What is Anime

What is Anime?

There are three things I love about Japan -- cars, electronics and anime.

In simplest terms, anime is the Japanese contraction for the word animation. (Japanese love to do contractions, like when they call the television terebi.) But anime is a lot more than what we normally associate with children, Disney, and Cartoon Network. We can easily see that in anime's more illustrious big brother -- the manga.

Loosely translated, manga is Japanese comics. But the earliest forms of manga dates back to as early as 12th century, where probably emperors and shoguns used this art to illustrate their conquests and history. Today, it is a multi-billion yen industry where anyone can find manga anywhere in Japan. Manga themes include anything under the sun from history to romance, everyday life to science fiction, educational to pure absurdity. (This is in stark contrast to the typical American comicbooks whose sole selling point is their illusion of superheroes who after their creation 50 years ago, never grew old.) Manga readers include students, adults, professionals, seniors, or practically anybody who can read. One reader described the experience of reading manga as like 'watching a movie on paper' as a typical manga scene is illustrated in frames and frames of action where it may normally be illustrated in just a frame or two.

Which is exactly how anime was born with the advent of the motion picture in the early 20th century. Manga artists took their art into the next level and conquered the theaters and the terebi. OAVs (original anime video) and anime TV series were born. In fact, the anime industry now dishes out animes faster than Disney can say supercalifragilisticexpialidocious. They are redefining animation as a 'not only for children' thing. Even before Hollywood used CGs and special effects, anime has been bringing fantasmagoric animation to their faithful viewers.

Sure, anime/manga has been criticized as extremely violent, overtly sexual, and features sex-starved males and big-breasted women. But let's not kid ourselves. American comics are equally guilty with their male superheroes vanquishing their opponents with a quick blast of testosterone and female superheroes thinking they can distract their way to victory by suiting up in a costume that covers less flesh than what they could with their hands. And Hollywood? There is a good chance that 3 out of every 4 films has sexual content or at least an indirect reference to sex. Sex, per se, isn't bad; it is what the human race needs to procreate. Violence, depending on how you look at it, is what the human race, or any race for that matter, need to survive. Face it, it's a way of life.

The question though that remains unanswered is 'should we allow the young to see too much?' I believe that we should allow them to see enough. Too little or too much is unhealthy. Just what 'enough' is isn't for me to decide. The olds should know better. It is like when a child asks why Arielle of Disney's 'The Little Mermaid' got married at 16. Should we say, 'Oh no, honey, that's only in the movies. In the real book, she killed herself.'

For anime lovers, anime/manga is the bridge between reality and fantasy that they need. To them, it is art put to good use. It is unlike the comics and flicks created for commercial purposes and yet pretending to be art. It is what they look for at the end of the day to unwind. They'd grab their favorite anime video or manga book after a very hearty dinner, transport themselves from the pressures of the real world to another world unlike their own, then have sex on the couch. Well, maybe not the last part...