| Speed Racer Although a very old anime, I doubt many of the younger generations have watched it. In a sense, this anime's lack of audience over the decades has made it new again and worthy of a review. I recieved the recent release of Speed Racer as a Christmas gift, and I learned a lot about its original production and its dubbing from both the DVD and those on my mailing list who are more familiar with the anime. The original name for the anime was "Mach Go Go Go". Dan Cooper reminded me that the name is a pun since "Go" is the Japanese word for "Five" There are three "Go"s in the anime. Go the Mach Five, Mifune Go the aspiring race car driver (Speed Racer), and Go the need to hurry. It was created in 1967 roughly ten years before Mobile Suit Gundam by Tatsunoko Productions, which was founded by three brothers, Yoshida Tatsuo, Kenji,and Toyoharu. The special features say it was based upon their love for American culture, and this is certainly apparent throughout the series. The anime focuses on cars and an aspiring driver. America values cars more than the Japan does, so a Japanese citizen who loves cars would look up to America. Also, Speed Racer highly resembles Elvis Presley, a prominent American cultural icon at the time. When I started watching it, I kept thinking of Elvis in a Jackie Chan movie. Although it was based upon American culture, it still contains several slight fantasy elements commonly found in anime. In the first episode, thugs on motorcycles steal the plans for a superior engine. Speed Racer and his dad then attack them by using wrestling and martial arts techniques. Drivers take shortcuts near volcanoes, and villianous cars equiped with weaponry challenge the Mach 5. Also, there is a mysterious "Masked Racer" with a shameful past. At first, I thought the names like "Speed Racer", "Sparky," and "Trixie" were the original Japanese names since they're categorical. Categorical names are another frequent occurance in anime. However, a member of my mailing list informed me otherwise. Unfortunately, the DVD I recieved only comes in English, so I cannot compare the dub with the original version. The Mach Five with all of its nifty gadgets is like a super car. It can drive over three times as fast as normal cars, it has special blades to chop vegetation in its way, and it has underwater driving capability. Considering that Tatsunoko productions created the show when anime was still very young, I wonder if this anime is an ancestor of the Mecha genre, which features superior machines (Gundams, Voltron) that characters utlize as though they were a part of the machine itself. MYSTIC Otaku Utopia.. is an online anime superstore, we carry both old and new anime on DVD with some of the lowest prices on the net! DVDs, Toys, Figures, wallscrolls, snacks and more, all at great prices. Cartoon-Web Services Description: Specializes in cartoon, humor, illustration, creative designing, graphics, drawing art, panel cartoons, comic strips, political cartoons for advertising, greeting cards, animation, children books, magazines and journals. AAA Collectibles: Discounted back issues of various comics from Marvel, DC, Image and More! Sports cards, supplies, Yugioh, Pokemon and diecast toys. All is shipped Free! |
Petshop of Horrors by Maturi
Akino This manga, Petshop of Horrors by Matsuri Akino, is really unique. It's one in which I love the story a whole lot, but I really don't like either of the characters; it's very iffy there. The tone in each chapter is vastly different from the other - ranging from horrible and sadistic to wonderful and heart-warming. The whole manga revolves around Count D and his customers who live in the Chinatown of Los Angeles. Count D strikes me as being a strictly moral man with very uncertain morals. His pets can either be normal animals or mythological creatures. The pets, although animals, can look exactly like humans and talk as well. However, only certain people can see them in their human forms. The first chapter of the manga is Dream. Since this is the opening, we see all of the things that make Count D. His ambiguity in that he shows a callous disregard for human life yet he wanted to spare a young teenage girl from a horrible devestating sight which could possibly ruin her life. D's comical side (his love for chocolate) is also revealed. I don't like the fact that D doesn't tell his customers everything they should know when they buy their pets; they wouldn't break the rules of their contract if they knew what the consequences would be. However, without the secrets, there would be no plot. I'm also wondering if the fate of the girl's two magical birds parallels her decision for her own future. Maybe, maybe not. While the manga does make some statements, not all of it is meant to be insightful. The second chapter (Despair) introduces Detective Leon Orcot, although I don't think his full name is mentioned at this point. It's a nice light-hearted chapter in comparason with the rest of the volume, more comedy than anything else despite the title. I really enjoyed the character interaction here. The third chapter Daughter is the most gruesome and also the most unbelievable as a wild pack of rabid rabbits stampeed through Los Angeles. I couldn't stand Count D much in this chapter. Even though it does make a necessary and important statement which I like about the chapter (how kindness and ignorances combined can corrupt), D acts arrogant and holier-than-thou. He knew what his two customers would do with their pet, and giving it to them was like giving a toddler a loaded gun. Leon Orcot makes another appearance, skeptical about D's magical pets and wondering if there was something normal about it. The fourth chapter (Dreizehn) is the most heart-warming, and I was so happy at the ending. It's about a girl who was attacked and blinded. Count D gives her a dog to guard her and protect her. Even though D does some good things, I still can't bring myself to like him after the rabid rabbit incident. Even so, I really loved this chapter; it just made me feel good inside. The artwork is awesome. Although the dog looks like a human, the way he positions himself (when the girl kicked him out and when he sat near her bed) was absolutely like a dog, giving the reader a special insight into what he truly was. On the whole, this is a good manga for people to love animals, mythology, comedy, and drama. Karen Mystic Back Japan Living Forum Issues of Today |
