Anime Continues to Blow, Despite Poorly Argued Comments!
Posted by madaardvark on June 9, 2009
FKM said
…You’ve never seen good anime. Watch some of the not kiddie shit that doesn’t air on TV. Specifically, watch Elfen Lied. We’ll see how bad anime blows after you see that.
That was a comment I received on my previous post, “Anime Still Blows.” I hear these arguments all the time:
“Anime for kids sucks. Watch anime for adults.”
Uh, no. If I was talking about children’s programming I would have said so, and my post would have been about children. I am talking about adult-oriented anime, which is only adult because of the rating system we have. It’s immature, irrational, sophmoric, relentlessly and unapologetically inane, and even the stuff without tentacles has some masturbatory fantasy attached to it, in selfish idealism if not in overt sexuality.
“You only say that because you haven’t seen….”
I’ve heard this argument from people for years and years. It used to be Akira. Then it was Macross. Then it was Ghost in the Shell. Then Cowboy Bebop. Then Full Metal Alchemist. No. No more. I will not go tracking down another crap-fest just so I can argue the uninspired details of unimaginative sensationalism with someone who won’t listen to the argument, or understand it if they did.
And, just so I don’t hear about this again:
“Anime in America sucks. They keep the REAL GOOD STUFF over in Japan…”
This argument makes less sense than the others. The supporters believe there is some secret agenda designed to keep ignorant Americans out of the loop. Here’s the reality: Japan gears about 80% of its amime towards Americans. Because it makes money, and Japan desperately wishes it was America. The rest is geared towards other Asian countries, like Southeast Asian islands, because their value system is less capitalist Christianity and more relaxed Muslim. They don’t send us that stuff because it would not go well with our culture, and especially would not go well with the value system that American anime-heads already have in place.
BONUS TRIVIA #1: Muslim dogma demands that the followers do not reproduce human forms, because only God can create human life. Anime, because it has so little regard for form and real anatomy, is allowed by even the strictest Muslim leaders.
BONUS TRIVIA #2: The term “manga” was coined by a Japanese calligraphy artist. Translated, it means “irresponsible art,” which is my whole argument against it.
Amy said
Wow what a speech. So detailed and thought out with facts and decant arguements. It’s actually starting to piss me off, but everyone is entitled to their own oppinions so I don’t see why anyone should try to change your mind. Personally I think there’s an anime/manga out there for everyone. I know that sounds so lame but I didn’t really know how to word it. All I’m saying is that I’m pretty sure there is something out there that you might like, but then again there might not be. Either way I don’t think you should say to keep anime out of America. Like I said before everyone is entitled to their own oppinion, and you shouldn’t thrash them down for that. To me anime rocks. I like all kinds of it, but the reason for that is for it’s lack of realism. Some can get you thinking about possibilities, others can be like I wish that would happen, some just leae you twitching wondering what the creator was thinking when they made it. Don’t get me wrong, in someways anime/manga can warp a person. All the fruity happy endings can get you thinking reality will be like that when in truth, their is no way it will. Then some animes make guys and girls look to hot, so you look for that perfect hottie or you have an unhealthy fetish with that anime character, but these things can come from almost anything you see or read. Also just because a show is more adult, it doesn’t mean it’s any better. Heck I’ll go from Elfen Lied to Magical DoReMi and still like both equally. Enough rambling I’m done for now, but truthfully this is just a way to release my anger towards you.
Iniquitous Sciuridae said
I had to read this reply twice. Here, I thought the aardvark himself posted a demonstration of what he was referring to. “Amy,” illustrates exactly an observed problem with anime and the so-called “fans” of anime. It is so difficult to even begin to argue with anime fans due to the incessant construction of blind belief in all things cute and hyper-emotive into their ideological base. Again, we have a hollow argument of “well, I just like it” which quickly turns into an attack against what the anime-fan conceives of as “opinions” and results in the usual “whatever” and “I don’t like you” sorts of childish ignorance. Aardvark here, although he’s still lacking in direct empirical data himself, bases his argument in perceived, observable data of the behavior of the fans of anime, which must hypothetically result from something within the medium itself. In other words, he seemed to have not really cared much for anime, but after seeing so many countless devotees of the medium try to convert him to their evangelical agenda of irresponsible escapism, he concludes that it must be the medium itself – anime itself – which is the cause. If there were no anime, these people would probably be prosperity religion advocates or possibly following some other nonsense instead of watching quality film and television, instead of reading descent comic books, instead of reading actual literature, instead of understanding what “depth” and “richness” actually refer to – but no, these folks are happily content in their close-minded, escapist, refusal to accept anything of the harshness and joy of reality leaving their construction of reality entirely up to trite, surface-layer-only illustrators copying and manipulating a cookie-cutter “style” of terrible note-book margin drawings and sheerly ignorant ideals of sexuality juxtaposed with inane androgeny, to write, and thus limit their imaginations for them. It must be nice to live in a society where you don’t have to do anything at all and can mindlessly drift away into fluffy, chicken-looking clouds, cutely vomiting rainbows all over a homo-erotic wonderland of tentacle porn, hate-rape, and gushing tears of happy/sad from emotionally confused school-girl robots and their ambiguous loving/angry pets, keeping all the other guys at bay while the sleepy school-boy in a “writer’s” self-mastabatory post-modernist fantasy, dreams of breaking her into his own superfluous uncomfortable yet highly experiemental without public scrutiny, sex fantasy to appease his made-up ancestors.
Give me Hemingway, anyday.
Huzzah Aardvark! Huzzah!
Interesting... said
Obvious alt is obvious. Iniquitous Sciuridae is just Mad Aardvark using another name to back himself up. “Ooh, I know, I’ll use a fancy name so no one will recognize me!” Foolish. Such a pitiable troll, he knows his own arguments aren’t even good enough to stand alone, so he has to invent supporters for himself.
As if that somehow negates the fact that not a single point he makes is even relevant to his argument. It’s all just baseless bashing of anime (without any legitimate supporting evidence) to get people riled up, then an endless stream of ad hominem insults wrapped around very vague points against anime.
Come now, if you have the free time to flaunt your “intelligence” in such an arrogant fashion, why not spend that time doing something more productive? A pointless blog entry like this serves no purpose other than you to feed your elephantine ego.
madaardvark said
Inquitous Sciuridae is also endless slug, who’s blog can be reached from the links on the right of the page.
Interesting... said
So basically, you’re saying you have two blogs. My, you certainly do have spare time on your hands. ;D
madaardvark said
Sure.
endlessslug said
What? Just because I support the anti-anime community means that I *must* be the same person as Aardvark? Wow. Because *two* people can’t possibly have the same problem with anime due to their academic training? Have you been in a real art classroom lately? How many anime artists do you see? None.
