The Anime Phenomenon

Recently my uncle shared an editorial from The New York Times about the Western anime boom. I can’t link it here, as I lack a subscription, but I was gifted access for my viewing pleasure. I especially liked how it combined Manga-style textboxes with .gifs to make the text pop. It also got me thinking about my experience with anime, as well as the impact it’s made on me. Because to say that it has is an understatement.

My exposure to anime, unlike many people, wasn’t instantaneous. It came in waves, with large gaps in-between ventures, and at times it was only a show or two. I also didn’t have access to Toonami growing up, hence my options were more limited than many Americans. It wasn’t until university, particularly my third year, that I started appreciating what anime had to offer, binging shows and movies through questionable sources. This was compounded by then-undiagnosed mental health issues, making discussing it a challenge.

There are many elements about anime, both good and bad, that I’ve noticed over the years. I’ve covered many of them on Infinite Rainy Day, but also discussed the odd piece on here. There’s too much to discuss, so I’ll zone-in on three aspects that sum up the experience. And no, the foreign aspect won’t be one of them. It’s a factor, but it’s not the definitive factor.

The first way involves expanding on the animated medium’s possibilities. In The West, animation’s still largely viewed as a kid’s art-form. This is a relic of the days when TV made animation cheap, with constantly-reused frames and stock backgrounds. Many syndicated shows and movies, therefore, looked like oversimplified, watered-down spectacles that appealed more to children than adults, the latter of whom were busy with work, family life and the threat of nuclear war. It’s silly in hindsight, but this can still be felt today.

While anime started as the Japanese equivalent of this, it quickly became more adventurous. Franchises like the Lupin III series, which is basically a hybrid of James Bond and Robin Hood, delved into violence and raunchy humour, tackling themes only present in Western animation in the underground scene. This provocativeness helped anime gain its footing in Japan, showing that it can appeal to adults. It also helped with its initial appeal in The West, catering to nerds desperate to feel “cool” and “edgy”. Whether or not that was good is debatable, but it helped with gaining an audience.

It’s also allowed for anime to test the waters in ways everyone else is only starting to. In my piece on KPop Demon Hunters, I stated that the movie feels radical to Western audiences, but only because we’re not used to storytelling like that. And yes, it was Korean-inspired. But plenty of in-between animation is done there, and there’s plenty of crossover in terms of style. I know it’s a generalization, but anime has the audacity to be more, well, audacious than Western animation.

The second feature is the attention to detail. Most anime is rendered at 12 frames per second instead of 24, and mostly due to budgetary concerns. Yet this clear handicap has made Japanese animators more visually-ambitious than many cartoonists stateside. It’s how a Studio Ghibli movie with a budget of roughly $50 million US can look so painterly and rich. Every frame counts, and anime’s no exception.

Despite this dip in fluidity, anime production is more detailed visually than most of what’s released here. Spongebob Squarepants can get away with quick gags, but it can’t disguise its limitations. Anime, however, frequently has details not normally present in the aforementioned series, including proper limbs and character features. It’s not 100% realistic, anime gave up completely emulating human details decades ago, but you can imagine the characters being real people in their shows. There are exceptions, though.

This attention to detail shows in how the characters move and act. They say the secret to animating a character is in their walk, as no two people move the same way, and anime embodies that even in cheaply-made shows. This is true of their movements and their injuries, as both are drawn to be weighty. In some ways, it adds to the immersion, something I picked up on as a young child watching Pokémon or Digimon. After all, it sucks being lied to, even in fiction!

The third way anime stands out is in its serialization. Western animation has only really caught onto this recently, but having a long-running story arc can make your audience feel invested. Even anime’s episodic shows have a continuity of sorts. And yes, that includes Pokémon. Who’d have thought?

Serialization gets overlooked when discussing anime as a medium. People, even kids, enjoy a story that spans multiple episodes. Whether or not these storylines drag is debatable, but not having everything wrap up in one episode is radical. It gives the viewer something to look forward to, anxiously awaiting what happens next. I know it does for me!

But that’s what anime, particularly shows, does best. And yes, often the shows aren’t terribly long, consisting of 13 or 26 episodes. Yet that restriction means being creative and making sure the stories have a beginning, middle and end. Spike Spiegel’s story in Cowboy Bebop has to be crammed into the escapades of The Bebop Crew, and each of his colleagues need their arcs concluded by show’s end too. Anime has shown plenty of creativity in spite of this limitation. It’s something Western cartoons can learn from.

These three attributes, in my mind, make anime unique and appealing. And yes, I recognize anime’s limitations. In particular, I find the over-exaggerated facial features characters sometimes use for comedic effect, known as “Manga Iconography”, off-putting, especially since the human body’s plenty expressive already. But that comes with being an anime fan, for better or worse, and it adds to its charm when done well. It’s also not a dealbreaker.

So yes, I’m glad that The New York Times can recognize the boom in anime’s popularity. That doesn’t mean that I want to subscribe to The New York Times, but I’ll take my victories wherever I can.