Japanese Animation
Thirty-five years ago, Japan's entertainment industry found an answer to its problems. Still developing in the aftermath of defeat in World War II, and the subsequent restructuring plan instituted by the United States, Japan was without surplus resources. There was no money for the production of films. American films soon began invading the Japanese entertainment industry. Yet the Japanese people longed for entertainment which would reflect their own culture. And so "animation...developed in Japan to fill the void of high-budget film-making" (Marin, 69). In the years that followed, animation would take a pop-cultural foothold in Japan that has grown and transformed, and yet exists today. Even with the onset of increasing economic fortitude, animation continued to flourish within Japan's entertainment industry. The creative possibilities of animation's unparalleled visual story-telling capacities had been discovered by Japanese filmmakers, and would continue to be exploited into the present age. Japanese animation, more commonly referred to as anime, or Japanimation, has somewhat different origins than western animation. Where animation developed to entertain European and American children through comedic exploits, anime was cre
Manga artist Machiko Satonaka circulated a petition demanding that Disney acknowledge its debt to Tezuka; with over 400 signatures, eighty percent of which came from fellow artists, the petition was sent to Disney (Ledoux, 39). Disney issued a statement that none of their animation staff had ever heard of Kimba, the White Lion or Tezuka, despite a statement from Simba (The Lion King's lead character) voice actor Matthew Broderick claiming that he thought he was being cast for a remake of Tezuka's classic. Such imaginitive cinematography augments the graphic presentation of anime to provide the element of realism. Another aspect of animation frame production that is superior in Japanimation to American animation is the use of color. American animation is characterized by the exclusive usage of a flat, bright color. Anime has realized the potential of color in such a graphic visual medium, and so makes use of a variety of coloring styles in order to fully make use of visual story telling. To the Japanese animator, color is a cinematic tool, and is utilized to achieve creative effect. Finally, the superior quality of Japanese animation production can be witnessed on a quantative basis, to a point, based on the actual number of animation frames used. While American animation uses on average twenty-four frames per second ("Animation," 918), anime typically animates frames at thrice this rate(Goodwin). Beside Japanese animation's technical superiority is its excellent choice of music. Anime strives for pleasing audio presentations to accompany animation's inherent visual spectacle where American animation usually does not. Nearly all of Japan's musical superstars at one time or another contribute to an animation soundtrack. Whether producing theme or background music, Japanese musical artists take seriously the task of providing music to be set to animation. "In fact, animation is one of the main facets of Japan's music industry" (Goodwin). In America, an artist producing music for a relatively low-budget animation such as a television episode would be unheard of; in Japan however, this is a usual practice. With professionals who have devoted their lives to music production contributing to Japanese animation, anime generally sports music of a quality unmatched in American animations in the same, or even a close budget range. The Japanese singer Shinya Sadamitsu, who was widely popular in Japan for her vocal talents before lending her voice to animation, voices the lead character of "Priss" for the television series "Bubblegum Crisis," and sings the theme song as well. Japanimation's music is so well liked that it maintains popularity unrelated to the animation itself. Animation fans, known in Japan as "otakus," as well as music lovers unfamiliar with the animation buy albums of "Bubblegum Crisis" music, several of which have been released (Karp, 40). When music that is popular enough to sustain an audience on its own is combined with high quality animation, anime's superiority over American animation stands out. Such popularity of soundtrack music is virtually unseen in American television, and particularly so in the field of animation. If the production of Japanimation lends to its audiovisual superiority over American animation, then the sophistication in artistic expression of anime story lines contributes to its intellectual preeminence. Gaining immediate notice in this is the fact that Japanese animation freely embraces a range of topics much more cosmopolitan than any observed in American animation. Unlike American animators, the Japanese are unafraid to treat socially and culturally relevant topics in their work. Japanese animation often focuses on such subjects as historical nonfiction. A recent example of one such animated film is "Barefoot Gen," an animated feature documenting the horrific experiences of a young survivor of the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima during World War II (Matsumoto, 72). The plot of the fi
Some common words found in the essay are:
Matthew Broderick, Japanese American, Goodwin Plot, Overfiend Marin, Japanese Animation, Osamu Tezuka, Japanimation American, Ninja Turtles', Disney Japanese, United Japan, american animation, japanese animation, japanese animated, japanese animators, story lines, superiority american animation, superiority american, animation animation, animation anime, american television, unseen american, superior american animation, unseen american animation, kimba white lion, japanese animated tv,
Approximate Word count = 4195
Approximate Pages = 17 (250 words per page double spaced)
|
