The weird, wonderful, and expansive world of anime, and why I love it

Hi Readers,

As those of you who have followed the blog for a while now, have probably picked up on, I like to use it to talk about things that are important to me, and get others to start conversations about issues they don’t usually think about. To start the conversation today, I’d like to ask you all a couple of questions; What’s an art form that has a geeky reputation, is often oversimplified by the general public, and has a seemingly limitless number of sub genres? If you guessed anime, you would be right! Sorry for those who guessed other fun, and geeky pastimes, although I’m sure they are entertaining as well! If you’re ready to take a wild ride with me, I’d like to invite you to get a glimpse into my interactions with the genre, and maybe prove to you that it is way more than just funny looking cartoons from Japan.

So, strap into my proverbial time machine, set the dial to the late 1990s and early 2000’s, and will be on the way to the start of my expansive, wacky, and wonderful journey into this massive world. At that time, I was introduced to the genre, oddly enough, as a form of sibling bonding. My eldest sister, who for the purposes of this blog, is going to be nicknamed, the_nurturing_lupine_technophile, had recently come back from a trip to Florida, to visit her father. With her, she had brought home VHS tapes in Japanese, the series in question, was about a 10-year-old boy who collected mythical beasts, and traveled around a slightly fantastical world, modeled after Japan. The series was called Pokémon, which I would later find out translated into English, met pocket monsters. I was so jealous at the time, because there was no way I could read the subtitles fast enough to keep up. A few months later, while she was babysitting me, she turned on a local TV network, which up until this point, had specialized in live-action shows, like Saved by the Bell, which as a very young child, I honestly didn’t get to figs about.

Nevertheless, the_nurturing_lupine_technophile gave me a very seldomly used request. She told me to wait, but wouldn’t tell me what I was waiting for. Sulkily, I sat in front of our TV, restlessly waiting for the saved by the bell trailer to end, so I could see what all the hype was about. Suddenly, the saturated images, of various pocket monsters, I recognized from the tapes, filled my screen, the familiar tune of the theme song, now in English. I was immediately captivated. Now, I had access to the same, “big kid program,” which my eldest sister loved so much. I watched open mouthed, as Ash Ketchum, of Pallet Town, who was only a few years older than me, convinced his overprotective mother to let him venture out on his own, make mistakes, and fight epic battles, all while making friends, and caring for creatures along the way. Looking back, I liked the battles well enough, but what enthralled me about Pokémon, was the fact that a young adventurer could go off on their own, not die, and most of all, decide what kind of person they were going to be.

Once I had finished watching Pokémon, my sister introduced me to another classic, Dragon Ball Z. In this series, I would be introduced to another trope of the anime genre, honorable battle, alongside justifiable violence, to save the world. As a child who struggled with emotional regulation, was constantly told about the importance of training one’s body to do things that were a physical challenge, and someone who had a simplistic vision of what right and wrong was in the world, you can see why this show held me glued to the edge of my seat, on weekday afternoons, after a hard day of school.

In particularly, I had a terminal case of hero worship for the character Gohan. Much like in Pokémon, he was a young character, who did great things. Unlike Pokémon, however, he had multiple similarities to me. For one thing, his mother valued education, and he took his duties at school seriously. For another, he often got emotionally dis-regulated, but was able to use that anger in a productive way, with training, and guidance from the adults around him. Finally, like me, he was always having to adhere to strict physical regimes, to keep his body at an optimal level. As a kid who went through a lot of physical therapy, to push my body as far as it could go, this resonated deeply with me. Moreover, through Gohan, I was able to see that training and regimes have their own rewards. I’m not implying that normal humans can go  super saiyan, or anything like that… Although that doesn’t mean I didn’t try, several times, in my own training sessions. Seriously though, all joking aside, Gohan showed me that you can have control over your body, and emotions, and use them to your advantage.

