An Interactive, Annotated Guide to Japanese Animation
An Interactive, Annotated Guide to Japanese Animation
Written by William G. Adams
Monday, 14 December 2009 21:13
Rationale
Japanese Animation, or Anime as it's most commonly referred, is easiest described as animations, or “cartoons” that were created by or inspired by Japan. This art form, which has been around for a lot longer then most people realize, first grabbed hold of me in high school thanks to the cartoon network, a channel whose “Toonami” series of programs brought over just a sampling of the art form that were the most popular they could get a hold of.
After graduating and moving on to high school, I met a person who is now one of my best friends, Jason Smith. Through my friendship with him, I had access to his thousands of dollars worth of an anime and manga, Japanese comics. It was after this grand scope that I began using my talents for the computer, most importantly, my talents for the Internet, to broaden both my own knowledge and experience with it, as well as my friends and colleges.
I have narrowed my study of Anime to it's Internet presence, and how the web has truly changed the medium. I could go on for days on the history, the art, the creators, but the last few years have changed how it's distributed, how it's received, planned, and created.
Overview
The Internet's creation was meant to link several government and educational networks together to speak with one another and share information. But with the dawning of the new digital age, companies, as well as personal sites, started to pop their head into the arena, grabbing for our attention. So it's really no surprise the amount of anime sights out there. Faqs.org has a very nice list of the companies associated with anime – from the studios to the resellers, and their websites. (http://www.faqs.org/faqs/rec.answers/anime/resources/)
The media largely likes to stay out of it, deeming it almost a passing fad. Granted, there are those out there who hope that it is. Post Standards articles on Anime are minuscule: only referencing them when talking about other large fads among children and teens. So when you go looking for a legitimate, published source, your left with college papers, like the Cornell Sun, and the actual magazines written for nothing but, like Shonen Jump, or NewType America. But even with a college paper like the Cornell Sun, contributer Yevgeniy Feldman on April 5th, submitted the article Sex, Lies, and Anime: Behind the Internet, in which he reveals to everyone how he infiltrated a DC++ chat room using anime, and did everything “as a member of the media”. He explains how he faked knowledge of several topics they threw at him for the sake of writing this, and how he was eventually “banned” for being a phony. The article comes up highly satire, but it brings up several key points about Anime and the Internet. First, this article is based mostly around the notion of “infiltrating” a internet pirate group. So it's to be noted that Anime and the internet have a relationship through that. It also points out the sub-culture of the anime users and the internet. Some of the content most find amusing on their facebook page, be it the lolcats or the demotivational posters, were started on boards and by people who got together because of a common hobby in Anime, Manga, Comics, Sci-Fi, and/or Movies.
And if you were to assess the genre as a whole, you'd realize that it isn't a genre at all. No one will ever tell you that they like all anime. It's impossible. One minute you could be watching a series like Naruto, the next you'll flip the channel and Ai Yori Aioshi is on. One is about a ninja beating on other ninjas, the others about a guy who finds himself married to a beautiful heiress in a kimono. So as such, anime fans find themselves further separating themselves by the different genre's they pursue. Shonen, Shojo, Seinen, Mecha – they all are distinctly different, and are far from a complete list. There are series based on sports, mysteries, school life, martial arts, pirates, fantasy, comedy, and just about every facet of every day life.
So with all of these options, it's easy to see why it brings in a large demographic of people. The book by Train Man by Hitori Nakano is the story about a self proclaimed Anime and Gaming nerd who saves a girl on a train from drunken molester. Simple enough concept – except for how the books written and how the story got it's claim to fame. The man was a member of the site 2Chan, a site that's primarily for anime, manga, and gaming. So he went on and posted all about it, asking for advise on how to ask this girl out, so on and so forth .What was nothing more then a 57 day discussion between total strangers has brought about a book, a manga and anime, and a live action movie.
Critical Assessment
Reality vs. “Wikiality”
It's a little unfair to judge the Britannica article on Anime and the Wiki article on Anime, on the bases on the internet pull. Brittanica has almost nothing on Anime – it gives some key creators, and some popular movies. It's like the newspapers mentioned before – there's no reason to talk about it unless it's jumped to a point of interest with the people. It's just one of the largest art forms out there today.
