Anime yet again

[altivo]

I said "no more" a while ago, but there were still some in the Netflix queue. Princess Mononoke arrived this week because I didn't stop it in time. So we watched it.

I found it interminably long, and much too bloody. There was some nice artwork of course, as there often is, but the story line was muddy and confusing, and the conclusion non-conclusive. I'm not objecting to sad endings or tragedies, mind. Those aren't my favorite thing, but they are legitimate and can be well done. This, however, was just blah. Once more I'm left wondering why so many people think Miyazaki is great. I find him mediocre at best.

So, for the several people who said "Try Princess Mononoke, you'll like that," I tried it, and I didn't think much of it. The "red elk" (whatever species it really was) was nicely presented, and I rather liked the wolves. The humans were flat and inflexible, and seemed unable to learn much. The wild boars were similar. The plot was just a jumble.

In other news, Virgin Mobile finally credited my account the $20 I was promised on activation. I had to complain three times. First they said it was still coming, second time they said they would credit it now (two days ago) and today they claimed it was applied to the account on Thursday. It wasn't. It shows up on my online balance as having been deposited to the account at the same time they were talking to me. I know it wasn't in there before that because I've been checking the balance daily watching for it. I don't understand why people have to lie like that. Anyway, it's in there now.

The sun finally showed its face today, most of the day. The wind has been just howling, though, and what leaves were left are all going to be down very soon.

Comments

[kint.livejournal.com]

Y'know, I wonder if there's just something about the Japanese mindset/culture/whatever. There are many animes (series or full length) with what seems, to an American audience at least, a rather inconclusive ending. I wonder if there's something there that makes sense to them that we miss, or maybe they just like it that way. Who knows...

[dongstyle-ltd.livejournal.com]

I think you're onto something. There can be much more gained from a story than simply what has been said. Often these stories are more about the portrayal of aspects of our sense of being. Being about life in some form or another, they don't need to have some evil guy, some great overt struggle and some triumph.

Personally I'm sick of stories with conclusive endings. Despite appearances, more moralising is not something the world needs right now.

[flaredragon.livejournal.com]

Without a doubt. And this applies to a lot of music for said anime as well. One thing I am happy to have learned from listening to say, the dot hack//sign OST is how to leave an ending unresolved but still have it be an ending.

Sometimes randomness is not appreciated in a culture where everything is cut and dry and scheduled. Try watching 2 episodes of power rangers and you'll know what I mean. It didn't always used to be this way... but give me japanese culture over american culture any day of the week, for sure. Do we even have culture in america? I'm beginning to wonder.

[altivo.livejournal.com]

America has more than one culture. Part of the major political and social stress in the country today is literally a state of warfare over which cultural elements will dominate. The "great melting pot" isn't doing such a good job of melting stuff together any more.

Something that nags me a big about the way in which many American youth have embraced these Japanese elements, though, is that they aren't really grasping the whole. Instead, they are worshipping a false idol created of American perceptions of Japanese symbol, with a heavy dash of television and videogames. The result seems to me to emphasize the worst of both halves.

According to my brother, who spent several years in Japan and studying Japanese history and culture, the same is happening there, but in reverse. Young Japanese are adopting American cultural imagery without understanding the underlying meanings, and running off in a Japanese direction with it.

[flaredragon.livejournal.com]

False Idol? Worst of both halves?

I'm not sure if I'm missing something or if thats a slap to the face directed at our generation.

Nevermind...

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Certainly not a slap in the face. But a reminder, nonetheless, that things are often taken in a manner that is much too superficial.

Japanese culture is very ancient and deep. It is also very different from the Western European roots of our American society.

To quote one of my brother's favorite examples, from the other side: He observed a window display in a clothing store in Japan. This store primarily marketed to younger people, and of course stocked things like Levi's jeans. It was November, and a Christmas theme was used in the display. There is nothing Japanese about Christmas of course, but if you want to look American and stress American cultural icons, then it is natural to try to observe it. They had a banner that read, in "English", "MERRY CLISTMAS" and there was a decorated pine tree, though the decorations were decidedly Japanese, like origami birds. That's OK. But in the background of the scene they displayed a large crucifix, one of the gory ones with blood dripping etc. I describe this to point out how easy it is to miss the point of something that is foreign to your own cultural background.

