It sometimes amazes me just how many ways there are to approach a given creative medium or product. When we look at a piece of art or fiction (or non-fiction!), we bring with us all that we prioritize and seek in works. Even when the focus is on just anime and nothing else, the result is a plethora, possibly even a panoply of differing viewpoints, each with their own inherent sense of validity.
At Otakon 2009, Yamamoto Yutaka, director of Kannagi, mentioned his praise for Studio Ghibli’s Takahata Isao, and how Takahata’s classic TV series Anne of Green Gables is essentially the gold standard of how a long TV series should be. Yamamoto is also known for being an anime critic, though his opinion can be difficult to comprehend. But then you realize that he looks at anime from that director’s perspective, and that his priorities are less on the content or themes or story of the work and more about how scenes move into one another, how well it all conveys the idea.
Narrowing the focus a bit brings forth the notion of watching anime for the aimtion, and Anipages is probably the best example I can think of for someone whose focus is mainly on the “moving image” aspect of anime. It affords him a perspective very different from that of most fans and enthusiasts, and nowhere is this more evident than in the fact that he will watch isolated episodes of Naruto because there is particularly good and creative animation in them. One look at his site and it’s clear that he is in no way a “Naruto Fan,” but that divide between people who love the series and those who consider it the worst showcase of anime is a battle in which he is simply not participating. Just like Kaiba, just like Macross: Do You Remember Love?, Naruto can be another vessel for delivering great animation.
That’s not to say of course that things such as characters aren’t or shouldn’t be important. While I don’t have any specific numbers to give, I think the vast majority of the current anime fandom focuses heavily on characters. We like to relate to characters, we talk about shows and characters as if we were violating Wikipedia’s rules of not having profiles that are primarily in-universe synopses. Even with characters there are divides, such as between those who want to see a story unfold from the characters, and those who want to see a story focus on the characters above all else. Wanting to see characters to whom you can relate is wonderfully human, I think.
However, relating to humans can go well beyond the characters themselves, especially when you factor in the people behind those characters. Here, you have fans who will watch shows based on following their favorite voice actors, something I have actually done on occasion myself. At first, it can seem like the most shallow reasoning for a person to watch even shows they personally admit as being terrible simply because their favorite voice actors are in them, but that is mainly if your priorities are on anime as a storytelling device. When you take the idea that anime is also a showcase for the actors in the roles, it starts to become a more exciting prospect. When following voice actors, it becomes about seeing how those actors take on their roles, how they own their characters, how they approach the challenge of not having a great script.
You can also watch anime for the mechanical or character designs. They’re two very different, yet similar categories, which is why I’m grouping them together. Again, like following shows based on seiyuu, the idea of watching something based on how the robots or the girls look can seem incredibly shallow, but if that is another area in which you can follow anime based on seeing how well certain elements are executed. There are plenty of people out there who won’t watch a show because it “looks old,” and while I lament this case, I understand that many people want to experience something that feels like the environment and era in which they’re currently living, the desire for the new over the old. And generally, I’ve found that this is more an issue with getting into a show. I’ve known friends who couldn’t watch a show because they disagreed with the mecha designs, and it has everything to do with that initial barrier. Still, anime is what’s given us all these great mechanical designs, so it’s kind of no wonder that there are people who will focus on such things.
And then for others still, characters and animation and actors and such hardly factor in at all, and the real meat of what they’re looking for is in the overarching themes of a given anime. Characters aren’t human so much as they are vehicles through which to express different concepts. Director Oshii Mamoru of Ghost in the Shell fame has increasingly focused on this idea over the years, and as such his works appeal to those who seek not a world which you can step into in order to experience it firsthand, but ideas you extract from a world and bring into your own reality.
It’s obvious to me, looking at all of these examples, how some heated arguments can start. People approach works from so many different angles that people can be arguing from entirely separate universes, and frustration sets in when the other does not “understand.” On a much broader level though, interest in anime can simply be derived from wanting to laugh, wanting to cry, wanting to smile, wanting to be aroused, and all of the previously mentioned focuses, from technical direction to themes, are in a sense all there to deliver to us the emotions we want.
As for me, I’m actually not entirely sure what my approach is. Perhaps this whole blog has been me trying to find it.
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