Look, if you like anime at all, don’t go to my blog. I don’t want you there. This online world is so strange these days. I’ve been around the net since 1987 and I’ve never been in a situation where I was mistaken as another account of the same person. I don’t even have the words… I guess this is what happens when I do away with a well-known net personality. My known credentials and identity are now void. Heh, I guess I can only assure folks that I am indeed a different person. But then again, I suppose that ignorant, blind-faith believers (in anime) who can’t read or think for themselves would make that mistake, seeing as if you could read a page, you would see some seriously different writing habits between us. Hot-topic shopping sons of b…
As usual, when stupid people become aware, just enough, to realize they’re stupid, they just get angry and violent.
-slug.
endlessslug said
Addendum: Wouldn’t I also be Marbin then – he doesn’t like anime either (sorry Marbin)? And if not, why not?
-slug.
wiewiorka said
I had to read it out loud.
Digi said
Er… well I’ve gotta say it was interesting to read, at least.
As much information as he presented, it still is an opinion, though. “Anime Sucks” isn’t a fact. All of the information he presented us with is still circumstantial. Who’s to say it’s the anime that causes these people to do what they do? Perhaps the people are already the way they are and are attracted to anime.
It’s like saying that kids go out and kill people because they played a violent videogame. People are accountable for their own actions. It’s not the material they’re exposed to.
I like anime. I love anime. Granted, I’m incredibly picky about it. There’s actually only a few that I watch, and teh rest I read the manga for. Even then there’s only a few manga I read.
Does it mean that I can’t like anything else, though? The way you worded everything pretty much groups everyone together into one stereotype, rather than acknowledging the fact that we are all different, thus we all have different tastes.
I enjoy good music, good movies, great books, the occassional comic book and amazingly well made videogames.
I enjoy the anime I do because I enjoy the effort that went into making it. I appreciate that it is in fact( some of it anyway) artwork, just as I enjoy so called actual works of art.
People appreciate videogames and movies based on several things, right? Dialog, the way it plays out, imagery or how appealing it is to actually look at. The way it makes you feel to watch it or play it? Alot of people just can’t get passed the fact that it’s animated, rather than filmed with live actors, which doesn’t really make much sense cause they still play videogames…
When it comes to anime, I pick what I watch based on a few things. How smoothly the characters and scenery move and interact with each other. The dialog. The over all mood or atmosphere that’s been set. I prefer a deep, complex story; Something not necessarily so clean cut. Something to catch my attention. Is it funny? Dramatic? Romantic? Will I be stunned and impressed with the events that play out? I don’t like the anime that never end, cause… they’re never fun.
So you don’t like anime. Alot of people don’t. There are most likely equally negative comments one could make about some of your interests, and I’m sure they’ve been made.
That doesn’t make them fact.
madaardvark said
First, Digi, you need an education on what exactly opinions are. “Anime Sucks” is a claim, not an opinion. I try to support that claim with information, which sometimes takes the form of facts. I have never claimed that anime makes people do what they do, and I actually agree with your claim that they already have problems before becoming part of the anime fanbase. However, anime supports and encourages the odd beliefs that those fans have. That is why an appreciation of anime is less about quality of any kind and more about reinforcing belief systems. And its defenders are just as zealous as blindly religious fanatics in their support. That is what Iniquitous remarks on in his post. What I read in your comment, Digi, and in Amy’s, is a refusal to confront the claims I make. We call that ‘ignorance’ because, as that word implies, ignorant people simply ignore those things that conflict with their world view.
In the rest of your comment, you tell me how picky you are, and that you do not enjoy most anime, only a select type. But you don’t tell me what they are – at least KFM gave me an example of what he liked. The only thing you told me was that you like the unrealistic dialogue and the insipid imagery. Then you actually support my claims, by suggesting that it’s ‘the way it makes you feel to watch it’ that makes it enjoyable… in other words, a purely emotional response rather than a rational one.
Other points to counter yours:
1. anime takes no effort to create. See BONUS TRIVIA #2 in the main post. At the very least, the artists could learn what a human body actually looks like. Take an art class – just one life drawing class!
2. The interaction between characters is clumsy. It does not reflect life, but rather a juvenile emotional response to it.
3. The dialogue is terrible, in any language (mistranslation is a poor argument).
4. The mood… might be the only thing that anime knows how to do with any skill. Because that’s all it has.
5. I must not be as easily impressed as you.
6. “I don’t like the anime that never end, cause… they’re never fun.” THAT, my friend, is an opinion. And it tells me that you enjoy having your stories wrapped up neatly in a package that does not conflict with your world view.
7. There have been worse comments made about my interests. So it goes. I either defend those ignorant comments with information and/or examples or I agree. THAT’S RIGHT, I agree with them. Sometimes people like things that are terrible. 15 years ago, we ALL UNDERSTOOD that anime was one of those things and that we enjoyed it for purely irrational reasons. But, then again, that was back when I was in high school. It’s been… 15 years since high school for me. My tastes have changed and I often find myself disliking things I used to enjoy. Because I grew up.
Digi, grow up.
Digi said
You act like everyone has to grow up a certain way.
Just because someone likes something you don’t, you can’t say they’re immature or anything like that. Well… I guess you could, but that doesn’t make it right. You seem like a rather unhappy person, and I kinda feel sorry for you.
Instead of simply enjoying things you’re interested in, you find time to write out how terrible things you don’t enjoy are. If you’re that upset with whatever it is you’re upset with, become a politician. They’re unhappy about alot of stuff.
‘Course most of them are just making things worse…
I can see you’re rather closed minded on this whole ordeal, though. It wouldn’t matter what anyone said or presented, because you would still be convinced in your “claim”. Even if you were presented with a half-way decent anime, you seem like the kind of person who would never admit that it is quality.
As for my world view… this has nothing to do with that. I can’t explain my world view properly because it’s so contradicting in itself, and you’ll just have a field day with that. But it’s not as idealistic as you might think it is.
You speak of rationality, yet it’s rationality you’re lacking in your argument. To be so closed minded to anything but what fits in your own view is foolish. You’re gonna read this and come up with another response to put me down and win your argument, because that’s what you do, isn’t it? I just got out of school a few years ago and sure, I don’t watch the same things I did, as far as anime goes.