How much comprehension of the Shinto and Buddhist roots of Japanese culture is included in the fanaticism of American youth for things Japanese? Without that understanding, how badly are the symbols misunderstood? I don't pretend to know the full answer to that, but what I can see does disturb me. That was my point.

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Certainly culture is a major part of the difference. Some of them are filled with traditional imagery, legends, mythology, and symbol that a person raised in Japanese culture would recognize immediately and comprehend.

Some of what I see would appear to be Buddhist fatalism, too. The underlying concept is that everything is bound to go bad. Life is suffering and the only real cure for that is to end the cycle of reincarnation. This hasn't been explicit in anything I've seen, but it fits with the "bad goes to worse" style of the plot lines and endings. In the end, though, when Ashitaka announces that he is going to re-build Irontown, all I could do was groan. To me, it seems he has learned nothing.

[daikitsune.livejournal.com]

On Ashitaka rebuilding irontown...Would the people displaced from there be capable of living in that wilderness? Ashitaka's decision, while it isn't one I would have made, is one based on an acceptance that humans have a need to change their environments in order to live by their own natures. Irontown was a sanctuary for people who were shunned by the rest of society...Its location and activity led it into conflict with the previous inhabitants due to superstition, greed, and a lack of understanding. Ashitaka is most likely hoping to find a balance for Irontown, one where it can be a sanctuary without causing further conflict.

One of the biggest components of the ending of many of the Japanese stories I've seen is the sense of duty to one's group. Often times, fantasy endings that would end up with people from other worlds living happily ever after in Western stories ends up with each person remembering their love but returning to their respective groups because people are counting on them to return, or would miss them. They bring strength from the experience, but have a sense of duty to their friends or families, and will thus return from magical worlds freely, without the true love of their lifetimes, etc, etc...

One thing to remember about Buddhist fatalism, as well, is the way that one manages to escape that cycle of suffering. While there are a few sects that don't really require followers to do anything, most require one to at least reject suffering, live a life without harming others, and seek enlightened peace. There is an acceptance that bad things can and will happen in life, whether at the hands of other people, due to disasters, or simply out of bad luck.

I have to agree with you on some of your points though. I just get the feeling you probably won't be able to see the positive messages that are in anime as positive based on your cultural point of view. That's not a bad thing, it simply means that anime and manga and the like just won't be something you will ever enjoy as storytelling. And you also don't seem like the "look at the pretty drawings" type, so that base is covered as well. Personally, some anime does a very good job of making me think, some just entertains me with its sense of humor...I like anime. I just guess it all comes down to point of view.

[altivo.livejournal.com]

If I were to describe my own spiritualism in one word, "Buddhist" would be the closest I could get. The group loyalties you mention are, I would say, more Shinto than Buddhist. The Buddhist's loyalties are to the whole cycle of creation, not just to the group in which he/she was born.

I'd prefer that Ashitaka said "We will build a new town" rather than rebuilding the one that was a source of so much trouble. That is a major point for me. The curse around which the whole story was built was caused by the activities of Irontown. (Of course, I suppose what he said in Japanese may not be what they put in his mouth in English.) I want to see some kind of hope for improvement, not just a promise to repeat the whole thing again and again. And, after all, Ashitaka's own group is not the people of Irontown, but the land from which he came, where he is the last prince and they have given him up for dead. What of that?

[drelonek.livejournal.com]

You should watch the Arashi No Yoru Ni movie I posted about awhile back. It's a kid movie and anime, but it's really cute and stuff.

[cabcat.livejournal.com]

Not only do you really have to have a bit of understanding of how Japanese think and their culture it also loses something in translation too.
However quite often changes are made if the show is dubbed to make it "understandable" to other audiences, Hollywood also has the nasty habit of remaking things because they believe the American audience "won't get it" and consequently ruin whatever charm the motion picture may have had.

They made an American version of "the castle" which was based on very Australian culture and as a result lost whatever message or charm it had because it was uniquely Australian. Also the American version of the Japanese movie "let's dance" (or something like that) ruined the entire idea of the rundown Japanese salary man doing something that went against the entire idea of being a salary man. Wasn't there also an American version of the English "Steptoe and son" called "Sanford and son" I never did see that one so I can't comment.

Visiting Japanese relatives after living a long time in Australia is an interesting situation I've found myself in a few times.