Hey, Answerman!

Why is so much of anime so formulaic and predictable? It seems like most shows are just copies of other shows. There are some that are good and original but it seems to me all harem comedies are the same, all robot shows are the same, all moe shows etc. Why?

Well, anime isn't any different from any other entertainment medium in that regard; it's produced primarily as a corporate venture. If one thing works, they do it again to make more money. I mean, American TV is exactly the same way, as most people will tell you. VH1 discovered that people love the "geezer musician surrounded by strippers" thing worked so well on Flavor of Love that they produced Rock of Love which is also a big success, so any minute now we can expect to see Ice of Love featuring 20 skanks all vying for the affection of Robert "Vanilla Ice" Van Winkle.

Not every production team is top shelf, not every project is designed to be the next great artistic masterpiece. Sometimes they just shovel stuff out because people buy it. I have no doubt that the people working on these shows believe that what they're doing is the best work they can - even the worst, most generic harem comedy probably has SOME redeeming value to it, even if it is just the character design, or maybe the backgrounds or the score or something. It's just a product, though; no different from the fourty billionth American sitcom with a fat stupid husband, eternally-suffering wife and wisecrackin' kid.

Every so often you get your Mushi-shis or your Fullmetal Alchemists or whatever, but those are the exception to the rule.

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I would love to write articles about anime for publication in magazines like PiQ, Anime Insider, etc. How do I achieve that goal? Do you have any friendly advice? Also, I noticed that ANN accepts guest columnist. What kind of columns are you looking for? What about word limit and formatting? I have several ideas I think ANN would be interested in publishing. Does ANN prefer I submit a letter detailing my idea or would they rather I just submit the finished work?

I've written about this before, but there's a new angle here so I think it's cool to bring it up again.

Basically, you need a portfolio to get freelance gigs from magazines like PiQ or Anime Insider. I'm not familiar with what PiQ's policies are, but having worked previously at Anime Insider I can tell you that you won't be the one coming up with the article topics right off the bat - first you need to establish yourself as someone who can be trusted to turn in quality work that fits the assignment, on time, every time, while causing as little headache for your editor as possible. Be humble, quick, and quiet when you're starting out. Eventually after you've proven that you're a good writer, capable of meeting your deadlines and aren't a huge pain in the ass, they'll probably start soliciting you for article ideas, but don't count on it and don't offer up ideas unsolicited; it's kind of rude and presumptuous to do that.

The best thing you can do to get your foot in the door is to have at least a blog you can point to as a writing sample; it's better if you have writing you're proud of that was at the very least submitted in a relevant class or better yet, published in your school paper. Most writers who are starting fresh can't approach a magazine with a big fat portfolio of awesome writing, so you really have to rely on any legitimate scraps you may have, and your demeanor is really important (tip: come across as a writer who happens to be a fan, not a fan who wants to write. One of those works, the other really doesn't.). I would strongly suggest going to conventions where staff members of these magazines routinely have discussion panels and often invite audience members to submit business cards, portfolios or writing samples. I've found some pretty good people that way and it takes a bit of the edge off of a cold, unsolicited email.

To address your second point there, I'm not sure where you're seeing that. Our FAQ states:

Can I submit a review?
Yes, you can send a sample review to [email protected]. Please make sure that the subject of the e-mail is "Sample Review:" followed by the title of the Anime you are reviewing (otherwise it will be discarded as Spam). Please take a look at the review guidelines that we've posted here. We'll read through all the reviews sent to us and respond fairly and honestly; but please allow us some time to respond. All files must be sent in one of the following formats: pure text, MS Word or HTML. We promise to look at every submission that comes our way but cannot promise to post your review.

Can I submit an article?
E-mail the editors and ask about the topic, we'd be glad to consider your article idea.

Can I have a column?
No. Only previous, regular contributors who have shown an ability to consistently write timely, quality articles (or reviews) are permitted to write columns. Try submitting some articles or reviews first.

That last one isn't kidding; I've never just handed a column to someone who randomly emailed me with an idea. Every columnist working for this site has been vetted over the years, proven themselves worthy of having that space to themselves. You'd have to be writing for me for a while before I'd consider giving you a column, and it'd have to be a damn good idea.

However, we do accept sample reviews. If you'd like to take a shot at becoming an ANN critic, you can email me with your sample reviews and put your name in the hat.

In addition, we own a little magazine called Protoculture Addicts. I have actually accepted finished, submitted articles by enthusiastic writers who've emailed me out of the blue. PA's content policies are different from ANN's in that way. Hopefully saying this won't result in a flood of unsolicited articles in my email inbox, but the possibility is there.

[Editor's Note: Ooops. We did have an old policy still sitting on the column page that said we welcomed guest editorials. That policy has long since been replaced by the one Zac quoted above. We just forgot to remove one mention of it. Our apologies, but no, we no longer accept unsolicited guest columns. However, as Zac pointed out, there are plenty of other opportunities. -CM]

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From Bella de Silva:
So it's Japanese comedies vs American comedies huh? Well Americans have a great sense of humor and so do Japanese. It really depends. Some animes, especially Gintama and Yakitate! Japan, are HILARIOUS if you get the Japanese references that they tend to make fun with. For instance in one episode of Yakitate! Japan they have a joke where Kazuma Azuma hears say Kakuei (a former prime minister of Japan) instead of kakumei which means revolution. It's a joke that just doesn't work in America because 1) Your average american wouldn't know who Kakuei is and 2) with the laugae it just doesn't work.  Some anime are funny universal. An example would probaly be that Naruto filler where Shino starts laughing. Well, on second thought that episode is actually quite creepy but you can get the gist of it. As funny as anime can be there's also hilarious American shows/movies. A good example of this could be the Scary movie movies. I think that everyone's taste in humor is differnt and it differs from person to person and culture to culture.
 