Our taste is prone to change. It’s all part of our development as people. It’s not irrational or immature to enjoy something unrealistic, though. I still watch Power Rangers now and again just because it’s amusing. I used to watch it as a kid. I’m sure there’s something you used to do as a child that you still find yourself doing now and again. Perhaps it’s not something you’d like to admit, but I’m sure you do it.
Peace Maker Kurogane is one that I like. Eureka 7 is rather idealistic, but it amuses me. I love the color and the dialog. It’s very emotional. I like FullMetal Alchemist, though I’m not sure why. I like Naruto, but I don’t watch the anime. Bleach as well. Those are probably the only long running series that I’ll look at the manga rather than watch. Paranoia Agent was a bit strange… And Samurai Champloo. Fooly Cooly was just… weird.
Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust was and still is my favorite anime movie. Spirited Away, Howl’s Moving Castle (I loved the book…), Kiki’s Delivery Service. Steamboy.
That’s not everything, but it’s about all I can think of at the moment.
Like I said. It’s not gonna matter what I say, you’re still gonna put me down and attack our interests. I should be used to it, as I suffer persecution for my lifestyle every day.
I don’t have a vocabulary like your’s, so I’m sorry I can’t present that great of an argument. Don’t get my wrong, though. I’m not defeated.
Anyway. A “claim” unproven is still nothing more than a glorified opinion. You can’t prove that something sucks unless it actually does.
Vacuums suck. That’s not an opinion.
Bah. Whatever. I bet you only watch documentaries and non-fiction films and think rock music is just noise. I’d be willing to lose that bet, though. I’d actually love it.
Iniquitous Sciuridae said
Let’s fix our vocabulary! Whee!
The philosophy of science should be followed not only with the so-called “hard” sciences, but also with softer sciences, social sciences, and even the Visual and Performing Arts. I have no idea when the post-modernist movement took hold and confused the general public into thinking that ‘whatever anyone thinks is correct; there is not a single answer’ and so on. This just simply isn’t so. We learn through the very very simple application of science every day – science is about data and making predictions about probable results which our brain and world do every moment. This is not to say that multiple answers are not possible but there are ‘best’ answers, even in art and literature based on collected observed data. Science changes all the time as new data comes in; it is not written in stone. Here are some guidelines:
1) Begin with data gained from observation. The “anime sucks” argument on all sides, even my own, seems to lack any observed data which I believe is the aardvark’s argument for emotive belief versus analysis of quality.
2) Never define by example. A list of stuff you (or I) like is almost useless except if everyone were to go and watch all the same stuff. Can we come to some sort of simple definition for the behavior we see, or the feelings we have? Digi’s response there comes really close, I’d like to read more…
3) Accumulated data becomes conclusion. Opinion is a conclusion which has little or no data supporting it. I have countless examples of my data through observation at conventions, peoples houses, conversations in asian food restaurants, etc. I don’t claim nor opinionize anything – I have made a conclusion. Now, as more data comes in…
4) Conclusions may change based on additional accumulated data. As the world of anime fans has increased, I have noticed that my conclusions have held. The people themselves often do not or are not aware of such behavior unless they step back from it. I further support my conclusion by:
5) Forming a hypothesis: Once a conclusion is reached, we must test it. If the test holds, our conclusion holds, only so long as the data supports it. A good scientist will show how the data does – or does not. If our new controlled data is not supported, the hypothesis fails and we return to what’s called the Null Hypothesis or the original ideas held by the public (in this case that anime is somehow good – however we define it). Finally:
6) Science is not absolute. SCIENCE CANNOT PROVE ANYTHING. This is not some wacko fundamentalist zealot remark, this is the case with all science. Science only gives us predictability. Aardvark sounds like he can adequately predict anime behavior. It’s not about being biased or opinionated, its a predictable understanding of constantly and consistently observed data.
7) Scientific Laws can occur if a hypothesis is shown to be predictable 100% of the time; which is very rare. We have very few actual Laws of science. Laws are very short sentences, usually 5 words or less, which briefly and simply explain a mechanism behind the observed data. We have no Law about anime fan behavior as such behavior is never provable, only predictable.
Point is: careful with that opinion-slinging. Opinions are baseless, so by using that term, you are arguing (to me anyway) that the comments you’ve read have no basis in your experience – which may be the case – but that doesn’t mean it’s an opinion. It’s someone elses’ observation.
Also,
Fact – this is a relative term. What is fact to me is not fact to you – or it could be…
Truth – is also highly relative; see above.
Prove – cannot be done other than creating geometric or philosophical logic proofs which are ‘true’ because the logic equation sets it up to be so.
Science, art, literature, dance, song, psychology, anthropology, biology, chemistry – these are all about Knowledge. Knowledge is the pursuit of predictability. To know means to be able to predict with good certainty.
Professor I. Sciuridae will complete tonight’s lecture here.
BTW, I hope this doesn’t sound condescending of me to anyone here – Aardvark, Digi, Amy, the douche from the other page – I posted this to get a more cohesive intelligent argument from you folks. You are the voices of anime here, so win, don’t just emote. Let’s define “good”, “Successful”, “Quality” and so on… what do these mean… why is anime devoid of them?
-IS
Keera said
Okay, so basically what I’ve read here is amazing and horrific at the same time. I do believe that an opinion can be more than ‘baseless’ and without proof. To me, IS, it doesn’t seem like you’re a professor with the way you used ‘the douche on the other page’ as I see that very inappropriate compared to eveything you said above in that reply. Unless of course you weren’t really being serious about the professor thing. I do believe you did a great job on everything else though… except for the reply to Amy’s post. That was ridiculus.
To start, I’m going to attack the “Uh, no.” paragraph right away. It’s mainly about the last part. If all adult-oriented anime was built around the sexual intent and masturbatory selfishness, then all that anime would be hentai. Some people create anime just for the laughs, and I want to say Lucky Star is right in there somewhere. Yes, I have seen anime that is right out there in the feild you’ve directed all of it to and I disagree that you should put all anime content there. I’m not going to start with the “If you watch this, you’d know” or “go find this on the internet, and then come back to me” crap, because not everyone likes the same things, or is in to anime.
The one thing I don’t understand, is why you choose to write about this in the first place. If you don’t like it, don’t watch it. Simple. Some anime does totally suck. Also, tentacles are really… gross. I just find them really disgusting in all ways, and try to avoid those types of animes… there’s not much without it though. Some anime I can handle, others not so much. I mean if every other episode of anime has something to do with tentacles, I stop watching it… except when Sailor Moon was the thing back when I was in grade four or something because it had all that magic in it and I thought it was awesome.