Three other anime classics that entranced me and taught me more about the genre, and inadvertently real life, were: Rurouni Kenshin,  YuYu Hakusho, and Sailor Moon. Now at this point you may be asking, “but sorloquator, how did three shows set in fantastical worlds, with teenage characters, actually teach you about real life, and if anything, didn’t they just reinforce the fact that most anime exist on tropes?” Well, my friends, let me explain. While it is true, that at first glance, all of these shows could be described as simply a fantastical kind of escapism, there were very specific things that drew me to them, and in turn reinforced my love of the genre.

YuYu Hakusho, and  Rurouni Kenshin, without getting into spoilers, are largely based around the idea of redemption. Both main characters struggle with reconciling their past selves with their current values. In addition, both series dealt with the idea that behind every great warrior, there is a team of people which work together to get the job done. Both of these ideals, deeply resonated with me as a preteen, and still do today. I personally believe that, just like the characters in these two series, everybody has, or should have, a chance to decide what they want to do with their life. Furthermore, from my perspective, I think it’s possible, for people to make devastating mistakes in the past, but want to atone for them in the future; additionally, I think it’s important, that whenever possible, in real life, we provide space for people to atone, and make a better life for themselves, in whatever way feels right for them. Lastly, these two series, brought home to me as a youngster, that people can have the possibility of not being all good, or all bad. Unlike Dragon Ball Z, the main characters in these two series, actively struggled with their demons, and making complex choices about how they wanted to move through the world. Thus, YuYu Hakusho and  Rurouni Kenshin, taught me, that even in something as deceptively simple as an action based anime, people and characters can be multidimensional, and could have different facets of their personalities be prominent at different phases in their lives.

Now, I know what you’re thinking, “Okay, but I thought you mentioned Sailor Moon as one of the series at this point in your life, which taught you about real life, and made you appreciate the anime genre more. Surely, watching a series about a middle school/high school girl, who could be a ditz, truly didn’t help you develop as a human being, much less, add more sophistication to the genre in your eyes?” Well, that’s where y’all would be mistaken. Let me explain. For me, even though Sailor Moon’s antics certainly got her into a world of trouble, I ultimately admired the way she and her friends stuck together, and how even though she didn’t want the responsibility that was thrust upon her at times, she ultimately cared about the people around her, and tried her best to make the world a better place. Sailor Moon taught me that you could be both feminine and tough at the same time. In addition, the series showcased feminine friendships, which at the time, I didn’t have for myself. So, in a way, Sailor Moon showed me an idealized version of what I wanted for myself, and fundamentally that those kinds of friendships were possible to have.

Now that we’ve gone through my preteen years, let’s fast-forward our time machine to my grad school days. “Why the quantum leap, you may ask, didn’t my respect for anime last through middle school and high school?” The short answer to this is that, during that time, I wanted to be perceived as less childish, and I realized that there was a huge stigma against anime in that regard. Moreover, the_nurturing_lupine_protector had moved out of my family’s home, so, in effect, I had lost my main anime watching partner. It wasn’t that other members of my family wouldn’t have watched with me, but I knew they didn’t enjoy the genre as much as I’d come to in previous years. To top it off, my access to anime was severely limited, because my mom chose to restrict our access to cable networks during those years, partly for financial reasons, and partly to get us away from screens. I don’t blame her, I probably would’ve done the same thing, but all these factors combined, meant that anime was out of my life for quite a few years.

Once I got into grad school, however, this beautiful world would come back into my life, almost seamlessly. During this time, I would learn that anime wasn’t solely about kids with magic powers, or mystical worlds, but also could deal with more complex subjects, like queer love, intricate family dynamics, and revenge. I would also come to learn more about the history of the genre, and the things that make it technically complex, through my own research, but more on that later. For now, you’re probably wondering what led me back into the genre in the first place. Well, it was a combination of things, but at bottom it comes down to the relationships I had at the time. In particularly, I’d gotten into a romantic relationship with a young man that I will call path_of_the_penguins. I Loved a lot of things about that relationship, but one of the best things, was his ability to get me to daydream, and embrace a curiosity that I hadn’t had for a long time.

