Anime on US cable TV

[tetsuwan at bellsouth.net]

----- Original Message -----
From: "M Arnold" <ma_iku at hotmail.com>
To: <KineJapan at lists.acs.ohio-state.edu>
Sent: Thursday, May 22, 2003 2:04 AM
Subject: Re: Anime on US cable TV


> 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


The anime influences were quite obvious from the first film. I do recall
such suggestions being discounted by many people, even those who called
themselves anime fans. Then during the period between films the Wachowski
Bros and producer Joel Silver finally came out of the closet as it were. I
don't think they really had to work too hard to show the links between the
the film and anime. The ANIMATRIX stuff seems to me as much clever cross
platform marketing as it does an homage to an influence.

It's interesting that the two "films that define a generation," as some
refer to STAR WARS and THE MATRIX are heavily influenced by works from Japan
and Hong Kong, both have "impact characters" who spout a kind of convoluted,
Zen flavored mysticism. There was even a character named Mifune in RELOADED.
I'm sure there's a NY Times think piece in their somewhere.


>
> 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.)

My editor wrote a piece on Takashi for the Minneapolis City Pages (why they
never ask me when he's borrowing from my Takashi stash presently eludes me,
lol)