Sunday, September 11, 2022
Saturday, October 23, 2021
What is anime?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uFtfDK39ZhI - 18:20
Note: Since I have started using the above video in the History of Martial Arts and Anime class I helpwith for our recent class, I figured I would move this video and post from my anime blog to the blog
for this class.
I consider some shows to be examples of what I call westernized anime. In addition to giving an
explanation of what that means here, it also begs the question of what anime in general is, which I will
attempt to explain with my own thoughts, so this is more of a reflection in reaction to the video used in
this reflection, not so much a reflection of the video itself. The video begins with the statement that
Avatar: The Last Airbender is an anime, which is also part of the title of this video, and then
proceeds to discuss how anime has been defined over the years and how that relates to other
examples (the only agreeable part of anime definitions given is that anime is a form of Japanese
animation). It ends by asking what anime means to others and instead of doing that in the comments
section of the video, I will do that here.
The show Avatar: The Last Airbender is what influenced me to come up with the idea of it being
what I call westernized anime, which I guess is what the video would call American anime. Avatar:
The Last Airbender is something I wanted to discuss in my summer anime classes due to what I get
out of the series, and I also dothat in the spring class I help with since martial arts is important in the
Avatar: The Last Airbender is an anime, which is also part of the title of this video, and then
proceeds to discuss how anime has been defined over the years and how that relates to other
examples (the only agreeable part of anime definitions given is that anime is a form of Japanese
animation). It ends by asking what anime means to others and instead of doing that in the comments
section of the video, I will do that here.
The show Avatar: The Last Airbender is what influenced me to come up with the idea of it being
what I call westernized anime, which I guess is what the video would call American anime. Avatar:
The Last Airbender is something I wanted to discuss in my summer anime classes due to what I get
out of the series, and I also dothat in the spring class I help with since martial arts is important in the
show, but how could I do thatwithout making it a class about cartoons too? The following, I believe,
not only answers this question, but also provides a distinction between cartoons and what I call
westernized anime.
I would define westernized anime (should Westernized be capitalized? I don't know. I'm more
interested in sharing my thoughts about anime than spelling and pronunciation in anime, which I
attempt to do in all of my posts) by three things. One, westernized anime is anime that's only dubbed,
or in English, two, it doesn't have a manga, which can be clearly defined (definition given a little later)
and three, the episodes contribute to the plot and story of the entire show, not just have a plot and story
in each episode. The last point is what's important here since cartoons are dubbed and don't have a
manga, so this is what makes cartoons and westernized anime the same thing. Another way of saying
the last point is that cartoons are mostly filler, while westernized anime isn't, which I guess is also true
of anime in general, so how does westernized anime fit into anime in general?
It seems, according to my definition of westernized anime, that westernized anime is a type of
anime, so I guess Japanese, or easternized, anime can be defined according to how westernized
anime is defined. For example, if westernized anime is only dubbed, then Japanese anime can be
subbed, or not in English, or dubbed (yes it can be either one - dubbed actually is good and even better
than subbed in some cases: as I mentioned before, this depends on perspective). Japanese anime also
has a manga associated with it (manga can be defined as a comics style tracing its roots to the late
nineteenth century - definition from book Anime Impact, which I talk about in my foreword post),
and it can have filler episodes, but isn't entirely filler episodes. The distinctions of anime that I come
up with here, namely Japanese, or easternized, and American, or westernized, anime can help in
answering the question of what anime is and/or give an explanation as to how to break anime into
categories besides going by genre or style (which isn't very reliable since you can have several genres
in one genre in all anime - the same can be said for style too).
