Japanese Animation

So, this week I have to talk about Anime, and one of the questions was if I knew what it was. And of course I do. Anime was such a big deal for me when growing up. I always loved it and I have seen a lot of different series that have contributed to my life in many different ways. I don't even really know how to start.
Well, first of all anime stands for japanese animation. It's not a homogenic genre: this concept includes many different series of different drawing styles, themes and ideas. Most of the are basen in mangas (comic books) and videogames. The concept just locates it in the Japanese animation industries: there's series for children, young women, young men, mature series and porn. Seriously, lots of porn. Weird porn. Well, besides that, I have the belief that there is an anime for everyone. After seeing a lot of series when I was younger I can assure that.

I believe that one of the first animes I saw when I was little was Pokémon. And I still love it to death. After seeing the first episodes that aired in public TV, I was obsessed. I started playing the videogames (that are way better than the anime series, I've played most of the generations) and it became something really important to me. I really liked reading about Pokémon, playing, thinking how the world would be if it was all real. I cried when Butterfree left, when Lapras left and when Charizard left (Ash was such a bad trainer). Well, this hasn't changed much: just some days ago I watched a alternative anime series called "Pokémon: The Origin" that aired in Japan some weeks ago, witch is based in the first games. It moved me almost to tears, I swear. Last week the new videogame was released and all I think about is getting it and playing. I wanna be the very best.

Since then I watched different series on TV, like Cardcaptor Sakura and Sailor Moon, but everything changed when I got Internet. I remember having a very slow and bad computer, and I filled it with chapters from series that took days to download. I had to watch them then erase them because if I didn't the PC may have exploded. Back then I couldn't burn CDs, but I could download pictures from animewallpapers.com and put then into a disquette. But it was all worth it: when I was in fifth grade I watched series like Azumanga Daioh!, Mushishi (beautiful and ethereal, I really recommend it), Shaman King, Chobits (witch was king of shocking back then because of the sexual content), Fullmetal Alchemist (my favorite one back then), and many more. I always looked for new series to watch. I watched movies too, like Hayao Miyazaki's, witch are masterpieces of worldwide animation (and everyone in the world should watch it). Then I watched it Rozen Maiden, Monster, Loveless, NANA and many more I don't even remember the name. Now I realize this is making me look like a big nerd.

I really liked CLAMP's mangas and character desings.

Thinking about it right now, I don't really know what really attracted me to anime in that way. Maybe it was because, underneath the most superficial contents of the series, like comedy and romance, there was always something that attracted my attention. In Fullmetal Alchemist was the ethical problems and political undertones, and in Neon Genesis Evangelion was, well, everything. When I watched it back then I didn't understood all the metaphors, complexities and allegories, that are filled with christian images in a postapocaliptical world. I watched it again this year, and now I saw it all: the complex problems, the relationship with psychoanalysis theories, and use of the Bible's Apocalipse to create a world filled with images of the destruction of the self and the world, in a dystopic wold where the self if seen in all it's complexity. This was always there, when I saw it in fifth grade and now: maybe it was this sophistication of animation that really got me into it. The gigantic possibilities and themes. Since then I started to be attracted to more mature and complex themes, and I think is helped me understanding a lot of things that didn't appear on regular TV. And the opening themes. I still know a lot of them by heart, and in japanese. Now that I remember, I even tried to learn japanese. Failing, of course.

I dare you to say this isn't awesome.

Since those years, from fifth grade to eighth grade I think, I watched most of the series I've watched. But this year I started to fall in love with some movies and series again, finding in them interesting things. I watched Evangelion again, I watched Shingeki no Kyojin and I watched Akira. Everyone should watch Akira, it's a masterpiece. Post-apocalyptical and dystopic again (a place you can see the gravitation of the disaster that meant the nuclear bomb in japanese culture), it's really interesting both visually and in the narrative.

Now that I started writing about this I got really excited. Anime is such a big part in the way I grew up, and it definitely open my mind to other cultures, narratives, images that have been part of me for a long time. It showed me things I couldn't see anywhere else. I don't really mind if I sound like a nerd.

Did I said I love kawaii stuff?