There would be some point in your life when you have experienced anime. The first time I encountered it is watching Pokemon at a very young age. Nothing during my time as a child made sense to me, except for a boy and his pet battling out other people to be the best Pokemon trainer.
When I learned that it was animated in Japan (among all the other shows made purely for merchandising like Yu Gi Oh and Digimon), I choose to focus on Western shows as I was growing up, because the quality was better than the shows I kept consuming. The animation for the likes of Regular Show, Adventure Time and Bojack Horseman was aesthetically restrained and more interested in addressing emotionally complex themes. Once in a while, I encounter an anime that blows much of that strand - in its past and present forms - out of the park, like Akira, Studio Ghibli and the works of Satoshi Kon. (I discussed this with Noam Blum in our Film Club conversation on Kon’s fantastic Perfect Blue).
Then, in recent years, I became more interested in the form, beyond the Evangelions and the Cowboy Bebops of the world and as Western animation is in the midst of a massive artistic decline. From Mob Psycho 100 to Death Note, these are shows I did not expect to enjoy, let alone, think deeply about art. Further, I became more fascinated with the culture that’s cultivated in watching anime; there’s no shortage of passionate fans (either deemed as otaku or weebs for Westerners) for any particular show.
Anime is a global creative powerhouse that’s embraced by a lot of people outside of Japan. So why is it that there is not a lot of substantive criticism you find… anywhere? Series don’t usually get much coverage from mid-to-large-sized publications, particularly if it’s as big as Demon Slayer, Jujitsu Kaisen or One Piece. (Emily St James has a good Twitter X thread on why TV criticism doesn’t actually cover popular shows). And despite its immense popularity and variety, anime still has a cultural stigma. Some describe it as satanic, think it’s gratuitously pornographic, believe it’s exclusively for kids, or is just plain weird, reflecting the norms of its Japanese originators or the politics of its fans.
To this, there are some people who wish that many of its critics actively engage with the medium. George Alexopoulos, a right-wing cartoonist, complains that no one takes anime seriously, particularly when shows manage to execute their themes far better than anywhere else. He shares some concerns about conservatives dismissing anime, as they did with video games, hip hop or anything that is enjoyed by a younger set of watchers and readers. To that, someone claims that they will not receive a wider voting base if they keep hating the form.
Convincing people to expand their cultural horizons is important, especially when you are a commentator or an artist. But to do that, you would have to make the case by showing them what the medium is capable of doing, not telling them that you are missing out on something that is supposedly that important. Given that it’s the modern conservative mindset where all culture wars are important, which involves brutally shaming them when you are expressing even the mildest difference, why should it be their priority to reclaim something they never cared about in the first place? I find a lot of the criticism towards anime to be laughable, so I’ll be willing to brush it off as ignorance. Let them bask in it.
Like any other creative media, anime has the tendency to be politicized. For years, I notice that the attitudes towards anime avatars have shifted. It still has the same amount of odour you get from a cigarette astray, but in the past, these avatars are associated with right-wingers. Now, it’s conflated with left-wing political activists, particularly when they happen to be transgendered. These folks will find a manga panel or a scene somewhere that could satisfy their political whims, like claiming One Piece as a socialist text or dismissing Attack on Titan as a fascist statement.
But anime is far more complicated than that. Throughout the month, I will be covering certain anime series that features complex characters and rich in theme. I wouldn’t argue that it transcends conventional storytelling, but I would say that it brings in something that other mediums can’t. Nor would I basically cover the overall issues it address. Instead, I will cover it like how a human would discover a piece of media, and then embrace and endure the form that it belongs to.
But I have to address some of the questions that people will ask when being introduced to anime.
Should you read the manga before watching the anime? It depends. If you want the purest expression of the artist, then manga would be the best bet. When an anime attempts to adapt the manga, it needs to go beyond the expectations of its original source with a good interpretation, along with some transcendent animation. Attack on Titan’s manga faces a lot of criticism surrounding its stiff emotions and wooden character designs, but the anime broke that creative barrier to make it more thrilling. And if the anime managed to improve a lot of things that the manga gets wrong, that it becomes as faithful to the story, then that deserves some kudos.
Should I go with the dubs or subs? To keep it short and sweet, since this is a topic worth discussing at another time, subs (i.e. the Japanese voice acting) are usually the best way to watch an anime but have proven to have a lot of variety in voice acting. Dubs do have their benefits, however. Any aspects of the series can be enhanced by the series’s speaking your understood language, whether it’s the setting, the humour or even the gravitas of the characters. If the show is set in a Western country, it would make sense to change the language that is close to the setting. And as anime has evolved, the quality of dubbing has gotten better. Examples of great dubs include Mob Psycho 100, Monster and Black Lagoon.
Is the fanservice distracting? This is pretty normal with any other medium and there will always be objectification to soothe the viewer. It only matters if the characters are poorly written or are one-dimensional. There is a lot of mature anime that’s dedicated to romantic relationships, or just exaggerates the proportions of women’s bodies as comedic relief, just because of the absurdity surrounding it. But the main concern about fanservice is how to reader will view it. And I ask, what do you want for them to take away from it?
Why do some anime feature characters with European names? The Japanese have a lot of appreciation for the European brethren, especially with Germany, even post WWII. I think for most Japanese people, the German culture has a lot of overlap with theirs. But it’s a topic that’s worth exploring for another day.
Has manga outsold comics and why is that the case? Every time I go to a bookstore, the manga-comics ratio of the graphic novel section is either 6:4 or is quite even. There is a good reason why manga outsold comics and is ultimately profitable. The barriers of entry are quite low (it’s usually wise to start a manga from the beginning), and series have more distribution beyond the average volume at your mom-and-pop store: magazines with specific demographics (shonen, seinen, shojo and josei) usually circulate a lot more on a routine basis, making billions of yen/dollars in revenue.