And Let there be Anime

And looking down, I guess that it was pretty strange of me to start my first weblog and write my first entries without even addressing one very integral part of my life. Actually, from the math rant, you might even believe math was really vital to my existance. Never fear, that is not the case.

By the way, the title is not meant offend anyone with religious believes. I can't say I'm religious myself, but I'm a fond believer of live and let live. Though I'm currently atheist, I imagine I'll have the need to believe in something sooner or later...so I'm not burning any bridges yet^_^

Anyway, on to anime and why I'm writing a rant about it. Besides the fact that it's almost 10 pm here and I've still got homework to finish. Homework which is incidentally, graduate school level. Me, being a poor sophomore in college, find it quite migrane inducing. So I've decided to set my lovely econ homework aside and begin what I think is a rant/essay that will turn out crappy. Oh, well. Anime. I like anime. I like to watch anime, draw anime, write fanfiction for anime. However, I should be more specific, because saying that is like saying: "I like to watch TV" when 'TV' could be defined as anything from the nightly news to graphic porn. Hm. That seems to be a common misconception of people who are not familiar with this particular medium. One girl actually accused me of looking at pornographic pictures when I was surfing the web, when in fact, I was looking at some beautifully done (and completely NON-pornographic) fanart. Does that tell me something? That's like accusing me of watching porn when I'm sitting down to an episode of ...I don't know, I haven't watched regular TV in a long time, mainly because the programs stopped being interesting. I can't say that I looked long and hard, but nowadays most sitcoms are kind of boring to me. All them seem to talk about is sex. Not that I'm saying that anime doesn't have sex or refer to it, but saying a picture is pornographic when it isn't seems a bit extreme, doesn't it?

Just what is so interesting about these so called 'cartoons'? Why do people look at fans funny when we say we like anime? I think a lot of that skepticism comes from the mentality that all anime are either cartoons or porn. The former is okay to like only if you are a young child, the latter is generally less accepted from any group. Because there are so many things that demand our attention, no one can know everything about one subject, and many just make the assumption to save time and effort. And therefore, the misconception runs amuck, leaving much mayhem for us anime fans. Anime, though, is incredibly varied and much MORE than just porn, or just for kids. In fact, most anime wouldn't be appropriete for children, because they are much more realistic (not in the art sense) than american counterparts. When I watch anime, I see an incredible range of topics and incredible depth when going into those topics. Some might have obvious deeper meanings, like Earth Girl Arjuna. Some have more subtle meanings that the watcher have to figure out for themselves. Others are just insane fun for the whole audience.

Take CLAMP's epic work, "X" for example. (I had to write a midterm paper on the movie, so I'm rather well versed right now...) At first glance it seems like a typical 'end of the world' type story. Our hero, along with the aid of his companions, must prevent the end of life as we know it. There are bad guys, there are good guys. The world needs saving, in comes the heros, right?

At least, that seems to be most of the plot for most of the movies/tv programs/comics out there. Again, I can't claim familiarity with those since I don't like those mediums all that much, but I can say that most of the things I HAVE watched fits that mold. Which means that it turns out to be a rather flat story overall, with no depth.

With "X" though, things quickly start to get distorted, sometimes beyond recognition (The CLAMP ladies are (in)famous for their ability to do that^_^). Kamui Shirou is not the willing hero, nor at all happy with his role OR his companions. And it turns out there is NO saving the world, there are no 'good' or 'bad' guys, love turns to hate turns to love. People actually get injured *gasp!* and even killed, in horribly gruesome ways. There's no magical 'happy ending' and it seems that "X" is trying to break every convention of the usual 'end of the world' story (except for the end of the world part. And the angst. Can't forget about that^_^).

Ugh...I'm tired...I'll end with this right now...Tomorrow I'll try to tackle why I like Slayers.^_^; That is, if I get my homework finished on time....@_@

Majo-chan