KONNICHIWA !
Here in the Philippines, it is common that Filipinos were exposed on animes seen on TV but my own history with anime reaches back to my first year on High School. It was when my brother put animes on our computer and started to watch it every after I got home from school. All I thought about anime is that it was all about action, fight and fighting over but it’s the first time that I’ve watch a so dramtic anime it’s title is CLANNAD.
It was so beautiful that at the last episode I totally wept. Then, I always watch anime.
Here are the top 5 reasons why you should be watching anime.
5. A Japanese perspective
While there are some ongoing debates in the anime community about what exactly defines a show, or a movie as anime, I feel like it can mostly be agreed on that anime always either comes directly from Japan and is produced there, or has particular elements that are unique to anime. Of course not every anime will give you a deeply rooted understanding of the Japanese culture, nor should it. Nevertheless anime can be a great gateway into discovering more about a country with a culture that really is extraordinarily different from their western counterparts. Anime offers up a fantastic opportunity to slowly learn more about this culture. I can only speak from personal experience when I say that through anime I have met lots of good friends, started listening to Japanese music which I now love and I’m actually now learning the Japanese language at university. Anime can introduce you to a whole new fascinating world, if you let it.
4. Influencing films you love
Chances are, you have probably seen more movies and tv shows that are influenced by anime than you know. Obviously Ghost In The Shell inspired The Matrix and countless other movies. Christopher Nolan got inspiration from anime for two of his films. Inception takes a big page out of Satoshi Kon’s stunning film Paprika while certain parts of Interstellar feel very similar to Makoto Shinkai’s short film Voices Of A Distant Star. Darren Aronofsky on the other hand was largely inspired by one of Satoshi Kon’s other films Perfect Blue when making Black Swan, since the plot and atmosphere of these films are very similar. I could go on, but I think I’ve made my point well enough. Lots of great directors take huge inspiration from anime, so I don’t doubt that at least one movie or a tv show that you love has been taking ideas and concepts from anime that are equally as great, or better.
3. Storytelling for adults
I will talk more about diversity in anime later on, but this is one particular point that I need to address. A lot of people out there might hear anime as their minds immediately jump to pictures about little girls that look like they’re 10, with some hair color that doesn’t exist naturally, and incredibly big eyes. Those characters and shows do exist in anime and I can appreciate and enjoy them. However, make no mistake. Anime, as opposed to most western animation, is often not catering to kids, or even to family audiences, but to grown up men and women who enjoy mature storytelling. The picture you see above is from Naoki Urasawa’s masterpiece Monster. Taking place in germany before and after the fall of the Berlin Wall, this anime takes you on a dark and twisted journey, dealing with such themes as: Racism, religion, identity, alcoholism, equality, manipulation, guilt, loss and redemption. Monster has profound things to say about the human condition and whether all live is equal and should be treated as such. Besides it’s excellently handled themes, this anime is also just a great neo noir psychological thriller, with one of the best villains you’ll ever see in anything. It’s naturally not the only anime that’s clearly directed at adults, but even the anime that are supposed to have teenagers as a target audience are still much darker and much more mature than most things you’ll see in western animation.
2. 2-D animation is not dead
As far as Hollywood is concerned classic 2-D animated movies are sadly dying a not so slow death, considering that Disney hasn’t put out a movie animated in that style in 8 years. This is not meant to bash 3-D animation in any way. I enjoy a good Dreamworks or Pixar movie as much as anybody else and sometimes that style of animation can achieve things that hand drawn animation could not. Still, there are also times when 2-D animation is able to achieve things that 3-D animation couldn’t. You only need to look at movies like Princess Mononoke, Spirited Away or The Wind Rises to see that the classic style of animation is timeless and exudes a certain charm that CG-animation can’t claim for itself. While Studio Ghibli might not put out movies anymore, fantastic anime directors such as Mamoru Hosoda (The Girl That Leapt Through Time, Summer Wars) and Makoto Shinkai (5 Centimeters Per Second, Your Name) combine elements of 3-D animation with a classic hand drawn style. The results speak for themselves. I for one, can’t claim to have ever watched an animated movie that looked more beautiful than Your Name.
1. Diversity
A lot of people look at anime as a genre which is simply wrong. Anime itself is more like a medium that has many different genres. This brings me to the final and most important reason why you should watch anime. Whereas movies know genres like: Horror, romance, action, etc…An anime can give you all of those genres, plus some genres that only exist within this medium. You can go from watching a Shonen (aimed at young/teenage boys) action anime like Naruto or One Piece to watching Hourou Musuko, a coming of age drama about transgender teenagers in middle school which you could never find in western cartoons, to watching Death Parade, a dark psychological drama that is guaranteed to make you cry, to watching Toradora, a romantic comedy that will make you root for your favorite couple, to watching Kuromukuro, which is about a giant robot with a samurai sword battling aliens in other giant robots, to watching K-On, a show that basically has no plot, but is just about cute girls playing in a school band. Did I mention that there’s an anime that has little girls singing a russian folk song while driving in their tanks towards the next battle? It’s called Girls And Panzer, in case you want to check it out. Anime literally caters to pretty much every niche audience that exists. Not to forget that the same argument that’s true for the genres, also is true for the different styles of animation. You simply need to find what you like and then enjoy it. What I’m trying to say is: Anime has something for everybody. Hell, my favorite director, Makoto Shinkai basically made a career out of directing melancholic anime romance movies. You are bound to find something that you will end up loving.
GENDAI 