Ask John: Do American Fans Take Anime Too Seriously?

Question:
Do American fans take anime too seriously? Is anime considered as much of an “art” in Japan as it is here, by the “otaku elite”? Shows like Yu Yu Hakusho and Inuyasha, with their “same crap – different day” tactics seem to point to a negative. Evangelion and FLCL had all the elements of what could be considered art, but (Eva especially) seems like marketing took over. Why are American fans so concerned about anime becoming “mainstream” when it already is mega-commercialized in Japan?

Answer:
First of all, I’ll take the coward’s route and say that exactly how much respect one should give any form of art is a matter of personal opinion. Even the plays of Shakespeare and the paintings of Van Gogh were commercial art. To a large degree, the only art that’s not commercial at some degree is art rarely seen by the masses. If we consider the massive commercialization of anime in Japan, on one hand it’s easy to say that Japanese animation is nothing more than a marketing tool to sell television advertising time and merchandise. On the other hand, the massive popularity of anime merchandise in Japan suggests that Japanese fans and consumers do take anime seriously and spend a great deal of money and emotional devotion on anime. Countless anime, including but certainly not limited to titles like Evangelion, Ghost in the Shell, Utena, and Spirited Away also exhibit enough artistic character to defy categorization as mere commercial product.

Based on my admittedly limited knowledge of the intricacies of the Japanese fan community, I’ll say that there should be no doubt that a significant percentage of native Japanese fans take anime very seriously as a legitimate art form. Anime and manga appreciation and study clubs, museum and exhibitions devoted to contemporary Japanese pop art, and college courses in anime and manga all attest to a Japanese appreciation of anime as a genuine art form. There’s no doubt that anime is heavily commercialized and merchandized in Japan, but I think careful examination of both Japanese fandom and the content of Japanese anime merchandising reveals that Japanese fans maintain a certain respect for the integrity of anime as an art form amid the commercialization and marketing. In other words, I think that despite the massive commercializing of anime in Japan, Japanese fans still respect anime as art.

Especially among younger generations of American anime fans, I perceive a confusion between appreciation of artistic value and personal sentiment. The ability to distinguish artistic merit comes from the critical ability to objectively critique. With no offense intended, I’ll theorize that a large percentage of America’s anime fans either do not have the ability to separate objective criticism from personal reaction, or have not matured enough as critics and viewers to yet have that ability. In my opinion, as hand crafted animation, all anime is “art.” But certainly something like Tokyo Godfathers qualifies more as fine art than Inuyasha or Yu Yu Hakusho because of its thematic and humanistic depth and degree of creativity. I believe that it’s more than justified to critically analyze the literary, linguistic, and cinematic elements of anime with academic precision. I suspect that many American fans confuse entertainment value with literary and technical attributes. It’s absolutely fine for any individual fan to be obsessively devoted to any particular anime series. Yet it’s necessary to recognize that adoration of a particular series doesn’t mean that the given series is good. Obsession only denotes that the series is enjoyable or appeals to a particular viewer for a particular reason.

Many American anime fans express concern over the increasing mainstream popularity of anime in America. The hysteric and vitriolic way that many of these fans express their concern is sometimes misplaced and may undermine the credibility of their argument, but I do think that the fundamental concern of their arguments is valid. As I’ve said, not all anime is “high art,” but all anime is art, regardless of the purpose of its creation or its commercialization. The action of tailoring Japanese animation for mainstream American consumption typically removes many of the characteristics which make anime distinctly Japanese contemporary animation art: removing the original Japanese dialogue and voices, removing the nuances of Japanese social behavior expressed through language, removing Japanese cultural references and language jokes. To varying degrees, “translating” anime for the American mainstream involves stripping away much of the identifying original artistic character of Japanese art and leaving behind just animation footage of action and characters with big eyes. This degree of marketing and merchandising is far different from creating memorabilia and collectables based on a particular anime or character. On some level, many American anime fans sense this strip mining of cultural and artistic value and object to it. Naturally, the objection is loudest around shows which fans enjoy most, even though such shows are not always those most filled with cultural and artistic character. So in summation, I think that many of the most vehemently argumentative American anime fans haven’t matured and narrowed their critical examination enough to express convincing arguments, but their heart is in the right place and the principles they espouse are valid.