As a Japanese-American it's really hard to decide. I love Yakitate! Japan and Gintama's humor but watching Scary Movie 3 with a whole bunch of friends is great too.  It gets harder when I go back to Japan for the summer. I want to buy all my hilarious anime and show them to my friends but they won't get the joke how Japan and Ja-pan are different and why there are people watching cherry blossoms fall.  So I guess it depends who the audience is. Still there are those cultural difiant animes that have funny episodes, such as Bleach and Azumanga Daioh.
 
So in conclusion, I perfer anime humor over American because it's just so much more fun and has a happy feel to it.


From Stephen Bell:

To a certain point, yes. However (with the possible exception of 
Scrubs), both pale in comparison to British comedy. Black Books, 
Faulty Towers, The Mighty Boosh and Spaced forever!

From Alissa Purcell:

 To try and compare comedic anime to general American comedies is more of a culture clash between two countries. Next to that, I would have to put in the scenario of American animated comedies rather than live action shows.

Out of my DVD collection right now the 3 anime that I know are comedies are Excel Saga, Cromartie High School, and GTO. If I could compare that to Family Guy, Robot Chicken, South Park, everything is thrown out the window.

America's version of comedy has gone with the whole sex and nude jokes, bashing of public officials and even going through the concept of jokes with ethnicity. Our President even has "his own" show, where it's blatantly obvious we're making fun of his stupidity. There really isn't much limit to what America airs in taste of comedy, but it only focuses on the same sort of crap we see on reality TV. There is a slight line, though. I see it as craptastic animation - Squidbillies, Assy Mgee..and on the other side...some really good comedies - Venture Bros, The Boondocks, and even Metalocolypse.

As for Japanese anime comedies, I can't really say there are many restrictions. After all, Excel Saga and its infamous episode 26; where it threw all aspects of censorship out of the window.
Cromartie High had its own school traditions and obvious quirkiness, but it is a bit subtle; a big difference between the juvenile delinquency in America and Japan. Some cultural references not mentioned could leave you a little confused, while other scenes are really simple to understand, and along with the facial expressions and actions used in anime, it adds to the giggles.

 I also remember watching  a series called Ping Pong Club. I don't think I've ever seen an animated comedy in America that focused on the trials and tribulations of such a simple sport, along with the "mischief" among the school students. I admit, the only closet thing that may be close to that was Balls of Fury. Only movies seem to make it well out in subjects/genres like these. For a domestic series, though...I'm not sure.

Finally, from David Windrim:

Well, first off, we must recall that some devices often don't transcend cultural and language barriers - I don't read or speak Japanese, so all the incessant puns and Osakan dialects and "Ah-ha! He is a young man, but speaking like an old man!" stuff often doesn't come across. See also: Tsukkomi (sp.?) humour (the 'slap-in-the-face with a catchphrase' stuff).

On the whole, then, what is left is primarily (for the English-language speaker) relatively samey: slapstick, fanservice, sarcasm, or random. In slapstick, people are hitting each other, or having unreasonable sexual or appetitive or scatological urges, or being really creepy while the one 'Kon' type character sits back in horrified incredulity. Fanservice takes us to a magical <insert fantasy locale here. where are tons of hot women of various builds getting wet and falling with panty-shots (which generally leads back to slapstick reaction-shots). In 'sarcastic' humor like, say, parts of Genshiken or the kid in FLCL, the outside observer gets more say and better lines and sits around mocking everyone else until inevitably they are drawn into one of the first two categories by twists of fate. Random humour like gag manga or "Bobobo Bo-bobobo" or whatever just seems to do whatever the hell it wants without any rules of logic - which is fine, but after a while most people grow out of "Family Guy" style materials like this and want something where it's more about the script. Which is the problem - we can see all these repeating tropes so clearly because we have to look for the broader visual or plot-based signifiers, since we lose so much of the particular inflections and particular subtle nuances of the individual lines.

I just feel that it's impossible for translated versions of these  materials to ever be as funny as something like P.G. Wodehouse, or  the British Office, or early Woody Allen movies, or Dr. Strangelove,  where every line is hysterical and appeals to our own, English-speaking in-jokes and cultural assumptions. I mean, probably a lot of  people in Japan might find the way that Annie Hall plays with the New  York Jewish Intellectual stereotype kind of baffling unless they were  familiar with that cultural paradigm; I will say, then, that while I  enjoy some comic aspects of Japanese series, I feel like we will  never 'get' the best of it because we usually only ever have access  to the cultural concerns that they make fun of or rely upon through  second-hand research. I don't think it's fair at all to say any type  of humour is 'better' or 'worse'; I feel that ultimately only native- speakers can really fully appreciate its finer qualities.