used as mobile weapons configured in human form to carry massively up-scaled weapons such as handguns, rifles, and swords. In these animes, the mech is one of the greatest peaks in military technology helping to take over nations and even the world. This advanced technology portrayed in these anime series show a technical side to anime, where designers of such artwork must be very experienced with drawing up technical blueprints for elaborate machinery.

Last, but not least, anime covers a genre called “Slice of Life”, a genre associated with anime more than anything else. Slice of life is a genre of anime that shows a piece or pieces of the characters’ lives usually with multiple breaks between time periods shown in the series and not ever ending with the characters’ death, but usually with an open ending. Anime series that portray such events include “Lucky☆Star” from Kyoto animation, a series about Japanese girls in high school, “Welcom to the NHK” from Gonzo and FUNimation, a series about a Hikkomori NEET (Not involved in employment, education, or training) who never leaves his apartment, “Genshiken” from Media Blasters and Lantis, a series about a college anime club, and “REC” from SHAFT and TBS, a story about a Japanese “Salaryman” in the advertisement business. All of these anime series show a slice of their characters’ lives in Japan, and were written for Japanese audiences only, however they have become some of the most popular anime series in America. Thirty of the people in my survey had seen “Lucky☆Star” and seven of them called it one of their favorite series.

All in all, anime is one of the most elaborate forms of art in the world, along with the most diverse form of media portraying every genre known to man including intellectual themes such as political rebellion and philosophy and science, but also everyday themes shown in slice of life.

Bibliography

Akage no Anne. Nippon Animation. 7 Jan. 1979. Television.

Makoto, Shinkai, prod. 5 Centimeters per Second. CoMix Wave. 11 Feb. 2007. Television. 

Higashi no Eden. Production I.G., FUNimation Entertainment. 9 Apr. 2009. Television. 

Baccano!. Aniplex, Brains Base, FUNimation Entertainment. 26 July 2007. Television. 

Code Geass - Hangyaku no Lelouch. Sunrise, Mainichi Broadcasting, Bandai Entertainment. 6 Oct. 2006.

     Television. 

Code Geass - Hangyaku no Lelouch R2. Sunrise, CLAMP, Bandai Entertainment. 6 Apr. 2008.

     Television. 

Death Note. Madhouse Studios, Viz Media, Ashi Productions Co. Inc., VAP, Konami. 4 Oct. 2006.

     Television. 

Romeo x Juliet. Gonzo, GDH, CBC, SKY Perfect Well Think Co.,Ltd., Kadokawa Shoten, FUNimation

     Entertainment. 4 Apr. 2007. Television. 

The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya (2009). Kyoto Animation, Kadokawa Shoten. 21 May 2009. Television. 

Mobile Suit Gundam. Sunrise, Bandai Entertainment. 7 Apr. 1979. Television. 

Eureka Seven. BONES, Mainichi Broadcasting, Production Reed, Bandai Entertainment, Bang Zoom!

     Entertainment. 17 Apr. 2005. Television. 

Lucky ☆ Star. Kyoto Animation, Lantis, Kadokawa Pictures USA, Bang Zoom! Entertainment. 9 Apr.

     2007. Television.

Welcome to the NHK!. Gonzo, FUNimation Entertainment. 10 July 2006. Television. 

Genshiken. ARMS, GENCO, Lantis, KIDS STATION, Media Blasters. 10 Oct. 2004. Television. 

REC. SHAFT, TBS. 3 Feb. 2006. Television. 

Reading Response 3

Houses or homes you lived or live in can really have an impact on your life and images of old homes can help to bring back images of your childhood. Nicole Lamy shows this through her personal essay and photo journal, "Life in Motion". In the photo journal, Lamy has taken pictures of the twelve houses she used to live in growing up, all that she lived in before the age of thirteen. She has taken various images of the homes that all resemble mediocre photographs put up by real estate agents in newspapers.

In order to decorate these pictures for her article, Nicole used oils and pencils to color only parts of the black and white images of her previous homes. She didn’t intend for it to be artful, but I think that she may just misunderstand the meaning of the word art. As an art history major myself, I have seen plenty of art that may look like it took no talent or time to make, but that really isn’t the case most of the time. The various photographs of these many older style homes pasted into an accordion book really have an aesthetic feel to them. There was a real meaningful effect caused by the color added to few parts in each picture. The color could possibly show how Lamy’s memories of her childhood are fragmented or how some things in her childhood were more important than others. Also, the uncolored parts could be showing memories fading away with the color being the next thing to go. This makes sense if you look at the last image of her mother and brother’s current home, Nicole’s last childhood home, which was colored by her brother completely with everything in color. This method of using the mediums of photography, oil, and pencils to convey such meaning was a very artistic accomplishment in my opinion.

In the essay that accompanies the pictures, Nicole Lamy describes the trip she took with her father to visit her previous homes and memories of her childhood that correspond to the photos. Most of the things that she remembered seemed to be pleasant memories, such as playing in a cardboard box that her father turned into a house by cutting out a door and windows. That stopped after house seven which is the last house she and her parents lived together in. Then all Nicole could remember was memories of things that happened after her parents got divorced. Based on her memories, Lamy did not seem to be too troubled by all the moving her parents did, but just by the divorce of her parents.

When Nicole finally gave the accordion book with the picture of her past homes to her mother as a gift, her mother referred to the houses as all her failures. While Nicole thought of this as a pleasant gift of childhood memories of her and her mother, her mother was just reminded of bad times and failures in life. All in all, this series of photographs and essay depicted how homes of your past can remind you of pleasant and not so pleasant memories and describe your past life.