There are few people who know I watch anime that don’t watch it themselves. Not because I hide the fact that I watch it, but because it rarely comes up in conversation. The rare few times I’ve had to explain why I enjoy it, it usually goes something like this…
Me: “Think of a cartoon. What are the strengths that that brings to play?”
Individual: “Strengths?”
Me: “Yup. What are the strengths of animation?”
Individual: “Um… you can do things that wouldn’t work in live-action?”
Me: “Exactly! Things that wouldn’t work in live-action, especially due to budgetary concerns causing it to look cheap, can be done in animation effectively. Audience disconnect is far less likely to occur, and if it does, it’s usually less severe.”
Individual: “But, why else? Pixar movies do that too.”
Me: “You won’t see this until you actually research anime, but there are so many genres, and the quality of storytelling can be extremely high for what typical animation offers, especially when it comes to mature content. Mature themes, I mean. Not necessarily sexual content.”
Individual: “I don’t get it. We have rated M cartoons here in the west. What’s your point?”
Me: “The point is that the east, on average, does so much more with the medium of animation, especially in regard to mature themes. Where western animation is usually either shows for children that are extremely simple, or cartoons for adults that are only for adults due to filthy humor and strong language, anime uses the medium to its fullest extent regularly, and tells many stories that are mature in theme, but also complex and intelligent.
Individual: “Hmm. But what about all the creepy stuff I’ve heard about anime: an unnatural fixation on high school, weird hair colors, and this thing called a tsundere?
Me: “Well, everything has its eccentricities. Also, that’s only some of anime. You don’t see me continuously harping on how a large majority of western animation is either idiotic characters being idiots for the sake of shenanigans, or superhero-type characters do you?”
Individual: “Fair enough… Anime sounds weird.”
Me: “It is weird… That’s very true.”
AustinAnime 