The first time he invited me to his room, I was immediately bombarded with vivid anime posters of several series, but the one that caught my eye was a poster for Black Butler. It featured an aristocratic looking boy, in short trousers, with a glowing star over one eye. This was the aesthetic that I wish I could’ve had as a youngster myself, and since I was coming to terms with my trans identity, it was made all the more poignant for me – that a boy didn’t necessarily have to be tough looking, to be masculine. Seeing how mesmerized I was, path_of_the_penguins asked if I wanted to watch the series. Gleefully, I agreed and was transported, to a dark steam punk world, where a clever boy, had made a deal with a demon, to get justice for his deceased parents.

As I grew closer with path_of_the_penguins, he not only introduced me to this largely fantasy based anime series, but gave me a wide sample of slice of life anime to watch. Among the most influential of these, for me, were your lie in April, a series that combined a very saturated art style, with wonderful music, that tells the story of someone rediscovering their passion, despite years of pressure to be a child prodigy, and the film Doukyusei, a wholesome queer love story, about two highschoolers, falling shyly in love for the first time. This series was probably made even more endearing to me, as a result of path_of_the_penguins using it as a prelude to ask me out.

That aside, however, both of these anime’s really capitalized on the beauty of the artform itself, showing that its beauty can be used to articulate everyday situations in an extraordinary way. Fundamentally these two programs showed me the cathartic power of anime, that sometimes our everyday life experiences can be turned up to 11 emotionally, and that’s okay, that sometimes we even need that, to relive, or process the experiences that we are going through. Additionally, Doukyusei demonstrated that queerness can be captured within anime, in a wholesome and realistic way, a relatively new development within the genre, and one that I am still growing to appreciate.

In graduate school as well, I would come to learn about the more technical aspects of the genre, as well as controversies surrounding it. Instrumental in spurring my research into these areas, was yet another grad school friendship. In order to preserve my friend’s anonymity, I’ll call her, falling_cherry blossoms_in_winter. There are lots of things I could tell you about her, but in relation to anime as a genre, she taught me a variety of important things. The first of which, was that not all Japanese people, she was originally from Japan, and going to university in America, loved anime, and secondly, that anime itself, as an art form, was often heavily criticized for altering standard proportions used by those who specialized in traditional drawing. While I could understand her frustration with people who reduced the entirety of Japanese culture down to an animated artform, her disdain for anime, also motivated me to learn more about it.

For instance, why did anime use highly angular and rounded forms for its characters? Were the highly dramatic plot lines I had come to expect purely for entertainment purposes, or did they have deeper motivation? While I agreed that no one’s culture should be reduced down to a highly exported entertainment medium, I couldn’t help but wonder, what were the aspects of Japanese culture implemented within anime? Lastly, what about the argument that, the artform itself was oversimplified, and anybody could do it?

Luckily for me, I had a History of Japan course that year, gave me the opportunity to study the cultural implications of anime, for one of my final papers. I won’t bore you with a whole overview of that paper, since it was rather poorly edited, and really doesn’t fulfill the purposes of this post. However, while researching for it, I stumbled upon one of the anime history books available on the market. Aptly named, Anime: a History, I learned that this artform, did not emerge fully formed in the 1990s, but rather had a long and complex history, dating back to the early 1900s. It evolved out of a traditional form of entertainment, the Japanese lantern show, which featured melodramatic and comedic plot lines, that would later influence anime, and its sub genres.

Additionally, the shape language, those rounded and angular faces with exaggerated proportions, that I mentioned earlier, had their origins in an interesting process of cultural diffusion. Cultural diffusion, for those of you who don’t know, is the process by which, one culture brings aspects of a ritual, or practice, into another culture. For example, China bringing Buddhism to Japan. In the case of anime, I learned that around the 1920s when Disney was becoming popular in the West, Japanese creators wanted to capitalize on animated mediums. Therefore, they used the big eyes, large breasts on female characters, and exaggerated proportions, found in many Western cartoons, like Betty Boop, and early Mickey Mouse, and combined these with traditional Japanese tropes found in lantern shows, and kabuki theater, and thus, the fantastic world of anime was born.

