Ask John: Do Americans Really Try to Understand Anime?

Question:
When I read customer/fan reviews of anime and manga series I often find loads of reviews that just don’t make sense. With series like Mahoromatic and Chobits being overall light series with heavy endings, I notice that the American fan-base gets quite pissed off. I personally happen to enjoy the layered plots and open ended or even upsetting conclusions found in anime and it makes me believe that many people are missing the point. Does the American audience in general try to understand the stories being told in context or is our attention span limited to funny-sexy-kawaii-T&A-SciFi?

Answer:
For years die-hard, experienced anime fans have struggled to make Japanese animation more respected and understood in the English speaking world. Ironically now that anime is more popular than ever in America, and American fans know more about anime, and are more familiar with more anime titles than ever before, I sometimes think that English speaking fans have still overlooked one vital characteristic of Japanese animation. It’s Japanese. Anime is made by Japanese artists that are inescapably influenced by the native culture in which they were born and raised. Furthermore, anime is made primarily for Japanese viewers, so it emphasizes the concerns and genres and stylistic characteristics that Japanese viewers are familiar with and enjoy. Whether or not Americans realize it, the reason why we find anime fascinating is largely because its foreign. It’s not like what Americans are used to, which makes it interesting and appealing.

I don’t mean to pick on dubbing again, but I find myself unable to avoid doing so. When Americans dub anime into English and change titles and character names, we’re doing so as an attempt to remove the “Japanese-ness” of anime. In effect, dubbing is an attempt to make anime more American. And even some anime fans that prefer Japanese language anime may still unconsciously apply their expectations to imported Japanese animation, based on their native American culture. Westerners may sometimes be unhappy with the way an anime series develops or ends because it doesn’t conform to our expectations. It’s then necessary to determine whether the fault lies with the anime or with unreasonable expectations of the viewer. An American viewer may be used to American films and cartoons which generally always have a happy ending, or at least a clear, conclusive ending. That same viewer may be angered by a particular Japanese ending which isn’t as obvious or simple. Is the fault then with the anime or with the American viewer that expects a Japanese film to emulate the style of an American production?

It would be irresponsible of me to argue that all anime simply represents Japanese artistic tendencies, though. Because it’s creative fiction, anime still has to adhere to the same literary standards that apply to all creative fiction, regardless of national origin. With an example like Mahoromatic: Something More Beautiful or Berserk, the ending is shockingly abrupt and seemingly incomplete. In both cases, the tragic ending was inevitable and clearly suggested as an ultimate outcome from the very first episode. But there’s no denying that the endings of both Mahoromatic and Berserk suffer from some lapses in screenwriting. The final episodes of Berserk lose the steady pacing of the earlier episodes, packing too much exposition and not enough resolution into too little running time. The ending of Mahoromatic betrays the atmosphere, and more importantly the carefully constructed character personalities developed throughout the series. In a purely objective, analytical sense, the endings to these series are flawed, but perhaps not as much as many American viewers believe.

I won’t go so far as to say that American viewers are stuck in a rut of watching only action/comedy/adventure anime, but I do think that many American viewers have gotten caught up in the kinetic, visual and trendy aspect of anime and overlooked the unique cultural aspect of Japanese animation. Not all anime is perfect or exceptional; the fact that an anime may not seem good may very well be just because the anime isn’t very good. But sometimes the problem isn’t the anime; it’s the viewer’s perceptions and preconceived expectations that are the problem. I think that American viewers need to watch anime with an awareness that what they’re watching was not originally designed to appeal to their distinct tastes and expectations. When we eat Chinese food, we don’t want it to taste like a hamburger. When we watch Japanese animation, we should be likewise thankful that we find it unusual and foreign and appreciate that originality instead of complaining that it doesn’t seem more American.