Forum - View topicAnime, manga, and hip hop.
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Jump Guru
 Posts: 71 Location: United States |
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Has anyone but me noticed the strong relation between anime and manga...and hip hop and rap music?
 Its a very weird combo if you kinda think about it. I mean when you think of anime...you, well...just don't think of hip hop.  Since I'm a pretty big ol' skool hip hop fan I guess I just noticed this better. There's even a completely hip hop influenced manga artist named Santa Inoue, who did the Japanese album cover of Art Official Intelligence: Mosaic Thump for golden age hip hop artists De La Soul. De La Soul also invited Japanese hip hop group Scha Dara Parr to be a part of their classic album Buhloone Mindstate. Which, a darn shame, didn't happen.  Santa Inoue also did one of the album covers for Scha Dara Parr as well. In some pictures of De La Soul, you can also see some of the members wearing Santastic! clothing (clothing line owned by Santa Inoue). And of coarse, most notably, Afro Samurai is very, very hip hop influenced and the creator, Takashi Okazaki, very explicitly states that he is a big hip hop fan and loves Public Enemy. The Wu-Tang member RZA did the soundtrack for the anime. Also, rapper Ghostface Killah from Wu-Tang Clan made a music video competely made out of Speed Racer clips for his single "Daytona 500." It was one of the first AMVs. And no one can forget the influence on Samurai Champloo. 
What have some of you noticed about this relation?
Last edited by Jump Guru on Thu Aug 06, 2009 8:42 pm; edited 3 times in total |
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RedSwirl
 Posts: 344 |
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All I can really say is that there really isn't that much of a wall between hip-hop and anime culture. Hip-Hop has never really been at odds with nerd-dom. You just have to loo harder. One of the best hip-hop composers recognized in underground places right now is Nujabes (who helped score Samurai Champloo).
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Kruszer
 Posts: 7995 Location: Minnesota, USA |
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I'm more of rock/metal fan as far as music goes and never really cared for much rap or hip hop, though I wouldn't say I hate it either. Those and country are the genres I find least appealing so I wouldn't notice anything aside from the obvious fact that it's present in Samurai Champloo and Infinite Ryvius, two series which I liked and own.
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Nagisa
Moderator
 Posts: 6128 Location: Atlanta-ish, Jawjuh |
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I haven't really noticed a close connection between anime and any genre of music, really...aside from cheery idol J-pop by the pure virtue of it being just about every anime's theme song ever. Thing is, anime isn't just one style, it's a medium that covers every cinematic genre and style out there, and as such different titles fit different genres of music better than others. Hip hop is perfect for a series like Samurai Champloo or Afro Samurai, but I can't see it working for an Azumanga Daioh or a Detroit Metal City or a Twelve Kingdoms. Shows like Beck and K-On! are all about particular genres of rock music, and Cromartie High would just about mandate a Queen soundtrack if it were to get anything different from what it actually has (after all, a silent Freddie Mercury is one of the major characters).
It's all about what music would fit best fit the show's mood or atmosphere. Sometimes that might be hip-hop, but as varied as anime titles are, a lot of times it's not. |
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Jump Guru
Posts: 71 Location: United States |
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I was literally LOLing when I tried to picture Azumanga Daioh with a hip hop theme.  I guess that's right, manga and anime are just a medium, and go into a wide variety of genres. That's what a lot of people don't get, everyone that doesn't know a clue about anime think its just weird characters with huge eyes and massive colored hair duking it out with other weird characters with huge eyes and massive colored hair with cards with little monsters in them.
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ShinobiX
 Posts: 889 Location: NY |
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I wouldn't say it's strong but a relationship does exist. However not much of it exists. Hip hop really doesn't need to be in anime. Hip hop in anime is just an attention grabber. I could watch Samurai Champloo w/ out the hip hop.
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Mushi-Man
 Posts: 1537 Location: KCMO |
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It's not that odd to see anime and hip hop join forces. Hip hop is popular music and it fits well with action scenes. Not to mention hip hop has always embraced anime. Just look at artists like Lupe Fiasco, he did a shout out to Lupin the 3rd in his song with Kanye West. And Kanye did a music video based on Akira. If you think about it they actually go together well.
Also, right now Japan has a booming hip hop scene. It would make sense that the anime industry would use these really good artists like Shing 02 and Nujabes. |
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Jump Guru
Posts: 71 Location: United States |
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Agreed.  Kanye has put little references to anime in some of his songs. But it's different with Ghostface Killah, he is a much more hardcore rapper and for him to have Speed Racer in his video is a little...interesting I guess.  But it does work with it in a way. 
W-wuh? 
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ueo_86
Posts: 5 |
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I don't think its as much of an anime/hip hop relationship as opposed to using hip hop to help support at a certain style within the show itself.
Obviously Samurai Champloo and Afro Samurai have an underlying urban/hip hop feel with a soundtrack to boot, but then you also have other shows like Dear Boys which focuses on basketball. Given the close relationship between basketball and hip hop culture, it kinda makes sense to have hip hop in the music. The same kind of relationships can also be uncovered in other music genres too...electronica (ie Appleseed - featuring Paul Oakenfold, etc.) |
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HellKorn
Posts: 1669 Location: Columbus, OH |
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Uh, no. A lot of the aesthetics of the show are informed by the post-modern importance that hip hop has in music. The dramatic portions of some of the later episodes wouldn't be any different without it, but a large portion would; it's like saying jazz doesn't have any relevance to Cowboy Bebop. That said, I agree with others in that there's no real genre tied to anime, outside of J-pop tunes for theme music (which I wouldn't mind if that aspect eroded away, but alas...). |
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Kruszer
Posts: 7995 Location: Minnesota, USA |
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Yeah, I'd personally want less J-Pop and more J-Rock of the quality of of the second Kurokami opening.
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