concept central

This is a companion post to my previous one on the 'Drawbacks in Drawing Anime'
Please bear in mind that I did not write this. It is a post by some frustrated anime fan, whose name I stupidly forgot to remember. While these articles are hardly related to conceptual art, I don't really care. Bleah!! It's not like this blog is popular enough to garner outrage!

So why does he say their is still a pervading 'ignorance' among the population regarding anime? While I, ChrisK doesn't really agree with a lot of points here, its food for thought by Mr. Know-it-all here. So let's go! (I will be inserting my own thoughts from time to time like this)

• The problem lies in three forms. the 1st is a problem of clarity. Terms/jargon are frequently used but not understood.
• the 2nd is a problem of media, (television, internet). All too often corporate television networks such as cartoon network market its anime in an unfavorable manner. Deviantart is filled to the brim with shitty cartoony anime. (you said it - What is this Robotech crap? Just kidding)
  
• The reputation of anime is further injured by its associated fans. I would like to believe that most anime fans are intelligent people with a sound understanding of art.Unfortunately, as listed below, there is evidence of the contrary especially in high schools across America.
  

1. Thousands of anime fans who make an attempt to draw well are making shitty drawings in an attempt to mimic anime/manga style.
2. Art schools and professional art communities tend to avoid anime like the plague. (Refer to my article again on Drawbacks of Drawing Anime')
   
3. the few people who draw anime well and have fundamental technical drawing skills are ridiculed and tagged as unprofessional.
   

• Anime is often associated with goth poseurs or nerds who wear black.
• hot topic regularly promotes anime in the form of T shirts. I have nothing against hottopic, since I bought a "Death Cab for Cutie" shirt from there, its not a terrible place, but it adds to the problem at the same time. (This guy is confusing me...)
• the T-shirts that have anime on them are poorly designed, for the most part.
  

Something must be done and people need to know why! Here are my "Reasons to solve the problem"

• The goth community has been injured by poseurs for a variety of reasons. Goth poseurs are attracted to anime, and that association is bad for both genuine goths and genuine anime fans. (This is getting weird, maybe he should mention 'emo' as well)
• Some non artists also shy away from anime because of its percieved association with shitty people.
• The art community is also starting to turn its collective back on a unique and truely wonderful art form as a result of media and shitty association. (Arguing in circles..?)
  

"The Facts"

I disagree with the notion that not all animation from japan is anime.

Anime - a blanket term that describes all forms of animation in Japan. All animation in Japan have common elements that separate it from western animation or comics. The same elements occur in manga as well.

NOTE: exaggerated features are not one of these elements.

Element A - anime has an emphasis on being there in that moment, where the work has a ton of "aspect to aspect" illustrations. This is a aesthetic 'pioneered' by the Japanese. It occurs more frequently than in western animation. (uh...)

Element B - that heavy emphasis on the moment to moment representation rather than action to action. An American cartoon would be more likely to portray a man getting out a gun in 2 seconds. In anime however, would show him unzipping his jacket, wiping his hand accross his face and slowly reaching in his pocket and getting the gun out. (this is a lousy example, but I get his point. These elements are often better seen when comparing western comics to 'manga' in general, with lots of subtle and not-so-subtle actions to expand a scene, giving it more depth or character)

Soap Opera Aesthetic - most of anime is in a serialized format, with long sagas and complex plotlines. Lets put it this way, if you went a watched episode 49 of batman beyond, you would have no problems comprehending the plot. This is not the case with all american cartoons, but as a whole, they lack this serial element. However, if you were to view the anime "Last Exile" at episode 53, you would have no fucking clue as to how to make sense of the plot. (We can minus the fact that American television industry is completely different in that they want to extend a series as long as possible - look at shows like the Simpsons. Plus the fact that the general American public still sees these animated cartoons as 'kiddie fare', whereas the Japanese view anime as an alternative to live-action storytelling mostly due to tighter budgets)

Japanimation - a term used and invented by the Japanese to describe animation produced in Japan. This term was created to distinguish Japanese anime from the the more general word for animation or "anime".

Anime style (also known as manga style)- a method of abstraction which relies on exagerated eyes, etc. It is based off of the cartoony aspects of anime, it is not however, derived from animation from Japan as a whole. That is simply a [false] western perception of anime as a whole. It is a style that is apparent in certain anime, but does not apply to all.

