Disney-esque Animation vs. Anime

THE HAPPY ENDING

One problem with Disney-esque movies and television shows is that the producers believe that every ending must be happy. Why is that? Because escaping from pain or truth means entertainment. But is that really true?

The Ancient Greeks made popular the idea of tragedy, which was used both to entertain and to inform. Of Shakespeare's works, his tragedies are the best known and most often translated onto screen and stage. If "truth is beauty and beauty is truth," then pain and suffering and love and longing and hope are all wrapped up into one story. Like death and life, they are parts of a whole. That's entertainment.

In anime, I rarely have to worry about the characters running off together and living happily ever after. In Ninja Scroll for example, Jubei and Kagero do fall in love, but they don't marry in the end or escape pain.

Kagero: "The man you hired is going to die from your poison. Tell me how to save him."

Dakuan: "Amazing! You've fallen in love with Jubei, haven't you?"

Kagero: "Fool! I'm only doing it to clear my debt to him!"

Dakuan: "I don't think so. A ninja woman falling in love. What's the point?"

Japanese TV animation shows us what can be done when production companies are serious about what they create. Consider that Evangelion, Cowboy Bebop, GitS: SAC, Lain, Texhnolyze, Gasaraki, Rurouni Kenshin, and so many more were produced for television. The quality of art is beyond all prime-time animation produced in America; the quality of story is beyond all prime-time dramas produced in America. Japanese animation has a sense of both history and current events; there is fear of what we are doing to the environment and hope for humanity evolving into something better. And anime happily makes fun of itself and its long pedigree.

Story, direction, and characterization are the driving forces of most anime, but one or more of these is usually missing from America animation and live-action dramas. Unless it has to do with superheroes or certain singing-and-they-all-loved-happily-ever-after films, American animation is just not as well done.

Take Titan AE for example. Great looking, but the story was a little .... OK, did any of you see Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan? Remember the Genesis Project? So, now you know the ending to Titan AE. Oh and what about the Star Wars element of the young man hero who teams up with the young woman hero and the roguish older guy. And the older guy is constantly calling him kid. Or how about the young hero being a blond and the older guy in a half-uniform. "Kid, I've flown from one side of this galaxy to the other. I've seen a lot of strange stuff ...."

Not that I ever liked the Ralph Bakshi-type of animation, where the characters are always moving, such as in the 1978 version of The Lord of the Rings and American Pop.

Contrary to what outsiders like to believe, most anime otaku are not watching simply for the animation, no matter how technically advanced. We are looking for a story we can think about and characters we can either relate to or empathize with.

Contrary to what Hollywood may believe, most filmgoers want the same as the otaku, a good story with strong characters that affects us in some way. Look how popular a sweet no-action flick like Amelie has done with American audiences. Look at what Peter Jackson could do with turning a literary masterpiece into a brilliant film trilogy when he was about as far a way as he could get from Hollywood arrogance and stupidity. Simply put, most of us a tired of crap.

I'm not saying that anime is without its woes. Some of it has annoying quirks in the character design that annoy, but still possesses a story that is quite good and imaginative. Vision of Escaflowne is like that for me. The characters have sharp, long noses and hair halos that never seems to move -- it drives me nuts! Other anime have a marginally OK use of computer generated animation and cell animation, such as Blue Submarine #6, which takes away somewhat from a complex and interesting story.

What holds the attention, beyond the story itself, are the characters that breathe life into a story, into a world. Most anime, despite complex plots, is character driven.

Even in something as lighthearted as Urusei Yatsura, boys and girls don't exactly fall in love with the right people. All of the guys so devoted to Lum are going to lose, because she's in love with Ataru. And all the girls head over heels for Mendou, will have broken hearts because he is infatuated with Lum. There's no quick fix for the situations they're in and they're going to have to deal with what's dealt them.

In Gasaraki, the 17-year-old hero, Yushiro, is used by his older brothers in experiments to create a monster that will allow the Gowa family to control Japan from the shadows. As he flees to find out who he is, he learns the nasty truth that the real Yushiro Gowa died years ago. So, who, or better yet, what is he? That's quite a question for one so young.

