Forum - View topicGeneral Questions of the Curious
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Falco135 1/2
Posts: 4 |
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I’ve been lurking around this forum for some time. I’ll check in at least twice a week during lunch at my place of employment. I’m a fairly avid fan of this thing called anime and it makes for some stimulating reading as to what goes on behind the scenes in this genre. More about me later in this post.
First, I have some questions: 1. Is there a content rating system in Japan? It strikes me as odd that there’s a ton of sexual innuendo as well as nudity (just a little in Ghost in the Shell) in something aimed at teens. I know, I know. You get plenty of that in American PG-13 films. Yet, there seems to be a lot more of it in animes (certain moments in Evangelion come to mind). 2. Why don’t more animes have characters that actually look Japanese? I’m not trying to be racist here. It just seems that the vast majority of them are nondescript in nationality. 3. It seems to me that a lot of the anime directors are middle-age men. How come animes are still almost exclusively targeted at children-teens? Why not make some movies/series aimed more at adults? I don’t use ‘adult’ in the sexual context but rather in the tone/tenor of the anime. There are plenty of animes that show fantastic artistry, acting, story lines. If all these technical aspects are there, why not go for an older crowd? Is it just that the financiers of animes don’t believe in this concept (“Cartoons are for children. Why would we make one for adults?”)? 4. Speaking of age, I first was introduced to anime through a few friends. The first one I saw was Ghost in the Shell and shortly thereafter Royal Space Force: Wings of Honnemeise. A few years later some other friends popped Akira in the VCR. I’ve bought the three above and previewed and subsequently bought others (Jin Roh, Spirited Away, Evangelion, Metropolis, Last Exile). Cartoon Network aired Ghost in the Shell SAC of which I greatly enjoyed and recorded as well as Paranoia Agent. They’re currently running Eureka 7 and I’m watching that (not bad, just a bit juvenile for my tastes) so I guess I’m a pretty avid fan of higher quality animes. I’m 28 – am I an exception or are there others of the all important (at least important here in the US to TV advertisers) 25-45 age group? Like I said, the target audience is children to teens but is there an “older” segment watching anime? Come on, I won’t ask for ages but are there any here on this board that fit the 25-45 description? 5. If I see Johnny Young Bosche do yet another English dub, I’m going to flip. Liked him in Akira. Okay in Last Exile. Getting sick of him in Eureka 7. Yeah, I know he’s in Bleach (just started airing on Cartoon Network – though I’m not interested in that one). Is there a massive shortage of English voice actors in the anime industry that I don’t know about? Is it just that not too many publishers (if that’s the term) of anime here in the US care enough to spend a decent amount of money to have a title dubbed? Is this the reason for the seemingly endless recycling of English voice actors? 6. How much does it cost to produce a quality 2 hr. anime (movie)? How long does it take? I would imagine quite a while given all the drawing. How does this compare with making a live-action film? Just curious. FWIW, I find Jin Roh to be the finest anime I’ve seen so far. It was expertly drawn and had a rather “adult” feel and story to it. Shame it was so depressing. I really enjoyed the audio on Akira and snatched up the soundtrack (excellent in and of itself). Oh, and yes the visual of Akira is obviously top-notch. Of course I’m a sucker for Ghost in the Shell in all it’s incarnations (are they going to English dub the second movie? If so, when?). Evangelion had some unique mecha and I really liked the series until it turned into a therapy session for Shinji. The two movies that followed were a bit over-the-top for me as well. I’ve also found the fourth season of Initial D to be surprisingly cerebral (pitting different strengths of a car against another otherwise superior one) – the perfect antidote to the stupidity that is The Fast and Furious series of movies (IMHO). I basically check out the anime section of video/book stores and see if anything interests me. If I do find something that’s up my alley (futuristic mainly) I’ll see if there’s a fan sub. If I like it enough I’ll by the DVD. However, I only buy it if it’s dubbed in English. I know there are a whole lot of purists out there but when I sit down at the end of a busy day to relax with an anime, I don’t want to have to read. Not only is it a bit tedious but I want my eyes free to take in all the detail the producers/artists put into their work. As I’ve said above, I’m enjoying this forum and enjoy all the tidbits of information about the anime genre as well as the reviews and the in depth info on my favorite movies/serials. Thanks to all who organize and moderate. Keep up the good work. Thanks also to all who post as well. |
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daxomni
 Posts: 2650 Location: Somewhere else. |
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Welcome to the forum.
1. Yes. http://www.eirin.jp/english/index.html & http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eirin 2. Multiple issues here, but the crux of it is that early anime was based on sources such as Mickey Mouse and Betty Boop. Which nationality do they look like? Also, if you've ever flipped through a Japanese men's magazine you might have noticed that many of the girls seem to have slightly western looking eyes and you may have even noticed ads for eye widening surgery. So, the idea of anime characters with nondescript or even western-like features is a result of both anime's origin and current Japanese trends. 3. If adults started buying anime in much greater numbers then I suppose the trend may reverse over time. When I was a kid there were very few computer games specifically targeted toward adults, but that has slowly changed over time as more adults who had grown up with computer based games continued to purchase them as they got older. Perhaps the same will eventually happen with anime. 4. Yes, you're an exception, but you're not entirely alone. There was a tread on here called "Hard being an older anime fan" or something like that. Do a search for it. 5. Anime voice actors are often selected in part because of their non-union status, and thus you are pulling from a much smaller pool of resources than most other forms of professional entertainment. 6. I have no idea. Hope that helps a bit. |
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Key
Moderator
 Posts: 18447 Location: Indianapolis, IN (formerly Mimiho Valley) |
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I'll address what I can.