I’m going to skip down to the bonus trivia stuff, because it’s rather pointless to bother with the rest of it. I will say one thing about it however, I agree with Aardvark when he said that 80% of anime does get to America from Japan, and it’s untrue that the best is kept from us. Japan tries to sell their best to us, because money is very important to every country and company. That’s the reason people work, for money. If they weren’t sending their best anime to us, they wouldn’t be paid as much because it would be on-air less than everything else. Next…
BONUS TRIVIA #1 response: I don’t really see why this matters in any way, shape or form. The anatomy of the human body means nothing to many people. Some anime’s are made specifically so that they are not propertioned right and look silly or weird. Take Lucky Star, once again, as an example. I can’t stand to watch it for this reason. The faces are messed up, the body is lazily done, and everything that’s done just looks lazy. The person who made this anime and thought of the idea for it to look this way must have been a lazy person all their life, and still continues to be.
On the other hand, anatomy seems to be everything to other people, like me. If it isn’t realistically shaped, I deem that it sucks and discontinue the viewing of it on my computer. I don’t watch much anime on the computer or anime at all, I’m generally too busy to bother, or I’m writing or reading something that has nothing to do with it. Of course, there is the odd time one of my friends will send me a music video or something that I may find funny, but I don’t go looking for them myself.
BONUS TRIVIA #2 response: I had no idea that is what manga meant when translated, but good job. I learn something new everyday, even if it is useless like this is. Now, manga I do believe is exactly that translation: irresponsible art. However that doesn’t make it bad, or good, or anything in between. A lot of anime is based from this type of art, and will continue to be. Just because it’s irresponsible, doesn’t mean it sucks, so you really have no argument here.
IS, the last paragraph you wrote on Digi’s reply actually sparked a bit of interest in me. So this defining of “good”, “successful” and “quality” all means the same exact thing for everything else in the world. Good can have many different ideals, from many different people. No one is the exact same, and so there is no general “good” to be defined as a whole. In the fact of one person’s form of good, it means that that person likes it, and is willing to buy it, for example, if it’s for sale. As in tapioca pudding, many of my friends hate it, but I like it and therefore to me: it is good. Same with anime, meat, cheese, cats, dogs, asparagus, people, etc., and what you may think is good, the next person may think the opposite.
“Successful” is also a general term, used by all companies, schools, countries and people. In the idea of anime, it is successful depending on the number of views it gets within a certain time period. If it has many views for a while, it stays on-air, and when then it’s not “in” anymore with the citizens, the television companies take it off-air and that’s where it stays.
“Quality” is slightly different. There are many ways to look at quality. The technological HQ and LQ, the agricultural, and so on. There are many routes I could go with this, and I’m sure if I say one thing, someone else will come up with another idea that could attack mine and the chain could very well continue much the same way. I’ll just leave it at that.
This entire arguement about whether anime sucks or doesn’t could be done with anything else, like cows or soap operas, stage performances, music. You name it and it could be debated on here exactly the same way.
Now Aarvark, I’m fairly sure Digi IS in highschool or is just out not long ago or something along those lines. You have to cut a bit of slack. You’ve had fifteen years to get over anime and become the way you are. Some people do that in the time you did, others take longer, and others take shorter time to do that in. Some people never grow out of watching anime. I think that a lack of interest is what makes someone think that something sucks, as you do to anime.
“15 years ago, we ALL UNDERSTOOD that anime was one of
those things and that we enjoyed it for purely irrational
reasons. But, then again, that was back when I was in high
school.”
Not much has changed, I’m sure. Now I ask you to do something. Define “growing up”. I really hope you don’t think it means that you need to throw away all things you did when you were younger and enjoyed, and make yourself enjoy something else, because if that’s what you’ve done… I feel sorry for you. I do realize that being a complete anime fan and going crazy at the conventions and on the streets is an extreme position to be in, and I rather dislike it myself. I’ve never been to an anime convention, I don’t think I ever will. Something about them makes me uneasy.
Your claim that anime sucks is what you think and therefore is an opinion, because what someone thinks is their own view, or their own opinion, that someone else may disagree with. So their ‘claim’ would be that anime rocks, and there we have two clashing ‘claims’ or ‘opinions’.
madaardvark said
“…the hushing of the criticism of honest opponents is a dangerous thing. It leads some of the best of the critics to unfortunate silence and paralysis of effort, and others to burst into speech so passionately and intemperately as to lose listeners. Honest and earnest criticism from those whose interest are most nearly touched, – criticism of writers by readers, of government by those governed, of leaders by those led, – this is the soul of democracy and the safeguard of modern society.”
- W. E. B. Dubois
I criticize because it is my duty. I educate because it is my calling. I curse because it is my curse.
Marbin said
..and the purpose of all this is? If one side actually wins this pointless argument what will they gain? Pride? What a waste of time. You can’t convince them all. People are saying that what they love isn’t what it’s being accused of. Oh my, I’m so high and mighty, I must lecture them and change their opinions. I’ll act the part too. I’m a professor, and let’s fix your language with my definitions which I made up and con’t correspond to say, all the dictionaries and perceptions. On the other hand, so what if this poster detests anime? It is his problem for being close-minded. There will always be people like this in the world. No point wasting hours typing away.
madaardvark said
..and the purpose of all this is?
Education.
If one side actually wins this pointless argument what will they gain? Pride? What a waste of time.
I’m generally fighting for something more. The influence that anime has had on popular media is depressing, and the influence that has had on our culture has been disastrous. I’d like to see that stop.
You can’t convince them all. People are saying that what they love isn’t what it’s being accused of. Oh my, I’m so high and mighty, I must lecture them and change their opinions. I’ll act the part too. I’m a professor, and let’s fix your language with my definitions which I made up and con’t correspond to say, all the dictionaries and perceptions.
I don’t see anyone offering other definitions. What I am combating is the irreverent disregard for other perspectives by way of shrugging off ‘opinions’…
On the other hand, so what if this poster detests anime? It is his problem for being close-minded. There will always be people like this in the world. No point wasting hours typing away.
…which is pretty close-minded. Ignoring an argument because you don’t like it is close-minded. Shrugging off a complaint or criticism because it makes you feel bad is close-minded. Refusing to address an argument and it’s support by calling it an opinion is close-minded.
Marbin said
This was so full of accusations that it demonstrates nothing but ignorance. But go ahead on this little “one man war against ignorance” by being ignorant while accusing others of being ignorant. You’re neither right nor wrong nor will you change anything with your “education” and niche belief.
“close-mind·ed (klsmndd, klz-) or closed-mind·ed (klzd-)
adj.
Intolerant of the beliefs and opinions of others; stubbornly unreceptive to new ideas.”
