That Kawaii manga Otaku stole my
anime
...
Back
again, but now with more stuff for history research... How enjoyable...
But yeah, this has got something to do with anime, the colorful rainbow
of
endless possibilities made by Asians and other
narrow-insertasianjokehere-minded enthusiasts. But all slander aside, I
personally find anime and manga to be
rather enjoyable, and have a good couple of gigs worth of the stuff
lying around on
my computer... It just has a different angle on stories, and has
influenced the
west quite a bit when it comes to new animations, stories and conceptual
art...
However, it has also developed other types of media, such as internet
memes,
cult like followings, and cosplay, which can either be done right:
...
Unintentionally:
...
Using children for an 'innocence' status:
...
Or wrong, oh so, so wrong:
...
Some even fail so hard, that they get commemorated as action figures:
...
Now even with bloody animals:
...
More cosplay fun and distracting images can be found here.
The
west has always been fascinated with the east, whether it be an interest in
their traditional and astoundingly non-lethal medications (which actually do
work) to what type of weaponry they have hiding under their cheaply-made
carpets. Even the artists of back then were astounded by the way in which they
drew art; a sort of creative thinking, yet ‘lazy’ way to draw epic things with
limited use of textures and realism.
But
let
not just say that the west are only a group of conniving art form
thieves
who were interested in gaining power throughout the years, because the
east did
it too (Go Genghis Go!). Art was then traded back then like Pokemon
cards,
although you didn’t have to may a months pay to just get five of the
same thing. Art was taken seriously in those days, and was an actually
appreciated
much more than what it is today. (Thanks to that thing that people do
the night before deadlines called
copy and paste)
The
west was first introduced to anime in the early 20th century, they
were all like “the hell is this stuff? Why aren’t they wearing their underwear
on the outside like normal superheroes?” some of the most popular anime was
stuff like Pokemon, Sailor Moon, Dragonball and all the other fail safe anime
that American moms and dad forbid their children from watching, either because
they thought that the concept of a ten-year-old with strange creatures similar
to our own was EVIL and SATANIC and FULL OF BALONEY(even if shows like Pokemon
teach better morals than, say The Simpson's, it’s still evil because it’s
foreign), or, it was all part of the commie plan to brainwash the American
children into doing bad, bad things (like order a medium at McDonald's). But
non-the-less, people started to watch the shows and enjoy their ‘guilty’
pleasures, and then the integration of the west becoming Anime and Manga filled
nations that we see today. From this, cults started up, from the Guilds of
horrific cosplaying, to the pervert association for young school girls, all of
this seemed to stem back to the East and their suspicious yet addictive
animations and story-lines.
“Wait,
but what are all these foreign terms?” A dim-witted person may ask, completely
ignoring the Google search tab at the top of their browsers “do they mean
something specific in another language?” Well, yes, most languages have words
with meanings behind them, even the one’s you may not know how to speak. Just
in case you are missing a keyboard, your will to explore new things or both, I
will plant a few examples of some words you can impress your non-Asian friends with.
“Anime (pronounced A-knee-may, not a-nime):
Not to be confused with Amine.
"Animé" redirects here.
For the oleo-resin, see Animé (oleo-resin).
Anime is commonly defined as
animation originating in Japan.
The definition sometimes changes depending on the context. In English-speaking
countries, anime is also referred to as "Japanese animation"
Anime, like manga, has a large
audience in Japan
and recognition throughout the world. Distributors can release anime via
television broadcasts, directly to video, or theatrically, as well as online.
Both hand-drawn and
computer-animated anime exist. It is used in television series, films, video, video games, commercials, and
internet-based releases, and represents most, if not all, genres of fiction.
Anime gained early popularity in East and Southeast Asia
and also attained popularity in various communities throughout the world.”
Just in case you are Amish and don’t own a television,
or just haven’t cared to look further than the things you consume, drink and
talk to, there has been a lot of anime inspired things flying about. TV shows,
books, fan websites (unlike this one here har har) and other shiz
has been on the rise. Notably, the anime series Naruto and BLEACH, which are
kind of like Asian soap operas in the fact that they haven’t stopped yet and
that after a while it becomes a grind to watch (unless you are a true-blue fan
of the series to which you are probably going to give me reasons why I should
start watching it again) Overall, anime has captured the attention of the West,
and we now have some studios up an running which produce manga (not like the
legit Japanese ones, even if you do have an Asian on the workforce for
diversity), as well as a few short anime series. Many people’s art styles, such
as my own, have been developing from the East. I just don’t know why, but I
like it better, maybe because it’s not always about school, and jocks, and the
fastest way to get wasted and laid.
Cool Shiz to watch can be:
...