Wikipedia, on the other hand, is much like the message boards of old. Before, you had sites built around single series or genre's. Now, everyone can edit the same article and add to it as things happen. As soon as a series beats the record for episodes aired on TV, it will change on wikipedia. The interest of the people is somewhat represented by the interest in keeping the article up to date.
My Strong Opinion
There is an underlying battle whenever you bring up Anime and the Internet. This is Fansubs versus the Industry releases. The basis of this argument is that the companies that translate the anime series obtain the license to do so, then they make a dub over with American voice actors, who usually botch it up pretty good, then turn around and sell them for upwards of $25 to $35 a DVD for 3-5 episodes. I can turn around an purchase the complete season of “How I met your mother” for $19.95, which is all 13 episodes, but if I want 4 episodes of “Full Metal Alchemist”, I have to pay $25 at the same store.
On the opposite side of the fence, you have the fansubber – a fan or group of fan's that obtain the episodes either through a TV recording or a DVD rip, who clean it up with a passion for the art, translate it, appropriately dub it with culture notes for those who don't know what a specific festival is, or certain word pun might be, then release them for free on the internet, usually through means of a Torrent, DC++, IRC, or Direct Download.
So it becomes a question of morals. Do you pay a fee for an art form that isn't well loved, just churned out to feed the masses, or do you break copyright laws and download from people who generally want you to enjoy the same series they do?
Most people don't know the history behind it, however. Fansubbing originated back when there were no anime industries in America. College students who knew Japanese would take and translate an episode, then take the film real and splice in the words. They would then take that, dub it over to a VHS tape, and give it to their friend. After their friend got hold of it, they would then make a dubbed copy for their friend who really liked it, and soon that VHS copy was making it's way across the states.
I will prop up my soapbox and state this: For Anime to survive – we need both! It is impossible for one to survive without the other. If the fansubbers were to all be rounded up and forced to stop, the industry would starts to make judgments on series without any foreknowledge of what people actually enjoy. It only takes a couple real flops to turn someone off of a genre, and when your talking so many possible genre's with so many thousands of series, it won't take long to alienate your audience. But on the flip side, the industries series get the air time – not the fansubbers. The Anime boom has made it popular right now, and everyone flocking to the Internet to get a fix. If the industry stopped publishing, the attention would die down, and you would loose people quickly. As soon as the new season of “Dancing with the stars” came on, you'd be done.
The industry needs the pirates to know what they're doing right and wrong, and the pirates need the industry to keep their masses.
Things to Avoid
As with any material, pirated material has a way of getting . . . pirated. The website http://stoptazmo.com has dedicated itself to giving manga out for free – because someone wasn't. Narutofan.com was run by a person who called himself Tazmo (hence the name of the other site). Now, fan sites that create work take donations for supplies, web hosting, the servers, etc. This person, through the donation system on his site, pretty much set it up to pay himself most of the proceeds of donations. On content he had no part in creating. He would go to these other fan site, take the work, and put it on his site. It's sad that so many people lost money the way they did, but it really comes down to the fact that con-men are everywhere – even in pirated media.
4Chan.org should more or less be avoided by anyone who is learning about the genre. It is both the genre's blessing and damnation, all rolled up into one big package. Why is that? Because it is the largest gathering of minds on the subject, and the largest perversion of minds on the subject. One thread, you'll be creating masterwork wallpapers for your desktop, the next will be gore shots from crime scenes. As with anything, you get too many minds in one place, perversion will take place.
A Multimedia Journey
The easiest way to show the internet's impact on anime is to show it. Since Anime is a media, multimedia is the natural progression.
In conclusion, I hope that everyone got a little sample of what all goes on behind the nerd curtain. There's a lot more to the Anime thing then the Pokemon and YuGiOh that most people see as personifying the genre. And that if it were not for the internet and a few well meaning pirates, the industry might not be what it is today.
There is an underlying battle whenever you bring up Anime and the Internet. This is Fansubs versus the Industry releases. The basis of this argument is that the companies that translate the anime series obtain the license to do so, then they make a dub over with American voice actors, who usually botch it up pretty good, then turn around and sell them for upwards of $25 to $35 a DVD for 3-5 episodes. I can turn around an purchase the complete season of “How I met your mother” for $19.95, which is all 13 episodes, but if I want 4 episodes of “Full Metal Alchemist”, I have to pay $25 at the same store. 