Anime inspired - a term used to describe western cartoons, illustrations and comics that seek too mimic the design aesthetic and storytelling techniques of anime/manga.

1. Remove the term "anime style" from your vocabulary. (The author speaks of creating new terms for all kinds of anime. It sounds like the failed 'Metrosexual' revolution - and we know what happened to that)
   
2. Market more anime T shirts that incorporate better graphic design and are form fitting. (This guy speaks of T-shirts, I'm thinking of the whole package of advertising)
3. Convince Dolce and Gabanna and other high fashion houses to design and sell anime clothes and accessories (Ah, to allow anime to penetrate the mainstream again. It has worked to some degree in other areas over the years)
4. Somehow convince cartoon network to air a huge amount of realistic anime. (I think G4 TV and other networks are doing this, and a lot of other networks)
5. somehow convince cartoon network to run a yearlong documentary explaining the differences between realistic anime and cartoony anime and their relationship with cartoony american comics and realistic american comics. (Ah, that would be nice!)
6. market anime to a more mainstream audience, besides nerdy people and poseurs. (Isn't anime and manga already attracting a lot of female enthusiasts?)
7. Remember when everybody aside from geeks were staying up late playing Halo? The same thing needs to happen to anime. Market, market market!!!!

• Make the above distinctions widely known and accepted by the art community in every scene so artists, teachers and art school admissions would stop bashing anime due to a misunderstanding of what anime actually is. (According to Scott McCloud, comics are also facing this want to be reccognized)
  

• Stop telling kids anime is merely kiddie fare, and is capable of a mature form of storytelling that won't just cater to nerds.
  
• Realize that realistic anime/manga is to be celebrated and accepted part of American pop culture. (New York Post I think praised films like Paprika for its grown-up storytelling)
  
• Realize that a few good anime pieces can make an already polished portfolio even better.
  

• understand the differences between terms
• Realize the existance of "realistic anime".
• Begin to see that drawing realistically wont betray the anime/manga aesthetic elements.

This is just a discussion I found on Conceptart.org's forums. It's a thread where folks discuss how many veteran artists have deemed the 'anime' style as somewhat amateurish. I will post some of the more interesting responses for reference.

Flamedragon speaks:

• With anime, on average it's quite simplistic...like a mouth might just be a line across, the calves might just be lines curving upwards, a line to indicate the neck muscles from the front. I like seeing the muscles show, shadows...I want to get the feeling that the character is alive! That's why nowadays I've been getting back into comic books.

• I think the limitations of anime art are somewhat analogous to Egyptian Hieroglyphs or Persian Miniatures. It can be beautiful, but its a bit like fast food. Easy and simple and enjoyable, but often offering only empty calories.

• As for anime-style animation, as already said before, it's simplistic because it's made to be drawn thousands of times... But that said, there's still a significant amount of very innovative character designs from the anime world... And I'm particularly fond of some of the works in CLAMP, Ah! My Goddess, Cowboy Bebop, Serial Experiments Lain, Last Exile, and Rurouni Kenshin... And I love it when some of them tries to emulate the Mucha style like some art pieces for Wolf's Rain and X...

• Why does anime get all the attention? Am I wrong, or do young artists also confine themselves by emulating American comics, Disney, and whatever cartoons are playing on Cartoon Network? If you hop over to the creature-creating world, every other drawing looks like it stepped out of The Lion King, Balto, or Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron - no appreciation for animal anatomy. I'll admit there are a lot of anime artists out there, but before anime took over wasn't everyone drawing steroid-pumped men and big-breasted women with tiny waists?
  
  The important thing... is that anime and manga creators normally have a very strong understanding of anatomy before they begin to push it into their own style. And as mentioned, anime needs to be simpler because of the medium. That's the step that most kids miss... and if they're lucky, they'll figure it out. Otherwise, they're just going to do what most all kids do: copy the stuff they like.

• There are certain anime that throw the stylized characters into contrast with realism, in a good way--Cowboy Bebop, for instance, has very detailed backgrounds and, though the futurescape is strange, it's handled in a very realistic way.
  
  And there are works like Castle of Cagliostro which have astoundingly fluid animation--if you really pay attention to the way characters move, it looks almost mo-capped. Not to mention that Castle's environments were some of the lushest I've ever seen in an anime.