Anime is Deep, Right? …Right?

If there’s one thing readers and writers alike quickly discover about the blogosphere, it’s that in a sea of casual reviewers and episodic summarizers, there are always a few people that feel the need to stand up and proclaim that anime is more than just ecchi and robots. For better or worse, this vocal minority – ranging in age, background, and upbringing, yet united under a single glorified goal – tends to force itself into the spotlight and steal the show using big words and plentiful paragraphs, fighting to the death for its belief that Japanese cartoons are not just Japanese cartoons.

But are they right? Are we right? Is the blogosphere truly fighting for a noble cause, to learn and to educate and to learn once more, or are we all simply delusional? We already know that anime isn’t creative, and TJ Han is always the voice of reason in the sphere, so what if this was all an elaborate lie? What if we’re all living in a dream world in which we’re the kings and queens of the universe, oblivious to the jeers of society?

Or worse yet, what if this is all part of The Internet’s plan to seize control of the blogosphere using lolikitean cryptology?

Let’s start from the beginning: Gundam. It doesn’t get any older than Gundam, right? Well, technically it does, but I wasn’t even alive when the UC Gundams started, so they’re old enough for me.

Anyway, as far as I know, Gundam and Macross were some of the earliest mecha titles, and both franchises are still alive today. They’ve done their part to revolutionize the genre, and both names are legendary enough to be known even to many a non-anime fan. In fact, in one of the Gundam anime, Sunrise has even gone so far as to cast Jesus as the main character!

Ambiguous deaths and teenage Mary Sue mech pilots aside, however, none can question the influence that Gundam has had on anime as a medium. So is it creative? Is it art? Is it deep?

This is where things get tricky. Many would argue that the politics and combat in the franchise are entertaining at the very least, and there would certainly be many a fanboy willing to risk his Gunpla collection on a bet to recite the model numbers and specs of some of the most famous mobile suits, so it’s safe to say that the fanbase is there. While not deep in the truest sense of the word, we’ve all seen first hand the influence that Gundam and the mecha genre as a whole has had on anime fandom and otaku culture.

But then again, super robots are for kids, right? NEXT!

Skipping ahead quite a bit here, because I was probably only old enough to button mash through Mario Party by this point, we have one of the most famous anime ever produced: Neon Genesis Evangelion.

Eva has received both praise and criticism, but despite the clumsy use of religious symbolism, many fans believe that the depth of the characters is something that should be commended. One could even argue that the psychology is what makes the series what it is, with the mecha and sci-fi elements a mere afterthought. The conclusion and Anno’s quirky directing style may have angered more than a few followers, but by and large, the masterful tale woven in Evangelion is one that will always be remembered, and I’m certain that over the last decade, many devout anime fans have argued to their unenlightened peers that anime can be deep.

But then again, those “devout” fans are really just social outcasts that can’t cope with the fact that their medium of choice is shallow, right? Because Evangelion has big robots, which are meant for kids, and it makes fun of Christianity! Who in their right mind makes fun of religion? It doesn’t matter if it’s in the name of art, or if the use of religion was tasteful enough to provoke thought rather than anger – Lilith isn’t supposed to be a monster!

So now we know that anime is not only childish, but also evil!

However, all hope isn’t lost yet: we still have many more generations of anime to go. And I certainly hope you all recognize the above picture, because it’s from another one of the medium’s most popular franchises: Ghost in the Shell, a sci-fi story that deals with science and philosophy in tandem.

Anyone who watched GitS with an active mind would know that it did a superb job of probing the human conscience, mostly literally, but also figuratively. It prompts the viewer to question the true nature of thought and emotion, from a scientific and biological perspective, but it also deals with the same issues in society that we face to day, such as crime and isolation, proving that a world with Cyber Brains and sex dolls wouldn’t be all that different from our own.

…But come on! Those ideas might have been interesting, I suppose, but we all know that it was blatantly plagiarized from Catcher in the Rye! The main villain in the first season even openly admits that he’s the same as the novel’s protagonist! Those foolish otaku might like to call themselves smart by watching shows like this, but really, all anime does is steal ideas from real mediums of entertainment.

By this point, I believe that I have conclusively proven that anime is childish and evil, and even when it tries to be deep, it ends up failing and plagerizing instead. So what merit does this irrelevant medium have?

Ah, that’s right. Creativity.

My opinion might be a little biased here, but really, who can watch ef and not see it as creative? It’s one of the most genuinely original anime I’ve ever seen. It’s fairy tale-esque setting is appealing enough to the romantic in me, but even aside from the dramatic plot and writing, the sheer abstractness and artsiness of the show is nothing short of astounding. Never before has an anime blown me away with sheer animation, save for Kara no Kyoukai and 5 Centimeters Per Second, and yet the animation in ef transcends mere beauty – it’s simply surreal.

But really, did the show have to be that pretentious? Who cares if they were trying to do the best that they could with the medium, what does it matter if the pretentiousness was accompanied by reason? Shinbo and the team assumed that their viewers were sophisticated art critics, whereas he was actually directing an anime based on the latest hentai game. That’s right, ef is porn, and if one of a medium’s most creative pieces is meant to be fapping material, then I think it’s safe to say that salvation is just a bit too optimistic.

So there you have it: the truth. Whether providing lonely nerds with artificial girlfriends or stealing ideas from literature in an attempt to sound smart, anime is nothing but a child’s medium that should be outgrown or otherwise laughed at. It doesn’t matter if all creativity can be art; it doesn’t matter if every medium has its flops; and it certainly doesn’t matter if anime has accomplished things that would be nearly impossible with film. The fact of the matter is that anime is not deep, and that the blogosphere makes a mockery of editorial writing and, I hesitate to add, literary criticism. We have blinded ourselves for years within our own little shells, but when the truth hits, it hits hard – we are merely a group of delusional college students with too much time on our hands.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have some real entertainment to enjoy, like books and movies and music. This is the kind of entertainment – the kind of art - that nurtures the soul and feeds the mind, something that can never be accomplished through Japanese cartoons.

~ ETERNAL
つづく

(P.S. This was initially supposed to be a joke, but I couldn’t help turning it into a tl;dr satire. See bateszi for any lingering questions you may have on my thoughts on the matter.)

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