Basics of Anime
written by: Atharaenea Altan
Level: Ignoramus

Welcome to the basics of anime! I don't know too much about this subject, since my specialty is yaoi and fanfiction, mostly yaoi fanfiction. *^_^* Anyways, I do know somewhat about general anime.

First of all, anime is the correct term for "Japanimation." Please, never call it "Japanimation," because that term is SOOO gaijin! You sound like a total jock when you say it that way... -.- ~3 Anyways, anime is not aimed solely at kids like American cartoons are. I could scream whenever someone sees me watching Gundam Wing or Princess Mononoke, and says "Why are you watching cartoons? Cartoons are for little kids!" And I have to explain to them that, in Japan, anime makes up the majority of all TV shows and movies, and quite a bit of it would be considered pornographic in this country. Of course, they wrinkle their noses at the idea of "cartoon porn," but of course it not the same as Felix the Cat. More on that in another discussion.

Dubbing is the curse of all anime. You take a great anime, send it over here, and dub it for the kiddies, and you loose all the stuff that makes anime anime. Cursing, violence, openness towards homosexuality all gets destroyed in a commercial dub. In many cases this editing destroys the plotline or twists it, and the dubs in America are generally terrible. Sailor Moon's new voice actor is case in point. You loose a lot in a dub. The original translation of a certain part of Endless Waltz (Heero goes to rescue Relena, Duo's comment) was "Huh, seems like he has a little crush," or something to that effect. The dub, as I've heard it, said "Anything for love, eh?" TOTALLY different! In the first, he could be just joking around, in the second, it sounds more serious (more on this in Gundam Wing 126, possibly a yaoi class). In any case, the only good dub I've ever seen is the one for Princess Mononoke. The voices were great, it was true to the original, and the voices matched mouth movements perfectly. Personally, I prefer the dub of Mononoke over the sub, because I can enjoy it better if I don't have to read. For all others, reading is much better than the torture of a dub.

Manga is much like anime... the Japanese equivalent of a graphic novel. NOT the equivalent of a comic book, like Spiderman or something. A large part of the publications in Japan are manga or doujinshi (more on doujinshi in intermediate yaoi, possibly others). It's much like one of our novels, only with constant illustrations, laid out comic book style. Manga read backwards compared to our books (I read so much manga, I automatically open American books from the back, and an American novel looks backwards to me) and read from right to left. Text us up to down, right to left, as I understand it. One of the best manga series out there (non-yaoi, G-rated) is Nausicaä. Of course, all of Miyazaki's work is great, Japan's J.R.R. Tolkein.

All anime and manga style is basically big eyes, strange expressions, and a sometimes low framerate. Anime is obviously different from anything American. It jumps between serious and off-the-wall in a way that nothing American does. Stuff considered pornographic and sick in this country is daily fare in Japan. You can find hentai (literally means perverted) stuff next to the kiddy anime there, like Sailor Moon. Even Sailor Moon has it's share of gays and lesbians, who are ALWAYS "fixed" in some way in America. For example, in the original version, Zoicite and Malachite (a couple badguys) were both men and SO obviously lovers. When they dubbed it over here, Zoicite got a girl's voice, and was referred to as "her." The two lesbian Sailor Scouts became "cousins" in the dub, to explain their closeness.

That's all I have for now for Basic Anime. Thanks for listening!


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