In Fushigi Yuugi, Miaka and her Seven Constellations go through many horrors and travails only to find out that their enemy has beaten them to their goal. The only way they can win is through the change of heart in Miaka's former best friend and rival, Yui. Most of the Constellations are killed and most of them don't come close to getting their heart's desire -- someone to love. Not even Yui gets that, nor the bad guy, Nakago.

The young Emperor, Hotohori, falls for Miaka, but she's in love with Tamahome. Miaka can't touch Tamahome because she has to remain pure in order to summon Suzaku, although she offers herself to him because she thinks she's been raped by Nakago, who can't touch her, but says he has raped her in order to hurt Tamahome, who he both hates and admires. Nakago hates Tamahome because hate is all he has left to him after his traumatic childhood.

But no one gets to suffer quite like Tamahome. He gets his true love, but half the time he doesn't know if it's okay to love her. He is the sole breadwinner in his family and has raised his youngest sister on his own since their mother died at her birth.

He gives himself to the enemy to buy Miaka some time to find the other Constellations. He learns that he is part of the reason why Yui hates Miaka. He is flogged. He is beaten up by Nakago. He is turned into a bad guy and beats up his friends and nearly kills Miaka and loses in a duel with Hotohori, who is a superior swordsman. He nearly dies. He nearly doesn't get his increase in power.

A girl tries to seduce him. A woman tries to seduce him. A man tries to seduce him.

He is sent into the real world and finds out he isn't a real person, but a character in a book. He is sent into a book and finds out that the person he became in the real world isn't as strong or as brave as who he once was inside the book.

And his entire family is murdered because of something he didn't do. That's what I call angst.

In Neon Genesis Evangelion, everyone desires someone, but few know what love truly is.

Consider Rurouni Kenshin. The protagonist, Kenshin Himura, earned the name of Battousai the Manslayer while fighting for the Meiji Restoration. He became a wanderer and carried a reverse-blade. He became a wanderer in order to atone for the many lives he took during the struggle ten years ago. But the little bit of peace he has attained is always threatened by someone who wants to challenge the legendary Battousai. Every fight he fights takes him closer to becoming the man he once was, the man he no longer wants to be.

In Cowboy Bebop, four lonely people come together to earn a little money for their daily existence. Each is hiding a secret pain and working really hard to ignore it. Despite themselves, the companionship and trials they share help to fill the emptiness.

Isao Takahata's Grave of the Fireflies is a wonderful, brilliant film. But neither of the main characters lives to the end of the film. During the firebombing of Japan in World War II, two children are abandoned by their relatives and by society. When a single bowl of rice shared between family members is all that one can hope for, an extra mouth to feed is intolerable. This film with its tragic ending is moving and very beautiful.

Now, for the American side.

I liked Mulan a lot. Yeah, the girl gets the boy in the end, but it isn't a foregone conclusion. As a woman, Mulan is not supposed to be in the army. That she does a lot of good is unimportant, because her presence disgraces her family and her company -- especially its young captain. That Li Shang doesn't kill her because he owes her a debt is much better than him not killing her because he's helplessly in love with her. The cultural value placed on such ideas as honor and status are given meaning in the story.

And think on this, Li Shang doesn't necessarily love her. His emperor "suggests" that Mulan could be an asset, that he should marry her. Isn't a suggestion from the man who is father and mother of your world, a command? Li Shang would have been a fool not to pursue Mulan at that point.

Let's discuss The Prince of Egypt, the first animated movie created by Steven Spielberg's Dreamworks. It's a superb story with outstanding animation. Even the voice actors did a fab job.

For me, it surpasses Disney and actually places American animation in the game. One problem I always had with Cecil B's Ten Commandments was that Moses was kind of a jerk. Let's face it, when Ramses loses his son, Moses feels nothing. In Prince of Egypt, Moses is saddened, in fact he begs Ramses more than he demands. And evil is not so black and white in the Dreamwork's version of the Moses story.