With this new information, I now understood more about the genre. In grad school I had learned that features of anime I had come to expect, were actually rooted in a deep cultural history, influenced by Japanese traditional elements, Western aspects of the animation industry, and intricate storylines within Japanese culture.

 When I graduated from grad school, I had a pretty good idea that I wanted to pursue the consumption of anime as a hobby. Although I understood more about why anime was drawn the way it was, I still didn’t understand why many people claimed that the artform was oversimplified. To remedy this, I tried my hand at learning how to draw anime for myself. From my own experience, I was able to learn that while the basics may appear simple, drawing anime is actually a time-consuming endeavor.

Because you are actually messing with the proportions of the human body, you have to do so in a way that makes sense to your viewer, and ideally comes off as pleasing, or at least captivating. This can be a lot harder than it looks. On my personal drawing journey with anime, I also looked up professional anime artists who had taken the time to record a documentary about their day. I was amazed at how much time, and care, they put into their work, and just the general meticulousness of it all. Add to that fact that, unless you are working digitally, a lot of anime/manga is done with pen and ink, supervised by a team of hundreds of artists, and you’re looking at a highly labor-intensive process, that I feel deserves as many accolades as oil painting or sculpting, but I digress. I still have not grasped the mechanical basics of this artform, but am planning to return to it someday.

Now, our time machine has stopped at the present day, and I feel like I should give you a more nuanced look at anime as a genre. I know that most of the titles mentioned thus far, have a heavy emphasis on martial arts, fighting, or gifted children, which some of you may argue, are not everyday topics, or could be very limited in scope. So, I decided to give you some examples that will hopefully show you that there is an anime for everyone who wants to consume the genre. Let’s say you’re new to it, but you know you already love Dungeons & Dragons, as one of your pastimes. You might want to check out KonoSuba: God's Blessing on This Wonderful World!, A series which follows a young arch wizard as she tries to join a party to conquer monsters in a fantasy inspired world.

Were you one of those people who joined a club, in high school, in an effort to try to make friends, and also enjoyed making things with your hands, or maybe you’re just looking for an anime that is delightfully low stakes? Then the relatively new series do it yourself might be a place for you to start. As the title suggests, this series is largely about a DIY afterschool club. All the characters are unique in their own way, but what I love most about this series, personally, is that it focuses on how activities can bring friend groups together, and about how you don’t necessarily have to be good at a skill to enjoy learning it.

Perhaps you are just looking for a satire on how much energy we have to expend just to do ordinary things, or maybe you feel like you’ve been struggling with insomnia, and really want a person to relate to? Well, I’ve got the anime for you. Tanaka-kun is always listless. Follows a highschooler who is always tired, eventually he learns that life is worth living, even if one is sleepy, and that you can always get by with a little help from your friends.

Now, you may be thinking, “Okay thanks for the rundown of low stakes titles, but what if I’m a queer individual, looking to see my romance, or angst, played out in this genre. I’ve heard there’s a lot of problems within queer anime, especially the way it deals with things like consent, and uneven power dynamics. Surely, you don’t have any wholesome recommendations?” While it is true, that anime has struggled historically, to portray non-predatory relationships, between queer people, queer, and non–queer creators alike are stepping up, and creating anime, and manga, that feature queer stories, and characters, in wholesome ways. I’m personally excited to see how the queer cannon grows within the next few years, but for right now, here are my top recommendations, at the moment, if you are looking for queer culture in anime.

Sasaki and Miyano (this is a sugary sweet male male romance. In my opinion, it’s heartwarming and funny, and the pastel color palette is to die for. Additionally, this series does a good job in calling out problematic tropes, that have historically plagued male male anime stories, in a funny, and relatable way, taking time to talk about why they are problematic. The anime ends on a sweet note, but there is also a manga version of the series that takes the story further.)

