The allure of Japanese culture: hyperreal anime and fiction
Japanese anime is beloved by westerners. Its fictional two dimensional layout in various genres captivates the young crowd. Cartoons with violence and gore. Adult generated content that focuses on storylines of all walks. A graphic novella sprouting countless manifestations. Its enjoyment is the fictional layer of fantastical aspiration to the real. The level of impossibility but yet plausibility compels the correspondence between fan and fiction.
Anime is the outgrowth of manga. Manga is the graphic novel. The cinematic adaptation is the animated creation. It is the graphic novel coming to life. For the favorite characters to be on the big screen. To have a soul or their own. No longer are they mere drawings. They are not stick figures with a thought bubble but have a human figure lips moving. Heroes are translated straight from the page. Beloved heroes are pictorials with moving parts. No longer a body without organs. A personality takes centerstage. Connecting is deeper with a mobile presentation. A bring opposite the viewer worthy of respect.
Novel adaptations shock the audience. Die hard fans aggravated with the piercing result of the cinematic decision. How the director casted the heroes to deteriorate any faith. What was he thinking. What shame he has brought to the franchise. The disconnect between the fans and the director will forever be present. The director takes the project to his agenda while the audience is left hoping for an adequate representation. It is always a subjective aspiration from the readership. Each reader covets a different persona but there is a collective acceptance of the plausible spectrum.
A director who exceeds the quote on quote acceptance spectrum whether through a wrongful casting or deviating from honest material creates friction between fans and the director. The readership has reverted to defensive idolization or the book. Undermining the director’s innovative mood. Readers desire a realistic portrayal. They do not want a new story just a visualized one. Diverting from the book narration is a slap in the face. While it need not be perfect and the readership though critical to an extreme can sympathize with the director’s attempt but once they create their own narrative the readership has lost faith and believes the director has betrayed the original for his own prestige.
Concerning anime it is quite different. There is no imagination. The visual is illustrated on the page. The director has little leeway. Any distortion of the graphic novel is a corruption of the material. There is no creative differences but an entirely different hero. The illustration ought not to be distorted. The anime lover solely wants his heroes to come to life. For them to supersede the page. Unlike novel adaptions with uncertainty in between, graphic novels deal differently. There is not only an aspiration for the novel. There is is no real consensus but a collective deduction of its plausibility.
The illustration of the graphic is the translated picturesque to the video. Love for fictional heroes with personality solidifies the relation between them while the cinematic adaptation obscures the character. The anime fan enjoys his heroes with mobility. With more passion and emotional development. The depth of the character is linearly evaluated. It only emboldens the character. There is little disconnect nor distortion of the character. The imagined character is not deterred by a false objectification. Instead it is a familiar character magnified. A character with more spunk and more connectivity.
Translating the fictional drawing to fictional animation is to apply a video style to the created character. Yet the draw of this is the fictional universe. It is the absurd illusion animated. It is the comic book strain on the big screen. Its interest is its unrealistic and idealist model. It isn’t about relatability. It is similar to the television shows with real people that confuse children from the cartoon they are used to. It’s off putting. The realism inhibits a genuine quality that is intentionally flawed. Why is fiction real personified? Why is cartoon replaced with relatable presentation? The realistic coordination causes a stir in the adolescent mind. It creates a formidable drama between the fake and false.
Anime remains fake. It is a dubious articulation. Yet it is the fiction that maintains its link amongst the viewership. The audience acknowledges the fantastic elements which only cause the viewer to aspire for the fictional impossibility. It is not something to mimic but to revel. Dressing up for conventions is to animate fiction into the sublime. It isn’t a hope for the real deal insofar as the realistic falsity. It is purely the dream that causes such imagined marination. Connect to a fictional character by the means of never being that character. By being out of reach the viewer idolizes. By dreaming the viewer illuminates. An engrossing narrative with wild aspirations that will never be achieved by the viewer.
Fans are obsessed with the projection of the real. The symbolic remains the drift between animation and real life. A Space Jam type on screen. It is the reflection of the cartoon meeting real life, yet both are fiction. On a deeper level MJ is real in the film and afterwards. A documentary with cartoon characters. Blending animation with fiction. Yet the question for the anime fan is whether he wishes do plot Space Jam or be animated. Does he wish to live in his flesh or become a sketch. If the latter is true, it only solidifies the distance between the fan and the characters. He can idolize them from afar because he can never be animated something his mind conjures. His dreams formulate his longing for animation. An impossibility realistically but not in his creative imagination.
Anime is the aspired will of impossible transformation. There is only so much that can be mimicked. The characters can only come to life in identification. They are illustrations. They are posters by one’s bedside. If that celebrity would notice. The adventure and growth before the viewers’ very eyes. Even the sexualized female characters epitomize this negative expectation. How lucky the character is to have a harem of females fawning over him. He is a loser who is incidentally rewarded. The desire for that which seems implausible to the viewer. Can the biggest loser come out on top through hard work and dedication. Can he exceed the bounds of viewer aspiration.
Anime exists as a production of preliminary wonder. How can the implausible be so simple. Through a foreign setting and courteous plot line. This fiction is absolute fiction. It is illustrated and cartoonish. Yet the cartoon addresses core hopes of the viewer. The values exude from the drama. The aspiration is pointed upon. Dressing up as one’s favorite character has more to do with what they embody than what they look like. Beloved characters are those who provide substance. They are inspirational and relatable beneath the surface. Push past the animation for the valuational pull. The adornment veiled from sight hinted in dialogue and action.
Fans know it isn’t real. Yet the credible values feel real. It is enticing and compelling. It’s a cartoon, the blood is obviously fake and the language foreign but the adventure is endearing. The simplicity is not the appearance but its tenants. Its value that is underscored by acknowledging its depth from afar. There is no mistake its fiction permitting the deeper message to be pronounced. It is hard to miss with so much irony incorporated. So much zeal influenced. The fan is intoxicated with the fond inspiration. Instead of looking to influencers for hope, he finds it in his beloved characters. Fiction is a favorite friend for guidance.
Anime is projection of unattainable. Yet it is through that such impossibility that inspires the layer beneath. To enjoy the character and the adventure. To root and cry for fiction. An attachment of pure symbolic imagination.
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