Thom's Place on the 'Net

 

For those of you who don't know, anime (アニメ) and manga (漫画) are Japanese' animation and comics. The animation and comic industries hold a much more prominent place in Japanese society than they do in other countries, because of this anime and manga are very different from the animation and comics that you'll usually find produced elsewhere. One of the largest differences is that anime and manga, as a whole, aren't targeted solely at children, their stories are enjoyed by all age groups and cover every conceivable genre. Now, as with every other entertainment medium they do have their fair share of trash, the definition of which varies from person to person, but because of their extensive range of topics and maturity level, anime and manga are generally a cut above many other similar popular entertainment mediums, which probably accounts, at least in some fashion, for their success.

A random Anime & Manga link

Anime Note: You've probably seen some anime, or at least, something which used to be anime without knowing it; for example, if you've ever seen Battle of the Planets, Robotech, Speed Racer, Voltron, or any other number of shows, you've seen some anime. Unfortunately, since the common conception in the West is that animation is "just for children", most anime were traditionally considered to be too mature for children, since their content tends to be more sophisticated than animation in the West -- often containing romance, tragedy, violence, etc. Because of this, most anime brought to the West prior to the 1990s were edited, via heavy editing of the scripts and the complete removal of various scenes, to make them suitable for Western television (i.e. considered to be fit for children, sanitized, butchered). Thankfully, due to the increasing demand for anime outside of Japan, since the 1990s more and more anime titles are now being translated fairly intact.

Q: What about all the nudity and violence I've heard about?
A: Yes, in general, Japanese culture is less hung up on nudity than many other cultures and this trait is reflected in anime and manga. As far as violence is concerned, anime and manga don't contain any more, on average, than your standard teen/adult programming usually does in most Western entertainment markets. The vast majority of anime and manga do not contain a significant amount of nudity and/or violence, if any at all. If a large portion of the anime and manga titles that are being brought over to your market seem to have a lot of either or both nudity and violence then perhaps that reflects more on your culture and its preferences in entertainment than on the Japanese.

Why do I care so much about anime and manga? That's a hard question to answer, but some of the factors that contribute to my zeal for anime and manga are....

Wide variety of topics and styles
There are anime and manga to fit any and every subject, ranging from the very silly to the very serious. Be it action/adventure, comedy, fantasy, horror, martial arts, science fiction, sports, etc. all genres are represented.
Intricate plots and storylines
Quite a few anime and manga consist of a good, intricate storyline with thought-provoking themes and complex character development. While anime and manga are targeted for particular age and/or gender groups about as much as any other medium, whatever the target demographic happens to be, they aren't generally written for the absolute lowest common denominator and as such contain great amounts of variety and life.
The emotions
Anime and manga tend to be very emotional. Be it an action/advenutre, comedy, romance, or tragedy, they fire up emotions that other animation and comics and even some non-animated shows and books fail to do.
Great artwork
The animation and artwork in anime and manga often far surpasses other animation and comics, both in detail and style, in my opinion. Anime and manga characters are drawn to fit an environment and don't usually appear like bland, boring, two-dimensional add-ons.
Superb voice acting (for anime)
The voice acting in anime usually far surpasses that of other animation. Voice actors (Japanese: seiyuu (声優)) are chosen to fit the characters that they will be giving voice to and step up to the task at hand to breathe life into their animated counterparts. They certainly don't sound bland and boring, or like they're reading the script with all the emotion and passion of a toaster.

For more, and probably better, information on what anime and manga is and is not, try the excellent essay "What are Manga and Anime?" by Eri "Rei" Izawa (rei@mit.edu).

My Anime & Manga Stuff

These are various pages/resources that I have put together because I use them and/or think that they are interesting.

  • Mamono Hunter Yohko Homepage
    I created this a while back because I happen to think that Mamono Hunter Yohko, also known as Devil Hunter Yohko, is a cute series and at the time when I first created it there were no other MHY/DHY sites out there.
  • Reform Homepage
    Reform is a text (re)formatting tool, created to reformat fan-fiction stories.

Anime & Manga Links

IMAGE: 3x3 Eyes (Sazan Eyes)

This is a list of links to various sites that I have put together that I think are interesting and/or useful. I try to keep it updated, but sometimes things slip by me, so if you happen to notice a broken link please let me know.

General

Fan Fiction

IMAGE: Dirty Pair

Commercial Pages

IMAGE: Taiho Shichauzo (You're Under Arrest!)

Newsgroups

Note: Some of these may not be available from your NNTP host.