And just because majority rules, these are also quite popular:
“Manga: consists
of comics and print cartoons (sometimes also called komikku), in the Japanese
language and conforming to the style developed in Japan in the late 19th century. In
their modern form, manga date from shortly after World War II, but they have a
long, complex pre-history in earlier Japanese art.”
There you go, that’s pretty much self explanatory.
Manga are Komikkus in Japan,
and they read backwards instead of forwards, and down instead of left to right.
Since their language is already an art within itself (note the idiotic people
with an unknown symbol tattooed randomly to their body), the writing is very
much a part of the picture, with the effect sounds made within bending itself
into a manifestation of the actual symbol. Pretty damn awesome. The manga
itself is more of a black and white feature, with a colour image done on
special additions to reinstate and re-insure the readers that the artist can
actually use colour, which can often shed light on certain character traits,
like hair of ethnic background (which can explain why some people cannot figure
out why a character is speaking in a way that is not of that specific
culture.). Reason being for the lack of colour is this: COLOUR IS HARD TO WORK
WITH! Especially if you are releasing a new chapter of your manga every week,
to a producing company who probably charges through the roof for colour images.
Anyway, the genre’s of manga vary majorly, from robotic suits (mecha) to your
everyday school life drama(gakkou gakkou). Popular mangas are of course, BLEACH
and Naruto, doing their soap opera thing but with more action, Once Piece,
which has like a bajillion episodes and still running, Soul Eater, Hellsing,
Fairy Tail, Full Metal Alchemist and many, many, many, (x infinity³) more.
... Yeah, even anime characters are replicated.
“Otaku: is a Japanese
term used to refer to people with obsessive interests, particularly anime,
manga, or video games, ideally, a freak or nerd.”
These
can be backed up with the following images:
So
yeah, a lot of people, especially in the west, tend to refer to themselves as
‘otaku’s, some of them not even knowing the true meaning of the word. Otaku is
mainly tagged with liking Japan,
as well as it’s culture, traditions, and above all, anime and manga. In a way,
the term nerd is also used in the west to describe about the same
generalization, except with the liking of comics and sci-fi movies like Star
Wars/Trek, and these words create sort of mirror between eastern and western
fandom’s. However, the west has an almost cult-like approach to the love of
anime and their companies, such as Nintendo and Capcom. What is ironic is that
it is almost sad, seeing whiny pipsqueak’s claw at their parents for money to
buy a Japanese game on Ebay, even if they have no real grasp on the language,
the story or a better reason other than “Itsa made by Nintendo, so it must be
good”. In my personal opinion, Nintendo has a habit of releasing and remaking
old games that were good in the old days, for nostalgia’s sake if you may. A
good example of this would be Mario and the Legend of Zelda, which absolutely
have to make an appearance on every console with at least 5 games relaying the
same story, but with slightly better graphics. However, people still seem to
enjoy it every time, as if they were playing it with a blindfold over their
face, while their previous memories of playing the same levels in slightly
lowered graphics are formatted like their memory cards, because that’s how (sad
their life is) good they are at being loyal.
“Kawaii: redirects
here. For various uses of Kawai, see Kawai (disambiguation). For the Hawaiian
island, see Kauai.
Since the 1970s, cuteness, in
Japanese kawaisa (literally, "lovability", "cuteness" or
"adorableness"), has become a prominent aspect of Japanese popular
culture, entertainment, clothing, food, toys, personal appearance, behavior,
and mannerisms. It is also referred to as kawaii (literally, adorable,
precious, lovable, or innocent)."
Yeah, that word I’m pretty sure you’ve heard been
uttered from one of your weird computer geek friends at least once, whilst
walking by a sleeping/sitting/dying/anything cat. (see also internet memes
and people who always answer in Japanese). This word is now mostly used to
convey the cuteness of a given object, person, animal, encounter, teacup, etc.
Srsly, I cannot describe this word much, but the pictures below are enough for
you to say “Kawaii”:
... As you can see, the majority of the pictures
include super bright colors, like pink for one, a large suggestion for animal
ears/other body parts, namely cats and rabbits, mixed with the proportionally
incorrect facial structures seen above... These things are what seemingly makes
things aww-able, yet everyone has their own different needs.
... I was experimenting with Photoshop with this; I
wanted to see if it was possible to turn things cute with this face alone...
I'll leave you to decide.
... But yeah, that' s enough pictures for now... I'm
probably making your browser stutter with all this imagery haha... But yeah,
The west are just as much influenced by the east as McDonald's plaguing its way
onto anything that has land, which means that they borrow from each other in
some sort of seamless yet questionable relationship, where some hate each
other, some love each other, and the rest only want the other places toys.
