Sunday, February 11, 2007
Anime is a term for Japanese motion picture animation characterized by highly stylized, colorful art, futuristic settings, and sexuality and violence.
Looking at the definition of anime, do you think that anime is for children only?
There are people who generalize that anime is only for children.
Well, anime is indeed a cartoon but to say that it's only for children is not quite right. When you talk about Pokemon, Digimon, you might tend to say that anime is for children.
However, not all anime are suitable for children.
E.g. School Rumble is a well known comedy anime. If you watch it, you might think that School Rumble is only meant to entertain but have you ever thought about the message it is trying to convey? The main male character is obviously Harima Kenji. In the anime, he falls in love with Tsukamoto Tenma, a girl who is not aware of almost everything around her including Harima's feeling. When you watch it, you might think it's just a comedy. But, I think the message here is that it is tough to confess your feeling to the girl that you love and bla bla bla..Will children understand this??? I don't think so..
E.g. Neon Genesis Evangelion is another good example. It has a complex storyline. When I first read the manga, I was so confused. I only managed to understand it after I watched the anime. Children will definitely not understand anything if they watch it. Maybe they will be amused by the robots and the weapons only. Ah...and note that Evangelion is rated as 18+.. So is still for children?
There are still lots of anime that require thinking and convey deep messages. To say that anime is only for children is an oversimplified view of anime. It depends on how you watch it. If you choose to just watch it for the sake of watching it, then you will most probably won't agree with me. But each individual has the right to choose what they want to believe in and there is no answer that will satisfy the opposite side. Those are lessons that I learned from anime as well. To me, anime has helped me view this life in a different way. I've seen lots of stories that may be relevant in our life and so I learned from it.
Thanks to all the blogs i referred to (countless) for html code help :) (esp. cyn' and sixseven)
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