Anime is an alternative form of media that many turn to when they want to fulfill or visualize their fantasy. It is increasingly popular due to the fact that it depicts scenes or technologies that cannot be seen or experienced in real life.
I watched an anime called Gundam 00 a few months back and man, i was equally enticed like any other Gundam series like Gundam Seed and Gundam Seed Destiny. The series is set in a futuristic Earth and centered around Celestial Being, a private paramilitary force and their efforts to rid the world of war and conflict with a series of unique and highly effective mobile suits known as "Gundams". It is these "Gundams", which is the main focus of this anime, that attracted many teenagers to follow this series. The anime is action-packed, with a variety of emotional scenes inserted in between to develop the plot based on friendship, love and hatred.
In animes like this, our perception are constantly being changed. For example, a shabbily dressed person might be a terrorist or people have different capabilities regardless of age. We can also see that using non-verbal cues, emotions are being shown and it is complemented with different genres of music. This creates a holistic experience of how the character is feeling.
Interpersonal relationships are also shown in animes. How lovers come together, how friendships are being fostered and how these relationships are being maintained. Usually, all these animes have happy endings. This makes the audience feel satisfied and in turn appreciate the anime. But why is it necessary? That's because some animes have hidden messages for the audience to interpret and accept it. For example, i believe that in Gundam series, it shows the various tragedies that derived from war. In other words, war causes suffering and we should not promote it.
So, the next time you watch an anime, watch out for the cues that the characters show and attempt to retrieve the hidden meaning behind it. :)
9 comments:
Humans have fantasies and anime is a great way for people to live it out. But are their themes suitable for children and will they influence them in any negative ways?
There are two sides to use anime to illustrate fantasies for children. The positive side is that it allows children to explore their creativity whereas the negative side is that children might assume that all these fantasies can be real. So, children needs guidance while watching animes, though the target audience of animes are usually for teenagers and above.
I believe that many animes are being broadcast on television channels such as kids central and channel U. Hence, children would definitely be exposed to it even if it is targeted to teens and adults. But I guess those that are more violent ones are usually shown on tv quite late at night.
Another thing is that, I believe that most of the shows we watch have a message to bring across to the audience. The only shows which I could not think of having any message are movies like Meet the Spartans, Scary movie etc. =D I guess these movies are plainly targeted to people who like these kinds of humor =p
as with all movies with real actors in them, anime uses communication theories to convey their messages, be they non verbal cues and interpersonal relationships. what is interesting, is how expressions can be amplified, sometimes to the point of exaggeration through the drawings.
as for the messages that are being conveyed, most anime has a certain agenda to them, apart from the entertainment of course. sometimes they are very subtle and thus we have to be very discerned viewers in order to see them.
watching anime is one of my favourite pasttimes, but note that i am not an "otaku"...
anime has a drawback actually, it tend to trap the audience in an unrealistic world full of irrational fantasies. for example, certain animes have been banned in Japan for its violent content because in the case of a girl killing her own father in that country. people just have to know its limits and treat it as a mere form of entertainment.
Perhaps it is easier to derive meaning from animes compared to their real life counterparts because cartoons are an exaggeration of reality and would hence portray emotions in a more obvious manner. Especially in animes, music and delayed pauses in between animations as well as extreme facial expressions being shown (e.g. chibi style - very easy to detect what emotion they're portraying) all help to convey the immediate message in a simple manner. As for deeper meanings, of course you'll have to look more closely to get the 'good stuff' out.
i just finished watching the entire Dragonball series. all 300+ episodes of it.
animes, like most other shows on TV, revolve around the interaction of the characters. a good storyline is one where the meaning is not dictated to the audience, where the audience is given the free will to decipher any hidden meaning behind the actions.
Anime came from Japan and has grown to form a large part of their culture.
We see that Anime can have many different drawing styles and all these moulds our perspective of the anime before we understand the storyline.
As for the interpersonal relationship, because it is an Anime, the possibilties are endless. Like we can observe a vampire befriending a half-demon in this make belief world. And to what extent do they retain human-like traits and emotions/ facial expressions.
All these are interesting to observe and look out for, as you have pointed out.
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