Perhaps both sides, including you, are being close-minded.
madaardvark said
The key word in that definition is ‘new’. I have not heard any new ideas for years. I have taken them, considered them, worked through them. I have gone from a mindless zombie who used to watch anime quite a bit, to someone that thought of themselves as more ‘discerning’ with the anime that they watched, to finally realizing that it’s all crap. And this is usually from listening to people that I wasn’t disagreeing with utter some nonsense idea about why anime is so ‘good.’ If you have any NEW ideas, I would love to hear them. I NEED to hear them! I am BEGGING FOR THEM! I want to know the REAL WHY! WHY DO PEOPLE LIKE THIS CRAP?! But no! The same stuff over and over again! THE WHOLE POINT OF THIS POST, as a RESPONSE TO OTHER COMMENTS, is that I HAVE HEARD ALL OF THESE ARGUMENTS BEFORE. And I keep shooting them down.
Now, though, you’re distracting from the main point. Bring me new arguments and engage the discussion, or stop whining. THIS argument about close-mindedness ends here. You lose.
Digi said
That… was actually supposed to go under 11. Oops.
Marbin said
New discussion about anime? If you paid the slightest bit of attention I was accusing the fact there are fights in this thread. I’m not here to support anime; I am not even a fan of it. I only spoke because I’m surprised that people are taking the time to try and prove they’re right to others who clearly have different thoughts. This ends here? You speak as if you have authority, but sorry, you don’t. It doesn’t matter what you study, how long you’ve lived or what you’ve done. You simply have no authority. You simply speak what you wish. And you seem a little exasperated. When people hear the truth about themselves they can’t accept they feel disgusted and offended. Go ahead and retort as you wish, I know you’ll come up with counter attacks for that.
madaardvark said
You, little miss non-conflict, accused me of being close-minded. I pointed out how wrong you were, and why, twice. Discussion and argument are actually Good Things. Without them, ideas grow stagnant and begin to corrupt, because nobody is questioning them. I see it as my duty to question things, sometimes aggressively so, because at the very least it gets people to think about their position rather than parrot the same ideas over and over with no thought behind them. So, please, stay on the topic, deal with the fact that people are arguing about it, or stop posting. If you would like, I can start a new topic, all about how close-minded I might be, and we can put that argument there, because, despite your peaceful facade, you’re very antagonistic. Now, I have every authority to end a discussion on my own blog, and, oh yes, every authority to question the aesthetic, artistic, and moral value of whatever I wish to. So, one last time, do you want me to make a new post to my blog, just for you, or not?
Marbin said
It seems I’ve made myself unclear. Perhaps it is irrelevant, after all you did say that if one has a strife with something they ought to address it, so I do. I have no problem with questioning things; in fact, I agree with the bad script in anime, and how their ideas are usually naive and stagnant. I have similar opinions with many other assets of popular culture as well, such as rap. Anyways, back to what I was saying, I simply believe your method, or in fact the method of a number of people here, is overly aggressive and pompous. This has turned into an argument, not a debate. There’s naive name calling and rarely will one side accept the other’s view whatsoever without throwing in a side comment. But either way, if that’s how things will be dealt with, I concede.
endlessslug said
No authority? I’ve seen a number of folks talk about authority on blogs and newsthreads over the years and it never fails to amaze me that the concept of authority comes up at all. I’m glad you brought it up though. In the post-modern contemporary reality we find ourselves in these days, everyone has authority and none of it at the same time. Partly, this is due to the imagined space of these blogs. We all construct these socio-political-religio debates together, often ultimately leading to nothing being established at all except personal blasts of emotive frustration or anger. But how do we establish any sense of authority over the net – or even in person these days? In a world where everyone is “right” and all anyone has to say are written off as “opinions” and where we do not have to listen to anyone, how is knowledge to be shared or gained? Citation and sources are good, but limited if the sources come from mid 80’s up to the present because many contemporary academic works are increasingly a mess in terms of the data. Especially in literature and the arts. The academic study of these fields pretty much ended after WWII, and was completely destroyed as those specialized folks died or retired, replaced by the post-structuralist movement. Apologies, I’m a bit off the subject. Authority is granted via public consensus as to the legitimacy of the one(s) in power. Power is defined as the ability to impose one’s will upon another whether the other person wishes it or not; power is the ability to transform a situation. Authority then occurs from these sources: public consensus through persuasion (legit), divine right (legit), threat of violence (often illegit), economic control (often legit), demonstrated ability (legit), or hereditary (often legit). Every individual culture has it’s own construction as to which of these authority systems are legitimate and whether or not authority will be granted – meaning – the authority to impose power (one’s will) in any given situation.
So, does the Aardvark actually have authority? Yes. It does indeed matter what has been studied. A college degree is granted via an educational authority. He does have a backed authority and a responsibility to continue learning and advancing knowledge in his field, whatever that exactly is. I believe the problem here is that everyone seems to be asking our Aardvark to completely expose all sorts of credentials so that a few of us that are reading these threads can make some sort of arbitrary conclusion as to whether or not we, as individuals, or a critical community, will pass authority or whether we consider it simply illegitimate or not. What it sounds like to me, is that you are considering his authority (he does have the blog you type in too, btw, you don’t have to read this) illegitimate and are requesting some sort of solid evidence that he should be allowed to speak his mind.
Does a blog require citations and a bibliography? Why are we all so heated in debate? Where is the debate exactly? It seems like everyone’s just attacking this guy – which makes sense from the original argument he made that this is all just a belief system. People only get this pissed when their beliefs or identity are attacked.
Just fascinating… keep posting folks… And where are more people like Marbin who are anti-anime? Go Marbin!
-Slug.
Marbin said
I agree to much you’ve said to be frank. But I don’t credit his experience to authority. I believe if someone enters a scene with existing thoughts, those thoughts will influence what they think throughout their experience. As in, Aardvark dislikes anime, so no matter how many he watches, it seems likely to me that the possibility of him disliking it is higher. Perhaps he does have authority over his blog to end and create discussions but from his credentials it does not seem to have complete knowledge of his subject. For example he assumes most anime is made for the American market, yet PolkaRon has provided very strong evidence to prove the contrary through the use of examples in a few mainstream titles, which he has not yet countered.
madaardvark said
You have been very clear, and I rebuked you. Understand that the whole thread here started with me calling people names and generally acting childish. That does not mean that my points are not valid. It does mean, though, that you should understand the general atmosphere and tone of the argument at hand.
You are supporting my point entirely. Again, I say, again, I claimed that no amount of arguing with me is going to convince me that anime is worth my time, because I have heard all of the arguments before. And people STILL come here to argue with me with those same arguments. When I hear something new, I will consider it.
