Before I start I have this to say:
Those of you who get angry at average height, misanthropic, dysfunctional bastards such as myself whenever they go off on an angry diatribe about the so-called "Patron Saint of Animation," the Disney Corporation, know that this is an objective essay that reflects my personal opinions and actual data gathered by myself. I'm not Disney bashing. If you think I am a Disney Basher, go and read my top American Animation page. There's plenty of Disney to go around on that page with descriptions of why they're there and why I like them. So there.
Anime: The Response to Disney’s Empty Promise of Entertainment
An Essay by Burt Hopkins
Anyone who knows me also knows of my enthusiasm for animation. I am a twenty-year-old freelance artist, having earned an Associate Degree in Animation and Media Art. My animation library is extensive, containing well over forty different features on cassettes, video, DVD and laserdisc and I own a television that rarely makes it off of the Cartoon Network’s frequency for longer than five minutes. The bottom line is that I love animation. I have loved it ever since I was a child. I would wake up every Saturday morning at five thirty in the morning just to make sure that I didn’t miss a thing. I’ve seen just about every cartoon from when I was born in 1978 to the present even though I may not remember their names. I’m what the Japanese would call an “Otaku”. This is not a desirable status in Japan, but over here, it translates roughly to the English word “Fanboy”. If it’s animated, I’ll watch it.
Of course, this had driven many people around me insane. Having been through the training to be a professional animator, I naturally am a perfectionist when it comes to watching animation as well as when I’m making it. It has, to date, driven at least one past girlfriend mad and has earned me the occasional scorn of some of my friends. I just can’t help but notice the things that go wrong in the final product when it gets to my VCR or local theatre. I have been cut off when pointing these things out, and told to stop picking it apart and enjoy it. I can’t help it. I guess I got the nitpicking thing from my parents, but that’s another story that I really don’t think you’d be interested in.
By now, you’re probably ready to leave because the point has not become apparent to you yet. So here’s my case: Animation is multi-faceted and capable of doing much more than it is used for in America today.
There, I said it. The folks who went to school with me know that I firmly believe in this. It is my driving goal in life to make sure that the industry of animation is not limited to singing animals and musical numbers. With today’s technology, we can do anything with animation. Just ask the guys at Industrial Light and Magic or the animators at Pixar Studios in California. These people have brought technomancy to the big screen in the form of childrens’ toys brought to life and insects braving incredible odds to save their colonies. Animation is something primordial and untamed and shouldn’t be stuffed into a role that is suitable “just for kids.” America has a real problem with this kind of thing. We seem to do nothing but pump out the same meaningless drivel aimed at children aged three to twelve in order to sell merchandise based off of the movie. And that’s where our not-quite-archvillan steps in: The Disney Corporation.
When people find out that I’m an animator, they ask if I’m going to try out for Disney. They are often surprised to find out that I wish to stay as far away from Disney as possible. I’ll tell you why. They’re just not advancing my personal cause. The pay is probably good once you get established but I need to create more than the material they’re known for putting out. Since early in this century, Walt Disney Studios has been the front runner in American animation. Mickey Mouse and his troupe of other animals, some recognizable, some not, have more or less dominated the cartoon industry since their creation. No company, not even Warner Brothers, Has managed to knock down the animation juggernaut of Disney from its lofty position since the release of Steamboat Willie. And Disney knows it.
So, here we have a company that has cornered the industry. Disney has the biggest market share in cinematic animations in the United States. Dreamworks is hard at work trying to best them, but there seems to be no relief in sight after Dreamworks’ not-quite-as-stunning-as-A Bug's Life, film, Antz, was released earlier in 1998. Disney is able to flex their animation muscle often, even managing to topple other releases with remastered remakes of previous animations. Their successful overthrow of Quest for Camelot with their freshly edited, Little Mermaid, is the best example. And of course it gave then a chance to remove all of the naughty bits that the original disgruntled animation team inserted.
But at the heart of most Disney flicks we find the same plot. Boy meets girl or girl meets boy. They fall in love. Some big, life-shattering event happens to both of them. The hero or heroine confronts the bad guys responsible and always wins, saving the day without penalty or consequence most of the time. There are notable exceptions to this, such as the Lion King and the Hunchback of Notre Dame. But I have news for you. In the original Hunchback, Quasimodo died…
As if that wasn’t bad enough, the good guy wins all of the time. The good guy may get kicked around frequently. In Lion King, young Simba is forced to acknowledge the corpse of his father, Muphasa. In Hunchback, Frolo keeps Quasimodo locked up and harshly reminds him that he is a freak. But look again my friends. The good guys in the real world rarely get off so easy when it gets to the endgame and it’s time for them to win the day. Usually for good to triumph in our world, something good has got to give.
And that’s why I like anime.
For the most part, America remained blissfully unaware of Japanimation until the release of Akira in 1988. We had small Japanese hits that were popular with American cult followings such as Robotech or Starblazers, and of course the very minimalist anime, Speed Racer. However, most paid no attention to its origins as most of them were cleaned, edited, hacked up to pieces and altered to fit into the acceptable visage of American animation. When Akira hit, we got a look at more than most of us had bargained for. Within the first thirty seconds, we watched as a supernatural explosion destroyed the whole of Tokyo. Within ten minutes, we witnessed a gang war, smoothly animated at a glorious twenty-four frames per second rate, all captured on ones. Wipeouts, assault with crowbars and pipes and the ever popular, “Hey, nice catch!” scene made Akira so popular, that it made Anime appear as a fad. No one suspected that within ten years, Anime would become more than just a sub-culture phenomenon in the States.