I don't really think there's much more sexual innuendo in teen-oriented Japanese titles than there is in teen-oriented American titles. However, it should be pointed out that the U.S. is one of the more repressive non-fundamentalist-Muslim countries in the world when it comes to sexual content in media.
This is a well-documented phenomenon which, according to what I've read, primarily boils down to two factors: 1) Japanese animation was originally heavily-inspired by American animation, and that includes character designs. (The whole "big eyes" thing actually originated in the U.S. - just look at designs for early American characters like Betty Boop, for instance.) 2) Japan is one of the most racially homogenous countries on Earth, which means they also tend to be more homogenous on physical appearance. Since it's harder to distinguish characters of the same race in animation than it is in live-action, making characters look non-Japanese gives animators a much, much wider range of possibilities for making characters look distinct from one another.
Even in Japan, the primary market for animation is still children and teens. Unlike in the U.S., though, Japan does have numerous serious anime series made specifically for mature audiences; the recently-released Zipang is a good example, and Satoshi Kon movies (Perfect Blue, Millenium Actress, Tokyo Godfathers) are others. Anthology series like Rumiko Takahashi's Anthology and Human Crossing are also clearly targeted at adults. They're just in the minority in Japan and don't often make it across the Pacific because they usually don't sell well over here.
Actually we had a fairly lengthy thread about that just a short time back. I recommend checking it out.
There isn't as broad a pool of them as there is in Japan, although this has been getting better of late. It's just a coincidence that he's being featured in two major CN/[as] series at the same time. |
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Sango_Lover
 Posts: 40 |
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Well, there are a few out there. But I think that the fantasy aspect in Anime could be a reason. Anyway, most of the Characters in InuYasha look Japanese 
There are alot of Animes made for Adults, you just have to look harder. Shows Like Cowboy Beebop, Paranioa Agent or others like it. From my experiences Teens seem to be the biggest anime crowd. Young children are, well, too young to get most things with substance and its true that most adults seem to think all Anime are just some cartoons and only children watch cartoons, since they only watched them when they were children. It just seems most resonable to make your target audience the age group that follows anime the most.
Hehe, Don't forget Vash from Trigun  Oh and Lujon from FMA 
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MorwenLaicoriel
 Posts: 1617 Location: Colorado |
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On question number 5 (the Johnny Young Bosch question)...
First of all, if you think Bosch is in a lot of anime, you ain't seen nothing. Check out Crispin Freeman.  (And mainstream actors like Tara Strong and Tom Kenny, for that matter.)
Also...I'm sort of an American voice actor nerd, so one time I decided to check out books about voice acting from my library. Most of the books focused on breaking into the industry in terms of being in commerscials and such--when they got into cartoon voice acting, they mentioned that it's VERY hard to break into that. I don't totally understand it, but appearantly when directors are thinking about who to cast they tend to go with voice actors they know. So, well, the more experienced you are, the more you may even be asked to play a role, and if you're a new guy you're probably going to be stuck doing background characters and one-episode characters for a while. Even though they were talking about voice acting for american shows, I bet it's the same way with anime dubs--ADV knows that, say, Luci Christensen would be good in such-and-such role, but they have no idea how Jane Doe would do because they haven't really tried her out yet, so they'll give her a small role in the series. ...Or something like that.
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ironwarrior
 Posts: 151 Location: Under Clare's armor, Lewisburg, WV |
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Oh, yes. The anime is there. After the thread about how hard it is to be an older anime fan, we were surprised at how many are in their 30-50s! I'll be 40 on Nov. 9. I hate "kiddie" anime or anything censorsed as I consider it an afront to my sensibilities--I want ultra-violence, ultra-T&A, and ultra Japanese-WTF perversions. My first recommendation is to search the ANN encycopedia for titles rated MATURE. Some of the TEENAGERS rated anime also have the good stuff:bloody violence, bad language and nudity. Next look for titles with a lot of "fanservice"--anime that promotes excessive amounts of cleavage and ass. Some from my TOP TEN that will rock your socks, includes: Black Lagoon, Burst Angel, Devil Lady, Elfen Lied, Gantz, and Texhnolyze. I hope that helps with your one questions. |
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aya_honda
 Posts: 920 Location: Around here |
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Well, I'm new here too though I am into anime and everything that is related to them for a long time, so I had some of your questions too.