Adachi and Shimamura (if you’re looking for something sapphic and sweet, this is possibly one of the best lesbian anime I’ve come across in quite a while. It’s slow burning and full of angst, but I think in general does a really good job of capturing how big crushes can feel at times. I’d also recommend this series for anyone who finds social interactions challenging, but really puts their all into their friendships. This series is available as an anime, manga, basically like a graphic novel, and a light novel version, which is more heavy on the words, and less on the artwork. The anime series ends right before a major plot twist, but will give you a good general feel for the characters. I personally recommend the light novel, because it includes all of the characters. The manga leaves out a very important side character, effectively leaving out a whole plot arc.)

Stranger by the Shore

(if you are looking for a slightly more serious male male love story, this one is probably for you. It does feature one sex scene, but it’s not especially graphic, and focuses more on the emotional impact it has on the two characters. It also showcases the two characters being really supportive of one another when dealing with familial strife, which is really refreshing to see. This movie also has a manga, but I haven’t read it yet, so I can’t really comment on the differences.)

I realize that both these recommendations, and the ones in the previous section, are a pretty short list, but I could probably dedicate a separate post to queer anime, or anime sub genres in general. Regardless of where you start your anime journey, I hope this post has given you some insight into the appeal of the artform. Hopefully, after reading this, you won’t just think of anime as pointlessly funny looking cartoons. Feel free to check out the additional resources listed here, to delve into anime further. Best of luck, as you travel into this wonderfully vivid, and endless world.

Sincerely yours,

Sorloquator

additional resources:

https://www.nanowerk.com/25-Best-Free-Anime-Streaming-Sites-to-Watch-Anime-Online.php (this website provides an overview of 25 Anime streaming sites and platforms, a lot of them are free. Importantly, as of the time of this posting, Funimation, one of the sites listed here will be shutting down as of April 24, 2024.)

https://www.hindustantimes.com/entertainment/anime/exploring-the-diverse-world-of-anime-a-guide-to-anime-genres-and-subgenres-101676360280529.html (this article provides a thorough, but precise overview of different types of anime including sub genres, which should allow you to get a pretty good idea of the types of anime you would like to view for yourself.)

https://www.animeoutline.com/ (useful free resource for those wanting to learn how to draw anime and manga.)

https://www.youtube.com/@mikeymegamega/featured (YouTube channel featuring tutorials on how to draw anime, and manga. also offers viewers additional resources through the creator’s paid Patreon.)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t3rKrTehORY&t=101s (video highlighting just how much work goes into creating anime and manga professionally.)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hN3fl5apDWI (overview of the history of queer anime, including why some of it can be problematic.)

https://www.crunchyroll.com/ (the anime streaming site I personally use. If you can spring for it, I recommend going for the premium version, as it has a wide variety of titles both subtitled and dubbed.)

https://www.amazon.com/Anime-History-Jonathan-Clements-dp-

1839025123/dp/1839025123/ref=dp_ob_title_bk (comprehensive, if slightly dry, book about the history of anime. Focuses on economic, cultural, and other impacts the artform has had throughout the world.)

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08BWY8VMH?binding=kindle_edition&ref=dbs_m_mng_rwt_sft_tkin_tpbk&qid=1707345359&sr=8-9 (link to the Kindle editions of Adachi and Shimamura light novel versions)

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08G4CNS7X?binding=kindle_edition&ref_=dbs_s_ks_series_rwt_tkin&qid=1707345496&sr=1-1 (link to Sasaki and Miyano manga Kindle editions.)

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08RWJTRP2?binding=paperback&qid=1707345842&sr=1-2-spons&ref=dbs_dp_rwt_sb_pc_tpbk (link to Christopher Hart art books, focusing exclusively on anime, and manga. I recommend getting the whole series, that way you have detailed explanations of techniques, and character archetypes. Additionally, these books are marketed towards young teenagers, so they don’t have any explicit sexual imagery to worry about.)