Now, anime has opened the eyes of the audiences Disney has chosen to ignore for most of their existence. Anime, hailing from an almost Warner-esque attitude, is targeted at older children in their teens and twenty to thirty year-olds, much as Looney Tunes was meant for folks who needed a break from the depressions of wartime and economic instability. In anime characters die; good guys and bad guys alike. Story lines can run deeper than a singing rabbit befriending a deer. There are scenes containing blood, an idea that makes most Disney execs cringe in their thousand-dollar, leather, office chairs. After Disney showed a hint of blood in their animated series, Gargoyles, it seemed to mysteriously flop, despite its large cult following of twenty-something and late teen viewers and a call for more episodes.
Anime made some of the most bizzare ideas take form. Sometimes the results are far from pretty, such as the infamous Hentai brands of animation such as Urotsukidoji, better known as The Legend of the Overfiend, and the not-so-well-known, La Blue Girl. However disgusting I may find the Hentai style animation, it does serve my goals in that it has realized the potential locked within animation. It has done far more than Disney insofar as they have used it to do not just the things we use it for primarily, although such shows like Pokemon are aimed at young children. They also use it for dramatic impact, such as in The Wings of Honneamise.
Despite the claims of one person I met who described anime as “…animation for perverted, Asian men, with a penchant for demon-tentacled rape,” Anime has proven to be much more than an erotic turn-on for those not familiar with the sometimes brutal façade of Japanese animation. The influx of Japanese videos and the support they have gained in America has even lead to the prominence of Hong Kong Cinema in the American mainstream culture, bringing Jackie Chan to the forefront of the american movie goer. HK cinema is becoming another fast growing sub-culture phenomena hailing from the farthest away parts of East Asia, just like it’s animated forebear. The Japanese have been forced into giving what they do best over to gaijin (Japanese for “outsider), who they no longer can ignore because we buy so much of what they have to offer. The land of the Rising Sun has opened the doors wide to the possibility of what could be in store for animation across the world.
What does Disney do in response? We got Mulan.
Sorry… It’s not the same…
I liked their idea of bringing Japanese culture to America, but it wasn’t anime. It wasn’t even a particularly bold move. It was the same thing they had been doing for the past several years. Aladdin was brought in because the creators, now long deceased, wouldn’t have been able to milk them for rights. The same thing happened with Hercules, and the Hunchback of Notre Dame. They then proceeded to insert little animals like Abu, Phil, and the Gargoyles, which would provide musical and comic relief. Cookie cutter personalities inserted into older, more classical stories, seems to have become the latest trend in Disney Animation. They fail to mention in Hercules that later in life he killed his own children. Disney blatantly changed the ending to Hunchback, making it so Quasimodo didn’t die. And then there was Pocohontas. Don’t even get me started on that. John Smith gave her syphilis shortly after arrival in England and then cast her away like garbage. No amount of singing racoons and woodland critters can make that fact go away.
And in real life, there was never a Pocohontas: Part Two.
In Anime, the brutal facts are laid out in plain sight for all to see. Kay gets crushed in a fantastic display of gore as Tetsuo absorbs her into himself in Akira. Major Kusanagi rips herself apart trying to get at the ghost-hacked human trying to kill her from within a spider tank in the critically acclaimed Ghost in the Shell. Kigero’s ninja companion is dismembered by a demon, named T’sai, before her very eyes in the popular anime, Ninja Scroll. In Japan it would seem that nothing is so harsh that it should be hidden. Go watch the afore mentioned Overfiend if you don’t think this is true. The Japanese don’t seem to possess our black-and-white mentality that comes to mind when we think of the ideal movie. The Japanese aren’t afraid to break the audience’s heart. People have been upset when their favorite characters die in anime. Even I shed a tear at the passing of Taisou in my most favorite anime of late, Giant Robo. I didn’t think it was fair either when Guld died after he had finally realized he was a total bastard and came to terms with his old friend, Isamu in Macross Plus. But that is the exact same reason I keep coming back for more anime. In Anime there’s more drama involved, less song and more plot.
Most of the time.
Anime, much like Disney, has been proven to put out total losers like Captain Harlock and Macross II: Lover’s Again. Admittedly, some nights, I use Macross II to put me to sleep when my insomnia gets really bad. But overall, I see more originality, more substance and a better quality of animation when I look eastward to Japan from my home in Delaware. They make a good product and it’s unlike anything else animated in the states. Although we have several cartoons here in America that have broken the mold of what has been traditional in our country’s animations, such as the Simpsons, Beavis and Butt-Head, King of the Hill and Ren and Stimpy, Anime continues to give us fresh ideas and new fascinations. There’s always something that can top what we make for the most part. A series such as Ranma ½ for instance is something that in America would be almost insane sounding to entertainment execs all over the country. The idea of a man turning into a woman when he’s splashed with hot water would be shuffled to the land of the pornographic movies pumped out by Los Angeles everyday. But Ranma ½ turned out to be a total hit with most Japanimation fans in America. We can’t seem to get enough.
That is why, in my opinion, Anime has a strong grasp on what I believe in. It breaks the “Just for kids” attitude so popular to Joe Six-pack in American culture. It challenges us to up the ante; to do something we’ve never tried before. It makes us wonder if, maybe - just maybe - we should give the singing squirrels a rest and try something better. I know I’m going to try. Maybe someday, Disney will too. They gave it a shot in the early eighties with Black Cauldron, one of my personal favorites. It failed miserably in the box office, but it gained the cult following so popular in America. Disney has the time. It has the money. When will Disney pay attention to the rabid Otaku? I hope soon. All they have to do, is splat the rat and start thinking like real Otaku.
