Huotw aoibneos benet anwof az awethil. Tanbea woena awzxcf ownba. Ityoanb weoibna apanbq laobgnaob. Haha.
If you can’t tell, I’m at a loss for something to write. So in the spirit of the exceptional author Douglas Adams I have come at the problem from a completely different direction. I have written something incredibly witty and profound above. It just happens to be in another language. Now I just need to translate it. An intractable creative block has be turned into a simple problem of linguistics.
Now, what language do you think that is?
Speaking of language, I’ve been watching a lot of anime recently. It’s all in Japanese, of course, so I have to read the subtitles. After a while you kind of forget they’re there.
It gets interesting when you stop looking at the screen for a bit. You still recognize the character’s voices, you just don’t know what they’re saying. But you feel like you should.
The incomplete connection between visual, auditory and language centers becomes very apparent. It’s like tricking yourself with an optical illusion, only more so.
Putting that side, I have mixed feelings about anime. On the one hand, it’s an incredible story-telling medium. The other day I watched the Black Rock Shooter OVA. It’s only 50 minutes long, but it manages to create sympathetic characters, real conflict and still devote almost half of the time to stylistically-impressive action sequences.
You also look at entire series like Full Metal Alchemist, Angel Beats or Full Metal Panic. The topics they deal with and the character development are incredible.
Even “silly” anime like Pokemon, Yu-Gi-Oh! or Sailor Moon is somewhat deeper than generally credited. The reason for that is American audiences don’t watch the original material.
A lot of material gets cut or censored in the transition to American TV. And it’s not even “bad” stuff. Much of it is uncomfortable character development. I guess American studios think cartoons aren’t meant to deal with that stuff. Or that kids can’t handle a little tension (one exception is the American cartoon Avatar: The Last Airbender. I applaud them for making actually tough character development decisions. If you haven’t watched it, you must!)
That being said, anime does have some points I’m not sure about. Back to the uncomfortable character development aspect: they don’t seem to know when to stop sometimes.
You’ll start a series thinking, “This has a nice mix of seriousness and humor.” Then about halfway through the humor disappears. Then things keep getting worse and worse for the characters. Then they all go crazy.
Verisimilitude is nice and all, but these writes must have a very bleak view of the world. I generally stop watching those ones after a while.
In any case, it’s still an interesting window into another culture. For all the Americanization, there is still a lot of culture underpinnings that are vastly different. I tend to miss most of it unless the translators make cultural notes.
Or I might have to look up something, like how the Japanese school system works. They only have three years of high school. But they’re there all the time. And they have a very heirarchical structure to their entire culture. It’s pretty interesting.
I’ll probably discuss anime more in later postings. I also have some thoughts on American cartoons rumbling around in my head.
Until then…