The Great Anime Series Invasion
If you’ve never watched an anime series, you might be confused by the growing popularity of such shows. Don’t let the fact that they are animated cartoons fool you. These shows aren’t just for kids; some of the best-known and best loved anime series are for a strictly mature audience. I’m not talking about tentacled monsters and their improbable exploits of scantily clad girls, however. In the past twenty years, Japan has produced many anime series which can and do rival live-action dramas, police procedural, thrillers, and sci-fi epics available on Western television.
One of the most popular forms of entertainment in its native Japan, anime covers the entire storytelling spectrum, from sweet and innocent children’s programming to gory, violent and depraved series that would make even Dexter Morgan blush. Most anime series fall in between these two extremes however, and almost every genre that is depicted in live action television shows is represented in the plethora of anime series as well. In fact, the flexibility of animation allows show creators to dream up environments and worlds that would be nearly impossible to build in the real world, and the expressive, adaptive, and endlessly imaginative media of animation has given rise to several shows that are, quite simply put, works of art.
Watching an Anime Series
For people who haven’t seen Anime before it might be a little strange at first. It’s not exactly the same as watching your Average American sitcom TV show because the culture difference… well they’re different. It’s kind of hard to explain if you watch a few Animes you’ll see a lot of differences between you average sitcom and an Anime series. It’s not that one is necessairly better than the other it’s more that by using cartoon animation the creators can be a little bit more creative and flexible.
So if you’re watching Anime for the first time, or trying to introduce it to someone then the best Anime series is one which isn’t as ‘out there’. Something like Trigun is generally a good start since it’s easy to follow but has a strong story line and quality animation. It also starts of a lot closer to your average sitcom and grows further into Sci-Fi as the Anime series progresses.
For newcomers to anime and well-versed aficionados alike, Cowboy Bebop is a visual and auditory treat, and is one of the best examples of using animation to create visual landscapes that are – quite literally – out of this world. Set in the relatively near future, this series follows the lives of a handful of perpetually broke bounty hunters as they hunt down fugitives across the solar system. It’s fast paced but character driven, and is equal parts comedy and deeply introspective drama, backed by a soundtrack that’s quite simply brilliant. Newcomers to anime will find that the story is accessible, and that the plot is entertaining enough to hold their interest, even if they are at times presented with ideas or concepts that seem a little foreign.
Another anime series that has found a large and receptive audience outside of Japan is the crime thriller Death Note. Once again, the audience is presented with certain situations and cultural ideas that may seem odd to a Western viewer, but that is soon forgotten as they’re drawn into a tense one-on-one battle of wits between an unusual police investigator and the serial killer he is investigating. This is not a whodunit, though. Rather than a series of clues that lead to the unmasking of a sinister villain, this show is more often about the choices that character make and the impact of those choices rather than the characters themselves.
Finding an Anime Series
There are of course an endless number of other fantastic series available to the curious but uninitiated viewer to watch, and with the growth of sites like Netflix, Hulu, and other streaming video services, it is becoming easier for a Western audience to find and enjoy the vast array of offerings from Japan. And though the anime section of your favorite video rental store or online streaming site may contain a lot of badly written, poorly made, predictable, and even boring anime series, the same could be said of any live action genre. However, as any fan of anime can tell you there are countless gems out there as well, and an anime series for everyone.
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