Concerning nudity, this problem also hit me when I watched two different versions of the same anime (namely they were dubed in different languages). I had the possibility to see different versions of the same anime and it struck me that unlike the original version (the Japanese one), many things were censored and one of them was nudity. Try to see an Italian version or a Spanish one and trust me that you will see visible differences. For instance the features were blured and the nude aspect of the characters tends to be somehow androgynous. So I think that censorship is still at work. Moreover, there are anime which have quite an adult content, for instance those which have a homosexual content. I am not talking here about Gravitation or Gakuen Heaven, but about the pioneers of the genre like Kizuna or Zetsuai which talk about problems like accepting oneself, about society and how people with a different sexual orientation relate to it, about the concerns that such a relationship presumes and the hardships. There are also anime which have the so-called "slice of life" which have a more mature way of looking at the things. So there are adult anime, you just have to look for them. On the other hand, you should consider yourself lucky because you said that some of your friends introduced you to anime. I just have one close friend who's obssessed with anime like I am. The rest of them are the type you mentioned: "Cartoons? They are just for kids, you're an adult now!" (I'm also in my 20s) So it's hard when I find something new that I like very much and I can share only with one of my friends. Anyway, too bad for them. They don't know what they are missing.
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DuelLadyS
 Posts: 1705 Location: WA state |
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It's the international standard- basically, the physical differences we see between ourselves and other races, aren't the same as what those other races see. A Japanese person doesn't think of themselves as having slender eyes and darker skin- they see Europeans as having really big eyes and pale skin (And big eyebrows.) This turns up across the board, usually- look at the handful of Korean animation/comics that have come out- they still don't look like what we consider 'Asian.' Now go find a Chinese character in a Japanese cartoon- they WILL look like what we consider 'Asian'! That would be because a Japanese person can see (hear?) the difference between themselves and another Asian, but we usually can't. (Similarly, an American could probably note a visiting European based on clothes, and their nationality based on accent, but a Japanese person likely wouldn't know the difference at all.) Something liek that... |
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unhealthyman
 Posts: 306 |
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Well, a lot of it has been covered, but I'll have a crack at a couple of the questions (I don't watch much dubbed anime or anime on American TV, so not much help with those ones.
1. No offence to America, but America does have a slightly conservative attitude to sex. Especially to non-sexual nudity (for example the no-nipple rule and the 'underboob' crisis,) whereas in Japan there is a very different attitude to this. Lots of anime for kids have totally innocent nudity - such as in My Neighbour Totoro, where two young girls and their dad are sharing a bath in a totally non-sexual way. Evangelion would be aimed as a PG-13 kind of anime in Japan anyway I would have thought. Also, I think the fact that for a lot of people the only contact they have with anime is seeing ads for hentai on porn sites which does lead to the misconception that all anime is about tentacle rape... 2. This has been mostly covered, but another point to note is the use of non-Japanese characteristics to make a main character different such as with Ichigo and his bleached hair in Bleach. It's kinda cool in Japan to look 'different' in that way, and like someone else said, surgery or other methods to have slightly western features is also quite popular. 3. If you are basing the shortage of more grownup anime on what you see on US TV, it is not too surprising. In the US there is a very small market for grown ups who watch anime. Most US anime is shown on various Cartoon Networks. A lot of the anime does have older teen appeal but shows like Naruto and Bleach and One Piece are all popular because it is kids that watch them. (And in the past a lot of American companies have edited series' to make them more kiddish.) Seinen is the name roughly applied to more mature animes, although getting a definitive list of what this includes is difficult. In Japan there are manga and anime which cater to just about all types of people, just a lot of them don't make the leap over to the US. Like people have already said, Satoshi Kon is a famous name for making more grownup themed anime. Also shows like Monster or Gankutsuou (I can't be bothered with a long list,) are clearly aimed at older people. That said, even though I am in my twenties, I do enjoy quite a few 'kids' animes. I have no trouble finding stuff to watch .
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aya_honda
Posts: 920 Location: Around here |
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Unhealthyman wrote:
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Mohawk52
 Posts: 8202 Location: England, UK |
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Mate I'd love to post something in that "older anime fan" thread but I don't want to commit the unpardonable sin of "reviving old threads" and getting it locked by the landlord.
(I just had this vision; There I am in the Accident and Emergency on a stretcher and I can hear the medical team talking amongst themselves something like this; Nurse: Doctor he's going into fibrillation! shall I call for the crash cart? Doctor: No nurse. He's an "old anime fan", we're no allowed to revive him.)
I remember reading somewhere that the "big eyes" phenomena was all down to Disney's "Snow White", which allegedly was such a big hit in Japan then, so much so the mangakas and animators assimilated it in their styles. |
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Falco135 1/2
Posts: 4 |
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Well, thanks for all the input. Have bookmarked the "Hard to be an Older Anime Fan" thread and will read a page a day (being 10 pages and all). Very stimulating.
Yes, Cowboy Bebop is very good - forgot they aired that on CN too. I'll have to email my thanks to CN as they've been keeping me fixed with quality stuff for the past four years. I have seen Millenium Actress, Tokyo Godfathers and Perfect Blue. All very good - Perfect Blue's a bit freaky though. |
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