All of this probably isn't enough to really explain what anime is, which isn't a problem I
intended to resolve, but the issue looked interesting to me (I actually intended to create a post about
The Boondocks, but searching for that on youtube led me to the video I use in this reflection - more
about The Boondocks in my next post). Another way I would define anime, which might be better in
this case, is what a member of my monastic community said when we all met one day and a discussion
of what community is came up. When offering his thoughts on what community means, he said
"you'll know it when you see it." Since this is a rather subjective definition, I think it can also be
applied to other subjective things like anime. In other words, just talk about the shows you like. If it's
anime, or whatever you think anime is, great. If it's not, or not what you consider anime, that's also
fine. As long as there are reasons for either position, which I didn't get into entirely here since this post
is about anime in general and not a specific series (or anything else in anime that isn't a series), we can
talk about it (the point of my anime classes and blog actually or at least one of them is to do this and let
it happen).
Anyway, these are just my thoughts. Knowing others, whether you offer them here, in
the comments section of the video in this reflection, and/or somewhere else, is also helpful.
I would define westernized anime (should Westernized be capitalized? I don't know. I'm more
interested in sharing my thoughts about anime than spelling and pronunciation in anime, which I
attempt to do in all of my posts) by three things. One, westernized anime is anime that's only dubbed,
or in English, two, it doesn't have a manga, which can be clearly defined (definition given a little later)
and three, the episodes contribute to the plot and story of the entire show, not just have a plot and story
in each episode. The last point is what's important here since cartoons are dubbed and don't have a
manga, so this is what makes cartoons and westernized anime the same thing. Another way of saying
the last point is that cartoons are mostly filler, while westernized anime isn't, which I guess is also true
of anime in general, so how does westernized anime fit into anime in general?
It seems, according to my definition of westernized anime, that westernized anime is a type of
anime, so I guess Japanese, or easternized, anime can be defined according to how westernized
anime is defined. For example, if westernized anime is only dubbed, then Japanese anime can be
subbed, or not in English, or dubbed (yes it can be either one - dubbed actually is good and even better
than subbed in some cases: as I mentioned before, this depends on perspective). Japanese anime also
has a manga associated with it (manga can be defined as a comics style tracing its roots to the late
nineteenth century - definition from book Anime Impact, which I talk about in my foreword post),
and it can have filler episodes, but isn't entirely filler episodes. The distinctions of anime that I come
up with here, namely Japanese, or easternized, and American, or westernized, anime can help in
answering the question of what anime is and/or give an explanation as to how to break anime into
categories besides going by genre or style (which isn't very reliable since you can have several genres
in one genre in all anime - the same can be said for style too).
All of this probably isn't enough to really explain what anime is, which isn't a problem I
intended to resolve, but the issue looked interesting to me (I actually intended to create a post about
The Boondocks, but searching for that on youtube led me to the video I use in this reflection - more
about The Boondocks in my next post). Another way I would define anime, which might be better in
this case, is what a member of my monastic community said when we all met one day and a discussion
of what community is came up. When offering his thoughts on what community means, he said
"you'll know it when you see it." Since this is a rather subjective definition, I think it can also be
applied to other subjective things like anime. In other words, just talk about the shows you like. If it's
anime, or whatever you think anime is, great. If it's not, or not what you consider anime, that's also
fine. As long as there are reasons for either position, which I didn't get into entirely here since this post
is about anime in general and not a specific series (or anything else in anime that isn't a series), we can
talk about it (the point of my anime classes and blog actually or at least one of them is to do this and let
it happen).
Anyway, these are just my thoughts. Knowing others, whether you offer them here, in
the comments section of the video in this reflection, and/or somewhere else, is also helpful.
Wednesday, June 2, 2021
Thursday, May 27, 2021
Tuesday, May 18, 2021
History of anime
https://www.youtube.com/user/sumerias1/videos
In addition to several interesting videos about the history of anime with videos of some of the first anime,
including videos about the anime, on the above youtube channel link, the following videos also talk about
the history of anime starting with the early twentieth century to the 21st century:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3DqCMBJiSzE - 3:39
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lFxvWqfvCno - 3:31
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-nG5dqokbOA - 4:27
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SbUk5A6-VM0 - 6:02
Tuesday, May 11, 2021
Muay thai in anime
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-3wSCp4t8O8 - 8:48 to 12:15
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ALtdbfcarO4 - 14:15 to 20:40
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