What are Anime and Manga? by Karen Mystic What are anime and manga? The answer to the questions seems obvious to anyone acquainted with the terms ・"Japanese animation," for anime, and "Japanese comics" for manga ・until some people speak about cultural diffusion. Because most anime usually starts out as a manga, the two words are congruent and sometimes interchangeable in the anime/manga fandom depending upon how different or similar the manga and anime are for a certain story. Anime and its comic book counterpart, manga, have obtained huge audiences worldwide. Reaching out to millions of people, the two artforms have inspired fans to draw in "anime-style" and "manga-style" which leads to the basic questions, "What is anime" and "what is manga?" Are they simply Japanese art, made solely in Japan, or are they a genre, a particular style of drawing? Anime's birthplace is Japan. What had been called "Japanimation" in the `60s and `70s is now called "anime." "Japanimation" simply stood for animation featured in Japan. The new word is a Japanese cognate of "animation," but it took hold as a replacement for the original word with the definitions remaining the same when fans in other countries during the `80s and `90s considered the old word as racist. Both anime and manga originated in Japan and were aimed directly at Japanese audiences; this makes them Japanese in nature. Although they are now dubbed and translated, their point of origin remains in Japan. In the entertainment industry, they are a part of Japan's cultural identity. To call them a genre is to take away what has been cherished as Japanese for the past forty years because non-Japanese without any major connection to Japan would be able to participate in the fandoms. The artforms then lose their special nature since they would no longer be foreign items. Some fans, however, consider anime and manga genres separate from cartoons and comics due to the different drawing styles. As anime and manga spread and gain popularity throughout the world, aspiring artists who are inspired by this Japanese art are drawing in similar fashions by using the same shapes and patterns that developed over the past forty years. These artists lead some fans to wonder if anime and manga are a genre rather than a purely Japanese art. According to the MSN Encarta, what classifies an art form as a genre is dependent upon "the basis of form, style, or subject matter," of which anime and manga contain an extremely vast array, making them too diverse and gigantic to be considered genres. If the categorization of artworks is paralleled to the categorization of life ・a genre would be equal to a genus ・then anime and manga would both fit under the equivalent of an order or another group higher than a genre. According to those fans and artists, if the art looks like anime, then it must be anime; they neglect and ignore the history of anime and its foundation, which would, when applied to their argument, contradict everything they said over the issue. Anime and manga began in Japan, but they have their deeper ancestral roots in the Disney Company of America. Tezuka Osamu, who has been regarded as the founder of anime, fell in love with Disney cartoons and modeled his artwork after Disney. However, despite this historic fact, those genre-fans feel insulted at the notion that anime from any age in its history should be called "Disney" or "cartoons." In light of this information, those fans seem hypocritical to consider anime a separate genre. According to their view, the early anime must be considered "Disney" since Tezuka Osamu drew in "Disney-style." Calling anime and manga a genre also puts too specific a label on this diverse art. Many different true genres, such as Mecha and Shojo, exist within anime and only have their point of origin ・Japan ・in common. A young child's mind would be ruined if the child thought Outlaw Star, an anime about the promiscuous bounty hunter Gene Starwind, was the same as Hamtaro, an anime about hamsters who go on silly adventures; some people say they are in the same "genre" even though Outlaw Star is geared towards adults while Hamtaro is suited to little kids. Since Disney had inspired foreign artists, anime ultimately inspiring other foreign artists is unavoidable. However, those foreign artists, by simply being foreign, are incapable of making anime or manga unless they go to Japan and become involved in the industry over there. Their art may be drawn in "anime-style" or "manga-style" just like how Tezuka Osamu drew the first manga and anime in "Disney-style." In the end, the name for a broad type of artwork depends upon the country it came from. Animation native to America must be called "cartoons" while animation native to Japan must be called "anime." Americans who want to make anime and manga must travel to Japan and either become Japanese citizens or work as an employee in a Japanese production studio. Although some fans consider anime and manga a separate genre from cartoons and comics due to styles, they forget their point of origin is in Japan and that their origin makes them different. Genre is not just based upon style but also upon subject matter, of which anime and manga contain a wide variety, placing them in a currently unnamed category above genre. |