Japan vs The West: two different types of animation philosophy
Japan begun to create their own anime TV series in 1960′s, and most of them were targeted at children. The first important one and also the first anime hit In Japan was Astro Boy, creation of the legendary Osamu Tezuka. He was a huge admirer of Disney and Western culture, together with many of the Japan’s animators from that period. But Japanese animation went in a completely different direction, even if we refer only to its multiple age target.
In Japan, animation is seriously taken as a cultural form of art which has serious psychological and symbolic implications (although not all the Japanese viewers watch an anime for its deep symbolic meanings – think at hentai, which is a no-brainer in its majority). Western animation considers itself only in terms of art and social target, thus more oriented in to-like and to be easily digested by a large audience (the conclusion would be a box office hit but a shallow production). There is something in anime that the western animation cannot match, and we are not talking about the obvious superior quality. It is the culture of animation storytelling that the West doesn’t have.
Once that the tabu factors are gone, the creators can unleash their imagination, thus we have more diversity, more themes and more implications. So there will be more chances that from a hundred anime produced, one is going to be a memorable one. Until the West wont realize the potential of animation for telling a mature story, their animated productions wont be able to compete with the Japanese animation. The maturity and the type of thinking that will produce memorable animation productions is not there yet. Plus, a great animation production with intellectual value and symbolism does not exclude the idea of major earnings at the box office, as Ghibli’s films prove that. You don’t have to go the the extremes of symbolism and implications for that.
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One memorable example of animation that had anime as inspiration and went even further by having Japanese directors is Animatrix. The american producers were anime fans so they went great lengths to insure the quality and uniqueness of Animatrix (formed by nine short films, each with a a specific style of animation) by hiring Japanese directors for some of the nine short films. Also, they realized that they had to give them freedom of execution so that they would have in the end original stories and unique animation styles. This happened. A Detective Story, Beyond, Program and The Second Renaissance were the stories from Animatrix that were directed by Japanese. Animatrix is the perfect example of Japanese and Western blending into creating a great animated film. I hope it wont be the last.
PS: If you cant tell who the West is, read the article again.
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