Emma Blossay 1
My Relationship with Anime
Japanese Anime has not has a significant role in my life. As a young kid, I grew up watching animation movies and television shows created by Disney and Pixar. My family would take long trips to visit our relatives and my brother and I would watch many movies along the ride. One movie that really stuck with my brother and I and we still remember to this day is the movie Cars. My brother was obsessed with that movie and we would watch it on repeat. As a young kid, parents really push animated movies and television shows. I did not watch much television as a kid but when I did, my mom would always watch some animated Disney or Pixar movie with me. My sister who is seven now has a totally different perception on movies and television shows. Since YouTube became a huge thing recently that is all my sister watches. She has not seen the classic animation movies that I have seen when I was a kid. She watches real live people acting or buying toys and showing them off. This is very crazy to me to realize that there has been massive change between our generations with electronics. I did not have a phone when I was a kid and I barley watched television. My sister lives with electronics. She always is using the television or her phone.
As the years went on and as I grew up, I started to not like animation more and more. Maybe it was because Disney and Pixar are not making as good as films as they were when I was a kid. Something about it, but I can never get into it anymore. I find it very fake or annoying. I wonder why I feel this way about animated kids movies but I can never put my finger on why exactly I do not enjoy it anymore. I am twenty years old now so that could be a reason why, but when I watch an old Pixar movie that I saw as a kid, I still fully enjoy it.
My first time watching a Japanese Anime movie or television show was during this class. That is crazy, I know. Throughout high school I played sports all year around so I barely had time to watch television and when I did, I would watch something like Grays Anatomy. I remember that my friends and my roommate would watch some types of Japanese Anime when they were going to bed. The only memory I have had of it is some annoying show that was keeping me up at night. Because of this class I have grew a new enjoyment to something that I never thought I would watch before. At first, I was not sure if I was going to be able to make it through the class. I was not used to watching television let alone animated television. I grew a liking for it, and I have learned new things about anime production and anime background that I would have never experienced if it was not for this class.
The biggest take away that I have had from watching anime is that it is not just a cartoon that is thrown together. There is a lot of thought and background that goes into it that I would have never thought existed. I know that Anime is huge in Japan but it has also taken a huge presence in the United States. Japanese Anime also is not American “main stream”. It might be “main stream” in Japan but I am not really sure. American television and movies all have the same concept depending on the genera. I enjoy that Anime is not what I would typically find on cable when I am scrolling through the channels. Japanese also has different types of features in the design part of the imagery. Sometimes it looks like it is a drawing but other times it looks like bubble characters. Japanese Anime has exaggerated physical features that make Anime what it is. Without these features anime would not have the same look and vibe.
I am happy that I joined this class even though I was a little weary about it. I am looking forward to what other types of animation films that we will be watching throughout this class. My heroizes have been broadened because of this class. I have convinced my family to start a Japanese Anime series, to watch as a family. None of my family members have seen any type of Anime. We have not started it yet, but I am excited to see what they think of it.
Images:
https://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=https%3A%2F%2Fstatic01.nyt.com%2Fimages%2F2006%2F06%2F09%2Farts%2F09cars.2.600.jpg&imgrefurl=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.nytimes.com%2F2006%2F06%2F09%2Fmovies%2F09cars.html&tbnid=VNL7Zce-Xno3cM&vet=12ahUKEwikppqlqr_sAhUNneAKHaijBhUQMygDegUIARDsAQ..i&docid=Vu1uHA84cWBHqM&w=600&h=250&q=cars%20movie&ved=2ahUKEwikppqlqr_sAhUNneAKHaijBhUQMygDegUIARDsAQ
I was in a similar situation with watching Pixar and Disney movies growing up. I did not even get a chance to mention them in my response, but they undoubtedly played a role in my eventual anime passion and partially are responsible for my interest in this anime class. (My personal favorites are still Incredibles and Mulan, I did not really rank these in my mind as a kid.) I am curios about your mentioning that movies made by Disney and Pixar are not as good as when you were a kid. One factor that could play into this ideal is how remakes receive more attention it seems than original ideas, this changing the image of the studio making them from people who tell stories into people who want to make money. While the goal was always money, to me it seems less obvious with new titles being produced. The change of viewpoint on a studio can make it difficult to appreciate their work. If you are only comparing new works from these studios it could be that there are larger audiences to appease and more restrictions on what is appropriate or not. Example is Peter Pan, several of the scenes in that movie could not be replicated today without major backlash. It is probable that a combination of remakes is better money, and more risks are taken with new works that just makes it more difficult to capture the original magic these movies had before. I am excited to see your interest in anime revitalized, if only a little, and my personal recommendation is Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood, while parts are difficult to get through if you read my response I generally view it as an awesome time.
ReplyDeleteYes, I never thought of it that way but I totally agree. I will definitely look into Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood.
DeleteIt’s interesting to think about the changing role of television and animated films since the widespread introduction of the internet and, more specifically, YouTube. Like you, I have a younger sister at around the same age (she’s 10 now), but I vividly remember her watching these same exact videos on YouTube just a few years ago. Rather than watching television like I used to when I was growing up, she’d hijack the iPad and sit around watching these toy unpacking videos. Although she’d watch the occasional animated feature, almost 80% of her downtime was taken up by YouTube. Eventually, the novelty must have worn off or she outgrew it because she now watches a lot of throwback kids shows and movies on Netflix and Disney+. I guess the widespread usage of the internet and the increased popularity of streaming sites has allowed for a much greater variety of options for children than we had growing up. Nobody just flips through channels and lands on the first seemingly interesting option when you can go online and watch exactly what you want. Since everyone is turning to streaming sites, it seems that the only thing people actually watch on television are the news and sports. Even then, with sports streaming websites gaining traction, I can see cable falling to the wayside in the next few years. It seems like you’re already ahead of the curve since you don’t really enjoy watching television all that much, but it’s certainly something to take note of as we watch the next generation interact with technology.
ReplyDeleteYes I totally agree. The way younger kids interact with technology is completely different than how I used to when I was younger. I did not have my first phone till I was 13 and now every young kid I know has one.
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