When some of you hear the word anime, I would guess you see tentacles and schoolgirls. Some of you just see the schoolgirls… Often with ‘fan service’ (or panty shots).
You are all hentai. Note that I did not say thinking of hentai. That’s like saying thinking of perverts; grammatically bizarre and garden variety bizarre as a concept.
For those of you who perhaps saw a post apocalyptic Tokyo or animal cruelty (think about it…), or maybe bizarre fantasy worlds with Disney distribution, you are perhaps mainstream, but on a better track.
I have a bit of a thing for CLAMP’s body of work, primarily Chobits and CardCaptor Sakura as of late. Granted, the humour in Chobits is mildly ‘ecchi’, but the actual story had more heart than a lot of live action films or series. I’m not going to ruin it in case you hunt it out, but I shed real tears at the end. As well as laughing so hard at times. You can find the series here, or the complete manga over two omnibus volumes from a wide variety of sources.
As for Sakura, not only does it have something that western TV has to make big events over (pansexual relationships), but again lots of humour and heart. And again, infant-esque levels of weeping in places. Take episode 16, ‘Sakura and the Rainbow of Memories’. I will not give away any plot, but just say that no cards were captured during the episode and I think the ending ranks as one of my top emotional moments of any entertainment type. Please hunt it down and enjoy.
Sorry this is a long one, but I thought of this a few weeks ago and have dwelt on it to insane levels. I just hope that those of you who see animation as just another way of storytelling agree with me. Those of you who didn’t before, I hope you may reconsider and give it a chance.
paulheeleymusic 