Anime

Well I thought i’d start this page by explaining why I watch anime and what it is about anime that I like. Thing is there’re so many things I like about it from the variety of interesting artistic styles it can produce, to the awesome stories that come from them. Im gonna start this with Cowboy Bebop, what I believe to be the greatest thing to come out of any medium. There’s nothing which I have seen (or heard) that can be so kickass and so emotional at the same time, for me it can’t be beaten. The story for one is amazing and if it’s one thing I feel the Japanese can do it’s taking the western’s (hemisphere) genres and styles and making them so much more better. With Bebop a variety of these have been used including film noir, the western with even a stab at horror and it performs them magnificently.

The crew of the Bebop from left to right: Faye Valentine the femme fatale, Jet the ex cop, Spike the main protagonist and Ed...uh I don't know what she is other than a spacey computer whiz

 One of the best things about a lot of anime is the adult way that it approaches it’s storytelling (though obviously there’re still loads that do the opposite which isn’t necessarily a bad thing, it’s just down to personal preference). Stephen Fry talks to the BBC about how British TV these days is more for children http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/10326761 and I have to say I agree. I think that this is one of the main reasons why I turn to the Japanese to tell me stories through anime. A key quote of Stephen’s from that article is “If you are an adult you want something surprising, savoury, sharp, unusual, cosmopolitan, alien, challenging, complex, ambiguous, possibly even slightly disturbing and wrong” and that is something which anime can provide in spades. Case in point take one of the most fucked up but brilliant anime i’ve ever seen: Elfen Lied, an anime filled with nudity, gore and events that’ll make you squeal back in horror. It could not have been done with live action because A: It’ll be just too graphic B: The characters will lose their innocent character design also called moe which is a key part of what makes it horrific (in a good way). Another example is at the start of one of the evangelion episode’s (End of Evangelion no.25 I think) it’s so screwed up that I don’t think explaining what happens will demonstrate it’s effect since context is everything, but let me say you wouldn’t expect it to appear on the BBC any time soon.

Elfen Lied: anime can really mess with the mind sometimes

 The Artistic style mentioned previously is another main aspect that appeals to me with anime. If we take a look at Trigun for example it’s not greatly animated but it’s barren wasteland suits it’s western theme To contrast Hayao Miyazaki’s films are filled with colour, watching Howls Moving Castle is like watching a moving watercolour painting which matches the beautiful charm of the film.

The barren environment of trigun compared to:

The colorful rich palette of Howl's moving castle

Of course i’m not describing anime in general, only some of the main things that appeal to me about a few of them. Some things do piss me off about them (DAMN YOU FANSERVICE GO TO HELL) but hey nothing’s perfect…well with the exception of Bebop.

P.S I only watch dubs so when I'm reviewing an anime I'm only referring to the dubbed version