Japan? Anime? Cartoons? What?

April 23, 2008

Cartoons are for kids. At least, that is what I used to think before discovering anime. If you have no idea what anime is, and you see someone or hear about someone watching “Japanese cartoons” you’d probably freak out. I assure you, there is nothing to worry about. There is far more to Japanese Anime than meets the eye.

We all first got introduced to Japanese Anime through the old cartoon shows on TV when we were younger. It was normal back then, but what business does a person in their late teens or early twenties of even older have watching animated shows! The answer is quite simple: The variety of story genre and possibilities is limitless, cheap, and widely available!

Think of these Japanese Anime shows as your current obsession of TV shows, or perhaps one of the best movies you have ever seen or love to see. The only difference here would be that it is a Japanese production instead of a Hollywood production and it is usually in Japanese (which makes reading subtitles for some tedious, however it is very easy to get used to).

If that was only the case, then that would be fine. However it soon and quite easily becomes an obsession. You can easily recognize an anime fan/addict. They start to slip Japanese words in their conversations. “Haaiii”, as in “Yes” and “Ohayooo” as in “Good Morning.” you easily recognize and notice these traits. You are also soon to discover their intense and overuse of emoticons, and weird ones at that. =>_<= and (o-O) and ^_^  and xD. Don’t be alarmed you can easily figure them out, or don’t be afraid to ask what they mean. A Japanese Anime cultist fan would loved to explain it in detail. They also start to act all weird and make strange faces, but that is to be expected.

Japanese culture, lifestyle, and phrases become a part of one’s knowledge. What is it about the Japanese culture that becomes to appealing? I still can’t quite find a perfect answer for this. However, the intellectuality of the stories as well as the development of characters is appealing enough. Then comes the factor of animation, possibilities, and limitless story twists and turns that is actually not very available in western media.

Posted in Anime