You are correct that PolkaRon made a good case. I didn’t address it because I lost it in the shuffle of condemning the rest of his post (he has since commented on another blog entry I made, and he did so very well. I retract my calling him an idiot on no less than three occasions). However, I maintain that anime is rushed through the creation process and little attention is paid to the writing. My claim that anime is ‘geared toward’ America needed clarification (see my response to Ceid), I admit. The fact that American anime fans not only know and understand the language barrier, but also struggle to overcome it, suggests to me that Japan has no incentive to write material that translates well into English. If they did, they would just write it in English. Fans have loved to tell me stories about how ‘untranslatable’ certain phrases or ideas are – preposterous. Nothing is untranslatable. It just may take a few more words to do it. I have watched anime that is subtitled, and they have done a nice job of explaining that language problem that PolkaRon pointed out, by giving the pronunciation spelling following the word in question (when homophones are important to a joke) or by notations like “I (mas.)” or “I (fem.)” to point out these differences.
I think my biggest support, though, is that these language issues are required for the anime to feel ‘authentic’ to American audiences, and not feel like an American-created cartoon in a Japanese visual style.
madaardvark said
…while mulling it over, I think I understand the point of contention in regards to authority. You have every right to question my authority. Authority suggests empirical dictation that should not be questioned. When I talk about my background, though, what I am doing is offering my credentials. I am attempting to show my credibility, that is, the reasons why my arguments should be addressed and thought about carefully rather than dismissed out of hand as ‘opinions.’
You are correct (as are most of the people on this comment thread) in your assumption that I do not know much about anime. My knowledge of that field ended with the first season of Cowboy Beebop, whenever it was that came to America. That was the last anime that I considered, even for a moment, to have more substance than others. Then the second season came out and I gave up on anime completely. I don’t remember half of what I knew.
However… my background has given me the credentials to judge and evaluate art. That includes anime. I look at it in relation to its own artistic movement (I’ll consider anime to be an art ‘movement’), in relation to the visual art world as a whole, in relation to the world of liberal arts (which includes literature and music), and in relation to the Real World outside of that. Because I have studied these things for so long, I am apt to make snap judgments on many things without listing point-by-point rationales for those judgments. I do not support my main arguments against anime because I simply do not have the time, energy, or desire to sit down with something I detest to find supportive data.
Please do not associate my reluctance to consider opposing points as ‘close-mindedness’ on my part. It is not. It is experience that I have in these exact points, that I hear and have heard repeatedly. I say again, something new – I will consider it. Faulty logic of my own (due to haste or >gasp< incorrect data) – I will correct it. But these points – these points I address in the main body of my blog post – these will not sway me because they are old arguments I have dealt with before.
I could. Research and argument are some of the things I am trained in, and some of the many things I teach. But I generally reserve that for academics. Anime is not academic and is not part of the academic world, so I never give thought to hard evidence in support of my views. Unfortunately, too many things are drifting into academic study that should not be there (Tolkien, Rowlings, Creationism, and more), and anime could, in the future, certainly join that growing list. It's already discussed casually among film students (whom I find to be dubious in their academic integrity, at best). The problem, though, remains. I would have to sit down with something I don't like in order to support my claims, and the only people who would see that support are those who close-mindedly would not accept that support, anyway. All that would happen is that I lose whatever time I put into the research.
If you, personally, Marbin, as someone who professes not to like anime, would be at all interested in that support, not just to see a rational argument being made somewhere, but because you have a genuine interest in the research, I would be glad to look into it. But not enough people who are impartial, or even outright against anime, like myself, would care.
Authoritative claims are Bad Arguing. I retract any claim to authority I may have made and instead submit my background as credibility for readers to respect and actively engage the arguments I make.
PolkaRon said
Alright Madaardvark! I’m taking you on! I’ll listen to any arguement you have as long as you back it up. Okay where to start?
Of those animes you did watch… Honestly I never liked them either. Well the ones I have seen, specifically Akira, Cowboy, and GITS movie(didn’t see the show) were pretty sub par to me. But I saw them a long time ago in 8th grade so I can’t recall them well.
But for now I’ll be taking on your 7 points:
1. I don’t understand your criticism of an anime’s art style. I find it very silly to dislike what is basically a cartoon for its representation of human anatomy. But I could use some more explanation on your part because I don’t know enough about your view and I don’t want to go shooting argument blanks. Oh and just to let you know, your definition of manga is wrong. The first kanji “man” can mean cartoon, involuntary, in spite of oneself, or corrupt. The 2nd kanji “ga” means picture or brush stroke.
You say anime takes no effort to create but I highly disagree with this. I’d like you to elaborate more on this but I’ll go ahead and argue my point. First of all, anime character’s have tons more details than your average american cartoon. Animes use tons more effects, shading, lighting, and camera motions than any American cartoon. Anime characters have many individual strands of hair that flow on their head compared to a simple color palette on your typical American character. Also, American animation doesn’t have jack shit on Japanese animation. A single episode of Clannad is at least eight times better than something like Family Guy or X-Men. The tiniest things get animated such as flowers in the background flowing slightly and each petal is shaded and has effects which make the world beautiful to place your eyes upon. Something like Family Guy only has stationary backgrounds and characters standing around while the camera stays in one place. The difference between them is just vast.
2. Elaborate more please! But anyways, that basically depends on what you watch. Most animes have the “juvenile emotional response” for comedic effect. Every shonen does it too. Though I will admit many animes attempt to portray angst with boring results. Though there are very good portrayals of character interaction to be found. Clannad After Story has a genuinely heartwarming relationship between a father and his daughter. 5 Centimeters Per Second details how friendships break apart over time and distance.
3. I actually agree with this. I don’t know if it’s a result of mistranslation but many shows tend to be really cornball or forced when it comes to this. The only exceptions to this for me are Death Note which rarely has a moment that makes me irk in pain and Kanon which packs a very clever script.
4. Mood is pretty important but so many animes have so much more. Death Note’s got amazing leads, the best soundtrack in a show, a wickedly suspenseful plot, moral themes, and amazing visuals.
5. Impossible! Well maybe not, but if you could elaborate on your tastes in other things we could see..
6. Oh that’s directed to Digi
7. Wow that’s uncool. Are you basically saying anime’s some medium of entertainment for high schoolers and kids? Well, that’s just ignorant!
Marbin said
PolkaRon you may be trying to argue with him but it seems you’re missing the point.. I don’t recall aardvark stating that western cartoons were superior. And you do have a number of unsupported claims like best soundtrack and clever scripts.
