Fili’s world

Here’s the second attempt at the small project I’ve started about a month ago.

Once again, I’ve asked Taiwanese Jessie that we pick out a very simple subject and then both try and write a few paragraphs about it that would indicate somesort of a view or an opinion. We haven’t discussed anything other than the subject, nothing what so ever.

Here goes, second subject - Anime:

Jessie’s piece on the Anime (Taiwanese)

The famous Japanese drama “Train Man” (電車男) has become so popular that everyone watches, talks, and dreams about it. Despite a love story in nature, it reflects a growing situation not only in Japan but also in its neighbored countries, especially Taiwan. That is, the overwhelming power of Japanese anime.

Here I use the word “anime” to refer to both “animation” and “manga” (comics), as they are different but correlated with each other. The fashion of Japanese anime has permeated into various aspects in Taiwan, from model toys, video games and cosplays (costume play) to the values of and attitudes towards life. More and more people find themselves indulge with the virtual reality created in the world of anime. No matter what kinds of anime— romantic, realistic, horrible, silly (kuso), mysterious, violent, sensual, science-fictional, they always maintain the power to help people escape from the pressure of modern society. All kinds of anime have their fans; all kinds of anime have their own microcosms.

The Japanese word Otaku (御宅族) is used to describe those who are maniac about “ACG” (Anime, Comic, Game) and lack contact with real lives. Otaku people seem to live on another planet. The Japanese word is now well-understood in Taiwanese language, as it becomes also an extensive condition on this island. Besides commercial and political, this is another way thorough which Japan has widely affected Taiwan.

But why Japan? I think the answer is not too intricate. It goes without saying that Japanese anime is absolutely excellent in this industry. In addition, it is because of the closeness of Japan and Taiwan in location, and also because of the “Japan-fascinated” (哈日) complex among teenagers. For me, at least it is much better than military occupation.

As a result, we see images of Japanese anime everywhere in Taiwan: people lining up for McDonald’s Hello Kitty dolls, stores filled up with accessories of celebrated anime characters, cosplay activities taking places in campus or streets, cartoons and dramas adapted from Japanese anime screening all the time, and so on. Sometimes I feel a little puzzled about this, but then I will smile. I prefer a world with its cute imagination to one with boring routine.

“Let’s conquer the Blue Planet,” says Keroro Command, today’s most famous character in Japanese anime, and he does succeed.

fiLi’s piece on the Anime (Foreigner)

It was brilliant. It was smart, profound, funny at times, sad at others. I liked that movie a lot. “Lion King” – together with classics like Fantasia – was an animation perfection. Got to hand it to those Disney folks, they know how to make good original animations. Or do they?

Is Simba – The Lion King – a ripoff of Japanese Anime TV series Kimba – The White Lion? No, it couldn’t be! Damn, how would you react if you were to find out that your favorite piece of art is actually a fake, or maybe that everything you’ve ever believed in is actually something else?

It’s like a realization out of “The Matrix”, isn’t it? Bahhh… then I imagine you’d also like to know that fake existense concept wasn’t “The Matrix”’s – one of my alltime favorite movies – original idea. Nope, “The Matrix” is actually an adaptation of the concept introduced in the Japanese Anime classic - “Ghost in a shell”.

Anime is everywhere in Taiwan, and I’ve heard it’s the same in China, Korea and especially Japan. Lately, it has also reached the west with unbelievably gorgeous Anime scenes in big productions like Kill-Bill-Vol-1, the standard form of popular Anime being those little comics booklets that are massively available in small shops around Taiwan everywhere.

While animation is still considered “kid’s stuff” in the west, unless you’re a comics fanatic, in Taiwan’s it seems pretty common and widespread – even and especially among adults. I see suitwearing folks sitting down in the MRT reading those little Japanese-animation books passionately, and sometimes - when I ask people whether they’ve read some book or seen some movie they reply with a standard - “no, but I’ve read the comics” (a recent example – Nana).

Although I’m not a big enough expert to clearly explain what Anime is, I believe it is still pretty easy for me to identify it when I see it. Though I know it’s a lot more than that, when thinking of Anima - cute simplification comes to mind. My Anime’s classic characteristic trademarks are those of huge watery eyes, small noses, and a mouth that turns from a line into a whole face half circle, usually including odd animals like Pokemons, displaying some really cool haircuts or outfits and resting on an explosive radiant background. I have no doubt, that Anime has very strong cultural influences on life in Taiwan as it seems to effect how people behave and dress (consider , for example, the boy’s haircuts and the miki-skirted giggling girls dance).

It’s smart, it’s profound, it’s funny at times, sad at others. It’s just totally brilliant. Completely different than any other animation I’ve previously been fed to by the Disney folks, I totally love it. Next time you’re renting a movie (or downloading with p2p, not that I encourage that… :P) try Spirited away, Princess Mononoke or even go back to classics like Ghost in a Shell. No matter if you’re a kid or an adult, a Taiwanese, a Japanese or a westerner, you’re bound to have a magical experience. I know you will.