Many moons ago, during my high school tenure, a classmate lent me a copy of the anime film Robot Carnival<\/i>.\u00a0 I knew very little about anime.\u00a0 My entertainment interests up until that point were mostly rooted in books, film, music, and the occasional comic.\u00a0 While others were listening to Nirvana and raving about Toy Story<\/i>, I sought out the likes of Tori Amos and David Lynch.\u00a0 Yes, I was that person.\u00a0 An outsider among outsiders.\u00a0 The weirdo.
Alas, perhaps it was beneficial that I had no preconceived notions as to what Robot Carnival<\/i> would offer.\u00a0 Needless to say, I very much enjoyed its eclectic blend of Fantasia<\/i> inspired shorts. \u00a0Each short film that comprised Carnival<\/i>offered something unique, largely due to the experimentation of the various animators involved.\u00a0\u00a0 Many of the individual shorts utilized music in place of dialogue, highlighting each piece\u2019s unique animation style.\u00a0 Thus, I requested another film from the classmate.\u00a0 \u201cI don\u2019t have any others like that one,\u201d he replied, \u201cbut you might like Lensman<\/i>.\u201d
While I enjoyed Lensman<\/i> and its futuristic space opera themes that harkened back to Star Wars <\/i>and Flash Gordon<\/i>, it didn\u2019t exactly capture my imagination in the same way as Robot Carnival<\/i>.
And so it would be throughout the years.\u00a0 I rented the odd anime movie every so often, with each new effort resulting in a film worse than the previous.\u00a0 What was going on?\u00a0 The anime and manga sections in retail stores were continuously growing.\u00a0 Anime fandom was growing.\u00a0 Was I missing something?\u00a0 What was so great?\u00a0 Was it the style of the art that attracted people?\u00a0 An obsession with Japanese culture?\u00a0 Some sort of secret society understood only by the young?\u00a0 All of the above?\u00a0 It couldn\u2019t be the storytelling \u2026 almost everything I attempted to watch was riddled with some combination of wooden dialogue, uneven pacing, and heavy exposition, as presented by characters with huge eyes, tiny hands, and nearly absent noses.
A roommate in college tried to garner my interests with a few manga reading recommendations.\u00a0 He would force this or that book upon me, usually something that sat on my nightstand for several months, unread.\u00a0 \u201cIt aggravates me,\u201d he would say, \u201chow so many people talk about anime.\u00a0 Anime is just the Japanese word for animation.\u00a0 It\u2019s animation.\u00a0 That\u2019s all it is.\u00a0 It\u2019s not specific to America and it\u2019s not specific to Japan!\u201d\u00a0 He spoke with such enthusiasm, but I just couldn\u2019t.\u00a0 I\u2019d much rather have watched the latest Gregg Araki film or read the latest Armistead Maupin novel.
Then, as I entered into college, I finally discovered another anime film that I enjoyed, Perfect Blue<\/i>.\u00a0 Much later, I stumbled across the polar opposite of Perfect Blue<\/i> \u2026 Grave of the Fireflies<\/i> (still one of the best films, animated or otherwise, that I\u2019ve ever seen).\u00a0 Eventually, the films of Studio Ghibli came along.\u00a0 On a whim, a friend brought me to see Spirited Away<\/i> at the local movie theatre.\u00a0 I absolutely loved its tone and themes, reminiscent of Alice\u2019s Adventures in Wonderland <\/i>and The Wonderful Wizard of Oz.<\/i> \u00a0And of course, behold!\u00a0 Characters spoke in a natural way \u2026 characters who weren\u2019t wooden, stiff, or visual clones of one another (I\u2019m looking at you, Your Lie in April<\/i>). \u00a0With few exceptions, I fell in love with Ghibli.\u00a0 Interestingly, films like Howl\u2019s Moving Castle<\/i>, The Secret World of Arrietty<\/i>, and The Cat Returns<\/i>, all happen to share one thing in common: Each film is based on well crafted, pre-existing book.\u00a0 Ah \u2026 books.\u00a0 Remember those?\u00a0 Books?
Fast forward to my middle-aged self.\u00a0 After all this time, what have I come to realize more than anything?\u00a0 Especially now, as an artist who exhibits at conventions frequented by ardent anime fans? \u00a0
Regardless of what anyone may say, it all comes down to the story …\u00a0 at least for me.\u00a0 That\u2019s the heart of it.\u00a0 First and foremost, I\u2019m attracted to good stories; stories that are told well.\u00a0 Yes, art is subjective, but I\u2019d argue that it\u2019s subjective to a certain degree. \u00a0Good pacing, natural dialogue, and limited use of exposition are all things that Studio Ghibli tends to adhere to.\u00a0 Conversely, I\u2019m not attracted to something because<\/i> it\u2019s anime or whether it\u2019s a particular genre such as science fiction or slice of life, etc\u2026 in my playbook, that\u2019s all secondary. \u00a0Maybe it isn\u2019t that way for some people, but that\u2019s okay too.\u00a0 I know what makes me happy.
Which brings me to my last point.\u00a0 At the end of the day, there are different strokes for different folks.\u00a0 In the same way that one wouldn\u2019t walk into a book store and absolutely love every single book, or love each comic on the shelf, or fall in love with everything on Netflix, it\u2019s no different with anime.\u00a0 I\u2019ll simply let the anime come to me as it always has over the years.\u00a0 After all, they can\u2019t all be gems. <\/i>
\u2013Don Gaddis, January 25, 2020<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Many moons ago, during my high school tenure, a classmate lent me a copy of the anime film Robot Carnival.\u00a0 I knew very little about anime.\u00a0 My entertainment interests up until that point were mostly rooted in books, film, music, and the occasional comic.\u00a0 While…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-373","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/sassysparky.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/373","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/sassysparky.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/sassysparky.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sassysparky.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sassysparky.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=373"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/sassysparky.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/373\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":374,"href":"http:\/\/sassysparky.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/373\/revisions\/374"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/sassysparky.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=373"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sassysparky.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=373"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sassysparky.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=373"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}