PolkaRon said
He didn’t say Western cartoons were superior, but he did say anime took no effort to create. I just use American cartoons because as an example because Animes have vastly superior production qualities despite having similar budgets and I was using an American cartoons as a reference since I am sure he is familiar with them
Also, it seemed tedious to me to support my claims as it would be uninteresting to list the little intracies about music to someone who has never heard them. Also, there’s not many ways to support the something has a clever script without posting actual dialogue from the show which would spoil things. Also just posting dialogue here without actors to give them life loses much of the effect one can get from watching the show.
madaardvark said
All of these reasons are just wrong. First, I am very familiar with anime. I have watched a lot of it. And I don’t need to watch any more of it. It is crap. Second, you are talking to someone who studies dialogue for a living, and has an extensive art background. If you can’t support your claims with anything other than ‘look at this. Isn’t that cool?’ then you’re not worth my time. I can explain to you ad infinitum why the dialogue of Shakespeare, Sophocles, Tennessee Williams, Harold Pinter, Lorraine Hansberry, Samuel Beckett, and John Milton is incredible. You can’t do the same thing, because you have no idea and are only connected to anime by a puerile emotional conditioning. The same goes for the music. You simply can not back up these claims.
madaardvark said
I didn’t number my points, so I can’t respond to you until you tell me what points you are addressing.
I can say this: anime IS Western animation. That is who the target audience is, that is who Japan has emulated since WWII, that is the goal for Japanese marketing. What’s more, Western animation (and films, television, comic books, poetry, literature) has been influenced by anime in a number of ways in recent years. The line between them is fading. And this isn’t for the better.
Thank you, though, for supporting my point about the name of anime. In your attempt to show me how wrong I was by pointing out semantics, you gave a broader definition of something that still isn’t very flattering. Idiot.
PolkaRon said
I can see why you were confused about that but just to let you know, I’m addressing the points you made to Digi. Anyways…
I disagree with this point that anime’s intended for westerners. First of all, I rarely see things in anime that are intended for westerners. The most I’ve ever seen are a few allusions to western history. In fact, many of the shows I see make jokes that are intended for Japanese audience only. Kanon has one female character always use the word “Boku” which is basically a masculine word for “I.” This becomes a recurring joke later on because she never uses the feminine word for “I” which is “atashi.” Azumanga Daioh has one of its characters trying to annoy her friends by yelling out food names in Japanese that sound similar to the word “penis (in Japanese). Lucky Star is the most profound one that is meant for Japanese audiences as it contains many allusions to Japanese culture such as shampoo commercials and Japanese lifestyle. These three shows are very much intended to Japanese audiences and it’s no wonder the English dub cast often ran in to trouble attempting to adapt it.
Second, Anime in America is not doing well at all so why would the Japanese choose us as the intended audience? Huge companies like ADV Films who licensed huge animes from Japan have gone nearly bankrupt in recent years. The current economy is just salt in the wound. The only animes that seem to do well here in America are the big shonens like Naruto and Bleach as they consistently sell well in American markets. I’d like to point out that Naruto and Bleach are some of the most popular animes here in America yet they have NOTHING that seems intended for Western audiences. And let’s not forget the fodder for kids like Pokemon and Yugioh which basically sell well because kids are stupid. A few other factors hurt the American anime industry economically such as fansub culture.
I didn’t mean to “show you how wrong you are.” Your definition of anime as “irresponsible art” is very misleading and has negative connotations for something I enjoy. All I wanted was to correct a simple error to avoid anyone using an incorrect arguement. And calling me an idiots not cool.
madaardvark said
And as for these replies to Digi’s post. Fine.
1. Take an art class. Just one. Observe the human form. What most Western cartooning does is exaggerate existing physical characteristics. Anime throws separate pieces together almost at random with no thought about overall form or shape. That is my criticism.
2. I have watched this stuff for twenty years and I have never seen good character interaction. It is all emotional drivel, for comic effect or not. The angstiest angst of all angst in the most serious and ‘well written’ anime is just a notch above what junior high girls write.
3. It isn’t translation. It is stupid.
4. Wrong. This might be true compared to other anime, but falls very short of anything else written/created ever, anywhere else. Compare things to the world around and other forms of art, not just self-referential comparisons.
5. Believe me, my standards are pretty high. I am disappointed or disgusted regularly. Like every time I see a reply on this thread.
7. I’m saying that emotional development of those who watch anime stops somewhere in high school.
And, finally, how you do not see ‘involuntary’ ‘in spite of itself’ and ‘corrupt’ as anything but negative? It suggests that the artists have no control (involuntary), no forethought (in spite of one’s self), and nothing that can even be considered ‘refined’ (corrupt). The artists do not even waste their time thinking about what they’re doing. And that is called irresponsibility. Idiot.
PolkaRon said
This’ll probably be my last big post as I’m seeing this takes away too much time from my “making stuff” time. Alrighty:
1. I’d love to hear an example because I don’t really understand. Saying something “throws together pieces at random” is a little too vague. I believe anime definitely bases its’ character design off of human characteristics but not completely. It’s basically a style to me but I don’t see how their designs take less effort to create.
2. I can totally understand. Bad character interactions or unreal ones find their ways into nearly every show but there are occasionally a few good eggs in the nest. Sometimes I think it’s kind of good to have unreal character interactions because it’s part of the fun at least for me. Bakemonogatari has a bizarre and quirky female lead who is just unrealistically seductive as if four Bond girls were blended together and put into the form of some calm, but crazy femme fatale. But in most cases, anime falls flat on these things. Even some of the above examples I previously gave, immediately fall prey to it within the first few episodes. So I getcha.
3. I concur for the most part too. But again, there are good ones in the crowd of crap. Character interactions are a terrible thing in many animes but something I usually see done well is suspense. Death Note, Monster, and Higurashi have all kept me guessing and wanting to know what’s going to happen next. The moments found in these shows rival anything I’ve seen done in the way of suspense or movies but it can be attributed to way animes wield visual effects.
4. I double-triple-quadruple disagree! I believe Death Note to be one of the greatest things I’ve had the pleasure of watching. If I had a top 10 list of things I enjoyed, Death Note would be one of them along with the tv show Dexter, the old Manchurian Candidate movie, and Y: The Last Man. Not a single other anime is even close to being in my top 20 except Death Note. I used to abhor anime, but watching Death Note changed my whole perspective of it. I’ve yet to see something as mind destroyingly suspenseful as Death Note. Its’ command of suspense is just undeniable. Its visuals and mood are incredible and probably the best I’ve ever seen amongst comics, video games, and animations. The music is unique in its’ instrumentation and does its job of creating the perfect atmosphere for the desired scene. It’s just a shame that the show went all out on early episodes so the later episodes falter but I personally think it’s the best anime ever made. It’s probably foolish to ask this of you, and you’d probably say no but I think it be cool if you can at least see the first two episodes to see what I mean. If you don’t like it then it’s alright.