The only problem I have with The Prince of Egypt is that it IS another Moses story. Think of the amazing tales of fantasy and science fiction and history and literature Dreamworks could make into animation. With the skill and talent of those involved in The Prince of Egypt, think of the things that can be done -- anything that can be imagined!

Oh, and major bummer about Dreamworks losing out to Disney on the Miyazaki films deal. Dreamworks would have promoted Miyazaki's works with vigor and pride.

So who needs the typical Disney-esque happy ending? Most works of literature do not have saccharine endings, why must animation?

THE MUSIC

Music is a must when creating atmosphere for any film -- watch the Music for Middle Earth Documentary about the struggles Howard Shore had with creating music for The Lord of the Rings trilogy and you'll understand just how important it is to get the music just right. Well, Japanese animation studios feel exactly that way about music for television shows, that's just how seriously anime is regarded.

Another glaring difference between American animation and Japanese anime is the musical score. Come on, people, why must everyone sing? All right, all right, so I do highly adore the Disney mob-song in Beauty and the Beast when Gaston leads the villagers to the castle with Kill the Beast. Although I did not care for the film, Hunchback of Notre Dame puts together an intense and nearly perfect operatic interpretation of the Hugo's masterpiece. (Too bad the singing did not live up to the songs.)

America's best animation score belongs to Batman The Animated Series, because the style of drawing, the genre, and the music blend into one sleek, artistic, action-packed package.

There is a cinematic feel to the best Japanese animated productions, which far outshine Disney-esque productions. The music of Mononoke Hime is haunting and beautiful, capturing an eerie quality that somehow touches the soul.

Similarly, the score for Neon Genesis Evangelion shifts moods from light to triumphant to downright grim. In short, it does what a score is supposed to do, convey the spirit and emotion of the scenes. And while the Eva Movie score is mostly a conglomeration of classical music, one of the original songs, Komm, susser Tod is amazing. The song has a simple melody, but coupled with the words and with what occurs in the film, it is very powerful.

Yoko Kanno is the best at what she does. Kanno is the musician, composer, arranger, musical director, and producer of many of the best soundtracks in anime. What she does best if make the perfect music to fit the both the type of anime and the scenes within the anime.

Kanno is as prolific as John Williams. She took the idea of Cowboy Bebop and made some of the jazziest pieces, which goes with what is the bebop in Cowboy Bebop. One song produced for Cowboy Bebop is Blue, a melancholy, scratchy voiced beauty that awakens the soul to what has just transpired in the Real Folks Blues. Spike repeatedly says this life is a dream from which he has yet to awaken. Blue adds credence and an even stronger mood to his prophetic words.

For Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex, Kanno put together the score to set the mood or enhance the action of the scenes and then gave us very cool opening songs and end songs, which are two of my favorite iPod and Bose Headphones listening tracks, Lithium Flower from the 1st Gig and Living in a Shell from the 2nd Gig.

Macross Plus has a vibrant, very funky score. And yes, Sharon Apple/ Myung does sing, but in context. The cello version of "Myung's Song" is to die for.

Among her other successful scores are Please Save My Earth, Wolf's Rain, Arjuna, RahXephon, and Vision of Escaflowne. Her music is well-known throughout Japan for television and movie scores.

Outside of Yoko Kanno's musical empire, there are amazing scores produced for Studio Ghibli's anime -- again the Mononke Hime Soundtrack is a masterpiece.

"Lain's Theme" for Serial Experiments Lain is another great song. Gasaraki combines J-pop and traditional music. Witch Hunter Robin also combines a good score with a pair of awesome opening and end songs, Shell and Half Pain.

But of all of them, Rurouni Kenshin has one of the most amazing scores for both the TV series and the OAVs. I'm also a huge fan of some of the J-pop songs, like "It's Gonna Rain" by Bonnie Pink.

Oh well, enough of my well-tread lament. So, until Hollywood truly gets a clue, make mine anime.

ANIME

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Updated 05/06/05