Answer:
Below.
Explanation:
Up until a few weeks ago, I too was not aware of the extremely rich and entertaining variety of anime that existed. My first encounter with anime (outside Saturday morning cartoons) was when I was about nine years old. My mom took my siblings and I to see the Hayao Miyazaki film “Spirited Away.” At the time, I didn’t enjoy it at all. I thought it was boring, confusing, weird and creepy. Why? Because I was a child, and “Spirited Away” is not really a children’s film. Like many anime feature films, it is an experience better appreciated by mature viewers.
That isn’t to say that anime shouldn’t be viewed by children at all. If kids grow up watching anime, that’s fine. The problem for many kids is that they are raised on American animation with simple plots, flat characters and cheap comic relief. Then, when they encounter a Japanese animation with complex character development, deep themes, subtle dialogue and thought-provoking stories, they find it boring, as I did with “Spirited Away.”
In the course of the last several weeks, however, I have gone on a journey to discover some of the best that anime has to offer. As a student, I don’t have time to devote to an ongoing anime series, so this article will deal exclusively with feature films.
Going into this movie marathon, I predicted that I would gain a better appreciation for anime. But I had no idea how powerful and entertaining these films would be. There wasn’t one that I disliked, and many of them instantly joined my list of all-time favorite movies as soon as the credits rolled. All these movies featured not only beautiful animation, but also interesting and authentic characters, as well as expertly crafted narratives.
One of the misconceptions about anime is that it all looks the same. This couldn’t be further from the truth. Although anime as a genre is easily recognizable, there is a wide variety of styles and techniques that can give each film a unique look and feel.
Take, for example, “The Tale of the Princess Kaguya.” The film is an adaptation of a Japanese folktale. The studio opted to go with a raw animation style, with lots of watercolors and negative space, in order to invoke the aesthetic of an ancient scroll. It’s a very minimalist style, but it works beautifully, and it allows the director to portray the story in a way that wouldn’t be possible with CGI animation.
In one scene, a character grows increasingly upset, and as she does, the animation itself becomes more and more wild and untamed until it eventually devolves into a mess of scribbles. Very few films are able to so successfully intertwine the content of their film with the form in which they present it.
A lot of people might say they prefer American animation because “it looks more realistic.” In Japanese animation, they say, the characters all have silly, exaggerated faces and features. Really? Let’s do a side-by-side comparison.
These two films, “When Marnie Was There” and “Frozen,” came out within one year of each other. Frozen was one of the most popular American animated films in years. “When Marnie Was There” is (maybe) the last film to be produced by anime legends Studio Ghibli.
Looking at the two, which is more realistic? Well, it depends on what you mean by the word ‘realistic.’ If realistic to you means how close an image comes to being photo-realistic (indistinguishable from real life) then obviously “Frozen” is the more realistic of the two. On the other hand, I look at this and see one image that was made by a computer program (with some human help) and another image that appears to have been drawn by hand. For me, at least, the image on the right has a human quality to it that makes it much more “real” than the image on the left, which can easily be reduced to a bunch of ones and zeroes.
Don’t get me wrong. I enjoy Disney and Pixar movies as much as the next guy. But to dismiss anime for not “keeping up” with American animation just doesn’t make sense. Japan hasn’t undertaken the quest for the unattainable photo-realism, not because they’re incapable, but because they know that traditional animation as an art form doesn’t need to wholly rely on computers to be beautiful and engaging.
A common trend amongst all the anime films I watched is that the characters are believable. They do things that normal, everyday people would do. They say things that real people do. Their actions and choices make sense. And because they are so believable, they become relatable. As the movies progress, you really feel a connection with these characters.