5. lol I can see that from reading this blog
7. Understood!
And the thing about manga, single kanji can change meaning depending on the word it’s used in. “Man” can mean those other things but when used in manga, it is simply cartoon or comic.
You didn’t make a blog entry today! I was hoping to see more.
PolkaRon said
Oh and can you compile a list of shows you’ve seen, I’m just curious what you’ve been watching.
madaardvark said
I haven’t watched anything in the past few years. I can, though, review/critique a recent trailer that I had the displeasure of watching. As soon as my schedule clears up, I’ll post something on that.
All language, by the way, has context and connotation tied to it. You can never forget the other meanings of a word when it is in use, because it always carries with it those other ideas. So to say any word, in any language, that means so many things, means only one thing in one context, can not be true. To say that it means ‘cartoon’ only says that it has come to mean that now, while still carrying with it the ideas that it was originally used in: corrupt, involuntary, irresponsible.
Digi said
Wow. I’ve never seen such a mature response to adversity. I’m truly shocked.
Ceid said
I would love to know your sources for some of your factual information… The next time you decide to back up your opinion would you mind listing the website, book, or document that you found the information in?
I just have this guild to forum trolling bookmarked… I just would love to make sure that you’re creating an intellegent forum of debate instead of ” X is better than Y, because Z ” with “Figure it out yourself, I’m not doing your homework for you” and “because religion says so”
I quote my sources: http://www.somethingawful.com/d/news/how-win-any.php and http://www.gotr.net/forum/index.php?topic=22692.0
madaardvark said
I can’t tell if this is spam or not.
endlessslug said
So, let me get this straight, countless data points of experience developing a very simple conclusion is not as good as a ‘website’ source and is considered an ‘opinion’ ?
What are you supporting exactly, just citations?
Somethingawful is always one step off of something good/useful – but close. It’s a good site for the armchair intellectual out there. Rock!
Ceid said
Saying that there is a percentage of anything is pointless unless you actually have a source of the study. For instance, I could say… 46% of the worldwide economy is held in criminal activities. I mainly would like clairification of statments such as: “Japan gears about 80% of its amime towards Americans”
Proof?
The links were to the websites with general guides to forum trolling. I was trying to prove a point that most people who do such things that are in those two guides are indeed trolling and are just out for a responce as oppossed to an honest debate.
Summery, Where you have numbers, please show where you got them from. Remember, 74% of all statistics are made up on the spot.
madaardvark said
Okay, see? You can make a clear point if you try hard enough.
I will concede that I do not have ‘proof’ that the above statement is true. What I do have is collaborating evidence that strongly suggests that the above hypothesis (untested) is correct.
Japan’s history tends to follow this pattern: Isolation, invasion by outside force, adaptation of invader’s technology and culture, revolution against invaders through adapted and improved technology/culture, return to isolation. This has been true with invasions from China, Korea, India, etc.
Japan was isolationist, again, in the early part of the 20th Century. It was rejecting Western thought and ideas, trying to keep itself ‘pure,’ at least as an authentic Asian culture. Part of the reason Japan joined forces with Germany in WWII was because they wanted to maintain that isolation/cultural purity. Germany was already invading other countries, so Japan’s best bet was to join with them in order to keep them out. This is a gross generalization, of course, and there are a thousand other factors to consider, but I hope you can at least agree that this was part of the situation.
England at this time was well known for being an asshole Imperialism. Western ideas were spreading through the rest of the world mainly due to their influence (America at this time was practicing isolationism as well), and too many Western philosophies were infecting Japanese culture. So joining with Germany did that for Japan, too.
When America joined the war and bombed Japan (75 years ago on August 6th! Happy anniversary!), that put Japan back into that cycle of being defeated and adapting the conqueror’s culture and tech. There were no cartoons in Japan before Micky Mouse, Donald Duck, Bugs Bunny, and Superman joined the American propaganda war effort. And after the war, America became an economic powerhouse, as well as a military one. This is what Japan has striven to emulate in it’s animation and corporate practices. Godzilla is an atomic superpower that comes out of nowhere and lays waste to a nation, a ’sleeping dragon’ that is woken up by Japan’s own hubris.
As for anime, has anyone ever asked why the characters never look Japanese, but instead reflect the opposite of what America has stereotyped Japan? Instead of slanted eyes and big buck toothed mouths, we have ‘big eyes, small mouth’ and a blatantly Caucasian skin tone, hair and eye color, etc.
Add to this that there are hundreds of animation studios in Japan. Most of the products only get distributed in Japan, but these come from small, sometimes one- or two-man, studios that crank out cheap children’s programming. We do the same thing in this country. The big studios, though, do most of their marketing and distributing in America. These are the companies that are not borderline bankrupt.
So, I do not have a specific source that says ‘80%’. I was being conservative, actually, adding together Japan and American distributed anime, and excluding anime specifically created for India, other Asian countries, Africa, and Russia. I have come to this conclusion based on a lot of research and a lot of critical thinking.
This is not a forum. This is my personal blog. I had about 8 hits a day, most of them from my friends, until I posted a half-planned rant or two about anime. Suddenly, two months after the fact, I have 180 hits a day. This morning, at just 10 am, I’ve already had 100. I didn’t know that the anime community would come out to landblast me, but that is the majority of people watching these comments. The people I really would like to see read and comment here are not doing it. So I’d call all of this a big failure.
Hikori said
Alright, before I post, I felt it nice to add that despite using the name “Hikori” I’m not some random weaboo, and I’m not going to defend anime at all during this post.
Yes, to some degree, that does make some level of sense, however, about your anime characters not looking japanese, that is false.
Anime characters have been known to look chinese and japanese, and korean. It’s the STEREOTYPE anime characters who look like your claim states. (sorry for being unable to reference this)
But it doesn’t matter, since most anime is drawn in korea, not japan, and koreans don’t like japanese for the most part.
(side note that you don’t have to even read: Hikori actually comes from the japanese for hickory. Due to my love of smoked salmon, it became a nickname in my japanese class. the nickname stuck, so i write it as hikori… not that you care, but if you’ve taken the time to read this then it’s not my fault)
And most of japan doesn’t even like anime.