What is Anime?

Basics

What is Anime?  Simple - it is japanese animation.  As such it is not a genre but simply an art medium, just like paintings, music and literature.

Unlike western animation, which seems focused on producing content primarily for kids, japanese animation is produced for all age groups - although majority of it does seem to target primarily teenagers, college students and of course kids. This difference seems to be one major cause of misunderstandings, as when you mention animation to an average North American or European, they will dismiss it out of hand thinking it's just cartoons for kids (though even such content is not necessarily shallow or for kids only). The other common misunderstanding one can run into is "anime = porn". I don't know where that came from, but that is like saying "all movies made in USA are pornographic". Sure, USA does produce a fair bit of pornographic movies but they represent just a small fraction of all works produced in that medium known as "movies" - they're just a genre. Likewise, there's a genre of anime that is the equivalent of porn ("hentai") - but the majority of works belonging to this artform are no more pornography than any mainstream western movie - even though Japanese culture seems more open about discussing sexual issues.

So now we know that some anime could be interesting to adults too (no pun intended, i.e. I'm not talking about porn). But why watch anime? Well, you may as well ask "why watch movies?" For starters, "because anime is different". Due to differences in culture, watching an anime show can be quite a different experience than watching an american movie. After beeing on a diet of products of a certain culture for enough years, at some point you will likely grow tired and bored of all the cliches. Only the best new stuff will do and as we all well know, 95% of everything is crap. So you'll only be watching one or two movies a year that you'll really enjoy. Now, if you start watching anime, almost every show you watch will be interesting to you (well, at first anyhow). Even clicheed crap will be interesting because you don't know what clichees are in anime (or japanese culture). Of course, after some time has passed and you've seen enough shows, you'll start noticing clichees and, well - 95% of everything is crap holds true in anime as well; Japanese are humans too. But until that time you're going to have a blast, and even when you start noticing clichees you are still not going to get tired of them for some time. By the time we get tired of anime, hopefully another culture (or cultures) will start getting exposure (Africa, out of famine and AIDS and into making movies maybe?).

Good Things about Anime

  • Different view of life and aesthetics yields original plots and characters (compared to western art)
  • Different customs and different view of love, honour, education, work and so on makes for new answers on age-old questions
  • Likewise humour can be funny due to novel resolutions to comic situations
  • More open-minded about some things related to love and sex (less taboos)
  • Animation allows for limitless freedom in storytelling and this is often taken advantage of
  • (therefore) Sci-fi and Fantasy genres are far more present than in live-action movies
  • Good shows can be visual spectacles far outclassing anything in comparable categories that west has to offer (and the pinnacle of anime, such as works of Miyazaki, is in the same class as best works of Disney/Pixar)
  • Opening and ending sequences are important part of setting the mood (and are even good for business due to music tie-in)
  • Brings exposure to J-Pop (Japanese Pop music) which can be a nice and satisfying discovery in itself
  • Story development can span many tens of episodes, providing opportunity to develop deep, branching storylines - unlike western animated shows which are entirely episodic (as far as I know)
  • Often very strong story development in final episodes, even in really bad shows - unlike many western live-action TV shows , even the very best ones, that have best episodes in the middle and perhaps beginning and usually overstay they welcome by a long shot, with most anime the home stretch tends to be if not the best then certainly not much weaker than the best episodes in the whole show.  Only longer anime shows without clearly planned ending can suffer from this common western problem, and even then they usually wrap up the show better.

Bad Things about Anime

  • All cultural differences can make shows incomprehensible or achieve undesired effects (e.g. humour confusing or offensive instead of being funny, or subject matter violating local laws in some western countries in extreme cases) - cultural differences are a double edged sword.
  • Many shows are hard to find outside of Japan
  • (therefore) some shows can only be watched by technically violating the copyright (because they aren't being published outside of Japan)
  • (therefore) even when found, they may suffer from weak to atrocious translation
  • Plenty of cliches, even in better shows
  • Limited budgets can ruin great shows (e.g. weak animation)
  • Cliches are often more annoying than western ones
  • J-Pop is a double edged sword too.  If you fall in love with animation and stories but not with the music, watching anime will be painful.  Even if you like J-Pop, of course most of it is bad like anything else is.
  • Voice acting (in Japanese original) can be grating due to lack of kids in cast and overuse of female voice actresses
  • Voice acting in dubs can be absolutely horrible, even the best ones often have at least one or two terrible cases
  • Weak or average beginnings can hide a spectacular show - but many people will never discover it, having stopped watching after the first few episodes
  • Middle episodes can be of low quality due to fixed budget, exactly where the western TV shows usually shine at their best
  • Filler episodes are common and if they come early and in blocks (as they often do) they can spoil a good show (even if ending is good)
  • Unsatisfying endings - typically because they don't resolve storylines-  are common.  This is made even worse by the fact that the home stretch of most shows is strong on story development.
  • Even endings that tie up loose ends may not do it in a logical way (this is debatable)
  • Tie-in to manga should be complementary but is often required (to get the real ending for example)