Anime on US cable TV

[M Arnold]

From: "Bernardi-Buralli" <dburall1 at rochester.rr.com>
> Our cable TV (TimeWarner) guide just came in with characters from
> "Spirited Away," ... There are 4 pages on "How Japanese Animation
> is Conquering America"...

Seeing how the word and its uses in English are still changing, I have a
feeling that if "anime" ever does conquer America it isn't necessarily going
to be in the form of animation from Japan.

This article in today's Guardian cuts off the history of anime's crossover
to the west in the 1980s.

http://film.guardian.co.uk/cannes/story/0,13266,960323,00.html

I caught a matinee of the new Matrix movie the other day.  It probably goes
without saying that the special effects in the film are very impressive.
Judging from comments by the directors, it seems that in the Matrix's case
the animation used to augment the action sequences isn't just animation,
it's "anime".  That is to say, it appears this American live action film is
itself supposed to be partly anime.  There are a few interesting comments in
this making-of article on the Matrix website:

http://whatisthematrix.warnerbros.com/cmp/sfx-bullet_text.html

It's interesting to note that the directors mention titles like Akira, Ninja
Scroll and Ghost in the Shell as their anime influences (I noticed at least
one important sequence that borrows closely from the opening scenes of
Oshii's film).  I suppose it's harder to talk about the "physics of
decimation" in Doraemon.  Also lending credibility to the idea of The
Matrix's anime heritage is The Animatrix--a series of animated (or should I
say anime) shorts loosely based on the Matrix story, a few by Japanese
animation directors, four of which are now available free for download in
both English and Japanese versions.  I enjoyed a couple of the shorts, but
this still feels like a circular argument in showing us what "anime" is and
how the Matrix is like anime.  Of course more traditional stereotypes of
Japaneseness (samurai, sword fights...) pop up in a few of the shorts.

http://www.intothematrix.com/

In other news, the current issue of the Seattle Weekly has short reviews of
Miike's Audition and Dead or Alive 3, both screening in a local independent
theater starting this week.  Both reviews manage to mention "manga" somehow.
(I thought a comparison to The Matrix would be more appropriate in the case
of D.O.A.)

http://www.seattleweekly.com/features/0321/film-briefencounters.php

Michael Arnold