The Influence of Modern Animation

This next essay, in my opinion, is one of my worst essays. I wrote this essay as part of my senior portfolio for my High School. Senior year was my slack year...for the entire year. No one in my HS actually cared what the seniors did. We pretty much had free roam of everything. The whole situation was actually pretty funny. It was pretty much a big kids playground. lol
Anyway, here is my essay on animation.

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The Influence of Modern Animation

written by: Darkd

Over the years, cartoons have become extremely popular in the eyes of the world. When you analyze a cartoon, you notice its use of the art form Animation. Animation is defined as the rapid display of 2-D or 3-D artwork or model positions in order to create an illusion of movement. Animation is an art form that has not been popular for a long period of time. Since Animations mainstream inception in the 1930's it has grown substantially. When one thinks of Animation, two different styles come into mind. These styles are American animation and Japanese Anime. Even though both forms of animation are similar in practice, they both are almost completely different in content. These drawings have been influencing our societies for over six decades, and of course kept us entertained. By stressing the retainment of cultural values, increasing the amount of deep thought, and promoting a more free society, Japanese Anime has done a more successful job at impacting society in a positive way.

Retaining past cultural values and history should be important to all societies. Only from learning from our past can we properly correct and avoid our future mistakes. Japanese Anime keeps this old saying true by its reoccurring religious and philosophical themes. A perfect example of this is shown with the great Japanese folk story of Momotaro The Peach Boy. In the story, an old childless couple find and raise a boy they found inside a giant peach. After the boy leaves home, he returns to save them many times from demons, poverty, and other devastating things. The story teaches and reinforces Confucius's ideology of family veneration. (Drazen, 44) This basic folk tale has been used as a basis for over 12 different animes. All of animes created from the story are original and are only connected through the basic story. Another prime example of this retention is history related, the noble samurai. The samurai represent a huge era of Japan's history. In dedication to this history, many different shows have been created around the samurai and around historical events that actually took place. One anime that represents the samurai is Rurouni Kenshin.

Rurouni Kenshin is one of the more popular anime, and was even aired in America. Rurouni Kenshin was placed back during the Bakumatsu war, where bloodshed was rampant. The main character, Kenshin, fights for both the Japanese military and himself. (Drazen, 62) The Japanese have successful kept their traditions and values alive through anime.

One episode after another, the plot in anime thickens and thickens. Slowly character profiles start to become more developed and the plot fleshes out as a whole. Unlike American animation, anime has almost a soap opera effect to it. The plot is slowly developed over the series and it leaves the viewer on their toes. American animation tends not to be linear, things that occur in shows usually do not affect the characters in the next show. This is one of anime's unique characteristics. This requires the viewer to be more alert and tentative to the plot. (Poitras, 35) This also results in more complex characters, and more subtle themes. All of which increase the amount of thinking that the viewers have to perform. This is why the main target audience of most anime are people with relatively high IQ's. (Drazen, 13)

Throughout anime there are many themes that may be considered hot topics for western animation. These topics would never make it past the alarms of the FCC. This control and restriction holds American animation back. Anime is not restricted as harshly, and anime producers are free to show moderately what they want. Anime promotes freedom almost beyond anything (Lunning, 62). For example, there are many anime that are either centered or based around homosexuality. At times these animes can get explicit, but the meaning behind them stands strong (Drazen, 69). In addition to homosexuality, anime tends to be more sexually free as well. Nudity and adult themes are casual in Japan and welcomed (Poitras, 65). Even in children’s anime, nudity is still accepted and teaches children that the human body is not something to be covered up. Anime teaches people to be more free and expressive.

Over time the animation of the east and west have grown into what they are today. While both of them inspire morals and virtues into their audiences, I believe that the ones portrayed by the Japanese anime are more beneficial to society as a whole.

Work Cited

Drazen, Patrick. Anime Explosion! the What? Why? & Wow! of

Japanese Animation. Berkeley: Stone Bridge Press, 2002.

Lunning, Frenchy. Emerging Worlds of Anime and Manga.

Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2006.

Ravitch, Diane and Joseph Viteritti. Kid Stuff. Baltimore: Johns

Hopkins University Press, 2003.

Klein, Norman. Seven Minutes. London: Verso, 1993.

Gillespie, Jeff. Anime News Network. March 12, 2009

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I claim all rights to this work. No one may plagiarize my work, and claim it as their own. You may use parts of the essay, but you must reword or cite my work. I will take screeny's of the post along with the date and time. Thank you for not cheating, because only losers cheat.