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Anime

Discussion in 'Sensorium' started by Beren, Nov 8, 2011.

  1. Beren

    Beren Lovesick and Lonely Wanderer Staff Member ★ SPS Account Holder Resourceful Adored Veteran Pillars of Eternity SP Immortalizer (for helping immortalize Sorcerer's Place in the game!) New Server Contributor [2012] (for helping Sorcerer's Place lease a new, more powerful server!) Torment: Tides of Numenera SP Immortalizer (for helping immortalize Sorcerer's Place in the game!)

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    There are a few Anime threads here, but they're really ancient. So I may as well start a new one for a general discussion of anime, comments about anime as a medium, favs, least favs, etc.

    I guess by way of general observation, I can overlook the gratuitous gore and nudity that pretty much every anime seems to have to have as long as its reasonably ancillary to a good story. When the story seems contrived as an excuse to bombard the viewer with said gore and nudity, it gets pretty off-putting. Mind you, there can be a really fine line between the two.

    My favorite anime movie is definitely Ninja Scroll. Watching Jubei be such a smart-ass against the Devils of Kimon is a fun ride, while he also displays a more serious and stoic side at times as well. The TV series wasn't so good though. Jubei seemed to get turned into a self-parody, while his enemies were pretty over the top in terms of character design.

    I quite recently found an anime TV series with a ninja theme that I quite liked, Basilisk: The Kouga Ninja Scrolls. I could see the Romeo (Gennosuke) and Juliet (Oboro) ending coming several miles away from the opening credits, but I decided to give it a chance. No regrets at all. And the ending, despite said predictability, is still very well done. The rest of the Kouga and Iga clans were very well done, both in terms of design as well as character development. While Gennosuke and Oboro are put on a spiritual pedestal, and Tenzen becomes the proverbial Tybalt and the most unequivocally evil villain of the series, the rest of their clansmen were quite complex characters that you could both loathe and sympathize with at the same time. You could understand why they were locked in a back and forth cycle of vengeance with each other, and yet wonder how they could be so cruel towards each other.


    For example:

    One of my favorite characters was Saemon Kisaragi, the face changing master of disguise among the Kouga. He witnesses the incredibly cruel murder of his sister, Okoi, by one of the Iga. Thus, one can sympathize with his determination to avenge his sister by wiping out the Iga. And yet, the way in which he subsequently manipulated, toyed with, and then slew Hotarubi was just out and out evil as hell.
     
    Beren, Nov 8, 2011
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  2. Faye

    Faye Life is funny. Veteran

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    I beg to differ that pretty much every anime has gore and nudity. I would say that the general perception is that because those types of anime are the ones that are singled out and get the most attention. Particularly at the start of the anime boom in the western world when companies started releasing many dodgy, cheap animes that is often filled with gore and nudity (and lets face it, violence and sex sells). Additionally, western animation tends to be geared toward children while japanese animation can range between children friendly to adult oriented. This most likely led to parents/politicians and what have you protest that these cartoons will corrupt innocent children. For every Ninja Scroll (which is considerably gratuitous in its gore and nudity), there is a Nausicaa, Valley in the Wind. You just need to widen your horizons a little and you will be surprised at how diverse anime can be.
     
    Faye, Nov 8, 2011
    #2
  3. Beren

    Beren Lovesick and Lonely Wanderer Staff Member ★ SPS Account Holder Resourceful Adored Veteran Pillars of Eternity SP Immortalizer (for helping immortalize Sorcerer's Place in the game!) New Server Contributor [2012] (for helping Sorcerer's Place lease a new, more powerful server!) Torment: Tides of Numenera SP Immortalizer (for helping immortalize Sorcerer's Place in the game!)

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    Ok, point taken. ;)

    You have to admit, most of what has shown up in the Western market has thus far played to that.
     
    Beren, Nov 8, 2011
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  4. Faye

    Faye Life is funny. Veteran

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    Yes, and that is particularly true for the 90s. Well, like I said, sex and violence sells. However, now anime is more mainstream in the west and one can easily find anime from pretty much every genre.

    Interestingly, for the 80s to early 90s, a few animes (that were at least children friendly) were translated, edited and aired in the west and at the time many people don't even realise they were watching Japanese anime such as Robotech (Oh, how I loved Robotech!), Voltron, Battle of the Planetes, Saber Rider and the Star Sheriffs etc (I guess there is more awareness now by virtue of the internet).
     
    Faye, Nov 8, 2011
    #4
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