At about 9 p.m. I remembered I needed to write a blog post, and then I realized I had even less of a clear idea about what I wanted to write than usual. Searching through TV Tropes and my completed anime on MyAnimeList did not prove to be all that helpful. (Note to self: Stop explaining the writing process at the beginning of every post.)
After a couple of brief failed starts, tonight we’re going to talk about the variety of anime. This is a discussion of genre, and that borders on the dangerous territory of “what anime is.” That’s a subject I want to explore, I was an English major once, after all, but that’s a September subject that I think will require more than one post and won’t have a definite conclusion.
Genre is a pretty flexible term, but here we’re using it to talk about the content of the show (science fiction as opposed to fantasy).
I’ll be honest, if you know what anime is, but you don’t watch it, I have absolutely no idea what your perception of it is. There are a few commonalities we can expect regardless of genre: colorful hair, big eyes, exaggerated expressions, young protagonists and school settings among them. But then any given anime can buck all or some of these trends.
And even without bucking trends, shows that check off all of the above can still be radically different. Goofy, sci-fi slice of life Hinamatsuri is radically different from superhero action series My Hero Academia which is radically different from volleyball-centered sports show Haikyuu!!. They all have colorful hair, big eyes, exaggerated expressions, young protagonists and school settings. So do Non Non Biyori and Soul Eater.
But I just spent 15 minutes compiling this image, and I’m running out of June 19th. My real point here was to discuss the variety of anime. It seems to me that anime takes a lot more risks in terms of the stories it’s willing to tell. While it’s as prone to turning trends into dead horses as any other creative market, I just don’t see as much real exploration of the possibilities of the form in other media.
In anime, you can take a risk on a story about a single mom and her two werewolf children or a psychotic vigilante with a deadly diary. And these risks (at least it seems to me) pay off a lot. Cowboy Bebop is a neo noir space western. It’s sister series Samurai Champloo is an episodic samurai story set to hip hop. Fullmetal Alchemist is, at least to some degree, the opposite of Star Wars. It’s a story that is, at least in part, about ethics and morality in science and relies on the trappings of a fantasy setting. Aggretsuko is The Office as told by Sanrio.
Anime is willing to blend genres and break them to an almost absurd degree, and a lot of these experiments work. One piece of writing advise that I’ve seen passed around a lot is that you need to write within the lines so to speak. If you’re interested in being published you’ve got to hit the criteria of the genre you’re hoping to publish in, and you can’t stray too far outside of those criteria because that makes you a risk. The audience wants their art like they want their burger, the same way every time.
There’s certainly some truth to that if the shelves at your local bookstore are to be trusted, but I don’t think that makes for good art. And, while that same sentiment can be heard in anime, it seems to fly in the face of the shows that really thrive.
Anime, unlike a lot of the other entertainment that’s readily available to me, tends to provide me with at least a handful of new shows every few months that I’m interested in. At least one of those shows will be risky or experimental in some way. I can’t say the same for just about anything else.
I’m going to wrap this up in just a moment, but one last point that I’m not going to completely develop. It’s worth noting that saying you like anime could really mean a lot of different things. Anime is a pretty broad umbrella from relaxing and funny slice of life shows to high intensity action series to nausea-inducing horror. It almost sickens me to use this next cliche, but there’s probably something out there for everyone if they’ll give it a shot.
It’s after 11:30, and I’ve got clothes to fold. I’ll come back and put my usual links throughout the article at a later time. For tonight this is it. Until tomorrow.
chasetriesagain.com 